Publisher: Good Press
'Comedy of Marriage and Other Tales' is a collection of short stories by Guy de Maupassant. The French author is best-remembered today for his first published story, "Boule de Suif" ("The Dumpling"), which is often considered his most famous work. Titles featured in the following collection include 'Musotte', 'The Blind Man', and 'The Orphan'.
Terence Rattigan's first play, published for the first time in this edition to mark the centenary of Rattigan's birth. Written with his fellow student, Philip Heimann, while they were both at Oxford, First Episode shows an infatuated undergraduate, Tony, falling for Margot, an actress ten years his senior. And vice versa. Completing a triangle of rival affections is Tony's best friend, David. Originally staged at a small experimental theatre in Kew in 1933, First Episode transferred to the West End and then to New York. Rattigan was twenty-two years old. Though not revived since then, it is a candidate – with its cast of eight – for rediscovery, much as was the now-feted After the Dance. It comes, like the other volumes in NHB's uniform edition of Rattigan's plays, with an authoritative introduction by Rattigan scholar Dan Rebellato. Terence Rattigan is now regarded as one of the most significant twentieth century British playwrights. His plays include After the Dance, The Browning Version, Flare Path, Cause Célèbre, The Deep Blue Sea and The Winslow Boy. 'paints a fascinating picture of a vanished student world... Rattigan writes with great perception... shows that, even at 22, [Rattigan] was a born dramatist' - Guardian 'an astonishingly precocious work that displays youthful charm as well as sensitively exploring themes of unequal (if not unrequited) love and repressed emotion that became Rattigan trademarks' - Exeunt MagazineShow book
2012 was the 200th anniversary of Dickens' birth. This is the fifth and last volume; the first volume of short works - fiction, essays, poetry and speeches, previously unrecorded for LibriVox, was catalogued by Dickens' birthday on February 7th 2012, and further volumes followed throughout the anniversary year. (Summary by Ruth Golding)Show book
Katherine was born on the 14th October 1888 into a prominent family in Wellington, New Zealand, the middle child of five. A gifted celloist, at one point she thought she might take it up professionally but writing gradually began to move to the forefront of her interests. Her first writings were published at an early age in school magazines. At 19 Katherine left for England where she met and befriended the modernist writers D.H. Lawrence and Virginia Woolf amongst others. She then travelled to Europe before returning to New Zealand. There she began to write the short stories that she would later become so famous for. Her stories often focus on moments of disruption and frequently open rather abruptly. There was another less-heralded side to Katherine’s writings; that of poetry. Her verse certainly reflects much of the themes of her life and interests. Many poems are beautiful, thoughtful, tender and observant works on the human condition. Some though seem out of kilter for so great a talent, almost child-like in form and content. But taken as yet another facet of her work they accomplish much in helping us to understand her. By 1908 she had returned to London and to a rather more bohemian lifestyle. Life was to be lived and enjoyed. A passionate affair resulted in her becoming pregnant and in her being married off to an older man. But she left him the same evening with the marriage unconsummated. She was then to miscarry and be cut out of her mother’s will (allegedly because of her lesbianism). In 1911 she was to start a relationship with John Middleton Murry, a magazine editor, and although it was volatile he supported her work and she wrote some of her best stories. During the First World War Mansfield contracted extrapulmonary tuberculosis, which rendered any return or visit to New Zealand impossible and led to her death at the tender age of 34 on 9th January 1923 in Fontainebleau, France.Show book
What started as a complaint about the '40-line rule' in much of the poetry world has turned into an anthology that not only breaks that rule, but stomps all over it. Featuring 25 poems which break the rules - these are long, narrative, but by no means traditional poems, by contemporary voices. Themes both great and small are explored in narrative poems that pack a punch. Human interactions from conversation, storytelling, lending and borrowing, theft, prayer, memory, shopping and a long walk, right through to sexuality, time travel, truce negotiations, disappearance, natural disaster, violence and death are all explored, many of them rooted in landscape and place. These lie alongside equally rooted mythological and historical tales drawn from Greece, Turkey, Africa, Scandinavia and Britain. What draws all these themes together is the strength of the storytelling. Emotions as diverse as frustration, disappointment, embarrassment, hope, nostalgia, anger, and fear are channelled through spectacular poetry in many different forms into truly satisfying work.Show book
“A beautiful but urgent clarion call for freedom, justice, and resistance in every pocket of the world, from occupied Palestine to gentrified Brooklyn” (Marc Lamont Hill, academic and activist). we are the boat / returning to dock / we are the footprints / on the northern trail / we are the iron / coloring the soil / we cannot / be erased —from “Refugee” Remi Kanazi’s poetry presents an unflinching look at the lives of Palestinians under occupation and as refugees scattered across the globe. He captures the Palestinian people’s stubborn refusal to be erased, gives voice to the ongoing struggle for liberation, and explores the meaning of international solidarity. In this latest collection, Kanazi expands his focus outside the sphere of Palestine and presents pieces examining racism in America, police brutality, US militarism at home and wars abroad, conflict voyeurism, Islamophobia, and a range of other issues. “His rhymes and rhythms, filled with sharp wit, irony and deep empathy, are a great joy to read even as they tackle some of the most urgent political struggles of our day.” —Ali Abunimah, author of The Battle for Justice in PalestineShow book
LibriVox volunteers bring you 15 recordings of Not Yet my Soul by Robert Louis Stevenson. This was the Fortnightly Poetry project for May 19, 2013.Robert Louis Balfour Stevenson (13 November 1850 – 3 December 1894) was a Scottish novelist, poet, essayist, and travel writer. His most famous works are Treasure Island, Kidnapped, and Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde.The following poem comes from his collection entitled Underwoods, first published in 1887.Show book
