Art Genre

Welcome to the world of Jane Austen, one of the most beloved authors in the English language. Austen's works are known for their wit, social commentary, and romantic storylines that have captivated readers for generations.

This audiobook is an introduction to the life and works of Jane Austen and will provide a glimpse into her world and the literary legacy she left behind.

"Love and Friendship" is a short epistolary novel by Jane Austen, written in 1790, when Austen was just 14 years old. The story is told through a series of letters between the characters, primarily the protagonist, Laura, and her close friend, Isabel. The novel is a satirical take on the romantic fiction of the time, with Laura's escapades and misadventures serving as a critique of the societal norms of the day. The story follows Laura's attempts to navigate the social scene and find a suitable husband, which leads to a series of humorous and ridiculous situations.

"The Secret Agent" is a novel written by Joseph Conrad, and published in 1907. The story is set in London in the late nineteenth century and revolves around a group of anarchists and their plot to detonate a bomb at Greenwich Observatory. The novel explores themes such as terrorism, politics, morality, and betrayal. The novel's protagonist is Adolf Verloc, a seemingly unremarkable man who owns a small shop selling pornographic materials. However, he is also a secret agent working for an unnamed foreign embassy.

This is a gentle Christmas story, whose message is that if we didn't already have Christmas, we'd find a way to invent it. It's hard times in Old Trail Town as the Season of Giving approaches. The factory that employs most of the town is closed and not likely to re-open, and town merchants fear that people will try to shop on credit. Unwilling to carry the debt, the merchants work out a scheme to get everybody in town to agree not to have Christmas that year. What happens next proves that Christmas can't be banned from the hearts of those who truly believe in it.

Mr. Watson is a widowed and ailing clergyman with two sons and four daughters. The youngest daughter, Emma, the heroine of the story, has been brought up by a wealthy aunt and is consequently better educated and more refined than her sisters. But after her aunt contracted a foolish second marriage, Emma has been obliged to return to her father's house. There she is chagrined by the crude and reckless husband-hunting of two of her sisters, Penelope and Margaret.

Ostensibly a love story, the novel really revolves around a highly mythologized version of the Johnson County War in 1890's Wyoming ... The novel takes the side of the large ranchers, and depicts the lynchings as frontier justice, meted out by the protagonist, who is a member of a natural aristocracy among men. Owen Wister was an American writer and historian, considered the "father" of western fiction. He is best remembered for writing The Virginian and a biography of Ulysses S. Grant.

White Fang is a novel by American author Jack London and the name of the book's eponymous character, a wild wolfdog. First serialized in Outing magazine between May and October 1906, it was published in book form in October 1906. The story details White Fang's journey to domestication in Yukon Territory and the Northwest Territories during the 1890s Klondike Gold Rush. It is a companion novel (and a thematic mirror) to London's best-known work, The Call of the Wild (1903), which is about a kidnapped domesticated dog embracing his wild ancestry to survive and thrive in the wild.

Washington Irving's Old Christmas tells of an American's travels through England during the Christmas season. Through a chance meeting with an old friend, he is able to experience Christmas in a stately manor house. Through his eyes as a houseguest, he glimpses the uniquely British customs and celebrations of Christmas as it would have been experienced during the Middle Ages, rather than in the early 19th century.

Thompson Hall, redolent of plum pudding and mince pie, green of holly, warmed by omnipotent Victorian fireplaces, awaits the arrival of Mr. and Mrs. Brown from the south of France. But they may never make it to Thompson Hall. The story opens in Paris at Le Grand Hotel, where Mr. Brown is down with "a throat condition"—he is unable to travel to England. Only Mrs. Brown is quite determined they will go on. So begins a Christmas tale complicated and simple, pathetic and farcical, embarrassing—even risque, though of course it could be read aloud to an assembled Victorian family.

Twenty stories were originally published in the Christmas editions of the magazines “Household Words” and “All The Year Round”. Some of the stories have little holiday sentiment and exhibit much of the indignation Dickens felt at the social and economic injustices of his day. Some of the stories were written in collaboration with other authors.

Howard's End is about three families in England at the beginning of the twentieth century. The three families represent different gradations of the Edwardian middle class: the Wilcoxes, who are rich capitalists with a fortune made in the Colonies; the half-German Schlegel siblings (Margaret, Tibby, and Helen), who represent the intellectual bourgeoisie and have a lot in common with the real-life Bloomsbury Group; and the Basts, a couple who are struggling members of the lower-middle class. The Schlegel sisters try to help the poor Basts and try to make the Wilcoxes less prejudiced.

Notes from Underground is an 1864 novella by Fyodor Dostoyevsky. Notes is considered by many to be the first existentialist novel. It presents itself as an excerpt from the rambling memoirs of a bitter, isolated unnamed narrator (generally referred to by critics as the Underground Man), who is a retired civil servant living in St. Petersburg. The first part of the story is told in monologue form or the underground man's diary, and attacks emerging Western philosophy

"The Murders in the Rue Morgue" is a short story written by Edgar Allan Poe in 1841. Poe referred to it as a "tale of ratiocination" featuring the brilliant deductions of C. Auguste Dupin; it is today regarded as one of the first detective stories and is almost certainly the first locked-room mystery. Auguste Dupin is a man in Paris who solves the mystery of the brutal murder of two women.

The Cricket on the Heart is a novella by Charles Dickens, published by Bradbury and Evans, and released 20 December 1845. Dickens began writing the book in October 1845 and finished it by December. Like all of Dickens’s Christmas books, it was published in book form, not as a serial. Dickens described the novel as “quiet and domestic innocent and pretty.” It is subdivided into chapters called “Chirps”, similar to the “Quarters” of The Chimes or the “Staves” of A Christmas Carol.

Kay Winston is a muralist and a runner. Not a break-the-tape-at-the-finish-line runner, but at the first sign of relationship trouble, she's gone. No need to hang around for the post-mortem; no need to make the pain last any longer than necessary. She isn't a sadist. She's practical and can be packed in less than three hours. Since the age of eight, the place she runs to is Bell Harbor, Maine. Barrett "Bear" Coulter is more of a long distance runner.

A mariner turned slaver captures and abuses a young island woman. Her practice of voudou reveals that she is not what she seems. Following the death of his entire crew by her hand, the mariner marries the priestess but is haunted by what he learns and what he must do to stop her. Fiction recounting history's only successful slave revolt: the colony of St. Domingue. Includes story synopsis. Author's note: The themes illustrated here are historically accurate but of an adult nature and disturbing. Please read with caution.

Il primo incontro con Fellini avviene sul set di 8½, dove la madre di Marina, Caterina Boratto, è stata presa per interpretare la Signora Misteriosa, ruolo che segna il suo ritorno alle scene dopo un lungo periodo di assenza. Subito tra la sedicenne Marina e il regista scatta un’affinità. Benché sia per natura diffidente con gli altri, e ancor più verso una personalità istrionica e sfuggente come quella di Fellini, Marina si lascia affascinare dal mondo del cinema e prende a frequentare il Teatro 5 di Cinecittà.

Il 27 marzo 1995 Maurizio Gucci, erede della favolosa dinastia dell'alta moda, mentre sta per raggiungere il suo ufficio di Milano viene assassinato a colpi di pistola da uno sconosciuto. Nel 1998, l'ex moglie Patrizia Reggiani Martinelli - soprannominata la "Vedova nera" dalla stampa - viene condannata a 29 anni di prigione come mandante dell'omicidio.

Imagine a world where everything is perfect. Everything. Harmony between all people...between humanity and nature...between people and God. Now imagine yourself transported to this paradise. Just when Carter Friese thinks life can’t get any better - it does. Carter is transported to Gomor, where he gets a taste of what his world (our world) would have looked like if no one ever sinned. Scene after scene unfolds to Carter’s amazement. As he grows in knowledge of God’s original plan for creation, he is satiated with joy and beauty.