Another full-length mystery story featuring Hamilton Cleek, whom we met first in /cleek-the-man-of-the-forty-faces-by-thomas-w-hanshew/ Cleek: The Man of the Forty Faces . This time, Cleek investigates the sinister disappearance of people and the mysterious appearance of flames at night in the desolate Fens, and his friend Superintendent Narkom of Scotland Yard tries to solve some tricky cases of bank robberies in London. While not quite up to the standard we have come to expect from previous Cleek adventures, it is still quite a jolly romp, and Cleek's cockney sidekick Dollops is always good fun. (Introduction by Ruth Golding)...

Mystery, Fiction

Elder James E. Talmage, an apostle of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, makes a survey of the Latter-day Saint view of the Great Apostasy. The book's subtitle states that it is a study considered in the in the light of scriptural and secular history, and includes a discussion of the establishment of Christ's church in the meridian of time, the predictions and causes of its apostasy, or falling away, and the restoration of Christ's church in the Latter-days by a modern prophet. (Summary by Matthias Whitney)...

Religion

Humorous, ironic, and sometimes cynical observations of life in 1915 from Canadian humourist Stephen Leacock. (Summary by TriciaG)

Fiction, Humor, Satire

Burmese Commisioner Nayland Smith and his faithful friend Dr Petrie continue their fight against the evil genius of Dr Fu-Manchu when they seek to save the good doctor's lost love and protect the British Empire from disaster when their malignant enemy returns to England. (Summary by Elaine Tweddle)...

Fiction, Adventure, Mystery

First released in 1893, Coffee And Repartee is a collection of breakfast chats at a gentlemans boarding house run by a Mrs. Smithers. Here these fellows repeatedly face questions and proclaimations of an inhabitant they call The Idiot. The discussions sound friendly under pretense, but are really sly battles of ribald wit and cunning charm, as well as rather offensive remarks during a time period considered by many to favour a height of refined etiquette. The Idiot spars well, but will the other residents get the better of him? (Summary by Morlock)...

Fiction, Humor

The Book of Revelation, also called Revelation to John or Apocalypse of John, (literally, apocalypse of John; Greek, Αποκαλυψις Ιωαννου, Apokalupsis Iōannou) (IPA: [əˈpɑkəlɪps]) is the last canonical book of the New Testament in the Bible. It is the only biblical book that is wholly composed of apocalyptic literature. The visions given in this book were future events for the understanding of the early church, primarily. (Summary from Wikipedia and Sam Stinson)...

Religion

How to describe this book? In a word – savage. For those regular Le Queux mystery listeners, this book is a step in a different direction by the author. The book starts out like most Le Queux. Our hero, Richard Scarsmere, befriends an individual (Omar) at an English boarding school who turns out to be an African prince from a kingdom called Mo. Omar receives a visit from one of his mother’s trusted advisers. His mother, the Great White Queen, seeks him to return home immediately. Omar convinces Scarsmere to return to Africa with him since there is little opportunity awaiting him in London. What follows is a tale of deceit, treachery, barbarity, and mystery. (Summary by Tom Weiss)...

Adventure, Fiction, Mystery

I’ll write the summary later. Warning: This book contains some anti-Semitic dialog that many/all will find offensive. (Summary by Adrian Praetzellis)

Adventure, Spy stories, Mystery

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

The Shrieking Pit is one of Arthur Rees's earlier works, and is a good old fashioned murder mystery story. Grant Colwyn, a private detective, is holidaying in East Anglia when he notices a young man at a nearby table behaving peculiarly. The young man later leaves the hotel without paying his bill, and turns up in a nearby hamlet in the Norfolk marshes where he takes lodgings at the village inn. The next day, another guest at the inn is found dead, and the young man is missing. Can Colwyn sort out the mystery and prove the young man's innocence one way or the the other? (Summary by Kevin Green)...

Fiction, Mystery

Stewart Edward White wrote fiction and non-fiction about adventure and travel, with an emphasis on natural history and outdoor living. White's books were popular at a time when America was losing its vanishing wilderness and many are based on his experiences in mining and lumber camps. The Blazed Trail is the story of early lumbermen in the northern woods of Michigan. The novel portrays the challenges faced by the workers focusing on one, Harry Thorpe, as he endeavors to be successful though completely unskilled when he enters the woods. The author mixes the splendor of nature with suspense, danger, and romance and provides glimpses into corrupt practices in the lumber industry at the time. (Summary by Tom Weiss)...

Adventure, Historical Fiction, Nature, Romance

Pamphilia to Amphilanthus is the first sonnet sequence written by an Englishwoman. Published in 1621, the poems invert the usual format of sonnet sequences by making the speaker a woman (Pamphilia, whose name means all-loving) and the beloved a man (Amphilanthus, whose name means lover of two.). It is possible that Wroth based the story on her own fraught relationship with her cousin, William Herbert. (Summary by Elizabeth Klett.)...

Literature

Richard Horatio Edgar Wallace (April 1, 1875–February 10, 1932) was a prolific British crime writer, journalist and playwright, who wrote 175 novels, 24 plays, and countless articles in newspapers and journals. Over 160 films have been made of his novels, more than any other author. In the 1920s, one of Wallace's publishers claimed that a quarter of all books read in England were written by him.[citation needed] He is most famous today as the co-creator of King Kong, writing the early screenplay and story for the movie, as well as a short story King Kong (1933) credited to him and Draycott Dell. He was known for the J. G. Reeder detective stories, The Four Just Men, the Ringer, and for creating the Green Archer character during his lifetime. (Summary from Wikipedia)...

Fiction, Mystery

The Lifted Veil is a novella by George Eliot, first published in 1859. Quite unlike the realistic fiction for which Eliot is best known, The Lifted Veil explores themes of extrasensory perception, the essence of physical life, possible life after death, and the power of fate. The novella is a significant part of the Victorian tradition of horror fiction. (Summary from Wikipedia)...

Literature

...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

Wilde’s literary reputation has survived so much that I think it proof against any exhumation of articles which he or his admirers would have preferred to forget. As a matter of fact, I believe this volume will prove of unusual interest; some of the reviews are curiously prophetic; some are, of course, biassed by prejudice hostile or friendly; others are conceived in the author’s wittiest and happiest vein; only a few are colourless. And if, according to Lord Beaconsfield, the verdict of a continental nation may be regarded as that of posterity, Wilde is a much greater force in our literature than even friendly contemporaries ever supposed he would become. It should be remembered, however, that at the time when most of these reviews were written Wilde had published scarcely any of the works by which his name has become famous in Europe, though the protagonist of the æsthetic movement was a well-known figure in Paris and London. (Summary from Introduction by Robert Ross)...

Essay/Short nonfiction

This is the Arthurian legend of Tristan and Iseult. It is a tale of love, honour, intrigue, betrayal and jealousy, ending ultimately in tragedy. This story predates that of Lancelot and Guinevere, and is one of the most influential romances of the medieval period, inspiring many artists, from story-tellers to painters to composers. (Summary by Joy Chan)...

Romance

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