Showing results by publisher "Spoken Realms" in Literary Fiction

Bret Harte paints a timeless portrait of undesirables who are forced to leave a self-righteous town, and who, in the face of oncoming winter and in the company of a pair of innocents, learn to become bigger than themselves.

Glenn Hascall performs this surprisingly tender story by Bram Stoker.

In Gold Rush-era California, Jim Smiley, a minor who loves to gamble and will bet on anything, obtains a frog. Sniley spends three months training this talented amphibian athlete to become a champion jumper. Smiley finds his mark in the form of a stranger who comes to town and shows an interest in the frog, and would love to bet but if he could find his own frog. "No problem, you hold my frog and I'll go find a frog for you." When hustler meets hustler, the results can be interesting. You might say Smiley didn't know his frog was loaded.

Beloved for nearly a century since its release in 1925, F. Scott Fitzgerald’s vintage American novel still stands as the quintessential story of the Roaring Twenties. Nick Carraway, a newcomer to New York, tells of mysterious millionaire neighbor Jay Gatsby and his undying adoration of the lovely Daisy Buchanan. In this new audio edition, narrators Kyle Tait and Chelsea Stephens blend to bring the Jazz Age back to life, in a duet retelling of a classic tale.

A Romance of Wastdale, published in 1895, is a novel by the British writer A.E.W Mason. In 1921, it was turned into a film of the same name directed by Maurice Elvey and made by Stoll Pictures, Britain’s biggest studio of the silent era. The novel is set in the scenic area of Wastdale, Cumbria, situated in the Lake District National Park and surrounded by some of England’s highest mountains. Wastdale Head has been a starting point for walks and climbing trips into the mountains, in this context, this story of mountains, mountaineers, romance, and treachery unfolds.

Headlong Hall was the first of his seven novels, all of which display the same structure. There is a faint semblance of a plot, which is merely a device to bring together a bunch of voluble eccentrics, who converse on a wide range of topical issues. Headlong Hall is the rural seat of the ebullient Squire Headlong, who invites a number of philosophers, a clergyman, a musician, a novelist, and a phrenologist, to dine with him and share their views.

According to legend, the Pyncheon family has been cursed by their 17th century ancestor, Colonel Pyncheon, who stole the land from Matthew Maule. Maule was later put to death after being accused of witchcraft and the deed for the land could not be found. Now living in the New England mansion fraught with haunted miseries of the past, Hepzibah Pyncheon opens a small shop to pull herself from the poverty-striken curse she has lived under while her brother, Clifford, was serving a decades-long prison sentence for murder.

This timeless tale, set in the aftermath of World War I, explores the complexities of love, loss, and the human spirit. Follow the journey of Donald Mahon, a wounded aviator returning home, and the lives of those who surround him—each grappling with their own struggles and desires.

Isobel MacNeil has grown up a simple village Lass and craves adventure, knowledge, and love. Laird Jamie Murray is looking for a woman who will bring a strong alliance and run his keep. Love is not required. When the two encounter each other in a loch, her bathing and him grievously wounded, sparks fly and passions ignite.

"The Open Boat" by Stephen Crane is a profound short story that captures the struggle for survival experienced by four shipwrecked men adrift in a small dinghy after their steamer, the Commodore, sinks. The narrative is based on Crane's real-life experience of being stranded at sea, and it explores themes of nature's indifference, the bond between humans in the face of adversity, and existential reflections.