Showing results by narrator "Alice Johnson" in All Categories

"Success for a woman means absolute surrender, in whatever direction. Whether she paints a picture, or loves a man, there is no division of labor possible in her economy. To the attainment of any end worth living for, a symmetrical sacrifice of her nature is compulsory upon her." That is the dilemma this powerful and beautifully observed work centers around.

An iconic early feminist utopian novel. This work was one element in the major wave of utopian and dystopian literature that marked the later nineteenth and early twentieth century. A man previously lost to the world is found by his sister and tries to re-enter society. He had amnesia so he is now 55 in body, but 25 in his own mind. The book delves into how the man accommodates to the progress in industry and society; but most of all - and most importantly - it is a fascinating study of how he reacts to and deals with the significant changes and progress regarding the position of women in the society.

Austen's last novel, published posthumously. A timeless masterpiece, rich in everything: keen observation, characterizations, wonderful prose and a meaty plot and subplot(s)... in short, everything that we expect from and love about the great author! Anne Elliot and Frederick Wentworth meet and fall in love; but Anne's entourage, especially mentor Lady Russell persuade her not to act on her feelings, as the deem the young naval officer not suitable.

"Fighting France, from Dunkerque to Belfort" is a collection of magazine articles by the American writer Edith Wharton on her time in France during the First World War, including her visits to the French sectors of the Western Front. The individual articles originally appeared in Scribner's Magazine in 1915. Part of the "The War on All Fronts" series, the book was published in 1918.

A beautiful young woman hides away, wanting nothing to do with men; and founds a women's university, where no man can enter. But as the master Tennyson writes, "Life is brief but love is long"; love will find a way, and the prince to whom the young woman was betrothed in infancy disguises himself into a woman and enters the premises... This classic narrative poem continues to enchant generation after generation of listeners and it is no wonder why: "Better not be at all than not be noble."

After her parents' bitter and brutal divorce, young Maisie Farange finds herself pushed back and forth by her selfish mother, Ida, and her vain father, Beale, who value her only as a tool for provoking one another. And when both parents move on and remarry, Maisie - solitary, observant and wise beyond her years - is drawn into a messy and very adult world of lies and betrayal; until she is finally forced to choose her own way of independent living.

Jane Austen's first published novel and much loved masterpiece. Two sisters, Elinor and Marianne Dashwood - the former sensible, the latter impulsive - both fall in love with men whose affections are otherwise engaged or, as in one case, are simply unreliable. The great pleasure for the listener is reveling in the author's wonderful prose and hearing all of this tangled mess (with many great supporting characters) become untangled in both very funny and deeply moving ways.

This is a cult classic in the gothic horror and suspense genre! Our hero Richard is a young Englishman abroad in Napoleonic-era France. He falls in love with a mysterious and endangered Countess, whom he glimpsed behind her black veil. To be close to her, he checks into a room in the Dragon Volant (the Flying Dragon), a haunted hotel that has seen many mysterious disappearances.

Helen Eskdale and rich Lord Teviot seem to be the match made in heaven. But when they marry, they find that misunderstandings and jealousies plague everything. Will their marriage and love survive the infernal manipulations of a rather large and eccentric entourage? This lovely, observantly comedic work plays in many ways like a sort of "Jane Austen light"!

"Of course I was under the spell, and the wonderful part is that, even at the time, I perfectly knew I was. But I gave myself up to it; it was an antidote to any pain, and I had more pains than one." Just as in this quote from this powerful work of gothic mystery and suspense by the master author, the listener is sucked in and put under a spell!

This is a powerful and tragic work by the masterful author about a girl's sexual awakening. Of course, there are consequences involved; she is a poor girl in a small western New England town. This book deals with both sexuality and class distinction and touches on incest as well. While these topics are more or less openly debated today, they were considered scandalous at the time of publication.

"The House of the Vampire" is one of the first psychic vampire stories ever - where the vampire feeds off of more than just blood. The story was written by German-American poet and writer George Sylvester Viereck (1884-1962).