A Room of One’s Own, by Virginia Woolf was first published in 1929. This feminist essay argues for both a literal and figural space for women writers within a literary tradition dominated by patriarchy. First published on 24 October 1929, the extended essay was based on a series of lectures delivered by Virginia Woolf at Cambridge University in October 1928. While it employs a fictional narrator and narrative to explore women both as writers of and characters in fiction, the manuscript for the delivery of the series of lectures, titled “Women and Fiction”, and hence the essay, are non-fiction. TRT (Total Running Time): 4 hours, 2 min. Adeline Virginia Woolf (1882-1941) was an English author, essayist, publisher, and writer of short stories, regarded as one of the foremost modernist literary figures of the twentieth century. During the interwar period, Woolf was a significant figure in London literary society and a member of the Bloomsbury Group. Her most famous works include the novels Mrs. Dalloway (1925), To the Lighthouse (1927), and Orlando (1928), and the book-length essay A Room of One's Own (1929), with its famous dictum, "A woman must have money and a room of her own if she is to write fiction."

A Room of One’s Own

Orlando: A Biography is a novel by Virginia Woolf, first published on 11 October 1928. Inspired by the tumultuous family history of the aristocratic poet and novelist Vita Sackville-West, Woolf's lover and close friend, it is arguably one of her most popular novels; Orlando is a history of English literature in satiric form. The book describes the adventures of a poet who changes sex from man to woman and lives for centuries, meeting the key figures of English literary history. Considered a feminist classic, the book has been written about extensively by scholars of women's writing and gender and transgender studies. The novel has been adapted a number of times. 1981, Ulrike Ottinger adapted it for her film Freak Orlando, with Magdalena Montezuma in the title role. In 1989, director Robert Wilson and writer Darryl Pinckney collaborated on a single-actor theatrical production. This had its British premiere at the Edinburgh Festival in 1996, with Miranda Richardson playing the title role; Isabelle Huppert performed in the version in French, which opened at the Théâtre Vidy-Lausanne in Lausanne (Switzerland) in 1993. A film adaptation by Sally Potter, simply titled Orlando, was released in 1992, starring Tilda Swinton in the title role. A stage adaption by Sarah Ruhl premiered in New York City in 2010, with another version premiering at the Garrick Theatre, London in 2022 starring Emma Corrin and directed by Michael Grandage. The novel has also been adapted into operatic works.

Orlando

Beyond Good and Evil confirmed Nietzsche's position as the towering European philosopher of his age. The work dramatically rejects the tradition of Western thought with its notions of truth and God, good and evil. Nietzsche demonstrates that the Christian world is steeped in a false piety and infected with a 'slave morality'. With wit and energy, he turns from this critique to a philosophy that celebrates the present and demands that the individual imposes their own 'will to power' upon the world.

Beyond Good and Evil

A Hunger Artist is a short story by Franz Kafka.     The protagonist, a hunger artist who experiences the decline in appreciation of his craft, is an archetypical creation of Kafka: an individual marginalized and victimized by society at large. The title of the story has been translated also to "A Fasting Artist" and "A Starvation Artist".    A Hunger Artist explores the familiar Kafka themes of death, art, isolation, asceticism, spiritual poverty, futility, personal failure and the corruption of human relationships.    There is a sharp division among critical interpretations of "A Hunger Artist". Most commentators concur that the story is an allegory, but they disagree as to what is represented. Some critics, pointing to the hunger artist's asceticism, regard him as a saintly or even Christ-like figure. In support of this view they emphasize the unworldliness of the protagonist, the priest-like quality of the watchers, and the traditional religious significance of the forty-day period. Other critics insist that A Hunger Artist is an allegory of the misunderstood artist, whose vision of transcendence and artistic excellence is rejected or ignored by the public. This interpretation is sometimes joined with a reading of the story as autobiographical. According to this view, this story, written near the end of Kafka's life, links the hunger artist with the author as an alienated artist who is dying.    The moral of the story, says literature critic Maud Ellmann, is that it is not by food that we survive but by the gaze of others and "it is impossible to live by hunger unless we can be seen or represent doing so".

A Hunger Artist

On her deathbed, Mathilda writes a letter to her only friend, revealing the dark secret of her past, a secret so shameful, she can only manage it now because her time is running out. Written between 1819 and 1820, author Mary Shelley unfortunately never saw this novella published. Though he enjoyed the writing, her father, William Godwin, refused to return the manuscript to her after she asked him to get it published in England, because he found the theme "disgusting and detestable". The world was, therefore, deprived of this beautifully written story about love and despair until 1959. Mary Shelley (1797-1851) was an English author, best known for her classic novel `Frankenstein‘ (1818). She got the idea for the novel at the age of eighteen when she was on holiday in Switzerland with Lord Byron and John William Polidori.

Svenska Ljud Classica

Mathilda

Diary of a Provincial Lady is a largely autobiographical novel by English author E. M. Delafield. It takes the form of a journal of the life of an upper-middle class Englishwoman living mostly in a Devon village of the 1930s. This largely autobiographical novel substituted the names of "Robin" and "Vicky" for her own children, Lionel and Rosamund. The book has never been out of print. Delafield became a director of Time and Tide, a British weekly political and literary review magazine. When the editor 'wanted some light "middles", preferably in serial form, she promised to think of something to submit'. It was thus, in 1930, that her most popular and enduring work Diary of a Provincial Lady was written. The novel inspired several sequels which chronicled later portions of her life: The Provincial Lady Goes Further, The Provincial Lady in America, and The Provincial Lady in Wartime. Diary of a Provincial Lady was first published in 1930. Audiobook read by Cori Samuel, running time 5 hours, 46 min. E-book: ePUB, 48,500 words, average reading time 4 hours.

The Provincial Lady

Diary of a Provincial Lady

Love and Friendship is a juvenile story by Jane Austen, dated 1790. While aged 11–18, Austen wrote her tales in three notebooks. These still exist, one in the Bodleian Library and the other two in the British Museum. They contain, among other works, Love and Freindship, written when she was 14, and The History of England, written at 15. Synopsis Letter The First From Isabel to Laura This presents a glimpse into the life of Laura from Isabel's perspective. Isabel asks Laura to tell the "misfortunes and adventures" of her life to Isabel's daughter Marianne (Austen 516). Isabel argues that because Laura is turning 55, she is past the danger of "disagreeable lovers" and "obstinate fathers" (Austen 516). This initial letter sets up the rest of Austen's narrative through Laura's letters to Marianne. Letter The Second Laura to Isabel This consists of a reply from Laura to Isabel. Laura initially disagrees with Isabel's assessment that she is safe from "misfortunes" simply because of her advanced age (Austen 516). Laura agrees to write to Marianne and detail her life experiences to "satisfy the curiosity of Marianne" and to teach her useful lessons (Poplawski 183). The useful lessons are lessons learned from the misfortunes caused by "disagreeable lovers" and "obstinate fathers" (Poplawski 183). Poplawski highlights the importance of the relationship between females and their lovers and also between females and their fathers as a means through which Austen is able to criticise stereotypical female behaviour. As seen throughout the work, these two relationships are constantly criticised by satirical anecdotes. Janetta's relations with her father and with her lover, Capitan M’Kenzie in the twelfth letter, shows Austen mocking the fickleness of family ties and romantic relationships.

Love and Friendship

A Hunger Artist by Franz Kafka is a short story by Franz Kafka first published in Die neue Rundschau in 1922. The story was also included in the collection A Hunger Artist (Ein Hungerkünstler), the last book Kafka prepared for publication, which was printed by Verlag Die Schmiede shortly after his death. The protagonist, a hunger artist who experiences the decline in appreciation of his craft, is typically Kafkaesque: an individual marginalized and victimized by society at large. "A Hunger Artist" explores themes such as death, art, isolation, asceticism, spiritual poverty, futility, personal failure and the corruption of human relationships. The title of the story has also been translated as "A Fasting Artist" and "A Starvation Artist". Plot "A Hunger Artist" is told retrospectively through third-person narration. The narrator looks back several decades from "today" to a time when the public marveled at the professional hunger artist and then depicts the waning interest in such displays. The story begins with a general description of "the hunger artist" before narrowing in on a single performer, the protagonist. The hunger artist traveled around performing for curious spectators. He would sit in a cage empty of anything except for a clock and some straw, always attended by rotating teams of watchers selected by the public (usually three butchers) to ensure he was not secretly eating. Despite such precautions, many, including some of the watchers themselves, were convinced the hunger artist cheated. Such suspicions annoyed the hunger artist, as did the forty-day limit imposed on his fasting by his promoter, or "impresario". The impresario insisted that, after forty days, public interest in the hunger artist inevitably declined, but the hunger artist found the time limit irksome and arbitrary, as it prevented him from bettering his own record and fasting indefinitely. At the end of a fast, the hunger artist, amid highly theatrical fanfare, would be carried from his cage and made to eat, both of which he always resented. These performances, followed by intervals of recuperation, were repeated for many years. Despite his fame, the hunger artist felt dissatisfied and misunderstood. If a spectator, observing his apparent melancholy, tried to console him, he would erupt in fury, shaking the bars of his cage.

When his wife cheats on him, Golden Walter leaves his mundane life to start a new one at sea. Horrific news forces him to turn around, however, but before he can reach home, a storm carries his ship to a faraway country. A country inhabited by people he has seen before. In a vison. With novels like `The Wood Beyond the World‘ (1894) William Morris has gone down in history as the forerunner for much of the modern-day fantasy genre. C.S. Lewis, who wrote `The Chronicles of Narnia‘, cited Morris as one of his favourite authors, and J.R.R. Tolkien was influenced by Morris‘ fantasies in writing `The Lord of the Rings‘ trilogy. William Morris (1834-1896) was a British writer, textile designer and Socialist. His earliest works were historical fiction, but today he is known for being the forerunner of modern-day fantasy. He took a keen interest in Iceland and translated a series of Icelandic sagas to English together with the Icelandic scholar Eiríkur Magnússon.

The Wood Beyond the World

To the Lighthouse is a 1927 novel by Virginia Woolf. The novel centres on the Ramsays and their visits to the Isle of Skye in Scotland between 1910 and 1920. Following and extending the tradition of modernist novelists like Marcel Proust and James Joyce, the plot of To the Lighthouse is secondary to its philosophical introspection. Cited as a key example of the stream-of-consciousness literary technique, the novel includes little dialogue and almost no action; most of it is written as thoughts and observations. The novel recalls childhood emotions and highlights adult relationships. Among the book's many tropes and themes are those of loss, subjectivity, and the problem of perception. In 1998, the Modern Library named To the Lighthouse No. 15 on its list of the 100 best English-language novels of the 20th century. In 2005, the novel was chosen by TIME magazine as one of the one hundred best English-language novels from 1923 to present. TRT (Total Running Time): 7 hours, 48 min. Reading by Cori Samuel. Adeline Virginia Woolf (1882-1941) was an English author, essayist, publisher, and writer of short stories, regarded as one of the foremost modernist literary figures of the twentieth century. During the interwar period, Woolf was a significant figure in London literary society and a member of the Bloomsbury Group. Her most famous works include the novels Mrs. Dalloway (1925), To the Lighthouse (1927), and Orlando (1928), and the book-length essay A Room of One's Own (1929), with its famous dictum, "A woman must have money and a room of her own if she is to write fiction."

To the Lighthouse

Ruth and Alice DeVere and their father Hosmer struggle to make ends meet in New York City - times are hard, even for a talented actor like Mr. DeVere. Just as he successfully auditions for a new play, an old voice affliction renders him terribly hoarse and he loses the role. Despite voice rest and medical treatment, Mr. DeVere's voice fails to improve, and it is impossible to find theatre work. A friend and neighbour in their apartment building suggests that Mr. DeVere tries acting in the moving pictures (which being silent, would not need him to speak at all) but Mr. DeVere considers that business to be common and cheap. However, when they receive an eviction notice, and local shops refuse to extend credit, Mr. DeVere may have no choice ... and where he goes, his daughters will follow.

The Moving Picture Girls

The Secret Agent is Conrad's dark, and darkly comic story of a band of spies, anarchists, agents-provocateurs plotting and counter-plotting in the back streets of London in the early 20th Century. The novel centers on Verloc, a shop-owner, phony-anarchist and double-agent, who becomes embroiled in an ambitious terrorist plan to bomb the Greenwich Observatory. It also bleakly satirises early 20th Century anarchism and the operations of the police and intelligence forces, while being none too complimentary about the media and general public either. Joseph Conrad (born Józef Teodor Konrad Korzeniowski) was a Polish author who wrote in English after settling in England. He was granted British nationality in 1886, but always considered himself a Pole. Conrad is regarded as one of the greatest novelists in English, although he did not speak the language fluently until he was in his twenties (and always with a marked accent). He wrote stories and novels, often with a nautical setting, that depict trials of the human spirit in the midst of an indifferent universe. He was a master prose stylist, who brought a distinctly non-English tragic sensibility into English literature.

The Secret Agent

Adolf Verlof runs a sex shop in 1880’s London, but his real profession is even shadier. He’s a so-called "agent provocateur" for the Embassy, whose mission it is to infiltrate and spy on a relatively harmless group of anarchists. His employers are impatiently waiting for the group to do something radical enough that they can use it as an excuse to harden their actions against the many socialist and anarchistic groups that are sprouting up around the country. To move things along, they order Verlof to get the group to plant a bomb at Greenwich Observatory, a place that symboles world order. Joseph Conrad (1857-1924) was a Polish-born author who left Poland in his teens to avoid enlistment in the Russian Army. He learned English aboard British ships and started writing in that language after settling in England. His most famous novel is "Heart of Darkness" (1899), which was inspired by his experiences on the open sea.

World Classics

Orlando: A Biography is a novel by Virginia Woolf, first published in 1928. A high-spirited romp inspired by the tumultuous family history of Woolf's partner, the aristocratic poet and novelist Vita Sackville-West, it is arguably one of Woolf's most popular and accessible novels: a history of English literature in satiric form. The book describes the adventures of a poet who changes sex from man to woman and lives for centuries, meeting the key figures of English literary history. Considered a feminist classic, the book has been written about extensively by scholars of women's writing and gender and transgender studies. TRT (Total Running Time): 8 hours, 44 min. Adeline Virginia Woolf (1882-1941) was an English author, essayist, publisher, and writer of short stories, regarded as one of the foremost modernist literary figures of the twentieth century. During the interwar period, Woolf was a significant figure in London literary society and a member of the Bloomsbury Group. Her most famous works include the novels Mrs. Dalloway (1925), To the Lighthouse (1927), and Orlando (1928), and the book-length essay A Room of One's Own (1929), with its famous dictum, "A woman must have money and a room of her own if she is to write fiction."

Orlando: A Biography

Black Beauty: His Grooms and Companions, the Autobiography of a Horse is an 1877 novel by English author Anna Sewell. It was composed in the last years of her life, during which she was bedridden and seriously ill. The novel became an immediate best-seller, with Sewell dying just five months after its publication, but having lived long enough to see her only novel become a success. With fifty million copies sold, Black Beauty is one of the best-selling books of all time. While forthrightly teaching animal welfare, it also teaches how to treat people with kindness, sympathy, and respect. In 2003, the novel was listed at number 58 on the BBC's survey The Big Read. It is seen as a forerunner of the pony book.

Black Beauty

Black Beauty is an 1877 novel by English author Anna Sewell. It was composed in the last years of her life, during which she remained in her house as an invalid. The novel became an immediate best-seller, with Sewell dying just five months after its publication, but long enough to see her only novel become a success. With fifty million copies sold, Black Beauty is one of the best-selling books of all time. While forthrightly teaching animal welfare, it also teaches how to treat people with kindness, sympathy, and respect. Black Beauty became a forerunner to the pony book genre of children's literature. In 2003, the novel was listed at number 58 on the BBC's survey The Big Read. The story is narrated in the first person as an autobiographical memoir told by the titular horse named Black Beauty—beginning with his carefree days as a colt on an English farm with his mother, to his difficult life pulling cabs in London, to his happy retirement in the country. Along the way, he meets with many hardships and recounts many tales of cruelty and kindness. Each short chapter recounts an incident in Black Beauty's life containing a lesson or moral typically related to the kindness, sympathy, and understanding treatment of horses, with Sewell's detailed observations and extensive descriptions of horse behavior lending the novel a good deal of realism. The book has been adapted into film and television several times. Anna Sewell (1820–1878) was an English novelist, best known as the author of the classic novel Black Beauty. Sewell's only published work was Black Beauty, written during 1871 to 1877, after she had moved to Old Catton, a village outside the city of Norwich in Norfolk. During this time her health was declining. She was often so weak that she was confined to her bed and writing was a challenge. She dictated the text to her mother and from 1876 began to write on slips of paper which her mother then transcribed. Sewell sold the novel to local publisher Jarrolds on 24 November 1877, when she was 57 years of age. Although it is now considered a children's classic, she originally wrote it for those who worked with horses. She said "a special aim [was] to induce kindness, sympathy, and an understanding treatment of horses". Sewell died on 25 April 1878, five months after her book was published, living long enough to see its initial success.

Told from the perspective of a horse, Black Beauty (1877) dives into the topic of animal rights like no other novel. Black Beauty is raised by a caring mother on an idyllic farm, not knowing that he will never be as free again. Tossed from owner to owner, he encounters mistreatment in many forms, but luckily, his journey is not without love either. Being herself an invalid, author Anna Sewell (1820-1878) seemed particularly aware of the importance of kindness toward all living creatures. She wrote Black Beauty – her only novel – in the final years of her life, and lived just long enough to see its positive reception. In the years after her death, Black Beauty would become the foundation for change in horse welfare in both England and the US. Anna Sewell (1820-1878) was the author of the classic novel, Black Beauty (1877), a heart-wrenching story told from the perspective of a horse. At the age of 14, Sewell fell and injured both ankles while walking home from school, an accident from which she never recovered.

The Scarlet Letter is a novel by Nathaniel Hawthorne first published in 1850. The Scarlet Letter: A Romance is set in a historical setting, written by Nathaniel Hawthorne, and is considered to be his best work. Set in 17th-century Puritan Boston, Massachusetts, during the years 1642 to 1649, it tells the story of Hester Prynne, who conceives a daughter through an affair while her husband is missing at sea. Hester struggles to create a new life of repentance and dignity. The Puritan Elders of the New England settlement of Boston, where she lives, condemn her to wear a scarlet letter A to signify her adultery. She refuses to name her lover, and he too keeps his silence, but with a terrible cost. Throughout the book, Hawthorne explores themes of legalism, sin, and guilt. The tale is prefaced with an account of the Salem Custom-house where Nathaniel Hawthorne was working when he began writing The Scarlet Letter. Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804-1864) was an American novelist and short story writer. He was born in 1804 in Salem, Massachusetts and his ancestors include John Hathorne, the only judge involved in the Salem witch trials who never repented of his actions. Nathaniel later added a "w" to make his name "Hawthorne" in order to hide this relation. Hawthorne's works belong to romanticism or, more specifically, dark romanticism, cautionary tales that suggest that guilt, sin, and evil are the most inherent natural qualities of humanity. Many of his works are inspired by Puritan New England, combining historical romance loaded with symbolism and deep psychological themes, bordering on surrealism.

The Scarlet Letter

When an army of invading Martians lands in England, panic and terror seize the population. As the aliens traverse the country in huge three-legged machines, incinerating all in their path with a heat ray and spreading noxious toxic gases, the people of the Earth must come to terms with the prospect of the end of human civilization and the beginning of Martian rule.    Inspiring films, radio dramas, comic-book adaptations, television series and sequels,The War of the Worlds is a prototypical work of science fiction which has influenced every alien story that has come since, and is unsurpassed in its ability to thrill, well over a century since it was first published.

The War of the Worlds

Immerse yourself in the captivating world of Nathaniel Hawthorne's "The Scarlet Letter." Set in Puritan New England, this timeless classic delves into themes of sin, guilt, and redemption. The story follows Hester Prynne, a woman branded with a scarlet letter "A" for adultery, as she navigates the complexities of societal judgment and personal redemption. Hawthorne's exquisite prose and rich symbolism bring the characters to life, while exploring the human condition with profound insight. Prepare to be enthralled by the themes of morality, love, and the power of individuality that continue to resonate with readers today.

The Water Babies, A Fairy Tale for a Land Baby is a children's novel by the Reverend Charles Kingsley. Written in 1862-1863 as a serial for Macmillan's Magazine, it was first published in its entirety in 1863. The book was extremely popular in England during its day, and was a mainstay of British children's literature for many decades.

The Water-Babies

Tom, a poor orphan, is employed by the villainous chimney-sweep, Grimes, to climb up inside flues to clear away the soot. While engaged in this dreadful task, he loses his way and emerges in the bedroom of Ellie, the young daughter of the house who mistakes him for a thief. He runs away, and, hot and bothered, he slips into a cooling stream, falls fast asleep, and becomes a water baby.    In this new life, he meets all sorts of aquatic creatures, including an engaging old lobster, other water babies, and at last reaches St Branden's Isle where he encounters the fierce Mrs Bedonbyasyoudid and the motherly Mrs Doasyouwouldbedoneby. After a long and arduous quest to the Other-end-of-Nowhere young Tom achieves his heart's desire.

‘Aunt Crete’s Emancipation’ follows Miss Lucretia Ward or ‘Crete’ to her family, as she navigates life with her rude sister Carrie and her spoilt niece Luella. They treat the older Crete like a maid more than a family member but everything will change when cousin Donald Grant visits from out west. Carrie and Luella shun the ‘backwoods’ cousin but Crete welcomes him with loving and open arms, changing everyone’s lives forever. If you love Cinderella this story is perfect for you, it is a loving and relaxed read, full of brilliant characters and description, where goodness is satisfyingly rewarded and evil punished. Grace Livingston Hill was the pen name of American author Marcia Macdonald (1865-1947). She came from a family of authors and began writing short stories from a young age for her aunt’s weekly children magazine ‘The Pansy’. As a young woman she wrote to help bring funds in for her family. Funds became an even larger motivation following the loss of her first husband and then father only a year later. In her career, Hill published over 100 novels and short stories, they often featured young Christian women in love, the theme of good versus evil, and the importance of redemption.

Aunt Crete's Emancipation

Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus by Mary Shelley is an 1818 novel written by English author Mary Shelley. Frankenstein tells the story of Victor Frankenstein, a young scientist who creates a sapient creature in an unorthodox scientific experiment. Shelley started writing the story when she was 18, and the first edition was published anonymously in London on 1 January 1818, when she was 20. Her name first appeared in the second edition, which was published in Paris in 1821. Shelley travelled through Europe in 1815, moving along the river Rhine in Germany, and stopping in Gernsheim, 17 kilometres (11 mi) away from Frankenstein Castle, where, two centuries before, an alchemist had engaged in experiments. She then journeyed to the region of Geneva, Switzerland, where much of the story takes place. Galvanism and occult ideas were topics of conversation for her companions, particularly for her lover and future husband Percy B. Shelley. In 1816 Mary, Percy and Lord Byron had a competition to see who could write the best horror story. After thinking for days, Shelley was inspired to write Frankenstein after imagining a scientist who created life and was horrified by what he had made. Though Frankenstein is infused with elements of the Gothic novel and the Romantic movement, Brian Aldiss has argued for regarding it as the first true science-fiction story.

Frankenstein; or The Modern Prometheus

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