A group of poems about life centered around a southbound train ride to Cincinnati. ( Lynda Marie Neilson)

Like The Begum’s Millions, which Verne published in 1879, it has the theme of France and the entire world threatened by a super-weapon (what would now be called a weapon of mass destruction) with the threat finally overcome through the force of French patriotism. (Summary by Wikipedia)

LibriVox volunteers bring you 8 different recordings of The Face on the Barroom Floor by Hugh Antoine D’Arcy.

These moralistic stories within stories date back to the Sanskrit text Panchatantra (200 BC ? 300 AD). They were first translated into Arabic by a Persian named Ruzbeh who named it Book of Kalilah and Dimna and then by Abdullah Ibn al-Muqaffa and later Joseph Harris in 1679 and then remodeled in 1818. Max Mueller noted that La Fontaine was indebted to the work and other scholars have noted that Jeanne-Marie LePrince de Beaumont and John Fletcher were both familiar with the fables. The Fables of Pilpay are a series of inter-woven fables, many of which deploy metaphors of anthropomorphized animals with human virtues and vices. (Summary by The introduction and Wikipedia)

The origins of these fables are perhaps lost in obscurity, but they are so closely identified with the Greek writer Aesop, that we may regard them as such. Most of these tales involve interactions among animals, and to each is appended a moral. This edition was edited and illustrated by Thomas Bewick a well-known British engraver and illustrator. The book begins with an excellent introduction – Larry Wilson

While a columnist for The Chicago Record humorist George Ade penned numerous ?fables? which were subsequently collected into books. Fables in Slang is the first of these collections. It contains 26 satirical stories that lampoon phrenologists, idealists, snobs, fanatics and other ignorant fools of the day, most of which still wander through our modern lives. Jean Shepherd considered Ade a predecessor who made writers like James Thurber, Mike Royko, and himself possible. Fables in Slang was first published in 1899 by Herbert S. Stone and Company. (Summary by Gregg Margarite)

Fables for the Frivolous is one of the earliest works by the American parodist Guy Wetmore Carryl. These fables are adapted from Jean de La Fontaine’s original writings. The Aesop-style fables are written in verse, and are light-hearted re-tellings of fables from two centuries before, each ending with a moral and a pun. Among the more celebrated of the fables are The Persevering Tortoise and the Pretentious Hare, The Arrogant Frog and the Superior Bull, and The Sycophantic Fox and the Gullible Raven. (from Wikipedia)

One of the earliest works by the American parodist, Guy Wetmore Carryl, these fables are adapted from Jean de La Fontaine?s original writings. The fables are written in verse, and are light-hearted re-tellings of fables from two centuries before, each ending with a moral and a pun. Among the more celebrated of the fables are The Persevering Tortoise and the Pretentious Hare, The Arrogant Frog and the Superior Bull, and The Sycophantic Fox and the Gullible Raven. (Summary written by Chriss)

This historical novel is set in Rome in the early 4th century AD, during the time of the cruel persecution of Christians under the Emperor Diocletian. The heroine of the book is Fabiola, a young pagan beauty from a noble Roman family. Fabiola seems to have everything, including a superior education in the philosophers, yet under the surface, she is not content with her life. One day, in a fit of rage, she attacks and wounds her slave girl Syra, who is a secret Christian. The proud, spoiled Roman girl is humbled by Syra’s humility, maturity and devotion to her in this situation, and a slow transformation begins. Woven into this fictitious story are a number of martyrdom accounts of real-life Christian saints, including Saint Agnes, Saint Tarcisius and Saint Sebastian. Cardinal Wiseman wrote Fabiola in part as an answer to the vigorously anti-Catholic book Hypatia by Charles Kingsley. The novel was mainly aimed at the embattled Catholic minority in England, who had recently emerged from a half-illegal status. (Summary adapted from Wikipedia)

The Eyes of the World was the Best Selling Book for 1914 according to Publisher’s Weekly. The novel explores what Harold Bell Wright views as the false world of artists, writers, critics, and their wealthy patrons. Two of the main characters are the famous author, Conrad LaGrange and Aaron King, an aspiring artist. LaGrange regretfully describes his writings as ?filthy stories in good English? and feels he has sold his soul to become successful. While in California, recovering from a physical breakdown, he befriends Aaron King whose mother he knew when he was a boy. Lagrange serves as counselor to the young man, for he knows the pitfalls of success from his own experience. (Summary by Tom Weiss)

Aliens have invaded the earth! Horrible one celled creatures disguised as normal human beings ! Well, at least that is what it seems to the author. Yes, The Eyes Have It is a whimsical story, making gentle fun of certain writing styles, but only a topflight science-fictionist like Philip Dick , we thought, could have written this story, in just this way. Tony and the Beetles takes place far in the future when Earth’s enormous colonial empire is well established but the question is, how long can it last? 10 year old Tony grows up fast when history catches up with the human race. A sobering look at human history .. and our probable future. Two very different stories but both entertaining. (Summary by the magazine editor and Phil Chenevert)

“Imagination is like a sail, as Mr. Joyce had said that evening; but sails are good and useful things sometimes, and carry their owners over deep waters and dark waves, which else might dampen, and drench, and drown.” Twelve year old Isabella Bright is endowed with just such an imagination and spends her time amusing herself and her friends with stories. Will her imagination be called upon to help her navigate tempestuous seas? – Summary by Lynne Thompson

A short but typical Trollope romance in which a young nobleman is torn between love for an impoverished Irish girl and the expectations of his family that he will marry someone suitable for inheriting an Earldom – Summary by Anthony Ogus

Frank Urwin and Richard Cleugh are two bachelor journalists sharing a flat in London. One evening while chatting, Urwin receives a telegram from a police acquaintance to come to the local police station at once. Urwin visits Inspector Patterson who is greatly agitated. Patterson invites Urwin for a drink and tells him of a strange occurrence at a local house. The two visit the house where they discover a dead young male and attractive young female. For some reason, Patterson is reluctant to report the apparent murders. While at the house, the telephone rings and Urwin answers it. A strange voice asks if the deed has been done? Urwin indicates it has and agrees to meet the caller at St. James?s Park. Urwin finally convinces Patterson to report the crime and a second visit occurs with additional police. This time however, the dead female is not the same person. (Summary by Tom Weiss)

This collection of independent stories first published between 1905 and 1907 in the magazine Je Sais Tout recounts the tales of Ars?ne Lupin, the famous gentleman-burglar: the first story marks the introduction of the character to the public, and its success encouraged author Maurice Leblanc to write several others, collected and published as a book in 1907. Ars?ne Lupin would go on to be the main character in several short stories and novels, written by Leblanc and others, and whose legacy would appear also in comics, movies and video games, becoming the icon of the affable and charming man who, choosing to walk on the wrong side of law, still can be a force for good. – Summary by Leni

A contemporary of Arthur Conan Doyle, Maurice Leblanc (1864-1941) was the creator of the character of gentleman thief Ars?ne Lupin who, in France, has enjoyed a popularity as long-lasting and considerable as Sherlock Holmes in the English-speaking world. This is the delightful first of twenty volumes in the Ars?ne Lupin series written by Leblanc himself. In an unprecedented act of literary pastiche and cross-over, Sherlock Holmes and Lupin actually meet, briefly in this first volume, and more substantially in the next. But after legal objections from Conan Doyle, the name was changed to “Herlock Sholmes.” (adapted from Wikipedia by a.r.dobbs)