Showing results by author "ciesse" in All Categories

"Astoria" describes the many perilous adventures, discoveries, and disasters experienced by the brave Americans who joined the 1810-1813 Astor Expedition to Oregon. The wealthy New York fur magnate John Jacob Astor masterminded an extensive enterprise with the hope of setting up a fur trading center and outpost of American colonization at the mouth of the Columbia River. Journeying by land and by sea, the intrepid travelers endured incredible hardships, utter exhaustion, and near starvation. Especially interesting and harrowing were the odysseys of Wilson Price Hunt and Robert Stuart who ...

David Herbert Richards Lawrence (11 September 1885 – 2 March 1930) was an English novelist, poet, playwright, essayist, literary critic and painter. His collected works represent an extended reflection upon the dehumanising effects of modernity and industrialisation. In them, Lawrence confronts issues relating to emotional health and vitality, spontaneity, and instinct.

Lettura di Mela Boev

George Orwell, writer of Animal Farm and 1984 also fought in the Spanish Civil War (1936 – 1939)! Here he details his time fighting for the Republican side in the War. This book includes his leaving the UK to fight, his training for battle, getting shot and wounded in the conflict, and his escape to France when the regiment he fought for, was declared illegal.

Although this book may not have the immediately recognizable title of, say, “Rip Van Winkle” or “Legend of Sleepy Hollow,” this book deserves its place among the pantheon of Washington Irving’s classics. Irving, who traveled extensively in his youth and throughout his life, was given a firsthand look into the lives of two great writers of the Empire: Sir Walter Scott and Lord Byron.Irving first chronicles his visit to Abbotsford, the home of Sir Walter Scott, whom he notes had not, at the time of his stay, yet received his title of “baronet.” Scott gives Irving a personal tour ...

The work, which was admired by Herman Melville and Joseph Conrad for its authentic portrayal of a seafaring life and takes place during the American Revolution, launched a whole genre of maritime fiction. It features a mysterious and almost superhuman American sea pilot (based on the American hero John Paul Jones) who fights battles off the coast of England against the British and American loyalists. One of the book’s themes is the ambiguous nature of loyalty. Although often bogged down by complicated nautical terminology and intrusive philosophical dialogue, the novel is nevertheless noted ...

The Deerslayer, or The First Warpath (1841) was the last of James Fenimore Cooper’s Leatherstocking tales to be written. Its 1740-1745 time period makes it the first installment chronologically and in the lifetime of the hero of the Leatherstocking tales, Natty Bumppo. (Introduction by Wikipedia)

This is a story that is set in 16th century Germany. Characters representing the various classes of the remnants of feudalism and the rising bourgeois class struggle against each other. Placed in the light of the very recent and polarizing Protestant Reformation, the characters' tensions increase. - Summary by Joel Kindrick

The Pioneers: The Sources of the Susquehanna; a Descriptive Tale is one of the Leatherstocking Tales, a series of five novels by American writer James Fenimore Cooper. The Pioneers was first of these books to be published (1823), but the period of time covered by the book (principally 1793) makes it the fourth chronologically. (The others are The Deerslayer, The Last of the Mohicans, The Pathfinder, and The Prairie.)The story takes place on the rapidly advancing frontier of New York State and features a middle-aged Leatherstocking (Natty Bumppo), Judge Marmaduke Temple of Templeton, whose life...

LibriVox volunteers bring you 15 recordings of My Brigantine by James Fenimore Cooper.This was the Weekly Poetry project for December 26, 2021.-----After a stint on a commercial voyage, James Fenimore Cooper served in the U.S. Navy as a midshipman, where he learned the technology of managing sailing vessels which greatly influenced many of his novels and other writings. Cooper, beloved though he is as a novelist, hasn't drawn much attention for his poetry. Here is one of his pieces expressing his appreciation for a beautiful ship, taken from his 1830 novel "The Water-Witch". - Summary by ...

Take a fascinating journey from France to America through the "eyes" of a pocket handkerchief. She marvels at the vastness of the universe which the Creator devised and glories in her own fabrication by the young hands of a French peasant. All the while, she sees the intricacies of Providence in her life, as well as those about her. (Summary by Keith Salis)

Natty Bumppo goes by many names: La Longue Carabine, Hawk Eye, Leatherstocking, and in this tale, The Pathfinder. Guide, scout, hunter, and when put to it, soldier, he also fills a lot of roles in pre-Revolution upstate New York. An old friend, Sergeant Dunham of the 55th Regiment of Foot, asks him to guide his daughter through the wilderness to the fort at Oswego where Dunham serves. With the French engaging native Indian allies against the British and the Yankee colonists, such a journey is far from safe. Dunham has a plan in mind - to see his daughter Mable married off to the most ...

James Fenimore Cooper's second novel, The Spy (1821), is based on Sir Walter Scott's Waverly series, and tells an adventure tale about the American Revolution. The protagonist is Harvey Birch, a supposed loyalist who actually is a spy for George Washington, disguised as 'Mr Harper.' The book brought Cooper fame and wealth, and is regarded as the first great success in American fiction.(Summary by Gord MacKenzie)

Le récit a pour théâtre l’Amérique du Nord, pendant la guerre de Sept Ans. Les affrontements entre français et anglais en forment la toile de fond. Cooper décrit notamment la bataille de Fort William Henry qui oppose, en juillet et août 1757, les troupes du général français Montcalm (et de ses alliés amérindiens) à celles du colonel britannique Munro. - Résumé de WIKIPEDIA

This story is set in the British province of New York during the French and Indian War, and concerns a Huron massacre (with passive French acquiescence) of from 500 to 1,500 unarmed Anglo-American troops, who had honorably surrendered at Fort William Henry, plus some women and servants; the kidnapping of two sisters, daughters of the British commander; and their rescue by Hawkeye, the last two Mohicans, and others. Parts of the story may have been derived from the capture and death of Jane McCrea in July 1777 near Fort Edward, New York, by members of an Algonquian tribe. (Summary from ...

Colección de ensayos e historias del viaje que Washington Irving realizó en 1828 a Granada, acompañado por el guía Mateo Jiménez. Una placa conmemorativa en la Alhambra recuerda que Washington Irving escribió allí mismo sus cuentos. (summary by tux)

Lyrical Ballads, with a Few Other Poems is a collection of poems by William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge, first published in 1798 and generally considered to have marked the beginning of the English Romantic movement in literature. The immediate effect on critics was modest, but it became and remains a landmark, changing the course of English literature and poetry. Most of the poems in the 1798 edition were written by Wordsworth, with Coleridge contributing only four poems to the collection, including one of his most famous works, The Rime of the Ancient Mariner. (Additionally, ...

LibriVox volunteers bring you 15 different recordings of Lines Written in Early Spring by William Wordsworth. This was the weekly poetry project for the week of March 25th, 2007.

Wordsworth was a defining member of the English Romantic Movement. Like other Romantics, Wordsworth’s personality and poetry were deeply influenced by his love of nature, especially by the sights and scenes of the Lake Country, in which he spent most of his mature life. A profoundly earnest and sincere thinker, he displayed a high seriousness tempered with tenderness and a love of simplicity. (summary from Bartleby.com)

The Excursion: Being a portion of The Recluse, a Poem is a long poem by Romantic poet William Wordsworth and was first published in 1814. It was intended to be the second part of The Recluse, an unfinished larger work that was also meant to include The Prelude, Wordsworth's other long poem, which was eventually published posthumously. The exact dates of its composition are unknown, but the first manuscript is generally dated as either September 1806 or December 1809. (Introduction by Wikipedia)