The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali PATANJALI (c. 150 BC - ), translated by Charles JOHNSTON (1867 - 1931) Yoga sutras by Patanjali is a seminal work in yoga, this book is more about control of mind and the true goal of yoga. The sutras are extremely brief, and the translation in neat English makes it very easy for people to understand the ancient Sanskrit text. It starts with the birth and growth of spiritual man through the control of mind. In all, this is a "all in one" book for yoga philosophy written Read more [...]
The Man Who Would Be King by Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936) The Man Who Would Be King tells the story of two British adventurers in British India who become kings of Kafiristan, a remote part of Afghanistan. It was inspired by the exploits of James Brooke, an Englishman who became the "white Raja" of Sarawak in Borneo, and by the travels of American adventurer Josiah Harlan, who claimed the title Prince of Ghor. The story was first published in The Phantom Rickshaw and other Tales (Volume Five Read more [...]
The Princess and the Goblin audiobook by George MacDonald George MacDonald's fairy stories and fantasy have inspired a number of writers including C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien and of this popular fairy story, which as you might suspect concerns a little princess plotted against by a race of goblins, G.K. Chesterton said that it "made a difference to my whole existence." (Summary by Andy Minter)   The Princess and the Goblin Cover of the edition published by Blackie & Read more [...]
The Princess and Curdie audiobook by George MacDonald (1824-1905) The Princess and Curdie is the sequel to The Princess and the Goblin by George MacDonald. It's been a year since the Princess Irene and Curdie first met, and a year since the goblin incident and all appears to be going well in the Kingdom. Or is it? After a visit from Irene's great-great-grandmother, Curdie finds himself on a mission to save the kingdom, with a rather strange companion in tow. (Summary by Lizzie Driver)   Read more [...]
The Phantom of the Opera (dramatic reading) by Gaston Leroux (1868-1927) Over the years, strange things have been happening at the Paris Op?ra House. The new owners, M. Moncharmin and M. Richard don't know what to do about the mysterious "Opera Ghost" demanding money, nor the tragic death of the chief scene-shifter. Now the young Soprano, Christine Daae, has been kidnapped and her lover, the Vicomte de Chagny, is going mad. The opera house is falling to pieces. Could this all be the work of the Read more [...]
The Prisoner of Zenda audiobook by Anthony Hope (1863-1933) The Prisoner of Zenda tells the story of Rudolf Rassendyll, an English gentleman on holiday in Ruritania, a country not a thousand miles from Bavaria. There, by reason of his resemblance to the King of Ruritania he becomes involved in saving the King's Life and his Throne from the King's dastardly brother and his allies. Woods, moated castles, pomp, swordplay, gallantry, villainy and a beautiful princess. What story could ask for more? Read more [...]
The Odyssey audiobook by Homer. Translated by Samuel Butler (1835-1902) The Odyssey is one of the two major ancient Greek epic poems (the other being the Iliad), attributed to the poet Homer. The poem is commonly dated to between 800 and 600 BC. The poem is, in part, a sequel to the Iliad, and concerns the events that befall the Greek hero Odysseus in his long journey back to his native land Ithaca after the fall of Troy. It takes Odysseus ten years to return to his native land of Ithaca after Read more [...]
The Man in the Iron Mask audiobook by Alexandre Dumas (1802-1870). Translation unattributed. In this, the last of the Three Musketeers novels, Dumas builds on the true story of a mysterious prisoner held incognito in the French penal system, forced to wear a mask when seen by any but his jailer or his valet. If you have skipped the novels between The Three Musketeers and this, a few notes will bring you into the story: On one side -- Aramis, now a bishop and secretly the Captain-General of Read more [...]
The Hound of the Baskervilles (dramatic reading) by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (1859-1930) The Hound of the Baskervilles is the third of four crime novels by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle featuring the detective Sherlock Holmes. Originally serialised in The Strand Magazine from August 1901 to April 1902, it is set largely on Dartmoor in Devon in England's West Country and tells the story of an attempted murder inspired by the legend of a fearsome, diabolical hound. (summary by Wikipedia) Cast: Dr. Watson: Read more [...]
The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes audiobook by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (1859-1930) Dr. Watson chronicles here some of the more interesting detective cases that he and his good friend, Mr. Sherlock Holmes, have encountered during their association. We see the cases unfold as he does, scratch our heads as does he while the evidence is collected, and then marvel at the impeccable observations, remarkable insight, and doggedness which Holmes displays as he teases apart the tangled clues. Packaged Read more [...]
Crime and Punishment audiobook by Fyodor Dostoyevsky (1821-1881) Translated by Constance Garnett (1861-1946) Crime and Punishment focuses on the mental anguish and moral dilemmas of Rodion Romanovich Raskolnikov, an impoverished St. Petersburg student who formulates and executes a plan to kill a hated, unscrupulous pawnbroker for her money, thereby solving his financial problems and at the same time, he argues, ridding the world of evil. Crime and Punishment is considered by many as the first Read more [...]
The Brothers Karamazov audiobook by Fyodor Dostoyevsky (1821-1881) Translated by Constance Garnett (1861-1946) The Brothers Karamazov (Russian: Братья Карамазовы) is the final novel by the Russian author Fyodor Dostoevsky, and is generally considered the culmination of his life's work. The book portrays a parricide in which each of a murdered man's sons share a varying degree of complicity. The Brothers Karamazov is a passionate philosophical novel that explores deep into the Read more [...]
The Deerslayer audiobook by James Fenimore Cooper (1789-1851) The Deerslayer, or The First Warpath (1841) was the last of James Fenimore Cooper's Leatherstocking tales to be written. Its 1740-1745 time period makes it the first installment chronologically and in the lifetime of the hero of the Leatherstocking tales, Natty Bumppo. (Introduction by Wikipedia)   The Deerslayer First edition title page Author(s) James Fenimore Cooper Country United States Language English Series Leatherstocking Read more [...]
The Awakening audiobook by Kate Chopin (1851-1904) Kate Chopin's 1899 novella The Awakening is about the personal, sexual, and artistic awakening of a young wife and mother, Edna Pontellier. While on vacation at Grand Isle, an island in the Gulf of Mexico, Edna befriends the talented pianist Mlle. Reisz and the sympathetic Robert Lebrun, both of whom will influence her startling life choices. Chopin's novel created a scandal upon its original publication and effectively destroyed her writing Read more [...]
The Napoleon of Notting Hill audiobook by G. K. Chesterton (1874-1936) While the novel is humorous (one instance has the King sitting on top of an omnibus and speaking to it as to a horse: "Forward, my beauty, my Arab," he said, patting the omnibus encouragingly, "fleetest of all thy bounding tribe"), it is also an adventure story: Chesterton is not afraid to let blood be drawn in his battles, fought with sword and halberd in the London streets, and Wayne thinks up a few ingenious strategies; Read more [...]
The Man Who was Thursday audiobook, A Nightmare by G. K. Chesterton (1874-1936) In a surreal turn-of-the-century London, Gabriel Syme, a poet, is recruited to a secret anti-anarchist taskforce at Scotland Yard. Lucian Gregory, an anarchist poet, is the only poet in Saffron Park, until he loses his temper in an argument over the purpose of poetry with Gabriel Syme, who takes the opposite view. After some time, the frustrated Gregory finds Syme and leads him to a local anarchist meeting-place to Read more [...]
The Importance of Being Earnest audiobook by Oscar Wilde (1854-1900) Oscar Wilde's The Importance of Being Earnest is subtitled "A Trivial Comedy for Serious People," and has proved immensely popular since its first performance in 1895. The play certainly has its farcical and comic elements, such as the witty banter exchanged by the characters and the flippant attitude towards love and marriage that characterizes the action. However, the play also explores more serious themes through the central Read more [...]
Don Quixote audiobook by Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra (1547-1616). Translated by John Ormsby (1829-1895). This is volume 1 of 2. Don Quixote is an early novel written by Spanish author Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra. Cervantes created a fictional origin for the story in the character of the Morisco historian, Cide Hamete Benengeli, whom he claims to have hired to translate the story from an Arabic manuscript he found in Toledo's bedraggled old Jewish quarter. The protagonist, Alonso Quixano, Read more [...]
Around the World in Eighty Days audiobook by Jules Verne Translated by George Makepeace Towle Around the World in Eighty Days (French: Le tour du monde en quatre-vingts jours) is a classic adventure novel by the French writer Jules Verne, first published in 1873. In the story, Phileas Fogg of London and his newly employed French valet Passepartout attempt to circumnavigate the world in 80 days on a ?20,000 wager set by his friends at the Reform Club   Around the World in Eighty Read more [...]