Showing results by narrator "Linda Barrans" in All Categories

Louis Esson is considered to be the first great Australian dramatist. As with most of his work, these four plays depict life from the view of the common man and provide vivid presentations of life, both urban and rural, in Australia before the First World War.

Franz Kafka was one of the first and greatest masters of dystopian literature. In his bleak world view, man is presented as helpless and ineffectual, his destiny determined by distant, obscure and essentially unfriendly agencies. In none of his works is this savage and unreasoning enslavement presented more vividly than in Metamorphosis, a novella in which Gregor Samsa, a respectable employee and dutiful son, wakes to find himself transformed into a gigantic insect.

Passion and intrigue among the upper classes form the basis of Lady Windermere's Fan, Oscar Wilde's first successful play, which displays his trademark wit and wisdom. Beautiful and innocent Lady Windermere finds out that her husband has been keeping company with the scandalous and mysterious Mrs. Erlynne. Her discovery unleashes a host of tensions at her 21st birthday party, where London's elite have gathered to gossip.

Despite its patina of humor, the work is a merciless exposé of the commercial middle class dishonesty, and the convenient immorality hiding behind social conventions, which are characteristic of a developing urban society. The most noble character, Serafima, is a compelling mixture of naïveté, whimsicality, sentimentality, and obstinate practicality - one of the finest character portraits in Russian drama.

Many of the stories in this book seem at the same time both familiar and strange. Their authors valued family, duty, patience and heroism. They longed for children in their old age, and rejoiced when they saw cruelty and envy punished, wrongs righted, and kindness and bravery rewarded.

The novel opens with Mr. and Mrs. Parker’s visit to Sanditon, a village on the coast of Sussex. Sanditon is being developed into a bathing-place under the patronage of the two principal proprietors of the parish, Mr. Parker and Lady Denham. Mr. Parker suffers an injury and receives assistance from a local farmer, Mr. Heywood. The latter’s daughter, Charlotte, is of marriageable age and has three eligible suitors: Lady Denham’s foppish son, Sir Edward; Mr. Parker’s devil-may care brother, Sydney; and Arthur, who is an unemployed hypochondriac.

When it was first published in 1847, Wuthering Heights was considered highly controversial for its blunt portrayal of domestic abuse, alcoholism, and the dismissal of Christian values by some of its characters. Today, this gothic novel is considered one of the greatest in English literature.

European tourists travel languidly along the Nile River to Abousir, at the southern frontier of Egypt, aboard “a turtle-bottomed, round-bowed stern-wheeler,” the Korosko. But Dervish warriors threaten danger and then attack and kidnap the tourists. In this novel, Doyle explores themes of British Imperialism and a defensive European perspective on North Africa; racial paternalism; and debates on interference with other countries’ politics and religions. This wonderful novel was first published in 1898, long before Agatha Christie’s Death on the Nile.

This is the story of Morning Glory’s turn of the century kenbutsu—her travels—to America. Guided by her uncle, a Harvard graduate, Morning Glory travels at a time when most Americans know little or nothing about Japan, aside from the popular tunes of The Mikado (1885) and The Geisha (1896).

In 1907 New Thought author James Allen published a verse anthology entitled Poems of Peace. Included in the collection is his sole dramatic work, Eolaus, which describes the journey of a troubled pilgrim from the wilderness of worldly despair to the heights of personal realization.

Sam the sheep lives in a field somewhere in England. It’s a quiet life, but he has his friends, his favorite tree, and still manages to have the occasional adventure. As well as curious and philosophical Sam, we meet Morag the grumpy tabby cat; Ava the tiny fox, brave and determined; Liam the beetle with a dream; Terry the house-proud Terrapin; Boris the bee; and Watt the scary dog (or is he?). In this story, Sam meets some actors, makes new friends, and even takes part in a play.

Sam the sheep is having a hard time. He is pining for Ava the fox, and his actor friends are away performing their play without him. What’s more, someone has decided to build a Community Center in the next field, and the noise is simply terrible. One of the builders has deeply offended Morag the Tabby Cat, and she is starting a Resistance movement – though why she thinks there are gorillas in the field is anybody’s guess.

This play is a dramatization of Boccaccio’s story of Gillette of Narbonne. Only the comic parts were of Shakespeare’s invention; he added the characters of the pusillanimous Parolles, the lofty courtier Lafew, the Clown Lavatch, and the long suffering Countess. He gave new depth and vitality to the leading characters, who are mere outlines in Boccaccio’s tale.