Showing results by narrator "Rob Goll" in All Categories

Lamia is a tragic narrative poem in two parts. It was written in 1819 and first published in 1820 with "Isabella" and "The Eve of St. Agnes". The Greek god Hermes has left Olympus in search of a beautiful nymph. He comes across Lamia, a woman trapped in the form of a snake, who promises to reveal the nymph to him if he, in exchange, restores her human form so she may seek the love of Lycius, a youth of Corinth.

The lyrical ballad The Lady of Shalott is one of Tennyson's best-known and best-loved poems. It is based on the story of Elaine of Astolat, a figure from Arthurian legend, who dies from her unrequited love for Sir Lancelot. The subject matter provided inspiration for many of the Pre-Raphaelite painters. Tennyson published two versions of the poem, both of which are included in this recording. The first was written in 1832, and the second—the better-known of the two versions—in 1842.

The Cricket on the Hearth, published in 1845, is the third in Charles Dickens' series of "Christmas Books." The story centers around the hearth and home of the good-hearted carrier, John Peerybingle, and his young wife Mary—affectionately called Dot by her husband. Their baby boy is cared for by a clumsy nanny, Tilly Slowboy. The household is completed by Boxer the dog and the cricket on the hearth, who acts as a guardian angel to the family. When disaster looms following the arrival of an elderly stranger, the cricket appears in fairy form to save the day.

On New Year's Eve, an elderly ticket porter, Toby "Trotty" Veck, a hardworking but poor man, is disillusioned with the state of the world. He is appalled by newspaper reports of crime and immorality, and fears for the future prospects of his daughter, Meg, who is to be married on New Year's Day. Trotty has always fancied that the bell chimes of the nearby church offer him encouragement when he is most in need. On this particular night, he is drawn to the church tower, where he is greeted by the spirits of the bells and their goblin attendants who show him a vision of the future.

The Hound of the Baskervilles (1902) re-introduced the world to the famous consulting detective Sherlock Holmes, who Arthur Conan Doyle seemingly killed off in 1894 in his story "The Final Problem." Based on British legend, this novella has Holmes and his colleague Dr. Watson trying to solve a supernatural killing in the wilds of Devonshire.

The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes is the second published collection of short stories featuring the famous consulting detective and his friend and colleague Dr. Watson.

John Keats (1795-1821) was one of the foremost English Romantic poets. Despite his early death from tuberculosis at the age of 25 he had a considerable poetic output, the majority of his best-known works being written in the year 1819. The six odes composed during this year are among his most famous and well-regarded poems. The first five were composed during the spring of 1819, while 'To Autumn' was composed in September. The exact order of composition of the first five is unknown.

Mr. Redlaw is a chemistry professor tormented by painful memories of the sorrow, wrong, and trouble he has suffered in his life. On Christmas Eve, he is visited by a phantom, the double of himself, who offers him the gift of forgetting these painful memories. The catch is that others who come into contact with the professor will also lose the remembrance of their past hurts and sorrows. Redlaw is hesitant at first but, believing his life will be better and happier, he accepts the ghost's bargain.

The Return of Sherlock Holmes picks up where the previous collection of Holmes stories left off: with the great detective's return from the dead in "The Empty House." This and the twelve other stories in the anthology—including "The Dancing Men," "The Solitary Cyclist," "The Six Napoleons," and "The Second Stain"—are absolute classics of detective fiction centered on the genius Holmes and his loyal friend and companion Dr. Watson

An anthology of writings for the Christmas season from the pen of Charles Dickens.