Showing results by narrator "Sara Nichols" in All Categories

Viewed from an historical perspective, Jane Austen's novels should not exist. She was born during a period where female writers (if they dared to write at all) were dismissed, ignored, and dissuaded from writing altogether. The fact that Ms. Austen went ahead and created the novels contained in this collection—which have gone on to become some of the most treasured books in literary history—is nothing short of a miracle.

In Volume II, we present Austen's timeless classics "Sense and Sensibility," "Northanger Abbey" and "Emma." Though the books only received modest attention and few reviews at the time of their first release ("Northanger Abbey" was, in fact, published posthumously), all of these books have gone on to become best-sellers are now considered to be among the finest examples of 19th century literature.

In the story, we meet Mrs. Dashwood and her three daughters, who are betrayed by a family member and left in dire financial straits. Since none of the girls will come with a dowry, the prospects of their marrying well are extremely unlikely. One day, while out for a walk in the rain, the middle daughter, Marianne, twists her ankle and is rescued by the handsome Mr. Willoughby. Though cautioned by her older sister Elinor to be wary, Marianne - blinded by love - rushes into the budding romance headlong...with grim consequences.

A powerful and disturbing adventure story set in the wilds of Mexico after the First World War, "The Treasure of the Sierra Madre" is B. Traven's much-beloved and thrilling tale of three desperate men who set out to make their fortune in the gold-filled Sierra Madre Mountains...and wind up confronting their own greed and paranoia along the way.

This is a SoundCraft Audiobooks production - enhanced with music and sound effects - of two of Lewis Carroll's classic tales of nonsense and imagination. Here, brought together in a single volume, are the complete tales of young Alice, a girl who dreams of fantastical lands full of talking rabbits, grinning cats, mad hatters, and vengeful queens.

Few families in history can boast of the incredible literary achievements of the Brontë sisters - Anne, Emily and Charlotte - who penned three of the most beloved novels ever written: Anne's "The Tenant of Wildfell Hall," Emily's "Wuthering Heights" and Charlotte's "Jane Eyre." Collected here are all three of these classic novels, plus a pair of essays penned by Charlotte fiercely defending her sister's books and drawing attention to the literary misogyny of the time, which forced the sisters to publish their novels under male pseudonyms.

My Ántonia relates the story of two young arrivals in Nebraska in the 1880s: Jim Burden and Ántonia Shimerda. Jim is an orphan, traveling to Nebraska to live with his grandparents, while Ántonia is emigrating to Nebraska with her Bohemian parents and siblings. The novel follows the pair as they become fast friends and experience life (and great challenges) on the Western prairie.

"A Room of One's Own" began life as a pair of lectures delivered by Virginia Woolf in October 1928 at Newnham College and Girton College, women's colleges at the University of Cambridge and was published as a stand-alone book in 1929. In this brilliant examination of literature, history and gender discrimination, Woolf posits that the dearth of female writers in literature did not result from a lack of talent; it was the lack of opportunity.

The Prairie Trilogy is a series of three novels centered around life in the Midwest during the late 19th/early 20th centuries by Pulitzer Prize-winning author Willa Cather. First, in "O Pioneers!," we meet Alexandra Bergson, who inherits the family farm after her father dies and leaves her to care for her three siblings. While many immigrant families are giving up their farms and moving back to the city (or to their home countries), Alexandra decides to try to tough it out on the prairie.

This is a SoundCraft Audiobooks production - enhanced with music and sound effects - of a book long hailed as one of the great classics of children's literature. The Wonderful Wizard of Oz tells the story of a young orphan girl, Dorothy, who is caught up in a cyclone and transported to the magical kingdom of Oz. In order to return home, Dorothy is instructed to travel to the City of Emeralds and ask the Wonderful Wizard of Oz for his help in getting her back to Kansas.

"Emma" is the fourth book by celebrated British author Jane Austen and the final book to be published during her lifetime. The story concerns Emma Woodhouse, a precocious young lady who fancies herself a matchmaker and thus intrudes upon the love lives of her friends and relations to find them suitable mates. When she attempts to cement the romance between her cousin Harriet (a girl of modest means) and a wealthy suitor, Emma is admonished by her brother-in-law, Mr. Knightley, for her meddling and a series of romantic entanglements soon ensues.

Perhaps the most famous labor activist and union organizer in history, Mary Harris Jones was an Irish emigre, who watched her husband and four children die of yellow fever, saw her modest dressmaking shop go up in flames in the Great Chicago Fire, and, as a lonely, poor widow in the late 19th century, was facing a bleak future.

When the New Mexico territory is annexed by the United States in the mid-1800's, the Catholic Church decides it is time to re-assert its authority in the region which, due to centuries of neglect, is now a haven for corrupt priests. The Vatican chooses Father Jean Marie Latour, a French Jesuit living in Ohio, to accomplish this task, and soon after elevating him to bishop, sends him on his journey into the Wild West.

Pooh and all of his friends are here: Piglet, Eeyore, Tigger, Rabbit, Owl, Kanga, Roo, and Christopher Robin. As they explore the Hundred Acre Wood, they have all sorts of adventures: tracking the Heffalump, visiting with Rabbit (and getting stuck in a very tight place), dressing up as a little black rain cloud to get honey from the bees, and even going on an "expotition" to the North Pole!

Ruth Stiles Gannett's beloved tale of adventure and exploration, My Father's Dragon, takes the listener on a trip to Wild Island, where the narrator's intrepid young father must navigate a maze of exotic animals—including a rhino, a lion, and some hungry alligators—to rescue an imprisoned baby dragon. At once hilarious and exciting, My Father's Dragon is one of the most honored and cherished children's books of the 20th century. This volume is presented in its original and unabridged format.

Anne's once-wealthy father - widowed for fourteen years - has fallen into financial ruin and the family is forced to rent their estate and move to more modest accommodations. What's more, the family that moves in to the house is that of Captain Wentworth, who Anne rejected as a suitor years before due to his lack of prospects but who has now risen in the military ranks to become wealthy and prosperous.

"The Tenant of Wildfell Hall" is Anne Brontë's wildly successful and best-known novel. Written in 1848 under the pseudonym "Acton Bell" (each of the Brontë sisters wrote under pen names), it proved to be the most popular book written by the three sisters during their lifetimes. It tells the story of Helen Graham, a young woman who is courted by and marries the spoiled and self-involved Arthur Huntingdon, a charming suitor but a disastrous and cruel husband.

The autobiographical first novel by Etsu Inagaki Sugimoto, A Daughter of the Samurai tells the incredible true story of a young girl born into a high-status family in Nagaoka, Japan, whose father, a samurai, is stripped of his power when the feudal system in Japan collapses and his family is thrown into turmoil and uncertainty. Originally destined to become a priestess, young Etsu is instead betrothed to a wealthy Japanese merchant in Cincinnati, Ohio, and makes the unlikely and culturally jarring journey from the Japanese countryside to the American Midwest.

Collected here are three of Dorothy Parker's earliest works: two collections of poetry—Enough Rope and Sunset Gun as well as her short, hilarious collection of stories recounting all of the men she managed to avoid marrying named (appropriately) Men I'm Not Married To.

Presented here are three of the most popular children's books of all time: A.A. Milne's Winnie-the-Pooh, Ruth Stiles Gannett's My Father's Dragon, and Hugh Lofting's The Story of Doctor Dolittle.