Showing results by narrator "Denis Daly" in All Categories

Little is known of Norton F. Hazeldine, whose version of the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam was published in 1908. It is not stated whether this was an actual translation, although it appears to be an extensive reworking of the fourth or fifth edition of the translation by Edward Fitzgerald.

This small handbook of the theory and practice of Stoic philosophy has become one of the most influential of all texts from the ancient world. It has been a source of inspiration to rulers, philosophers, and social theorists, and its cogent prescriptions about the management of one's personal life can be applied with great benefit in the hectic and confused world of today.

The Songs of a Sentimental Bloke is a classic Australian work of poetry composed by renowned poet, C.J. Dennis (1876-1938). This verse-novel chronicles Bill's coming-of-age through romance, love, and fatherhood. From rambunctious street-strolling youth to settled, responsible father, Bill's story unfolds with keen Aussie larrikinism and humour. This work is narrated as a duet by Denis Daly (Bill) and Sarah Bacaller (Doreen).

André Gide met Wilde many times and was one of the small number of celebrities who maintained contact with him until his death in Paris in 1900.

This collection of meditations on spiritual development was published in 1920. In the words of the author: "You are your own forerunner, and the towers you have builded are but the foundation of your giant-self. And that self too shall be a foundation."

This collection, first published in 1914, contains 28 short pieces in prose and verse, which present themes frequently explored in Gibran's other works. These include love, death, creation myths and spiritual realization.

Oscar Wilde visited America in the year 1882. Interest in the Aesthetic School, of which Wilde was the most prominent representative, had spread to the United States, and Wilde decided to undertake an American lecture tour to explain the Aesthetic movement. Towards the end of September 1883 Wilde returned to England and immediately commenced a lecturing tour. His first visit was to Wandsworth Town Hall where he presented his "Impressions of America", the text of which was published in 1906.

This universalist spiritual treatise is the best known work by the Lebanese-born poet and artist Kahlil Gibran (1883-1931). The central figure of the narrative is a fictional prophet, Al Mustafa, who is about to set off on a journey back to his homeland. His departure is delayed when he encounters a group of people who urgently seek his advice on a wide range of topics ranging from the mundane to the highest flights of spiritual introspection.

First published in 1857, The Flowers of Evil (Les Fleurs du Mal) is a poetry collection by Charles Baudelaire. In 1909, Cyril Scott published a translation of 54 of the poems, which is the subject of this recording.

For centuries, Newton's doctrine of the attraction of gravitation had been the most prominent example of a theory of natural science. However, as with many successful theories, there were some anomalies it could not explain. In his attempts to address these problems, Einstein developed a radical and equally influential theory, that of relativity. This essay is a classic exposition of the basic elements of Einstein's theory by his Dutch colleague, Professor H.A. Lorentz.

This grimly picturesque novel by Arthur Morrison was first published in 1897. The central character is Dicky Perrott, an urchin living in the Jago, an extremely squalid district of London's East End. The Jago is based on the Old Nichol slum, which lay at the back of Shoreditch High Street, and which has since been demolished. The novel describes Dicky's futile attempts to escape from the soul-destroying environment of the Jago, with the support of the Reverend Henry Sturt, who was based on the historical East End crusader, Arthur Osborne Jay, to whom the book is dedicated.

The best and most engaging portraits of the Romans as living people are to be found in the works like those of the four poets featured in this recording. In Howard Felperin’s lively translations, these pieces become verbal postcards of the era, revealing in exquisite detail the passion and the grief, the joy and the pain experienced by the people of Rome as they deal with the inevitable fascination of love as it permeates their daily lives.

The Works of Edgar Allan Poe (1809 – 1849), The Raven Edition, presents his complete literary output in five volumes. Although best known for his works of macabre fiction, Poe also had a deep interest in scientific discovery and speculative philosophy. This volume contains stories about wild and wonderful experiments and other objects of public curiosity, and essays about language and thought.

A Book for Kids, first published in 1921, may be regarded as the Australian equivalent of Robert Louis Stevenson’s A Child’s Garden of Verses. The collection contains 55 short poems on a wide variety of subjects, and two stories, "The Little Red House" and "The Boy Who Rode into the Sunset".

In the 19th century, when books were comparatively rare and expensive, encyclopedic compendiums about managing households became very popular. The most notable example in this genre is Isabella Beeton's Book of Household Management, first published in 1861. Three years later, Edward Abbott, who described himself as an “Australian Aristologist”, published The English and Australian Cookery Book, which has the subtitle Cookery for the many, as well as the for the ‘upper ten thousand’.

In De Profundis, Oscar Wilde, in a lengthy letter to his former lover, reflects on suffering, forgiveness, and redemption. As a confessional text, it ranks with the Confessions of Saint Augustine as an examination of the nature of penitence, its origin and transformative effect. T. W. H. Crosland (1865-1924), a social commentator, was extremely moralistic. Among his targets was Oscar Wilde, whose contrition, as expressed in De Profundis, he believed to be an elaborate and convenient sham.

Among New Thought authors, Henry Thomas Hamblin particularly emphasized in his writings the power and necessity of dynamic and judicious thought. Since his death in 1958, his work has been continued by The Hamblin Trust, whose mission is described as "enriching people's lives through Right Thinking".

This short text is widely accepted as one of the canonical wisdom books of the Bible. It is narrated by one who calls himself a teacher, and also a king, traditionally held to be Solomon. The general recommendation is that the wise man should consider all created things as symbols of vanity and that one's prime concern should be to avoid offending God. As with the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam, commentators have been arguing for centuries about the true philosophical orientation of the author. View range from the advocacy of a radical nihilism to the recommendation of a stringent and unwavering piety.

The Raven Edition of the works of Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849) presents his complete literary output in five volumes. In addition to The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket, Poe's longest work, Volume 3 contains six stories, which feature Poe's characteristic interest in death, dissolution, and twisted relationships.

It is said that there is no-one more zealous in a cause than an adult convert. A notable example of this was Joseph McCabe, whose conversion was not to a religion, but from religious faith to secularism. Ordained as a Franciscan priest in 1890, and later recognized by the Catholic Church as an able scholar and teacher, by 1897 McCabe had completely lost his faith and had left the priesthood. He became a very active secularist, delivering thousands of public lectures and publishing over two hundred books on a wide range of religious, historical and scientific topics.