"Peace from Heaven" is an impressionistic poem written by Louisa May Alcott that weaves together pagan and Christian imagery to communicate the special magic of the Christmas season. ...
Originally published in the 1850 Christmas edition of Dickens' journal Household Words, A Christmas Tree is considered to be one of Dickens's more autobiographical pieces. In it, decorations on the Christmas tree trigger the narrator's memories of Christmases past. This version of A Christmas Tree is part of Dreamscape's The Christmas Stories of Charles Dickens. ...
Following her recent adaptation of Great Expectations, bestselling novelist and award-winning audiobook narrator Alison Larkin changes the gender of Scrooge in this exciting new recording of A Christmas Carol. It's the same beloved Christmas story – only one thing has changed. In this version, Scrooge is a woman. Everything else, though, is pure Dickens. So, the characters around Scrooge behave as if it were quite normal for a woman to le ...
Chosen for inclusion in William Evans Burton's Cyclopediae of Wit and Humor of 1857, with an illustration by Henry Louis Stephens, The Lightning-Rod Man was the one Melville tale to be available throughout his lifetime, thanks to reissues of this volume. More a parable than a character-driven story, The Lightning-rod man is a charlatan who tries to profit by selling fearful people lightning-rods during thunderstorms. The narrator has a diff ...
Considered to be the least characteristic of Melville's stories, somewhat resembling the work of Nathaniel Hawthorne and Edgar Allan Poe, The Bell-Tower is a dark literary work that explores, though never fully reveals, its central mystery. An eccentric artist and architect dreams up plans for a magnificent bell tower. After receiving approval from the city, he happily begins construction. When city residents begin to notice strange occurre ...
Siddhartha, a 1922 novel by Hermann Hesse, deals with the spiritual journey of self-discovery of a man named Siddhartha during the time of the Gautama Buddha. After learning what he can from Goutama, the young man decides to go off into the busy city, and leads a life of greed and lust. When he realizes that the lifestyle is not fulfilling, he reflects on his life and goes to a river to contemplate suicide. However, it is here that Siddhartha me ...
Everybody knows A Christmas Carol, but the prolific Charles Dickens wrote several other holiday tales. Here, Dreamscape Media has compiled a collection of Dickens' classic Christmas stories. Disc one includes: A Christmas Tree; What Christmas is as We Grow Older. Disc two contains: What Christmas is as We Grow Older (continued); The Poor Relation's Story; The Child's Story; The Schoolboy's Story; Nobody's Story. ...
Burdened by poverty and spiritually dulled by a loveless marriage to Zeena, his older and ailing wife, Ethan Frome is emotionally stirred by the arrival of their youthful cousin, Mattie Silver, who becomes employed as household help. Mattie's presence not only brightens a gloomy house but also stirs long-dormant feelings in Ethan. However, their growing love for each other is discovered by the embittered Zeena, and it presages an ending to ...
Robinson Crusoe is the classic tale about one man's lust for adventure. Crusoe leaves his parents and hometown for the open sea in the year 1651. But the ocean can be unforgiving and Crusoe, unfortunately, learns this the hard way. Through a series of wild events he ends up shipwrecked on a shore in South America, being forced to salvage what he can in order to survive. Overcoming his despair, Crusoe begins a new life on this island searchi ...
