Showing titles in Biological Sciences

Purported to be written by noted British Parliamentarian Charles James Fox as a result of a wager, this important and engaging essay is a meditation on the classifications of farts, the properties of them, the ingredients to consume in which to reproduce them as well as fascinating anecdotes of the various applications of wind-breaking in modern society. Join me in experiencing this fierce polemic...this call to action! - Summary by Ben Tucker

Collected here are all of Clark Aston Smith's writings he submitted to The Fantasy Fan Magazine. The Fantasy Fan Magazine was a periodical dedicated to people professing their love of and celebrating fantasy and weird fiction. In addition to the opinion pieces and non-fiction articles, The Fantasy Fan also included many short stories and poems by some of the authors it celebrated such as H. P. Lovecraft, Robert E. Howard and Clark Ashton Smith, a personal favorite of editor Charles D. Hornig. Smith contributed quite a variety of stories, poems and articles to The Fantasy Fan over its two-year ...

This is a series of late-19th Century essays about Florida's flora & fauna written by a Massachusetts-based naturalist. (Summary by BellonaTimes) Note: page 142 was read from Google Books as it was missing from the Gutenberg version.

This is an essay providing an extended analysis of the works of Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen and of Ibsen's critical reception in England. Shaw uses this "exposition of Ibsenism" to illustrate the imperfections of British society, using the idea of an imaginary "community of a thousand persons," divided into three categories: Philistines, Idealists, and the lone Realist. The main discussion revolves around Ibsen's recurring topic of the strong character holding out against social hypocrisy, while stating in his essay's final sentence that the quintessence of Ibsenism is that "there is no ...

"Here speaks the man of masts and sails, to whom the sea is not a navigable element, but an intimate companion. The length of passages, the growing sense of solitude, the close dependence upon the very forces that, friendly to-day, without changing their nature, by the mere putting forth of their might, become dangerous to-morrow, make for that sense of fellowship which modern seamen, good men as they are, cannot hope to know." In this volume of essays, more than in any other single work, we get to see clearly just what Joseph Conrad's years working on sail-powered ships meant to him — and ...

A posthumous collection of Bourne's writing from publications such as The Atlantic Monthly and early issues of The New Republic, with a long introduction by his friend and colleague Van Wyck Brooks. Includes the influential and perennially relevant essay "Trans-National America" as well as a fragment from the autobiographical novel on which Bourne was working at the time of his death. - Summary by Ben Adams

A darling story of little Charlie and his adventures with cats and kittens and how he became many things. Also how the kitten Topsy, unhappy with being a kitten and having his face washed, tries different life styles with different animals but finally makes the right choice. - Summary by Phil Chenevert

Another collection of mostly short “soliloquys” from Christopher Morley, an American literary luminary, who introduces them thus: “… these pieces were written, day by day, out of the pressure and hilarity and contention of the mind. I have made no attempt to conceal their ephemeral origin. They were almost all written for a newspaper, and contain many references to journalism. … it is remarkable that they should have been written at all: remarkable that any newspaper should take the pains to offer space to speculations of this sort. I have not scrupled, on occasion, to chaff some of ...

This pamphlet by LGBT pioneer and philosopher Edward Carpenter was originally intended to form part of his work "Love's Coming of Age", but was removed following public discourse on the Oscar Wilde trials of 1895. It was subsequently published privately and circulated among his inner circle. This is Carpenter's first publication on the subject of homosexuality, and displays his typical forward-thinking and utopian sentiments. It seeks to make clear that homosexuality is innate, is more widespread than generally accepted, and even implies that degress of bisexuality may be universal. - Summary ...

A. A. MILNE: …was best known for the perennially popular Pooh (Winnie the), arguably one of his lesser contributions to the literature of his day. He was highly acclaimed for dozens of popular plays. Moreover, he was both a contributor to and editor of Britain’s famous Punch Magazine; and for Punch, The Atlantic Monthly and dozens of other internationally acclaimed journals he wrote hundreds of essay, sketches and poems. THE WORLD WARS: Milne argued aggressively against the many enemy atrocities characterizing both World Wars, and also fought in both. All four years of the Great War he ...

Alice Meynell was an English essayist, critic, and poet who was also a leading suffragist, serving as vice-president of the Women Writers' Suffrage League, She and her husband Wilfrid Meynell were active in publishing and editing literary works including helping to launch the first works of Francis Thompson, author of "Hound of Heaven." The Meynell's later converted to Roman Catholicism. In this volume, In this volume Meynell offers her impressions on some of the best known literary figures of her day including Charles Dickens, Tennyson.and the Bronte sisters. - Summary by Larry Wilson

This droll and 'enflammatory' pamphelet doth be a grondebreaking worke of musing upon a great aflicktion of Man, upon the better nature of that aflicktion, and upon the vain and mischievous cheats who affeckt to cure it. The gauntlet here so-toss'd by Philander Misaurus was later pick'd up by surgeon John Marten in his rejoinder, titled by the name–"The Dishonour of the Gout". Which seeketh to shew all minds swayed by Philander's prettie words that—indubitably—Gout is misfortune. - Summary by Alasdair (Alister)

On Thursday, November 19, 1863, Abraham Lincoln gave a brief address at the dedication of the Soldier's National Cemetery in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. This speech is now considered one of the greatest in American history and one of the finest examples of English public oratory. To mark its 150th anniversary, Librivox volunteers bring you 15 recordings of the Gettysburg Address. (from Wikipedia and LA Walden)

Out of the Dark: Essays, Lectures, and Addresses on Physical and Social Vision is a collection of Helen Keller's writings, compiled by the author, exploring Socialism, ableism, the education of the blind and deaf, and more. - Summary by Adrienne Prevost

In this extended essay, Mary Antin asks us to consider three questions: First: A question of principle: Have we any right to regulate immigration? Second: A question of fact: What is the nature of our present immigration? Third: A question of interpretation: Is immigration good for us? In doing so, she asks us to step back from the usual discussion around immigration, which tends to focus on practical matters, and consider the underlying principles involved. What do we owe our fellow humans and what is our national mission as Americans? (summary by Zachary Katz-Stein)

This was originally titled "The Wild" and is a lecture given by Thoreau in 1851 at the Concord lyceum. "Walking" is an essay that explores the relationship between man and nature, trying to find a balance between society and our raw animal nature.

Johann Gottlieb Fichte (German: [ˈjoːhan ˈɡɔtliːp ˈfɪçtə]; May 19, 1762 – January 27, 1814) was a German philosopher. He was one of the founding figures of the philosophical movement known as German idealism, which developed from the theoretical and ethical writings of Immanuel Kant. Fichte is often perceived as a figure whose philosophy forms a bridge between the ideas of Kant and those of the German Idealist Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel. Recently, philosophers and scholars have begun to appreciate Fichte as an important philosopher in his own right due to his original insights ...

Bloomsbury presents Bird Sense by Tim Birkhead, read by John Sackville What is it like to be a swift, flying at over one hundred kilometres an hour? Or a kiwi, plodding flightlessly among the humid undergrowth in the pitch dark of a New Zealand night? And what is going on inside the head of a...

Author Frank J. Adkins, a lecturer at Cambridge University, arranged a series of European history lectures at the beginning of World War I for war-related organizations in the Sheffield area. Adkins expanded those lectures into long essays for publication as a book in 1915. The essays examine several centuries of history of Germany, France, England, and the Slavs, and they show how these histories contributed to the conflict that broke out in 1914. - Summary by Ted Lienhart

A short, semi-autobiographical work by American humorist Mark Twain. It explores the controversy over the authorship of the Shakespearean literary canon via satire, anecdote, and extensive quotation of contemporary authors on the subject. In the book, Twain expounds the view that Shakespeare of Stratford was not the author of the canon, and lends tentative support to the Baconian theory. The book opens with a scene from his early adulthood, where he was trained to be a steamboat pilot by an elder who often argued with him over the controversy. Twain's arguments include the following points: ...