Showing results by narrator "Chris MacDonnell" in All Categories

"Mr. Midshipman Easy" (1836) is mostly a humorous, sometimes ironic, satirical, seafaring adventure. However, the early chapters of the novel address the birth, upbringing, and education of "our Hero", Jack Easy, and set the stage for the rest of the book.

The Victorians are often credited with ushering in our current era, yet the seeds of change were planted in the years before. The Regency (1811-1820) began when the profligate Prince of Wales - the future King George IV - replaced his insane father, George III, as Britain's ruler. Around the regent surged a society steeped in contrasts: evangelicalism and hedonism, elegance and brutality, exuberance and despair. The arts flourished at this time with a showcase of extraordinary writers and painters such as Jane Austen, Lord Byron, the Shelleys, John Constable, and J. M. W. Turner.

Authoritarian regimes in many countries, and the men that lead them, depend on the international management of licit and illicit funds under their control. Frank Vogl shows that curbing their activities for their kleptocratic clients is critical to secure democracy, enhance national security, and ensure international financial stability.

River steamboat captain Charles Marlow has set forth on the Congo in Africa to find the enigmatic European trader Mr. Kurtz. Preceded by his reputation as a brilliant emissary of progress, Kurtz has now established himself as a god among the natives in "one of the darkest places on earth." Marlow suspects something else of Kurtz: he has gone mad.

Mindful Business Leadership presents a new model of leadership. It introduces 10 very different leadership roles that are required to meet the challenges of modern business. Memorable metaphors and images are created for each, and they are placed in a matrix. Listeners are shown how to develop these roles within themselves. Potentially negative aspects of each are discussed, along with material on how to put these to creative use.

The Man Within is Graham Greene's first published novel (1929). The story is set on England's South Coast and concerns Francis Andrews, who reluctantly became embroiled with a gang of smugglers. The novel opens with Andrews desperately fleeing over the downs and eventually reaching an isolated cottage. He finds it's the home of a young woman, Elizabeth, who is alone and recently bereaved of her guardian, protector, and possible abuser.

Charles Dickens's Hard Times (1854) is a satirical novel, as well as a romantic one. It is a commentary on social issues of the Industrial Revolution. He sets the tale in his imaginary northern location of Coketown. Gradgrind, father of Tom and Louisa, as the superintendent of schools wants education and life to be founded on facts alone. Bounderby, a Banker, and Industrialist is a boastful, bullying, self-proclaimed vagabond made good

For the past six months, since solving the thefts of England's subsidies meant for its war allies, Lady Cecilia and Sir James Branstoke have concentrated on renovating their estate in Kent. When David Thornbridge sends word to them that someone has kidnapped a child from The East India Company dock, Cecilia and James immediately return to London to investigate. Their investigation leads them from warehouses, to a society musical entertainment, and to the rooftops and chimneys of London. And just when they rescue the child, murder occurs.

Learning of his Irish origins, a proud English knight seeks the secrets of his birth. But the truth shatters his illusions, leaving him struggling with God's purpose for his life.

Confusing textbooks? Missed lectures? Tough test questions? Fortunately for you, there's Schaum's Outlines. More than 40 million students have trusted Schaum's to help them succeed in the classroom and on exams. Schaum's is the key to faster learning and higher grades in every subject. Each outline presents all the essential course information in an easy-to-follow, topic-by-topic format.

This is Charles Dickens’s second novel and regarded as one of his best. It was originally published as a serial from 1837 to 1839, and titled; Oliver Twist, or; A Parish Boys Progress. As a book, it first appeared in 1838 in three volumes. The story follows the title character Oliver Twist, who, being born and raised in a workhouse for the first ten years of his life, runs away to nearby London. Here, he falls in with a gang of young thieves and pickpockets controlled by Fagin, an elderly criminal.

We are in darkness. We are alone. They came from the lands of light. They came with torches, with lanterns, with the banners of the sun. The children of endless day-they came to banish the darkness. And they came to kill. We are the children of never-ending night. We are the dwellers of shadow. In the light of our enemy, we are dying. We were born in darkness. We must cast out the light. This is our story.

The sun no longer rises. Evening no longer falls. In the lands of endless sunlight, we fear the darkness, we forge swords, we march to war. In the shadows of eternal night, we hide, we pray, we die. Soldiers of sunlight and children of darkness - we were once one. We were torn apart. We must be one again.

A young man, Elwin, seeks to become an elementalist. But with war looming and an accident that could cost him his freedom, Elwin finds himself fleeing for his life and evading the Guardians of Life. The Guardians think Elwin guilty of the most grievous of crimes, and as he trains the gifts of his bloodline, he will discover a secret from long in his past.

The novel is the story of a scientist who, through the study of optics finds a way to make things invisible. In a desire for recognition, fame, and the advantages of being invisible, he subjects himself to the process. But being unseen isn't as positive as he had hoped, and he soon finds himself regretting his condition, and his mind also becomes warped. He becomes mentally unhinged. Later, he embraces his invisibility and begins to spiral into a lust for power and control, and he reveals a plan he has hatched to unleash his personal "terror" on the world.

From sorcerous bridges that link worlds to the simple traditions of country folk; from the mysterious natures of twins to the dangerous powers of obligation and contract. Laden with perils for both the adventurous and the unsuspecting, magic is ultimately a contradiction: endlessly powerful but never without consequence, and rigidly defined by rules of its own making. Award-winning Jonathan Strahan brings together some of the most exciting and popular writers working in fantasy today to dig into that contradiction.

After a long journey, Jax finds himself abandoned far from home in the desert nation of Kalicodon. When any infraction to tribal honor will land him in chains as a slave, he must learn quickly to adapt in a foreign land in hopes of maintaining his freedom. In his struggles to liberate Daren from slavery, he meets Jesnia, a woman from his homeland, who has hunted fugitives from justice to the eastern edge of the desert. Without his own cunning and her talents, Jax may very well meet his end, fighting for his life in the arena.

The protagonist, Pip, lives with his sister “Mrs Joe Gargery” and her husband, Joe, in a secluded rural village in the marshlands of Kent. Both his parents are dead. Pip has always had a burning desire to become a Gentleman. The story follows how Pip, through circumstances not of his own making, rises to great wealth, becomes part of the London elite and is considered to have “Great Expectations”. However, as the story develops, he betrays or deserts his true friends and becomes eventually humbled by his own arrogance and pride.

"Masterman Ready, or the Wreck of the Pacific" by Capt. Frederick Marryat, follows the adventures of a devoutly Christian family (The Seagraves) and their servant (Juno) who are shipwrecked at sea and find themselves having to survive on a desert island.

Across half a galaxy, the Terran Empire maintains its sovereignty with the consent of the governed. It is a peaceful reign, held by compact and not by conquest. Again and again, when rebellion threatens the Terran Peace, the natives of the rebellious world have turned against their own people and sided with the men of Terra - not from fear, but from a sense of dedication. There has never been open war. The battle for these worlds is fought in the minds of a few men who stand between worlds; bound to one world by interest, loyalties, and allegiance; bound to the other by love.