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The Wit and Humor of America is a 10 volume series. In this, the seventh volume, 43 short stories and poems have been gathered from 35 authors. This volume is sure to delight listeners. (Summary by Linette Geisel)...

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Humor, Fiction, Poetry

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volunteers bring you 29 recordings of When You Are Old by William Butler Yeats. This was the Weekly Poetry project for January 3rd, 2010.

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Poetry

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Clara Barton, founder of the American Red Cross, recalls growing up in early 19th Century Massachusetts. (Introduction by Veronica Jenkins)

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Biography

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Excerpt: Autobiography of a Pocket-Handkerchief by James Fenimore Cooper.

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Excerpt: That homely proverb, used on so many occasions in England, viz. ?That what is bred in the bone will not go out of the flesh,? was never more verified than in the story of my Life. Any one would think that after thirty-five years? affliction, and a variety of unhappy circumstances, which few men, if any, ever went through before, and after near seven years of peace and enjoyment in the fullness of all things; grown old, and when, if ever, it might be allowed me to have had experience of every state of middle life, and to know which was most adapted to make a man completely happy; I say, after all this, any one would have thought that the native propensity to rambling which I gave an account of in my first setting out in the world to have been so predominant in my thoughts, should be worn out, and I might, at sixty one years of age, have been a little inclined to stay at home, and have done venturing life and fortune any more....

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In this anthology of true crime tales, editor Walter Wood interviews those who were touched by the crimes recounted, sometimes as an acquaintance of the deceased or criminal or in the course of their professional duties. This work provides a personal look at some of the most sensational crimes and scandals of late 19th and early 20th century Britain. (Summary by Nullifidian)...

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Excerpt: An Unprotected Female at the Pyramids by Anthony Trollope.

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Excerpt: Chapter 1. Part The First. Once upon a time, it matters little when, and in stalwart England, it matters little where, a fierce battle was fought. It was fought upon a long summer day when the waving grass was green. Many a wild flower formed by the Almighty Hand to be a perfumed goblet for the dew, felt its enameled cup filled high with blood that day, and shrinking dropped. Many an insect deriving its delicate color from harmless leaves and herbs, was stained anew that day by dying men, and marked its frightened way with an unnatural track. The painted butterfly took blood into the air upon the edges of its wings. The stream ran red....

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volunteers bring you 15 different recordings of A Dream within a Dream by Edgar Allan Poe. This was the weekly poetry project for the week of April 15th, 2007....

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Poetry

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After his father’s death Gerard Roylake returns from Germany to take up his inheritance at Trimley Deen. On one evening he meets his childhood friend, Cristel Toller. They fall in love, but there is a crux. A deaf man, called The Lodger is obsessed with Cristel. He invites Gerard to tea with evil intentions… and Gerard accepts the invitation. The book is written in the first person and tells the story from Gerard's point of view. (Summary by Diana Majlinger)...

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Literature, Fiction

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Excerpt: Why Mrs. General Talboys first made up her mind to pass the winter of 1859 at Rome I never clearly understood. To myself she explained her purposes, soon after her arrival at the Eternal City, by declaring, in her own enthusiastic manner, that she was inspired by a burning desire to drink fresh at the still living fountains of classical poetry and sentiment....

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Excerpt: While the translation is fairly literal, and Malleson (a clergyman) has taken pains with the scientific portions of the work and added the chapter headings, he has made some emendations concerning Biblical references of his own, listed below?...

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Meriwether Lewis and William Clark - In the years 1804, 1805, and 1806, two men commanded an expedition which explored the wilderness that stretched from the mouth of the Missouri River to where the Columbia enters the Pacific, and dedicated to civilization a new empire. Their names were Meriwether Lewis and William Clark. This book relates that adventure from it's inception through it's completion as well as the effect the expedition had upon the history of the United States. (Summary from the text and Roger Melin)...

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History, Biography

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Excerpt: Chapter 1. The countryside and the man on a lovely spring morning in the year 1829, a man of fifty or thereabouts was wending his way on horseback along the mountain road that leads to a large village near the Grande Chartreuse. This village is the market town of a populous canton that lies within the limits of a valley of some considerable length. The melting of the snows had filled the boulder- strewn bed of the torrent (often dry) that flows through this valley, which is closely shut in between two parallel mountain barriers, above which the peaks of Savoy and of Dauphine tower on every side....

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Religion

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Excerpt: Chapter 1. Miriam, Hilda, Kenyon, Donatello Four individuals, in whose fortunes we should be glad to interest the reader, happened to be standing in one of the saloons of the sculpture-gallery in the Capitol at Rome. It was that room (the first, after ascending the staircase) in the centre of which reclines the noble and most pathetic figure of the Dying Gladiator, just sinking into his death-swoon. Around the walls stand the Antinous, the Amazon, the Lycian Apollo, the Juno; all famous productions of antique sculpture, and still shining in the undiminished majesty and beauty of their ideal life, although the marble that embodies them is yellow with time, and perhaps corroded by the damp earth in which they lay buried for centuries. Here, likewise, is seen a symbol (as apt at this moment as it was two thousand years ago) of the Human Soul, with its choice of Innocence or Evil close at hand, in the pretty figure of a child, clasping a dove to her bosom, but assaulted by a snake....

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One of the first collections of poetry by Robert Frost, published in 1914. (Summary written by Gesine) Contents (with beginning time):

Part 1
• Mending Wall (00:01:20)
• The Death of the Hired Man (00:03:45)
• The Mountain (00:12:20)
• A Hundred Collars (00:18:14)

Part 2
• Home Burial (00:00:18)
• The Black Cottage (00:06:16)
• Blueberries (00:12:56)
• A Servant to Servants (00:18:44)

Part 3
• After Apple-picking (00:00:16)
• The Code (00:02:16)
• The Generations of Men (00:08:01)
• The Housekeeper (00:18:55)

Part 4
• The Fear (00:00:16)
• The Self-seeker (00:05:27)
• The Wood-pile (00:16:35)
• Good Hours (00:18:47)

...

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Poetry

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The Gospel of Matthew (Greek: Κατά Μαθθαίον or Κατά Ματθαίον, Kata Maththaion or Kata Matthaion; literally, according to Matthew) is a synoptic gospel in the New Testament, one of four canonical gospels. It narrates an account of the life and ministry of Jesus. It describes his genealogy, his miraculous birth and childhood, his baptism and temptation, his ministry of healing and preaching, and finally his crucifixion and resurrection. The resurrected Jesus commissions his Apostles to go and make disciples of all nations. (Summary from Wikipedia)...

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Religion

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A madcap Frenchman posing as an ambassador's barber blackmails a dishonest duke to introduce him as a nobleman to a wealthy belle of Bath. Since the duke himself hopes to mend his fortunes by wedding this very woman, he attempts to murder Beaucaire, and failing that to discredit him. To test the lady's mettle, Beaucaire allows his deception to be exposed--up to a point--and there we must draw the curtain to preserve the surprise ending. ( Summary by Thomas A. Copeland )...

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Adventure, Fiction, Literature, Romance

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Excerpt: The double sorwe of Troilus to tellen, That was the kyng Priamus sone of Troye, In louynge how his auentures fellen ffro wo to wele, and after out of ioie, My purpos is, er that I parte fro ye. Thesiphone, thow help me for tendite Thise woful vers that wepen as I write. To the clepe I, thow goddesse of torment, Thow cruwel furie, sorwynge evere in peyne, Help me that am the sorwful instrument That helpeth loveres, as I kan, to pleyne; ffor wel sit it, the sothe for to seyne, A woful wight to han a drery feere, And to a sorwful tale a sory chere....

Table of Contents Details
Table of Contents: Book I, 1 -- Book II, 29 -- Book III, 74 -- Book IV, 121 -- Book V, 165