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...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)...

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Humor, Languages

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...volunteers bring you 23 recordings of Cupid's Darts by Anonymous. This was the Weekly Poetry project for February 12, 2012. To celebrate the somewhat silly holiday of Valentine's Day, I've selected this somewhat silly poem, which first appeared in Such Nonsense! an anthology by C...

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Humor, Nature, Poetry

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...volunteers bring you 5 different recordings of Incontrovertible Facts by Anonymous. This was the weekly poetry project for the week of March 23rd, 2008....

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Poetry

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It need hardly be said that the woman by whom these letter were written had no thought that they would be read by anyone but the person to whom they were addressed. But a request, conveyed under circumstances which the writer herself would have regarded as all-commanding, urges that they should now be given to the world; and, so far as is possible with a due regard to the claims of privacy, what is here printed presents the letters as they were first written in their complete form and sequence. From book explaination...

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Romance, Biography

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Go through the year in the footsteps of the saints. This book emphasizes one virtue for each month with quotes and stories from the lives of the saints to help teach and inspire that particular virtue in us. For January, Perfection; February, Humility; March, Mortification; April, Patience; May, Meekness; June, Obedience; July, Simplicity; August, Diligence; September, Prayer; October, Confidence; November, Charity; and December, Union. (Summary by Maria Therese)...

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Instruction, Religion

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Short and sweet stories for children. (Summary by Dr. Heather A. D. Mbaye)

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Children, Short stories

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This is a collection of stories collected over thousands of years by various authors, translators and scholars. The are an amalgam of mythology and folk tales from the Indian sub-continent, Persia, and Arabia. No original manuscript has ever been found for the collection, but several versions date the collection's genesis to somewhere between AD 800-900. The stories are wound together under the device of a long series of cliff-hangers told by Shahrazad to her husband Shahryar, to prevent him from executing her. Many tales that have become independently famous come from the Book, among them Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves, and the voyages of Sinbad the Sailor. This collection comes from the second of sixteen volumes translated by Burton. (based on Wikipedia article)...

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Adventure, Fairy tales, Short stories, Myths/Legends

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This is a collection of stories collected over thousands of years by various authors, translators and scholars. They are an amalgam of mythology and folk tales from the Indian sub-continent, Persia, and Arabia. No original manuscript has ever been found for the collection, but several versions date the collection's genesis to somewhere between AD 800-900. The stories are wound together under the device of a long series of cliff-hangers told by Shahrazad to her husband Shahryar, to prevent him from executing her. Many tales that have become independently famous come from the Book, among them Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves, and the voyages of Sinbad the Sailor. This collection comes from the third of sixteen volumes translated by Burton. (based on Wikipedia article)...

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Fiction, Fairy tales, Myths/Legends

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The Mabinogion is a collection of eleven prose stories collated from medieval Welsh manuscripts. The tales draw on pre-Christian Celtic mythology, international folktale motifs, and early medieval historical traditions. While some details may hark back to older Iron Age traditions, each of these tales is the product of a highly developed Welsh narrative tradition, both oral and written. Lady Charlotte Guest in the mid 19th century was the first to publish English translations of the collection. (Summary from Wikipedia)...

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Ancient Texts, Myths/Legends

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This is a collection of stories collected over thousands of years by various authors, translators and scholars. They are an amalgam of mythology and folk tales from the Indian sub-continent, Persia, and Arabia. No original manuscript has ever been found, but several versions date the collection’s genesis to somewhere between AD 800-900. The stories are wound together under the device of a long series of cliff-hangers told by Shahrazad to her husband Shahryar, to prevent him from executing her. Many tales that have become independently famous come from the Book, among them Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves, and the voyages of Sinbad the Sailor. This collection comes from the first of sixteen volumes translated by Richard Francis Burton. The Book of A Thousand Nights and a Night, Volume 01 )...

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Fairy tales, Myths/Legends

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This is a collection of stories collected over thousands of years by various authors, translators and scholars. They are an amalgam of mythology and folk tales from the Indian sub-continent, Persia, and Arabia. No original manuscript has ever been found, but several versions date the collection’s genesis to somewhere between AD 800-900. The stories are wound together under the device of a long series of cliff-hangers told by Shahrazad to her husband Shahryar, to prevent him from executing her. Many tales that have become independently famous come from the Book, among them Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves, and the voyages of Sinbad the Sailor. This collection comes from the sixth of sixteen volumes translated by Richard Francis Burton. (Summary adapted from Wikipedia)...

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Adventure, Fairy tales, Short stories, Myths/Legends

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The Song of Roland is an epic poem, originally sung in Old French. It tells the story of the Battle of Roncevaux Pass in 778. This is an English translation....

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Myths/Legends, Poetry

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This cookbook and reference guide leads the American Housewife through how to make everything from Meat to Common Drinks, as well as helpful tips and tricks for any housewife! Also included in this fine text are sections on Cooking for The Sick, and how to make your own: Essences, Perfumes, Dyes and Soaps. This work also features an extensive section on The Art of Carving-Which covers anything you might need to carve! (Summary by Jennifer Stearns...

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Cookery, Instruction, Advice

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Apollonius of Tyre is the subject of an ancient short novella, popular during medieval times. Existing in numerous forms in many languages, the text is thought to be translated from an ancient Greek manuscript, now lost. The earliest manuscripts of the tale, in a Latin version, date from the 9th or 10th century; the most widespread Latin versions are those of Gottfried von Viterbo, who incorporated it into his Pantheon of 1185 as if it were actual history, and a version in the Gesta Romanorum. Shakespeare's play Pericles, Prince of Tyre was based in part on Gower's version, with the change of name probably inspired by Philip Sidney's Arcadia. Apollonius of Tyre was also a source for his plays Twelfth Night and The Comedy of Errors....

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Humor, Historical Fiction

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Here we were, only a month married, and spending our honeymoon at a most charming summer resort, where there was no excuse for getting out of patience. Everything was beautiful and attractive: Little hotel, strange to say, quite delightful; no fault to find with surroundings and accommodations; my darling Bessie, as sweet as an angel and determined to be happy and to make me happy; everything, in short, calculated to give us a long summer of delight. That is, if Bessie had only been an orphan. But there was her mother, who had joined us on our summer trip, after the first two weeks of unalloyed happiness, and threatened to accompany us through life. (excerpt from chapter 1)...

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Fiction

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This is a collection of stories collected over thousands of years by various authors, translators and scholars. The are an amalgam of mythology and folk tales from the Indian sub-continent, Persia, and Arabia. No original manuscript has ever been found for the collection, but several versions date the collection's genesis to somewhere between AD 800-900. The stories are wound together under the device of a long series of cliff-hangers told by Shahrazad to her husband Shahryar, to prevent him from executing her. Many tales that have become independently famous come from the Book, among them Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves, and the voyages of Sinbad the Sailor. This collection comes from the third of sixteen volumes translated by Burton. (based on Wikipedia article)...

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Adventure, Fairy tales, Short stories, Myths/Legends

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...The Cloud of Unknowing (Middle English: The Cloude of Unknowyng) is an anonymous work of Christian mysticism written in Middle English in the latter half of the 14th century. The text is a spiritual guide on contemplative prayer in the late Middle Ages. The book counsels a young student to seek ...

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Religion

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Sketches of the fair sex, in all parts of the world. To which are added rules for determining the precise figure, the degree of beauty, the habits, and the age of women, notwithstanding the aids and disguise of dress. It is our design to present a pleasing and interesting miscellany, which will serve to beguile the leisure hour, and will at the same time couple instruction with amusement. We have used but little method in the arrangement: Choosing rather to furnish the reader with a rich profusion of narratives and anecdotes, all tending to illustrate the FEMALE CHARACTER, to display its delicacy, its sweetness, its gentle or sometimes heroic virtues, its amiable weaknesses, and strange defects—than to attempt an accurate analysis of the hardest subject man ever attempted to master, viz—WOMAN. (Summary from the book)...

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Psychology, Humor

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The Curtezan unmasked or, the Whoredomes of Jezebel Painted to the Life: With Antidotes against them, or Heavenly Julips to cool Men in the Fever of Lust is a fire-and-brimstone polemic by A Spiritual Physician to persuade young men not to succumb to harlotry and its accompanying perils. (Introduction by Denny Sayers)...

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Religion, Satire

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A heartwarming collection of nursery rhymes that will take you back to your childhood! (Summary by Allyson Hester)

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Poetry, Children

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In this saga, the events that led to Eirik the Red's banishment to Greenland are chronicled, as well as Leif Eirikson's discovery of Vinland the Good (a place where wheat and grapes grew naturally), after his longboat was blown off-course. By geographical details, this place is surmised to be present-day Newfoundland, and is likely the first European discovery of the American mainland, some five centuries before Christopher Columbus's journey. (Summary from Wikipedia.)...

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Sea stories, Poetry

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Short and sweet stories for children. (Summary by Dr. Heather A. D. Mbaye)

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Children, Short stories

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Cautionary tales of the transmigration of the souls of naughty boys and girls, as elucidated by the mysterious Bramin, Mr Wiseman: Having been gifted with the faculty of distinguishing those animals which are now animated by the souls of such human beings as formerly degraded themselves to a level with the unthinking brutes, I have taken the pains to provide a collection of beasts, birds, &c. most of which are inhabited by the souls of some naughty masters or misses, who died in the neighbourhood. (David Barnes, quoting the Introduction)...

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Children, Humor, Instruction

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Excerpted anecdotes from the biographies of Swift, Curran, O'Leary and O'Connell, relating humorous snippets of politics in 18th and 19th century Ireland. For some these may be poignant in addition to being humorous and for others they may be humorous in addition to being poignant. ( Summary by JCarson )...

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Comedy, Essay/Short nonfiction, Humor

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37 short pieces perfect for newer recorders. These one page Stories of (mostly) Wonderful Deeds were written for Little Folk to teach them about famous incidents in their history. Bonnie Prince Charlie, Nelson and Hardy, Bruce and the Spider, David Livingston, Canute, Sir Philip Sydney, and Elizabeth and Raleigh are just some of the well known people and incidents covered in short stories. (Summary by phil chenevert)...

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Children, History

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...volunteers bring you 9 recordings of At the End of the Feast by Anonymous. A traditional English Christmas Carol, first published in New Christmas Carols in 1642. This poem was the Weekly Poetry Project for the week beginning December 25th 2011. (Summary by Lucy Perry)...

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Holiday, Humor, Philosophy, Poetry

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A catechism is a summary of the principles of Christian religion and articles of the faith. The Baltimore Catechism specifically was the de facto standard Catholic school text in the United States from 1885 to the late 1960s. It was the first such catechism written for Catholics in North America, replacing a translation of Bellarmine's Small Catechism. The Baltimore Catechism remained in use in nearly all Catholic schools until many moved away from catechism-based education, though it is still used up to this day in some. (Summary by Wikipedia [annotated by mknightretke])...

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Instruction, Religion

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...volunteers bring you 7 recordings of A Selection from Peter Piper's Practical Principles of Plain and Perfect Pronunciation by Anonymous. This was the Weekly Poetry project for November 20, 2011. 'Peter Piper's Practical Principles of Plain and Perfect Pronunciation' contains the famous 'Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled pepper's' tongue twister, ...

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Children, Fairy tales, Humor, Languages, Nature, Poetry

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The Keepsake, or, Poems and Pictures For Childhood and Youth, is a collection of twenty pastoral poems published as one collection in London, 1818. The topics are moral encouragement for children, young and old alike. (Summary by Sam Stinson)...

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Children, Advice, Poetry

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Como implica el título, esta es una biografía de Doña Juana, conocida como Juana la Loca, hija de Fernando II de Aragón e Isabel I de Castilla, los Reyes Católicos. As the title implies, this is a biography of Doña Juana, known as Juana the Mad, daughter of Ferdinand II of Aragon and Isabel I of Castile, the Catholic Monarchs....

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History

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...volunteers bring you 14 recordings of Simple Gifts by Anonymous. This was the Fortnightly Poetry project for May 17th, 2010. Several Shaker manuscripts indicate that this is a Dancing Song or a Quick Dance. The references to turning in the last two lines have been identified as ...

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Instruction, Religion

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A 6-page digest of Defoe's famous work for young readers (Summary by Dennis Sayers)

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Children, Adventure

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An adorable picture book with 29 little lessons in German. Learn many simple phrases, such as How big the sea is! and Have you ever been to the farm? The English parts of the book are read by Kara, and the German parts by Elli. You can read long and look at the pictures at: http://www.read.gov/books/german.html http://www.read.gov/books/german.html (Description by Kara)...

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Children, Instruction, Languages

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Het episch dierdicht Van den Vos Reynaerde, geschreven in het Middelnederlands in de 13e eeuw, geldt als een hoogtepunt in de Nederlandse middeleeuwse literatuur. Het epos verhaalt van de schurkenstreken van Reinaert de Vos, die zo listig is dat hij iedereen weet beet te nemen. Deze vertaling uit 1885 is van Julius de Geyter. Uit zijn inleiding: Reinaart de Vos, dat meesterstuk onzer Letterkunde, bestaat uit twee deelen: het eene, dat men gewoonlijk het eerste boek noemt, is omtrent den jare 1250 in Vlaanderen geschreven door een man van genie; het zoogenaamde tweede boek , ongeveer 150 jaren later waarschijnlijk ook door een Vlaming opgesteld, is nauwelijks het werk van een man van talent. De eerste onzer beide dichters, zooals d'eposschrijvers immer deden, had al d'avonturen van zijnen held bijeengezameld, er met een meesterhand de grondstof uitgegrepen, en ze tot een kunstjuweel verwerkt. Naar zijn eigen oordeel, was zijn gedicht gansch de geschiedenis van Reinaart, wat er dan ook over dezen nog meer was geschreven of in den mond des volks voortleefde. Onze tweede schrijver, anderhalv' eeuw nadien, heeft nu juist dat overtollig g...

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Poetry, Myths/Legends, Animals, Fiction, Literature, Satire

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The Chymical Wedding of Christian Rosenkreutz was edited in 1616 in Strasbourg (annexed by France in 1681). It is the third of the original manifestos of the mysterious Fraternity of the Rose Cross (Rosicrucians).NOTE: It was translated into English for the first time in 1690 by E. Foxcroft. This translation became the source for many of the modern attempts to improve the original. The translation presented here is that of E. Foxcroft.Although the book first appeared in 1616, the story takes place over 150 years earlier. It is an allegoric romance (story) divided into Seven Days, or Seven Journeys, like Genesis, and tells us about the way Christian Rosenkreuz was invited to go to a wonderful castle full of miracles, in order to assist the Chymical Wedding of the king and the queen, that is, the husband and the bride. The story begins on an evening near Easter. In the final chapter—the seventh day—CRC is knighted; the year is 1459. It was on Easter-day 1459 that the Constitutions of the Freemasons of Strasburg was first signed in Regensburg, with a second signed shortly afterwards in Strasburg. The Gutenberg Bible be...

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Philosophy, Religion, Fiction

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This is a collection of stories collected over thousands of years by various authors, translators and scholars. The are an amalgam of mythology and folk tales from the Indian sub-continent, Persia, and Arabia. No original manuscript has ever been found for the collection, but several versions date the collection's genesis to somewhere between AD 800-900. The stories are wound together under the device of a long series of cliff-hangers told by Shahrazad to her husband Shahryar, to prevent him from executing her. Many tales that have become independently famous come from the Book, among them Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves, and the voyages of Sinbad the Sailor. This collection comes from the first of sixteen volumes translated by Burton. (Based on Wikipedia article)...

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Adventure, Fairy tales, Short stories, Myths/Legends

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The main frame story concerns a king and his new bride. The king, Shahryar, upon discovering his ex-wife's infidelity executes her and then declares all women to be unfaithful. He begins to marry a succession of virgins only to execute each one the next morning. Scheherazade agrees to marry him and each night, beginning on the night of their marriage, she tells the king a tale but does not end it so that the king keeps her alive in order to hear the next tale. The stories proceed from this original tale; some are framed within other tales, while others begin and end of their own accord. Some editions contain only a few hundred tales, while others include 1001 or more stories and nights. Well known stories from the Nights include Aladdin, Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves, and The Seven Voyages of Sinbad the Sailor. (Summary from Wikipedia)...

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Adventure, Fairy tales, Myths/Legends, Short stories

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Geschiedenis van een neger is een anoniem, rond 1771 verschenen boekwerk. Het is het verhaal van een hugenoot, aangeduid met de letter N., die met zijn vrouw en dochter en vergezeld van de begaafde neger Thomas van Suriname naar Amsterdam reist. N. ontpopt zich als een meester met verlichte ideeën die gelooft in de natuurlijke edelheid van de mens. Hij verklaart deze ideeën wanneer een eiland wordt aangedaan waar een andere Hugenoot een heilstaat heeft gesticht. `Goede woorden’ sorteren volgens N. meer effect dan slagen. In zijn goede-meesterschap is hij consequent wanneer zijn dochter Agnes verklaart de trouwe en tot het christendom bekeerde Thomas te verkiezen boven een andere huwelijkskandidaat: N. stemt toe in het huwelijk met de neger. (Wikipedia)...

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Fiction, Philosophy, Travel

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The Broken Vase and Other Stories; for Children and Youth, Compiled by a Teacher FITCHBURG: PUBLISHED BY S. & C. SHEPLEY. 1847. WM. J. MERRIAM, PRINTER, FITCHBURG. (Summary from the Frontspiece)...

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Adventure, Advice, Children, Fiction, Instruction, War stories

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This book, a reprint of a successful English publication, has been so enlarged as to be to all intents and purposes new. It has been carefully revised by a Reverend gentleman, who for some time filled the chair of Physics and Chemistry in one of our colleges. Recent inventions and improvements are described in a simple, popular style, so as to be easily understood by all, and short notices are given of prominent inventors and scientists. The paragraphs relating to doctrinal matters conform in every respect to the teachings of the Church. A feature which will commend the book to every teacher is the definitions of difficult words and terms, following the paragraphs in which such words occur. (from the Preface)...

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Science

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The title is, I think self explanatory. The nurse in question went out to France at the beginning of the war and remained there until May 1915 after the second battle of Ypres when she went back to a Base Hospital and the diary ceases. Although written in diary form, it is clearly taken from letters home and gives a vivid if sometimes distressing picture of the state of the casualties suffered during that period. After a time at the General Hospital in Le Havre she became on of the three or four sisters working on the ambulance trains which fetched the wounded from the Clearing Hospitals close to the front line and took them back to the General Hospitals in Boulogne and Le Havre. Towards the end of the account she was posted to a Field Ambulance (station) close to Ypres. (Summary by Andy Minter)...

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History

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Toeristisch verslag van een reis naar Canada en Alaska, in 1892 gepubliceerd in het tijdschrift De Aarde en haar volken. We gaan samen met de anonieme, Europese schrijver in Frankrijk aan boord van een schip met bestemming New-York. Daar aangekomen, reizen we direct door naar Montreal. In deze Oost-Canadese stad begint een lange tocht per trein - helemaal naar de Canadese west-kust - via de nog maar enkele jaren daarvoor aangelegde Canada-Pacific-lijn. Deze voert langs een overvloed aan meren en rivieren, in opkomst zijnde steden en adembenemende bergtoppen en gletschers. Aangekomen in de west-Canadese stad Victoria, neemt de schrijver ons mee aan boord van stoomboot 'The Queen' voor een toeristische tocht naar Alaska. Hij verhaalt van de prachtige ijsbergen, fjorden, gletschers en bossen welke we onderweg tegenkomen, van de geschiedenis van Alaska en van de kleurrijke plaatselijke bevolking. De Pyramide-haven, op 59° N.B., is de meest noordelijke plaats die wordt aangedaan. Daarna ondernemen we de terugtocht. (inleiding door kattekliek)...

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History, Travel

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...volunteers bring you 10 recordings of The Christmas Tree by Anonymous. This was the Weekly Poetry project for December 19, 2010 This poem taken from Christmas Entertainments by Alice Maude Kellogg, contianing fancy drills, acrostics, motion songs, tableaux, short plays, recitations in...

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Poetry, Children, Nature

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La vida de Lazarillo de Tormes y de sus fortunas y adversidades (más conocida como Lazarillo de Tormes) es una novela española anónima, escrita en primera persona y en estilo epistolar (como una sola y larga carta), cuya edición conocida más antigua data de 1554. En ella se cuenta de forma autobiográfica la vida de un niño, Lázaro de Tormes, en el siglo XVI, desde su nacimiento y mísera infancia hasta su matrimonio, ya en la edad adulta. Es considerada precursora de la novela picaresca por elementos como el realismo, la narración en primera persona, la estructura itinerante entre varios amos y la ideología moralizante y pesimista. (Resumen de Wikipedia)...

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Fiction, Epistolary fiction