Showing results by narrator "Walter Zimmerman" in All Categories

A literary giant of the eighteenth century, Samuel Johnson made lasting contributions to English literature as an essayist, moralist, poet, biographer, literary critic and editor. His philosophical novella Rasselas became so popular that it was translated into five languages. A new English edition was published every year and even today there are multiple print editions available.

Dostoevsky is primarily known for his monumental works like Crime and Punishment and The Brothers Karamazov. However, he also wrote many excellent shorter works that embody the same exploration of human psychology on a smaller scale. The Dream of a Ridiculous Man is one of his best short pieces. No less a writer than Virginia Woolf says of Dostoevsky, "Out of Shakespeare there is no more exciting reading."

A blood-red flower is his calling card, daring rescues are his mission. The Scarlet Pimpernel is a daring English aristocrat who rescues French nobles from death at the hands of Madame Guillotine, patron saint of the French Revolution's Reign of Terror. This popular romantic adventure is filled with skin-of-the-teeth escapes and spine-tingling intrigue. It is presented here in unabridged form so you won't miss a moment of swashbuckling suspense.

Raskolnikov, a student in St. Petersburg, murders an old woman, a money-lender, to prove his theory that violence purifies the strong. But no sooner is the deed done than Raskolnikov begins to feel remorse. What follows is one of the greatest psychological studies in world literature.

The second books of stories continues the adventures of Mowlgi, the Jungle Boy, and contains the following stories: "How Fear Came", "The Miracle of Purun Bhagat", "Letting in the Jungle", "The Undertakers", "The King's Ankus", "Quiquern", "Red Dog", and "The Spring Running".

Tolstoy is primarily known for his impressively long novels, but he also wrote some wonderful short stories. This one, dealing with ambition and greed, has an unforgettable message.

This is the original classic story of Bram Stoker's undead monster. It has influenced Western portrayals (including Buffy and Angel) of vampires and vampirism for nearly a century. Even after all this time, Bram Stoker's Dracula remains the undisputed masterpiece of horror writing.

A veritable library of listening in this splendid collection of American Short Stories! This boxed set includes all stories from Volumes 1, 2 and 3.

W. H. Hudson was born in 1841 in Buenos Aires and seems to have been a sort of permanently displaced person. He moved to London in 1869 and wrote a series of remarkable books, most with a wilderness setting. In 1904, when he was 63, he focused on an Indian legend for Green Mansions, a memorable romance of the jungle for which he is now chiefly remembered. His epitaph reads, "He Loved Birds and Green Places and the Wind on the Heath, and Saw Brightness of the Skirts of God."

"Paul's Case" was first published in 1905 in Willa Cather's first collection, The Troll Garden, which began her literary career. When the story was printed in McClure's magazine in May of the same year, it brought Cather to national attention. In 1920 the story was reprinted by Alfred Knopf in Youth and the Bright Medusa. "Paul's Case" examines the dangers of art and the struggles of youthful artists in a commercial world.

This is a selection from The Jungle Book, in which a mongoose saves the day.

"The King of the Golden River" is the magical story of a boy named Gluck, his evil brothers, and a dangerous quest to find treasure lurking in the Golden River. It is a classic tale and the only fairy tale the famous English author and critic ever wrote. It could also be classified as a fable or parable since it it explains "how things came to be".

This second delightful collection of children's stories contains the following titles: "The Three Goblins", by Mabel G. Taggart; "Alladin and the Wonderful Lamp", edited by Andrew Lang; "Cinderella", by the Brothers Grimm; "The Griffon and Minor Canon", by Frank Stockton; "Beauty and the Beast", by Madame de Villeneuve; "The Frog Prince", by The Brothers Grimm; "Goody Two Shoes", a traditional tale; "How Fear Came", by Rudyard Kipling; "Jack and the Beanstalk", a traditional tale; and many more.

The Minister's Black Veil was first published in the 1836 edition of The Token and Atlantic Souvenir. It later appeared in Twice-Told Tales, a collection of short stories by Hawthorne published in 1837. Hawthorne's inspiration for this story may have been a true event. A clergyman named Joseph Moody of York, Maine, nicknamed "Handkerchief Moody", accidentally killed a friend when he was a young man and wore a black veil from the man's funeral until his own death.

Kate Chopin's novel The Awakening, published 1899, drew a storm of criticism for its "shocking, morbid, and vulgar" story and quickly went out of print. The novel was not resurrected until the 1950s, when participants in the growing women's movement recognized its importance. Today, The Awakening is among the most-read American novels in colleges and universities and is considered an early example of American realism.

The Phantom of the Opera is a Gothic novel, combining romance, horror, mystery, and tragedy. The story is about a mysterious figure who terrorizes a Paris opera house for the unwitting benefit of a young singer he loves.

No one plumbs deeper depths of the psyche than French and Russian authors. This wide-ranging collection of 19th-century literary masterworks, presented in their entirety, not only entertains, but provides insight into 19th-century mores and the mysteries of human nature.

"The Bet" is one of Chekov's most anthologized stories. A rich banker makes a bet with a poor artist that he cannot voluntarily stay imprisoned for a long period of time. The result of the bet is quite different than either man could have supposed.

By the time Dostoevsky was 40, he had spent four years in prison and a further four years in the army as punishment for his part in a political conspiracy. His health was broken. He was gaunt, fervid, anxiety-ridden, and close to bankruptcy. It was in this state he wrote Notes from the Underground, a masterpiece of the psychology of theoutsider.

Nathaniel Hawthorne has taken some of the most striking and exciting Greek legends and adapted them for young readers. In this retelling, Hawthorne maintains the conceptions held by the original authors. This collection includes "The Minotaur", "The Pygmies", "The Dragon's Teeth", "Circe's Palace", "The Pomegranate Seeds", and "The Golden Fleece".