Showing results by narrator "Alice Johnson" in All Categories

Light-skinned black woman Irene Redfield meets an old childhood friend - Claire - who is now "passing" as a white woman... Claire is married to a racist white man, who doesn't know she has African American blood. Despite the danger of being found out by her husband and society at large she finds herself helplessly drawn to Irene's world. An absolutely fascinating listening experience on many levels simultaneously.

A short novel by a woman first published as early as in 1688! On that merit alone it is interesting. But there is more. This is a fictional work purporting to be the story of an African prince who eventually ends up in Surinam as a slave. It is also the very touching love story of the prince and his one and only love - despite the common practice of polygamy. Tragedy and revenge, or tragic revenge, if you will, is also another strong element of the story.

Orphaned into the authority of her Aunt Reed and subjected to the cruel regime at Lowood charity school, Jane Eyre still manages to hold on to her integrity. She takes up the post of governess at Thornfield and falls in love with the brooding and mysterious Mr. Rochester; but there will be quite a few complications in the way of their happiness. This is a classic and enduring masterpiece, multilayered in meaning and showing the listener many of the challenges facing women during the Victorian era.

This fascinating work centers around the encounter between a visitor from the nineteenth century, William Guest, and a decentralized and humane socialist future without class segregation and with direct democracy without government al empowerment. Inspired by the work of John Ruskin and Karl Marx; this novel is not only a statement of egalitarian convictions but a great early contribution to the utopian genre! This work could be seen as a kind of utopian counterpart to George Orwell's famous and deeply pessimistic, dystopian novel 1984.

"The Portrait of a Lady" is the title of this masterpiece. Isabel Archer - beautiful, young and spirited - visits her wealthy relatives in England, rejects marriage proposals by two more or less worthy suitors, inherits a fortune and then is manipulated into marriage to one of the most cruel creatures imaginable: Gilbert Osmond... This is just scratching the surface of this colossal, monumental work, so rich in both its prose, its characters and its many, many themes.

This early novel is often called Jane Austen's Gothic parody. Decrepit castles, locked rooms, mysterious chests, cryptic notes, and tyrannical fathers are quintessential gothic ingredients; but the listener is also rewarded with Austen's typical and wonderful sense of satirical humor! Our heroine is Catherine Morland, a seventeen-year-old woman from a country parsonage. While spending a few weeks in Bath with a family friend, Catherine falls in love with Henry Tilney, who invites her to visit his family estate, Northanger Abbey.

The atrocious but true story of slavery in the United States until the Civil War. It is the personal history of Harriet Jacobs and her enslavement and subsequent escape to the North, after spending seven years hidden in a crawlspace. The stunned listener also gets to know of the mistreatment of the other slaves. We hear how slavery as practiced by the South was degrading to both blacks and whites.

A turn of the century British masterpiece. The satirical story of Lucy Honeychurch, a young English girl traveling to Italy for the first time. In Florence, she meets the unconventional George Emerson, with whom she shares a single passionate kiss, to the horror of her chaperone, her uptight cousin Charlotte. Back in England, Lucy has to choose between George and her uptight fiancé Cecil Vyse.

"Success for a woman means absolute surrender, in whatever direction. Whether she paints a picture, or loves a man, there is no division of labor possible in her economy. To the attainment of any end worth living for, a symmetrical sacrifice of her nature is compulsory upon her." That is the dilemma this powerful and beautifully observed work centers around.

"The Glimpses of the Moon" is written by Pulitzer Prize-winning American novelist, short story writer, and designer Edith Wharton (1862-1937). It was published in 1920. Set in the early 1920s, this novel continues Edith Wharton's examination of New York society. Nick Lansing and Susy Branch are both barely getting by in the wealthy social circles they move in and they can't afford to get married. They make a deal. They will get married and stay together as long as they can but when they run out of money, they can divorce each other.

"A Little Princess" is a beloved classic of English children's literature. Captain Crewe, a wealthy young English widower, enrolls his seven-year-old daughter Sara, who has been living in India, at Miss Minchin's boarding school for girls in London, in order to prepare her for a future life in society. Crewe dotes on his daughter, ordering and paying for her special treatment at the school, such as her own room fitted with extra luxuries, her own maid, and her own carriage for rides.

In The Love That Dares, queer love speaks its name through the words of lovers from years gone by. Alongside the more famous names coexist beautifully written letters by lesser-known lovers, giving us an insight into queer love outside of the spotlight of fame or fortune. These letters give us a glimpse into the passion and courage it took to continue a gay relationship in times when it was at best improper and at worst illegal. Enlightening introductions to each set of letters give readers an idea of the historical context in which they were written.

An absolutely fascinating, trailblazing and early work of feminism and social realism! This novel reflects the important sexual and cultural issues of the late nineteenth century. Here, women are portrayed as "odd" and marginal in relation to an ideal. Set in a smoggy London, our heroines range from the idealistic, financially autonomous Mary Barfoot; to the Madden sisters who struggle to get by in low paying jobs.

An iconic early feminist utopian novel. This work was one element in the major wave of utopian and dystopian literature that marked the later nineteenth and early twentieth century. A man previously lost to the world is found by his sister and tries to re-enter society. He had amnesia so he is now 55 in body, but 25 in his own mind. The book delves into how the man accommodates to the progress in industry and society; but most of all - and most importantly - it is a fascinating study of how he reacts to and deals with the significant changes and progress regarding the position of women in the society.

This work is a full blooded Victorian, sensationalistic melodrama! Murder, arson, blackmail, bigamy; not many ingredients are missing in this entertaining piece. The story is fast-paced and the main character, Lady Audley, is a refreshingly manipulative and resourceful villainess filled with passion and desires that threatened the male dominated Victorian era.

"The House of Mirth" (1905), by Edith Wharton, is the story of Lily Bart, a well-born, but penniless woman of the high society of New York City, who was raised and educated to become wife to a rich man, a hothouse flower for conspicuous consumption. As an unmarried woman with gambling debts and an uncertain future, Lily is destroyed by the society who created her.

In 1916, on an isolated country estate just outside London, Captain Chris Baldry, a shell-shocked captain suffering from amnesia, comes home to the three women who have shaped his life. Will these three strong and devoted women help him regain his memory and his sense of purpose and send him back to the front; or will he descend further into the catacombs of oblivion?

Our heroine Kate is madly in love with her fiancé. She is planning their wedding and future life together... Unfortunately, she discovers a secret that he has that will forever change what she thinks of him. With this new insight, she toils with her desire to be morally accountable, and for him to "do the right thing". Much later in life, she finds herself in a very similar situation, only this time with her own son... A gripping and fascinating novella about the so called "Gilded Age", by one of the true masters of the genre.

"Ethan Frome" is set in the fictitious town of Starkfield, Massachusetts, where a visiting engineer tells the story of his encounter with Ethan Frome, a man with a history of thwarted dreams and desires. The accumulated longing of Frome ends in an ironic turn of events. His initial impressions are based on his observations of Frome going about his mundane tasks in Starkfield, and something about him catches the eye and curiosity of the visitor, but no one in the town seems interested in revealing many details about the man or his history - or perhaps they are not able to.

A man, our "hero", Stephen, needs to come up with a way to make a more money in order to be able to marry his beloved. He has in his possession a pile of old love letters from a famous writer, deceased, at this time. She was called Margaret and was very much in love with Stephen. He finds out he can make lots of profits were he to have the letters published; but he hesitates because he had never really loved her, and had not treated her very well.