Showing results by narrator "Taylor Pepper" in All Categories

Scrooge, an old miser, is "a squeezing, wrenching, grasping, scraping, clutching, covetous, old sinner". He hates Christmas, calling it "humbug". The tale begins on a "cold, bleak, biting" Christmas Eve in London, exactly seven years after the death of Scrooge's business partner Jacob Marley. At home that night, Scrooge is visited by Marley's ghost, who is forever cursed to wander the earth dragging a network of heavy chains, forged during a lifetime of greed and selfishness.

"A Room with a View" is a novel set in Italy and England, the story is both a romance and a critique of English society. The main themes of this novel include the empowerment of a young Edwardian girl, sensual awakening, the role of institutional religion, growing up and true love. It is written in the third person omniscient, though particular passages are often seen "through the eyes" of a specific character.

The point of view from which this book is written is of one who believes that the child about to undertake the formal study of American history in the seventh and eighth grades of our schools, needs first a preliminary sketch of the history of earlier times - especially of the Middle Ages. In attempting to make intelligible to children the institutions and events of the Middle Ages, the author is aware of the magnitude of the task which he has essayed.

"The Swiss Family Robinson" by Wyss and Son is a novel, intended to teach Wyss' four sons about family values, good husbandry, the uses of the natural world and self-reliance. Wyss' attitude toward education is in line with the teachings of Jean-Jacques Rousseau, and many of the episodes have to do with Christian-oriented moral lessons such as frugality, husbandry, acceptance, cooperation, etc. The adventures are presented as a series of lessons in natural history and the physical sciences, and resemble other, similar educational books for children in this period.

"Treasure Island" (1883) by Robert Louis Stevenson is an adventure novel, narrating a tale of "buccaneers and buried gold". It was originally published as a serial in the children's magazine Young Folks between 1881 through 1882 under the title Treasure Island, or the mutiny of the Hispaniola, credited to the pseudonym "Captain George North".

"Grammar-Land" by M. L. Nesbitt is an involving story about grammar for children. Excerpt from the book: "To all little children who think grammar hard and dry, this book is dedicated, by one who loves to see Sunshine in Schoolroom-shire." "What is Grammar-land? Where is Grammar-land? Have you ever been to Grammar-land? Wait a minute and you shall hear. You will not find Grammar-land marked on the globe, and I never saw a map of it; but then, who ever saw a map of Fairy-land?

"The Adventures of Sally" by P. G. Wodehouse is a novel about a young, pretty, and popular American woman who lives in a boarding house in New York and works as a taxi dancer. At her twenty-first birthday, she inherits a fortune. Excerpt from the book: "Sally looked contentedly down the long table. She felt happy at last. Everybody was talking and laughing now, and her party, rallying after an uncertain start, was plainly the success she had hoped it would be.

"Helen's Babies" by John Habberton was intended as a piece of humor for adult audience, but the novel became a juvenile literature success. Excerpt from the book: "The first cause, so far as it can be determined, of the existence of this book may be found in the following letter, written by my only married sister, and received by me, Harry Burton, salesman of white goods, bachelor, aged twenty-eight, and received just as I was trying to decide where I should spend a fortnight's vacation."

"Dracula" is a gothic novel by Bram Stoker, famous for introducing the character of the vampire Count Dracula. The novel tells the story of Dracula's attempt to move from Transylvania to England so that he may find new blood and spread the undead curse, and of the battle between Dracula and a small group of men and women led by Professor Abraham Van Helsing. The story is told in epistolary format, as a series of letters, diary entries, newspaper articles, and ships' log entries, whose narrators are the novel's protagonists.

"The Secret Garden" by Frances Hodgson Burnett is a children's book classic about an orphaned girl. Mary Lennox is a troubled, sickly and unloved 10-year-old, born in India to selfish, wealthy British parents, who never wanted her. She is cared for mainly by servants, and grows into a spoiled and selfish girl. When cholera kills Mary's parents and all the servants, she is sent to England, to live with Archibald Craven, an uncle she has never met, at his bleak, isolated house. At first, Mary is her usual self: sour and rude.

"Through the Looking-Glass" is a novel by Lewis Carroll. The themes and settings make it a kind of a mirror image of "Alice in Wonderland": it begins outdoors, uses frequent changes in size, and draws on the imagery of playing cards; the Looking-Glass opens indoors, uses frequent changes in time and spatial directions, and draws on the imagery of chess. In it, there are many mirror themes, including opposites, time running backwards, and so on. So this audiobook is based on a game of chess, played on a giant chessboard with fields for squares.

"Just So Stories for Little Children" is a collection of origin myths. The Just So Stories each tell how a particular animal was modified from an original form to its current form by the acts of man, or some magical being. For example, the Whale has a tiny throat because he swallowed a mariner, who tied a raft inside to block the whale from swallowing other men. The Camel has a hump given to him by a djinn as punishment for the camel's refusing to work (the hump allows the camel to work longer between times of eating).

"More William" (1922) by Richmal Crompton is like most of the "William"-books: it has no continuous narrative, but consists of separate independent short-stories. Some of the stories collected here are as follows: "A Busy Day","Rice-Mould", "William's Hobby", "The Ghos", "The May King", "The Revenge", "The Reform of William", "William's Christmas Eve".

"Just William" is a collection of children's short stories by Richmal Crompton. William in the title is a young school boy of eleven, eternally scruffy and frowning. He and his friends, Ginger, Henry and Douglas, call themselves the Outlaws, and meet at an old barn. The Outlaws are sworn enemies of the Hubert Lane-ites, with whom they frequently clash.

"The Girl on the Boat" (1922) is a novel by P. G. Wodehouse. The girl from the title is the red-haired, dog-loving Wilhelmina "Billie" Bennett, and the three men are: Bream Mortimer, a long-time and long-suffering suitor of Billie; Eustace Hignett, a shy poet who is cowed by his domineering mother but secretly engaged to Billie at the opening of the tale; Sam Marlowe, Eustace's dashing cousin, who falls in love with Billie "at first sight".

"A Little Princess" by Frances Hodgson Burnett is a children's book classic. Captain Ralph Crewe, a wealthy English widower, enrolls his 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, her own carriage for rides and pony, and her own sitting room.

In "The Book of Art for Young People" Agnes Ethel Conway provides an overview of the history of art from the 13th to the 19th century. Excerpt from the book: "Almost the pleasantest thing in the world is to be told a splendid story by a really nice person. If I might choose the person to tell me the kind of story I like to listen to, and hear told to me over and over again, it would be some one who could draw pictures for me while talking. But my story-teller should not only draw the pictures while he talked, but he should paint them too.

"The Road to Oz: In Which Is Related How Dorothy Gale of Kansas, The Shaggy Man, Button Bright, and Polychrome the Rainbow's Daughter Met on an Enchanted Road and Followed it All the Way to the Marvelous Land of Oz" - is a novel by L. Frank Baum, first published in 1909. It has a telling title. Upon reaching Oz, Dorothy and her companions are warmly welcomed by the mechanical man Tik-Tok and Billina the Yellow Hen. They proceed in company, to come in their travels to the Truth Pond, where Button Bright and the Shaggy Man regain their true heads by bathing in its waters.

"When Mother Lets Us Cook" by Constance Johnson has a telling subtitle - "A Book of Simple Receipts for Little Folk with Important Cooking Rules in Rhyme Together with Handy Lists of the Materials and Utensils Needed for the Preparation of Each Dish". The book contains instructions for Boiled Eggs, Sweet Sauces, Tapioca Pudding, Meat Loaf, School Sandwiches, Lemonade, Birthday Cake, Mock Wine Jelly, and more.

"Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" tells the story of a girl, falling through a rabbit hole into a fantasy world populated by peculiar, anthropomorphic creatures. The tale plays with logic, giving the story lasting popularity with adults as well as with children. It is considered to be one of the best examples of the literary nonsense genre. Its narrative course and structure, characters and imagery have been enormously influential in both popular culture and literature, especially in the fantasy genre.