Essays & Short Works

A Short History of England

Read by Ray Clare


G. K. Chesterton


Gilbert Keith Chesterton was a prolific writer on many topics. His views of history were always from the standpoint of men and their interac…

The Prince (Version 3)

Read by Bob Neufeld


Niccolò Machiavelli


The Prince (Italian: Il Principe) is a political treatise by the Italian diplomat, historian and political theorist Niccolò Machiavel…

Celebrated Crimes, Vol. 1: The Borgias and The Cenci

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Alexandre Dumas


Dumas's 'Celebrated Crimes' was not written for children. The novelist has spared no language--has minced no words--to describe the violent …

The Soul of Man

Read by Martin Geeson


Oscar Wilde


“(T)he past is what man should not have been. The present is what man ought not to be. The future is what artists are.”Published originally …

Essays, First Series (version 2)

Read by Bob Neufeld


Ralph Waldo Emerson


Essays: First Series is a series of 12 essays written by Ralph Waldo Emerson concerning transcendentalism, including Self-Reliance. It was p…

Irish Wit and Humor

Read by James E. Carson


Various


Excerpted anecdotes from the biographies of Swift, Curran, O'Leary and O'Connell, relating humorous snippets of politics in 18th and 19th ce…

Dictionnaire des idées reçues

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Gustave Flaubert


Le « Dictionnaire des idées reçues » : recueil d’exemples de l’intelligence humaine qui se dépasse elle-m&e…

Absolute Surrender and Other Addresses

Read by Joy Chan


Andrew Murray


This is a series of short messages written by the South African minister, Andrew Murray. They deal with the necessity and joy of surrenderin…

Our Island Story, Part 2

Read by Kara Shallenberg (1969-2023)


Henrietta Elizabeth Marshall


Our Island Story was first published in 1905 and became an instant classic. Beginning with the Romans and following the triumphs and foibles…

Pioneers of Science

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Oliver Lodge


This book takes its origin in a course of lectures on the history and progress of Astronomy arranged for Sir Oliver Lodge in the year 1887. …

A Lady's Life in the Rocky Mountains

Read by Laura Caldwell


Isabella L. Bird


Isabella Bird began travelling while in her early twenties to help alleviate illness that had plagued her since childhood. She was a single …

The Anti-Federalist Papers

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Patrick Henry


During the period of debate over the ratification of the Constitution, numerous independent local speeches and articles were published all a…

Moral Letters, Vol. I

Read by Felipe Vogel


Lucius Annaeus Seneca


"Among the personalities of the early Roman Empire there are few who offer to the readers of to-day such dramatic interest as does Luci…

The Greek View of Life

Read by Martin Geeson


Goldsworthy Lowes Dickinson


“With the Greek civilisation beauty perished from the world. Never again has it been possible for man to believe that harmony is in fact the…

Pragmatism

Read by Fredrik Karlsson


William James


'Pragmatism' contains a series of public lectures held by William James in Boston 1906–7. James provides a popularizing outline of his view …

Other People's Money

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Louis D. Brandeis


Other People's Money and How the Bankers Use It is a collection of essays written by Louis Brandeis published as a book in 1914. The book at…

The Letters of a Post-Impressionist

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Vincent Van Gogh


“Being the Familiar Correspondence of Vincent Van Gogh ... [Van Gogh's] art was appreciated during his life only by a very few and it is but…

What is Man? and Other Essays

Read by John Greenman


Mark Twain


"What Is Man?", published by Mark Twain in 1906, is a dialogue between a young man and an older man jaded to the world. It involve…

A Room of One’s Own


Virginia Woolf


This feminist essay argues for both a literal and figural space for women writers within a literary tradition dominated by patriarchy. First…

Fifteen Thousand Useful Phrases

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Grenville Kleiser


A Practical Handbook of Pertinent Expressions, Striking Similes, Literary, Commercial, Conversational, and Oratorical Terms, for the Embelli…

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