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The 13th century Icelandic Völsungasaga is usually read by people studying the Poetic Edda or Wagner's Ring - which obscures the fact it is a much better story than practically everything derived from it. A riddle-telling dragon, a broken sword, a hooded mysterious wanderer - cannibalism, incest, mutilation, and sensitive hearts. This is R-rated Tolkien - and the unashamedly archaic Magnússon-Morris translation is up for the adventure. Passages spoken in Old Norse are taken from the edition of Sophus Bugge, Berlin, 1891. (Summary by Corpang)...

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Adventure, Fantasy, Ancient Texts

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Heart of Darkness is a novella written by Joseph Conrad. Before its 1903 publication, it appeared as a three-part series (1899) in Blackwood's Magazine. It was classified by the Modern Library website editors as one of the 100 best novels and part of the Western canon. The story centres on Charles Marlow, who narrates most of the book. He is an Englishman who takes a foreign assignment from a Belgian trading company as a river-boat captain in Africa. Heart of Darkness exposes the dark side of European colonization while exploring the three levels of darkness that the protagonist, Marlow, encounters: the darkness of the Congo wilderness, the darkness of the Europeans' cruel treatment of the African natives, and the unfathomable darkness within every human being for committing heinous acts of evil. Although Conrad does not give the name of the river, at the time of writing the Congo Free State, the location of the large and important Congo River, was a private colony of Belgium's King Leopold II. In the story, Marlow is employed to transport ivory downriver. However, his more pressing assignment is to return Kurtz, another ivory trade...

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Adventure, Fiction, Literature

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It was published in 1893–1894 by Century Magazine in seven installments, and is a detective story with some racial themes. The plot of this novel is a detective story, in which a series of identities — the judge's murderer, Tom, Chambers — must be sorted out. This structure highlights the problem of identity and one's ability to determine one's own identity. Broader issues of identity are the central ideas of this novel. Twain's multiple plots and thrown-together style do serve to inform a central set of issues, with the twins, Pudd'nhead, and Tom and Chambers all serving as variations on a theme. The themes are slavery, tradition, and nature vs. nurture. To a lesser extent, Southern society and first impressions are also touched upon, and the novel is one of the first to use fingerprints as a means of unique identification, as it was not until 1897 that the world's first Fingerprint Bureau opened in Calcutta. One of Twain's major goals in this book was to exploit the true nature of Racism at that period. Twain used comic relief as a way to divulge his theme. The purpose of a comic relief is to address his or her opinion in a less s...

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Humor, Adventure, Historical Fiction

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volunteers bring you 15 recordings of The Legend of Heinz von Stein by Charles Godfrey Leland. This was the Weekly Poetry project for November 11, 2012. Charles Godfrey Leland was an American humorist who traveled extensively throughout Europe and the US. Leland worked in journalism, and became interested in folklore and folk linguistics, publishing books and articles on American and European languages and folk traditions. He worked in a wide variety of trades, achieved recognition as the author of the comic Hans Breitmann’s Ballads, fought in two conflicts, and wrote what was to become a primary source text for Neopaganism half a century later, Aradia, or the Gospel of the Witches. ( Summary from Wikipedia )...

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Adventure, Humor, Romance, Poetry

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A collection of short stories by famed Winnie the Pooh author, A.A. Milne. This charmingly humorous work from Milne's earlier writing period was first published in Punch magazine. (Summary by Cathy Barratt)...

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Fiction, Adventure, Humor

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Honath the Pursemaker is a heretic. He doesn’t believe the stories in the Book of Laws which claims giants created his tree-dwelling race. He makes his opinion known and is banished with his infidel friends to the floor of the jungle where dangers abound. Perhaps he’ll find some truth down there. – The Thing in the Attic is one of Blish’s Pantropy tales and was first published in the July, 1954 edition of If, Worlds of Science Fiction magazine. (Summary by Gregg Margarite)...

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Adventure, Fantasy, Fiction, Science fiction

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In The Blonde Lady, being a record of the duel of wits between Arsène Lupin and the English detective - original title Arsène Lupin contre Herlock Sholmes - the gentleman-burglar once more meets his enemy, the English detective Herlock Sholmes. If in the last story of Arsène Lupin, gentleman-burglar Sherlock Holmes arrives too late (the name was at a later date changed to Herlock Sholmes in reply to complaints and threats by Conan Doyle regarding copyrights), in the two stories that compose The Blonde Lady these two great intellects are bound in opposite directions. Where one chooses to abide to the law, the other uses his power and wits to crime - and who is going to win? These two stories appeared in chapters and as separate pieces in the magazine Je Sais Tout , during the years of 1906 and 1907, and were published together as a book first in 1908, being the second of the books where Arsène Lupin, the kind-hearted and humorous thief, is the main character. (Summary by Leni)...

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Adventure, Spy stories, Mystery

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The Journal of Submarine Commander Von Forstner is a graphic account of WWI submarine warfare. Forstner was the commander of German U-boat U-28. His journal, first published 1916, gives a gritty picture of daily life inside a submarine and details several torpedo attacks on Allied shipping. The 1917 translation of Forstner’s journal into English was unquestionably intended to bolster the Allied war effort. In the foreword, the translator states: “Nothing at the present day has aroused such fear as this invisible enemy, nor has anything outraged the civilized world like the tragedies caused by the German submarines.” This audio read of Forstner’s journal was prompted by a tour of a captured WWII German U-505 submarine, which is a prime draw at Chicago’s Museum of Science and Industry. The sub’s interior is not for claustrophobics--a hunkered maze of pipes and valves, banks of engines and batteries that leave very little room for humans. Particularly arresting are the sleeping quarters--bunks cozy’d up with the 15 foot long torpedoes. (Introduction by Sue Anderson)...

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Adventure, History, Memoirs, Sea stories, War stories

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A framing story is told in the first person by Darrell Standing, a university professor serving life imprisonment in San Quentin State Prison for murder. Prison officials try to break his spirit by means of a torture device called the jacket, a canvas jacket which can be tightly laced so as to compress the whole body, inducing angina. Standing discovers how to withstand the torture by entering a kind of trance state, in which he walks among the stars and experiences portions of past lives. The jacket itself was actually used at San Quentin at the time and Jack London's descriptions of it were based on interviews with a former convict named Ed Morrell, which is also the name of a character in the novel. For his role in the Sontag and Evans gang which robbed the Southern Pacific Railroad in the 1890s, Morrell spent fourteen years in California prisons (1894-1908), five of them in solitary confinement. London championed his pardon. After his release, Morrell was a frequent guest at London's Beauty Ranch....

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Adventure, Fiction, Short stories

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Three trees, known as the Peacock trees, are blamed by the peasants for the fever that has killed many. Squire Vane scoffs at this legend as superstition. To prove them wrong, once and for all, he takes a bet to spend the night in the trees. In the morning he has vanished. Is he dead, and if so who has killed him? The poet? The lawyer? The woodsman? The trees? (Summary by Maria Therese)...

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Adventure, Fiction, Mystery, Short stories

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Ayesha, the return of She, is set 16 years after the previous novel She. Horace Holly and Leo Vincey have spent the years travelling the world looking for Ayesha, along the way they experience many adventures, including avalanches, glaciers and even death-hounds before finally arriving in the court of Kaloon. At the court, they hear tell of a woman who Leo suspects to be Ayesha, however things are never simple and conflict soon follows them to Ayesha’s court. (Summarised from Wikipedia)...

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Fiction, Adventure

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Morgan Gable first falls for Daniel Connolly, a popular Irish tenor, when she hears him sing. Starstruck, she is consumed by thoughts of love with the handsome troubadour. Real life intrudes and Morgan must put aside her own dreams for awhile. Five years later, she and her troubadour meet again, AND fate hands her the chance to make her every wish come true. Daniel entices her into a marriage of convenience. Can she save him from the treacherous political legacy of his late wife? Set in 1871, the story sweeps from the tragedy of the Chicago Fire to the streets of New York and finally to the wild, dangerous coast of Ireland. Is Daniel merely using Morgan for his own deceptions? Or is she right to listen with her heart? www.DesertBreezePublishing.com...

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Laura Kate O'Connell left her life of excitement as an overseas news correspondent to return to her Georgia hometown to raise her two young cousins. When Royce Lee, Laura Kate's attorney, supposedly commits suicide, too many pieces of evidence tell a different story. Her instincts as an investigative reporting are tingling, and she just can't leave it alone. She meets Jack Rhodes, Royce's business partner. Sparks fly, but can she really trust a man she knows nothing about? And why is it that every time something new develops in the case, he seems to be there? Warnings to back off escalate to an attempt on her life. Now, for Laura Kate, it's more than just a mystery. Depending on Jack might be a mistake, but if Laura Kate can get past his southern charms and the nervous way Jack makes her feel, she may get the facts, solve the case, and even save her own life. www.DesertBreezePublishing.com...

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The Country Beyond, subtitled A Romance In the Wilderness, is a story of Jolly Roger McKay, an outcast on the run from the law; Nada, the girl he falls in love with; and Peter, the devoted mixed-breed dog who links the two together as no human could, as action, adventure, and romance take them through the Northwest Canadian wilderness in search of The Country Beyond. (Summary by Roger Melin)...

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Adventure, Romance

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A tale of mystery, romance, and honor, as David Carrigan must choose between his duty as an officer of the law and a girl who holds him captive; a girl who Carrigan thinks he may have fallen in love with no less! Who is this strange girl Jean-Marie, and why won't she give him his freedom? And who are the people that she surrounds herself with along the great Canadian rivers and wilderness barrens and forests of the northwest? Summary by Roger Melin....

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Adventure, Mystery, Romance

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Fun stories of Miss Lois Cayley, independent young woman, as she, beginning with only twopence in her pocket, travels the world. (Summary by kristin) Miss Lois Cayley, a smart, strong and independent woman, is traveling around the world. However, her beloved is in trouble. He is accused of a crime which he didn't commit. But who did? And would she be able to save him from 14 years in prison? And would an independent woman let herself, finally, fall in love and live quietly? (Summary by Stav Nisser)....

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Fiction, Adventure

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Alaska has only been a state since 1959, and the breathtaking terrain remains mostly unspoiled and natural. In modern times, many of us have had the pleasure of visiting Alaska via a luxurious cruise ship, where we enjoyed gourmet meals, amazing entertainment, and a climate-controlled environment. It's easy to also book a land package that enables you to see more of the country by train. Imagine what it was like to visit the same wild, untamed countryside in 1899. Instead of boarding a sleek, stylish cruise ship, you travel for weeks on a steamer. You wait 2 weeks for the open, flat cars of the new railrod just to assure yourself it can travel safely through the dangerous mountain pass. No stately cabin or grand hotel awaits you at the end of your journey; you'll spend your time in rough mining camps. Such is the case in May Kellogg Sullivan's spellbinding and vivid account of her Alaskan adventures, which occurred over 18 months during 2 solo trips covering 12,000 miles. This is the perfect travel narrative to enjoy on your Alaskan cruise or in the comfort of your own home. (Introduction by Karen Commins)...

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Adventure, Memoirs, Nature, Travel

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In The Path to San Damiano four friends are drawn into a search for a mysterious stranger with a reputation for acts of kindness. An unanticipated visit by the FBI and Secret Service adds to their curiosity and strengthens their resolve to find him. Their search takes them to Italy, where the elusive stranger seems just beyond their reach. Then, near the ancient town of Assisi, home of Saint Francis, something extraordinary occurs....

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Mrs. Macy set down her teacup. Peter knew to remain silent. She began, “I want to make sure I understand this situation correctly. Peter observed a man in rags giving a dying man a sip of water. For whatever reason, he was curious about him. He told his friends and we, in an effort to be supportive, joined in a search to find the man. We have not been successful in our search, although we have encountered some interesting stories along the way. Then, suddenly, the FBI and Secret Service show up at our doorstep, looking for the same man, you think. I'm not quite sure why Peter wants to find him, and I am absolutely befuddled as to why you want to find him. You either cannot or may not, but quite assuredly will not, tell us why. Apparently, you want us to trust you. Have you bugged our phones?” Her last words caught the others off guard. The agents looked quickly at each other. Agent Hardy spoke, “Mrs. Macy, we are familiar with your background and past activities. This is a serious matter and we would prefer to go the cooperative route rather than pursuing court orders, search warrants and the like.” 50 “Agent Hardy, ...

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Beautiful Jean Briggerland is the epitome of evilness in this twisting and turning thriller. She plots many different ways to steal her new victim's riches including lies and murder. Only Jack Glover the lawyer of Jean's most recent victim, is aware of her true nature. Can he stop her crime spree and bring her to justice before she murders her way to wealth and happiness? Don't count on it! Page after page offers action, new twists, and unexpected surprises that will keep the reader listening for more! (Summary by Allyson Hester)...

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Adventure, Fiction, Mystery

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Yee-hawww! The Pony Rider Boys are on the trail again! In the second book of this series, Professor Zepplin has taken the young men to San Diego, Texas, to experience the life of a cowboy. The cattle drive will take them across the great state of Texas, where they will meet many dangers and adventures. (Summary by Ann Boulais)...

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Adventure, Children, Westerns