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What Christmas Is As We Grow Older
English novelist whose characters are among the most memorable in English literature. Each of his major novels appeared in several forms usually starting with an initial publication in periodical form, then collected into a first edition book, followed by a Cheap edition, a Library edition, and a final Charles Dickens edition.
Charles Dickens (Author), John Van Stan (Narrator)
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DOSTOIEVSKY, FEODOR MIKHAILOVICH (1821–1881), Russian author, born at Moscow, on the 30th of October 1821, was the second son of a retired military surgeon of a decayed noble family. He was educated at Moscow and at the military engineering academy at St Petersburg, which he left in 1843 with the grade of sub-lieutenant. Next year his father died, and he resigned his commission in order to devote himself to literature—thus commencing a long struggle with ill-health and penury. In addition to the old Russian masters Gogol and Pushkin, Balzac and George Sand supplied him with literary ideals. He knew little of Dickens, but his first story is thoroughly Dickensian in character. The hero is a Russian “Tom Pinch,” who entertains a pathetic, humble adoration for a fair young girl, a solitary waif like himself. Characteristically the Russian story ends in “tender gloom.” The girl marries a middle-aged man of property; the hero dies of a broken heart, and his funeral is described in lamentable detail. The germ of all Dostoievsky’s imaginative work may be discovered here. The story was submitted in manuscript to the Russian critic, Bielinski, and excited his astonishment by its power over the emotions. It appeared in the course of 1846 in the Recueil de Saint-Pétersbourg, under the title of “Poor People.” An English version, Poor Folk, with an introduction by Mr George Moore, appeared in 1894. The successful author became a regular contributor of short tales to the Annals of the Country, a monthly periodical conducted by Kraevsky; but he was wretchedly paid, and his work, though revealing extraordinary power and intensity, commonly lacks both finish and proportion. Poverty and physical suffering robbed him of the joy of life and filled him with bitter thoughts and morbid imaginings. During 1847 he became an enthusiastic member of the revolutionary reunions of the political agitator, Petrachevski.
Fyodor Dostoyevsky (Author), John Van Stan (Narrator)
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Part local legend of a dark and dangerous Wolf-Leader, part childhood memories of his home near Villers-Cotterets, in Aisne, Dumas here penned a chilling supernatural encounter between man and the devil. Our hero, Thibault the shoemaker, is beaten on the orders of the Lord of Vez for hunting in the lord's forest. With Thibault's resentment at his treatment by the world at its height, the devil sees his chance and, in the guise of a wolf, proposes a deal which Thibault accepts; the ever available trade of one's soul for evil power. With a pack of demon possessed wolves at his command, Thibault begins to explore his new power tentatively, hesitant to do evil, but unable to help himself, the momentum of the tale grown in surprising and horrifying ways until the unexpected climax.
Alexandre Dumas (Author), John Van Stan (Narrator)
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A compelling argument for the necessity for art in life, Nietzsche's first book is fuelled by his enthusiasms for Greek tragedy, for the philosophy of Schopenhauer and for the music of Wagner, to whom this work was dedicated. Nietzsche outlined a distinction between its two central forces: the Apolline, representing beauty and order, and the Dionysiac, a primal or ecstatic reaction to the sublime. He believed the combination of these states produced the highest forms of music and tragic drama, which not only reveal the truth about suffering in life, but also provide a consolation for it. Impassioned and exhilarating in its conviction, The Birth of Tragedy has become a key text in European culture and in literary criticism.
Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche (Author), John Van Stan (Narrator)
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Early Greek Philosophy & Other Essays
'The essays contained in this volume treat of various subjects. With the exception of perhaps one we must consider all these papers as fragments. Written during the early Seventies, and intended mostly as prefaces, they are extremely interesting, since traces of Nietzsche's later tenets—like Slave and Master morality, the Superman—can be found everywhere. But they are also very valuable on account of the young philosopher's daring and able handling of difficult and abstruse subjects. 'Truth and Falsity,' and 'The Greek Woman' are probably the two essays which will prove most attractive to the average reader.'
Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche (Author), John Van Stan (Narrator)
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This is a werewolf tale, by the famous author of The Man in the Iron Mask, The Count of Monte Cristo or The Three Musketeers. "It is an exciting story of a diabolical pact; more than that it is an acute and merciless study of the corruption of a man's character by envy, and a colorful and ironic account of high and low life in rural eighteenth-century France. Like all Dumas stories it is lively, fast-moving, romantic without being sentimental, and always readable." ~ from the Introduction by L. Sprague de Camp "Dumas's most successful supernatural work by far... an entertaining historical romance based on traditional legends of the werewolf."
Alexandre Dumas (Author), John Van Stan (Narrator)
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