Showing results by author "ciesse" in All Categories

Dumas, with the assistance of several friends, compiled Celebrated Crimes, an eight-volume collection of essays on famous criminals and crimes from European history. Includes Vaninka and The Marquise De Ganges. - Summary by Michele Eaton

The crimes of the Marquise of Brinvilliers, a French aristocrat during the reign of Louis XIV, included some of the most famous murders, scandals (Affair of the Poisons) and mysteries (the Man in the Iron Mask) in French history. This story recounts her major crimes, torture, conviction and execution. - Summary by jvanstan

Un soir de 24 décembre, Marie et Fritz découvrent, au pied de l'arbre de Noël, un charmant petit bonhomme difforme casseur de noisette.Forcé par de jeunes auditeurs à raconter un conte, Monsieur Dumas nous rapporte ici l'histoire de ce héros improbable, empruntée à Hoffmann.On December's Eve, Marie and Fritz find a charming, though deformed, nut-cracker by the Christmas tree. Forced by a young audience to share a tale, Alexandre Dumas tells the one of this unlikely hero, taking his inspiration from Hoffman. Summary by Ezwa

In the late 1600s a man was doubly-imprisoned: his body in an iron cell and his face in an iron mask. Who the “man in the iron mask” was, why he was imprisoned, and how he was treated during imprisonment, remains a mystery that has captivated historians for centuries. Before Dumas penned the final volume of his D’Artagnan Romances, “The Man in the Iron Mask,” he wrote that “everything connected with the masked prisoner arouses the most vivid curiosity.” This essay is a comprehensive summary of theories regarding the masked prisoner’s identity and history from the 1770s to Dumas...

Amidst the political winds from Napoleon’s downfall, this tale turns our attention to the flight of a former French marshal and King of Naples, Joachim Murat. Murat, unhappy with the deal he made to obtain pardon from the Austrian Emperor, takes a life-ending resolution to retake his crown rather than live in peaceful obscurity. - Summary by jvanstan

"The refined and fashionable audiences who... used to applaud the play of Mademoiselle de Belle Isle… would, in all probability, have objected to an English version of Dumas' clever play, upon the score of its immorality. It is not for me to determine whether the aristocratic audiences at the St James Theater did not understand what they heard, or whether the French language has a special charm for rendering inoffensive what plain English fails to recommend." - Summary by The TranslatorCast list:The Duke de Richelieu: Tomas PeterThe Duke D'Aumont: Craig FranklinThe Chevalier D'Auvray: ...

Dumas, with the assistance of several friends, compiled Celebrated Crimes, an eight-volume collection of essays on famous criminals and crimes from European history. Includes The Man in the Iron Mask and Martin Guerre. - Summary by Michele Eaton

This sequel to Dumas' “Marguerite de Valois” begins four years after the sudden death of King Charles IX and succession of his brother Henry III. The reign of King Henry III was plagued with rebellion and political intrigue due to the War of the Three Henries, where his regency was challenged by King Henry of Navarre (leader of the Huguenots) and Henry I, Duke of Guise (leader of the Catholic League). Dumas weaves two main storylines through this turbulent backdrop: one of the love ignited between le Comte de Bussy and la Dame de Monsoreau, and another of the friendship between King Henry ...

The celebrated crimes committed during the life of Joan (Joanna I) of Naples span from personal misdeeds (adulteries and mariticide) to regional warfare (like the 1345 War in the Piedmont), and ultimately unraveled her father’s legacy (King Robert the Wise). Dumas projects her story through a deathly lens: beginning with the passing of King Robert the Wise, winding through the untimely demise of nobles, soldiers, and children, then ending at Joan’s own assassination. - Summary by jvanstan

Cette compilation comprend une série de poèmes lus, en langue française, pour LibriVox. - Summary by Ezwa

Cette compilation comprend une série de poèmes lus, en langue française, pour LibriVox. - Summary by Ezwa

This is the dramatic story of Urbain Grandier, a catholic priest, who had a reputation to rival that of Casanova, which ultimately led to his destruction. He was accused of witchcraft after a series of accusations from nuns of a nearby convent, who claimed that Grandier has sent several demons upon them. The case is very well documented, and the original documents of the alleged pact, written in backwards Latin and signed by all participating demons, are still preserved. The case continues to inspire art and sciences, leading to assessments of the events in light of modern sociology, ...

Dumas's 'Celebrated Crimes' was not written for children. The novelist has spared no language--has minced no words--to describe the violent scenes of a violent time.In some instances facts appear distorted out of their true perspective, and in others the author makes unwarranted charges. The careful, mature reader, for whom the books are intended, will recognize, and allow for, this fact. Summary from publishers note.

This story details the many crimes (attempted rape, assault, filicide, etc.) surrounding a significant historical confrontation between a fisherman from the island of Nisida, named Gabriel, and the Italian Prince of Brancaleone. Dumas notes that "the details of this case are recorded in the archives of the Criminal Court at Naples." - Summary by jvanstan

The contents of these volumes of 'Celebrated Crimes', as well as the motives which led to their inception, are unique. They are a series of stories based upon historical records, from the pen of Alexandre Dumas, pere, when he was not "the elder," nor yet the author of D'Artagnan or Monte Cristo, but was a rising young dramatist and a lion in the literary set and world of fashion.The third volume is devoted to the story of Mary Queen of Scots, another woman who suffered a violent death, and around whose name an endless controversy has waged. Dumas goes carefully into the dubious episodes of her...

This is the fourth volume of Alexandre Dumas' studies of celebrated crimes and their perpetrators. This volume is concerned with the story of Karl Ludwig Sand, who stabbed August von Kotzebue to death in 1819. August von Kotzebue had been a prominent dramatist, a student of Musäus, whose royalist and conservative writings ultimately led to his assassination by a member of a revolutionary liberal Burschenschaft. - Summary by Carolin

A possibly fictionalised account by the comic novelist Jerome K. Jerome of a trip to Germany that he undertook with a friend in order to see the famous Passion Play at Oberammergau. The journey takes in London, Dover, Ostend, Cologne, Munich, Oberau, Oberammergau and then back to London via Heidelberg. As one might expect from the author of 'Three Men in a Boat', much goes wrong along the way, including seasickness, strange food, stranger beds, misleading guidebooks, bewildering train timetables, and numerous cultural and linguistic misunderstandings. (Summary by Szindbad)

Northanger Abbey is a hilarious parody of 18th century gothic novels. The heroine, 17-year old Catherine, has been reading far too many “horrid” gothic novels and would love to encounter some gothic-style terror — but the superficial world of Bath proves hazardous enough. (Summary by Kara)

Antony and Cleopatra is a tragedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written sometime between 1603 and 1607. It was first printed in the First Folio of 1623. The plot is based on Thomas North's translation of Plutarch's Life of Marcus Antonius and follows the relationship between Cleopatra and Mark Antony from the time of the Parthian War to Cleopatra's suicide. The major antagonist is Octavius Caesar, one of Antony's fellow triumviri and the future first emperor of Rome. The tragedy is a Roman play characterized by swift, panoramic shifts in geographical locations and in registers,...

Young, self conscious, timid stenographer for a New York businessman with a beautiful daughter (the flapper). He emulates stronger types, but alas.....is not them. He grows up in this humorous volume from 1913. - Summary by joseph tabler