Showing results by narrator "Robert Whitfield" in All Categories

Voyages of discovery, inventions, the revival of classical learning, and the advent of science contributed to the intellectual upheavals of this creative period, and are reflected in its literature and art. Hudson focuses on the one thread of continuity that he sees as both the seed and the fruit of this exciting era: the awakening of secular humanism and the emergence of the individual. This history gives the listener a lucid, perceptive analysis of the splendid Renaissance.

Young Oxford tutor Theodore Gumbril has become thoroughly dismayed by the formality of college life and the staid British institutions of learning. An impetuous need for celebration, even rebellion, possesses him. He and his bohemian companions embark on wild and daring "bacchanalian" adventures that steer them resolutely away from stifling conventions of behavior. Antic Hay, first published in 1923, is one of Aldous Huxley's earlier novels, and like them is primarily a 'novel of ideas' involving conversations which disclose viewpoints rather than establish characters; its polemical theme unfolds against the backdrop of London's post-war nihilistic Bohemia. This is Huxley at his biting, brilliant best -- a novel, loud with derisive laughter, which satirically scoffs at all conventional morality and at stuffy people everywhere -- a novel that's always charged with excitement.

Caught in the middle of the American Revolution against the English Crown, two families are divided by their loyalties. Dake Bradford, a blazing American patriot under the command of George Washington, has taken a stand against the British. Clive Gordon, a young physician and Dake's first cousin, is the son of an English colonel who has sworn to put down the rebellion. Fanned by fires of patriotism, sides have been drawn, and there can be no turning back.

As General George Washington makes a desperate attempt to forge an army that can stop the British from taking New York and defeating the Continental Army, the Bradford family is learning that serving God and serving one's country often calls for great sacrifice. Meanwhile, Clive Gordon, son of Colonel Leslie Gordon of the British army, falls in love with Katherine Yancy, a daring young woman whose father and uncle are patriot prisoners. When Clive crosses enemy lines to attempt their rescue, will he be shot as a spy?

One frozen night in Germany, Tracy Barnes witnesses the killing of her lover by the secret police. Years later, when the Berlin Wall has crumbled and old enemies are new friends, Tracy encounters the murderer and plans to make him pay.

Frank Harris, a journalist and editor, delighted in Oscar Wilde's genial wit and self-assurance. Wilde's verbal charms evoked Harris' financial and emotional support when Victorian England disdained the playwright for his paganism and imprisoned him for "homosexual offenses". Harris relates the proceedings of Wilde's trial and the malice that sent him to France after release from prison.

In 1899, in the south Indian village of Chevathar, renowned for its groves of a rare variety of blue mango, Solomon Dorai is contemplating the imminent destruction of his world and everything he holds dear. As the thalaivar or headman of Chevathar, he seeks to preserve the village from both catastrophe and change, and the decisions he makes will mark his family for generations to come.

Civilization may face no greater enemy than Saddam Hussein, and yet, as Richard Butler makes clear in his gripping and terrifying The Greatest Threat, the major powers allowed Saddam to face them down.