The second of Pinero's farces, following the wildly successful The Magistrate, and likewise a hit. The Schoolmistress has a secret: "Think of the deception I am practising upon dear Vere! Think of the people who believe in the rigid austerity of Caroline Dyott, Principal of Volumnia College. Think of the precious confidence reposed in me by the parents and relations of twenty-seven innocent pupils. Give an average of eight and a half relations to each pupil; multiply eight and a half by twenty-seven and you approximate the number whose trust I betray this night!" The three acts are subtitled 1 - The Mystery, 2 - The Party, and 3 - The Nightmare...

Arthur Young, an English agriculturist, set out to write a travelogue on the state of agriculture in France and found himself in the midst of the French Revolution. His report on life in the capital and in the countryside in the years 1787, 1788, and 1789, replete with droll traveler's mishaps, becomes an eyewitness account of a society on the brink of catastrophe. From the court scene at Versailles to backroads villages comes this astonishing record of unfolding events, conspiracy theories about the queen, jubilation, and mass hysteria.

Many librarians have felt the need and expressed the desire for a select collection of children's Christmas stories in one volume. This book claims to be just that and nothing more. Each of the stories has already won the approval of thousands of children, and each is fraught with the true Christmas spirit. It is hoped that the collection will prove equally acceptable to parents, teachers, and librarians.

This charming book has many stories that deal mostly with the holiday of Thanksgiving, perfectly suited for family listening and reading. and gathers in one volume tales of tasty turkeys, festive parties, generous gestures, and holiday cheer. The stories featured include works by such writers as Harriet Beecher Stowe, George Eliot, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and others. So if you want to listen to some great stories that bring out gratitude for life and a thanksgiving attitude, here are a bunch of the best.

This books is a select collection of Christmas Stories in one volume. It is just that and nothing more. Each of the stories has already won the approval of thousands of children, and each is fraught with the true Christmas spirit. It is hoped that the collection will prove equally acceptable to parents, teachers, and librarians. - Summary from the preface

Asa Gray was a highly-regarded botanist at Harvard University and a friend and collaborator of Charles Darwin. As a Christian, Gray was concerned with the disconnect developing through the nineteenth century between the growing understanding of the natural world and the traditional worldview assumed by orthodox Christianity. This book presents two lectures he gave to theology students at Yale College in which he argues that a disconnect is not inevitable, but that a Christian perspective can and should incorporate current understanding of the world provided by natural science. - Summary by BarryGanong

A life of King Alfred of England originally composed in Latin, possibly sometime around 888 A.D. by the Monk and Bishop Asser, although some scholars contend that the work was actually composed much later by an unknown hand.

Contra Gentes is the first of a two volume work published by Athanasius of Alexandria prior to the outbreak of the Arian controversy (ca. 319). It focuses especially on pagan beliefs and worship concluding with a defense of the Christian view of God and creation -- especially creation by the eternal Word. In this way, the ground is prepared for the second volume of his work, now published separately under the title De Incarnatione Verbi.

The times, for which God raised up Saint Athanasius, have, in many respects, a counterpart in our own. There is, now too, earnest, ever-enlarging, adherence to the faith, in those who hold it. But there is also a wide-spread dislike of definite doctrine, such as found a vent in the different shades of Arianism. They framed eleven Creeds, to satisfy themselves or others, over-against the one faith, put forth at Nicaea and accepted by the whole Church. They swung to and fro, at times approximating nearer to the truth; but their secret maxim, unknown to themselves, was, "anything but the Truth"...

This treatise and that which in the editions of Athanasius immediately precedes it, the contra Gentes, were often counted as two parts of a single work. The two books belong to the earlier years of Athanasius: the Arian controversy which broke out about 319 has left no trace upon them. The Contra Gentes leaves the reader face to face with this necessity of restoration by the Divine Word as the remedy for corrupt human nature. How this necessity is met in the Incarnation is shown in the pages which follow...

The Life Of St. Anthony the Great.

This little square book, the colour of meadow forget-me-nots, is so modest and simple that it may very easily be passed over in a period which has little sympathy with tenderness of feeling and simplicity of expression. The verses, of which this small volume is full, resemble the stornelli and rispetti of Italian songs rather than any kind of verse which has preceded them in English literature, unless it be the earliest and briefest songs of Robert Lytton, with which they have a certain kindred, both in their measure and in their themes...

On the Trail of Don Quixote is an engaging 1890’s “record of rambles in the Ancient Province of La Mancha” by two artist friends, French author August Jaccaci and Spanish illustrator Daniel Vierge. “Both lovers of the book wherein are recounted the adventures of the good Knight and of his faithful Squire,” as Jaccaci explains, the two men set out to record -Jaccaci in evocative prose, and Vierge in pen and ink drawings - their exploration of the landmarks of Cervantes’ “immortal romance...

August Strindberg’s naturalistic one-act drama has only three characters: Julie, a passionate young noblewoman; Jean, her father’s ambitious valet; and Kristin, the cook, who is also Jean’s fiancee. The play is set on Midsummer Eve, when everyone is reveling, and Julie and Jean get a bit too intimate – with tragic results.

Creditors is an 1889 tragicomedy by August Strindberg that plumbs the depths of the twisted triangular relationship between Tekla, her husband Adolph, and her ex-husband Gustav.

A young idealistic civil servant, Arvid Falk, leaves the drudgery of bureaucracy to become a journalist and author. As he explores various social activities — politics, publishing, theatre, philanthropy, and business — he finds more hypocrisy and corruption than he thought possible. He takes refuge with a group of "bohemians", who meet in a red dining room in Berns Salonger to discuss these matters. (Introduction adopted from Wikipedia)

The Ghost Sonata (Spoksonaten) is a play in three acts by Swedish playwright August Strindberg. Written in 1907, it was first produced at Strindberg's Intimate Theatre in Stockholm on 21 January 1908... The Ghost Sonata is a key text in the development of modernist drama and a vivid example of a chamber play. In it, Strindberg creates a world in which ghosts walk in bright daylight, a beautiful woman is transformed into a mummy and lives in the closet, and the household cook sucks all the nourishment out of the food before she serves it to her masters...

A Dream Play (Swedish: Ett drömspel) was written in 1901 by the Swedish playwright August Strindberg. It was first performed in Stockholm on 17 April 1907. It remains one of Strindberg's most admired and influential dramas, seen as an important precursor to both dramatic Expressionism and Surrealism. The primary character in the play is Agnes, a daughter of the Vedic god Indra. She descends to Earth to bear witness to problems of human beings. She meets about 40 characters, some of them having a clearly symbolical value (such as four deans representing theology, philosophy, medicine, and law)...

The Father is a naturalistic drama by Swedish playwright August Strindberg. The central conflict is between the Captain and his wife Laura about their daughter Bertha's future. In order to gain sole custody of her daughter, Laura tries to convince the Captain that he has gone mad.

Johan August Strindberg was a Swedish playwright who has had many of his works read into Librivox by volunteers. From his earliest work, Strindberg developed forms of dramatic action, language, and visual composition so innovative that many were to become technically possible to stage only with the advent of film. He is considered the "father" of modern Swedish literature. The Growth of a Soul is Strindberg's own literary autobiography and recreation of the spirit of the times at Upsala University and his attempts to become a literary artist...

The Dance of Death is a play in two parts by the Swedish dramatist August Strindberg, written in 1900. It depicts the dissolution of a marriage between Edgar, an artillery captain, and Alice, a former actress. Increasingly isolated in their fort-like house, they manipulate and bait each other, until the unexpected arrival of Curt, Alice's cousin. His presence creates a tense triangular relationship that escalates throughout Part One, and is complicated with the introduction of two of the trio's children, Allan and Judith, in Part Two.

Lovers' Vows (1798), a play by Elizabeth Inchbald arguably best known now for having been featured in Jane Austen's novel Mansfield Park (1814), is one of at least four adaptations of August von Kotzebue's Das Kind der Liebe (1780; literally "Child of Love," or "Natural Son," as it is often translated), all of which were published between 1798 and 1800. Inchbald's version is the only one to have been performed. Dealing as it does with sex outside marriage and illegitimate birth, Inchbald in the Preface to the published version declares herself to have been highly sensitive to the task of adapting the original German text for "an English audience...

The account of some adventures in the professional experience of a member of the Imperial Austrian Police. (from the text)

A man is found shot dead and the man to whom all evidence points insists he is innocent.

Sixteen year old Leslie Crane has come to the New Jersey shore as a companion to ailing Aunt Marcia, whose doctor has sent her there for a some quiet rest and recuperation. While the beach is lovely in October, Leslie quickly finds herself getting lonely with no one her own age to talk to. Little does she realize that she will not only soon make a new friend, but that they will both end up in the midst of a puzzling mystery centered around the closed up bungalow next door. Augusta Huiell Seaman is the author of over 40 historical fiction and mystery novels for older children most of which are currently out of print. The Dragon’s Secret was originally published in 1921.

A mysterious girl, a mysterious pool, and a mysterious businessman combine to send two Florida teens to adventureland in this pre-Nancy Drew tale for young people

When fourteen year old Sally Carter decides to share the secret she has discovered on Slipper Point with her new friend Doris Craig, she couldn’t possibly imagine where the solution to this intriguing mystery will lead them! Augusta Huiell Seaman is the author of over 40 historical fiction and mystery novels for older children most of which are currently out of print. The Slipper Point Mystery was originally published in 1919.

What is the secret of the old boarded up house? And what is the answer to the mystery of the long lost letter that is found in it? Best friends Joyce and Cynthia - along with their dog "Goliath", are determined to find out in this pre-Nancy Drew juvenile mystery for girls.Augusta Huiell Seaman was the author of over 40 historical fiction and mystery novels for older children.

Marcia Brett has noticed unusual activity at the ramshackle and seemingly abandoned mansion next door: a mysterious, veiled lady is seen coming and going out the front door, a different woman is glimpsed through a shuttered window, and most mysterious of all, a pretty, blond girl is seen briefly looking forlornly out an upper window! Along with her best friend, Janet McNeil, the two girls are determined to learn the secrets of the old house and befriend the young girl, but once they do, the secrets only increase. The girl has no idea why she is at this house or even who the women she is living with are! Has she been kidnapped? Are they relatives? No one seems to know.

In this sequence Augusta Webster experimented with eight-line verses grouped thematically by the seasons of the year. These poems also explore the cyclical stages of life from youth, courtship and parenthood through age and loss. Summary by Newgatenovelist.