Showing results by author "Mentor New York" in All Categories

The Moberly–Jourdain incident was an event that occurred on 10 August 1901 in the gardens of the Petit Trianon, involving two female academics, Charlotte Anne Moberly and Eleanor Jourdain. The women were both from educated backgrounds. During a trip to Versailles, they visited the Petit Trianon, a small château in the grounds of the Palace of Versailles, where they allegedly experienced a time slip, and saw Marie Antoinette as well as other people of the same period. After researching the history of the palace, and comparing notes of their experience, they published their work in a book ...

A well off English bachelor receives a legacy from his uncle. This includes the uncle's very large library and a box containing something that used to belong to his uncle. The box has air holes in it. It is not a rat or other small mammal for his collection, but it is something still alive; something very malevolent and something very evil. - Summary by Phil chenevert

Following in the vein of my Coffee-Break collections, this is a collection of short (all under 15 minutes) stories for kids. Focus is on fables and fairy tales published before 1923. (Summary by BellonaTimes)

The wonderful evolution of a caterpillar, or grub, into a beautifully winged creature must inspire admiration in everyone. More marvelous still is the growth of the human soul which in many respects resembles the development of the butterfly. It is this thought which has induced the author to attempt to depict the transformation of a careless maiden into noble womanhood. - Summary by Lucy Foster Madison

Murray (1840-1904) was a sometime clergyman, journalist, and purveyor of the outdoor life. His books did much to popularize the virtues of outdoor experience, especially in the Adirondack Mountains of upstate New York. Here are stories, some humorous some serious, of the out-of-doors, of love between man and woman, man and horse, man and dog, teacher and acolyte, of wisdom and foolishness. This recording is a selection of his short stories from "The Busted Ex-Texan And Other Stories" (1889), "How Deacon Tubman And Parson Whitney Kept New Years And Other Stories" (1888) and "A Ride With A Mad ...

Warner's thoughtful and often humorous memoir of his life as a young farm-boy in Charlemont, Massachusetts. (Introduction by Mark Penfold)

"Is it true that a bee can only sting once?" I asked him, as he bent again over the crocus beds. He laughed. "What would be the good of a sword to a soldier," he said, "if only one blow could be struck with it? It is certainly true that the bee does not usually sting a second time, but that is only because you are too hasty with her. ...But now watch how the thing works naturally." A bee had settled on his hand as he was speaking. He closed his fingers gently over it, and forced it to sting. "Now," he continued, quite unconcernedly, "look what really happens..." (from The Bee-Master of ...

Phineas Pett was a Master Shipbuilder from one of England's greatest shipbuilding families of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries and kept a journal of his experiences and thoughts at this important and turbulent time in the industry. Although some pages were damaged or lost, the diary was transcribed by Samuel Pepys and preserved in the British Library. It was edited and published in the form of an autobiography by William Gordon Perrin of The Council of the Navy Records Society in 1918. - Summary by Lynne Thompson

As we get older, many of us return to youthful memories of poems once significant to us. Outside their association with our youth, we may wonder what significance they have to us now. There were other poems we've met along the way as well: some held no appeal while others were forgotten. And there were others we never had the opportunity to meet. This selection hopes to go beyond the experience of meeting old friends and on top opening the door to new ones — poems that might relate more significantly to our current lives. Originally titled "Personal Poems for Later Years," this collection ...

A classic ghost story of a haunted house, and the haunted man who lives in it.

Danny Meadow Mouse, along with his friend Peter Rabbit, lead exciting lives. Everyday they have adventures and close calls with hungry folks like Granny and Reddy Fox, Hooty the Owl, and Mr. Blacksnake. But the two friends help each other out, from snowy winter to warm summertime.

Ring Lardner is a typical parent when his first child is born, full of wonder and the rest of the usual emotions as he watches his little son grow. He wrote a series of 29 short poems on various facets of parenthood. (Summary by Jack Thro)

Wilde’s meditation on capital punishment, the Ballad of Reading Gaol comes after he was convicted and imprisoned under charges of gross indecency. The charges stemmed from his affair with Lord Alfred Douglas, the son of the Marquis of Queensberry. It relates the story of an execution of a man who murdered his wife which Wilde witnessed during his internment. Published in 1898, it was Wilde’s last published poem as he would die in 1900 from cerebral meningitis, caused by syphilis.(Summary by John Gonzalez)

A selection of eight short works, chapters, or poems about Christmas. - Summary by david wales

Aunt Hannah's fondest wish had been that her nephew John would marry a local girl and take over the family farm. Trouble was, John was never very interested in the farm and followed his own path, first to college and then to seminary. Now he was settling into his first pastorate and as anyone could see, his wife Mattie was simply not fit to be a housekeeper or a pastor's wife in a country church. If only he had listened to his Aunt Hannah! (Summary by MaryAnn)

Semi-autobiographical series of incidents in the life of an intellectual American family in the late 19th - early 20th Century as seen by favored daughter, Sylvia Marshall. Her father is an economics professor in a Midwestern state university and she is following in his inquisitive footsteps. Canfield writes this in a matter-of-fact manner with Tarkingtonesque good humor. ( Summary by BellonaTimes )

Gil Blas is born in misery to a stablehand and a chambermaid of Santillana in Cantabria, and is educated by his uncle. He leaves Oviedo at the age of seventeen to attend the University of Salamanca. His bright future is suddenly interrupted when he is forced to help robbers along the route and is faced with jail. He becomes a valet and, over the course of several years, is able to observe many different classes of society, both lay and clerical. Because of his occupation, he meets many disreputable people and is able to adjust to many situations, thanks to his adaptability and quick wit.He ...

Johnson's only novel, The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, was originally published anonymously in 1912. It is a fictional novel written as a memoir of an unnamed biracial narrator who grew up in the South during the Reconstruction and post-Reconstruction eras. It is a story in which the narrator relates how as a young boy he initially assumed that he was white, and how his notions of racial identity were suddenly turned upside down one day—how from that moment on he was inclined to view himself and the world about him from the perspective of blackness. The novel received very little ...

Collected here are all of Clark Aston Smith's writings he submitted to The Fantasy Fan Magazine. The Fantasy Fan Magazine was a periodical dedicated to people professing their love of and celebrating fantasy and weird fiction. In addition to the opinion pieces and non-fiction articles, The Fantasy Fan also included many short stories and poems by some of the authors it celebrated such as H. P. Lovecraft, Robert E. Howard and Clark Ashton Smith, a personal favorite of editor Charles D. Hornig. Smith contributed quite a variety of stories, poems and articles to The Fantasy Fan over its two-year ...

Jesse Harding Pomeroy was only 12 years old when he was arrested for the assault of 7 boys near his home in the South Boston area of Massachusetts. He was sent to reform school for a year and released. Shortly after his release, the body of a young boy was found mutilated almost beyond recognition. Then the body of a young girl was discovered in the basement of the building which Jesse's mother had rented to run her small dressmaking shop. Jesse would be tried and found guilty of the two murders when he was but 14 years of age, and thus has been referred to as "America's youngest serial killer...