Mary Barton: A Tale of Manchester Life (Version 2) by Elizabeth Cleghorn GASKELL (1810 - 1865) Genre(s): Culture & Heritage Fiction, Published 1800 -1900 Read by: Tony Foster in English Chapters: 00:00:00 - 00 - PREFACE 00:04:16 - 01 - CHAPTER I - A MYSTERIOUS DISAPPEARANCE 00:24:55 - 02 - CHAPTER II - A MANCHESTER TEA-PARTY 00:40:10 - 03 - CHAPTER III - JOHN BARTON'S GREAT TROUBLE 01:02:47 - 04 - CHAPTER IV - OLD ALICE'S HISTORY 01:25:51 - 05 - CHAPTER V - THE MILL ON FIRE--JEM WILSON TO THE RESCUE 02:10:34 - 06 - CHAPTER VI - POVERTY AND DEATH 02:52:07 - 07 - CHAPTER VII - JEM WILSON'S REPULSE 03:11:57 - 08 - CHAPTER VIII - MARGARET'S DEBUT AS A PUBLIC SINGER 03:47:48 - 09 - CHAPTER IX - BARTON'S LONDON EXPERIENCES 04:23:45 - 10 - CHAPTER X - RETURN OF THE PRODIGAL 04:56:08 - 11 - CHAPTER XI - MR. CARSON'S INTENTIONS REVEALED 05:28:54 - 12 - CHAPTER XII - OLD ALICE'S BAIRN 05:49:40 - 13 - CHAPTER XIII - A TRAVELLER'S TALES 06:11:04 - 14 - CHAPTER XIV - JEM'S INTERVIEW WITH POOR ESTHER 06:38:47 - 15 - CHAPTER XV - A VIOLENT MEETING BETWEEN THE RIVALS 'Mary Barton: A Tale of Manchester Life' was Mrs Gaskell's first full-length novel. It was published anonymously in that tumultuous year of political change, 1848 - only a few months after the Communist Manifesto co-authored by her fellow Manchester-resident, Friedrich Engels. Engels's experience as agent in his father's cotton-spinning factory motivated him to write 'The Condition of the Working Class in England', a classic account of the sufferings of the poor under the factory-system.Elizabeth Gaskell's own personal contact with the plight of the poor cotton workers of Lancashire also compelled her to a compassionate examination of their lives; but as a middle-class woman, married to a Unitarian minister, her approach to her subject took on a more emotionally complex significance; influenced by religious faith but also by more personal considerations.In the brief preface to the novel, Mrs Gaskell hints at her initial impulse. The loss of a beloved child in infancy led her to seek a therapeutic outlet, but one which left her uncertain of her capacity to contextualize her public, writerly response to the tragedies occurring in the surrounding society of Manchester's poorest classes: 'I know nothing of Political Economy, or the theories of trade...' She was, however, determined to portray, in novelistic form, the intimate connection between the private experience of her characters and the social forces of her time. The success of the novel led her to proclaim her authorship and move on to further works of fiction, which have secured her in our times a mounting reputation as one of the leading novelists of the mid-Victorian period.Certainly the novel features numerous death-scenes, all conveyed with a depth of sympathy that contrasts with the queasy iambics with which Dickens orchestrated the notorious demise of Little Nell. Mrs Gaskell was not, like Dickens, a London-based novelist observing the sufferings of the provincial poor with a journalistic detachment - as evidenced in his own admirable, Lancashire-based novel 'Hard Times'. Gaskell lived among the people whose attenuated lives she chronicled - and however hesitantly, as a début novelist, she rendered their experience in literary terms, her writing presents us with a true insight into the sufferings of individuals at a point in history when the mass of human beings fell casualty to the forms of economic progress following upon the Industrial Revolution. Most impressively she called into question the political and social cost of creating a resentful proletariat despairing of survival in (to quote Karl Marx) a 'heartless world'.Our reader Tony Foster is a resident of Manchester and a near-neighbour of Mrs Gaskell (allowing for their separation in time). His superb narration renders the native speech of her characters with an authenticity which ideally conveys the spirit of this book. A truly moving experience awaits everyone who gives ear to this 'Tale of Manchester Life'. (Summary by Martin Geeson) More information: http://librivox.org/mary-barton-a-tale-of-manchester-life-version-2-by-elizabeth-cleghorn-gaskell/ LibriVox - free public domain audiobooks (https://librivox.org/)

Selected Short Stories by F. Scott Fitzgerald by F. Scott FITZGERALD (1896 - 1940) Genre(s): Short Stories Read by: Laurie Anne Walden in English Chapters: 00:00:00 - 01 - Bernice Bobs Her Hair, part 1 00:28:36 - 02 - Bernice Bobs Her Hair, part 2 00:57:09 - 03 - Benediction, part 1 01:19:25 - 04 - Benediction, part 2 01:35:08 - 05 - The Camel's Back, part 1 02:02:14 - 06 - The Camel's Back, part 2 02:37:23 - 07 - The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, part 1 03:06:31 - 08 - The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, part 2 03:37:37 - 09 - The Lees of Happiness, part 1 04:06:04 - 10 - The Lees of Happiness, part 2 Ranging in tone from humor to sentimentality, these stories by F. Scott Fitzgerald are set against a backdrop of jazz, flappers, and the changing mores of American society. In 'Bernice Bobs Her Hair,' wallflower Bernice is taken in hand by her more popular cousin, whose motives are not entirely altruistic. In 'Benediction,' a young woman visits her brother in seminary. A camel goes to a party in 'The Camel's Back.' 'The Curious Case of Benjamin Button' is a poignant fantasy about a man who ages backward. Finally, tragedy befalls a young couple in 'The Lees of Happiness.' The stories in this collection are from the books Flappers and Philosophers and Tales of the Jazz Age. (Summary by Laurie Anne Walden) More information: http://librivox.org/selected-short-stories-by-f-scott-fitzgerald/