検索キーワード： 制作 "MuseumAudiobooks.com" 文学・フィクション

This 1906 short story collection by O. Henry presents some of his most famous stories like "The Gift of the Magi" and "The Cop and the Anthem". The title refers to the population of New York city at that time and was a witty response to a newspaper editorial stating New York only held 400 people worth knowing. These short stories strongly communicate the fragile nature of human relations and are combined with O. Henry’s legendary moral lessons.

First published in the English literary anthology annual The Keepsake in 1833 by Mary Shelly, master of Gothic fiction, The Invisible Girl is a story about the turbulence of secret love. Like much of her work, Shelly blends the dark and the supernatural with elements of romance and intimacy and unravels this story within a story with aplomb, and the setting of rural Wales in the early 19th century lends to the foreboding and bittersweet tone of the tale.

The great scientists Louis Pasteur (1822-1893) and Joseph Lister (1827-1912) revolutionized medical practice in the 19th century. Pasteur's discovery of the cause of fermentation formed the basis of modern germ theory while Lister developed antiseptic surgical methods based on that. The book contains a description of the theory, and accounts of their work and experiments.

athaniel Hawthorne, American novelist and short story writer, delivers a quintessentially dark short story in the form of "Peter Goldthwaite’s Treasure". Originally published in 1838 and is part of Hawthorne’s short story collection Twice-Told Tales, "Peter Goldthwaite’s Treasure" follows the eponymous Peter Goldthwaite as he tears his family home apart from top to bottom, spurning all good advice and lucrative alternatives, in search of treasure that has purportedly been stashed somewhere within the structure by his ancestor.

Mark Twain wrote this witty satire in response to a request by editors of the New York World to contribute a humorous essay describing his first lie. He used the opportunity for discussion on the nature of lying, including "the lie of silent assertion". He pointed out the difference between a spoken lie and any other, as well as the fact that we readily condemn a lie by an individual but rarely challenge the false assumptions on which entire nations and institutions base their existence.

Ambrose Bierce, American Civil War veteran, poet, essayist, and short story writer was known as ‘Bitter Bierce’ for his caustic sense of humour and biting wit. In his short story, "One Summer Night", Bierce lives up to his nickname. The story centers around a man who has been buried alive, as well as a pair of medical students and a cemetery caretaker who are about to unwittingly dig him up. This short and effective tale is full of intriguing characters, dark humor, and unexpected turns and is a great example of the severely underrated Ambrose Bierce’s writing.

Christmas Night with Satan has nothing to do with the supernatural and isn’t a classic Christmas tale. It’s instead the account of a little domestic dog who got out on Christmas Eve and ends up among a pack of strays. Nearly losing his life, he undergoes some hair raising adventures before being rescued.

In this touching New Year's story, a family discovers another family nearby who is starving. They take food and milk and warm clothes and see to it that the poor family enjoys a very happy breakfast.

"Luck" was published in 1891 in Harper's Magazine and received little attention at the time. The English military hero, Lord Arthur Scoresby, is an idiot who blunders through life on pure good luck. In the Crimean War, he gets confused between his right and left hand to lead a charge in the wrong direction, which surprises a Russian force and ensures an Allied victory.

Wealthy aristocrat Edward and his wife, Charlotte, invite The Captain, Edward’s childhood friend, and Charlotte’s niece, Ottilie, to their estate near Weimar. The Captain and Charlotte fall in love, as do Edward and Ottilie, who do not hesitate to consummate their infatuation; the results include infanticide, suicide by starvation, and death from a mysterious illness.

Daniel De Leon was an American Marxist journalist and editor, theoretician, political, and trade union organizer. De Leon was a leading figure in American socialism and credited as the originator in revolutionary industrial unionism. In "Patriotism and Poverty", a short piece published in The Daily People paper in July 1900, De Leon discusses these two factors in connection with the exploitation of the proletariat in the context of a capitalist state.

How to Tell a Story is a classic essay by American humorist and writer Mark Twain.

The chronicle of Theodore Adolphus “Dot” Babb is a factual and fascinating account of his and his younger sister’s 1865 capture by a Comanche band near what is today Decatur, Texas. They were taken to an area in what became the state of Oklahoma and adopted into the tribe, where Babb observed all facets of the tribe’s customs and participated in activities like horse taming, until both children were ransomed by their father in 1867. Babb kept in contact with the tribe and the next decade the family lived with the Comanche for a year before settling in Wichita Falls.

Mark Twain compiled some of his experiences and experiments with telepathy in a fascinating article titled ‘Mental Telegraphy.’ In the opening paragraph he states that what many consider to be mere accident or ‘curious coincidence’ is no more accidental than is the sending and receiving of a telegram. He believed that minds resonate with one another by transferring ideas and messages to and fro.

Henry van Dyke shares a wonderful morality tale in his 1895 The Other Wise Man, as a metaphor for the life of a true Christian. Telling the story of a fourth king who saw the signs but never reached the Christ child in time, van Dyke introduces us to the values of good deeds and charity while searching for the path to Jesus. Because as Jesus keeps eluding the fourth king, he unknowingly gets closer to him with every righteous act he performs.

As a rather sinister twist on the literary and social tradition of sense and sensibility first introduced a century before, Nesbit tells the story of two cousins representing two very different character traits. With Jane focusing on the practical sides of love and Mattie losing herself in sentiment, Nesbit very ably combines these traits with a moral code befitting each woman.

Rene Descartes, mathematician, scientist, and first "modern philosopher", wrote Meditations on First Philosophy, a six-part treatise first published in Latin in 1641, to deconstruct "belief" and, using reason and science, discuss the only things we can truly know for sure. Each of the six parts of this book represents six of Descartes’ meditations that occurred on six subsequent days, making it also, in no small part, an autobiographical piece of work.

This delightful short story was the first work of Jules Verne to be translated into English by Anne T. Wilbur in 1852. Just as the balloon starts rising, a stranger jumps in with the intention of taking it as high as possible without regard to his own safety or that of the pilot. During the long journey, this mysterious passenger relates the historical background of the quest for lighter-than-air travel.

American writer William Dean Howells delights us with his cautiously cynical yet endearing telling of the night before Christmas at the Fountain household. Published in The Daughter of the Storage and Other Things in Prose and Verse in 1916, Howells’ sense of realism and social criticism hides behind the humorous banter between Mr. and Mrs. Fountain, as well as relatives passing by. Raging consumerism, New Year’s resolutions, lovingly marital insults, reflections and memories, and a whole bunch of bathrobes!

Alexander Pope wrote the "Pastorals" in 1704 at the age of 16, but it was only in 1709 that the publisher Jacob Tonson included them in his Poetical Miscellanies. The cycle of poems with a preface – Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter– were highly stylized and inspired by Virgil’s Eclogues. In the "Pastorals", Pope develops a theory of the relationship between art and nature.