Fiction audiobooks page 149

Candide vivait paisible et innocent chez le baron de Thunder-ten-tronckh, en Westphalie. Dans son château, le précepteur Pangloss (« qui discourt de tout » en grec), représentation de Gottfried Leibniz, professait un optimisme béat. Candide partageait cette plénitude d’autant plus qu’il était amoureux de Cunégonde, fille du baron. Un jour, ce même baron surprend leurs amours et chasse Candide à coups de pied « dans le derrière ».
(Résumé par Wikipédia)

This novella tells the tale of a young man, Candide (meaning “ingenuous”), who has been indoctrinated with Leibnizian optimism but becomes disillusioned after witnessing and experiencing many great hardships.

Swann's Way is the first book in the seven-volume work In Search of Lost Time, or Remembrance of Things Past, by Marcel Proust. It is a novel written in the form of an autobiography. Proust's most prominent work, it is popularly known for its length and the notion of involuntary memory, the most famous example being the "episode of the madeleine."

Een hollandsche jonge man, Bertie, een liederlijke vagabond, die te Londen door eenen vriend in huis genomen een wereldsche fat wordt van de oneerlijkste soort, die in 't geheim alles doet om zijnen vriend (Frank) het leven te bederven, welke bij diens geliefde zijne eerlijkheid en goede trouw met alle intriganten-manieien ondermijnt, hem zijn geld aftrochelt, om hem te verraden, en dan de verantwoordelijkheid voor die daden van zich afschuift, op het Schicksal, op het Fatum, dat is de hoofdpersoon.

Daar tegenover staat de vriend Frank, een recht onnoozele bloed, die het hart van een eerlijk meisje wegens zijne eerlijkheid heeft veroverd, doch weldra mistrouwd wordt, ten gevolg...

This is a collection of essays, verbal sketches, and stories by Washington Irving. Irving lived at the Alhambra Palace while writing some of the material for his book. In 1828, Washington Irving traveled from Madrid, where he had been staying, to Granada, Spain. At first sight, he described it as "a most picturesque and beautiful city, situated in one of the loveliest landscapes that I have ever seen." He immediately asked the then-governor of the historic Alhambra Palace as well as the archbishop of Granada for access to the palace, which was granted because of Irving's celebrity status. Aided by a 35-year old guide named Mateo Ximenes, Irving was inspired by his experience to write Tale...

Appreciations, with an Essay on Style, is a collection of Walter Pater's previously-published essays on literature. The collection was well received by public and critic since its first edition, in 1889. The volume includes an appraisal of the poems of Dante Gabriel Rossetti, first printed in 1883, a few months after Rossetti's death; an essay on Thomas Browne, whose Baroque style Pater admired; and a discussion of Measure for Measure, one of Pater's most often reprinted pieces. The second edition, published in 1890, had a few modifications, and is the basis for all other editions of the book.

This how-to book includes chapters on getting ready, mapping the garden, planting, seeds, early work, house plants, fruits, hot beds and cold frames, and small gardens. There is even a chapter "expressly for women."

This novel, published in 1856, was one of the popular and beloved novels in the Victorian era. It is told in the first person by Phineas Fletcher, an invalid son of a Quaker tanner who is presented to us in the beginning as a lonely youth. John Halifax, the first friend he ever had, is a poor orphan who is taken in by his father to help in the work which his sickly son can't constantly do. Phineas tells us in an unforgettable way how John succeeded in rising from his humble beginning and become a wealthy and successful man. But with the money come horrible troubles... In an unforgettable manner, we learn to know all the characters of the novel as if they really lived.

Neben den "Alemannischen Gedichten" sind die Kalendergeschichten das zweite bekannte Werk von Johann Peter Hebels. Er verfaßte sie für den Rheinländischen Hausfreund. Dieser alte lutherisch-badische Landkalender hatte Anfang des 19. Jahrhunderts Absatzschwierigkeiten, und Hebel war Mitglied einer Kommission, die Verbesserungsvorschläge erarbeiten sollte. Im Laufe der Diskussionen wurde Hebel schließlich Redakteur für den neuen Kalender, der den Namen Rheinländischer Hausfreund trug und erstmals 1807 erschien. Eine der wichtigsten Neuerungen des Hausfreundes war der vergrößerte Textteil, in dem "lehrreiche Nachrichten und lustige Geschichten" veröffentlicht wurden. Hebel selbst verfasste j...

Charles Kingsley (June 12 1819 - January 23 1875) was an English divine, university professor, historian, and novelist, particularly associated with the West Country and north-east Hampshire. As a novelist, his chief power lay in his descriptive faculties, which are evident in this novel as he pictures the Egyptian desert and the ancient city Alexandria.

Hypatia, 1st published in 1853, is set in 5th Century A.D. Egypt. It centers upon a young orphan monk from a desert monastery who feels called to continue his religious life in the city. He discovers a sister, who is a prostitute living with a band of Goths. Other characters include Hypatia, a lady philosopher based on a hist...

“We shall in this book try to go in the footsteps of Paul. It will not be all easy traveling for any of us, to journey with this daring explorer of the Unseen; there is some steep hill-climbing, some scrambling over boulders, long flat tramps over the plain, and dangerous sea-journeys for anyone who will attempt really to follow the life of this man whose eager brain was ever ‘Voyaging on strange seas of thought/Alone!’ But, if you will … trudge by him till you really know him, you will have found for yourself one of the great companions of the world.” (From the Introduction)