Showing results by publisher "MuseumAudiobooks.com" in Genre Fiction

Sir Thomas More (1478-1535) was an English lawyer, social philosopher, author, statesman, and Renaissance humanist. Utopia is a work of fiction and socio-political satire. He wrote Utopia, published in 1516, about an imaginary island society and its religious, social, and political customs. While imprisoned in the Tower of London in 1534, he wrote A Dialogue of Comfort Against Tribulation. It is a fictional dialogue focusing on the comfort of God in distress, the benefits of suffering, atonement for evil acts, faintheartedness and the temptation to suicide.

My Bondage and My Freedom is Frederick Douglass’s second autobiography, published 10 years after Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass. Written during his career as a newspaper editor and orator, the book placed Douglass in the international spotlight as a spokesman for American blacks. Examining the meaning of race, slavery and freedom, the book extends the story of his life by providing more detail on his childhood and including his experiences as a traveling lecturer in the United States and Europe.

Winesburg, Ohio is a short story cycle by Sherwood Anderson. The plot revolves around the life of George Willard, from his childhood to him leaving the town as an adult. The work comprises 22 stories, with the first, "The Book of the Grotesque", serving as introduction. The book is considered a pioneering work of modernist literature due to the prominence giving to the psychological insight of the characters and the simple prose style.

Dubliners is a collection of 15 short stories by James Joyce, first published in 1914. They provide a portrait of Irish middle class life in and around Dublin in the early years of the 20th century. Each of the stories offers glimpses into the lives of ordinary Dubliners, and together they paint a portrait of a nation. Ireland was at a crossroads of history and culture at that time, pursuing a search for national identity and purpose.

From a master storyteller of the Wild West comes Chu Chu, a story about a horse with a fascinating personality who refuses to be tamed.

Jacob's Room was Virginia Woolf’s third novel. It is a character study about Jacob Flanders and is narrated through the impressions of other characters about Jacob. The narrative mainly unfolds through the two women, Clara Durrant and Florinda, and the book is considered an important modernist text.

The Tale of Genji is an exquisitely crafted classic work of Japanese literature written in the 11th century. Some consider it to be the world's first novel, or the first modern or psychological novel. The narrative of 54 chapters is embellished by hundreds of little poems spread like a string of pearls through the prose. The story recounts the life of Hikaru Genji, the son of an ancient Japanese emperor and a concubine. Removed from the line of succession, Genji pursues a series of love affairs and a career as an imperial officer.

Anna Karenina is a complex novel in eight parts with more than a dozen major characters. The narrative deals with themes of betrayal, faith, family, marriage, and Russian society against a backdrop of rapid transformation due to the liberal reforms of Emperor Alexander II. The plot revolves around an extramarital affair between Anna and the cavalry officer Count Alexei Vronsky that scandalizes Saint Petersburg society and compels the young lovers to flee to Italy in search of an elusive happiness.

A classic of modernist literature, Ulysses by the Irish writer James Joyce, was published in 1922. It chronicles a day in the life of Leopold Bloom, his friends Buck Mulligan and Stephen Dedalus, his wife, Molly, and a cast of supporting characters. The novel is loosely based on the hero of Homer's epic poem the Odyssey and establishes a set of correspondences between the characters and experiences of Bloom and Odysseus, Stephen Dedalus and Telemachus, Molly Bloom and Penelope.

In this extraordinary novel by Max Brand, one of the masters of the Western, the incident that turns Andrew Lanning into a fugitive also marks the start of his rites of passage from youth to adult. Pursued by the formidable Hal Dozier, Andrew grows with every adventure of the fast moving plot which brings the Old West to life in cinematic detail. This is storytelling at its peak, encompassing suspense, wit, and romance in a flowing narrative with a delightful conclusion.

Al Mustafa is a young prophet preparing to depart from the city of Orphalese after a lengthy stay. The citizens beseech him to stay to no avail. Then they ask him to share his wisdom once more. He assents and speaks to them of love, marriage, children, work, joy, sorrow, freedom, teaching, friendship, beauty, and much more, promising to return one day.

Eugene begins his education at UNC as an alienated and out-of-place youth but becomes active in extracurricular activities like the debate club, philosophy association, campus magazine, and literary journal. Being extremely sensitive, the death of a roommate and of his brother severely affects him, as does a disappointment in love. After completing his studies and despite his mother’s pleading, he leaves North Carolina.

Villette (1853), was Charlotte Brontë's third novel and the last published during her lifetime. After an unspecified family catastrophe, the main character, Lucy Snowe, travels to Belgium to teach in a boarding school in the fictional town of Villette. She falls in love with a man she cannot marry, which triggers a nervous breakdown. Ultimately, a new, strong Lucy emerges who becomes the owner and head of her own school.

Set in 2540 CE, Brave New World is a dystopian novel by Aldous Huxley that was published in 1932. The novel takes place in a futuristic society called The World State, where life revolves around science and efficiency. Emotions and individuality are conditioned out of children, and citizens are socially engineered into an intelligence-based hierarchy. People are kept in a passive state through their consumption of a soothing drug called soma, and trouble-makers are exiled to various islands.

The Call of the Wild and White Fang are two masterpieces of American literature set in the desolate cold North. The Call of the Wild is the story of a gentle domestic dog that rejects civilization and returns to the wilderness due to the cruelty of mankind. White Fang is a companion narrative and a thematic mirror to The Call of the Wild; it tells the tale of a wolf-dog hybrid who struggles to survive and ultimately changes from a fearsome wild beast into a creature of love.

The Iliad - attributed to Homer - is the most famous ancient Greek epic poem. It recounts the struggle between King Agamemnon and the hero Achilles during the final months of the Trojan War, with frequent detours into earlier legends and myths. In its portrayal of battle scenes and the constant interventions of the gods, The Iliad explores themes of wrath, glory, and fate, and has provided the subject matter for many later Greek, Roman, and Renaissance writings.

Clotel; or, The President's Daughter: A Narrative of Slave Life in the United States is an 1853 novel by the author and playwright William Wells Brown. Set in the early 19th century, it is the story of Clotel and her sister Althesa, who are fictional slave daughters of Thomas Jefferson. It is considered the first novel published by an African American and explores the destructive effects of slavery on African American families, the difficult lives of mixed-race people, and the degraded and immoral condition of the relationship between master and slave.

Emile Zola applies his keen eye to the human condition in this masterpiece plagued by passions, guilt, and the ghosts that haunt our psyche. Often perceived as a play of temperaments, Zola tells the story of Therese’s unhappy marriage to Camille and her subsequent affair with one of her husband’s friends, Laurent. With his dark symbolism often reaching claustrophobic depths, we become more acquainted with what drives our most animalistic instincts.

The Red Badge of Courage is Civil War novel by the author Stephen Crane (1871-1900). The story is about a young private of the Union Army, Henry Fleming, who deserts the battlefield. Overcome with shame, he yearns for a wound, a "red badge of courage", to atone for his cowardice. When his regiment once again engages in battle, Henry becomes the standard-bearer who carries the flag.

Where Love Is, There God Is Also is a short story by Leo Tolstoy written in 1885, about a shoemaker named Martin Avdeitch. Martin had lost his wife and children, and in his grief, he denied God. One day, after a visit from a missionary, Martin bought a Bible and read about a Pharisee who had invited Jesus into his house, and about the woman who anointed and washed Jesus' feet with her tears. That night, he dreamed that God told him that He would visit him the next day.