Buddug's Bedtime Stories: For the love of literature ~
By Buddug Brenhines
Buddug's Bedtime Stories: For the love of literature ~Mar 29, 2014
A Hunger Artist by Franz Kafka
"A Hunger Artist" (German: "Ein Hungerkünstler") is a short story by Franz Kafka first published in Die neue Rundschau in 1922. The story was also included in the collection A Hunger Artist (Ein Hungerkünstler), the last book Kafka prepared for publication, which was printed by Verlag Die Schmiedeshortly after his death. The protagonist, a hunger artist who experiences the decline in appreciation of his craft, is typically Kafkaesque: an individual marginalized and victimized by society at large. "A Hunger Artist" explores themes such as death, art, isolation, asceticism, spiritual poverty, futility, personal failure and the corruption of human relationships. The title of the story has also been translated as "A Fasting Artist" and "A Starvation Artist".
Mrs Frola and Mr Ponza her Son-in-Law by Luigi Pirandello
#bedtimestories #shortstories #grownups • BACKGROUND • Luigi Pirandello; Agrigento (28 June 1867 – Rome 10 December 1936) was an Italian dramatist, novelist, poet, and short story writer whose greatest contributions were his plays. He was awarded the 1934 Nobel Prize in Literature for "his almost magical power to turn psychological analysis into good theatre. Pirandello's works include novels, hundreds of short stories, and about 40 plays, some of which are written in Sicilian. Pirandello's tragic farces are often seen as forerunners of the Theatre of the Absurd. • BEDTIME STORIES FOR ADULTS • Step into the enchanting world of Buddug's literary gatherings, a cozy sanctuary illuminated by the gentle glow of timeless tales and cherished classics in the public domain. Every Friday at 8:00 PM PT, let yourself be embraced by the velvety warmth of stories that resonate through the revered corridors of literary tradition. Imagine finding solace in a softly-lit reading nook, where a flickering candle playfully dances, casting shadows upon well-worn leather-bound books. Join us for an evening of literary magic and the soothing ambiance of shared stories. [ be the light in the darkness ] This Work Has “No Known Copyright” | Creative Commons
Araby by James Joyce
"Araby" is a short story by James Joyce published in his 1914 collection Dubliners. The story traces a young boy's infatuation with his friend's sister.
Through first-person narration, the reader is immersed at the start of the story in the drab life that people live on North Richmond Street, which seems to be illuminated only by the verve and imagination of the children who, despite the growing darkness that comes during the winter months, insist on playing "until [their] bodies glowed". Even though the conditions of this neighbourhood leave much to be desired, the children's play is infused with their almost magical way of perceiving the world, which the narrator dutifully conveys to the reader:
Our shouts echoed in the silent street. The career of our play brought us through the dark muddy lanes behind the houses where we ran the gauntlet of the rough tribes from the cottages, to the back doors of the dark dripping gardens where odours arose from the ashpits, to the dark odorous stables where a coachman smoothed and combed the horse or shook music from the buckled harness.
But though these boys "career" around the neighbourhood in a very childlike way, they are also aware of and interested in the adult world, as represented by their spying on the narrator's uncle as he comes home from work and, more importantly, on Mangan's sister, whose dress "swung as she moved" and whose "soft rope of hair tossed from side to side". These boys are on the brink of sexual awareness and, awed by the mystery of another sex, are hungry for knowledge.
Mrs Frola and Mr Ponza, Her Son-in-Law by Luigi Pirandello | Incl. 10kHz for Healing
Luigi Pirandello; Agrigento (28 June 1867 – Rome 10 December 1936) was an Italian dramatist, novelist, poet, and short story writer whose greatest contributions were his plays.
He was awarded the 1934 Nobel Prize in Literature for "his almost magical power to turn psychological analysis into good theatre."
Pirandello's works include novels, hundreds of short stories, and about 40 plays, some of which are written in Sicilian. Pirandello's tragic farces are often seen as forerunners of the Theatre of the Absurd.
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I hope you enjoy this reading. The frequencies in the background contain 10,000Hz for full-body healing, and binaural beats at 40Hz for brain health
The Prussian Officer, by DH Lawrence
The Prussian Officer and Other Stories is a collection of early short stories by D. H. Lawrence. It was published by Duckworth in London on 26 November 1914, and in America by B. W. Huebsch in 1916.
The first narrative in the collection is "The Prussian Officer", which tells of a captain and his orderly. Having wasted his youth gambling, the captain has been left with only his military career, and though he has taken on mistresses throughout his life, he remains single. His young orderly is involved in a relationship with a young woman, and the captain, feeling sexual tension towards the young man, prevents the orderly from engaging in the relationship by taking up his evenings. These evenings lead to the captain abusing his orderly and leaving large, painful bruises on his thighs, making it hard for the orderly to walk. Whilst isolated in a forest during manoeuvres, the orderly takes out murderous revenge on the captain, but finds himself in a daze seemingly due both to the pain of the bruises and thirst. The orderly eventually collapses and dies in the hospital shortly thereafter. The corpses of the two men lay side by side.
The Path to The Cemetary by Thomas Mann
"The Road to the Churchyard" (German: Der Weg zum Friedhof) is a short story by Thomas Mann. It initially appeared in 1900 in Simplicissimus and then in 1903 in an anthology of Mann's six short stories, entitled Six Novellen. It was published in 1922 as "The Way to the Churchyard" in Helen Tracy Lowe-Porter's translation of Mann's Stories of Three Decades, and in 1988 in Death in Venice and Other Stories, translated by David Luke. It has also been translated as "The Path to the Cemetery".
This work parodies Naturalism (e.g. the alcoholism) and Mann's own Nietzschean influences. The recurrent protest present here in a comic vein, as well as in many other Mann's works, is against ignorant vitality epitomized here as the young boy on the bicycle.
The Egg by Sherwood Anderson
The Triumph of the Egg (full title: The Triumph of the Egg: A Book of Impressions from American Life in Tales and Poems) is a 1921 short story collection by the American author Sherwood Anderson. It was Anderson's third book to be published by B.W. Huebsch and his second collection after the successful short story cycle Winesburg, Ohio. The book contains 15 stories preceded by photographs of seven clay sculptures by Anderson's wife at the time, sculptor Tennessee Mitchell, that were inspired by characters in the book.
A Pair of Silk Stockings by Kate Chopin
"A Pair of Silk Stockings" is an 1897 short story written by Kate Chopin. The story follows Mrs. Sommers who prefers spending a windfall on herself, rather than on her children.
Mrs. Sommers comes into the small fortune of $15. After a few days of reflection, she decides to use the money to purchase clothing for her children so they may look "fresh and dainty and new for once in their lives." That narrative suggests that Mrs. Sommers had been before her marriage a wealthy woman, but now "needs of the present absorbed her every faculty."
An exhausted Mrs. Sommers rests at a counter where she will begin her shopping adventure. There she finds a pair of silk stockings for sale and is entranced by their smoothness. "Not thinking at all," she disregards her plans to obtain clothes for her children and instead spends her money and her afternoon for herself. She purchases boots to go with her stockings, buys fitted kid gloves, reads expensive magazines while lunching at a high-class restaurant, and ends her day sharing chocolates with a fellow theatre goer.
After the play ends, she boards the cable car to return home with "a poignant wish, a powerful longing that the cable car would never stop anywhere, but go on and on with her forever."
Berneice Bobs Her Hair by F. Scott Fitzgerald
"Bernice Bobs Her Hair" is a short story by F. Scott Fitzgerald. It was first published in May 1920 in the Saturday Evening Post. The original publication was illustrated by May Wilson Preston. The work later appeared in the September 1920 short story collection Flappers and Philosophers.
Fitzgerald's story follows the plight of a mixed-race Native American girl named Bernice from rural Eau Claire, Wisconsin, who visits her beautiful and sophisticated white cousin Marjorie in the city. In an attempt to be popular, Bernice announces she will bob her hair, but this announcement leads to unforeseen consequences.
Decades after its publication, literary critic Orville Prescott of The New York Times hailed the work in 1951 as a landmark story "that set social standards for a generation of young Americans, that revealed secrets of popularity and gave wonderful examples of what to say at a dinner table or on the dance floor."
PAUL'S CASE by Willa Cather
#bedtime #bedtimestories #spiritualalchemy "Paul's Case" is a short story by Willa Cather. It was first published in McClure's Magazine in 1905 under the title "Paul's Case: A Study in Temperament", which was later shortened. It also appeared in a collection of Cather's stories, The Troll Garden (1905). For many years "Paul's Case" was the only one of her stories that Cather allowed to be anthologized. New York City was historically known as a destination for those seeking adventure and new opportunities, and often described as a center of fine living and society. It was considered at the time of the publication of "Paul's Case" as “the symbol of ultimate glamour and cosmopolitan sophistication”. Indeed, in the story, New York City is described as lavish and extraordinary, in contrast to the descriptions of Paul's home, Pittsburgh, which he despises. Paul, a high school student from Pittsburgh, is frustrated with his dull middle-class life. This frustration, mixed with a desire for a luxurious lifestyle, causes him to purposely separate himself from everyone else, leading to feelings of isolation. Paul's teachers and father refer to Paul as a "case", representing him at a distance and as an example of someone to be studied, handled, and managed; the term enables Cather to adopt "the voice of medical authority". Paul seems to display some symptoms of a narcissistic personality disorder, but that is still debated.
The Lost Phoebe by Theodore Dreiser
#bedtime #bedtimestories #spiritualalchemy Henry Reifsneider was born on a rural farm in the American Midwest where the population is steadily decreasing. His family lived on it for generations, but his children either have moved away or have died. Henry’s farm, which he and his wife, Phoebe, now maintain, is in decline. The buildings and even the furniture inside the house are in decay. The fields produce poorly; the animals decrease in number each year; and the apple orchard, full of gnarled old trees, is decomposing. The story opens with this dismal setting, but the characters’ relationship exhibits hope, love, and contentment, expressed in the first three words of the story: “They lived together.” Phoebe and Henry have been married forty-eight years, during all of which they have lived on this farm. They spent the first ten years of their married life with Henry’s parents, in what would have been a typical extended farming family. Henry and Phoebe are a simple, loving couple whose relationship matures and ripens as their farm decomposes. They take pleasure in the simple daily farm chores. Even their trivial arguments over Henry’s misplaced belongings reveal caring. When Phoebe says that she will desert Henry if he blames her for his lost pipe or knife, Henry knows that Phoebe would never abandon him, except in death.
• BEDTIME STORIES FOR ADULTS • This Work Has “No Known Copyright” | Creative Commons
Thank you for joining me. The stories I read should be considered adult-only, as these stories the topics and settings are often somber in nature. [ be the light in the darkness ]
An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge, by Ambrose Bierce
"An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge" (1890) is a short story by the American writer and Civil War veteran Ambrose Bierce. Described as "one of the most famous and frequently anthologized stories in American literature", it was originally published by The San Francisco Examiner on July 13, 1890, and was first collected in Bierce's book Tales of Soldiers and Civilians (1891). The story, which is set during the American Civil War, is known for its irregular time sequence and twist ending. Bierce's abandonment of strict linear narration in favor of the internal mind of the protagonist is an early example of the stream of consciousness narrative mode.
TO BUILD A FIRE by Jack London
"To Build a Fire" is a short story by American author Jack London. There are two versions of this story. The first one was published in 1902, and the other was published in 1908. The story written in 1908 has become an often anthologized classic, while the 1902 story is less well known.
The 1908 version is about an unnamed male protagonist who ventures out in the subzero boreal forest of the Yukon Territory. He is followed by a native dog and is en route to visit his friends—ignoring warnings from an older man from Sulphur Creek about the dangers of hiking alone in extreme cold. The protagonist underestimates the harsh conditions and freezes to death after his fire is doused and he is unable to re-light it.
In the 1902 version, though the structure and storyline are similar, the weather is not as cold and horrendous, no dog follows the protagonist, the fire is not doused, and the man (named Tom Vincent in this version) suffers only from severe frostbite and survives to become a more melancholic but wiser person.
"To Build a Fire" is an oft-cited example of the naturalist movement that portrays the conflict of man versus nature. It also reflects London's personal experiences in the Yukon Territory.
The Lady with the Toy Dog, by Anton Chekov
A New England Nun by Mary E. Wilkins Freeman
Two lovers must make a choice for their hearts ~
A White Heron, by Sara Orne Jewett
a shy girl discovers the world ~
The Private History Of A Campaign That Failed, by Mark Twain
i'm a few days late with this one, but i hope you'll be forgiving. i read this in my relaxed, narrative style—but this doesn't do much for the humor in this story
The Bride Comes to Yellow Sky, by Stephen Crane
A newly-married couple come home to a worrying situation
Young Goodman Brown, by Nathaniel Hawthorne
A tale of mystery and danger, as a man seeks to find a pure and noble heart
How Old Timofei Died With A Song, by Rainer Maria Rilke
The Lady With The Toy Dog, by Anton Chekhov
A story of love and secrets ~
The Fortune-Teller, by Joaquim Maria Machado de Assis
I made a few mistakes in this reading, which I hope you'll forgive. I never practice these readings, due to my energy. If I add too many steps I'll stop doing these entirely. Leave me a note if you find these mistakes too distracting
The Yellow Wallpaper, by Charlotte Perkins Gilman
A woman goes through interesting changes while sleeping under a strange wallpaper
The Man Who Would Be King, by Rudyard Kipling
Parents, I leave it up to your discretion as to whether your child should hear this. There is casual racism and misogyny in this tale, but I am intentionally reading from famous authors of days past—you get to hear from different cultures and viewpoints to get a sense of how the world used to be versus how it is now
I hope you enjoy this reading. Since I am a spoonie, I don't rehearse my readings. I open the book and hit "record". Therefore, you'll hear me botch some of the names and words in this story, which I hope you'll forgive.
Please leave a comment or a review to let me know what you think
The Death Of Ivan Ilych, by Leo Tolstoy—Final Chapters
Did not realize this "short story" would be so long!
The Death of Ivan Ilych, by Leo Tolstoy: parts 7–9
Ivan's poor health continues to decline, and he begins to feel disconnected from everyone. As his suffering continues, he begins to ask why this has happened to him, and if he brought this onto himself
The Death of Ivan Ilych, by Leo Tolstoy–4-6 PG
Ivan Ilych finds that he is changing, and not for the better
The Death of Ivan Illych, by Leo Tolstoy, parts 1–3
Apologies for the late upload. I am not familiar with this powerful story, and didn't realize it would result in *over four hours* in reading length, total. Here are parts 1–3, with a running time of approximately 2 hours. I will upload the remaining sections subsequent to this in the next few weeks' episodes, so you can learn the full tale
The Necklace, by Guy de Maupassant
The Black Cat, by Edgar Allen Poe
The College Essay Is Dead
27 Ways to Stop Overthinking
A Wikipedia Article About the Malay Peninsula
The Flying Trunk
Hear a tale of a wise merchant who leaves his son his fortune, before the son receives a truly amazing gift
The Slaying of The Tanuki
Illusion, by Paula Volsky: Chapter 11
Eliste finally succumbs to Feronte's summons, and their assignation takes a shocking turn. Meanwhile, the defenses of the Beviere itself are crushed, while the Exalted within attempt to escape the teeming hoard that is determined to speak with King Dunulas.
Illusion, by Paula Volsky: Chapter Ten
What starts as the narrow escape of Shorvi Nirienne in the Eighth District, turns into a demonstration and then a full march of the people of Shereen upon the gates of the Beviaire, and we see The Crowd Queller use his terrifying device.
Illusion by Paula Volsky: Chapter Nine
The People’s Reparation Party has grown in power, and the Cavalier vo Meureille tries valiantly to convince Eliste and Zeralenn to leave Shereen. Meanwhile, Feronte sends a peculiar gift to Eliste that seems she can finally accept.
Illusion, by Paula Volsky: Chapter Eight
We finally meet Whiss v'Aleur, the firebrand philosopher and editor of Neighbor Jumalle's Complaint, which has caused such a stir among the lower classes in the streets of Shereen. We are also treated to a shocking display of magic from a surprising source; and we see the darker side of magical use. As tensions rise in the capital city, there are both perpetrators and victims; as lines are drawn and motives are made clearer.
Illusion by Paula Volsky: Chapter Seven
Illusion by Paula Volsky, Chapter Five
Illusion by Paula Volsky: Chapter Six
Illusion, by Paula Volsky: Chapter Four
Illusion by Paula Volsky: Chapter Three
Illusion by Paula Volsky: Chapter Two
Illusion by Paula Volsky: Chapter One
How The Dragon Was Tricked
The Cat’s Elopement
The Sprig of Rosemary
Little House on The Prairie, Ch. 7: The Wolf-Pack
This book was the basis for the popular television show by the same name.
There are themes in the book that describe attitudes that would be considered backward and racist today. It is not the intention to either highlight or censor these, but to let them stand as they are in the book, as a record of historical interest.
Little House on the Prairie (book) on Wikipedia: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little_House_on_the_Prairie#Little_House_on_the_Prairie
Laura Ingalls Wilder: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laura_Ingalls_Wilder
The Homestead Act of 1852: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manifest_destiny#Homestead_Act