Summary
The world-class writers featured in this collection are adept at conjuring the depth and passion that surrounds all stories of love and loss. The short story form is perfect for capturing the dizzying heights that accompany a new object of affection, as well as the queasy unease and bottomless longing of lost loves.This recording includes the following stories: "The Piazza" by Herman Melville (1819-1891), narrated by Peter Marinker Nature's beauty encourages a riddle, and a haunting, strange story. "Rappaccini's Daughter" by Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804-1864), narrated by Mark Meadows The woman in the garden resembles a flower--but loving her proves poisonous. "The Lady with the Dog" by Anton Chekhov (1860-1904), narrated by Peter Marinker A chance encounter brings lifelong yearning, against all convention. "Coming, Aphrodite " by Willa Cather (1873-1947), narrated by Joanne McQuinn Two artists cross paths--with striking results--on the road to professional success. "The Dead" by James Joyce (1882-1941), narrated by Gerry O'BrienA man experiences shifting views on himself, his wife, the past, the living ... and the dead."Clair de Lune" by Guy de Maupassant (1850-1893), narrated by Cameron Stewart In spite of himself, an intolerant priest learns of love's song.
James Joyce was born on February 2, 1882, in Dublin, Ireland, into a large Catholic family. Joyce was a very good pupil, studying poetics, languages, and philosophy at Clongowes Wood College, Belvedere College, and the Royal University in Dublin.
Joyce taught school in Dalkey, Ireland, before marrying in 1904. Joyce lived in Zurich and Triest, teaching languages at Berlitz schools, and then settled in Paris in 1920 where he figured prominently in the Parisian literary scene, as witnessed by Ernest Hemingway's A Moveable Feast.
Joyce's collection of fine short stories, Dubliners, was published in 1914, to critical acclaim. Joyce's major works include A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, Ulysses, Finnegans Wake, and Stephen Hero. Ulysses, published in 1922, is considered one of the greatest English novels of the 20th century. The book simply chronicles one day in the fictional life of Leopold Bloom, but it introduces stream of consciousness as a literary method and broaches many subjects controversial to its day. As avant-garde as Ulysses was, Finnegans Wake is even more challenging to the reader as an important modernist work. Joyce died just two years after its publication, in 1941.
(Bowker Author Biography)
