Showing results by narrator "Phil Chenevert" in All Categories

"The Willows" is a novella by English author Algernon Blackwood, originally published as part of his 1907 collection The Listener and Other Stories. It is one of Blackwood's best known works and has been influential on a number of later writers. Horror author H.P. Lovecraft considered it to be the finest supernatural tale in English literature. "The Willows" is an example of early modern horror and is connected within the literary tradition of weird fiction.

When Ms. Stoner comes to Sherlock Holmes with a strange story that a mysterious whistle caused her sisters death, Holmes is ready to take on the case. After examining the clues, Watson is sure the gypsies are to blame. Can Holmes prove there is a more sinister plot in play? Follow the clues with Sherlock Holmes in the adventure of the speckled band!

A Doll's House is a three-act play in prose by Henrik Ibsen. The play is significant for its critical attitude toward 19th-century marriage norms. It aroused great controversy at the time, as it concludes with the protagonist, Nora, leaving her husband and children because she wants to discover herself. Ibsen was inspired by the belief that "a woman cannot be herself in modern society", since it is "an exclusively male society, with laws made by men and with prosecutors and judges who assess feminine conduct from a masculine standpoint".

Kipling began working on the book by telling the first three chapters as bedtime stories to his daughter Josephine. These had to be told "just so" (exactly in the words she was used to) or she would complain. The stories describe how one animal or another acquired its most distinctive features, such as how the leopard got his spots.

The Call of the Wild is a short adventure novel by Jack London published in 1903 and set in Yukon, Canada, during the 1890s Klondike Gold Rush, when strong sled dogs were in high demand. The central character of the novel is a dog named Buck. The story opens at a ranch in Santa Clara Valley, California, when Buck is stolen from his home and sold into service as a sled dog in Alaska.

A Witch Shall Be Born is one of the original sword and sorcery novellas by Robert E. Howard about Conan the Cimmerian. The story concerns a witch replacing her twin sister as queen of a city state, which brings her into conflict with Conan who had been the captain of the queen's guard. Themes of paranoia, and the duality of the twin sisters, are paramount in this story but it also includes elements of the conflict between barbarism and civilization that is common to the entire Conan series.

The Wonderful Wizard of Oz is an American children's novel written by author L. Frank Baum and illustrated by W. W. Denslow, originally published by the George M. Hill Company in Chicago on May 17, 1900. It has since been reprinted on numerous occasions, most often under the title The Wizard of Oz, which is the title of the popular 1902 Broadway musical adaptation as well as the iconic 1939 musical film adaptation. The story chronicles the adventures of a young farm girl named Dorothy in the magical land of Oz.

"The Road to Oz: In Which Is Related How Dorothy Gale of Kansas, The Shaggy Man, Button Bright, and Polychrome the Rainbow's Daughter Met on an Enchanted Road and Followed it All the Way to the Marvelous Land of Oz" is the fifth of L. Frank Baum's Land of Oz books. It was originally published on July 10, 1909 and documents Dorothy's fourth visit to Oz.

"Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz: A Faithful Record of Their Amazing Adventures in an Underground World and How, with the Aid of Their Friends Zeb Hugson, Eureka the Kitten and Jim the Cab-Horse, They Finally Reached the Wonderful Land of Oz" is the fourth work set in the Land of Oz written by L. Frank Baum and illustrated by John R. Neill. It was published on June 18, 1908 and reunites Dorothy with the humbug Wizard from The Wonderful Wizard of Oz.

This delightful little tale by Hans Christian Andersen follows the ridiculous path a rumor takes as it travels from hen coop to hen coop, spreading the scandalous tale of a whole barnyard of hens who in pluck out all their feathers to impress the cock. Indeed, There Is No Doubt about It! Scandalous!!

What is The Ideal? Renowned science fiction author Stanley Grauman Weinbaum explores individuality and artificial intelligence in this classic story.

A mysterious nobleman in disguise pleads for his help in preventing a scandal that could hurt a royal house of Europe and indeed upset the balance of power on the Continent. Conan Doyle ranked "A Scandal in Bohemia" fifth in his list of his 12 favorite Holmes stories. Holmes and Dr. Watson are on the case but "the woman" thwarts their schemes at the last moment, eliciting everlasting admiration for her wits from the great Sherlock Holmes.

The full title of Swift's pamphlet is A Modest Proposal for Preventing the Children of Poor People from Being a Burtden to their Parents, or the Country, and for Making them Beneficial to the Publick."The tract is an ironically conceived attempt to "find out a fair, cheap, and easy Method" for converting the starving children of Ireland into "sound and useful members of the Commonwealth." Across the country poor children, predominantly Catholics, are living in squalor because their families are too poor to keep them fed and clothed.

This Father Brown mystery by Chesterton deals with a killer who is invisible. But how is it possible for someone to be invisible? To have people hear your voice and not see you? To walk right past their eyes and yet remain unseen? G. K. Chesterton explores not physics here but human nature, in this intriguing and quirky murder mystery.

This classic story by Margery Williams, published in 1922, imparts the timeless message that toys need not be expensive or modern to be appreciated and loved. Through giving and receiving love, even a commonplace stuffed animal can become real in the eyes of a child, and millions of them do every day. Love is the magic ingredient of course, and it works on all of us.

After changing countless wet and dirty diapers, parents of toddlers everywhere are more than ready to potty train their child and move past the diaper stage. Potty training comes with its own headaches and frustrations, however, and you may find yourself wishing for those peaceful days of diaper-dom. Stay patient and persevere, and you will get through this. Despite what you will hear from many sources through the potty training stage, there is no one perfect potty training method.

Common Sense is a pamphlet written by Thomas Paine in 1775-76 that inspired people in the Thirteen Colonies to declare and fight for independence from Great Britain in the summer of 1776. In clear, simple language, it explained the advantages of and the need for immediate independence. It was published anonymously on January 10, 1776, at the beginning of the American Revolution and became an immediate sensation.

As I write this, I have before me on my desk, propped up against the telephone, an old rag doll. Dear old Raggedy Ann! The same Raggedy Ann with which my mother played when a child. There she sits, a trifle loppy and loose-jointed, looking me squarely in the face in a straightforward, honest manner, a twinkle where her shoe-button eyes reflect the electric light. Evidently Raggedy has been to a tea party" today, for her face is covered with chocolate.

The Apology is Plato's version of the speech given by Socrates as he defended himself in 399 BC against the charges of "corrupting the young, and by not believing in the gods in whom the city believes, but in other daimonia that are novel". "Apology" here has its earlier meaning of speaking in defense of a cause or of one's beliefs or actions. The general term apology, in context to literature, defends a world from attack (opposite of satire-which attacks the world).

I started to read a story once. It was a good one. There was in it not a single allusion to brandy-and-soda, or divorce, or the stock market. The dialogue crackled. The hero talked like a live man. It was a shipboard story, and the heroine was charming so long as she wore her heavy ulster. But along toward evening she blossomed forth in a yellow gown, with a scarlet poinsettia at her throat. I quit her cold. Nobody ever wore a scarlet poinsettia; or if they did, they couldn't wear it on a yellow gown.