Showing results by narrator "Donal Donnelly" in All Categories

When Geppetto, a humble cobbler with a loyal heart, carves a little puppet from a piece of talking wood, little does he know what he's getting into! Pinocchio, the puppet come to life, has a mind of his own and a determination to go his own way. Pinocchio's many misadventures and escapades serve to teach him right from wrong - and the particular dangers of telling lies! - and have amused and entertained generations of children.

The first authorized, unabridged release of this timeless classic and exclusively available from Recorded Books. Ulysses records the events of a single day, June 16, 1904, in Dublin, Ireland.

J.M. Synge, one of the greatest English language playwrites of the 20th century, immortalized the Aran Islands and its people with vivid written portraits that are among the greatest in modern literature. Synge’s vibrant language and earthy themes breathtakingly capture the folklore and way of life that has since perished on these remote northern islands.

Plato recorded the final days of his mentor, Socrates, who was tried and condemned in Athens in 399 B.C. on trumped-up charges of being a heretic and corrupter of the young. This collection comprises 4 books: Euthyphro, in which Socrates engages Euthyphro in a debate on the steps of the courthouse where he is to stand trial, The Apology, in which Socrates argues on his own behalf, Crito, in which Socrates's friends and supporters visit him in prison and urge him to recant.

Red Riding Hood encounters an urbane wolf on the way to her sick grandmother's house.

Preeminent French cynic and philosopher Voltaire (1694-1778) collected ideas and thoughts that were too short for pamphlets but worth saving for later development. These jottings eventually became the Philosophical Dictionary, filled with witty and wise entries on subjects as diverse as Atheism and Kissing - a compendium of the whole spectrum of Voltaire's ideas.

From the satirical pen of one of France's greatest cynics comes the story of Candide - young, innocent, guileless - who is cast upon the world after Baron Thunder-ten-trockh learns that his lusty daughter, Cunegonde, has tried to seduce the young man. The novel chronicles Candide's adventures with his blindly optimistic tutor, Dr. Pangloss, through any number of disastrous experiences, as they search for the answers to life's perennial questions.

Thomas Cahill tells the story of how Europe evolved from the classical age of Rome to the medieval era. Without Ireland, the transition could not have taken place. Not only did Irish monks and scribes maintain the very record of Western civilization, they brought their uniquely Irish world-view to the task. As Cahill delightfully illustrates, so much of the liveliness we associate with medieval culture has its roots in Ireland. When the seeds of culture were replanted on the European continent, it was from Ireland that they were germinated.

The great author Robert Louis Stevenson received a fateful telegram from his friend Fanny Osbourne in 1879, urging him to leave Edinburgh and join her in San Francisco. The penniless young writer packed his bags and boarded a ship for a long, difficult voyage across the Atlantic, taking detailed notes of the appalling conditions and struggles of his fellow emigrants.

These vivid portraits of the author's native city weave a tapestry of Dublin and its people, yet also poignantly mourn the decline of Irish culture and civilization. Published in 1914, the collection was decried by some as obscene, but Joyce saw the work as "a chapter in the moral history" of Ireland. The stories present a vision of Dublin's claustrophobia and psychological paralysis, but the work's heaviness is balanced by an eccentric assortment of characters and the author's dry, often unexpected humor.

Determined not to grow up, Peter Pan has escaped to Neverland. But when he loses his shadow, his attempt to reclaim it brings him into contact with the Darling children, Wendy, John, and Michael. Peter teaches them to fly and convinces them to come back to Neverland with him - but when they find a dark island besieged by pirates and Red Indians, Wendy learns that dreamed-about Neverlands are all too often tinged with darker realities as well.

Frank Bois is 43 years old and 43 inches tall, but his yearnings are as wide and deep as the night sky he contemplates from his rooftop in Cork, Ireland. The Dork of Cork is his story, a fictional autobiography that captures the emotions of the listener from its provocative opening line to its surprising, but touching, ending. With intelligence and vision that rise far above his diminutive size, Frank shares his engaging meditations on beauty: in the stars, in lovely and unattainable women, and even in mathematics.

This unique fairy tale filled with whimsy and satire is much more than a story for the nursery. The tale begins with two old philosophers who live in a dark pine wood with their companions the Grey woman of Dun Gortin and the Thin Woman of Inis Magrath. When the wife of farmer MacMurrachu loses her washing board, the farmer comes to ask the philosophers for advice. They direct the old farmer not to a washboard, but to a tree containing a pot of gold.

One of the most original literary works of the 20th century, Joyce's novel follows the life of Stephen Dedalus in a story divided into 5 sections, each of which is written in a voice that reflects Stephen's age and development. The childhood memories are written in a deceptively simple, evocative, childlike style, while the final section about Stephen's maturity conveys complex themes through Latin-sprinkled, stream-of-consciousness prose.

A single mouse runs around shouting “HERE COMES THE CAT!” again and again until everybody he knows is worried sick. Funny and whip-smart, Here Comes the Cat! is a parable about fear, more relevant than ever, that follows in the great tradition of Chicken Little.