Description Details
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)...

Excerpt Details
Ancient Texts, Myths/Legends

Excerpt Details
Short stories, Poetry

Description Details
Trilby, published in 1894, fits into the gothic horror genre which was undergoing a revival during the Fin de siècle and is one of the most popular novels of its time, perhaps the second best selling novel of the Fin de siècle period after Bram Stoker's Dracula. The story of the poor artist's model Trilby O'Ferrall, transformed into a diva under the spell of the evil musical genius Svengali, created a sensation. Soap, songs, dances, toothpaste, and Trilby, Florida were all named for the heroine, and a variety of soft felt hat with an indented crown (worn in the London stage production of a dramatization of the novel) came to be called a trilby.

Excerpt Details
Fiction, Horror/Ghost stories

Description Details
/ volunteers bring you eight different recordings of The Singing-Woman from the Wood's Edge , by Edna St. Vincent Millay, to celebrate http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halloween Halloween . This was the weekly poetry project for the week of October 29th, 2006....

Excerpt Details
Poetry

Description Details
Young’s Literal Translation is a translation of the Bible into English, published in 1862. The translation was made by Robert Young, compiler of Young’s Analytical Concordance to the Bible and Concise Critical Comments on the New Testament. Young produced a “Revised Edition” of the translation in 1887. After he died on October 14, 1888, the publisher in 1898 released a new Revised Edition. (Summary from Wikipedia)...

Excerpt Details
Religion, Ancient Texts

Description Details
volunteers bring you 7 recordings of Song by James Russell Lowell. This was the Weekly Poetry project for May 1, 2011. James Russell Lowell was an American Romantic poet, critic, editor, and diplomat. He is associated with the Fireside Poets, a group of New England writers who were among the first American poets who rivaled the popularity of British poets. These poets usually used conventional forms and meters in their poetry, making them suitable for families entertaining at their fireside. (summary from Wikipedia)...

Excerpt Details
Romance, Poetry, Nature, Literature

Description Details
The plot of Cecilia revolves around the heroine, Cecilia Beverley, whose inheritance from her uncle comes with the stipulation that she find a husband who will accept her name. This proves impossible, and she gives up her fortune to marry for love. Jane Austen referred to Cecilia and other novels in her novel, Northanger Abbey: “'And what are you reading, Miss — ?' 'Oh! It is only a novel!' replies the young lady, while she lays down her book with affected indifference, or momentary shame. 'It is only Cecilia, or Camilla, or Belinda'; or, in short, only some work in which the greatest powers of the mind are displayed, in which the most thorough knowledge of human nature, the happiest delineation of its varieties, the liveliest effusions of wit and humour, are conveyed to the world in the best–chosen language. The title of Austen's Pride and Prejudice may have been inspired by a passage at the end of Cecilia: “remember: if to pride and prejudice you owe your miseries, so wonderfully is good and evil balanced, that to pride and prejudice you will also owe their termination.” (Summary adapted from Wikipedia by Karen Merline)...

Excerpt Details
Historical Fiction, Romance

Description Details
volunteers bring you 26 recordings of Song by Anna Seward. This was the Weekly Poetry project for April 1, 2012. Anna Seward was an English Romantic poet, often called the Swan of Lichfield. Her verses include elegies and sonnets, and she also wrote a poetical novel, Louisa, of which five editions were published. In an era when women had to tread carefully in society's orbit, Seward struck a middle ground. (from Wikipedia)...

Excerpt Details
Poetry

Description Details
The story takes place in the fictional city of Western City circa 1920. It begins with a man named Billy who is attacked by a mob of ex-servicemen outside a theater after watching a German film. Billy stumbles into a church to escape the mob and is visited by Carpenter, that is Jesus, who walks out of the stained glass window of the church. Carpenter is shocked and appalled by his observations of greed, selfishness, lust, sorrow, and the ultimate division between rich and poor. The story then roughly follows the ministry of Jesus. (Summary from Wikipedia and modified by the Reader)...

Excerpt Details
Fiction, Religion

Description Details
Albatros ont été décrits comme le plus légendaire de tous les oiseaux. Un albatros est un emblème central à La Rime du vieux marin de Samuel Taylor Coleridge, un albatros en captivité est également une métaphore de la poète maudit dans un poème de Charles Baudelaire. C'est à partir du poème de Coleridge que l'utilisation d'albatros comme une métaphore est tirée, quelqu'un avec un fardeau ou un obstacle, dit-on un albatros autour du cou, la peine infligée dans le poème pour le navigateur qui a tué l'albatros. En partie à cause du poème, il ya un mythe largement répandu que (tous) les marins crois qu'il désastreuses de tirer ou de nuire à un albatros, en vérité, les marins régulièrement tués pour les manger, par exemple, tel que rapporté par James Cook en 1772. D'autre part, il a été rapporté que les marins capturés les oiseaux, mais soi-disant laisser à nouveau libre, la raison possible est que les albatros ont été souvent considérés comme les âmes des marins perdus, de sorte que les tuer aurait été considéré comme portant malheur. (wikipedia et google translate :D )...

Excerpt Details
Poetry

Description Details
George MacDonald, a Scottish pastor, wrote these short poems, one for each day of the year, to help him with the severer misfortune he was experiencing. The poems are filled with hope and promises of Christ, yet, he also writes about his doubts. These poems are wonderful to listen to for people of any religion. (Summary by Alisson Veldhuis)...

Excerpt Details
Poetry, Religion

Description Details
Martin Luther strove to give a verse by verse exegesis of the Epistle to the Galatians in the work. The original work, written in Latin in around 1516, was much longer. This translation by Theodore Graebner strove to produce a copy of the work in a format and with wording much more applicable to the general English-speaking American public. (Summary by Timothy Perkins)...

Excerpt Details
Religion

Description Details
This collection includes 40 different Christmas carols collected and read by Douglas D. Anderson, the creator of http://www.hymnsandcarolsofchristmas.com/ The Hymns and Carols of Christmas website, a public-domain collection of Christmas music containing over 2,600 hymns, carols and songs....

Excerpt Details
Religion, Poetry

Description Details
A collection in celebration of 2012 Year of Reading Australia. Readers chose fiction, non fiction and poetry - we only asked that the readings should have some sort of Australian hook. So they can be by an Australian author, or about Australia, or just have a prominent bit of Australianess in the plot. Failing that: even being performed by Australians will do! And that the works should be PD in Australia and the U.S.A. Introduction by Annise...

Excerpt Details
History, Poetry, Travel

Description Details
Young's Literal Translation is a translation of the Bible into English, published in 1862. The translation was made by Robert Young, compiler of Young's Analytical Concordance to the Bible and Concise Critical Comments on the New Testament . Young produced a Revised Version of the translation in 1887. After he died on October 14, 1888, the publisher in 1898 released a new Revised Edition. (Summary from Wikipedia)...

Excerpt Details
Religion

Description Details
Edgar Wallace, perhaps best known for creating King Kong, wrote dozens of novels. The Green Rust, his twelfth crime novel, is one of three books he published in 1919. It begins at the English home of the severely ill American millionaire, John Millinborn. With him are his best friend, Kitson, and a local doctor, the Dutch (or is he?) van Heerden. He is murdered in the first chapter, having just left his fortune to his niece, Oliva, whom he has never met. Before he dies, he asks Kitson to find and watch over Oliva. (Introduction by Kirsten Wever)...

Excerpt Details
Mystery, Fiction

Description Details
Young’s Literal Translation is a translation of the Bible into English, published in 1862. The translation was made by Robert Young, compiler of Young’s Analytical Concordance to the Bible and Concise Critical Comments on the New Testament. Young produced a “Revised Edition” of the translation in 1887. After he died on October 14, 1888, the publisher in 1898 released a new Revised Edition. (Summary from Wikipedia)...

Excerpt Details
Religion

Description Details
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is a late 14th-century Middle English alliterative romance outlining an adventure of Sir Gawain, a knight of King Arthur's Round Table. In the tale, Sir Gawain accepts a challenge from a mysterious warrior who is completely green, from his clothes and hair to his beard and skin. The Green Knight offers to allow anyone to strike him with his axe if the challenger will take a return blow in a year and a day. Gawain accepts, and beheads him in one blow, only to have the Green Knight stand up, pick up his head, and remind Gawain to meet him at the appointed time. The story of Gawain's struggle to meet the appointment and his adventures along the way demonstrate the spirit of chivalry and loyalty. (Wikipedia) This 20th Century rendering is by WA Neilson....

Excerpt Details
Fiction, Literature

Description Details
Poèmes saturniens est le titre du premier recueil de poèmes de Paul Verlaine. Si Verlaine convoque Saturne, c'est en tant que planète tutélaire des mélancoliques, bien que le mot même de mélancolie n'apparaisse pas dans le poème (il donne toutefois son titre à la première section du recueil). Wikipedia...

Excerpt Details
Literature, Poetry

Description Details
The Man Who Laughs is a novel by Victor Hugo, originally published in April 1869 under the French title L'Homme qui rit. Also published under the title By Order of the King....

Excerpt Details
Fiction