Showing results by narrator "Alan Weyman" in All Categories

Everything in the world revolves around just him. Or does it? A moral fable on delusions of self-importance. First published 1888 in The Happy Prince and Other Tales.

A moral fable on true and fake friendship. Hugh the Miller is little Hans's best friend...or is he? First published in 1888 in The Happy Prince and Other Tales.

The little Swallow befriends the Happy Prince's statue and learns what love is. One of Wilde's magical morality tales.

Franz Kafka was one of the first and greatest masters of dystopian literature. In his bleak world view, man is presented as helpless and ineffectual, his destiny determined by distant, obscure and essentially unfriendly agencies. In none of his works is this savage and unreasoning enslavement presented more vividly than in Metamorphosis, a novella in which Gregor Samsa, a respectable employee and dutiful son, wakes to find himself transformed into a gigantic insect.

Shakespeare's King Lear ranks with Sophocles' Oedipus as a tragic hero destroyed by his own good intentions. From the moment when Lear unfolds his darker purpose, we are drawn into an ineluctable chain of events that leads through betrayal, deceit, destructive family conflict, reconciliation, despair, and death. Considered by many to be the most grueling of Shakespeare's tragedies.

Here are 26 tiny classics of English "cruel" humor, in Harry Graham's first book of Ruthless Rhymes for Heartless Homes.

Harrison, an embittered scientist who has access to time travel, wants to remove Christmas from the pages of history. Fortunately for humanity, his senior colleague, Horowitz has other ideas.

The Swedish playwright August Strindberg was one of the founding fathers of naturalistic theater. A feature of many of his plays is the minute dissection of attitude and motivation by individuals within tightly bound groups. As in the present drama, such relentless inspection of behavior often has drastic consequences. Thekla, married to the needy Adolf, has a surprise encounter with her former husband, the lordly Gustav. Or is it really a surprise?

Stevenson's brilliantly macabre yet profound story of a man seemingly trapped in evil.

Danny's mother assures him that snowmen can't talk. In this whimsical adventure, Danny discovers that her assertion is not entirely correct.

On the day of his departure to sing Tristan in Brussels, the celebrated tenor Gerardo receives three unwelcome visitors. Despite their persistent attentions, he manages to honor his singing contract, but at an unexpected personal cost.

Oedipus the King is the story of a man whose life is destroyed by his own good intentions. When a terrible secret from his past is brought to the light of day, the consequences are chilling - and ineluctable.

A weird dream tips Henry Ian Darling into the Shadowlands. What has this to do with Brett? Ms. Peabody has a plan, but will Henry survive his quest?

This is my life, one mistake at a time. Worker-bee goes to work, sip coffee, step forward, one, two, three. I'm a brainless zombie with no purpose in life. Feed me brains and I'll eat 'em raw with some Tabasco. Worst mistake in my life, getting married to the perfect Russian princess. Her beautiful face hides treacherous intent. She'll suck you dry like a lemon until you have no juice left. Out of life, out of money, out of any hopes and dreams. This is your life, suck it up and don't complain.

es and Watson investigate spies and amateur beggars in this thrilling addition to the Sherlock Holmes mythos, based on one of the unpublished tales mentioned in the original series.

For many of us, the goal of life isn't ultimate wealth, a massive amount of stuff, or the perfect car. Though we strive to gain materialistic possessions and a social status, often times we find that the achievement of gaining such objects has little effect on our lives. There is always something which is better that needs to be obtained. Why is this? What is it that drives people's ambitions and motivation in life? What are we all striving for but many can never fully gain? It's happiness, plain and simple.

New Thought author and philosopher James Allen (1864 - 1912) is best known for his treatises on moral development and the power of thought, the most famous of which is As a Man Thinketh. In 1907 Allen also published a collection of poems, entitled Poems of Peace. Most of the pieces take the form of aphorisms and admonitions, delivered with the author's typical earnestness.

David Malone, a peacekeeper in the rundown Crystal City, discovers a plot within the movement of life's lottery, wherein the benefactors are stealing the entire life-force of the donors in order to perpetuate their own life across decades in a high-tech act of human sacrifice. How can something created to stabilize the human race after the holy wars get so perverted?

Presenting your lover with 24 roses signifies that they are always on your mind, for each rose represents one hour of the day. 24 Roses is a series of poems that explore the powerful and varied raw emotion that is love in all its glory. From the innocent love of childhood sweethearts to the weathered relationships of those who grow old together, and the anger, infatuation, despair, and romance in between.

What if the girl of your dreams turned out to literally be, a girl in your dreams? For Sam, meeting Susi in the same pub every night when he closed his eyes was exciting until he started to realize that this dream world, this half-light, offered more than his real life did. But now, in this place between reality and dreams, this place that is nowhere and everywhere, Susi has started to change; she is becoming confused and distant. Sam begins to realize that there must be a link between this world and reality, that something is drawing him to Susi each night.