Description Details
A one-act play. Eccentric (crazy?) Captain Hagberd has been waiting for years for his son to come home from the sea. He has scrimped and saved, outfitting a house for Harry to inherit upon his return, which will be in only one day more. He has also planned that Harry will marry Bessie, the repressed maiden next door. Note: The recording was done outside, so there will be some ambient noise (airplanes, lawn mowers, birds, children... etc). (Summary by TriciaG)...

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Play

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Beyond the Horizon is a 1920 play written by American playwright Eugene O'Neill. It was O'Neill's first full-length work, and the winner of the 1920 Pulitzer Prize for Drama. The play focuses on the portrait of a family, and particularly two brothers Andrew and Robert. In the first act of the play, Robert is about to go off to sea with their uncle Dick, a sea captain while Andrew looks forward to marrying his sweetheart Ruth and working on the family farm as he starts a family. ( Summary by Wikipedia)...

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Play

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Mermellissa is an orphan who is not loved by the family she lives with. Though she always tries to please them, they never even hug her. On her birthday, Mermellissa is feeling very sad until she meets a sea monster who gives her a wonderful present - friendship....

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In 1910, Baum hoped to end the Oz series and follow with a new series about a little girl named Trot and her sailor companion, Cap'n Bill. The Sea Fairies (1911) was the first book in the projected series and took Trot and Cap'n Bill under the sea where they had adventures with mermaids and other fantastic creatures. It was followed by Sky Island (1912) and then Baum returned to the Oz titles. He brought Trot and Cap'n Bill to Oz in the Scarecrow of Oz (1915). (Summary by Judy Bieber)...

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Children

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Go on a journey to the coast of Maine and immerse yourself in the picturesque community on Orr’s Island. See the raindrops glistening on the pine needles and hear the waves crashing on the rocks. This is a tale of romance, tragedy, crusty sea captains, an impetuous boy, a loving girl, complete with village gossips and twists in the plot. (Summary by Bridget Gaige)...

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Historical Fiction, Literature, Sea stories, Teen/Young adult

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The Little Wizard Stories of Oz are six short stories written by L. Frank Baum in 1913. By all accounts, Baum intended to finish the Oz series with The Emerald City of Oz, published in 1910. Following that, he attempted to write non-Oz books, publishing The Sea Fairies in 1911 and Sky Island in 1912. But, (as Baum himself laments in the prefaces of many of his Oz books,) his little tyrants were only interested in hearing more Oz stories. So in 1913, he returned to writing about Oz, putting out both The Little Wizard Stories and The Patchwork Girl of Oz that year. According to http://www.eskimo.com/~tiktok/faq06.html this comprehensive Oz FAQ site , The Little Wizard Stories were geared toward younger children and were originally published separately, similar in style to today's Little Golden Books. The next year, they were published together as one volume. Each Little Wizard Story revolves around the adventures of two famous Oz characters, and their humorous adventures in and around the land of Oz. (Summary by Maddie)...

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Children

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Reading bedtime stories to children can be a wonderful way to relax and at the same time act out the exciting things happening in the story for them. If you've done it, you know the feeling and if you haven't I can only hope that you were the rapt audience for such stories when a child. We can let ourselves go and perform all the parts with abandon because the only audience are those who unreservedly appreciate our thespian talents. These 25 stories are all original and all sparkling examples of Abby Walker's ability to spin a witty story that is fun to read and listen to. Don't you really want to know about The Good Sea Monster? The Shoemaker Rat or most of all, The Disorderly Girl? If not, you may go back to reading Kant with my blessing. (Summary by Phil Chenevert)...

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Children

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Shipwrecked and castaway, Daniel DeFoe’s hard-luck character is still the standard for “growing where you’re planted.” Captured by pirates, he makes his break in a small boat and undergoes desperate adventures before winning his way back to civilization. But Crusoe proves willing to chance his luck a second time when, after sweating his way to prosperity as a planter in Brazil, he undertakes a voyage that isn’t needful… and is marooned on a small island off South America. Crusoe shows the value of single-minded labor as he pursues ways to feed, shelter, and clothe himself. His ardent wish is to escape his island – why is it that the only people who come there are cannibals? But he spends more than two decades in isolation before acquiring a sidekick – the man Friday you’ve probably heard of. And who would guess his way to salvation would depend on leading a last-ditch fight against a shipful of mutineers? For other castaway stories inspired by “Robinson Crusoe”, listen to “The Swiss Family Robinson” (http://snipurl.com/swiss_family) and “The Mysterious Island” (http://snipurl.com/mysterious_island). (Summary by Mark F. Smith)...

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Adventure, Literature, Sea stories

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The Voyage Out is the first novel by Virginia Woolf, published in 1915 by Duckworth; and published in the U.S. in 1920 by Doran. One of Woolf's wittiest social satires. Rachel Vinrace embarks for South America on her father's ship and is launched on a course of self-discovery in a kind of modern mythical voyage. The mismatched jumble of passengers provide Woolf with an opportunity to satirize Edwardian life. The novel introduces Clarissa Dalloway, the central character of Woolf's later novel, Mrs. Dalloway. E. M. Forster described it as ... a strange, tragic, inspired book whose scene is a South America not found on any map and reached by a boat which would not float on any sea, an America whose spiritual boundaries touch Xanadu and Atlantis... It is absolutely unafraid... Here at last is a book which attains unity as surely as Wuthering Heights, though by a different path....

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Literature, Satire

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This delightful story is full of ups and downs involving a young boy and his dog, a gift from the sea. The adventures range from playful antics to times of peril, and through it all, our protagonists (both human and canine alike) come through for each other as only a dog and his boy can! This adventurous and fun tale will bring you back to your own childhood memories...you and that special tail-wagger from the good ol' days....

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Children

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A mysterious map, pirates, and pieces of eight! When young Jim Hawkins finds a map to pirates’ gold he starts on an adventure that takes him from his English village to a desert island with the murderous Black Dog, half-mad Ben Gunn, and (of course) Long John Silver. Arr Jim lad! R.L. Stevenson (1850-1894) was born in Scotland and travelled extensively in California and the south Pacific. (Summary by Adrian Praetzellis)...

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Adventure, Children, Sea stories

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The Water-Babies, A Fairy Tale for a Land Baby is a novel by the Reverend Charles Kingsley, first published in its entirety in 1863. Though some of the author's opinions are very dated now, the journey of a little chimney-sweep water-baby through rivers and storms, under sea and over iceberg, is still a classic, wonderful children's adventure. Summary by Cori Samuel. Music from Berlioz's Roman Carnival Overture at http://www.musopen.com/view.php?type=piece&id=195 musopen.org...

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Children, Fairy tales, Adventure, Fantasy

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The Marvelous Land of Oz is the second of the Oz books. It follows the adventures of the Scarecrow, the Tin Woodman and Tip. The Emerald City has been taken over by the Army of Revolt, and our adventurous friends need the help of Glinda the Good to return it to its rightful ruler. (Summary by Paul Harvey)...

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Children

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The title character in Ibsen's drama, Ellida Wangel, is married to a prosperous doctor, but feels stifled by her roles as wife and stepmother to her husband's two daughters by a previous marriage, Hilde and Bolette. Ten years earlier she had promised to marry another man - and on a sultry summer day, he comes back to her. Ellida must decide whether to choose the safety of her life with Wangel, or to yield to the siren song of the sea. (Summary by Elizabeth Klett)...

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Play

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The book tells the story of the quest for Captain Grant of the Britannia. After finding a bottle cast into the ocean by the captain himself after the Britannia is shipwrecked, Lord and Lady Glenarvan of Scotland decide to launch a rescue expedition. The main difficulty is that the coordinates of the wreckage are mostly erased, and only the latitude (37 degrees) is known. Lord Glenarvan makes it his quest to find Grant; together with his wife, Grant's children and the crew of his yacht the Duncan they set off for South America. An unexpected passenger in the form of French geographer Jacques Paganel joins the search. They explore Patagonia, Tristan da Cunha Island, Amsterdam Island, Australia and new Zeland and find Captain Grant at last. (summary from Wikipedia)....

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Adventure, Teen/Young adult, Sea stories

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This is the lively autobiography of Martha Summerhayes, the wife of an officer in the American Army. Here, she tells many stories about life and conditions in different camps and forts in which she lived with her expanding family, people along the way, and Journeys. (Summary by Stav Nisser)...

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Memoirs, Biography

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Known primarily for her children's books, Harriet T. Comstock would occasionally depart from that genre and showcase her writing talent in adult prose as well. Janet of the Dunes is one such departure wherein she masterfully takes us into the lives of the bold men and women who tended those life saving stations along the seaboard which many a ship relied upon for their safety. They were simple people, large of heart and as close-knit as a tiny community can and must ever be, and they, above all else, took their duties very seriously. The story revolves primarily around Janet and her Cap'n Billy Daddy and how their lives and their devotion to one another are touched by the others within the small circle of people of the dunes, the hills, and the light. (Summary by Roger Melin)...

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Adventure, Fiction, Sea stories

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The hearty, all-American Rover Boys sail by yacht to Africa in search of their kidnapped father. (Summary by BellonaTimes)

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Adventure, Teen/Young adult, Children, Sea stories

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This is the story of a voyage of a merchant sailing ship from Bombay to England, set in the very late 19th century. “It was a bad winter off the Cape that year.” From Wikepedia: “The novel is seen as an allegory about isolation and solidarity, the ship's company serving as a microcosm of a social group.” As to the title, one can only ask, “What WERE you thinking?” (Introduction by Tom Crawford)...

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Adventure, Fiction, Literature, Sea stories

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Excerpt: For the long nights you lay awake And watched for my unworthy sake: For your most comfortable hand That led me through the uneven land: For all the story-books you read: For all the pains you comforted:...

Table of Contents Details
Contents A Child?s Garden of Verses .............................................................................................................................................. 7 Bed in Summer ............................................................................................................................................................... 7 A Thought ...................................................................................................................................................................... 7 At the Sea-side ................................................................................................................................................................ 7 Young Night-Thought .................................................................................................................................................... 8 Whole Duty of Children................................................................................................................................................. 8 Rain ............................................................................................