Nat Love was born a slave, emancipated into abject poverty, grew up riding the range as a cowboy and spent his maturity riding the rails as a Pullman Porter. For me, the most amazing thing about him is that despite the circumstances of his life, which included being owned like a farm animal solely because of the color of his skin and spending later decades living and working as an equal with white coworkers, he was an unrepentant racist! Convinced that the only good Indian was a dead one, and that all Mexicans were greasers and/or bums, he rarely passed up a chance to shoot a member of either group, whether in self-defense or cold blood, and shows no sign of having appreciated the difference. At one point, he fell in love with a Mexican girl but, apparently unable to tolerate this reality, considered her Spanish. Nat Love was a fascinating character who lived in equally interesting times, and one only wishes his autobiography was much longer and more detailed. by ohsostrange...

Adventure

The Imaginary Invalid (French: Le Malade imaginaire) is a three-act comédie-ballet by the French playwright Molière. It was first performed in 1673 and was the last work he wrote. In an ironic twist of fate, Molière collapsed during his fourth performance as Argan on 17 February and died soon after....

Play, Satire

G.E. Lessing, widely regarded by students of theater as the world's first dramaturg, was also one of the first proponents of the German bourgeois tragedy. Miss Sara Sampson, in which a young woman runs off with a ne'er-do-well who is still entangled with his former mistress, was a reaction against the Voltarian verse drama popular in the eighteenth century. (Summary by Arielle Lipshaw)...

Uri Nissan Gnessin was born in Starodub, where his father was a rabbi. He left home at an early age, and moving from one yeshiva to the another, he developed a life-long friendship with a fellow Hebrew modernist author, Yosef Haim Brenner. His first published text was in 1904. In 1906 he co-founded the Hebrew language publishing house Nisyonot (Attempts), and after moving to London in 1907, he co-edited (with Brenner) Ha'Meorer, a Hebrew periodical. Following that he moved to Palestine but returned to Russia in 1908. Later he settled in Warsaw, where he died in 1913 of a heart attack. Gnessin wrote in a unique style of prose that was notable for its expressionistic language. Several Israeli literary scholars, such as Dan Miron and Gershon Shaked, wrote about his work, especially about the short story BaGanim (In the Gardens) which is about incest between a father and his intellectually disabled daughter. (Summary following Wikipedia)...

Short stories

Четири кратки творби от поетесата Мара Белчева (8 септември 1868, Севлиево – 16 март 1937, София), посветени на човешката близост и доверие. Изповедното начало, характерно за ранните стихове на поетесата, по-късно се свързва с размисъл върху вечните човешки въпроси. Поетесата изповядва християнските добродетели и се уповава на тях, мисълта за Бога става една от доминантите в творбите ѝ. Висока нравственост, спокойно мечтателно-носталгично любовно чувство, дирене на хармония в съществуването определят облика на творчеството ѝ. (Summary by Euthymius, based on the Wikipedia article on the poetess.)...

Poetry

The Taming of the Shrew is one of Shakespeare's earliest comedies, and was inspired by classical Roman comedy and the Italian commedia dell'arte. Baptista Minola, a rich gentleman of Padua, has two daughters: Katherina, renowned for her sharp tongue, and Bianca, who is sought after by multiple suitors. Baptista decides that Bianca cannot marry until her elder sister finds a husband. Enter Petruchio, who has come to wive it wealthily in Padua, and who is convinced by Bianca's suitors to woo Katherina. The play ultimately poses the question of who is the bigger shrew: Kate or Petruchio. The subplot involves the subterfuge employed by Lucentio to woo the lovely Bianca. (Summary by Elizabeth Klett)...

Play, Comedy, Romance

volunteers bring you 14 recordings of Retort by Paul Laurence Dunbar. This was the weekly poetry project for August 23rd, 2009.

Poetry, Humor

volunteers bring you 19 recordings of The Publisher by C.J. Dennis. This was the weekly poetry project for June 28th, 2009.

Poetry

...Showing Curious ways in which the English Language may be made to convey Ideas or obscure them. A collection of unintentionally humorous uses of the English language. Sections of the work: How she is wrote by the Inaccurate, By Advertisers and on Sign-boards, For Epitaphs, By Correspondents, By the Effusive, How she can be oddly wrote, and By the Untutored. (Summary by TriciaG)...

Humor, Languages

volunteers bring you 10 recordings of The Moon is a Painter by Vachel Lindsay. This was the weekly poetry project for February 1st, 2009.

Poetry

volunteers bring you 14 recordings of Silver Filigree by Elinor Wylie. This was the Weekly Poetry project for March 27, 2011.

Poetry

Robert Frost preferred to describe the New England countryside using everyday language. He used both as tools to explore world views and life philosophies. A Boy's Will was his first poetry anthology. (Summary by Bill Boerst)...

Poetry

Fiction

volunteers bring you 21 different recordings of My Madonna by Robert W. Service. This was the weekly poetry project for the week of August 12th, 2007.

Poetry

volunteers offer you 9 different recordings of Going down Hill on a Bicycle by Henry Charles Beeching. This was the weekly poetry project for the week of April 25th, 2010....

Poetry

’s Short Poetry Collection 053: a collection of 20 public-domain poems.

Poetry

Here is a collection of strikingly different pieces by Flaubert: a prose poem in the voices of Death, Satan and Nero; the trials and apotheosis of a medieval saint; and the life of a selfless maid in 19th century France. Each exhibits the vigorous exactness, and the mixture of realism and romanticism, for which Flaubert is renowned....

Short stories

volunteers bring you 11 recordings of The Consolation by Anne Brontë. This was the Weekly Poetry project for March 14th, 2010.

Poetry, Romance, Nature

volunteers ring in the new year with nineteen recordings of Ring Out, Wild Bells by Alfred, Lord Tennyson. This was the weekly poetry project for the week of December 31st, 2006....

Poetry

volunteers bring you 9 different recordings of A Glee for Winter by Alfred Domett. This was the weekly poetry project for the week of December 23rd, 2007....

Poetry