Candide is a French satirical novella first published in 1759 by Voltaire. It begins with a young man, Candide, who is living a sheltered life and being indoctrinated in “optimism” by his mentor, Professor Pangloss. The work describes the abrupt finish of this lifestyle, followed by Candide's slow, painful disillusionment as he witnesses and experiences great hardships in the world. It concludes with Candide advocating a deeply practical pr ...
In The Adventure of the Copper Beeches, Violet Hunter asks Holmes, whether she should accept a job with very strange conditions. She has been offered ?120 per year as a governess, but only if she will cut her long hair short. This is only one of many peculiar conditions to which she must agree. The employer, Jephro Rucastle, seems pleasant enough, yet Miss Hunter obviously has her suspicions. After a fortnight, Miss Hunter beseeches Holmes to co ...
In The Adventure of the Beryl Coronet, a banker, Mr. Alexander Holder, makes a loan of ?50,000 to a socially prominent client, who leaves a beryl coronet – one of the most valuable public possessions in existence – as collateral. Feeling that he must not leave this rare and precious piece of jewelry in his personal safe at the bank, he takes it home with him. Awakened by a noise in the night, he is horrified to see his son playing with the coron ...
In The Adventure of the Noble Bachelor, Miss Hatty Doran, after several strange episodes on the day of her marriage to Lord St. Simon, disappears from the reception. St. Simon tells Holmes that he noticed a change in the young lady's mood just after the wedding ceremony, having been uncharacteristically sharp with him. Also unusual: she dropped her wedding bouquet and a gentleman in the front pew handed it back to her. For Holmes, it proves ...
In “The Adventure of the Empty House”, Sherlock Holmes reappears in London after a 3-year absence, shocking Dr. Watson who believed his good friend had been killed in a confrontation with Professor Moriarty at Reichenbach Falls. Holmes is compelled to outwit the “second most dangerous man in London” who has a good reason to hope for Holmes’ demise. From the 1905 collection “The Return of Sherlock Holmes”. ...
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s The Return of Sherlock Holmes is a collection of 13 mysteries that were originally published in the Strand Magazine and Collier's in Great Britain and the United States. Published in 1905, the book was the first Holmes collection since 1893, when Holmes died in a confrontation with his arch-nemesis Professor Moriarty in The Final Problem. The success of “The Hound of the Baskervilles” published in 1901–1902, and set ...
Here in one recording are both of L. Frank Baum's Santa Claus stories: The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus, and A Kidnapped Santa Claus. In The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus, Baum gives us a glimpse into the magical history that surrounds the life story of Santa Claus. In A Kidnapped Santa Claus, we find out what happens when Santa is kidnapped shortly before Christmas. ...
Robinson Crusoe is the classic tale about one man's lust for adventure. Crusoe leaves his parents and hometown for the open sea in the year 1651. But the ocean can be unforgiving and Crusoe, unfortunately, learns this the hard way. Through a series of wild events he ends up shipwrecked on a shore in South America, being forced to salvage what he can in order to survive. Overcoming his despair, Crusoe begins a new life on this island searchi ...
In The Adventure of the Speckled Band, Sherlock Holmes and Watson come to the aid of Helen Stoner, who has reason to fear her life is being threatened by her abusive stepfather, Dr. Grimesby Roylott. Her sister, who died two years before, spoke of a “speckled band” right before she died in mysterious circumstances. To solve the mystery of the “speckled band”, Holmes and Watson stake out Miss Stoner’s room and make a momentous discovery. The eigh ...
