Showing results by author "Beauty_23" in All Categories

This exciting historical adventure depicts the last stand of the Gordons - God's "outlaws" - fighting for their Catholic Faith in the early days of the Protestant Revolution in seventeenth-century Scotland.Written for the children but enjoyed by young and old alike, this intriguing novel is filled with courageous heroes, cowardly villains, secrets and even secret passages! (Summary by Maria Therese)Reader's Note: A new (and hopefully improved) recording of this book was uploaded in June, 2013.

The philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche's autobiography, Ecce Homo, was the last prose work that he wrote before his illness in 1889. Coming at the end of an extraordinarily productive year in which he had produced The Twilight of the Idols and The Antichrist, Nietzsche shuns any pretense at modesty with chapter titles include “Why I am so Wise”, “Why I am so Clever” and “Why I Write Such Excellent Books”. His translator Anthony M. Ludovici states, Ecce Homo “is not only a coping-stone worthy of the wonderful creations of that year, but also a fitting conclusion to his whole life, in...

Medea is an ancient Greek tragedy written by Euripides, based upon the myth of Jason and Medea and first produced in 431 BCE. The plot centers on the actions of Medea, a barbarian and the wife of Jason; she finds her position in the Greek world threatened as Jason leaves her for a Greek princess of Corinth. Medea takes vengeance on Jason by killing Jason's new wife as well as her own children with him, after which she escapes to Athens to start a new life. Considered shocking to the playwright's contemporaries, Medea and the suite of plays that it accompanied in the City Dionysia festival came...

Barks and Purrs is a collection of seven episodes in the lives of Toby-Dog, a French Bulldog, and Kiki-the-Demure, a Maltese cat, living in a comfortable household. The episodes cover a hot afternoon, a train ride, and what happened when dinner was late or their mistress was ill. We hear about the first fire in autumn, a heavy storm, and about a visitor in the household.Sidonie-Gabrielle Colette-Willy was throughout her life a controversial French novelist. She published around 50 novels; the best known is "Gigi". (Summary by Availle)Dramatis personae:Kiki-the-Demure, a Maltese cat - Bob ...

Johnny Liddell, the fast-moving New York private eye, is hired to investigate a murder which everyone but the client calls a suicide. The client, a beautiful heiress, unfortunately fails to appear at a rendezvous to explain matters; instead a very active tommy-gun enlivens the proceedings. Score: one gunman killed, Liddell unscathed. The gangsters turn out to be members of a syndicate run from Sing Sing, but their connection with the girl is not clear. And she, by this time, has vanished completely, leaving the detective with nothing but a $500 retainer. With his usual keenness Johnny moves ...

Boston Blackie is the novelization of a group of pulp short stories by Jack Boyle (1881-1928). Blackie, an ex-con with a college education, is a jewel thief based in San Francisco, who outwits the cops with the help of his wife Mary. The character was altered for a later series of popular films and radio shows to become a “reformed” jewel thief turned private eye. (Summary by Winston Tharp)

The Mahabharata is one of the two major Sanskrit epics of ancient India. Traditionally, the authorship of the Mahabharata is attributed to Vyasa. With more than 74,000 verses, Mahabharata is said to be the longest poem. Mahabharata tells the story of the epic Kurukshetra War and the fates of the cousin brothers Kauravas and the Pandavas. But more than that the Mahabharata contains much philosophical and devotional material, such as a discussion of the four "goals of life" or 'purusharthas'. The latter are enumerated as dharma (right action), artha (purpose), kama (pleasure), and moksha (...

In 1911, decades before California's coast Highway 1 was built, an Englishman rode 2000 miles on horseback the length of California, from Mexico to Oregon. On the way he is courteously received at isolated ranches, has many quiet adventures, and is generally amazed by the beauty of our coast. A classic early California travelog. Chase was born in Islington (London) and but lived most of this life in the California desert.Here are Chase's major landmarks, first going south and then turning north:Chap. 1 El Monte to Laguna Beach. Chap. 2 Aliso Canyon to San Juan Capistrano. Chap. 3 San Juan hot ...

What is it about that old house down the road that bothers Pierre and his wife Annette so much? The owners, Eric and Julia, seem like nice people, but there's an aura of evil permeating the place. Why does Eric exude a supernatural malevolence about him wherever he goes? Eric and Julia look as much in love as anyone Pierre has ever seen, yet Julia's body is covered with mysterious injuries. Can Eric really be the cause or is something far more terrifying at work? (Summary by Ben Tucker)

James Allen instructs us on how to improve our life and spiritual well-being through the power of positive thinking. He teaches us to live in the present and appreciate the moment. Allen asserts that the power of each person to form his own character and create his own happiness is within. "Life is full of beginnings. They are presented every day and every hour to every person. Most beginnings are small, and appear trivial and insignificant, but in reality they are the most important things in life." --James Allen - Summary by Andrea Fiore

As I went on, it did not take me long to discover that it was quite possible for my purpose—following, indeed, the path unconsciously taken in my boyhood—to divide Rabelais sharply into incident and philosophy. That this had not been thought of before surprised, but did not daunt me. I said to myself: I shall limit the incident strictly to his three Giants; I shall hold these, from grandfather to grandson, well together; keep all that is sound in them; cut away the impurity which is not so much of as around them; chisel them out as a sculptor might, and leave his philosophy with face to ...

Personality Plus is an early novel by American author Edna Ferber. Originally published in 1914, Personality Plus is the second of three volumes chronicling the travels and events in the life of Emma McChesney. Ferber achieved her first successes with a series of stories centering around this character, a stylish and intelligent divorced mother who rises rapidly in business. ( Summary by Wikipedia )

A story for boys who want to know of the thrills and joys of Aviation. It is written by a war flyer who was a pilot with a squadron at the front and who there learned to know how he and other young men reacted to those dangerous moments when lightning-quick decisions were necessary. - Summary by EDITOR

William Weekley was graduate of Asbury Seminary, Wilmore, Kentucky, and a bishop in the Church of the United Brethren in Christ. From the author’s preface, “It was not my purpose, in the preparation of this little volume, to make it an autobiography, but rather a narration of incidents connected with the twenty years of humble service which I tried to render the United Brethren Church among the mountains of West Virginia. These incidents present an all-round view, in outline, of the real life and labors of the itinerant preacher, a third of a century ago, in an isolated section, where the ...

This is a collection of public domain science fiction stories which were turned into half-hour plays for the classic mid-1950's American radio series, X Minus One. All of these stories were added to Project Gutenberg via Greg Weeks and crew at Distributed Proofreaders.(Summary by BellonaTimes)

H. G. Wells is best known for his science fiction, but some of his greatest works were in other genres. The Passionate Friends is a love story. It also is a story about dreams, despair, jealousy, sex, the struggle against social convention, the future of civilization, and much much more. It is written by a father to his son, "not indeed to the child you are now, but to the man you are going to be." He writes it so that one day, perhaps when he is dead, his grown son can read it and rediscover him as a friend and equal. In the process, he tries to make sense of a lifetime's experiences and ...

Jean de La Bruyère famously characterized Versailles as "that region where joys were visible but false, and vexations hidden but real." In this witty and scholarly book, Baron Arthur-Léon Imbert de Saint-Amand explores the solar system of the Sun King with its planets, the women of the court, now orbiting in warm proximity to the monarch, now hurtling away under his glacial disfavor. Here are his neglected queen, Maria Theresa, his imperious mistress, Madame de Montespan, his illegitimate daughters, and his final consort, the pious and influential, Madame de Maintenon.(Summary by Pamela ...

Before he wrote the Oz books, L. Frank Baum wrote this book which was the best selling book of 1897. Taking 22 beloved nursery rhymes, he explains their meaning and fascinating history. What is the true story of Little Boy Blue? Why was Mary contrary?As he says in the introduction, "Many of these nursery rhymes are complete tales in themselves, telling their story tersely but completely; there are others which are but bare suggestions, leaving the imagination to weave in the details of the story. Perhaps therein may lie part of their charm, but however that may be I have thought the children ...

As the butterfly is drawn by instinct over thousands of miles to its mate, so the man Hudson is drawn to a deadly island of terrors to the woman of his dreams. Hudson is found adrift on a sampan, seemingly drawn forth by a cloud in the riggings that suddenly lifts and soars off against the wind. We hear bits and pieces of Hudson's tale in fits and starts, his earlier life in a doomed long-distance romance, his eventual adventure on the China Seas. Written by Melville Davisson Post, noted author of primarily detective fiction including the long-running Uncle Abner series, The Revolt of the ...

Understood Betsy is a 1916 novel for children by Dorothy Canfield Fisher. The story tells of Elizabeth Ann, a 9-year-old orphan who goes from a sheltered existence with her father's aunt Harriet and cousin Frances in the city, to living on a Vermont farm with her mother's family, the Putneys, whose child-rearing practices had always seemed suspect to Harriet and her daughter. In her new rural life, Elizabeth Ann comes to be nicknamed "Betsy," and to find that many activities that Frances had always thought too demanding for a little girl are considered, by the Putney family, ordinary ...