Showing results by narrator "Andrea Giordani" in All Categories

An Enemy of the People is an 1882 play by the Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen, who wrote it in response to the public outcry against his previous play, Ghosts, which challenged the hypocrisy of 19th-century morality. An Enemy of the People tells the story of a man who dares to speak an unpalatable truth and is punished for it. Ibsen uses the language of comic exaggeration through the mouth of his spokesman, the idealist Doctor Thomas Stockmann, who rejects all absolute principles of either wisdom or morality.

The Phaedrus by Plato, is a dialogue between Plato's protagonist, Socrates, and Phaedrus, an interlocutor in several dialogues. It was probably written around 370 BC, at about the same time as Plato's Republic and Symposium. Ostensibly about love, the discussion in the dialogue focuses on the art of rhetoric and how it ought to be practiced. The dialogue appears in the direct words of Socrates and Phaedrus, without an introduction.

Sappho ( c. 630-c. 570 BC) was an Archaic Greek poet from the island of Lesbos. In ancient times, Sappho was widely considered one of the greatest lyric poets and was given titles such as the "Tenth Muse" and "The Poetess". Her estimated date of birth places her sometime after the composition of the works of the Homeric poets, which are preserved in the epics known as the Iliad and the Odyssey. It is claimed that her work filled nine papyrus rolls in the famous library of Alexandria some 500 years after her death.

Before his assassination, Julius Caesar named his great nephew Gaius Octavius as his successor. In this excerpt from The Twelve Caesars, Roman biographer Suetonius tells the life story of Octavius, who took the name Augustus when he became emperor. While Augustus did have a military career, Suetonius focuses on the dramatic details of Augustus’ personal life, making this biography more gossip-filled than its contemporaries.

The Kalevala is a 19th-century work of epic poetry compiled by Elias Lönnrot from Karelian and Finnish oral folklore and mythology. The Kalevala was instrumental in the development of the Finnish national identity and the sense of nationality that led to Finland's independence from Russia in 1917. Beginning with the traditional Finnish creation myth, the Kalevala branches out into stories of the creation of the earth, plants, creatures, and the sky. There are many stories of, romance, kidnapping, seduction, and magical spell casting and singing.

Nathan the Wise, a play published by Gotthold Ephraim Lessing in 1779, is a fervent plea for religious tolerance. It was first performed in 1783 at the Döbbelinsches Theatre in Berlin. The narrative is set in Jerusalem during the Third Crusade and describes how the wise Jewish merchant Nathan, the enlightened sultan Saladin, and a Templar Knight bridge the differences between Judaism, Islam, and Christianity. Its major themes are friendship, tolerance, the relativism of God, a rejection of miracles and a need for communication.

Willa Cather achieved recognition for her novels depicting American life on the prairie frontier.

The Blue Fairy Book by Andrew Lang is the first in a series of fairy tale compilation books. These fairy tales cover a variety of cultures and stories, including several from the Brothers Grimm and Arabian Nights stories. This is a great collection for any listener looking for nearly 40 different stories in one book. Lang includes classic tales such as "Cinderella" and more uncommon adventures, including "The Story of Prince Ahmed and the Fairy Paribanou".

Emile Zola applies his keen eye to the human condition in this masterpiece plagued by passions, guilt, and the ghosts that haunt our psyche. Often perceived as a play of temperaments, Zola tells the story of Therese’s unhappy marriage to Camille and her subsequent affair with one of her husband’s friends, Laurent. With his dark symbolism often reaching claustrophobic depths, we become more acquainted with what drives our most animalistic instincts.

A Doll's House deals with the life of a married woman who lacked opportunities for self-fulfillment in a male-dominated society. It caused a stir at the time, arousing sensation and controversy that went far beyond the world of theater.

Donald Alexander Mackenzie (1873-1936) was a Scottish writer. Teutonic Myth and Legend (1912) is his retelling of the legends and myths of the Goths, Norsemen, Vandals, Burgundians, Franks, Angles, Saxons, and other Germanic tribes. Poems and prose passages from classic literature that are related to these myths are included.

Learn proven steps and strategies on how you can lose weight and become healthier without having to go on a real diet. This audiobook contains everything you need to get started on the metabolism "diet". You will learn how you can eat delicious meals and about the advantages of packing them with veggies, fruits, nuts, legumes, and more. Learn helpful tips on how you can succeed in adopting this lifestyle with sample meal plans and a metabolism action plan to help you get started right away.

The Campaigns of Alexander, also titled The Anabasis of Alexander, is a history of Alexander the Great of Macedon, focusing on his conquest of the Persian Empire. Composed by Arrian of Nicomedia in the second century AD, the work comprises seven books providing a broadly chronological account of the reign and campaigns of Alexander with a particular focus on military matters. Book One begins with Alexander's accession to the Macedonian throne in 336 BCE, and Book Seven recounts the events of Alexander's final year and his death.

The ancient Greek poet Hesiod lived around the same time as Homer. He is considered to be an economist and also wrote works on mythology, ancient time-keeping, and farming techniques. The Hesiod Collection includes The Shield of Heracles, Theogony (the origins and genealogies of the Greek gods), and Works and Days (a farmer’s almanac in which Hesiod instructs his brother Perses in the art of agriculture).

Oscar Wilde's Salome was originally published in French in 1891 and translated into English by Lord Alfred Douglas. This one-act play, a sinister tale of a woman scorned and her vengeance, has become a landmark of Decadent literature. The play tells the biblical story of Salome, stepdaughter of the tetrarch Herod Antipas, who, to her stepfather's dismay but to the delight of her mother Herodias, requests the head of John the Baptist on a silver platter as a reward for dancing the dance of the seven veils.

As the third book in the series, Anne of the Island by Lucy Maud Montgomery continues to follow the adventures of Anne Shirley. After leaving her teaching career behind in Green Gables, Anne attends Redmond College in Nova Scotia with some of her friends. Anne and her friends spend the first year of school at a boarding house, but they then decide to live together in a quaint little cottage known as Patty's Place. Here Anne pursues her dream of higher education but is interrupted by Gilbert Blythe and his attempts at seeking her hand in marriage.

The historian, scholar, and anthropologist, Andrew Lang, began publishing collections of fairy tales from around the globe in the late 19th century. His status as one of England's foremost folklorists and his superb literary abilities make his collections unique in the English language. The Grey Fairy Book contains more than 30 stories from Africa, Germany, Greece, France and Lithuania. The overlap in the theme, plot and characters of narratives from across the world is remarkable.

A Hero of Our Time by Mikhail Lermontov was published in 1840. Set in the Russian Caucasus in the 1830s, the novel relates a series of adventures by the military officer Pechorin during his travels in the Caucasus. He kidnaps the daughter of a Circassian tribesman, becomes entangled with a group of smugglers, and tries to win the affection of a Muscovite princess while having on an affair with his former lover Vera.

In this classic devotional book, St. Francis de Sales shows the average believer how to become closer to God. St. Francis avoids the extremes that might lead to imbalance; his purpose is to arouse in the listener a complete love of, and trust in God. This life of devotion is open to everyone. The book is easy to understand, explaining in simple terms how to expand one’s spiritual life, with examples from scripture and from a variety of other sources. It covers topics such as creation, cleansing the soul, confession, sin, death, judgment and paradise.

As a foremost historian of his time, Samuel Rawson Gardiner’s evaluation of Oliver Cromwell has generally been perceived as a work of great significance. Gardiner applies his highly credited critical eye to one of England’s great military and political leaders. Cromwell rose to power during a time of turbulence and civil distress during which he was admired for certain attributes, yet distrusted for others, including his loyalties to Puritanism.