Snoozecast: Recent Episodes
Snoozecast
Snoozecast is the podcast designed to help you fall asleep. Episodes air every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Learn more about us at snoozecast.com, and visit our sponsor Robody, at ro.co/snoozecast for a special deal that will help any listeners that would like a medically supported weight loss program. It also helps Snoozecast when you sign up through that special link, so thank you! Learn about our premium listening options at snoozecast.com/plus, which unlocks ad-free listening to our expanded catalog, including bonus original stories.
Tonight, we’ll read from the 1924 detective novel “The Man in the Brown Suit” written by Agatha Christie and adapted by Snoozecast. We will open with a mysterious and glamorous prologue set in Paris, regarding a dancer and a count. Then we will learn about young Anne Beddingfield, who decides to live a life of freedom and adventure. She moves to London on her own and soon finds life to be more adventurous than she expected. This episode first aired in September of 2021.
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Tonight, we’ll read “A Tail of Belonging”, a Snoozecast original sleep story dedicated to our listener on Spotify who asked for more dog-themed sleep stories. The term “pound” for an animal shelter comes from the old British Saxon word “pinfald” or “pund”. An animal pound is a place where stray livestock were impounded. Animals were kept in a dedicated enclosure, until claimed by their owners, or sold to cover the costs of impounding. The village pound was a feature of most English medieval villages, and they were also found in the English colonies of North America and in Ireland. — read by N — Support us:
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Tonight, we’ll read the seventh chapter to “Anne of Green Gables” the classic 1908 novel by Lucy Maud Montgomery. This chapter is titled “Anne Says Her Prayers”.
In the last episode, Marilla Cuthbert, the stern and pragmatic woman was at first dismayed to find that not only have been given a girl instead of a boy orphan, but that this girl is the particularly imaginative and talkative Anne Shirley.
Initially hesitant about keeping Anne due to her unconventional and spirited nature, Marilla has been monitoring Anne's behavior closely. She witnesses Anne's passionate enthusiasm for learning and her ability to charm others in the community.
The chapter ends with Marilla making a significant decision: she decides to keep Anne at Green Gables and give her a chance to prove herself. This marks a turning point in the story, as Marilla's change of heart opens the door to a new chapter in Anne's life.
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Tonight, we’ll read “The Castle on the Lake”, from a Danish fairy tale called “The Green Knight” found in “The Olive Fairy Book” compiled by Andrew Lang. The story was originally found in a book written by Evald Tang Kristensen.
Working first as a schoolteacher and later solely as a collector of folklore, Tang Kristensen assembled and published a huge amount of detailed information as he visited country people throughout his native land.
His labors eventually were supported by his state government, allowing him to travel as the official folklore collector and resulted in a wealth of data. He himself recorded some 3,000 songs, 2,700 fairy tales, 2,500 jokes, 25,000 legends, numerous sayings, poems and riddles as well as tens of thousands of descriptions of traditions and everyday life.
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Tonight, we’ll read the Hindu folk tale “The Fish Prince.” It comes from “Wonder Tales from Many Lands” by Katherine Pyle, published in 1920, and is adapted by Snoozecast.
This story features an ancient and still popular item of jewelry called a bangle. Bangles are circular in shape, and, unlike bracelets, are not flexible. Although people in some parts of India used to wear a thick single bangle as protection during battle, they are now worn mostly as adornment by women in many parts of the world.
The oldest bangle was recently found to be at least 50,000 years old. It was masterfully crafted out of green stone by a species of early hominid that lived side by side with both homo sapiens and neanderthals.
This episode originally aired in August of 2021.
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Tonight, we’ll read another excerpt from Dorothy Wordsworth’s personal journal, which she kept the year 1802. It was published a century later in 1897.
Wordsworth was an English author, poet, and diarist. She was the sister of the Romantic poet William Wordsworth, and the two were close all their adult lives.
This particular journal was from a period that the siblings were staying in the village of Grasmere, England. The Wordsworths, part of the 'Lake Poets' group known for living near Grasmere lake, lived in Grasmere for 14 years and called it "the loveliest spot that man hath ever found."
Another of the “Lake Poets” is mentioned frequently in this journal- their friend the poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge.
If you enjoy this episode, please check out the “Winter” and “Spring” journal episodes that aired recently, and our other episode featuring this author titled “First Steps | A Scottish Tour” that we rebroadcast on January of 2023.
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Tonight, we shall read the next part to “Pride and Prejudice”, written by Jane Austen.
In the last episode, soon after Wickham and Lydia leave, Mrs. Bennet hears rumors that Bingley is returning to Netherfield. Mr. Bennet refuses to visit him, however.
Not long after, however, Bingley and Darcy visit the Bennets. Mrs. Bennet gives a warm welcome to Bingley and almost none to Darcy. She then goes on to speak glowingly about Lydia's marriage to Wickham, much to Elizabeth's mortification.
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Tonight, we’ll read a selection from “Cape Cod” by Henry David Thoreau, published in 1908.
Thorough was an American naturalist, essayist, poet, and philosopher. A leading transcendentalist, he is best known for “Walden”, a reflection upon simple living in natural surroundings, and his essay "Civil Disobedience" , an argument for disobedience to an unjust state.
Thorough traveled to Cape Cod in Massachusetts four times, which inspired this “excursion” or travel book.
This episode originally aired in August of 2021. If you would like to hear more Thoreau on Snoozecast, check out “The Wild” from March of 2021, along with “Walden” parts 1 and 2, which both aired in 2019.
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Tonight, we’ll read the second half to the short story “The Quilt of Happiness” by Kate Douglas Wiggin, originally published in 1901. If you haven’t listened to the first half, you will find it aired just last week.
Wiggin was an American educator, author and composer. She wrote children's stories, most notably the classic children's novel “Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm”, and composed collections of children's songs
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Tonight, we’ll read the next part to “Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea,” a classic science fiction adventure novel by French writer Jules Verne.
In the last episode, Nemo proposes an expedition to the Ceylon pearl fisheries. Aronnax explains pearls to Ned Land, including their value, shape, size, types, and method of harvesting. The group reach the vast oyster beds and follow Nemo to a deep grotto where he shows them an enormous oyster. Nemo opens the oyster’s shells to reveal a pearl the size of a coconut. When Aronnax reaches to touch it, Nemo stops him, revealing his intention to allow the giant pearl to continue to grow.They also spot an Indian free diver attached to a canoe, but the diver does not see them, as he steals oysters in hopes of finding pearls as well.
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Tonight, we’ll read a sleep story called “The Bird King and the Mermaid,” adapted by Snoozecast from “The Story of Tremsin, the Bird Czar, and Nastasia, the Lovely Maid of the Sea” found in “Cossack Fairy Tales”, published in 1916.
The Cossacks are a group of predominantly Orthodox Christian people who speak a slavic language and originated in Eastern Europe. They played an important role in the historical and cultural development of both Ukraine and Russia. This episode originally aired in August of 2021.
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Tonight, we’ll read the first half to the short story “The Quilt of Happiness” by Kate Douglas Wiggin, originally published in 1901. We’ll finish the story next week.
Wiggin was an American educator, author and composer. She wrote children's stories, most notably the classic children's novel “Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm”, and composed collections of children's songs. She started the first free kindergarten in San Francisco, and also established a training school for kindergarten teachers with her sister. Kate Wiggin devoted her adult life to the welfare of children in an era when children were commonly thought of as cheap labor.
If you enjoy this episode, you can also listen to our “Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm” episode from April of 2020. — read by V — Support us:
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Tonight, we’ll read the sixth chapter to “Anne of Green Gables” the classic 1908 novel by Lucy Maud Montgomery. This chapter is titled “Marilla Makes Up Her Mind”.
In the last episode, Marilla and Anne travel by carriage on a 5 mile journey to visit the woman who picked an orphaned girl instead of a boy for the Cuthberts. Realizing that Anne would keep chatting anyway, Marilla asks Anne to tell her about her past. Anne says she would prefer to tell what she imagines about herself, as her imagination is so much richer than her history, but she agrees to tell her story.
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Tonight, we’ll read the opening to the social novel “North and South,” published in 1854 and written by Elizabeth Gaskell. The novel’s protagonist, Margaret Hale, is forced to leave her home in the tranquil, rural south, to settle with her parents in Milton, a fictional industrial town in the north.
Elizabeth Gaskell, often referred to as Mrs Gaskell, was an English novelist, biographer and short story writer. Her novels offer a detailed portrait of the lives of many strata of Victorian society Her work is of interest to social historians as well as readers of literature.
This episode first aired August of 2021.
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Tonight, we’ll read another excerpt from “Woodcraft” published by George Washington “Nessmuk” Sears. Sears was a sportswriter and an early conservationist. His stories popularized self-guided canoe camping and what is today called ultralight camping or ultralight backpacking.
Canoeing had been popularized by a Scottish lawyer in the 1860s, but the typical canoe trip of the day employed expert guides and heavy canoes. Sears, who was 5 feet 3 inches tall and weighed little more than 100 pounds had a lightweight solo canoe built. He named it after a Charles Dickens character and used it to travel alone for months at a time through the Adirondack wilderness of New York.
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Tonight, we’ll read the next part to “The Boxcar Children” written by school teacher Gertrude Chandler Warner and published in 1924.
The Boxcar Children tells the story of four orphaned children, Henry, Jessie, Violet, and Benny. They create a home for themselves in an abandoned boxcar in the forest.
In the last episode, Henry gets more work to do from the doctor, this time organizing his garage. He ends up impressing the doctor. He suggests that when he next comes to work, the cherry trees need picked, and if he knows any other hard workers, he can bring them along. The next day is Sunday, so instead of working for the doctor, Henry spends the day with his siblings damming water from their creek to build a swimming pool.
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Tonight, we’ll read an 1886 short story titled “Kashtanka” by Anton Chekhov, and adapted by Snoozecast. It is a sincere and simple story about loyalty, about a dog named Kashtanka who experiences life with two very different masters. It has been speculated that the story is a veiled biography of the author himself.
This episode first aired in August of 2021.
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Tonight, we’ll read another excerpt from Dorothy Wordsworth’s personal journal, which she kept the year 1798. It was published a century later in 1897.
Wordsworth was an English author, poet, and diarist. She was the sister of the Romantic poet William Wordsworth, and the two were close all their adult lives. Modern readers often perceive Dorothy as a first-rank nature writer. In her assumption of humans as companions rather than overlords of nature, she is arguably also an early environmentalist.
If you enjoy this episode, please check out the “Winter” journal episode that aired last month, and our other episode featuring this author titled “First Steps | A Scottish Tour” that we rebroadcast on January of 2023.
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Tonight, we shall read the next part to “Pride and Prejudice”, written by Jane Austen.
In the last episode, Mrs. Gardiner sent a detailed reply to Elizabeth explaining how Darcy worked on the situation with Lydia and Wickham.
Wickham had been planning on dumping Lydia the first chance he could get, which would have ruined Elizabeth’s reputation along with her family’s. So Wickham paid Wickham a fortune to bribe him to marry Lydia. Elizabeth still shows compassion towards Wickham by accepting him as now part of the family, while not being again fooled by his manipulative and cunning ways.
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Tonight, we’ll read the German fairy tale “Rapunzel” lightly adapted by us from “The Red Fairy Book,” and attributed to The Brothers Grimm.
Some researchers have proposed that the earliest possible inspiration for the “Maiden in the Tower” archetype is to the pre-Christian European (or proto-Indo-European) sun or dawn goddess myths, in which a “light deity” is trapped and then rescued.
If you are still awake after Rapunzel, you will find another hair-themed fairy tale titled “Ricky with the Tuft” from “The Tales of Mother Goose,” by Charles Perrault. This episode first aired July of 2021
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Tonight, we’ll read the second half to “The Adventure of the Dancing Men” written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, as part of 1903’s “The Return of Sherlock Holmes”. If you haven’t listened to the first part, it aired just last week.
This story is considered one of the detective's most famous and memorable cases. In the previous episode, Hilton Cubitt arrives at Baker Street and tells Holmes and Watson his strange tale. The appearance of childish drawings is mysteriously frightening his wife, Elsie Cubitt nee Patrick. Cubitt had married the American Elsie a year earlier, but one of the conditions of marriage was that Cubitt was not to ask his wife about her life prior to their meeting. It was a strange request, but being a gentleman, was one Cubitt was willing to agree to.
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Tonight, we’ll read the next part to “Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea,” a classic science fiction adventure novel by French writer Jules Verne.
In the last episode, Nemo invites the captives on another underwater expedition, this time, it is to The Coral Kingdom. Also, Aronnax starts to think that the captain does not just love being away from humanity by being underwater- he may seek revenge against humanity as well. The conversation of escaping the ship is discussed by Aronnox and Ned.
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Tonight, we’ll read selected poems from Emily Dickinson, starting with a collection about nature.
Little-known during her life, Dickinson has since been regarded as one of the most important figures in American poetry.
Evidence suggests that Dickinson lived much of her life in isolation. Considered an eccentric by locals, she developed a penchant for white clothing and was known for her reluctance to even leave her bedroom. Dickinson never married, and most friendships between her and others depended entirely upon correspondence.
Her poems were unique for her era. They contain short lines, typically lack titles, and often use slant rhyme as well as unconventional capitalization and punctuation. In early editions, including this one, Emily Dickinson's poems were edited by her friends, better to fit the conventions of the times. Thus some of the uniqueness is best understood by viewing her direct handwriting on the page, or by reading more recent editions.
This episode first aired in July of 2021.
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Tonight, we’ll read the first half to “The Adventure of the Dancing Men” written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, as part of 1903’s “The Return of Sherlock Holmes”. The second half will air next week.
This was one of Doyle’s favorites- he ranked it third in his “top 12” list of Holmes stories, out of 56 total stories.
In this story, Holmes has to decipher the code hidden in what appears to be a child’s drawing.
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Tonight, we’ll read the fifth chapter to “Anne of Green Gables” the classic 1908 novel by Lucy Maud Montgomery. This chapter is titled “Anne’s History”
Written for all ages, this book recounts the adventures of an eleven year old orphan named Anne Shirley on Prince Edward Island, Canada.
In the last episode, Anne relishes the picturesque beauty of Green Gables, even while bracing herself for the painful reality of being taken away from it later that same day. Matthew lets Marilla know that he is going to hire a farm boy to help him for the summer, implying that they don’t technically need to return the orphan girl for a boy. Marilla sets off to visit Mrs. Spencer with Anne to figure out how the mistake could have happened.
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Tonight, we’ll read excerpts from “Emily of New Moon” written by L. M. Montgomery. Similar to the author’s other series “Anne of Green Gables,” this is the first in a series of novels about an orphan girl growing up on Prince Edward Island.
Emily is a heroine with a love for the beauty in nature and art, loyalty to her friends, a thirst for knowledge, and a passionate dedication to her writing.
This episode aired in July of 2021.
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Tonight, we’ll read the opening to “Woodcraft” published by George Washington “Nessmuk” Sears. Sears was a sportswriter for Forest and Stream magazine in the 1880s and an early conservationist. His stories popularized self-guided canoe camping and what is today called ultralight camping or ultralight backpacking.
Growing up in Massachusetts, he took his pen name from a Native American who had befriended him in early childhood. A period of factory labor while still a child left him with a fondness for the writing of Charles Dickens. At nineteen he signed on for a three-year voyage on a whaler headed for the South Pacific; it was the same year that Herman Melville shipped out of the same port bound for the same whaling grounds. — read by V — Support us:
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Tonight, we’ll read the next part to “The Boxcar Children” written by school teacher Gertrude Chandler Warner and published in 1924.
The Boxcar Children tells the story of four orphaned children, Henry, Jessie, Violet, and Benny. They create a home for themselves in an abandoned boxcar in the forest.
In the last episode, Jess and the children start fixing up their new boxcar home and exploring their forest neighborhood. Henry goes out and gets a job.
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Tonight, we’ll read from Grimms' Fairy Tales by Jacob Grimm and Wilhelm Grimm titled “The Valiant Little Tailor.” This episode originally aired in July of 2021.
In this story, the tailor starts out having achieved a very small feat and ends up a hero. — read by V — Support us:
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Tonight, we’ll read from “The New Royal Cook Book by Royal Baking Powder Co.” published in 1920.
When the first truly American cookbook was published in 1792, the recipes included used three possible types of leavening: baker's yeast, emptins (from the leavings of brewing beer), and pearlash. The effectiveness of such leavenings varied widely. At that time, reliable commercial products were not available. The creation of shelf-stable chemical combinations of sodium bicarbonate and cream of tartar is seen as marking the true introduction of baking powder later in the 1800s. Although cooks had used both sodium bicarbonate and cream of tartar previously in recipes, they had to purchase the ingredients individually from chemists and store them separately to prevent them from reacting prematurely.
Regardless of the expiration date, the effectiveness can be tested by placing a teaspoon of the powder into a small container of hot water. If it bubbles vigorously, it is still active and usable.
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Tonight, we shall read the next part to “Pride and Prejudice”, written by Jane Austen.
In the last episode, Lydia and Wickham arrive at Longbourn. Lydia is giddy over her marriage, mocking her older sisters for failing to get married before she did. While gloating about the details of her wedding, Lydia reveals to Elizabeth that Darcy attended the ceremony. Lydia quickly apologizes: it was supposed to be a secret. Elizabeth burns with curiosity and writes to Mrs. Gardiner for more details.
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Tonight, we’ll read an excerpt from “The Great Gatsby,” a 1925 novel by American writer F. Scott Fitzgerald. Set in the Jazz Age on Long Island, the novel depicts narrator Nick Carraway's interactions with mysterious millionaire Jay Gatsby and Gatsby's obsession to reunite with his former lover, Daisy Buchanan. This episode first aired in June of 2021.
The novel was inspired by youthful romance and riotous parties the author had recently experienced.
“The Great Gatsby” was a commercial failure that many critics thought was sub-par to Fitzgerald’s previous work. Now, it is widely considered to be a literary masterwork and a contender for the title of the Great American Novel.
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Tonight, we’ll read from Dorothy Wordsworth’s personal journal, which she kept the year 1798. It was published a century later in 1897.
Wordsworth was an English author, poet, and diarist. She was the sister of the Romantic poet William Wordsworth, and the two were close all their adult lives. Dorothy Wordsworth had no ambitions to be a public author, yet she left behind numerous letters, diary entries, topographical descriptions, poems, and other writings.
Dorothy Wordsworth's works came to light just as literary critics were beginning to re-examine women's role in literature. Her observations and descriptions have been considered to be as poetic if not more so than those of her brother.
If you enjoy this episode, please look for our other episode featuring this author titled “First Steps | A Scottish Tour” that we rebroadcast on January of 2023
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Tonight, we’ll read the next part to “Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea,” a classic science fiction adventure novel by French writer Jules Verne.
In the last episode, electricity temporarily fails on the submarine, and the captives onboard are enchanted at the view of bioluminescent marine life surrounding them in the dark. Later, Captain Nemo spies something that disturbs him at a distance. In response, he apparently slips a sleeping potion into the captives breakfast so that they sleep deeply through the disturbance. — read by N —
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Tonight, we’ll read a story called “Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves” from “The Arabian Nights: Their Best-known Tales” by Smith, Wiggin, and Parrish. It has become one of the most familiar of the "Arabian Nights" tales, and is where the phrase “Open, Sesame!” comes from.
This folk tale was added to the “One Thousand and One Nights” anthology in the 18th century by its French translator. This translator heard it from a Syrian storyteller who travelled to Paris.
This episode originally aired in June of 2021.
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Tonight, we’ll read the opening to the humorous short story “An Experiment in Gyro-Hats” written by Ellis Parker Butler and published in 1910.
Butler was a prolific American writer, although his writing was mostly a part-time endeavor for him as he was also a banker. Butler was also known as an always-present force in the New York City literary scene. A gyroscope is a device used for measuring or maintaining orientation. It is a spinning disc in which the axis of rotation is free to assume any orientation by itself.
While in this story a gyroscope is used in a hat, real life applications include the Hubble telescope, submarines, and smartphones.
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Tonight, we’ll read the fourth chapter to “Anne of Green Gables” the classic 1908 novel by Lucy Maud Montgomery. This chapter is titled “Morning at Green Gables.”
Written for all ages, this book recounts the adventures of an eleven year old orphan named Anne Shirley on Prince Edward Island, Canada.
In the last episode, we learn that Marilla, unlike her brother Matthew, does not shrink from voicing her surprise upon seeing a girl orphan, instead of a boy, at her front door. As the Cuthberts talk about Mrs. Spencer’s mistake, Anne realizes she is not wanted.
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Tonight, for our 700th episode, we’ll read excerpts from “The Myrtle Reed Cook Book” written by Myrtle Reed and published in 1916. Reed was an American author, poet, journalist, and philanthropist. She was a diagnosed insomniac with prescribed sleeping potions, called sleeping drafts in her day. This episode originally aired in June of 2021.
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Tonight, we’ll read the opening to “The Clue of the Silken Ladder” part of the “Penny Parker” anthology written by Mildred Wirt, also known by Mildred Benson. This series of stories aren’t consecutive so don’t worry if you didn’t hear the first episode. You can pick up on this one just fine!
Penny Parker was a high school student turned sleuth who also sporadically worked as a reporter for her father's newspaper.
In this story, Penny discovers a strange silken ladder and learns how it is used in burglaries. Her story, and what it exposes, earns her a much-needed raise in pay at the newspaper. — read by V — Support us:
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Tonight, we’ll read the next part to “The Boxcar Children” written by first grade school teacher Gertrude Chandler Warner and published in 1924.
The Boxcar Children tells the story of four orphaned children, Henry, Jessie, Violet, and Benny. They create a home for themselves in an abandoned boxcar in the forest.
In the last episode, we explore the children’s new boxcar home in the woods, and they are introduced to a new member of their family- a lost but friendly dog with a thorn in his paw. — read by V — Support us:
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Tonight, we’ll read "A Retrieved Reformation", a short story by American author O. Henry first published in 1903. This episode first aired in June of 2021.
The story we will read shows how love can change anyone for the better. It describes the events which lead up to the reformation of an ex-convicted burglar. As usual, the ending of this O. Henry is worth hearing for the twist.
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Tonight, we shall read the next part to “Pride and Prejudice”, written by Jane Austen.
In the last episode, we learn the details of the deal. Wickham is basically ransoming Lydia, and Mr. Bennet feels obliged to pay a small sum every year in return for Wickham actually marrying her. Otherwise, they would apparently live together unmarried and thus tarnish the reputations of all her other unmarried sisters.
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Tonight, we’ll read the next part to “The Secret Garden”, a novel by Frances Hodgson Burnett published in 1911.In the last episode, Dickon tends the vegetable garden he keeps at home in the evenings, after working on the flowery Secret Garden in the daytime. Sometimes his mother, Mrs. Sowerby, keeps him company. Dickon shares the secret with her, and she bakes rolls for the children to satiate their voracious appetites while they are gardening.— read by V —Support us:Listen ad-free on PatreonGet Snoozecast merch like cozy sweatshirts and accessoriesLearn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Tonight, we’ll rebroadcast “The Opal”, a fairy tale about how the gemstone was formed. This story originally aired on December 7th, 2020. Depending on the conditions in which it formed, precious opal may be iridescent with white, black, or nearly any color of the visual spectrum as a background color. Black opal is considered to be the rarest, whereas white, gray, and green are the most common. Opal was rare and very valuable in antiquity. In Europe, it was a gem prized by royalty. Until the opening of vast deposits in Australia in the 19th century the only known source was beyond the Roman frontier in Slovakia. Opal was also said to grant invisibility- if wrapped in a fresh bay leaf and held in the hand- and thus it was considered the gemstone of thieves. — read by V — Support us:
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Tonight, we’ll read “The Million Dollar Bond Robbery”, a short story written by Agatha Christie and published in 1924 as part of her “Poirot Investigates” series. In this story, a million dollars of bonds disappear from under a young man’s nose and he is being held accountable. If you enjoy this episode, be sure to listen to our first Poirot story, “The Western Star” which aired in June of 2022 and “The Cheap Flat” which aired in August . By the way, a “portmanteau” has two meanings. One is the way it is used in this story- a large suitcase or trunk that opens into two equal parts. The other way is as a word that blends the sounds and combining the meanings of two others, for example motel which combines ‘motor’ and ‘hotel’, podcast which combines ‘iPod’ with ‘broadcast’ or of course, Snoozecast which contains ‘getting cozy’ with bedtime. — read by N — Support us:
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Tonight, we’ll read the next part to “Winnie-the-Pooh” a children’s story written by A.A. Milne and published in 1926. This collection of short stories features an anthropomorphic teddy bear, Winnie-the-Pooh, along with his friends Christopher Robin, Piglet, Eeyore, Owl, Rabbit, Kanga, and Roo. In the previous episode, we read the second half of chapter five, in which Piglet met a Heffalump, and also the first half of chapter six, in which eeyore had a birthday and if he is lucky, he may get two presents. — read by V — Support us:
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Tonight, we’ll rebroadcast the second and final part of “An Old-Fashioned Thanksgiving”, a short story written by Louisa May Alcott. This story originally aired on November 23rd, 2020. Please find the first part of this story that aired on Monday. In part one, the Bassett parents rush off when they hear that the grandmother was very ill, just as a snowstorm was starting. This left all the children to manage the farmhouse on their own. Luckily, they are a resourceful and industrious group. We’ll pick up with oldest sister Tilly and Prue in the kitchen, as they are starting their first attempt at a Thanksgiving feast on their own. — read by V — Support us:
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Tonight, we’ll rebroadcast the opening half from “An Old-Fashioned Thanksgiving”, a short story written by Louisa May Alcott. This story originally aired on November 16th, 2020. The second half will air in our next episode. “An Old-Fashioned Thanksgiving” is a simple story set in the early 1800s, featuring a country family in New Hampshire. It’s full of idyllic and peaceful descriptions from an earlier time. — read by V — Support us:
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Tonight, we shall read the next part to “Pride and Prejudice”, written by Jane Austen. In the last episode, Lydia is overjoyed when the wife of Colonel Forster invites her to Brighton. Kitty is peevish not to be included. Elizabeth secretly advises her father not to allow Lydia to go, but he does not take her concern seriously. Before the departure of the regiment, Elizabeth meets Wickham. She sees a new side of him she is less impressed with. He seems concerned to learn that she doesn’t think that Darcy is so bad after all. — read by V — Support us:
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Tonight, we’ll rebroadcast the story of “The Devoted Friend,” written by Oscar Wilde and published in 1910. This episode originally aired on November 9, 2020. Wilde was an Irish poet and playwright. He is best remembered for his epigrams and plays, his novel The Picture of Dorian Gray, and the circumstances of his criminal conviction for his homosexuality. In this fable, told by a linnet, or songbird in the finch family, to teach a water rat some life skills, Hans is an innocent gardener and the devoted friend of a wealthy but manipulative Miller. In this story, Wilde pokes fun at a society where charity is less about love and more about ensuring that the wealthy benefit. — read by V — Support us:
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Tonight, we’ll read about the history of jewelry around the world, from “Jewels and the Woman” written by Marianne Ostier and published in 1958. Ostier was the principal designer and artistic driving force behind Ostier Inc., the New York jewelry firm she founded in 1941 with her husband Oliver. Marianne was an accomplished artist of painting and sculpture when she married Oliver, a third-generation Austrian court jeweler. The couple emigrated to the United States following the Nazi annexation of Austria in 1938. The majority of the firm’s output was bespoke jewelry for private clients with few pieces ever produced in quantity. As a result, Ostier’s work may be less well known today than some of their contemporaries, but at the time they were considered one of the finest jewelry houses in New York. — read by N — Support us:
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Tonight, we’ll read the next part to “Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea,” a classic science fiction adventure novel by French writer Jules Verne. In the last episode, Captain Nemo takes Aronnax on a tour of his private natural history museum. Nemo's cases are filled with rare specimens drawn from the seas of the world: corals, shells, starfish and lots of pearls. His collection is priceless. As much as Aronnax enjoys all of this, he's keen to learn how the Nautilus itself is powered. So Nemo sits him down to explain, seated from within his sparsely furnished captain’s quarters. — read by N — Support us:
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Tonight we’ll read another Australian fairy tale called “The Fairy City” written by Hume Cook and published in 1925. You can certainly pick up straight away on this episode, however if you’d like to listen to the first chapter of “Australian Fairy Tales” please find “The Magic Well” which aired on October 19th, 2022. James Newton Haxton Hume Cook, the author, was an Australian politician who served in Parliament for almost a decade. This story features aspects of urban planning and civil engineering- a professional engineering discipline that deals with the design, construction, and maintenance of the physical and naturally built environment, including public works such as roads, bridges, canals, dams, airports and more. It is considered the second-oldest engineering discipline after military engineering,[3] and it is defined to distinguish non-military engineering from military engineering. — read by V — Support us:
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Tonight, we’ll read the next part to “The Secret Garden”, a novel by Frances Hodgson Burnett published in 1911. In the last episode, Colin claims the secret garden as his own, and in doing so Colin chooses to follow in his mother's footsteps and dedicate himself to nature and happiness. He is inspired by Mary and Dickon, and decides to become a scientist who devotes his life to the study of Magic. We will resume our story with a gathering of Ben, Dickon and Mary, lead by Colin. It is part lecture, part ministry, part mystical rite held in the secret garden. — read by V — Support us:
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Tonight, we’ll read about baking biscuits and gems from the “Civic League Cookbook” from North Dakota in 1913. Gems are little muffin-like cakes that were popular in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. They were most often made using graham flour, and had very few other ingredients – some just required graham flour, water and salt. Graham flour is named after Sylvester Graham , a minister who is considered one of America’s earliest and most vocal advocates of dietary reform. Foreshadowing the modern health food movement, he believed that natural foods in the purest form – whole grains, vegetables, fruits and nuts – were the pathway to a healthy life. Graham recommended using coarsely ground, whole-wheat flour to make bread, rather than white flour, which often contained chemical additives. — read by N — Support us:
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Tonight, for our final episode of this year’s spooky sleep story series, we’ll read “The Haunted Orchard” written by British author Richard Le Gallienne and published in 1912. Born Richard Thomas Gallienne, the author changed his last name to “Le Gallienne” after college when he began working in an accountant’s office. Soon after he attended a lecture by Oscar Wilde, Le Gallienne abandoned his job to become a professional writer and poet. Five years later, he met Wilde, they had a brief affair and a longer friendship. Le Gallienne married three times and had two children including famous and successful stage actress and director Eva Le Gallienne. After becoming a resident of the United States, he eventually settled in the French Riviera in the 1940s. During the war he refused to write propaganda for the local German and Italian authorities and, with no income, once collapsed in the street owing to hunger. He persevered, however, and continued to write into his 70s. — read by V — Support us:
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Tonight, we’ll read the next part to “Winnie-the-Pooh” a children’s story written by A.A. Milne and published in 1926. This collection of short stories features an anthropomorphic teddy bear, Winnie-the-Pooh, along with his friends Christopher Robin, Piglet, Eeyore, Owl, Rabbit, Kanga, and Roo. In the previous episode, we read chapter four and the first half of chapter five, in which we are introduced to Eeyore, who has lost his tail, and Pooh finds one. Also, Piglet meets a Heffalump. — read by V — Support us:
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Tonight, we’ll read another excerpt from French writer Marcel Proust’s monumental “In Search of Lost Time” which is seven volumes long, and first published in 1913. “In Search of Lost Time” follows the narrator's recollections and experiences in the late 19th-century and early 20th-century high-society France, while reflecting on the loss of time and lack of meaning in the world. This series does not necessarily need to be followed in order. Rather than being plot driven, it is more of a meditation on memories, consciousness and ambiance. The first episode aired on May 9th, 2022, and is titled “Overture.” The second episode, “The Magic Lantern” aired on July 11, 2022. The third episode, “M. Swann” aired on September 12, 2022. A madeleine de Proust is an expression used to describe smells, tastes, sounds or any sensations reminding you of your childhood or simply bringing back emotional memories from a long time ago. — read by V — Support us:
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Tonight, for our 600th episode, and the next in our October spooky sleep story series, we’ll read an excerpt from “The Castle of Otranto”, a novel by Horace Walpole. First published in 1764, it is generally regarded as the first gothic novel. Set in a haunted castle, the novel produced a new style that has endured ever since, and has shaped the modern-day aesthetic of the goth subculture. Although in later editions of this novel’s publication the author acknowledged his authorship, in the first publication the story was purported to be a recently discovered ancient manuscript from the time of the Crusades. Many years later it was discovered that the main character, Manfred, was inspired by the real medieval King of Sicily by that name. This historic Manfred is remembered for being noble, handsome and intellectual, along with being ex-communicated by three different popes. This excerpt opens on a scene where Princess Isabella is fleeing through the castle from the wicked Manfred. He had recently asked her to marry him on the same evening her own fiance, Manfred’s own son, died by a giant helmet falling from the sky upon him. — read by N — Support us:
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Tonight, we shall read the next part to “Pride and Prejudice”, written by Jane Austen. Our Friday rotation is capped at four series now, so that each episode will only be one month out from the next of a particular story. If you’d like to listen to this series or some of our others in order, please go to snoozecast.com/series. In the last episode, younger sisters Lydia and Kitty share some capital news about Wickham- that he is still an eligible bachelor. When they arrive home, Mr. Bennet is glad to see Elizabeth and Jane, Mrs. Bennet wants to hear about the latest fashions, and Kitty and Lydia want to walk to Meryton to see the officers. To avoid seeing Wickham, Elizabeth chooses not to accompany them. Later, Elizabeth tells Jane how Darcy proposed to her and also shares the part of Darcy's letter about Wickham. Elizabeth and Jane agree not to publicize Wickham’s misdeeds, for the sake of Darcy and his sister. They agree, Wickham will soon leave along with the regiment with no harm done. — read by V — Support us:
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Tonight we’ll read an Australian fairy tale called “The Magic Well” written by Hume Cook and published in 1925. The author wrote this preface: “The Stories in this little book have been set down almost in the same words in which they were told. How the telling of them came about is a very simple matter. Having three children, each of whom loved a Fairy Tale, it somehow became the fashion, on Sunday evenings, to tell them a story. On one occasion, when the youngest member was just about to be taken to bed, his sister said; “None of the books about Fairies ever say a word about Australia! Are there any Australian Fairies, Father?” Somewhat hastily, perhaps, I answered: “Why, yes, of course! Whole tribes of them!” Instantly the order went forth: “Then you will please tell us about them the very next time you tell us a story!” — read by V — Support us:
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Tonight, as part of this month’s spooky sleep story series, we’ll read from “Mysterious Psychic Forces” written by Camille Flammarion and published in 1907. Nicolas Camille Flammarion was a French astronomer, mystic and prolific author, including popular science works about astronomy, several notable early science fiction novels, and works on psychical research. He has been described as being obsessed by life after death, and also with life other worlds, like that on Mars, and he seemed to see no distinction between the two. — read by N — Support us:
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Tonight, we’ll read the next part to “Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea,” a classic science fiction adventure novel by French writer Jules Verne. In the last episode, Captain Nemo gives Dr. Aronnax a tour of the Nautilus after a seafood lunch. First they visit the ship's library, an incredible vault of books comparable in size to anything similar on land. The captain offers Dr. Aronnax a cigar made of materials from the sea, which he thoroughly enjoys. They move on to the salon. It contains a remarkable collection of reproductions of classic artwork and sculptures, and sheet music of the world's best composers. — read by N — Support us:
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Tonight, we’ll read another story from our King Arthur series. This one, “Arthur Drives the Saxons from His Realm” comes from a book edited by Rupert S. Holland and published in 1919. The Saxons were a group of Germanic peoples whose name was given in the early Middle Ages to a large former country in what is now Germany. In the late Roman Empire, the name was used to refer to Germanic coastal raiders, and as a name similar to the later "Viking". In contrast, the British "Saxons", today referred to in English as Anglo-Saxons, became a single nation bringing together migrant Germanic peoples and assimilated Celtic Britons populations. The term "Anglo-Saxon", combining the names of the Angles and the Saxons, came into use by the eighth century to distinguish the Germanic inhabitants of Britain from continental Saxons. — read by V — Support us:
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Tonight, as part of our fourth annual spooky sleep story series, we’ll read the opening to “Carmilla”, an 1872 Gothic novella by Irish author Sheridan Le Fanu. Our series will run every Monday of October. This is one of the early works of vampire fiction, predating Bram Stoker's Dracula by 26 years Le Fanu presents the story as part of the casebook of Dr. Hesselius, whose departures from medical orthodoxy rank him as the first occult detective in literature. Occult detective fiction is a subgenre of detective fiction that combines the tropes of the main genre with those of supernatural, fantasy and/or horror fiction. The occult detective is employed in cases involving ghosts, demons and other supernatural elements, and the detectives are sometimes portrayed as having psychic or other magical powers. If you enjoy this episode, be sure to listen to “The Hound of the Baskervilles” episode from last October, which would also be considered occult detective fiction, if only Sherlock was not so good at solving mysteries at the end. Also, you can find our reading of “Dracula” from October 2020. — read by V — Support us:
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Tonight, we’ll read the next part to “The Secret Garden”, a novel by Frances Hodgson Burnett published in 1911. In the last episode, the children are confronted by the cantankerous gardener, Ben Weatherstaff, who is angry to find them in the garden he has kept shut up for so long. He had never seen Colin in person, but had only heard fanciful tales about the boy. They have a reckoning, and Ben is commanded to keep their secret as well. — read by V — Support us:
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Tonight, we’ll read about cooking alternatives to wheat, from the 1918 pamphlet “Foods That Will Win the War”. Although the United States did not have food rationing in World War I as it did in World War II, it did rely heavily on propaganda campaigns at the time to persuade people to curb their food consumption. Through slogans such as "Food Will Win the War", "Meatless Meals", and "Wheatless Wednesdays", the United States Food Administration under Herbert Hoover reduced national consumption by 15%. — read by N — Support us:
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Tonight, to kick off our fourth annual Spooky Sleep Stories series, we’ll read the opening to the novella “The Willows” written by Algernon Blackwood and first published in 1907. This year’s series of classic horror stories will air every Monday this October. In this story, two friends are midway on a canoe trip down the River Danube. The natural environment, for example the river, sun and wind— is personified with powerful and ultimately threatening characteristics. Most ominous are the masses of dense willows along the river banks, which "moved of their own will as though alive." This is one of Blackwood's best known works and has been influential on a number of later writers. Horror author H.P. Lovecraft considered it to be the finest supernatural tale in English literature. "The Willows" is an example of early modern horror and is connected within the literary tradition of weird fiction. — read by 'V' — Support us:
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Tonight, we’ll read the next part to “Winnie-the-Pooh” a children’s story written by A.A. Milne and published in 1926. This collection of short stories features an anthropomorphic teddy bear, Winnie-the-Pooh, along with his friends Christopher Robin, Piglet, Eeyore, Owl, Rabbit, Kanga, and Roo. In the previous episode, we read chapters two and three, in which Pooh west visited and got into a tight place. And also where he and Piglet went hunting, and nearly caught a Woozle. As Pooh says about Woozles, "It is either Two Woozles and one, as it might be, Wizzle, or Two, as it might be, Wizzles and one, if so it is, Woozle. Let us continue to follow them." — read by V — Support us:
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Tonight, we’ll read the second half to "The Adventure of the Greek Interpreter", one of the 56 Sherlock Holmes short stories written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. The first half aired last week. In the opening to this story, we learn that Holmes has an older brother named Mycroft. This brother sometimes has even more uncanny deductive skills, and yet does not pursue detective work because he doesn’t have the energetic ambition of Sherlock. Sometimes, Sherlock will turn to Mycroft for help solving a case. In this instance, Mycroft asks Sherlock to look into a situation that occurred to Mycroft’s neighbor, a Greek interpreter named Melas. Melas was not allowed to see where he was taken, and was threatened by a thug named Latimer if he should talk. We will pick up the story as Melas describes to Holmes the interior of the home he has been taken to. — read by N — Support us:
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Tonight, we’ll read the second half of “The Story of the Herons,” from a collection titled “Moonshine and Clover” written by Laurence Housman and published in 1922. The first half aired last week. In the previous episode, a princess was cursed to fall in love at first sight to whatever creature she saw. She was kept safely away, blind to the world, except for occasional walks in the forest with a blindfold on. A wicked fairy takes her blindfold off, and she falls in love with a heron that happens to be fishing in front of her. The loving parents of the princess choose to allow the princess to be turned into a heron to be with her mate. The good fairy explains that if the heron falls in love with her on a level deeper than a heron typically could, like on a human level, they could both be transformed into humans instead of birds. Soon after, it is learned that the heron princess has laid two eggs in her nest. — read by V — Support us:
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Tonight, we shall read the next part to “Pride and Prejudice”, written by Jane Austen. Our Friday rotation is capped at four series now, so that each episode will only be one month out from the next of a particular story. If you’d like to listen to this series or any of our others in order, please go to snoozecast.com/series. In the last episode, Elizabeth bids her friends at the parsonage at Rosings goodbye, and on her way home from her vacation, picks up her sister Jane who was staying in London with the Gardiners. Elizabeth wants to share the news with Jane about Darcy, but is hesitant to do so in that it also means sharing disappointing news about Bingley as well. — read by V — Support us:
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Tonight, we’ll read the first half to "The Adventure of the Greek Interpreter", written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. It is one of 12 stories in the cycle collected as “The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes”. Out of all 56 Sherlock stories, Doyle ranked "The Greek Interpreter" seventeenth in a list of his nineteen favorites. — read by N — Support us:
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Tonight, we’ll read “The Story of the Herons,” from a collection titled “Moonshine and Clover” written by Laurence Housman and published in 1922. Housman was an openly gay man during the Victorian era when homosexuality was severely stigmatized. He was an activist for both the women's right to vote and for the acceptance of gay people in society. If you enjoy this episode, be sure to listen to “The First Voyage | Sinbad the Sailor” which aired on July 18, 2022. Herons are long-legged, long-necked, long-billed freshwater and coastal birds. They include egrets, which are differentiated simply by their typical white feathers instead of grey. Although herons resemble birds in some other families, such as the storks and cranes, herons differ from these in flying with their necks retracted, not outstretched. — read by V — Support us:
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Tonight, we’ll read the next part to “Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea,” a classic science fiction adventure novel by French writer Jules Verne. In the last episode, Professor Arronax panics about the oxygen levels in the cell, which must be diminishing. To his relief, he realizes that there is a novel system of ventilation on the vessel. Painfully hungry, the men await their next meal impatiently. They shout, but nobody answers. When, after two hours, the door finally opens, Ned attacks the person who comes inside. Arronax is shocked to hear the stranger addressing him politely in perfect French, and yet clearly not as a native speaker. — read by N — Support us:
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Tonight, we’ll read from “Elements of Arithmetic” written by Augustus De Morgan and published in 1846. De Morgan was a British mathematician and logician. He was also known as a brilliant and witty writer. Personally, he was an atheist at a time when his expression of belief limited his academic career early. The prejudice didn’t last forever and because of his mathematical legacy, there is a crater on the moon named after him. The history of arithmetic includes the period from the emergence of counting before the formal definition of numbers and arithmetic operations over them by means of a system of axioms. Arithmetic — the science of numbers, their properties and their relations — is one of the main mathematical sciences. It is closely connected with algebra and the theory of numbers. — read by N — Support us:
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Tonight, we’ll read “M. Swann” the next part in our series from French writer Marcel Proust’s monumental “In Search of Lost Time” which is seven volumes long, and first published in 1913. “In Search of Lost Time” follows the narrator's recollections and experiences in the late 19th-century and early 20th-century high-society France, while reflecting on the loss of time and lack of meaning in the world. This series does not necessarily need to be followed in order as rather than being plot driven, it is more of a meditation on memories, consciousness and ambiance. The first episode aired on May 9th, 2022, and is titled “Overture.” The second episode, “The Magic Lantern” aired on July 11, 2022. — read by V — Support us:
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Tonight, we’ll read the next part to “The Secret Garden”, a novel by Frances Hodgson Burnett published in 1911. If you’d like to listen to this story’s episodes in order, go to snoozecast.com/series. In the last episode, the children spend an absolutely glorious spring day together in the secret garden. Mary and Dickon learn that Colin always uses a wheelchair simply because he feels so tired and weak, but not because he cannot walk. — read by V — Support us:
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Tonight, we’ll rebroadcast Terra Nova, a Snoozecast original, which originally aired on May 15, 2020. In this short story, a young man meets a trio of travellers who provide a new perspective on the isolated village he wants to leave. Set in Canada’s Gros Morne National Park, a World Heritage Site, this tale draws inspiration from The Tablelands. The striking, desert-esque landscape is notable for illustrating the theory of plate tectonics. — read by V — Support us:
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Tonight, we’ll rebroadcast the story of "Sleeping Beauty", which originally aired in 2019. It is a classic fairy tale about a princess who is cursed to sleep for a hundred years by an evil fairy, where she would be awakened by a handsome prince. The earliest known version of the story is found in the narrative “Perceforest”, composed in the 14th century. "Perceforest" provides an original Genesis of the Arthurian World. — read by M — Support us:
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For the next 5 episodes, you’ll get to enjoy (or re-enjoy) some chestnuts from Snoozecast’s back catalog. Even if you have hit play on these before, it’s long enough ago that you know you won’t remember. And let’s be honest- how long did you even stay awake? While we hope you enjoy this little retrospective, it will also give the Snoozecast creators some needed time to catch up. It has been, after all, three and a half years of constant content creation without a break. Thanks for letting us hit the snoozebutton, and you’ll find new episodes starting Friday, September 9th! /// Tonight, by Patreon supporter request, we’ll read "A Lady’s Life in the Rocky Mountains", a travel book, by Isabella Bird, describing her 1873 trip to the Rocky Mountains of Colorado.
The book is a compilation of letters, that Isabella Bird wrote to her sister, Henrietta. Women were scarce enough in the Western United States of the late nineteenth century, and a middle-aged English lady traveling alone, by horseback, was quite a phenomenon.
Bird was a nineteenth-century British explorer, writer,photographer,and naturalist. From early on, Bird was frail and suffered from headaches and insomnia. Doctors recommended open air and exercise, so Bird learned to ride horseback.
— read by 'V' —
For the next 5 episodes, you’ll get to enjoy (or re-enjoy) some chestnuts from Snoozecast’s back catalog. Even if you have hit play on these before, it’s long enough ago that you know you won’t remember. And let’s be honest- how long did you even stay awake? While we hope you enjoy this little retrospective, it will also give the Snoozecast creators some needed time to catch up. It has been, after all, three and a half years of constant content creation without a break. Thanks for letting us hit the snoozebutton, and you’ll find new episodes starting Friday, September 9th! /// Tonight, we’ll read about the basics of bread making, from Volume 1 of 1925’s Woman’s Institute Library of Cookery, written by The Woman’s Institute of Domestic Arts and Sciences. This institute was founded by Mary Brooks Picken in Scranton, PA. An expert on fashion, Picken also wrote the first dictionary to be published by a woman in the English language.
For the next 5 episodes, you’ll get to enjoy (or re-enjoy) some chestnuts from Snoozecast’s back catalog. Even if you have hit play on these before, it’s long enough ago that you know you won’t remember. And let’s be honest- how long did you even stay awake? While we hope you enjoy this little retrospective, it will also give the Snoozecast creators some needed time to catch up. It has been, after all, three and a half years of constant content creation without a break. Thanks for letting us hit the snoozebutton, and you’ll find new episodes starting Friday, September 9th! /// Tonight, we’ll read a Snoozecast original titled “Maggie’s Start Date.” Maggie is the Green family’s loyal dog, however she may have ambitions beyond being household pet..
Tonight, we shall read the next part of “Pride and Prejudice”, written by Jane Austen.
Our Friday rotation is capped at four series now, so that each episode will only be one month out from the next of a particular story. If you’d like to listen to this series or any of our others in order, please go to snoozecast.com/series.
In the last episode, Elizabeth has finished reading Darcy’s letter, and is considering it over and over again in her mind. As she considers, she starts to have a very different view of what had taken place over the last year.
Tonight, we’ll read the opening fairy tale from “The Descent of the Sun: A Cycle of Birth” published in 1903. This book was purportedly translated from unidentified Sanskrit manuscripts by F. W. Bain. More likely, the stories were only inspired by ancient Hindu myths. While the stories may have been a literary hoax, they are still charming fantasy tales in their own right. They help us to consider the nature of existence -- the concepts of creation, reincarnation, the power of attraction and the triumph of love.
— read by V —
Tonight, we’ll read a story from “Just So Stories” by British author Rudyard Kipling published in 1902 titled “The Crab That Played with the Sea”. The book is a collection of origin stories. Kipling began working on the book by telling the first three chapters as bedtime stories to his daughter Josephine. These had to be told "just so" (exactly in the words she was used to) or she would complain. The stories illustrate how animals obtained their distinctive features, such as how the leopard got his spots. This particular story explains the ebb and flow of the tides, as well as how the crab changed from a huge animal into a small one.
— read by N —
Tonight, we’ll read the next part to “Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea,” a classic science fiction adventure novel by French writer Jules Verne. In the last episode, professor Aronnax, his devoted servant Conseil and the harpooner Ned Land are cast overboard and lost at sea after their confrontation with the giant mechanical narwhal. They find themselves on a floating metal island that turns out to be the beast they imagined they were hunting. Eventually, the vessel begins to sink and, just in the nick of time, the men are snatched and dragged into the belly of the craft by masked men.
— read by N —
Tonight, we’ll read about selecting wood from “Violin Making” written by Walter H. Mayson and published in 1909. The modern violin was first known in 16th-century Italy. The name fiddle is often used regardless of the type of music played on it, and the genres are not limited to western classical music, folk, country and jazz music along with plenty of non-Western music as well. Violinists and collectors particularly prize the fine historical instruments made by certain well known families and makers, like Stradivari for example. The quality of their sound has defied attempts to explain or equal it, though this belief is disputed. The current record amount paid for a Stradivari violin is £9.8 million or $15.9 million US in 2011. This book was published posthumously by the English violin maker, who started his fiddle making career at the age of 39.
— read by V —
Tonight, we’ll read the opening to the short story “At the Bay” written by Katherine Mansfield, published in 1922.
Mansfield was a New Zealand writer, widely considered one of the most influential and important authors of the modernist movement. Her works are celebrated across the world, and have been published in 25 languages.
This story, based on her childhood growing up in the suburbs of New Zealand, represents Mansfield’s best mature work, a luminous example of her literary impressionism.
Tonight, we’ll read the next part to “The Secret Garden”, a novel by Frances Hodgson Burnett published in 1911. If you’d like to listen to this story’s episodes in order, go to snoozecast.com/series. In the last episode, Dickon comes to Misselthwaite Manor to meet Colin with Mary. The three children start devising their plan to covertly bring Colin into the secret garden. Mr. Roach, the head gardener, is ordered by Colin to be sure that all servants and groundskeepers are away at the times he decides to be pushed in his wheelchair outdoors with the children.
— read by V —
Tonight, we’ll read “The Cheap Flat”, a short story written by Agatha Christie and published in 1924 as part of her “Poirot Investigates” series. In this story, Captain Hastings meets a couple at a party who have just rented a flat in a fashionable district for an implausibly cheap price. Poirot becomes intrigued and sets out to investigate. If you enjoy this episode, be sure to listen to our first Poirot story, “The Western Star” which aired on June 8, 2022. We have also read from two of her novels as well- “The Mysterious Affair at Styles” in 2019 and “The Man in the Brown Suit” in 2021.
— read by N —
Tonight, we’ll read poems by John Keats starting with one titled “Sleep and Poetry.” John Keats’ poems are a major part of English Romantic poetry. They portray settings loaded with symbolism and sensuality, and draw heavily on Greek and Roman myth along with romanticised tales of chivalry. Keats died in 1821 at the young age of 25, having written the majority of his work in less than four years. In his lifetime, sales of Keats's three volumes of poetry probably amounted to only 200 copies. The compression of his poetic apprenticeship and maturity into so short a time is just one remarkable aspect of Keats's work. Keats was convinced that he had made no mark in his lifetime. Aware that he was dying, he wrote "I have left no immortal work behind me – nothing to make my friends proud of my memory – but I have lov'd the principle of beauty in all things, and if I had had time I would have made myself remember'd." Keats's ability and talent was acknowledged by several influential contemporary allies. His admirers praised him for having developed a style which was more heavily loaded with sensualities, more gorgeous in its effects, more voluptuously alive than any poet who had come before him. While not appreciated during his lifetime, he has gone on to become one of the most loved of the Romantic poets, and has provided inspiration to many authors after him.
— read by V —
Tonight, we’ll read the next part to “Winnie-the-Pooh” a children’s story written by A.A. Milne and published in 1926. This collection of short stories features an anthropomorphic teddy bear, Winnie-the-Pooh, along with his friends Christopher Robin, Piglet, Eeyore, Owl, Rabbit, Kanga, and Roo. In the previous episode, we read chapter one, in which we were introduced to Winnie-the-Pooh and some bees, and the stories began. Pooh is all out of honey and thinks of the idea to steal some from the bees. To paraphrase Pooh: "That buzzing-noise means something…If there's a buzzing-noise, somebody's making a buzzing-noise, and the only reason for making a buzzing-noise that I know of is because you're a bee."
— read by V —
Tonight, we’ll read about the musical genius Franz Liszt as a child piano prodigy from the book “Life of Liszt” written by Ludwig Nohl. Liszt was a Hungarian composer, pianist and teacher of the Romantic era. He gained renown during the early nineteenth century for his virtuoso skill as a pianist. Since he often appeared three or four times a week in concert, it could be safe to assume that he appeared in public well over a thousand times during one eight year period. During his virtuoso heyday, Liszt was described by the writer Hans Christian Andersen (who has written many fairy tales featured by Snoozecast) as a "slim young man...[with] dark hair hung around his pale face". He was seen as handsome by many, with a German poet writing concerning his showmanship during concerts: "How powerful, how shattering was his mere physical appearance".
— read by N —
Tonight, we’ll read the fairy tale “Felicia and the Pot of Pinks” written by Madame d’Aulnoy and found in the Blue Fairy Book edited by Andrew Lang. The “pot of pinks” in this story refers to a type of dianthus flower know as “garden pinks.” Its name is not due to the color pink but rather to the serrated edges of the petals, which look like they were cut with pinking shears. In fact, the color pink may be derived from this particular flower. If you enjoy this story, be sure to listen to our many other fairy tales written by Madame d’Aulnoy including The Yellow Dwarf, Princess Belle-Etoile, The White Cat and The White Doe.
— read by V —
Tonight, we shall read the next part of “Pride and Prejudice”, written by Jane Austen.
If you’d like to listen to this series in order, please go to snoozecast.com/series.
In the last episode, Darcy waits to find Elizabeth on a walk and gives her a letter of explanation. He answers Elizabeth's charges of misconduct toward both Jane and Wickham. He knew that Bingley was in love with Jane, but he detected no affection on her part and, given that, thought it unwise for Bingley to become attached to Elizabeth's family, with its improprieties and lack of wealth. In London, he joined with Caroline in convincing Bingley to give up the attachment. Darcy also confesses, with regret, to keeping Bingley from finding out that Jane was in London, too.
We will pick up in the letter where Darcy starts addressing Mr. Wickham to Elizabeth.
— read by V —
Tonight, we’ll read the opening to “The Moon Maid”, a fantasy novel written by Edgar Rice Burroughs and published in 1926.
This novel constitutes a future history, and in it Burroughs' vision of what the 20th century held in store for humanity, which could be considered a kind of retroactive alternate history. In Burroughs's vision, in 1967 the planetary rulers send a first manned spacecraft to the Moon—coinciding very near to the actual 1969 date of the Apollo 11 Moon landing. Of course, in Burrough’s version, the moon turns out to be teeming with life.
This is the second time Snoozecast has featured early science fiction from Burroughs. You can also listen to “A Princess of Mars” that aired on June 14, 2019.
Tonight, we’ll read another story from our King Arthur series. This one, “The Crowning of Arthur and the Sword Excalibur” comes from a book edited by Rupert S. Holland and published in 1919.
If you’d like to listen to this whole anthology easily in order, go to snoozecast.com/series.
Excalibur is the legendary sword of King Arthur, sometimes also attributed with magical powers or associated with the rightful sovereignty of Britain. Excalibur and the Sword in the Stone (the proof of Arthur's lineage) are in some versions said to be different, though in other incarnations they are either the same or at least share their name. Several similar swords and other weapons also appear in this and other legends.
Historically, a sword identified as Excalibur (or rather, Caliburn, at the time) was supposedly discovered during the purported exhumation of Arthur's grave at Glastonbury Abbey in the year 1191. That same year, either this or another sword claimed as Excalibur was given as a gift of goodwill by the English king Richard I of England to his ally the King of Sicily.
Tonight, we’ll read the next part to “Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea,” a classic science fiction adventure novel by French writer Jules Verne.
In the last episode, the sailors on The Abraham Lincoln keep a keen eye on the water, searching for the sea monster. Every time someone thinks they might see something, a great rush of excitement washes over the ship, only to subside into disappointment shortly after. The ship spends three months in the deep Pacific, scouring every inch of the ocean. Eventually, Farragut announces that if the monster is still not found after three days, they will have to abandon the mission. They are about to turn back on the final day, when Ned Land, the harpoon leader, spots the object of their search.
Tonight, we’ll read the second half to "The Adventure of the Crooked Man", one of the 56 Sherlock Holmes short stories written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. It is one of 12 stories in the cycle collected as “The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes”.
In the first episode, which aired last week, we learn about Colonel Barclay, a man who had risen up the ranks to become the leader of a squadron. He and his wife enjoyed the power and popularity stemming from such a position. Their standing in the community made the case all the more shocking when Barclay was found dead and Mrs. Barclay was the only one present. She was suspected of murdering him because they had been arguing when he died.
We will pick up with Holmes discussing with Watson how he would like to prove Mrs. Barclay’s innocence because he thinks there is more to the story.
Tonight, we’ll read the first voyage from “Sinbad the Sailor” edited by Laurence Housman and published in 1900. Housman was a prolific English writer and playwright, an activist and an illustrator during the Victorian era. Turning from visual art to writing when his eyesight began to fail, he also advocated tirelessly for the women’s right to vote, and believed that men should be an active participant of the suffrage movement.
If you enjoy this episode, be sure to find our episode titled “The Voyages of Sinbad the Sailor” that aired on January 13, 2020.
— read by V — Listen Ad-Free on Patreon
Tonight, we’ll read the next part to “The Secret Garden”, a novel by Frances Hodgson Burnett published in 1911.
If you’d like to listen to this story’s episodes in order, go to snoozecast.com/series.
In the last episode, Mary shares the full secret of the garden with Colin- that Dickon will come visit him tomorrow, that she has already been inside the garden itself, and that they will take him there as well.
— read by V — Listen Ad-Free on Patreon See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.
Tonight, we’ll read "The Adventure of the Crooked Man", written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.
Out of 56 total stories, Doyle ranked "The Adventure of the Crooked Man" 15th in a list of his 19 favorite Sherlock Holmes stories.
Although "Elementary, my dear Watson" is known popularly as a catch-phrase of Sherlock Holmes, the character never says this in any of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's stories. In The Adventure of the Crooked Man, though, he comes his closest to it in the following dialog: "I have the advantage of knowing your habits, my dear Watson," said he. "Excellent!" I cried. "Elementary," said he.
— read by N — Listen Ad-Free on Patreon See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.
Tonight, we’ll read “The Magic Lantern,” the next part in our series from French writer Marcel Proust’s monumental “In Search of Lost Time” which is seven volumes long, and first published in 1913.
“In Search of Lost Time” follows the narrator's recollections and experiences in the late 19th-century and early 20th-century high-society France, while reflecting on the loss of time and lack of meaning in the world.
This series does not necessarily need to be followed in sequential order as it is more about an ambiance than a plot. However, in the first episode, which aired on May 9th, 2022, the narrator recalls his childhood, bedtimes, bedrooms of his memories, and the peculiar states of consciousness related to sleep.
This episode features memories about the magic lantern the narrator’s family gives him as a child to help him with his insomnia. Magic lanterns were an early form of a slide projector.
— read by V — Listen Ad-Free on Patreon See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.
Tonight, we’ll read the opening to “Winnie-the-Pooh” a children’s story written by A.A. Milne and published in 1926. This collection of short stories features an anthropomorphic teddy bear, Winnie-the-Pooh, along with his friends Christopher Robin, Piglet, Eeyore, Owl, Rabbit, Kanga, and Roo.
The book was well received at release, a commercial success, and has been translated into over 50 languages, including Latin.
— read by V — Listen Ad-Free on Patreon See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.
Tonight, we’ll read recipes on schoolroom cakes along with tea cakes and biscuits from “The Cake and Biscuit Book” by Elizabeth Douglas, published in 1903.
When this cookbook was published, most American students attended a one-room schoolhouse. A single teacher would typically have students of all ages in one class. The youngest children sat in the front, while the oldest students sat in the back. Students memorized and recited their lessons, and when they were lucky, they ate home baked treats like the ones here.
— read by N — Listen Ad-Free on Patreon See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.
Tonight, we’ll read the second half to “The Otter Opal”, a Snoozecast original. The first half aired last week.
In the last episode, we met two sea otters named Tumma and Nutsmn as they floated above the kelp forest. Their days are spent sleeping, eating, napping, playing and racing. Tumma excels at all activities, except for the swim races. He has felt frustration at frequently coming in almost last.
We also learn that sea otters often have a favorite stone that they keep in a pocket of their fur, and Tumma finds himself an extraordinary one.
— read by V — Listen Ad-Free on Patreon See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.
Tonight, we shall read the next part of “Pride and Prejudice”, written by Jane Austen.
If you’d like to listen to this series in order, please go to snoozecast.com/series.
In the last episode, alone at the parsonage, Elizabeth mulls over what Fitzwilliam has revealed to her that Darcy saved a friend from an imprudent marriage. She assumes that the friend is Bingley and the imprudent marriage is to her sister Jane. Suddenly, Darcy enters and abruptly declares his love for her. His marriage proposal focuses upon her social inferiority, and Elizabeth’s initial politeness transforms into an angry accusation.
— read by V — Listen Ad-Free on Patreon See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.
Tonight, for our 550th episode, we’ll read about dinner party etiquette from the book “Our Deportment” written by John H. Young and published in 1881.
The word “deportment” has fallen out of usage starting in the twentieth century, but is defined simply as “a person’s behavior or manners.” It comes from the similar French word déportement.
— read by N —
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Tonight, we’ll read the first half to “The Otter Opal”, a Snoozecast original. The second half will air next week.
In this story, we shall meet two dreamy sea otters named Tumma and Nutsnm as they float above the kelp forest.
— read by V —
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Tonight, we’ll read the next part to “Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea,” a classic science fiction adventure novel by French writer Jules Verne.
In the last episode, we learn that Captain Farragut and his crew on the Abraham Lincoln are led by their faith that the monster exists, and that they will find it. All believe in the monster except Ned Land, a French Canadian and the best harpooner around. A surly man, Land is drawn to Aronnax since they both share French culture.
Land says that he has never seen a narwhal puncture a ship. Aronnax tries to persuade Land with mathematical calculations that an infinitely powerful creature could inhabit the depth of the seas. Land is not fully swayed.
— read by N —
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Tonight, we’ll read about hermit caves and rock temples from “The Subterranean World” written by G. Hartwig and published in 1871.
A hermit is a person who lives in seclusion. Eremitism plays a role in a variety of religions although in modern colloquial usage, "hermit" denotes anyone living apart from the rest of society, for any reason.
— read by N —
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Tonight, we’ll read the tale of Frithiof the Bold, found in “Northland Heroes” written by Florence Holbrook and published in 1909.
The author was an educator, author and speaker involved in the peace movement during the early years of the 20th century. She was an ardent pacifist, a suffragist, and a believer in public education as the foundation for a democratic society.
— read by V —
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Tonight, we’ll read the next part to “The Secret Garden”, a novel by Frances Hodgson Burnett published in 1911.
If you’d like to listen to this story’s episodes in order, go to snoozecast.com/series.
In the last episode, Mary is the first to suggest to Colin that his illness is, perhaps, largely the work of his imagination. Colin offers that he will go out into the fresh air- if she and Dickon agree to accompany him. Mary does agree, and lulls him to sleep with another story of the secret garden.
— read by V —
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Tonight, we’ll read the second half to “The Adventure of ‘The Western Star,’” a short story written by Agatha Christie, published in 1912 as part of her “Poirot Investigates” series. We read the opening half to this story last week.
In the first episode, Hercule Poirot receives a visit from Miss Mary Marvell, the famous American film star on her visit to London. She has received three letters, handed to her by a Chinese man, which warn her to return her fabulous diamond jewel, the "Western Star", to where it came from – the left eye of an idol – before the next full moon. Her husband, Gregory Rolf had bought the jewel from a Chinese man in San Francisco three years ago and had given it to her. Poirot asks Mary Marvell to leave the jewel with him but she declines. She is going to stay at Yardly Chase, the home of Lord and Lady Yardly next Friday to discuss the making of a film there and Mary is determined to wear her diamond there. Next Friday happens to be the next full moon.
— read by N —
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Tonight, we’ll read the first chapter to “The Portrait of a Lady” written by Henry James and published in 1880. It is one of James's most popular novels and is regarded by critics as one of his finest.
This is the story of Isabel Archer, a spirited young American woman who inherits a large sum of money. The novel reflects James's continuing interest in the differences between the New World and the Old, often to the detriment of the former. It also treats in a profound way the themes of personal freedom, responsibility, and betrayal.
— read by V —
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Tonight, we’ll read the final chapter of “Little Women” by American author Louisa May Alcott, titled “Aunt March Settles the Question.” The sequel book “Good Wives,” is often published as one combined book with “Little Women” as a parts one and two.
You can listen to the whole series in order at snoozecast.com/series.
In the previous episode, Beth continues her slow recovery, and Mr. March surprises his family by coming home to visit on Christmas Day.
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Tonight, we’ll read the opening to “The Adventure of ‘The Western Star,’” a short story written by Agatha Christie, published in 1912 as part of her “Poirot Investigates” series. We shall read the conclusion episode to this story next week.
In this story, a famous American film star consults Poirot about a series of letters threatening that her celebrated diamond called ‘The Western Star’ will be stolen on “the night of the full moon”.
— read by N —
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Tonight, we’ll read a version of the French literary fairy tale called “The White Doe” originally written by Madame d'Aulnoy. This version was found in “My Book of Favourite Fairy Tales” edited by Captain Edric Vredenburg and published in 1921.
Snoozecast has featured several of Madame’s stories, including “The White Cat” parts one and two, “The Yellow Dwarf” and “Princess Belle-Etoile.”
— read by V —
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Tonight, we shall read the next part of “Pride and Prejudice”, written by Jane Austen.
If you’d like to listen to this series in order, please go to snoozecast.com/series.
In the last episode, Elizabeth asks Darcy about his friend’s departing Netherfield. Darcy suggests that Bingley is not likely to return to Netherfield because he has a busy social life in London. After Darcy leaves, Charlotte tells Elizabeth that the only explanation for Darcy's odd behavior in calling on her is that he must be in love with her.
— read by V —
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Tonight, we’ll read recipes from “A Plain Cookery Book for the Working Classes,” written by Charles Elme Francatelli and published in 1852.
Born in London of British descent, Francatelli was French-trained cook who worked for Queen Victoria.
— read by V —
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Tonight, we’ll read a short story titled “The Great Carbuncle” written by Nathaniel Hawthorne and published in 1835.
Set in the White Mountains of New Hampshire, a band of eight adventurers gathers together. They are each on a personal quest for the Great Carbuncle, a brilliant gem legendary in its elusiveness.
Hawthorne explores the importance of honesty, simplicity, and selflessness in "The Great Carbuncle." These positive characteristics are most often demonstrated by the newlywed couple during the search for the Carbuncle; they sacrifice personal gain, alter their goals, and pivot their actions to assist others for the good of the group.
— read by N —
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Tonight, we’ll read the next part to “Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea,” a classic science fiction adventure novel by French writer Jules Verne.
In the last episode, rumors of a mysterious sea creature in the ocean filter back to Europe and the United States in 1866. This unknown "monster" became very fashionable in the press and caught the public's imagination all over the world.
— read by N —
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Tonight, we’ll read the final excerpt from “The Wind in the Willows” by Kenneth Grahame, published in 1908.
This story centers around four small animals: Mole, Rat, Toad, and Badger. Their stories take place in the countryside of Edwardian England.
To listen to this series easily in order, go to snoozecast.com/series.
In the last episode, the gang is back together, and Badger, Rat and Mole devise a plan to reclaim Toad Hall for their friend, and take it back from the stoats and weasels that have overrun it.
— read by V —
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Tonight, we’ll read O Pioneers! a 1913 novel by American author Willa Cather, written while she was living in New York. It was her second published novel. The title is a reference to a poem by Walt Whitman entitled "Pioneers! O Pioneers!" from “Leaves of Grass.”
If you enjoy this episode, you can find an episode with another poem from Whitman’s “Leaves of Grass” titled “Song of Myself” and published March 13, 2019. You can also find another episode from Willa Cather titled “My Antonia,” published September 19, 2019.
— read by V —
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Tonight, we’ll read the next part to “The Secret Garden”, a novel by Frances Hodgson Burnett published in 1911.
If you’d like to listen to this story’s episodes easily in order, go to snoozecast.com/series.
In the last episode, Colin wakes up the manor in the middle of the night with his “hysterics.” The staff look to Mistress Mary as the only one bold enough and suitable enough to help in the situation, so Mary is brought in to Colin’s room.
— read by V —
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Tonight, we’ll read about igloos and other polar quarters, from the book “Secrets of Polar Travel” written by Robert E. Peary and published in 1917.
Although igloos, or snow shelters, are often associated with all Inuit, they were traditionally used only by the people of Canada's Central Arctic and a certain part of Greenland. Other Inuit tended to use snow to insulate their houses, which were constructed from whalebone and hides. Snow is used because the air pockets trapped in it make it an insulator. On the outside, temperatures may be as cold as −45 °C (−49 °F), but on the inside, the temperature may get as warm as 16 °C or 61 °F when warmed by body heat alone.
— read by V —
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Tonight, we’ll read a fairy tale called “The Invisible Prince,” found in “The Yellow Fairy Book” edited by Andrew Lang and published in 1894. This story is about The Prince of Air and how he overcame adversity and found his way to The Golden Isle.
— read by N —
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Tonight, we’ll read the next chapter of “Little Women” by American author Louisa May Alcott, titled “Pleasant Meadows.”
You can listen to the whole series in order at snoozecast.com/series.
In the last episode, Laurie feels slighted so he causes mischief, in penning fake love notes to Meg. Jo is concerned because she does not want Meg to fall in love and get married- as then she will move out of their home.
— read by V —
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Tonight, we’ll read the opening to “The Stockbroker’s Clerk,” a story found in “The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes” written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and published in 1892.
This story's plot is reminiscent of that in "The Red-Headed League" which Snoozecast featured in September of 2019. It, too, involves an elaborate hoax designed to remove an inconvenient person from the scene for a while so that a crime can be committed.
— read by N —
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Tonight, we’ll read “Overture,” the opening to French writer Marcel Proust’s monumental “In Search of Lost Time” which is seven volumes long, and first published in 1913.
“In Search of Lost Time” follows the narrator's recollections and experiences in the late 19th-century and early 20th-century high-society France, while reflecting on the loss of time and lack of meaning in the world.
— read by V —
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Tonight, we shall read the next part of “Pride and Prejudice”, written by Jane Austen.
If you’d like to listen to this series in order, please go to snoozecast.com/series.
In the last episode, Lady Catherine de Burgh has arranged a visit from her nephews, the Colonel Fitzwilliam and Darcy. Darcy meets Elizabeth with his usual reserve. Elizabeth asks Darcy if he ever sees Jane in London, and he seems uncomfortable, but the moment passes.
— read by V —
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Tonight, we’ll read a selection of recipes from the book “English Housewifry” by Elizabeth Moxon published in 1764.
This book describes itself as being “confined to things useful, substantial and splendid, and calculated for the preservation of health, and upon the measures of frugality, being the result of thirty years practice and experience.
— read by V —
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Tonight, we’ll read an Icelandic fairy tale called “Litill, Tritill, the Birds, and the Peasant Lad” translated and edited by Mrs. A. W. Hall and published in 1897.
Like many folk and fairy tales, the exact origins are complicated and sometimes unclear. The more well-known “Crimson Fairy Book” edited by Andrew Lang cites this story as having Hungarian origin. However, there are at least two earlier publications that are specifically Icelandic compilations that include this story.
— read by N —
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Tonight, we’ll read the final part to “The Princess and the Goblin”, a children’s fantasy novel by George MacDonald.
If you’d like an easy way to listen to these continuing episodes in order, go to snoozecast.com/series.
When we left off, Curdie had remembered the devious goblin back-up plan if carrying off Princess Irene didn't work- they would flood the mines. Curdie's father and Curdie rush to seal up the mine’s passageway that connects the goblin and human portions. Working as a team, the miners successfully build a huge buttress to fill the hole which they are confident will hold back the waters that the goblins unleash.
We will pick up as the miners leave to go home, as a torrential storm rages outside.
— read by V —
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Tonight, we’ll read another excerpt from “The Wind in the Willows” by Kenneth Grahame, published in 1908.
This story centers around four small animals: Mole, Rat, Toad, and Badger. Their stories take place in the countryside of Edwardian England.
To listen to this series easily in order, go to snoozecast.com/series.
In the last episode, Toad is a washer woman on the run, boldly stealing his way across the countryside, until . Now, he is on the run. The strong arm of the law almost catches him when he lands in a river and is saved by his old friend, Ratty.
— read by V —
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Tonight, we’ll read “The Door in the Wall,” a short story written in 1911 by H.G. Wells. Considered to be one of his finest short stories, it explores the tension between the rational and the fanciful experiences in life.
— read by N —
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Tonight, we’ll read the next part to “The Secret Garden”, a novel by Frances Hodgson Burnett published in 1911.
If you’d like to listen to this story’s episodes easily in order, go to snoozecast.com/series.
In the last episode, the robin is building a nest in the garden, and Mary and Dickon must keep very still, as though they themselves were trees, to avoid frightening him. Mary tells Dickon about her new friendship with Colin. Dickon is glad that he will no longer have to hide the fact of Colin from Mary, since he abhors keeping secrets.
— read by V —
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Tonight, we’ll read from the opening to the 1923 travel memoir “Peaks of Shala” by Rose Wilder Lane. It is about a walking tour of mountainous Albania.
The daughter of writer Laura Ingalls Wilder, Lane was an American journalist, travel writer, novelist, and political theorist.
— read by N —
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Tonight, we’ll read “The Mirror of Matsuyama” a story found in “Japanese Fairy Tales” by Yei Theodora Ozaki in 1908.
— read by V —
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Tonight, we’ll read the next chapter of “Little Women” by American author Louisa May Alcott, titled “Laurie Makes Mischief, and Jo Makes Peace.”
You can listen to the whole series in order at snoozecast.com/series.
In the last episode, Mrs. March returns home and Jo asks her mother to stop the budding romance of Mr. Brook with her sister Meg.
— read by V —
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Tonight, we’ll read another story from our King Arthur series. This one, “Merlin Fortells the Birth of Arthur” comes from a book edited by Rupert S. Holland and published in 1919.
If you’d like to listen to this whole anthology easily in order, go to snoozecast.com/series.
Merlin is a mythical figure prominently featured in the legend of King Arthur and best known as a wizard. He became one of the most important figures in the imagination and literature of the Middle Ages.
Most notable among his superpowers being that of prophecy and shapeshifting, Merlin engineers the birth of Arthur through magic and intrigue.
— read by V —
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Tonight, we’ll read the opening to “Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea” a classic science fiction adventure novel by French writer Jules Verne.
The book is regarded as one of the premier adventure novels and one of Verne's greatest works. Its depiction of Captain Nemo's underwater ship, the Nautilus, is regarded as ahead of its time, since it accurately describes many features of today's submarines, which in the 1860s were comparatively primitive vessels.
— read by N —
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Tonight, we shall read the next part of “Pride and Prejudice”, written by Jane Austen.
If you’d like to listen to this series easily in order, please go to snoozecast.com/series.
In the last episode, Elizabeth, along with her friend Charlotte’s father and sister, visits the parsonage home of Mr. Collins and Charlotte. There Mr. Collins is as pompous as ever, but Charlotte seems content. They are all invited to dinner at Rosings from Lady Catherine de Bourgh. Elizabeth notices that Lady Catherine’s daughter, Miss de Bourgh, who is expected to marry Darcy, is sickly, dull and uncommunicative.
We will pick up at the beginning of their visit to Rosings.
— read by V —
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Tonight, we’ll read selections about baking breads and cakes from “The Charlotte Sunshine Cook Book” published in 1906.
This episode starts with a long-form poem about baking bread, then into bread recipes. If you stay awake for the second half, you will hear cake recipes including several using hickory nuts.
A relative of walnuts and pecans, there are many varieties of hickory tree nuts, and not all of them are edible or palatable to humans. But if you forage for wild hickory nuts of the right type, they are supposed to be one of the most delicious nuts, and can be eaten raw.
— read by N —
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Tonight, we’ll read the complete story of “East of the Sun, West of the Moon”, a Norwegian fairy tale, collected by Asbjørnsen and Moe.
In this story, a talking bear approaches a poor peasant and asks if he will give him his daughter as a wife in return for making the family rich.
Many listeners have asked us to complete this story, as when it originally aired on March 11th, 2019, we didn’t include the ending. So here it is, rerecorded. Enjoy!
— read by V —
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Tonight, we’ll read the next part to “The Princess and the Goblin”, a children’s fantasy novel by George MacDonald.
If you’d like an easy way to listen to these continuing episodes in order, go to snoozecast.com/series.
When we left off, the old lady came to Curdie in his feverish dreams and restores him to health. He awakens knowing that the goblins have invaded the royal house. He rushes to the rescue, sings rhymes, stomps on goblin feet and frees the gentlemen-at-arms. Together, they rout the goblins in their midst along with their goblin queen.
— read by V —
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Tonight, we’ll read about the etiquette of throwing balls from “Manners and Rules of Good Society” by “A Member of the Aristocracy” published in London in 1916.
A ball is a formal dance party characterized by a banquet followed by social dance that includes ballroom dancing.
— read by N —
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Tonight, we’ll read the fantasy story “Celephaïs” written by H.P. Lovecraft and written in 1920. In it, Kuranes, the child of landed English gentry, travels to the magical city of his childhood dreams after finding himself dispossessed in the contemporary city of London.
Like many of Lovecraft's stories, "Celephaïs" was inspired by a dream.
— read by V —
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Tonight, we’ll read the next part to “The Secret Garden”, a novel by Frances Hodgson Burnett published in 1911.
If you’d like to listen to this story’s episodes easily in order, go to snoozecast.com/series.
In the last episode, Mary likens Colin to a young Rajah, a boy king she had encountered while in India, and nothing at all like Dickon. While they sit together Mrs. Medlock and Colin’s doctor, Dr. Craven comes in. Dr. Craven does not approve of Mary cheering Colin up. He seems to think Colin should stay ill and miserable.
— read by V —
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Tonight, we’ll read another excerpt from “The Wind in the Willows” by Kenneth Grahame, published in 1908.
This story centers around four small animals: Mole, Rat, Toad, and Badger. Their stories take place in the countryside of Edwardian England.
To listen to this series easily in order, go to snoozecast.com/series.
In the last episode, Toad can’t help himself but steal automobiles to race through the English countryside. This lands him in jail, but a kindly maiden takes pity on him and helps him break free. Now, he is on the run.
— read by V —
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Tonight, we’ll read “The Story of Caliph Stork” taken from “The Caravan,” a book of original fairy tales by nineteenth-century German writer Wilhelm Hauff.
This German stories, inspired by “The 1,001 Nights” stories, has since become part of Middle Eastern folklore.
— read by N —
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Tonight, we’ll read the next chapter of “Little Women” by American author Louisa May Alcott, titled “Amy’s Will.”
You can listen to the whole series in order at snoozecast.com/series.
In the last episode, Amy struggles living with Aunt March during Beth’s illness. For consolation, Amy turns to the servant, Esther, who guides her to find solace in prayer. Amy also decides to make a will, just in case.
— read by V —
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Tonight, we’ll read the conclusion to “The Adventure of Silver Blaze,” a story found in “The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes” written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and published in 1892. If you haven’t listened to the first half of this story yet, it was the episode that aired right before this one.
One of the most popular Sherlock Holmes short stories, "Silver Blaze" focuses on the disappearance of the winning race horse on the eve of an important race and on the apparent murder of its trainer.
In the first episode, Sherlock and Watson travel to Dartmoor to investigate the disappearance of the great race horse Silver Blaze and the murder of the horse's trainer, John Straker. Bookmaker Fitzroy Simpson had come to Dartmoor to gather information about Silver Blaze and his stablemate Bayard. He had approached both Straker's maid and a stable boy the night of the horse's disappearance and has been arrested for the murder.
— read by N —
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Tonight, we’ll read the opening to “The Adventure of Silver Blaze,” a story found in “The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes” written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and published in 1892. The conclusion episode will air next.
One of the most popular Sherlock Holmes short stories, "Silver Blaze" focuses on the disappearance of the winning race horse on the eve of an important race and on the apparent murder of its trainer. The tale is distinguished by its atmospheric setting and Victorian sporting milieu.
— read by N —
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Tonight, we shall read the next part of “Pride and Prejudice”, written by Jane Austen. If you’d like to listen to this series easily in order, please go to snoozecast.com/series.
In the last episode, Aunt Gardiner warns Elizabeth not to fall for Wickham. Jane writes to Elizabeth that she realizes now that the Bingley sister is not a trustworthy friend. And Elizabeth reluctantly agrees to visit Charlotte in her new marital home.
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Tonight, we’ll read an excerpt about the mountains of Colorado from “The Land of Enchantment” written by Lilian Whiting and published in 1909.
Pikes Peak is an ultra-prominent summit of the Rocky Mountains, in North America, and inspired Katherine Lee Bates to write the song “America, the Beautiful” after she visited the summit.
— read by 'N' —
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Tonight, we’ll read a myth about a love triangle between a couple of mortals, and the ancient Greek god Apollo. It is taken from “A Book of Myths” written by Jean Lang and published in 1914.
The favorite son of Zeus, who was king of gods, Apollo had direct access to the mind of his father and was willing to reveal this knowledge to humans. A divinity beyond human comprehension, he appears both as a beneficial and a wrathful god.
— read by V —
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Tonight, we’ll read the next part to “The Princess and the Goblin”, a children’s fantasy novel by George MacDonald.
If you’d like an easy way to listen to these continuing episodes in order, go to snoozecast.com/series.
When we left off, Curdie comes to regret his rudeness in not believing the princess, as his parent’s have helped him to understand. He sets about to protect her by figuring out the goblin’s devious plans.
— read by V —
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Tonight, we’ll read about Punches and other Beverages from “The Settlement Cook Book,” published in 1901. This compendium of recipes and other useful information was intended to support new immigrants raising their families in America.
— read by 'N' —
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Tonight, we’ll read advice about being a good conversationalist, and why you should never say “bovine continuation” when you mean “cow’s tail”, from the book “Etiquette in Society, In Business, In Politics and at Home” written by Emily Post and published in 1922.
— read by 'V' —
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Tonight, we’ll read the next part to “The Secret Garden”, a novel by Frances Hodgson Burnett published in 1911.
If you’d like to listen to this story’s episodes easily in order, go to snoozecast.com/series.
In the last episode, Mary continues her rainy midnight encounter with the mysterious boy Colin. Then she has an in-depth conversation with Martha about him as well. We will pick up during that discussion.
— read by 'V' —
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Tonight, we’ll read another excerpt from “The Wind in the Willows” by Kenneth Grahame, published in 1908.
This story centers around four small animals: Mole, Rat, Toad, and Badger. Their stories take place in the countryside of Edwardian England.
To listen to this series easily in order, go to snoozecast.com/series.
In this episode, we learn of the downfall and comeback for the exuberant and foolish toad.
— read by 'V' —
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Tonight, we’ll read about gardening in window boxes, and also planning the arrangement of outdoor flower gardens, from the 1903 book “The Flower Garden” by Ida D. Bennett.
A window box is usually placed on a window sill, or fixed to the wall immediately below it, so the owner(s) can easily access the plants in it. Window boxes are usually accessed from indoors, and are often used by people who live on upper floors without access to gardens or other plantable areas.
— read by 'N' —
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Tonight, we’ll read the next chapter of “Little Women” by American author Louisa May Alcott, titled “Amy’s Will.”
You can listen to the whole series in order at snoozecast.com/series.
In the last episode, Beth falls ill with scarlet fever while her mother is away in Washington DC. The two older sisters and Hannah keep watch over her. Amy is sent away to stay with crotchety old Aunt March. Laurie sends a secret message to Mrs. March to alert her that she needs to come home to Beth. At the very end of the last episode, she arrives.
— read by ' V' —
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Tonight, we’ll read the second half to “The Little Mermaid” written by Hans Christian Andersen and adapted by Snoozecast.
In the first half, we learn about the little mermaid and her family. The little mermaid saves a handsome prince from drowning at sea and falls in love with him from afar.
— read by 'V' —
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Tonight, we’ll read the first half to “The Little Mermaid” written by Hans Christian Andersen and adapted by Snoozecast. The story follows the journey of a young mermaid who is willing to give up her life in the sea as a mermaid in order to marry a prince and become human.
— read by 'V' —
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Tonight, we shall read the next part of “Pride and Prejudice”, written by Jane Austen. If you’d like to listen to this series easily in order, please go to snoozecast.com/series.
In the last episode, Mr. Collins finally leaves the Longbourne house, and Mrs. Bennet’s brother Mr. Gardiner and his wife come to visit from London in his place. We will pick up after Aunt Gardiner suggests to Lizzy that Jane should come stay with them in the city to get a change of scenery.
— read by 'V' —
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Tonight, we’ll read another story from our King Arthur series. This one, “Pelleas and Ettarde” comes from a book written by Mary MacGregor.
If you’d like to listen to this whole anthology easily in order, go to snoozecast.com/series.
— read by 'V' —
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Tonight, we’ll read “St. Valentine’s Day” or “The Fair Maid of Perth” written by Sir Walter Scott and published in 1828 as part of the Waverly novels. Inspired by the strange, but historically true, story of the Battle of the North Inch, it is set in Scotland around 1400.
If you enjoy this episode, be sure to check out our other story taken from the Waverly series titled “The Maiden of the Mist” that aired on January 11, 2021.
— read by 'V' —
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Tonight we shall read the next part to “Peter Pan”, the 1911 novel by Scottish novelist and playwright J.M. Barrie.
An easy way to listen to this continuing story in order is at snoozecast.com/series.
Peter Pan is a free-spirited and mischievous young boy who can fly and never grows up. He spends his never-ending childhood having adventures on the mythical island of Neverland as the leader of the Lost Boys, interacting with fairies, pirates, mermaids, Native Americans, and occasionally ordinary children from the world outside Neverland.
Peter Pan has become a cultural icon symbolizing youthful innocence and escapism. He must forget his own adventures and what he learns about the world in order to stay childlike. His name and playing the flute or pipes suggest the Greek god and mythological character Pan.
When we left off, Mrs. Darling waits patiently and sorrowfully for her children to return home, keeping the nursery window unlocked and opened just in case. Peter and Tinkerbell arrive with a devious plan to secretly close and lock the window, but at the last minute, Peter has a change of heart. The Darling children then fly home to their parents. Afterwards, the 6 lost boys make their appearance and ask if they can be adopted as well.
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Tonight, we’ll read a selection of sweetmeat recipes from “Miss Leslie’s New Cookery Book” published in 1857. A type of sugar confectionery, it is where the term ‘sweets’ comes from nowadays. It has nothing to do with animal flesh, as the Old English word ‘mete’ meant ‘food’ in general. In other words, we are talking about candy.
— read by 'V' —
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Tonight, we’ll read an excerpt from “Great Expectations” that features the iconic character “Miss Havisham.”
A wealthy spinster, once jilted at the altar, who insists on wearing her wedding dress for the rest of her life, she is one of Dickens’s most Gothic characters. Miss Havisham lives in a ruined mansion with her adopted daughter, Estella. Dickens describes her as looking like "the witch of the place".
Although she has often been portrayed in film versions as elderly, Dickens's own notes indicate that she is not quite 40 years old at the start of the novel, and that her reclusive lifestyle without sunlight aged her.
— read by 'V' —
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Tonight, we’ll read the final part to our “Magic Cloak” series, from the book “Queen Zixi of Ix, or The Story of the Magic Cloak”, a children's book written by L. Frank Baum and published in 1905.
If you’d like to listen to this continuing story easily in order, go to snoozecast.com/series.
In the last episode, Queen Zixi, King Bud, Princess Fluff and Aunt Rivette search the countryside for the missing cloak. They have to piece and sew the cloak together for it was cut up by a group of enthusiastic quilters, and are still missing one little piece. The group decides to regroup at Zixi’s palace and figure out what to do next.
— read by 'V' —
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Tonight, we’ll read another excerpt from “The Wind in the Willows” by Kenneth Grahame, published in 1908.
This story centers around four small animals: Mole, Rat, Toad, and Badger. Their stories take place in the countryside of Edwardian England.
This series does not require you to follow a plot between episodes, however if you would like to start from the beginning and listen easily in order, go to snoozecast.com/series.
In this episode, Rat encounters a wayfarer, the Sea Rat, and invites him to lunch. The Sea Rat regails him with tales of maritime adventures and invites Rat to join him.
— read by 'V' —
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Tonight, we’ll read more stories about cats written by English author and poet Edith Nesbit, published in 1899. If you enjoy this episode, be sure to check out the other “Cat Tales” episode that aired in September 2021, and also the fairy tale “The White Cat” that aired in July of 2020.
Nesbit wrote or collaborated on more than 60 books of children's literature under the name E. Nesbit, along with being a political activist.
— read by 'V' —
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Tonight, we’ll read the final part to the classic children’s story “Heidi”, published in 1881 by Swiss author Johanna Spyri.
If you’d like to listen to this continuing story in order, go to snoozecast.com/series.
In the previous episode, Peter pushes Clara’s wheelchair down the mountainside and then has trouble with his guilty conscience. Enraptured with life on the mountainside, but without her chair, Clara finds the will to live a bigger life, and also the potential to walk towards it on her own.
— read by 'V' —
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Tonight, we’ll read an excerpt from “The Adventures of Tom Sawyer” written by Mark Twain in 1876. It is a story about a boy growing up along the Mississippi River, often with his friend Huckleberry Finn.
Originally a commercial failure, the book ended up being the best selling of any of Twain's works during his lifetime, and is considered to be a masterpiece of American literature. It was also one of the first novels to be written on a typewriter.
— read by 'N' —
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Tonight, we’ll read from “Culinary Herbs” by M.G. Kains, published in 1912.
Herbs are a widespread group of plants, excluding vegetables, with savory or aromatic properties that are used for flavoring and garnishing food, for medicinal purposes, or for fragrances. Herbs generally refer to the leafy green or flowering parts of a plant (either fresh or dried), while spices are usually dried and produced from other parts of the plant, including seeds, bark, roots and fruits.
— read by 'V' —
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Tonight, we’ll read the next part to “The Princess and the Goblin”, a children’s fantasy novel by George MacDonald.
If you’d like an easy way to listen to these continuing episodes in order, go to snoozecast.com/series.
When we left off, Princess Irene receives a magical, refreshing and healing bath from her mysterious grandmother, after her long ordeal saving Curdie from the goblins. Curdie goes home to discuss everything that happened with his parents. They can tell that he is angry at how the princess seemed to be making up fanciful stories about serious matters.
— read by 'V' —
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Tonight, we’ll read the conclusion to “The Adventure of The Speckled Band” from “The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes,” published in 1891 and written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. The first part of this story originally aired on November 4th, 2020, and we rebroadcast it yesterday for easy access.
In the first part, Watson tells a strange story that starts when a young woman, Helen Stoner, pays them a visit one morning, in desperate need of their help. Helen’s mother had left an inheritance to Helen’s stepfather Dr. Roylott when she died, with a stipulation that should either of her daughters get married, they would receive an annual income from this fund. Helen’s sister died shortly before her wedding and Helen suspects that their stepfather, Roylott, is the culprit. Helen now worries for her own safety, and Holmes agrees to take the case.
— read by 'N' —
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Tonight, we’ll re-broadcast the opening to “The Adventure of The Speckled Band” from “The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes,” published in 1891 and written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. The conclusion episode will air next.
The story tells of Helen Stoner, a soon-to-be married young woman who suspects her stepfather may be trying to kill her in order to retain control of her inheritance. Convinced of her stepfather's intentions, she turns to Holmes for help.
"The Speckled Band" is a classic locked room mystery that deals with the themes of parental greed, inheritance and freedom. Tinged with Gothic elements, it is considered by many to be one of Doyle's finest works, with the author himself calling it his best story.
— read by 'N' —
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Tonight, we’ll read the next part to “The Secret Garden”, a novel by Frances Hodgson Burnett published in 1911.
If you’d like to listen to this story’s episodes easily in order, go to snoozecast.com/series.
In the last episode, Mary discovers her cousin Colin, who is Mr. Craven’s secret son. He is the same age as Mary, often in pain and miserable from it. We will pick up during their first middle of the night conversation, in his dimly firelit bedroom.
— read by 'V' —
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Tonight, we’ll read the final part to the Romanian fairy tale “The Fairy of the Dawn.” The first part aired last night.
In the first part, we learn of a king who has 3 sons- Florea, Costan, and the youngest was Petru. Petru is an unlikely hero, since he is more feminine and playful than his brothers. Yet when his father asks for his help in seeking the spring of the Fairy of the Dawn, it is Petru that eventually sets out on the adventure.
Luckily, Petru rides a valiant and wise horse that gives him excellent advice in dealing with the fairy world.
He ends up battling dragons and goblins, and making the kingdom a better place than he left it, as he continues onward.
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Tonight, we’ll read the first part to “The Fairy of the Dawn,” a Romanian fairy tale by German author Mite Kremnitz. The other half of this story will air this Wednesday.
This story features a prince who doesn’t seem likely at first to be as heroic as he turns out to be. He is more interested in singing and laughing than seeking adventure, fortune or battles as his brother’s do.
The author, Kremnitz, was born Marie von Bardeleben, and moved with her husband and children to Romania from Germany. There she became the maid of honor to the Romanian queen and fellow writer, Queen Elisabeth. Queen Elisabeth herself had a reputation for being an eccentric dreamer. They wrote several books together under pen names, and Kremnitz went on to publish many books of her own.
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Tonight, we’ll read an excerpt from Wilkie Collin’s 1864 novel “Armadale.” It is the third of his four 'great novels' of the decade: after “The Woman in White” and “No Name”, and before “The Moonstone.”
This is Snoozecast’s third-and-a-half time featuring Collins’ work. If you enjoy this episode, you can also find our “Moonstone” episode from March 2019, our “Woman in White” episode from December 2019, and the “Lazy Tour of Two Idle Apprentices” from July 2020, which Collins co-wrote with his friend Charles Dickens.
— read by 'N' —
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Tonight, we’ll read about calling cards, also known as visiting cards, from the book “Etiquette in Society, In Business, In Politics and at Home” written by Emily Post and published in 1922.
Post was an American writer and socialite who became the most famous authority on how to behave graciously in society and business.
If you enjoy this episode, be sure to listen to our original episode from this book called “Introductions” that aired on August 30, 2021.
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Tonight, we’ll read the next two chapters of “Little Women” by American author Louisa May Alcott, titled “Little Faithful” and “Dark Days”.
You can listen to the whole series in order at snoozecast.com/series.
In the last episode, the March sisters’ mother leaves to visit their ailing father in Washington DC. They do their best to stay cheerful and brave, and write letters to their mother in the meantime.
— read by 'V' —
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Tonight, we shall read the next part of “Pride and Prejudice”, written by Jane Austen. If you’d like to listen to this series easily in order, please go to snoozecast.com/series.
In the last episode, Elizabeth’s dear friend Charlotte Lucas schemes to and succeeds in winning Mr. Collins as a husband, much to the shock of the Bennett family.
— read by 'V' —
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Tonight, we’ll read another excerpt from “The Wind in the Willows” by Kenneth Grahame, published in 1908.
This story centers around four small animals: Mole, Rat, Toad, and Badger. Their stories take place in the countryside of Edwardian England.
If you’d like to start with the first episode, it aired on March 22, 2021. To follow along easily in order, go to snoozecast.com/series.
In the last episode, a crowd of chilly field mice sing a Christmas Carol at the mole’s front door, and Mole and Rat invite them in for some mulled ale and a delicious meal.
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Tonight, we’ll read selections from “The Bird Watcher in the Shetlands” by Edmund Selous, written in 1905.
If you enjoy this episode, be sure to listen to our others from this birdwatching series at snoozecast.com/series.
The author started as a conventional naturalist of his time, but Selous developed a disdain of the common practice of killing animals for scientific study. He was a pioneer of peaceful bird-watching as a method of scientific study. The author was a solitary man and was not well known in ornithological circles. He avoided both the company of ornithologists and reading their observations so as to base his conclusions entirely on his own observations. He has gifted future generations with his beautiful and intuitive writing on birds.
The island of Shetland is the northernmost part of Scotland. It has a complex geology, a rugged coastline, and many low, rolling hills. The islands have produced a variety of prose writers and poets, who have often written in the distinctive Shetland dialect of the Scots language.
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Tonight, we’ll read a Snoozecast-adapted excerpt titled “The Manor at Birlstone” taken from “The Valley of Fear” written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.
The novel was the fourth and final in a series we have read from during the second half of this year. It started with “A Study in Scarlet” which aired on June 9th, 2021. You can listen to all episodes from our Sherlock sleep story series at snoozecast.com/series.
In this story, Holmes deciphers an encrypted message that warns of a nefarious plot against a country gentleman named Douglas who lived at Birlstone House, an ancient moated manor.
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Tonight we shall read the next part to “Peter Pan”, the 1911 novel by J.M. Barrie.
An easy way to listen to this continuing story in order is at snoozecast.com/series.
When we left off, Peter and the boys vanquish the pirates, and take over the ship. They set sail for the mainland to take Wendy and her brothers home. Then we catch up on what has been transpiring in the Darling household during their absence.
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Tonight, we’ll read “King Awkward and Princess Sweetheart” an adaptation by Snoozecast of “Princess Sweetheart” from “The Pink Fairy Book” edited by Andrew Lang.
This story was originally found in the “Library of Genius and Fairies” written by Madame de Murat, a French aristocrat and writer of the late 1600s. She published many stories that she first debuted at the fashionable literary salons of her time, and was considered one of the leaders of the “fairy-tale vogue.”
After several years of success and recognition, Madame de Murat was imprisoned and then exiled, being accused of debauchery and “shocking practices and beliefs”. Although she failed at an attempt to escape wearing the disguise of men’s clothing, she did continue to write her body of works for several years after that.
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Tonight, we’ll read the next part to our “Magic Cloak” series, from the book “Queen Zixi of Ix, or The Story of the Magic Cloak”, a children's book written by L. Frank Baum and published in 1905.
If you’d like to listen to this continuing story easily in order, go to snoozecast.com/series.
In the last episode, Aunt Rivette flies King Bud and Princess Fluff to the land of Ix, in hopes of receiving help from Queen Zixi in overcoming the Roly-Rogue invaders. Zixi, now reformed into a truly good witch, reveals that she stole the real magic cloak, and left it behind in the lilac grove. She offers to help the children retrieve it and take back their kingdom. In return, Fluff happily offers to help Zixi use the cloak to grant her wish of looking young and beautiful in mirror reflections. But first, they must stay for a royal feast.
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Tonight, we’ll read an adaptation of Alexandre Dumas’ “The Nutcracker of Nuremberg” story, originally published in 1844.
Dumas’ version of The Nutcracker was itself adapted from the original, written by E.T.A. Hoffman. However it was Dumas adaptation that gave inspiration to the famous “Nutcracker” ballet composed by Tchaikovsky.
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Tonight, we’ll read from “How to Make Money” by John V. Dunlap, published in 1922. This guide to making money may have served up inspiration to the entrepreneurial-minded of the day. The schemes include starting a neighborhood pantry, along with candy making, doughnut making, starting a kindergarten, and editing an interesting column in a newspaper.
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Tonight, we’ll read the next part to the classic children’s story “Heidi”, published in 1881 by Swiss author Johanna Spyri.
If you’d like to listen to this continuing story in order, go to snoozecast.com/series.
In the previous episode, the Grandmama agrees to allow Clara to stay up on the alp with Heidi and Grandfather. She has a splendid time, and starts to grow stronger by the day. Peter, the young goatherd, seems to be growing angrier by the day but does not explain why. Plans are made to take the girls higher up the alp the next day to experience sitting amongst the wildflowers and grazing goats with Peter.
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Tonight, we’ll read all about old-fashioned puddings from “The White House Cook Book” written by the house stewards in Washington DC, and published in 1887.
The original “pudding” was formed by mixing various ingredients with a grain product or other binder such as butter, flour, cereal, eggs, and/or suet, resulting in a solid mass. These puddings are baked, steamed, or boiled. Depending on its ingredients, such a pudding may be served as a part of the main course or as a dessert.
Christmas pudding is a type of pudding traditionally served as part of the Christmas dinner in Britain and British-influenced cultures.
Despite the name of "plum pudding", that particular pudding contains no actual plums due to the pre-Victorian use of the word "plums" as a term for raisins.
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Tonight, we’ll read a Japanese tale adapted by Snoozecast called “The Precious Fishing Hook” or “The Happy Hunter and the Skillful Fisher.” It was originally found in “Japanese Fairy Tales” compiled by Yei Theodora Ozaki.
If you enjoy this sleep story, be sure to check out our other ones that come from the same book. “The Bamboo-Cutter and the Moon Child” is a two-parter that first aired in April of 2019. “Momotaro” also aired in April 2019. “The Fisher-Boy Urashima” aired in May of 2020.
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Tonight, we’ll read the next part to “The Princess and the Goblin”, a children’s fantasy novel by George MacDonald.
If you’d like an easy way to listen to these continuing episodes in order, go to snoozecast.com/series.
When we left off, Princess Irene uses her grandmother’s gossamer thread to rescue Curdie from the Goblin’s cave labyrinth, and bring them both back to the safety of Irene’s royal home. Curdie is grateful to Irene for saving his life, but does not believe her explanation of her grandmother’s ring and the thread.
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Tonight, we’ll read another excerpt from “The Wind in the Willows” by Kenneth Grahame, published in 1908.
This story centers around four small animals: Mole, Rat, Toad, and Badger. Their stories take place in the countryside of Edwardian England.
If you’d like to start with the first episode, it aired on March 22, 2021. To follow along easily in order, go to snoozecast.com/series.
In the last episode, the two little friends Water Rat and Mole are headed back after a long day to their home on the river, which is really the Rat’s home. Suddenly the Mole remembers his original mole den home, and the urge to visit becomes to strong to ignore.
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Tonight, we’ll read from “For Luncheon and Supper Guests” written by Alice Bradley published in 1923.
“Luncheon” is the formal word for lunch, a light mid-day meal.
In the Middle Ages, before electric lighting and industrialization, the mid-day meal was large and considered dinner. There was no lunch, so later in the evening a lighter meal was had called “supper”.
But by the 1800s, the large meal of dinner was pushed into the evening and thus, not only was supper squeezed out, but there was a need for something to eat in between breakfast and dinner.
Up until the early 1800s, luncheon was generally reserved for ladies, who would often have lunch with one another when their husbands were out. The meal was often made up of left-overs from the previous night's plentiful dinner. Beginning in the Victorian era, afternoon tea supplemented this luncheon at four o'clock.
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Tonight, we’ll read the next part to “The Secret Garden”, a novel by Frances Hodgson Burnett published in 1911.
If you’d like to listen to this story’s episodes easily in order, go to snoozecast.com/series.
In the last episode, Mary decides that she has 5 people in the world she actually likes, now that she knows Dickon. She also counts 2 people that like her back, if she includes the robin. We will pick up at the tail end of her first meeting with Mr. Craven. He is the master of Misselthwaite Manor and Mary’s assigned guardian as he is her uncle.
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Tonight, we’ll read the conclusion to the fairy tale “The Treasure Seeker.” You can find our rebroadcast that aired yesterday of the first part to this story, which we originally aired in January 2020.
In yesterday’s story, we learn of Peter Bloch, who was once a prosperous inn-keeper and master cook, but is now a poor man. He hears of a mysterious dark spirit, The Treasure Seeker of the Mountain, and directions on how to find an amazing treasure trove of hidden wealth.
Although he has an unhappy marriage with the Dame Ilse, Peter also has a sweet daughter named Lucia. His love for Lucia motivates him to seek the treasure in order to change their fortunes in life for the better.
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Tonight, we’re airing a re-broadcast of the opening to “The Treasure Seeker,” an adventurous fairy tale found in “The Crimson Fairy Book” compiled by Andrew Lang and published in 1903. The conclusion episode will air tomorrow.
In the opening of this story, some shepherds sit around one night telling of the strange things that happened to them in their youth. One of their stories is more exciting than expected- regarding a mysterious dark spirit, The Treasure Seeker of the mountain.
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Tonight, we’ll read from “The Wild Garden” by William Robinson, published in 1870. Robinson was an Irish gardener and journalist whose ideas about wild gardening spurred the movement that led to the popularising of the English cottage garden. He was a champion of the "wild garden", who vanquished the high Victorian pattern garden of planted-out bedding schemes, which used tropical plants grown in greenhouses.
Modern gardening practices first introduced by Robinson include: using alpine plants in rock gardens; dense plantings of perennials and groundcovers that expose no bare soil; use of hardy perennials and native plants; and large plantings of perennials in natural-looking drifts.
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Tonight, we’ll read the next chapter of “Little Women” by American author Louisa May Alcott, published in 1868, titled “Letters”.
You can listen to the whole series in order at snoozecast.com/series.
The novel has been said to address three major themes: domesticity, work, and true love, all of them interdependent and each necessary to the achievement of its heroine's individual identity. According to many critics, Alcott created a whole new genre, one that took elements from romantic children's fiction and combined it with others from sentimental novels. Within the four different March sisters can be found the first vision of the "All-American girl.”
In the last episode, a chapter called “A Telegram,” Marmee receives news that her husband has fallen ill in an army hospital. Her daughters, along with Laurie, Mr. Laurence and Mr. Brooks all rally to help in different ways. Jo cuts her long hair short at the barbers to earn some quick money, and Mr. Brooks plans to accompany Mrs. March to Washington DC.
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Tonight, we’ll re-broadcast the opening to “The Blue Carbuncle” from “The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes,” written by Arthur Conan Doyle.
The conclusion episode will air tomorrow.
The dermatological term “Carbuncle” refers to a painful cluster of boils on the skin. In this case, however, The Blue Carbuncle is a missing and near-priceless gemstone.
— read by 'N' —"
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Tonight, we’ll re-broadcast the opening to “The Blue Carbuncle” from “The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes,” written by Arthur Conan Doyle.
The conclusion episode will air tomorrow.
The dermatological term “Carbuncle” refers to a painful cluster of boils on the skin. In this case, however, The Blue Carbuncle is a missing and near-priceless gemstone.
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Editor's Note: We apologize if you had trouble playing this episode earlier, please refresh and try now.
Tonight, we’ll read the short story “Aunt Susanna’s Thanksgiving Dinner” written by Lucy Maud Montgomery in 1907.
This is a heart-warming holiday tale from the author of “Anne of Green Gables.” If you enjoy this author, you can find a Snoozecast excerpt from “Anne” that aired in April 2019, and our “Emily of New Moon” episode that aired this July, 2021.
Maud was a prolific writer, with over 500 short stories and poems to her name, along with some 20 novels.
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Tonight, we shall read the next part of “Pride and Prejudice”, written by Jane Austen. If you’d like to listen to this series easily in order, please go to snoozecast.com/series.
In the last episode, Mr. Collins finally moves on from asking for Lizzy’s hand in marriage, but he hasn’t moved on from his visit at the Bennet’s home. Jane receives a disturbing letter from Caroline Bingley and reads it to Lizzy. The sisters have opposite interpretations. Jane believes Caroline that her brother Charles has moved on to a new love interest in Georgiana Darcy. Lizzy guesses that Caroline is scheming to marry Mr. Darcy, and as part of her devious plan, that she is trying to break up the love between Jane and Charles.
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Tonight, we’ll read from “In the Mist of the Mountains,” by Australian novelist and children’s writer Ethel Turner, published in 1906. Her best-known work is her first novel, Seven Little Australians (1894), which is widely considered as a classic of Australian children's literature. Turner was awarded a number of prestigious literary awards and could be considered one of Australia's best-loved authors. This story is set in a tiny mountain vacation town during tourist season.
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Tonight, we’ll read the fairy tale “Cinderella” taken from the old French tale by Charles Perrault originally published in 1697. This version has also been lightly adapted by Snoozecast.
"Cinderella", also known as "The Little Glass Slipper", is a folk tale about the triumphant reward of a persecuted heroine. Thousands of variants are known throughout the world, since ancient times.
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Tonight we shall read the next chapter to “Peter Pan”, the 1911 novel by J.M. Barrie.
An easy way to listen to this continuing story in order is at snoozecast.com/series.
When we left off, Peter stealthily boards the pirate ship to save his friends. Mayhem ensues, as he starts to attack the pirates one by one, without Hook understanding what was happening.
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Tonight, for the final episode of our third annual Classic Horror Sleep Story Series this October, we will read the Edgar Allan Poe tale “Ligeia”.
The story follows an unnamed narrator and his wife Ligeia, a beautiful and intelligent raven-haired woman. She falls ill and dies- but not for long.
It may or may not have all been a hallucination of the narrator, and the story may or may not have been a satire by Poe of the Gothic genre itself.
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Tonight, we’ll read another excerpt from “The Wind in the Willows” by Kenneth Grahame, published in 1908.
This story centers around four small animals: Mole, Rat, Toad, and Badger. Their stories take place in the countryside of Edwardian England.
If you’d like to start with the first episode, it aired on March 22, 2021. To follow along easily in order, go to snoozecast.com/series.
In the last episode, the two little friends Water Rat and Mole spend more time in Mr. Badger’s cozy underground dwelling with Mr. Otter before returning safely home.
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Tonight, we’ll read the next part to our “Magic Cloak” series, from the book “Queen Zixi of Ix, or The Story of the Magic Cloak”, a children's book written by L. Frank Baum and published in 1905.
If you’d like to listen to this continuing story easily in order, go to snoozecast.com/series.
In the last episode, the quarrelsome Roly-Rogues bounce down from the mountaintop above the clouds to take over the peaceful kingdom of Noland. Luckily, King Bud and Princess Fluff were far away at the time, having a picnic.
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Tonight, as part of our third annual October classic horror sleep story series, we’ll read an excerpt from “Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus,” an 1818 novel written by English author Mary Shelley.
“Frankenstein” tells the story of Victor Frankenstein, and this excerpt is from his point of view. He is a young scientist who creates a human-like creature in an unorthodox scientific experiment.
Shelley was only 20 years old when her book was anonymously published. Today, the novel is generally considered to be a landmark work of Romantic and Gothic literature, as well as science fiction.
This is the second time Snoozecast is featuring this book. During our first annual horror series in 2019, we aired the very opening to the novel, which consists of letters meant to cradle the ultimate narrative of Frankenstein. Tonight’s episode is meant to start at the heart of the story.
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Tonight, we’ll read the story “The Three Golden Apples” written by Nathaniel Hawthorne and found in “A Wonder Book” originally published in 1851.
This is Hawthorne's retelling of Hercules’ search for three golden apples. Along the way he meets the Old Man of the Sea, a six-legged man creature and the mighty giant, Atlas.
This story also features the Hesperides. In Greek mythology, they are the nymphs of evening and golden light of sunsets. The Hesperides love to sing, and they spend their time tending to Queen Hera’s apple orchard.
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Tonight, we’ll read the next part to the classic children’s story “Heidi”, published in 1881 by Swiss author Johanna Spyri.
If you’d like to listen to this continuing story in order, go to snoozecast.com/series.
In the previous episode, Heidi teaches Peter how to read during the snowy winter. Then spring comes, and the Grandfather and Heidi move back up the mountain. Clara and her Grandmama come to visit. Clara is carried in a sedan as she is unable to walk, and Grandmama rides a horse. We will pick up our story with Heidi showing Clara around the grounds of their alpine home.
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Dear Listeners, we regret this episode was not available at it's regularly scheduled time but are happy to announce that 'V' just welcomed the next little snoozer 'X' into this world on 10/13/21, please accept our apologies for the delay and we hope you enjoy this next episode in our October horror series
Tonight, as part of our third annual October classic horror sleep story series, airing every Wednesday this October, we’ll read our adaptation of the opening to “The Hound of the Baskervilles.” It is the third full novel featuring Sherlock Holmes and was published in 1901, written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyal.
“The Hound of the Baskervilles” is a mystery about an attempted murder inspired by the legend of a diabolical hound of supernatural origin. One of the most famous stories ever written, it is considered by Sherlockian scholars to be the most perfect novel.
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Tonight, we’ll read a Brazilian fairy tale called “The Seaside Princess” or “Why the Sea Moans” adapted by Snoozecast from “Fairy Tales from Brazil” published in 1917.
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Tonight, we’ll read the next part to “The Princess and the Goblin”, a children’s fantasy novel by George MacDonald.
If you’d like an easy way to listen to these continuing episodes in order, go to snoozecast.com/series.
When we left off, Princess Irene follows her Grandmother’s instructions to follow the gossamer thread wherever it goes. It took Irene directly to Curdie’s cave prison cell deep within the mountain.
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Tonight, for the start of our third annual Classic Horror sleep story series, we’ll read the opening to “The Phantom of the Opera” written by Gaston Leroux, published in 1909. Be sure to catch our other snoozy, and a bit creepy, sleep stories every Wednesday this October.
This novel is partly inspired by historical events at the Paris Opera during the nineteenth century, and partly by an apocryphal tale concerning the use of a former ballet pupil's skeleton, inspired by a German opera.
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Tonight, we’ll read from “Games for Hallowe’en” written by Mary Blaine and published in 1912. It describes step by step how one would throw a Halloween themed party at this time.
Traditional Halloween activities include trick-or-treating (or the related guising and souling), attending Halloween costume parties, carving pumpkins or turnips into jack-o'-lanterns, lighting bonfires, apple bobbing, divination games, playing pranks, visiting haunted attractions, telling scary stories, as well as watching horror films.
Join us every Wednesday this month for Snoozecast’s third annual classic horror sleep story series!
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Tonight, we’ll read the next part to “The Secret Garden”, a novel by Frances Hodgson Burnett published in 1911.
If you’d like to listen to this story’s episodes easily in order, go to snoozecast.com/series.
In the last episode, Mary and Dickon get to know each other. She brings him to help her with the secret garden. Dickon not only has a way with wild creatures, but also with plants. He teaches her how to learn if plants are “wick,” which means “alive” in his dialect. They both wonder at how the garden has been shut up for ten years, when it seems as if there has been some minimal maintenance done since then, according to Dickon.
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Tonight, we’ll read an excerpt about bicycle etiquette from “Twentieth Century Culture and Deportment for the Lady and Gentleman at Home and Abroad” by Maud C. Cook published in 1899.
Bicycles and horse buggies were the two mainstays of private transportation just prior to the advent of the automobile. The grading of smooth roads in the late 1800s was stimulated by the widespread advertising, production, and use of bicycles along with horse buggies.
By the turn of the century, when this book was written, cycling clubs flourished on both sides of the Atlantic, and touring and racing became widely popular.
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Tonight, we’ll read cat-themed stories written by English author and poet Edith Nesbit, published in 1899.
Nesbit wrote or collaborated on more than 60 books of children's literature under the name E. Nesbit, along with being a political activist.
This particular collection of stories follows the lives of various cats and dogs and will appeal to all of our animal-loving listeners.
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Tonight, we’ll read the next chapter of “Little Women” by American author Louisa May Alcott, published in 1868, titled “A Telegram”.
You can listen to the whole series in order at snoozecast.com/series.
In the last episode, a chapter called “Secrets” Jo secretly submits some of her stories to the local newspaper for publication. Laurie spies her and shares the secret with her until Jo sees her stories in print and joyously shares them with her family.
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Tonight, we’ll read another excerpt from “The Wind in the Willows” by Kenneth Grahame, published in 1908.
This story centers around four small animals: Mole, Rat, Toad, and Badger. Their stories take place in the countryside of Edwardian England.
If you’d like to start with the first episode, it aired on March 22, 2021. To follow along easily in order, go to snoozecast.com/series.
In the last episode, the two little friends Water Rat and Mole pay a surprise visit to Mr. Badger during a snow storm. They are treated to the badgers warm hospitality, and meet other various guests that drop by, including Mr. Otter.
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Tonight, we’ll read from the 1924 detective novel “The Man in the Brown Suit” written by Agatha Christie and adapted by Snoozecast.
We will open with a mysterious and glamorous prologue set in Paris, regarding a dancer and a count. Then we will learn about young Anne Beddingfield, who decides to live a life of freedom and adventure. She moves to London on her own and soon finds life to be more adventurous than she expected.
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Tonight, we shall read the next part of “Pride and Prejudice”, written by Jane Austen. If you’d like to listen from the beginning, please find and listen to all the previous episodes easily at snoozecast.com/series.
In the last episode, Mr. Collins and Lizzy discuss their conflicting interests in the subject of their mutual matrimony.
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Tonight, we’ll read from “Stonehenge: Today and Yesterday” written by Frank Stevens and published in 1916. Stonehenge is a prehistoric monument on Salisbury Plain in Wiltshire, England. One of the most famous landmarks in the United Kingdom, Stonehenge is regarded as a British cultural icon.
The whole monument, now in ruins, is orientated towards the sunrise on the summer solstice.
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Tonight, we’ll read a Danish fairy tale called “The Green Knight” found in “The Olive Fairy Book” compiled by Andrew Lang. The story was originally found in a book written by Evald Tang Kristensen.
Working first as a schoolteacher and later solely as a collector of folklore, Tang Kristensen assembled and published a huge amount of detailed information as he visited country people throughout his native land.
His labors eventually were supported by his state government, allowing him to travel as the official folklore collector and resulted in a wealth of data. He himself recorded some 3,000 songs, 2,700 fairy tales, 2,500 jokes, 25,000 legends, numerous sayings, poems and riddles as well as tens of thousands of descriptions of traditions and everyday life.
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Tonight we shall read the next chapter to “Peter Pan”, the 1911 novel by J.M. Barrie.
An easy way to listen to this continuing story in order is at snoozecast.com/series.
When we left off, the lost boys and Wendy find themselves captives on the pirate ship, while Peter takes off to save them with the oath “Hook or me this time.
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Tonight, we’ll read the conclusion to “The Man with the Twisted Lip” from “The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes,” written by Arthur Conan Doyle. The first part of this story originally aired on July 24th, 2020, and we rebroadcast it yesterday for easy access.
In the first part, a friend of Dr. Watson's wife comes to Watson's house, concerned because her husband, who is addicted to opium, has gone missing. While Watson is helping to retrieve the husband, he is surprised to find that Sherlock Holmes is there too, in disguise and trying to get information to solve a different case about a man who has disappeared. Watson stays to listen to Holmes tell the story of the case of Neville St. Clair.
St. Clair is a prosperous, respectable, punctual man. His family's home is in the country, but he visits London every day on business. One day when Mr. St. Clair was in London, Mrs. St. Clair also went to London separately. She happened to pass down an alleyway. This is where we will pick up.
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Tonight, we’ll rebroadcast the opening to “The Man With The Twisted Lip” from “The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes,” written by Arthur Conan Doyle.
The conclusion episode will air tomorrow.
This mystery deals with London opium dens of the 19th century, missing gentlemen and their worried wives.
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Tonight, we’ll read the Hindu folk tale “The Fish Prince.” It comes from “Wonder Tales from Many Lands” by Katherine Pyle, published in 1920, and is adapted by Snoozecast.
This story features an ancient and still popular item of jewelry called a bangle. Bangles are circular in shape, and, unlike bracelets, are not flexible. Although people in some parts of India used to wear a thick single bangle as protection during battle, they are now worn mostly as adornment by women in many parts of the world.
The oldest bangle was recently found to be at least 50,000 years old. It was masterfully crafted out of green stone by a species of early hominid that lived side by side with both homo sapiens and Neanderthals.
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Tonight, we’ll read the next part to our “Magic Cloak” series, from the book “Queen Zixi of Ix, or The Story of the Magic Cloak”, a children's book written by L. Frank Baum and published in 1905.
If you’d like to listen to this continuing story easily in order, go to snoozecast.com/series.
In the last episode, Queen Zixi steals the magic cloak from Princess Fluff using deception and cunning. She then finds out that all of her work was for nothing- the cloak does not grant wishes to those that steal it. Zixi grows wiser through her disappointing realization. We are also introduced to a society of quarrelsome creatures called Roly-Rogues that live high on a mountaintop above the cloud line.
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Tonight, we’ll read from “Chocolate and Cocoa Recipes” by Miss Parloa, and sponsored by the Walter Baker & Co based in Massachusetts.
The Maya believed that cacao was discovered by the gods in a mountain along with other delectable foods, for their divine use. According to Maya mythology, the Plumed Serpent gave cacao to the Maya after humans were created by the divine grandmother goddess.
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Tonight, we’ll read the opening to “Etiquette in Society, In Business, In Politics and at Home” written by Emily Post and published in 1922. Post was an American writer and socialite who became the most famous authority on how to behave graciously in society and business. This particular book became wildly popular.
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Tonight, we’ll read the next part to the classic children’s story “Heidi”, published in 1881 by Swiss author Johanna Spyri.
If you’d like to listen to this continuing story in order, go to snoozecast.com/series.
In the previous episode, the good doctor says farewell to his friends on the mountain. The grandfather fixes up a ruined mansion in the village for him and Heidi (and their goats) to stay in for the winter. Heidi attends school. We will pick up at the end of Heidi’s visit to the beloved and bed-ridden Grandmother.
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Tonight, we’ll read another excerpt from “The Wind in the Willows” by Kenneth Grahame, published in 1908.
This story centers around four small animals: Mole, Rat, Toad, and Badger. Their stories take place in the countryside of Edwardian England.
If you’d like to start with the first episode, it aired on March 22, 2021. To follow along easily in order, go to snoozecast.com/series.
Grahame grew up on the River Thames. As secretary of the Bank of England, he told his son bedtime stories that evolved into this book after he took an early retirement.
In the last episode, the innocent Mole isn’t content with hibernating overwinter in the cozy domicile of his friend the water rat. He becomes obsessed with finding the mysterious Mr. Badger, who lives somewhere in the Wild Wood. Mole sets out to find him, and the Rat goes out to rescue him when he gets lost.
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Tonight, we’ll read from “The Boxcar Children” written by first grade school teacher Gertrude Chandler Warner and published in 1924.
The Boxcar Children tells the story of four orphaned children, Henry, Jessie, Violet, and Benny. They create a home for themselves in an abandoned boxcar in the forest. They eventually meet their grandfather, who is a wealthy and kind man (although the children had believed him to be cruel).
As she wrote the story, Warner read it aloud to her classes and rewrote it many times to make it easy to understand and enjoyable.
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Tonight, we’ll read the next part to “The Princess and the Goblin”, a children’s fantasy novel, published in 1872.
If you’d like an easy way to listen to these continuing episodes in order, go to snoozecast.com/series.
When we left off, our little hero Curdie had been spying on the goblins in their cave system under the mountains. He stumbled upon the royal family and was captured and kept prisoner by them.
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Tonight, we’ll read a selection from “Cape Cod” by Henry David Thoreau, published in 1908.
Thoreau was an American naturalist, essayist, poet, and philosopher. A leading transcendentalist, he is best known for “Walden”, a reflection upon simple living in natural surroundings, and his essay "Civil Disobedience", an argument for disobedience to an unjust state.
Thoreau travelled to Cape Cod in Massachusetts four times, which inspired this “excursion” or travel book.
If you would like to hear more Thoreau on Snoozecast, check out “The Wild” from March of 2021, along with “Walden” parts 1 and 2, which both aired in 2019.
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Tonight, we’ll read a sleep story called “The Bird King and the Mermaid,” adapted by Snoozecast from “The Story of Tremsin, the Bird Czar, and Nastasia, the Lovely Maid of the Sea” found in “Cossack Fairy Tales”, published in 1916.
The Cossacks are a group of predominantly Orthodox Christian people who speak a slavic language and originated in Eastern Europe. They played an important role in the historical and cultural development of both Ukraine and Russia.
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Tonight, we’ll read the next part to “The Secret Garden”, a novel by Frances Hodgson Burnett published in 1911. Set in England, it is now one of Burnett's most popular novels and seen as a classic of English children's literature.
If you’d like to listen to this story’s episodes easily in order, go to snoozecast.com/series.
In the last episode, Mary interrogates old Ben Weatherstaff about gardening and in particular, the care of roses. We will pick up just after she stumbles upon Dickon, who is charming the woodland creatures with his flute.
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Tonight, we’ll read the opening to the second novel featuring Sherlock Holmes, “The Sign of the Four.” It was published in 1890 and written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyal.
Sherlock referred to himself as a "consulting detective" in the stories, and is known for his proficiency with observation, deduction, forensic science, and logical reasoning that borders on the fantastic.
Written from the point of view of Holmes’ friend Dr. Watson, “The Sign of the Four” has a complicated plot involving Indian colonial service, a stolen treasure, and a secret pact among four convicts.
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Tonight, we’ll read the opening to the social novel “North and South,” published in 1854 and written by Elizabeth Gaskell. The novel’s protagonist, Margaret Hale, is forced to leave her home in the tranquil, rural south, to settle with her parents in Milton, a fictional industrial town in the north.
Elizabeth Gaskell, often referred to as Mrs. Gaskell, was an English novelist, biographer and short story writer. Her novels offer a detailed portrait of the lives of many strata of Victorian society Her work is of interest to social historians as well as readers of literature.
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Tonight, we’ll read the next chapter of “Little Women” by American author Louisa May Alcott, published in 1868, titled “Secrets”.
You can listen to the whole series in order at snoozecast.com/series.
In the last chapter, “Castles in the Air”, Laurie joins the sisters for their secret hilltop “Busy Bee Society” meeting. They discuss what their own personal heavens would be.
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Tonight, we’ll read from a little cookbook titled “Pennsylvania Dutch Cookery.” The publisher and author are unknown.
The Pennsylvania Dutch live primarily in Southeastern and South Central Pennsylvania. Some Pennsylvania Dutch live in the historically Pennsylvania Dutch-speaking areas of Maryland, North Carolina, and Virginia's Shenandoah Valley.
The continued use of the term ""Pennsylvania Dutch"" was strengthened by the Pennsylvania Dutch themselves in the 1800s as a way of distinguishing themselves from later waves of German immigrants to the United States.
There are possibly more than 300,000 native speakers of Pennsylvania German language in the United States and Canada.
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Tonight, we’ll read an 1886 short story titled “Kashtanka” by Anton Chekhov, and adapted by Snoozecast. It is a sincere and simple story about loyalty, about a dog named Kashtanka who experiences life with two very different masters. It has been speculated that the story is a veiled biography of the author himself.
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Tonight, we shall read the next part of “Pride and Prejudice”, written by Jane Austen. If you’d like to listen from the beginning, please find and listen to all the previous episodes easily at snoozecast.com/series. In the last episode, the Bennet’s had differing experiences at the ball at Netherfield. For example, Jane, in love with Bingley, had a lovely time. Elizabeth, holding prejudice against both Mr. Collins and Mr. Darcy, and generally embarrassed by all the other members of her family, did not have a lovely time. We will pick up with the Bennet family being the last to leave the ball at Netherfield.
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Tonight, we’ll read another excerpt from “The Wind in the Willows” by Kenneth Grahame, published in 1908.
This story centers around four small animals: Mole, Rat, Toad, and Badger. Their stories take place in the countryside of Edwardian England.
If you’d like to start with the first episode, it aired on March 22, 2021.
Grahame grew up on the River Thames. As secretary of the Bank of England, he told his son bedtime stories that evolved into this book after he took an early retirement.
In the last episode, new friends Mole and Rat have a picnic on the river bank, and take an accidental plunge in the river afterwards. Later, they pay a visit to the estate of The Toad to see what he was up to. The Toad’s newest passion was for his fancy carriage he referred to as a gypsy caravan. The Toad hoped for company to join him on the open road and tries to convince his visitors to come along.
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Tonight, we’ll read the German fairy tale “Rapunzel” lightly adapted by us from “The Red Fairy Book,” and attributed to The Brothers Grimm.
Some researchers have proposed that the earliest possible inspiration for the “Maiden in the Tower” archetype is to the pre-Christian European (or proto-Indo-European) sun or dawn goddess myths, in which a “light deity” is trapped and then rescued.
If you are still awake after Rapunzel, you will find another hair-themed fairy tale titled “Ricky with the Tuft” from “The Tales of Mother Goose,” by Charles Perrault.
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Tonight, for the 400th episode of Snoozecast, we shall read the next chapter to “Peter Pan”, the 1911 novel by J.M. Barrie.
An easy way to listen to this continuing story in order is at snoozecast.com/series.
When we left off, the lost boys were tricked into thinking the pirates aboveground were defeated by the tribal warriors in battle. Up the boys came only to be bound and carried off to the pirate ship, along with Wendy, as hostages. Hook stayed behind, to go below ground and deal with Peter Pan himself. The pirate captain dropped poison into Peter’s bedside cup of water for him to wake up to.
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Tonight, we’ll read selected poems from Emily Dickinson, starting with a collection about nature.
Little-known during her life, Dickinson has since been regarded as one of the most important figures in American poetry.
Evidence suggests that Dickinson lived much of her life in isolation. Considered an eccentric by locals, she developed a penchant for white clothing and was known for her reluctance to even leave her bedroom. Dickinson never married, and most friendships between her and others depended entirely upon correspondence.
Her poems were unique for her era. They contain short lines, typically lack titles, and often use slant rhyme as well as unconventional capitalization and punctuation. In early editions, including this one, Emily Dickinson's poems were edited by her friends, better to fit the conventions of the times. Thus some of the uniqueness is best understood by viewing her direct handwriting on the page, or by reading more recent editions.
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Tonight, we’ll read from “The Buddha’s Path of Virtue: A Translation of the Dhammapada” by F. L. Woodward.
The Dhammapada is a collection of sayings of the Buddha in verse form and one of the most widely read and best known Buddhist scriptures.
This particular translation by Woodward was published by The Theosophical Society, which was founded by Madame Helena Blavatsky. You can listen to some of her travel memoir in our episode from January 2020 titled “Madame Blavatsky Visits Bombay | From the Caves and Jungles of Hindustan."
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Tonight, we’ll read the next part to our “Magic Cloak” series, from the book “Queen Zixi of Ix, or The Story of the Magic Cloak”, a children's book written by L. Frank Baum and published in 1905.
If you’d like to listen to this continuing story easily in order, go to snoozecast.com/series.
In the last episode, the war between the kingdoms of Noland and Ix ends with the Ixian army running away in fear of Nole’s magical powers. Queen Zixi devises a new plan to steal the magic cloak. She disguises herself as a girl and asks to become a royal maid of Princess Fluff.
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Tonight, we'll read the conclusion to “A Case of Identity”, a short story from the Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, written by Arthur Conan Doyle. The first part of this story originally aired on April 8th, 2020, and we rebroadcast it yesterday for easy access.
Miss Sutherland was engaged to Mr. Hosmer Angel, who disappeared on the day of their wedding, leaving her only a mysterious plea that she remain faithful to him no matter what happened. She vows to await his return, and eventually turns to a detective for assistance.
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Tonight, we’re airing a re-broadcast of the opening to “A Case of Identity”, from “The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes,” written by Arthur Conan Doyle in 1892. The conclusion episode will air tomorrow.
The story revolves around the case of Miss Mary Sutherland, a woman with a substantial income from the interest on a fund set up for her. She is engaged to a quiet Londoner who has recently disappeared.
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Tonight, we’ll read excerpts from “Emily of New Moon” written by L. M. Montgomery. Similar to the author’s other series “Anne of Green Gables,” this is the first in a series of novels about an orphan girl growing up on Prince Edward Island.
Emily is a heroine with a love for the beauty in nature and art, loyalty to her friends, a thirst for knowledge, and a passionate dedication to her writing.
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Tonight, we’ll read the next part to the classic children’s story “Heidi”, published in 1881 by Swiss author Johanna Spyri. If you’d like to start from the beginning, you’ll find that the very first episode aired on March 8th, 2019. If you’d like to listen to this continuing story in order, go to snoozecast.com/series.
In the previous episode, the doctor visits Heidi on the mountain. He brings many gifts from home, but Heidi is at first saddened that he has not brought her friend Clara for this visit. Still, the doctor has his own recovering to do, from his own personal grief. He finds solace and beauty on the alpine slopes with Grandfather, Heidi, and their friends.
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Tonight, we’ll read from “Canoe and Camp Cookery : A Practical Cook Book For Canoeists, Corinthian Sailors and Outers” by H.H. Soulé under the pen name Seneca, published in 1893.
Canoes were developed by cultures all over the world. Until the mid-1800s the canoe was an important means of transport for exploration and trade, and in some places is still used as such.
A canoe, in American English, is a lightweight narrow vessel, typically pointed at both ends and open on top.
In British English, the term "canoe" can also refer to a kayak, while canoes are then called Canadian or “open” canoes to distinguish them from kayaks.
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Tonight, we’ll read from Grimms' Fairy Tales by Jacob Grimm and Wilhelm Grimm.
In this story, the tailor starts out having achieved a very small feat and ends up a hero.
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Tonight, we’ll read the next part of “The Princess and the Goblin”, a children’s fantasy novel, published in 1872.
If you’d like an easy way to listen to these continuing episodes in order, go to snoozecast.com/series.
When we left off, our little hero Curdie is trying to find his way out of the Goblin’s cave system when he stumbles upon a strange sight.
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Tonight, we’ll read an excerpt from “The Great Gatsby,” a 1925 novel by American writer F. Scott Fitzgerald. Set in the Jazz Age on Long Island, the novel depicts narrator Nick Carraway's interactions with mysterious millionaire Jay Gatsby and Gatsby's obsession to reunite with his former lover, Daisy Buchanan.
The novel was inspired by youthful romance and riotous parties the author had recently experienced.
“The Great Gatsby” was a commercial failure that many critics thought was sub-par to Fitzgerald’s previous work. Now, it is widely considered to be a literary masterwork and a contender for the title of the Great American Novel.
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Tonight, we’ll read from “The Red House Mystery” by A. A. Milne, published in 1922. This episode is dedicated to Kerry, who first recommended the author Milne to us. It was Milne’s only mystery novel, and yet it was immensely popular. It falls into the “locked room” whodunnit category.
The setting is an English country house, where Mark Ablett has been entertaining a house party. The black sheep of his family arrives from Australia and a mystery ensues.
There is a preface to this book by the author that reads “My dear Father,
Like all really nice people, you have a weakness for detective stories, and feel that there are not enough of them. So, after all that you have done for me, the least that I can do for you is to write you one. Here it is: with more gratitude and affection than I can well put down here.
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Tonight, we’ll read the next part to “The Secret Garden”, a novel by Frances Hodgson Burnett published in 1911. Set in England, it is now one of Burnett's most popular novels and seen as a classic of English children's literature.
If you’d like to listen to this story’s episodes easily in order, go to snoozecast.com/series.
In the last episode, Mary and Martha write a letter to Martha’s brother Dickon, asking him to obtain some gardening supplies for Mary. Mary is hiding where exactly she plans to do her gardening.
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Tonight, we’ll read another story from the King Arthur series written by Maude Radford Warren titled “How Sir Lancelot Saved the Queen
If you’d like to listen to this whole series easily in order, go to snoozecast.com/series.
King Arthur was a legendary British leader who, according to medieval histories and romances, led the defence of Britain against Saxon invaders in the late 5th and early 6th centuries.
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Tonight, we’ll read a story called “Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves” from “The Arabian Nights: Their Best-known Tales” by Smith, Wiggin, and Parrish. It has become one of the most familiar of the "Arabian Nights" tales, and is where the phrase “Open, Sesame!” comes from.
This folk tale was added to the “One Thousand and One Nights” anthology in the 18th century by its French translator. This translator heard it from a Syrian storyteller who travelled to Paris.
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Tonight, we’ll read the next chapter of “Little Women” by American author Louisa May Alcott, published in 1868, titled “Castles in the Air”. Following the lives of the four March sisters—Meg, Jo, Beth and Amy—the novel details their passage from childhood to womanhood and is loosely based on the author and her sisters.
You can listen to the whole series in order at snoozecast.com/series. In the last episode, we finished the chapter called “Camp Laurence.” The episode finished with the March sisters, along with Laurie and his British friends paddling back from their day of picnicking and games.
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Tonight, we’ll read selections from “The Bird Watcher in the Shetlands” by Edmund Selous, written in 1905. If you enjoy this episode, be sure to listen to our others from this birdwatching series at snoozecast.com/series.
The author started as a conventional naturalist of his time, but Selous developed a disdain of the common practice of killing animals for scientific study. He was a pioneer of bird-watching as a method of scientific study. The author was a solitary man and was not well known in ornithological circles. He avoided both the company of ornithologists and reading their observations so as to base his conclusions entirely on his own observations. He has gifted future generations with his beautiful and intuitive writing on birds.
The island of Shetland is the northernmost part of Scotland. The archipelago has a complex geology, a rugged coastline, and many low, rolling hills. The islands have produced a variety of prose writers and poets, who have often written in the distinctive Shetland dialect of the Scots language.
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Tonight, we’ll read "A Retrieved Reformation", a short story by American author O. Henry first published in 1903. This story shows how love can change anyone for the better. It describes the events which lead up to the reformation of an ex-convicted burglar. As usual, the ending of this O. Henry is worth hearing for the twist.
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Tonight, we shall read the next part of “Pride and Prejudice”, written by Jane Austen. If you’d like to listen from the beginning, please find and listen to all the previous episodes easily at snoozecast.com/series.
In the previous episode, the Bennet sisters attend the much anticipated ball at Netherfield. Elizabeth makes the mistake of talking with her odious cousin Mr. Collins, and becomes obligated out of politeness to accept the first two dances with him. She had designs to dance with Wickham then, but either way Wickham does not show up at the ball. While Jane has a wonderful time with Mr. Bingley, poor Lizzy makes matters worse by dancing with Mr. Darcy, whom she has judged to be detestable. We will pick up with Lizzy and Jane chatting, during the ball.
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Tonight, we’ll read the opening to “A Study in Scarlet” an 1887 detective novel written by Arthur Conan Doyle. The story marks the first appearance of Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson. They meet for the first time and interview each other to become roommates.
“A Study in Scarlet” was also the first work of detective fiction to incorporate the magnifying glass as an investigative tool.
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Tonight, for our episode “Halvor and the Trolls” we’ll read a story called Soria Moria Castle from The Red Fairy Book. This episode is dedicated to our patron Heidi, who loves the Red, Blue and Green Gairy Book stories best.
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Tonight, we’ll read excerpts from “The Myrtle Reed Cook Book” written by Myrtle Reed and published in 1916. Reed was an American author, poet, journalist, and philanthropist. She was a diagnosed insomniac with prescribed sleeping potions, called sleeping drafts in her day.
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Tonight, we want to introduce you to another incredible podcast that can help you fall asleep with ease. This is my friend Katie, who hosts the “Sleep Meditation for Women” podcast, and much like the Snoozecast, her soothing voice will help you relax your body and ease you into deep sleep.
Now, although Katie's show is geared towards women in particular, this particular meditation called “Stress Relief Meditation Before Bed” is suitable for everyone!
If you enjoy it, I encourage you to subscribe to “Sleep Meditation for Women” by searching for it in the podcast player you're listening to now, or by going to https://womensmeditationnetwork.com/sleeppodcast
Now- close your eyes, relax and enjoy!
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Tonight, we’ll read a short story called “The Golden Touch” from “A Wonder Book and Tanglewood Tales” by Nathaniel Hawthorne, published in 1910. This episode is dedicated to our patron Kathryn, who was craving something from Greek mythology, and our listener, Sue, who suggested this particular book.
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Tonight, we’ll read the next part to our “Magic Cloak” series, from the book “Queen Zixi of Ix, or The Story of the Magic Cloak”, a children's book written by L. Frank Baum and published in 1905.
If you’d like to listen to this continuing story easily in order, go to snoozecast.com/series.
The events of the book alternate between Noland and Ix, two neighboring regions to the Land of Oz. Baum, who also wrote “The Wizard of Oz”, commented this was the best book he had written.
In the last episode, Queen Zixi disguises herself and sets up a fake Witch Training School to lure the Princess Fluff and her Magic Cloak into her trap. This plan fails, so the queen decides to bring her large army to Noland to get the cloak. Meanwhile, King Bud along with his sister and the high counselors, make a last minute plan to have a wish be granted for the Lord High Counselor that they would win the war despite being outnumbered.
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Tonight, we’ll read another story from the King Arthur series written by Maude Radford Warren titled “Sir Lancelot and His Friends.”
If you’d like to listen to this whole series easily in order, go to snoozecast.com/series.
King Arthur was a legendary British leader who, according to medieval histories and romances, led the defence of Britain against Saxon invaders in the late 5th and early 6th centuries.
Sir Lancelot, also known as Lancelot of the Lake, is a character in some versions of Arthurian legend, where he is typically depicted as King Arthur's close companion and one of the greatest Knights of the Round Table. In the French-inspired Arthurian tradition, Lancelot is the orphaned son of a king, raised in the fairy realm by the Lady of the Lake.
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Tonight, we’ll read another excerpt from “The Wind in the Willows” by Kenneth Grahame, published in 1908.
This story centers around four small animals: Mole, Rat, Toad, and Badger. Their stories take place in the countryside of Edwardian England.
Grahame grew up on the River Thames. As secretary of the Bank of England, he told his son bedtime stories that evolved into this book after he took an early retirement.
In the last episode, Mole was spring cleaning his underground burrow when he was hit hard by spring fever. He ran up into the sunshine and befriended a water rat on the River Thames. The mole then not only sees a river for the first time but has his first boat ride. We will pick up at the start of their delicious picnic.
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Tonight, we’ll read the next part to the classic children’s story “Heidi”, published in 1881 by Swiss author Johanna Spyri. If you’d like to start from the beginning, you’ll find that the very first episode aired on March 8th, 2019. If you’d like to listen to this continuing story in order, go to snoozecast.com/series.
“Heidi” is a novel about the life of a young girl in her grandfather's care in the Swiss Alps. “Heidi” is one of the best-selling books ever written and is among the best-known works of Swiss literature.
In the previous episode, Mr. Sesemann and Clara convince their friend, the doctor, to visit Heidi on the mountain in place of Clara. Clara was still too weak to go herself, and the winter was approaching. The doctor was grieving the loss of his own daughter, and they believed it would be a good tonic for his spirits to make this journey.
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Tonight, we’ll read the opening to “The Bad Little Owls” from the “Told at Twilight” series by John Breck. It was published in 1923.
A group of owls is called a parliament. This term originates from C.S. Lewis’ description of a meeting of owls in “The Chronicles of Narnia.”
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Tonight, we’ll read “A Voyage to the Moon” written by Edgar Allen Poe. It was intended by the author as a hoax when it was originally published in 1835 titled as ""The Unparalleled Adventure of One Hans Pfaall.""
The story is regarded as one of the early examples of the modern science fiction genre. Jules Verne acknowledged Poe as the creator of the ""scientific novel.
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Tonight, we’ll read the next part to “The Princess and the Goblin”, a children’s fantasy novel, published in 1872.
If you’d like an easy way to listen to these continuing episodes in order, go to snoozecast.com/series.
One of the most successful and beloved of Victorian fairy tales, George Macdonald’s “The Princess and the Goblin” tells the story of young Princess Irene and her friend Curdie, who must outwit the threatening goblins who live in caves beneath her mountain home.
When we left off, Princess Irene was in conversation with her grandmother, preparing to leave for the evening. Her grandmother gives Irene the gift of a magical ring that provides a thread for her to find her way back to safety if she is ever in danger.
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"Tonight, we’ll read the conclusion to “A Scandal in Bohemia” from “The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes,” written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, published in 1892.
In the first episode, Holmes receives a visit from a masked man, whom he deduces is actually the king of Bohemia. Once the man is unmasked, he asks for Holmes’s help retrieving a valuable set of photographs.
The King is engaged to a Scandinavian princess, but is worried that the princess’s family would disapprove of his previous relationship with an American opera singer named Irene Adler.
Ms. Adler has evidence of this relationship, namely photographs of the two of them together, and has refused to return them to the King. Holmes is the King’s last hope of retrieving the photos."
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Tonight, we’re airing a re-broadcast of the opening to “A Scandal in Bohemia”, from “The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes,” written by Arthur Conan Doyle in 1892. The conclusion episode will air tomorrow.
"A Scandal in Bohemia" is the first short story featuring Arthur Conan Doyle's fictional detective Sherlock Holmes. The story is notable for introducing the character of Irene Adler, who is one of the most memorable female characters in the Sherlock Holmes series, despite appearing in only one story.
Doyle ranked "A Scandal in Bohemia" fifth in his list of his twelve favourite Holmes stories.
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Tonight, we’ll read an excerpt from “Tess of the d’Urbervilles,” a novel by Thomas Hardy, published in 1891.
Hardy's writing often explores what he called the ""ache of modernism"", and this theme is notable in Tess, which as one critic noted portrays ""the energy of traditional ways and the strength of the forces that are destroying them"".
The book, now considered a major work of it’s time, received mixed reviews when it first appeared, in part because it challenged the sexual morals of late Victorian England.
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"Tonight, we’ll read the next part to “The Secret Garden”, a novel by Frances Hodgson Burnett published in 1911. Set in England, it is now one of Burnett's most popular novels and seen as a classic of English children's literature.
If you’d like to listen to this story’s episodes easily in order, go to snoozecast.com/series.
In the last episode, Mary is having a fantastic time practicing with her skipping rope all over the grounds of Misselthwaite Manor, when she stumbles upon the secret garden."
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Tonight, we’ll read from “The Bread and Biscuit Baker’s and Sugar Boiler’s Assistant” written by Robert Wells and published in 1890.
Candy is made by dissolving sugar in water or milk to form a syrup, which is boiled until it reaches the desired concentration or starts to caramelize. The type of candy depends on the ingredients and how long the mixture is boiled. Candy comes in a wide variety of textures, from soft and chewy to hard and brittle.
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Tonight, we’ll read the opening to “The Adventures of Pinocchio” by Italian writer Carlo Collodi, published in 1883. Pinocchio was carved by a woodcarver named Geppetto as a wooden puppet but he dreams of becoming a real boy. He is notably characterized for his frequent tendency to lie, which causes his nose to grow.
Pinocchio is a cultural icon. He is one of the most re-imagined characters in children's literature. His story has been adapted into many other media, notably the 1940 Disney film Pinocchio.
Collodi often used the Italian Tuscan dialect in his book. For example, the name of Pinocchio’s father, Gepetto, comes from the diminutive for Geppo, the Tuscan pronunciation of ceppo, meaning a log, stump or block.
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Tonight, we’ll read the next part of the chapter “Camp Laurence” in the book “Little Women” by American author Louisa May Alcott, published in 1868.
Following the lives of the four March sisters—Meg, Jo, Beth and Amy—the novel details their passage from childhood to womanhood and is loosely based on the author and her sisters.
If you would like to start at the beginning, the first episode aired on December 18th, 2019. You can listen to the whole series in order at snoozecast.com/series.
In the last episode, the March sisters go on a picnic with Laurie and his friends visiting from England.
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Tonight, we’ll read another story from the King Arthur series written by Maude Radford Warren titled “Sir Geraint and Enid.”
If you’d like to listen to the first stories in this series, you can find our episode titled “The Sword Excalibur” that aired on April 10, 2020. If you’d like to listen to the whole series easily in order, go to snoozecast.com/series.
King Arthur was a legendary British leader who, according to medieval histories and romances, led the defense of Britain against Saxon invaders in the late 5th and early 6th centuries.
Sir Geraint was a valiant warrior who married the beautiful Lady Enid. We will hear the tale of their marriage, which has its ups and downs, but luckily, ends on the up. Beyond their part in the Arthurian legends, Geraint and Enid are featured in a classic Welsh folk tale and their story was reworked by the poet Alfred Tennyson.
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Tonight, we’ll read “The Ugly Duckling” from “Favorite Fairy Tales” compiled by Logan Marshall. It is a Danish fairy tale by Hans Christian Andersen, originally published in 1843.
Unlike most fairy tales, this one is completely Andersen's invention and owes no debt to humanity’s vast cultural catalog of fairy tales or folklore.
Apparently Andersen grew up awkward and tall, with a big nose and feet.
Furthermore, speculation suggests that Andersen may have been the illegitimate son of Prince Christian Frederik who later became king of Denmark. Being a swan in the story was a metaphor not just for inner beauty and talent in that case, but also for secret royal lineage.
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Tonight, we shall read the next chapter to “Peter Pan”, the 1911 novel by J.M. Barrie. If you’d like to start this story from the beginning, you can find the first episode aired on March 20th, 2019. An easy way to listen to this continuing story in order is at snoozecast.com/series.
When we left off, because Peter Pan had saved Tiger Lily’s life, the native people idolize Peter, which in turn irritates the other boys. The tribe stays above the Lost Boy’s cavern home and guard it from the pirates.
Below, Peter and Wendy have a strange conversation. Wendy wants to know what Peter thinks of her. Peter answers that he feels like a devoted son. This upsets Wendy.
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Tonight, we’ll read from “The Complete Herbal” written by Nicholas Culpeper, published in 1653. Culpeper was an English botanist, herbalist, physician and astrologer.
Culpeper catalogued hundreds of outdoor medicinal herbs. He attempted to make medical treatments more accessible to lay persons by educating them about maintaining their health. Ultimately his ambition was to reform the system of medicine by questioning traditional methods and knowledge and exploring new solutions for ill health. The systematisation of the use of herbals by Culpeper was a key development in the evolution of modern pharmaceuticals, most of which originally had herbal origins.
Culpeper's emphasis on reason rather than tradition is reflected in the introduction to his Complete Herbal. He was one of the best-known astrological botanists of his day, pairing the plants and diseases with planetary influences.
Culpeper believed medicine was a public asset, not a commercial secret, and the prices physicians charged were far too high compared with the cheap and universal availability of nature's medicine. For this, he was considered a radical, and even accused of witchcraft.
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Tonight, we’ll read a story from a short story collection titled “Mrs. Spring Fragrance” written by Sui Sin Far, published in 1912. The story we will read, about two children who find themselves lost in a magical forest, was originally titled “The Banishment of Ming and Mai.”
The author Sui Sin Far was the pen name of Chinese-British-Canadian-American writer Edith Maude Eaton. The work is notable for being the earliest book of fiction published in the United States by an author of Chinese descent.
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Tonight, we’ll read the next part of “Pride and Prejudice”, written by Jane Austen. If you’d like to listen from the beginning, please find and listen to all the previous episodes easily at snoozecast.com/series.
“Pride and Prejudice” follows Elizabeth Bennet, the dynamic protagonist, who learns about the repercussions of hasty judgments and eventually comes to appreciate the difference between superficial goodness and actual goodness.
In the previous episode, Elizabeth shares what she heard about Darcy from Wickham with her sister, Jane. Jane takes the more reasonable stance that there must be more to the story. Elizabeth is already sure Wickham is correct.
All the sisters attend a ball at Netherfield, and Wickham is not there. Elizabeth feels obliged to dance with Mr. Collins, and she has an awful time. The other sisters have a wonderful time, as dancing was a thrill for them.
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Tonight, we’ll read “The Adventure of the Copper Beeches” from “The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes,” written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, published in 1892.
In this story, a woman with long copper colored tresses named Violet is offered a strange job as a governess at a country estate called “The Copper Beeches.” She is offered a large sum of money if she will cut her hair short as well.
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Tonight, we’ll read an excerpt from “A Girl of the Limberlost” by Gene Stratton-Porter, published in 1909. The story takes place in Indiana, in and around the Limberlost Swamp. Even at the time of its publication, this impressive wetland region was being reduced by heavy logging, natural oil extraction and drainage for agriculture.
The author, Stratton-Porter, was considered one of the most popular woman novelists of the era.
Elnora Comstock, is an impoverished teenager who lives with her widowed mother, Katharine Comstock, on the edge of the Limberlost swamp. Elnora’s mother treats her neglectfully, and makes her to go to her first day of high school at a new school unprepared. She is wearing ugly, out-dated clothes, and doesn’t have proper books or tuition.
Luckily, Elnora is a plucky and good-hearted young woman. She also has loving neighbors who want to help her. And that is where we will start.
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Tonight, we’ll read the next part to our “Magic Cloak” series, from the book “Queen Zixi of Ix, or The Story of the Magic Cloak”, a children's book written by L. Frank Baum and published in 1905.
“The Magic Cloak” episode one aired on Nov 11, 2019. If you’d like to listen to this continuing story easily in order, go to snoozecast.com/series.
The events of the book alternate between Noland and Ix, two neighboring regions to the Land of Oz. Baum, who also wrote “The Wizard of Oz”, commented this was the best book he had written.
In the last episode, Tillydib, the lord high purse-bearer, is wearing the cloak when he wishes the royal purse would never run out of coins. Then we are introduced to the beautiful witch Queen Zixi. Her one weakness is that her true face shows in mirrors, so she has them all hidden. When she learns about the magic cloak, she sets out to steal it, in order to never have to see how ugly she really looks.
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Tonight, we’ll read excerpts from “Meteorology, The Science of the Atmosphere” by meteorologist Charles Fitzhugh Talman, published in 1922.
The word meteorology, stemming from the Ancient Greek, means "the study of things high in the air." Though study of meteorology dates back millennia, significant progress did not occur until the 18th century. Prior attempts at prediction of weather depended on historical data. It was not until after the elucidation of the laws of physics and more particularly, the development of the computer, allowing for the automated solution of a great many equations that model the weather, in the latter half of the 20th century that significant breakthroughs in weather forecasting were achieved.
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Tonight, we’ll read the complete story of “The Velveteen Rabbit”, a British children's book written by Margery Williams in 1922. It chronicles the story of a stuffed rabbit's desire to become real through the love of his owner.
Many listeners have asked us to complete this story, as when it originally aired on June 10th, 2019, we didn’t include the ending. So here it is, rerecorded. Enjoy!
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Tonight, we’ll read the next part to the classic children’s story “Heidi”, published in 1881 by Swiss author Johanna Spyri. If you’d like to start from the beginning, you’ll find that the very first episode aired on March 8th, 2019. If you’d like to listen to this continuing story in order, go to snoozecast.com/series.
“Heidi” is a novel about the life of a young girl in her grandfather's care in the Swiss Alps. “Heidi” is one of the best-selling books ever written and is among the best-known works of Swiss literature.
In the previous episode, Heidi gets an idea to use the money she received from the Sessemann family to provide soft white bread rolls to the grandmother regularly. She also reads a story to her grandfather, also referred to as “the uncle”. The story was about repentance, forgiveness and humility and it brings the old man a change of heart.
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Tonight, we’ll read about baking cakes from the “Woman's Institute Library of Cookery, Volume 4”
This was the same book we have read selections for the original Breadtime episode along with the Baking Cookiezzz episode.
The Woman’s Institute was founded by Mary Brooks Picken in Scranton, PA. Born in Kansas in 1886, Picken wrote the first dictionary to be published by a woman in the English language, beyond the over one hundred other books she wrote.
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Tonight, we’ll read another story from the King Arthur series written by Maude Radford Warren titled “Sir Ivaine.”
If you’d like to listen to the first stories in this series, you can find our episode titled “The Sword Excalibur” that aired on April 10, 2020. If you’d like to listen to the whole series easily in order, go to snoozecast.com/series.
King Arthur was a legendary British leader who, according to medieval histories and romances, led the defence of Britain against Saxon invaders in the late 5th and early 6th centuries.
In the last episode, we learn of Sir Ivaine, who, among Arthur's Knights of the Round Table was one who was a mixture of good and bad, as indeed most people are. He was brave, kind-hearted, and merry; but at the same time fickle, sometimes forgetful of his promises, and inclined to make light of serious things.
Sir Ivaine was overthrown by the evil Black Knight as a boy, and Ivaine sets out before the others to vanquish the foe. On his way, he befriends a lion. Sir Ivaine battles the Black Knight and wins, but in doing so finds himself wounded and confined within the castle walls of the Black Knight, separated from his lion whom is still outside the walls. He is protected at the top of a castle turret, in secret hiding, by a kind little maiden.
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Tonight, we’ll read the next part to “The Princess and the Goblin”, a children’s fantasy novel, published in 1872.
If you’d like to start from the beginning, the first episode aired on April 15th, 2019. If you’d like an easy way to listen to these continuing episodes in order, go to snoozecast.com/series.
One of the most successful and beloved of Victorian fairy tales, George Macdonald’s “The Princess and the Goblin” tells the story of young Princess Irene and her friend Curdie, who must outwit the threatening goblins who live in caves beneath her mountain home.
When we left off, cave creatures, which descend from commonplace animals but have turned grotesque after generations without sunlight, enjoy playing in the moonlight now that they have a way out of the cave system at night. Meanwhile, Irene knows she has an important date to meet with the mysterious old woman upstairs. Instead, a cave cat jumps in her window and frightens her into running out into the dark. She makes her way back home by following the guiding light of her great-grandmother’s beacon.
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Tonight, we’ll read the opening to “The House of Mirth,” a 1905 novel by American author Edith Wharton. It tells the story of Lily Bart, a beautiful but impoverished New York City socialite.
The commercial and critical success of “The House of Mirth” solidified Wharton's reputation as a major novelist.
The central theme of “The House of Mirth” is essentially the struggle between who we are and what society tells us we should be. Thus, it is considered by many to be as relevant today as it was in 1905.
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Tonight, we’ll read the opening to “The Wind in the Willows” by Kenneth Grahame, published in 1908. This story was suggested by our patron, Lucienne.
This story centers around four small animals: Mole, Rat, Toad, and Badger. Their stories take place in the countryside of Edwardian England.
Grahame grew up on the River Thames. As secretary of the Bank of England, he told his son bedtime stories that evolved into this book after he took an early retirement.
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Tonight, we’ll read the next part to “The Secret Garden”, a novel by Frances Hodgson Burnett published in 1911. Set in England, it is now one of Burnett's most popular novels and seen as a classic of English children's literature.
If you’d like to start from the beginning, the first episode aired March 9th, 2020. If you’d like to listen to this story’s episodes easily in order, go to snoozecast.com/series.
In the last episode, Mary realizes she is starting to like people and wonders if she could visit Martha’s family cottage. Also, Mary finds an old-fashioned key buried in the earth.
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Tonight, we’ll read “The Beryl Coronet” from “The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes,” written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, published in 1892.
A beryl coronet is an emerald crown.
This story begins with a prominent banker making a loan equivalent to two million US dollars today to a socially prominent client, who leaves a beryl coronet as collateral. Imagine going to the bank and asking for a two million dollar loan. As collateral, you secretly offer the banker someone else’s fancy royal crown. Do you think that would work? Well, it may have worked in tonight’s episode.
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Tonight, we’ll read a story called "Charan, The Dancing Maiden", taken from the book “Korean Folk Tales” written by Pang Im but compiled, translated to English by James Gale and published in 1913.
Pang Im was born in 1640, the son of a provincial governor. He was a great scholar and a disciple of one of Korea's first famed writers. When he was eighty years old, he became governor of Seoul, and held other high cabinet positions as well. In 1722 he played a part in a disturbance of the government and was exiled to North Korea.
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Tonight, we’ll read the next chapter to “Little Women” by American author Louisa May Alcott, published in 1868, titled “Experiments”.
Following the lives of the four March sisters—Meg, Jo, Beth and Amy—the novel details their passage from childhood to womanhood and is loosely based on the author and her sisters.
If you would like to start at the beginning, the first episode aired on December 18th, 2019. You can listen to the whole series in order at snoozecast.com/series.
In the last episode, the little women learn that idleness does not necessarily lead to lasting contentment.
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Tonight, we’ll read the opening to “The Odyssey,” in this the Samuel Butler translation, is one of two ancient Greek epic poems attributed to Homer. It is one of the oldest works of literature still read by contemporary audiences. It follows the Greek hero Odysseus, king of Ithaca, and his journey home after the Trojan War.
After the decade of war itself, his journey lasts for an additional perilous decade. In his absence, he is assumed dead, and his wife Penelope and son Telemachus must contend with a group of rude suitors competing for Penelope's hand in marriage.
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Tonight, we’ll read "The Wild", sometimes known as “Walking”, a lecture by Henry David Thoreau first delivered in 1851. It is a transcendental essay that analyzes the relationship between man and nature, trying to find a balance between society and our raw animal nature. Thoreau read the piece a total of ten times, more than any other of his lectures.
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Tonight, we’ll read the next part of “Pride and Prejudice”, written by Jane Austen. If you’d like to listen from the beginning, please find and listen to all the previous episodes easily at snoozecast.com/series.
“Pride and Prejudice” follows Elizabeth Bennet, the dynamic protagonist, who learns about the repercussions of hasty judgments and eventually comes to appreciate the difference between superficial goodness and actual goodness.
In the previous episode, Mr. Collins accompanies the Bennet daughters to Mrs. Philips’ dinner party. Mr. Wickham is there, and Elizabeth is charmed by him, and hears his tale of woe blamed on Mr. Darcy.
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Tonight, we’ll read excerpts from the “Ladies’ Book of Etiquette and Manual of Politeness,” written in 1860 by Florence Hartley. The excerpts will include “Conduct in the Street” and “Polite Deportment and Good Habits.”
The opening excerpt regarding conduct in the street refers to omnibuses. These were large horse-drawn carriages used for public transportation in the late 1800s.
Hartley was a Victorian-era writer covering topics of etiquette and needlework. She was also an advocate for women's health.
If you enjoy this episode, be sure to check out our other episode of excerpts from this title including “How to Behave at a Hotel” and “Places of Amusement.” That episode aired on June 21, 2019.
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Tonight, we’ll read a selection of mouse-featured Beatrix Potter stories, starting with “Johnny Town-Mouse” and followed with “The Tale of Two Bad Mice” and “The Tale of Mrs. Tittlemouse.”
Beatrix Potter was an English writer, illustrator, natural scientist, and conservationist best known for her children's books featuring animals. Though Potter was typical of women of her generation in having limited opportunities for higher education, her study and watercolours of fungi led to her being widely respected in the field of mycology. In all, Potter wrote thirty books; the best known being her twenty-three children's tales.
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Tonight, we’ll read a section from the King Arthur series written by Maude Radford Warren titled “Sir Gareth and Lynette.”
If you’d like to listen to the first stories in this series, you can find our episode titled “The Sword Excalibur” that aired on April 10, 2020. If you’d like to listen to the whole series easily in order, go to snoozecast.com/series.
King Arthur was a legendary British leader who, according to medieval histories and romances, led the defence of Britain against Saxon invaders in the late 5th and early 6th centuries.
In the last episode, King Arthur decides he wants to marry Princess Guinevere and sends some of his men to ask her father, King Leodogran. This leads Leodogran to investigate King Arthur’s parentage to find out if he is truly from royal blood. Leodogran seeks the counsel of Queen Bellicent, who has a young son named Gareth. Gareth pleads with her to be allowed to join his older brothers in joining the court of King Arthur. She finally concedes, as long as he disguises himself as a lowly kitchen worker at first.
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Tonight, we’ll read the opening to “Persuasion,” the last novel fully completed by Jane Austen, along with being considered her most mature and refined writing, published in 1817. The story concerns Anne Elliot, a twenty-seven year old Englishwoman, whose family moves to lower their expenses and reduce their debt by renting their home to an Admiral and his wife.
The novel was well-received at it’s debut, but its greater fame came decades later, and continues to this day.
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Tonight, we’ll read the next part to the classic children’s story “Heidi”, published in 1881 by Swiss author Johanna Spyri. If you’d like to start from the beginning, you’ll find that the very first episode aired on March 8th, 2019. If you’d like to listen to this continuing story in order, go to snoozecast.com/series.
“Heidi” is a novel about the life of a young girl in her grandfather's care in the Swiss Alps. “Heidi” is one of the best-selling books ever written and is among the best-known works of Swiss literature.
In the previous episode, Sebastian, Mr. Sesemann’s servant, is ordered to take Heidi back to her mountain home. Heidi’s first stop as she hikes up the mountain is to Peter’s grandmother. They have a joyous reunion and then Heidi sets off higher up the mountain towards Grandfather. She is warned by Peter’s mother Brigida to be careful with Grandfather as he has been even more like an unfriendly hermit since she left.
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Tonight, we’ll be reading another chapter from the book “Bird Watching” published in 1901 by Edmund Selous, titled “Watching Birds in the Greenwoods.”
If you enjoy this episode, be sure to listen to our “Blackbirds” episode, “Watching Birds from a Haystack” episode, and “Watching Seabirds”, from this series as well.
The author started as a conventional naturalist of his time, but Selous developed a hatred of the common practice at the time of killing animals for scientific study and was a pioneer of bird-watching as a method of scientific study. The author was a solitary man and was not well known in ornithological circles. He avoided both the company of ornithologists and reading their observations so as to base his conclusions entirely on his own observations.
The word “greenwood” refers to both unseasoned firewood and a forest in full leaf, as in summer.
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Tonight, we’ll read a story from Hans Christian Andersen called “Little Thumbelina.” Thumbelina is about a tiny girl and her adventures with marriage-minded toads, moles, and doodlebugs. She successfully avoids their intentions before falling in love with a flower-fairy prince just her size.
Hans Christian Andersen was born in Denmark in 1805 to a shoemaker. An only child, Andersen shared a love of literature with his father, who read him fables and fairy tales. Together, they constructed panoramas and toy theatres, and took long jaunts into the countryside.
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Tonight, we shall read the next chapter to “Peter Pan”, the 1911 novel by J.M. Barrie. If you’d like to start this story from the beginning, you can find the first episode aired on March 20th, 2019. An easy way to listen to this continuing story in order is at snoozecast.com/series.
When we left off, Wendy and Peter end up on Marooner’s Rock with the tide coming in after a fight with the pirates. They are both too weak to swim to shore or fly for home. The tide is getting higher and higher on the rock. Suddenly Michael and John’s kite drifts across the rock. The kite is too small to lift them both, so Peter tells Wendy to grab on and let it carry her home, sacrificing himself.
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Tonight, we’ll read “A treatise on the art of making good wholesome bread of wheat, oats, rye, barley” by Friedrick Accum, published in 1821.
Accum was a German chemist, whose most important achievements included advances in the field of gas lighting, efforts to keep processed foods free from dangerous additives, and the promotion of popular chemistry.
Following an apprenticeship as an apothecary, he opened his own commercial laboratory enterprise in London.
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Tonight, we’ll read the opening to “The Enchanted Castle,” a children's fantasy novel by Edith Nesbit published in 1907. The enchanted castle of the title is an English country estate seen through the eyes of three children, Jerry, Jimmy, and Kathy. They discover it while exploring during the school holidays. The lake, groves and marble statues, with white towers and turrets in the distance, make a fairy-tale setting.
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Tonight, we’ll read the next part to “The Princess and the Goblin”, a children’s fantasy novel, published in 1872.
If you’d like to start from the beginning, the first episode aired on April 15th, 2019. If you’d like an easy way to listen to these continuing episodes in order, go to snoozecast.com/series.
One of the most successful and beloved of Victorian fairy tales, George Macdonald’s “The Princess and the Goblin” tells the story of young Princess Irene and her friend Curdie, who must outwit the threatening goblins who live in caves beneath her mountain home.
When we left off, Princess Irene couldn’t sleep as she had a painfully sore finger. She wandered upstairs to see if she could find her secret grandmother again. The grandmother cures her injury, and let’s here sleep with her that night.
Also, we learn more about Curdie’s love and admiration for his wonderful, strong and wise mother, Mrs. Peterson. We also learn that he has been saving to buy her a new petticoat.
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Tonight, we’ll read the opening to “Mr. Midshipman Easy,” an 1836 novel by Frederick Marryat, a retired captain in the Royal Navy. The novel is set during the Napoleonic Wars, in which Marryat himself served with distinction.
At fourteen, the naïve Jack Easy leaves the luxury of his family estate in England and sails into a world of adventure aboard the sloop of war HMS Harpy. At first, Jack finds it hard to bear the discipline of naval life and is always getting himself into trouble. But soon he is bravely taming a band of mutinous seamen as the Harpy chases Spanish ships on the Mediterranean.
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Tonight, we’ll read the third part of a fairy tale called “The Snow Queen” by Hans Christian Andersen. The story centers on the struggle between good and evil as experienced by Gerda and her friend, Kay. The first part aired on January 4th, 2021.
This story is one of Andersen's longest and most highly acclaimed tales. It was also the inspiration for the Disney movie “Frozen.”
In the second part, we follow little Gerda on her journey to find her friend Kay. She is bewitched and talks with flowers, and then gets caught up with a family of robbers. A raven tries to help her and leads her to a castle where he thinks he has seen her Kay.
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Tonight, we’ll read the next part to “The Secret Garden”, a novel by Frances Hodgson Burnett published in 1911. Set in England, it is now one of Burnett's most popular novels and seen as a classic of English children's literature.
If you’d like to start from the beginning, the first episode aired March 9th, 2020. If you’d like to listen to this story’s episodes easily in order, go to snoozecast.com/series.
In the last episode, Mary wanders the halls of the manor alone on a rainy day. She finds some interesting things, like old fashioned portraits of a girl that looks like her. She also finds a hidden hallway, and hears the sound of a child crying again. Mary gets caught by Mrs. Medlock and thus ended her investigations for the day.
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Tonight, we’ll read “The Adventure of the Noble Bachelor” from “The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes,” written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.
This story describes the disappearance of Hatty, an aristocrat's bride on the day of their marriage. She participates in the wedding, but disappears from the reception.
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Tonight, we’ll read the opening to “Around the World in 80 Days,” a novel by Jules Verne published in 1872.
In this story, Phileas Fogg of London and his newly employed French valet Passepartout attempt to circumnavigate the world in 80 days on a 20-thousand pound wager ( over two million pounds now) set by his friends. It is one of Verne's most acclaimed works.
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Tonight, we’ll read the next chapter to “Little Women” by American author Louisa May Alcott, published in 1868, titled “Experiments”.
Following the lives of the four March sisters—Meg, Jo, Beth and Amy—the novel details their passage from childhood to womanhood and is loosely based on the author and her sisters.
If you would like to start at the beginning, the first episode aired on December 18th, 2019. You can listen to the whole series in order at snoozecast.com/series.
In the last episode, we sit on a meeting of The Pickwick Club, the girls secret literary club. By the end, it turns out that Jo had Laurie hiding, and he is revealed to much consternation from the others. Soon though, he is welcomed into the group, and he provides a private mail box (or post office, as they refer to it) to exchange communication between the households.
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Tonight, we’ll read The Trees of Paradise, an excerpt from “Plant Lore, Legends and Lyrics” by Richard Folkard.
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Tonight, we’ll read the second part of a fairy tale called “The Snow Queen” by Hans Christian Andersen. The story centers on the struggle between good and evil as experienced by Gerda and her friend, Kay. The first part aired on January 4th, 2021.
The story is one of Andersen's longest and most highly acclaimed stories. It was also the inspiration for the Disney movie “Frozen.”
In the first part, we meet best friends, Gerda and Kay. We also learn of the wicked mirror that splinters into tiny pieces over the land. The shards sometimes land in unknowing people’s eyes or hearts, and cause them to be cold-hearted and mean-spirited. This happens to the little boy, Kay. Then he gets whisked away by the Snow Queen’s sled. Gerda goes in search of him, and meets a kindly witch.
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Tonight, we’ll read the next part of “Pride and Prejudice”, written by Jane Austen. If you’d like to listen from the beginning, please find and listen to all the previous episodes easily at snoozecast.com/series.
“Pride and Prejudice” follows Elizabeth Bennet, the dynamic protagonist, who learns about the repercussions of hasty judgments and eventually comes to appreciate the difference between superficial goodness and actual goodness.
In the previous episode, distant cousin Mr. Collins comes to the Bennet Family’s home at Longbourne to find a wife. Although he poses as a man of convictions, his supposed love interest can change in a moment.
The girls walk to the nearby town of Meryton, accompanied by Mr. Collins. There, they become enamored by a handsome stranger in uniform named Mr. Wickham. They also bump into Mr. Darcy and Mr. Bingley at the same time. Elizabeth notices a curious displeasure between the surprise meeting of the stranger and Mr. Bingley.
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Tonight, we’ll read the opening to “Across Asia on a Bicycle,” published in 1894 and written by Thomas Allen and William Sachtleben.
This book is made up of a series of sketches describing a bicycle journey around the world and specifically across Asia. Allen and Sachtleben set a record for the longest continuous land journey ever made around the world.
The day after they graduated college in St. Louis, Missouri, the two friends set out on their journey. Almost three years later, they rolled back into New York on their wheels, having, as they write, “put a girdle round the earth.”
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Tonight, we’ll read “The Maiden of the Mist” or “Anne of Geierstein”, by Sir Walter Scott, published in 1829. It is set mainly in Switzerland, shortly after the Battle of Tewkesbury in the 1400s.
In this story, two exiles are on a secret mission to the court of Charles the Bold, Duke of Burgundy, hoping to gain his help in regaining the English crown from Edward IV. The two Englishmen get into difficulties in the Swiss mountains. They meet Countess Anne and her family, who are involved in the politics of the newly independent Swiss Confederation and plan to confront Charles with complaints about his conduct towards the Swiss nation.
This book is part of a long series called The Waverley Novels. For nearly a century, they were among the most popular and widely read novels in Europe. Because Scott did not publicly acknowledge authorship until later, the series takes its name from Waverley, the first novel of the series released.
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Tonight, we’ll read the next part to our “Magic Cloak” series, from the book “Queen Zixi of Ix, or The Story of the Magic Cloak”, a children's book written by L. Frank Baum and published in 1905.
“The Magic Cloak” episode one aired on Nov 11, 2019. If you’d like to listen to the previous episode again, it aired November 13th, 2020.
The events of the book alternate between Noland and Ix, two neighboring regions to the Land of Oz. Baum, who also wrote “The Wizard of Oz”, commented this was the best book he had written.
In the last episode, the magic cloak accidentally lands on the royal valet Jikki’s shoulders. At the time, he is trying to carry much too many things on behalf of the demanding Aunt Rivette. He wishes he could have a half dozen servants to help him complete all of his tasks. Then, he has the new and unexpected problem of having to much help at hand!
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Tonight, we shall read the next chapter to “Peter Pan”, the 1911 novel by J.M. Barrie. If you’d like to start this story from the beginning, you can find the first episode aired on March 20th, 2019. If you’d like a refresher by listening to the previous episode, it aired on November 11th, 2020.
In the last episode, the children are napping on Marooner’s Rock in the Mermaid’s Lagoon, when they realize pirates are near and dive underwater. The pirates caught Tiger Lily, from the island tribe, snooping on their ship and planned to leave her on the rock to drown. Peter impersonates Hook’s voice and orders the pirates to let her go, which they fearfully obey. Hook appears afterwards and gives his men the news that the lost boys have found a mother in Wendy. They come up with a plan to kidnap her to make her their mother instead, as even pirates apparently want to be comforted and taken care of.
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Tonight, we’ll read a fairy tale called “The Snow Queen” by Hans Christian Andersen. The story centers on the struggle between good and evil as experienced by Gerda and her friend, Kay.
The story is one of Andersen's longest and most highly acclaimed stories. It was also the inspiration for the Disney movie “Frozen.”
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Tonight, we’ll read a folktale called “Aponibolinayen and the Sun”, from the book “Philippine Folk Tales” published in 1916, compiled by anthropologist Mabel Cook Cole. This story comes from the Ting-yen or Itneg people, who live in a mountainous region in the Philippines.
The Itnegs believe in the existence of numerous supernatural powerful beings. They believe in spirits and deities, the greatest of which they believe to be Kadaklan who lives up in the sky and who created the earth, the moon, the stars, and the sun. Tonight, we’ll read about the sun in particular and how he came to be married to a special mortal woman with magical powers.
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Tonight, we’ll read the next part to the classic children’s story “Heidi”, published in 1881 by Swiss author Johanna Spyri. If you’d like to start from the beginning, you’ll find that the very first episode aired on March 8th, 2019. If you’d like to listen to the last episode before this one, it aired on October 28th, 2020.
“Heidi” is a novel about the life of a young girl in her grandfather's care in the Swiss Alps. “Heidi” is one of the best-selling books ever written and is among the best-known works of Swiss literature.
In the previous episode, the servants at the Sesemann house are certain the house is haunted. The ghost turns out to be a sleepwalking little Heidi, tormented by her secret homesickness. When Mr. Sesemann realizes this, plans are made to allow her to go back to visit her family on the mountain.
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Tonight, we’ll read “Treasure Island”, by listener suggestion, an adventure novel by Scottish author Robert Louis Stevenson. It is a tale of "buccaneers and buried gold." Its influence is enormous on popular perceptions of pirates, including such elements as treasure maps marked with an "X", schooners, tropical islands, and one-legged seamen bearing parrots on their shoulders.
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"Tonight, we’ll read the section on baking cookies from “Woman’s Institute Library of Cookery Volume 4”, written by The Woman’s Institute of Domestic Arts and Sciences. This is the same set of cookbooks Snoozecast’s “Breadtime” episode draws from.
The Woman’s Institute was founded by Mary Brooks Picken in Scranton, PA. Born in Kansas in 1886, Picken wrote the first dictionary to be published by a woman in the English language, beyond the over one hundred other books she wrote."
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Tonight, we’ll read “The Gift of the Magi” a short story by O. Henry, followed by the poem “The Night Before Christmas.”
Published in 1905, this O.Henry story tells of a young husband and wife and how they deal with the challenge of buying secret Christmas gifts for each other with very little money.
“The Night Before Christmas” is formally titled “A Visit from St. Nicholas” and written by Clement Clarke Moore, anonymously published in 1844.
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Tonight, we’ll read the opening to “The Exploits and Triumphs, In Europe, of Paul Morphy, The Chess Champion.” It was published in 1859 and written by Frederick Milnes Edge, who was Morphy’s secretary.
Paul Morphy, born in New Orleans in 1837, was considered the greatest chess player of his era. He was a child prodigy who learned playing chess simply by watching family members play. When he was only 9 years old, he was hailed as the best chess player in his city.
This book describes Morphy's trip to Europe in 1858. After his triumphs in Europe, he was considered the unofficial World Chess Champion, as official championship tournaments were only held starting in 1886, almost thirty years later.
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Tonight, we’ll read the opening to “Recollections of a Tour Made in Scotland A.D. 1803”, a travel memoir by Dorothy Wordsworth. Her six-week, 663-mile journey through the Scottish Highlands with her brother William Wordsworth and mutual friend Samuel Taylor Coleridge has been called a masterpiece and one of the best Scottish travel writings during a century which saw hundreds of such examples.
Dorothy wrote "Recollections" for family and friends and never saw it published in her lifetime. The three travelers were important authors in the burgeoning Romanticism movement and thus the trip itinerary was in part a literary pilgrimage to the places associated with Scottish figures significant to Romanticists.
Dorothy's descriptions and judgments of the countryside and landscapes were a mixture of her own personal aesthetics and the in-fashion aesthetics of the sublime, beautiful and picturesque—in fact, Recollections is considered today a classic of picturesque travel writing. Venturing to Scotland in 1803 was not an easy trip and the thirty-year-old Dorothy would experience much of the rougher nature of Scottish life: a depopulated rural land due to industrialization and emigration, along with rough roads, coarse lodgings and sometimes meager food.
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Tonight, we’ll read the next part to “The Princess and the Goblin”, a children’s fantasy novel, published in 1872.
If you’d like to start from the beginning, the first episode aired on April 15th, 2019. If you’d like to listen to the previous episode, part four aired November 6th, 2020.
One of the most successful and beloved of Victorian fairy tales, George Macdonald’s “The Princess and the Goblin” tells the story of young Princess Irene and her friend Curdie, who must outwit the threatening goblins who live in caves beneath her mountain home.
When we left off, Princess Irene found her way back to her mysterious great-great-great-great-grandmother, after she couldn’t sleep due to an injury from pricking her finger earlier in the day.
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Tonight, we’ll read a short story by Charles Dickens called “A Christmas Tree”, from 1850.
It was only ten years earlier, in 1840, that Queen Victoria’s husband, Prince Albert, introduced the German concept of a Christmas tree to England. Before then, nobody in England had placed a Christmas tree in their home.
Just as Dicken’s “A Christmas Carol” isn’t actually a song, “A Christmas Tree” is barely a story and the tree is merely a launching off point for a series of dreamy impressions from the author’s mind.
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Tonight, we’ll read the next part to "The Secret Garden", a novel by Frances Hodgson Burnett first published in 1911. Set in England, it is now one of Burnett's most popular novels and seen as a classic of English children's literature.
If you’d like to start from the beginning, the first episode aired March 9th, 2020. The most recent episode, part 3, aired October 21st, 2020.
In the last episode, Mary spends a lot of time outdoors wandering around the gardens and moor. It begins to help her grow healthier and heartier. The maid Martha tells Mary the forbidden story of how Master Craven’s garden became “secret.” Mary also insists to Martha that she hears a child crying somewhere in the manor. Martha insists it’s just the roar of the wind playing tricks on her ears.
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Tonight, we’ll read from "The Journals of Lewis and Clark". The Lewis and Clark Expedition, from 1803 to 1806, was the United States expedition to cross the newly acquired western portion of the country. The Corps of Discovery was a select group of Army and civilian volunteers under the command of Captain Meriwether Lewis and his close friend Lieutenant William Clark.
President Thomas Jefferson commissioned the expedition shortly after the Louisiana Purchase in 1803 to explore and to map the newly acquired territory, to find a practical route across the western half of the continent, and to establish an American presence in this territory before other powers tried to claim it. The campaign's secondary objectives were scientific and economic: to study the area's plants, animal life, geography and to establish trading. The expedition returned to Jefferson, with maps, sketches, and journals in hand.
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Tonight, we’ll read “The Opal”, a fairy tale about how the gemstone was formed.
Depending on the conditions in which it formed, precious opal may be iridescent with white, black, or nearly any color of the visual spectrum as a background color. Black opal is considered to be the rarest, whereas white, gray, and green are the most common.
Opal was rare and very valuable in antiquity. In Europe, it was a gem prized by royalty. Until the opening of vast deposits in Australia in the 19th century the only known source was beyond the Roman frontier in Slovakia.
Following the publication of Sir Walter Scott's Anne of Geierstein in 1829, opal acquired a less auspicious reputation. Due to the popularity of Scott's novel, people began to associate opals with bad luck.
Opal was also said to grant invisibility- if wrapped in a fresh bay leaf and held in the hand- and thus it was considered the gemstone of thieves.
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Tonight, for the 300th episode of Snoozecast, we’ll read a story about Princess Guinevere from our King Arthur’s series.
If you’d like to listen to the first stories in this series, you can find our episode titled “The Sword Excalibur” that aired on April 10, 2020. If you’d like to listen to the previous episode, it aired on September 14, 2020.
King Arthur was a legendary British leader who, according to medieval histories and romances, led the defense of Britain against Saxon invaders in the late 5th and early 6th centuries.
Guinevere is the wife and queen of King Arthur in the Arthurian legend. Early versions of these stories starting in the twelfth century had only a brief mention of her. As time went on, her character has been fleshed out depending on the author’s desires. Guinevere has been portrayed as everything from a villainous and opportunistic traitor to a fatally flawed but noble and virtuous lady.
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Tonight, we’ll read excerpts from "The Feasts of Autolycus", including “On Soup” and “The Incomparable Onion”, published in 1900 and edited by Elizabeth Robins Pennell.
Pennell was an American travel writer, columnist, biographer and memoirist. Her biographies included the first in almost a century of the proto-feminist Mary Wollstonecraft, and also one of her uncle the folklorist Charles Godfrey Leland.
Coincidentally, Charles Godfrey Leland compiled the book “Algonquin Legends” that the recent Snoozecast episode “Badger the Mischief Maker” was based on.
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Tonight, we’ll read the next part to “Pride and Prejudice”, written by Jane Austen. If you’d like to listen from the beginning, episode one aired on August 28th, 2019. If you’d like to listen to the last episode, it aired on October 19th, 2020.
Pride and Prejudice follows Elizabeth Bennet, the dynamic protagonist, who learns about the repercussions of hasty judgments and eventually comes to appreciate the difference between superficial goodness and actual goodness.
In the previous episode, the Bennet's learn that they are to be paid a visit by a distant cousin, Mr. Collins, who also will inherit their estate when Mr. Bennet passes. We will pick up in the middle of his visit to the family.
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Tonight, we’ll read the next chapter to “Little Women” by American author Louisa May Alcott, published in 1868, titled “The PC and the PO”.
Following the lives of the four March sisters—Meg, Jo, Beth and Amy—the novel details their passage from childhood to womanhood and is loosely based on the author and her sisters.
If you would like to start at the beginning, find the first episode that aired on December 18th, 2019. If you would like a refresher from the last chapter, it aired on October 14th, 2020.
In the previous chapter, Meg allows herself to be made over as a wealthy belle of the ball by the Moffat family she is staying with. She has an emotional roller coaster at the actual ball- pride, embarrassment and finally tipsy revelry. She hears more talk about her and her family that she doesn’t appreciate. Meg feels glad to be home, and gets heartwarming advice from her mother. Marmee tells her that it is more important to be a good person, and to be happy, than to be too focused on marrying into wealth lest one be miserable.
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Tonight, we’ll read a short story by H.G. Wells in 1897 titled “The Crystal Egg”. The story tells of a shop owner, named Mr. Cave, who finds a strange crystal egg that serves as a window into the planet Mars.
This is the fifth time H.G. Wells has been featured on Snoozecast. If you enjoy this story, be sure to look for “The Time Machine”, The Island of Dr. Moreau, “The Wonderful Visit”, and “The Invisible Man.
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Tonight, we’ll read the second and final part to “An Old-Fashioned Thanksgiving”, a short story written by Louisa May Alcott. Please find the first part that aired on November 16th, 2020.
“An Old-Fashioned Thanksgiving” is a simple story set in the early 1800s, featuring a country family in New Hampshire. It’s full of idyllic and peaceful descriptions from an earlier time.
In part one, the Bassett parents rush off when they hear that the grandmother was very ill, just as a snowstorm was starting. This left all the children to manage the farmhouse on their own. Luckily, they are a resourceful and industrious group.
We’ll pick up with oldest sister Tilly and Prue in the kitchen, as they are starting their first attempt at a Thanksgiving feast on their own.
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Tonight, we’ll read the opening to ""The Influence of the Stars"" published in 1904.
"The Influence of the Stars" was written by Rosa Baughan, the eldest daughter of an eminent London newspaper man. She soon established a reputation of her own - as one of the most intriguing spiritualists in Victorian Britain. In her short life, she published more than twenty titles devoted to graphology, divination and astrology.
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Tonight, we’ll read the opening to “Washington Square”, written by Henry James and published in 1880. The novel recounts the conflict between a dull but sweet daughter and her brilliant, unemotional father. The plot of the novel is based upon a true story told to James by his close friend, a British actress.
The book is often compared with Jane Austen's work (who of course, wrote “Pride and Prejudice”) for the clarity and grace of its prose and its intense focus on family relationships.
This is the second time Henry James is featured on Snoozecast. You can find “The Turn of the Screw” back in October 2019.
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Tonight, we’ll read “An Old-Fashioned Thanksgiving”, written by Louisa May Alcott after she wrote The Little Women trilogy. It’s a simple story set in the early 1800s, featuring a country family in New Hampshire. It’s full of idyllic and peaceful descriptions from an earlier time.
Alcott was an American writer, raised in New England by her transcendentalist parents. She grew up among many of the well-known intellectuals of the day, such as Ralph Waldo Emerson, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Henry David Thoreau, and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.
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Tonight, we’ll read the next part to our Magic Cloak series, from the book “Queen Zixi of Ix, or The Story of the Magic Cloak”, a children's book written by L. Frank Baum and published in 1905. “The Magic Cloak” episode one aired on Nov 11, 2019. If you’d like to listen to the previous episode again, it aired October 5th, 2020.
The events of the book alternate between Noland and Ix, two neighboring regions to the Land of Oz. Baum, who also wrote “The Wizard of Oz”, commented this was the best book he had written.
In the last episode, while Bud and Fluff glory in their new positions of authority and their possessions, Aunt Rivette wants to show off her good fortune. She asks Fluff if she can wear her cloak, and she becomes so tired walking that she wishes she could fly. Two wings sprout from Aunt Rivette's back, and she flies up in a confused panic.
We will pick up after Fluff convinces Bud that he can’t just play with his toys all day, even if he is the supreme ruler of the land. He must do all the disagreeable things a king is supposed to do, like attending the royal receptions he is invited to.
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Tonight, we shall read the next chapter to "Peter Pan", the 1911 novel by J.M. Barrie. If you’d like to start this story from the beginning, you can find the first part aired on March 20th, 2019. If you’d like a refresher by listening to the previous episode, it aired on September 30th, 2020.
In the last episode, we learn about the underground abode of the lost boys. Tinkerbell has her own little cubby hole of a fancy bedroom. Wendy ends up doing all the boys housework and cooking. Wendy also tries to help her brothers along with other boys remember their parents, by giving them quizzes on the subject.
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Tonight, we’ll read the story The Devoted Friend, written by Oscar Wilde, published in 1910. Wilde was an Irish poet and playwright. He is best remembered for his epigrams and plays and his novel The Picture of Dorian Gray.
In this fable, told by a linnet, or songbird in the finch family, to teach a water rat some life skills, Hans is an innocent gardener and the devoted friend of a wealthy but manipulative Miller. In this story, Wilde pokes fun at a society where charity is less about love and more about ensuring that the wealthy benefit.
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Tonight, we’ll read the next part to "The Princess and the Goblin", a children’s fantasy novel, published in 1872.
If you’d like to start from the beginning, the first episode aired on April 15th, 2019. If you’d like to listen to the previous episode, part four aired September 23rd, 2020.
One of the most successful and beloved of Victorian fairy tales, George Macdonald’s "The Princess and the Goblin" tells the story of young Princess Irene and her friend Curdie, who must outwit the threatening goblins who live in caves beneath her mountain home.
When we left off, Curdie, our little hero who works as a miner within the caves of the mountain, realizes part of the Goblin’s devious plans: that they may flood the mines and destroy them with any miners in them. Curdie went home to his father’s house and have some sleep. Meanwhile, we will pick back up at the introduction of Princess Irene’s father, the King Papa."
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Tonight, we’ll read the story "The Adventure of The Speckled Band" from "The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes", published in 1891 and written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.
The story tells of Helen Stoner, a soon-to-be married young woman who suspects her stepfather may be trying to kill her in order to retain control of her inheritance. Convinced of her stepfather's intentions, she turns to Holmes for help.
"The Speckled Band" is a classic locked room mystery that deals with the themes of parental greed, inheritance and freedom. Tinged with Gothic elements, it is considered by many to be one of Doyle's finest works, with the author himself calling it his best story.
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Tonight, we’ll read the 1865 Mark Twain short story “The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County”. It was Twain’s first great success as a writer and brought him national attention. In it, the narrator retells a story he heard from a bartender, Simon Wheeler in California, about the gambler named Jim Smiley.
Jim Smiley is described as betting on just about anything, for example, on the travels of a “straddle bug”. If you’re wondering what a straddle bug is, just picture a large, commonplace beetle.
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Tonight, for the last episode of our second annual October classic horror series, we’ll read a Snoozecast original called “Night Spell.”
It’s Halloween Night and all the nocturnal animals of the forest will be attending a very important function. Where are they off to this evening?
Besides a cameo from Maggie in this story, you may also notice poet Robert Frost, for a spell.
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Tonight, we’ll read the next part to the classic children’s story "Heidi", published in 1881 by Swiss author Johanna Spyri. If you’d like to start from the beginning, you’ll find that the very first episode aired on March 8th, 2019. If you’d like to listen to the last episode before this one, it aired on September 28th, 2020.
"Heidi" is a novel about the life of a young girl in her grandfather's care in the Swiss Alps. "Heidi" is one of the best-selling books ever written and is among the best-known works of Swiss literature.
In the previous episode, Clara Sessemann’s grandmama comes to visit. The grandmama takes a liking to Heidi and inspires her to start reading. Heidi has trouble reading at first, and is still homesick, but by the end of the episode is able to find some solace in stories that remind her of her mountain home.
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Tonight, we’ll read "Herbs for Incantations", an excerpt from "The Folk-lore of Plants" by T. F. Thiselton-Dyer, published in 1889.
The Reverend Thiselton-Dyer was a British curate and vicar, along with a writer of popular non-fiction books such as this one along with “Strange Pages from Family Papers”, which was considered a masterpiece of popular historical writing.
He was particularly admired for his ability to couple in-depth research with the suspense and excitement normally associated with the nascent art of detective fiction.
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Tonight, during our second annual October classic horror series, we’ll read the opening to "Dracula", an 1897 Gothic horror novel by Irish author Bram Stoker.
"Dracula" introduced the character of Count Dracula and established many conventions of subsequent vampire fantasy. The novel tells the story of Dracula's attempt to move from Transylvania to England so that he may find new blood and spread the undead curse.
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Tonight, we’ll read the next part to The Secret Garden, a novel by Frances Hodgson Burnett first published in 1911. Set in England, it is now one of Burnett's most popular novels and seen as a classic of English children's literature.
If you’d like to start from the beginning, the first episode aired March 9th, 2020. The most recent episode, part 3, aired September 16th, 2020.
In the last episode, Martha the maid encourages Mary to explore the grounds and gardens of Misselthwaite Manor. Martha also lets Mary know there is a locked, walled garden that had belonged to Mr. Craven’s deceased wife. Mary finds a wall so covered in ivy that it doesn't seem to have a door at all. As she is searching, she meets the crusty old gardener Ben Weatherstaff, and his friend, a sweet little songbird of the Robin variety.
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Tonight, we’ll read the next part to Pride and Prejudice, written by Jane Austen. If you’d like to listen from the beginning, episode one aired on August 28th, 2019.
If you’d like to listen to the last episode, it aired on September 11th, 2020. Pride and Prejudice follows Elizabeth Bennet, the dynamic protagonist, who learns about the repercussions of hasty judgments and eventually comes to appreciate the difference between superficial goodness and actual goodness.
In the previous episode, Mrs. Bennet, the matriarch of the family, schemes to marry her daughter Jane to Bingley but it ends up making the daughters look bad when they overstay their welcome. Darcy is prejudiced against Jane and her family’s lowly social connections. Though Mrs. Bennet is disappointed that Jane and Elizabeth didn't stay longer, Mr. Bennet is glad to have them back. He had missed their conversation amid younger sister’s Kitty and Lydia's infatuation with anything related to the regiment.
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Tonight, for our second annual October classic horror series, we’ll read a Swedish fairytale called The Werewolf.
Until the 20th century, wolf attacks on humans were an occasional, but still widespread feature of life in Europe. Some scholars have suggested that it was inevitable that wolves, being the most feared predators in Europe, were projected into the folklore of evil shapeshifters. Areas devoid of wolves typically use different kinds of predator to fill the niche; werehyenas in Africa, weretigers in India, as well as werepumas, and werejaguars in southern South America.
Werewolvery was a common accusation in witch trials throughout their history. A peak of attention to lycanthropy, or the clinical diagnosis of werewolvery, came in the late 16th to early 17th century, as part of the European witch-hunts.
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Tonight, we’ll read the second part to the ninth chapter of “Little Women” by American author Louisa May Alcott, published in 1868, titled “Meg Goes to Vanity Fair”. Following the lives of the four March sisters—Meg, Jo, Beth and Amy—the novel details their passage from childhood to womanhood and is loosely based on the author and her sisters.
If you would like to start at the beginning, find the first episode that aired on December 18th, 2019. If you would like a refresher from the last chapter, it aired on September 7th, 2020.
In the previous chapter, Meg stays with the wealthy Moffat family to celebrate Belle Moffat’s coming-out party as she was turning sixteen. The March family, however, is too poor for this sort of party. Meg and her family collect all of their nicest clothing for her, but when Meg gets to the Moffat’s, it soon becomes clear that her nicest clothing is nowhere near nice enough.
The Moffat’s are kind to Meg but are clearly dismayed by the difference. Meg also is shocked and dismayed to learn that the Moffat’s think Meg’s mother is scheming to marry Meg to her younger neighbor Laurie, in order to marry her into Laurie’s wealth.
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Tonight, we’ll read an Armenian folktale titled “The Betrothed of Destiny”. It comes from A.G. Sekelmann’s 1898 “The Golden Maiden and other Armenian folktales. This particular story features a fearless, strong heroine.
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Tonight, during our second annual October classic horror series, we'll read "The Ghost Ship", written by Richard Middleton published posthumously in 1912.
Middleton was a tragic figure - a young man impatient for success, who managed to live the archetypal life of the Romantic Bohemian poet, complete with poverty and unrequited love for an impossible woman. None of his novels were published while he was alive. Soon after his death, he was quote unquote discovered and critically acclaimed for the brilliance of his work and the brevity of his life.
If you enjoy this story, be sure to check out Snoozecast's other Middleton episode to date, titled "The Magic Carpet."
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Tonight, we'll read excerpts from "The Feasts of Autolycus" , including "An Autumn Dinner" and "The Magnificent Mushroom", published in 1900 and edited by Elizabeth Robins Pennell.
Pennell was an American travel writer, columnist, biographer and memoirist. Her biographies included the first in almost a century of the proto-feminist Mary Wollstonecraft, and also one of her uncle the folklorist Charles Godfrey Leland.
Coincidentally, Charles Godfrey Leland compiled the book "Algonquin Legends" that the recent Snoozecast episode "Badger the Mischief Maker" was based on.
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Tonight, we’ll read the next part to our Magic Cloak series, from the book "Queen Zixi of Ix, or The Story of the Magic Cloak", a children's book written by L. Frank Baum and published in 1905. "The Magic Cloak" part 1 aired on Nov 11, 2019.
If you’d like to listen to the previous episode again, it aired September 2nd, 2020. The events of the book alternate between Noland and Ix, two neighboring regions to the Land of Oz. Baum, who also wrote the Wizard of Oz, commented this was the best book he had written. This episode will start at the opening of Chapter Seven.
In the last episode, King Bud and Princess Fluff preside over the royal court and have their first try at official decision-making. At the end of session, their miserable Aunt Rivette bursts in and demands to be given better accommodations and money to spend since she is family.
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Tonight, during our second annual October classic horror series, we’ll read "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow", a gothic story by American author Washington Irving. Written while Irving was living abroad in Birmingham, England, it is among the earliest examples of American fiction with enduring popularity, especially during Halloween.
The Headless Horseman was believed to be a Hessian soldier who was decapitated by a cannonball in battle. Hessians was what the American’s called German soldiers who fought for the British during the Revolutionary War.
If you enjoy this story, be sure to check out Snoozecast’s earlier episodes of Rip Van Winkle part one and part two, also written by Irving.
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Tonight, we shall read the next chapter to "Peter Pan", the 1911 novel by J.M. Barrie. If you’d like to start this story from the beginning, you can find the first part aired on March 20th, 2019. If you’d like a refresher by listening to the previous episode, part 6 aired on August 26th, 2020.
In the last episode, Peter Pan flies in right after Tootles has shot Wendy. Peter is about to kill Tootles for the act but finds out that Wendy has in fact not died. The acorn button that was the “kiss” that Peter had given her saves the arrow from hitting Wendy. Peter declares that Tinkerbell is banished for a week from the dastardly deed. The boys build a small house around Wendy. Wendy plays the motherly role of telling the boys a bedtime story before they all fall asleep.
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Tonight, we’ll read the next part to the classic children’s story "Heidi", published in 1881 by Swiss author Johanna Spyri. If you’d like to start from the beginning, you’ll find that the very first episode aired on March 8th, 2019. If you’d like to listen to the last episode before this one, it aired on August 24th, 2020.
"Heidi" is a novel about the life of a young girl in her grandfather's care in the Swiss Alps. "Heidi" is one of the best-selling books ever written and is among the best-known works of Swiss literature. We will pick up at the start of chapter 10.
In the previous episode, Heidi causes lots of cute chaos since she isn’t familiar with the formal life in the city. Miss Rottenmeier the head housekeeper is at odds with Heidi but Heidi always ends up overcoming the adversity due to her sweet nature. Mr. Sesseman, Clara’s father, comes home and Miss Rottenmeier tries her best to turn him against Heidi. Luckily, Mr. Sesseman uses his own perspective on Heidi along with Clara’s enthusiastic embrace of her to let her stay.
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Tonight, we’ll read an excerpt from the 1912 book "Sunshine Sketches of a Little Town", from a chapter called “The Speculations of Jefferson Thorpe”. You won’t need to listen to the first episode in order to listen to this episode, as they are non-sequential vignettes.
However, if you would like to find the first episode in this series, it aired on August 23, 2019. This humorous and affectionate account of small-town life in the fictional town of Mariposa is inspired by the author’s experience living in Ontario, Canada.
The book illustrates the inner workings of life in Mariposa—from business to politics to steamboat disasters. In this vignette, we learn about the town’s barbershop, and the leisurely art of the afternoon shave.
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Tonight, we’ll read part 6 to "The Princess and the Goblin", a children’s fantasy novel, published in 1872. If you’d like to start from the beginning, the first episode aired on April 15th, 2019. If you’d like to listen to the previous episode, part four aired August 19th, 2020.
One of the most successful and beloved of Victorian fairy tales, George Macdonald’s "The Princess and the Goblin" tells the story of young Princess Irene and her friend Curdie, who must outwit the threatening goblins who live in caves beneath her mountain home.
When we left off, Curdie, our little hero who works as a miner within the caves of the mountain, secretly follows a family of goblins to see what they are up to. As he rounds a corner, he stumbles upon what may be the headquarters of the Goblin kingdom.
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Tonight, we’ll read the story of the mischievous animals of Algonquin Legends, particularly the badger, the weasel fairies, the moose and the marten.
This story is based on one found in the book “Algonquin Legends of New England”, published in 1884 and compiled by Charles Godfrey Leland. The Algonquians are one of the most populous and widespread North American native language groups. Today, thousands of individuals identify with various Algonquian peoples.
Their legends involve characters who are simultaneously human and at the same time represented by an animal or a magical being, or sometimes both, as is the case of the weasel fairy sisters.
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Tonight, we’ll read a short work by John Burroughs called "The Exhilaration of the Road". It is taken from a compilation titled "The Footpath Way", an anthology for walkers published in 1911.
John Burroughs was an American nature essayist, active in the U.S. conservation movement. Burroughs accompanied many personalities of the time in his later years, including Theodore Roosevelt, Henry Ford (who gave him an automobile), and Thomas Edison. According to Ford, "John Burroughs, Edison, and I made several vagabond trips together. We went in motor caravans and slept under canvas.”
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Tonight, we’ll read the fourth part to "The Secret Garden", a novel by Frances Hodgson Burnett first published in 1911. Set in England, it is now one of Burnett's most popular novels and seen as a classic of English children's literature.
If you’d like to start from the beginning, the first episode aired March 9th, 2020. The most recent episode, part 3, aired August 5th, 2020. In the last episode, little Mary and the maid Martha get acquainted.
They are both surprised by the other. Mary is shocked by Martha’s thick Yorkshire dialect and casual, direct manner. Martha is shocked that Mary is helpless to dress herself and is wasteful of eating good food, when her own numerous siblings may go hungry. Where we pick up, Martha has encouraged Mary to walk around outside.
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Tonight, we’ll read more stories from "King Arthur and His Knights". If you’d like to listen to the first stories in this series, you can find our episode titled “The Sword Excalibur” that aired on April 10, 2020.
If you’d like to listen to the most recent previous episode again, “The Great Feast” aired August 3rd, 2020. King Arthur was a legendary British leader who, according to medieval histories and romances, led the defence of Britain against Saxon invaders in the late 5th and early 6th centuries.
The details of Arthur's story are mainly composed of folklore and literary invention, and modern historians generally agree that he is unhistorical. The Knights of the Round Table are the knightly members of the legendary fellowship of the King Arthur in literature.
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Tonight, we’ll read the next part to "Pride and Prejudice", written by Jane Austen. If you’d like to listen from the beginning, episode one aired on August 28th, 2019. If you’d like to listen to the last episode, it aired on July 27th, 2020.
"Pride and Prejudice" follows Elizabeth Bennet, the dynamic protagonist, who learns about the repercussions of hasty judgments and eventually comes to appreciate the difference between superficial goodness and actual goodness.
In the previous episode, Jane Bennet continues to recover from her illness slowly; and in the evening Elizabeth joined the drawing-room party. Mr. Darcy was writing, and Miss Bingley, was watching the progress of his letter and repeatedly calling off his attention by messages to his sister.
Elizabeth took up some needlework, and was sufficiently amused in attending to what passed between Darcy and Miss Bingley. Miss Bingley gets jealous with Darcy’s interest in Elizabeth. Mr. Darcy is relieved that Elizabeth is so beneath him that he can’t be tempted into a relationship with her.
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Tonight, we’ll read a fairy tale by listener request called "The Twelve Dancing Princesses".
This tale is best known as part of the German Brothers Grimm collection, but there are variants of it from around the world including the folk tales of Russia, Iceland, India, Armenia, France, Turkey and Portugal.
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Tonight, we’ll read the first part of the ninth chapter of “Little Women” by American author Louisa May Alcott, published in 1868, titled “Meg Goes to Vanity Fair”. Following the lives of the four March sisters—Meg, Jo, Beth and Amy—the novel details their passage from childhood to womanhood and is loosely based on the author and her sisters.
If you would like to start at the beginning, find the first episode that aired on December 18th, 2019. If you would like a refresher from the last chapter, it aired on July 22nd, 2020.
In the previous chapter, "Jo Meets Apollyon" (Napolean), Jo comes to terms with her fiery temper when little sister Amy falls through thin ice due to Jo’s negligence.
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Tonight, we’ll read the story "The Adventure of The Blue Carbuncle" from "The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes", published in 1891.
The dermatological term “Carbuncle” refers to a painful cluster of boils on the skin. In this case, however, The Blue Carbuncle is a missing and near-priceless gemstone.
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Tonight, we’ll read the fourth part to our "The Magic Cloak" series, from the book "Queen Zixi of Ix, or The Story of the Magic Cloak", a children's book written by L. Frank Baum and published in 1905. The Magic Cloak episode one aired on Nov 11, 2019. If you’d like to listen to the previous episode again, Part 3 aired July 15th, 2020.
The events of the book alternate between Noland and Ix, two neighboring regions to the Land of Oz. Baum, who also wrote the Wizard of Oz, commented this was the best book he had written. This episode will start at the opening of Chapter Four.
In the last episode, orphaned siblings Timothy (who everyone calls "Bud"), the orphaned son of a ferryman who, with his sister Meg (nicknamed "Fluff"), enter town with their stern Aunt Rivette. Timothy is declared the new king of Noland. His sister becomes Princess Fluff, and they take residence in the royal palace.
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Tonight, we’ll read "The Good Anna", a short story written by Gertrude Stein as part of her first published book, titled “Three Lives” published in 1909.
Stein was an American novelist, poet, playwright, and art collector. Born in the United States, she moved to Paris as an adult and stayed there the rest of her life. She hosted a Paris salon, where the leading figures of modernism in literature and art, such as Pablo Picasso, Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald and Henri Matisse would meet.
Two quotes from Stein’s works have become widely known: "Rose is a rose is a rose is a rose," and "there is no there there ”The Good Anna is set in the fictional city of Bridgepoint, which is modeled after Baltimore, MD where Stein lived at one time.
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Tonight, we’ll be reading another chapter from the book "Bird Watching" published in 1901 by Edmund Selous, titled "Watching Gulls and Skuas".If you enjoy this episode, be sure to listen to our "Blackbirds" episode and the "Watching Birds from a Haystack" episode from this series as well.
The author started as a conventional naturalist of his time, but Selous developed a hatred of the common practice at the time of killing animals for scientific study and was a pioneer of bird-watching as a method of scientific study. The author was a solitary man and was not well known in ornithological circles.
He avoided both the company of ornithologists and reading their observations so as to base his conclusions entirely on his own observations.
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Tonight, we shall read the sixth chapter to "Peter Pan", the 1911 novel by J.M. Barrie. If you’d like to start this story from the beginning, you can find the first part aired on March 20th, 2019. If you’d like a refresher by listening to the last most recent episode, part 5 aired on July 20th, 2020.
In the last episode, the pirates have figured out the lost boys underground hiding spot and wait to plot their attack. Tinkerbell is a vengeful, jealous little fairy and not only attacks the flying Wendy with an assault of mid-air pinches, but tricks the boys on the ground to shoot poor Wendy with an arrow.
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Tonight, we’ll read part 7 of the classic children’s story "Heidi", published in 1881 by Swiss author Johanna Spyri. If you’d like to start from the beginning, you’ll find that the very first episode aired on March 8th, 2019. If you’d like to listen to the last episode before this one, it aired on July 13th, 2020.
Heidi is a novel about the life of a young girl in her grandfather's care in the Swiss Alps. Heidi is one of the best-selling books ever written and is among the best-known works of Swiss literature.
We will pick up at the start of chapter 8. In the last episode, Heidi has only been living in Frankfurt at the grand Sesemann house for a day but she is already missing her mountain home with her grandfather. She mistakes the sounds of the street coaches for the wind racing through fir trees and runs outside. The stern Miss Rottenmeier has been trying to figure out a way to send Heidi back where she came from.
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Tonight, we’ll read a short story by O. Henry titled “Snow Man” published posthumously in 1917.
William Sydney Porter, pen name O. Henry, is known for his stories with surprise twist endings. This particular story had to be left unfinished by the author as he was dying, so he asked a friend and fellow writer to finish the it for him.
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Tonight, we’ll read part 5 to "The Princess and the Goblin", a children’s fantasy novel, published in 1872. If you’d like to start from the beginning, the first episode aired on April 15th, 2019. If you’d like to listen to the last episode, part four aired July 3rd, 2020.
One of the most successful and beloved of Victorian fairy tales, George Macdonald’s The Princess and the Goblin tells the story of young Princess Irene and her friend Curdie, who must outwit the threatening goblins who live in caves beneath her mountain home.
When we left off, Curdie stayed late to mine in the mountain on his own. In the past he would sometimes hear possible Goblin noises, but on this night he heard an actual conversation between a Goblin family, through a thin wall of rock.
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Tonight, we’ll read a Snoozecast original titled “Maggie’s Start Date.” Maggie is the Green family’s loyal dog, however she may have ambitions beyond being household pet...
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Tonight, we’ll read about the history of bread-making in Europe and America, from “The History of Bread”, written by John Ashton and published in 1905.
The text mentions visigoths, which were an early Germanic people, and part of the larger political entity of the Goths within the Roman Empire.
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Tonight, we’ll be reading the fourth part to "Doctor Dolittle", written in 1920 by British author Hugh Lofting. The full title being, “The Story of Doctor Dolittle, Being the History of His Peculiar Life at Home and Astonishing Adventures in Foreign Parts”. It is the first of Lofting’s "Doctor Dolittle" books, a series of children's novels about a man who learns to talk to animals and becomes their champion around the world.
Hugh Lofting started writing the Dolittle stories as imaginative letters to his children from the battlefield trenches of World War I.If you’d like to start with episode 1, it aired on December 2nd, 2019. Episode 3 aired on May 27th, 2020.
Previously, the good doctor had to deal with all the monkeys. He vaccinated the healthy ones and created a hospital for the sick ones.
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Tonight, we’ll read "Prince Darling", a french fairy-tale credited to Jeanne-Marie Leprince de Beaumont.
The author is also known for the best known version of "Beauty and the Beast". She was one of the first to include folk tales as moralist and educational tools in her writings. Her third husband was the French spy Thomas Pichon.
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Tonight, we’ll read short stories including "The Magic Carpet" from the compilation called "The Day Before Yesterday" by Richard Middleton, published posthumously in 1912.
Middleton was a tragic figure- a young man impatient for success, who managed to live the archetypal life of the Romantic Bohemian poet, complete with poverty, unrequited love for an impossible woman, and an early, tragic death.
No novels were published while he was alive. Soon after his death, he was quote unquote discovered and critically acclaimed for the brilliance of his work and the brevity of his life.Four volumes of his collected works were published, including this one...
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Tonight, we’ll read the third part to "The Secret Garden",a novel by Frances Hodgson Burnett first published in 1911. Set in England, it is now one of Burnett's most popular novels and seen as a classic of English children's literature.If you’d like to start from the beginning, the first episode aired March 9th, 2020.
The most recent episode, part 2, aired April 29th, 2020. In the last episode, Mary and Mrs. Medlock take the train to Misselthwaite Manor. Mary sees the moor for the first time. It reminds her of the sea because of the sound of wind rushing across it. In the manor, she only meets her uncle Mr. Craven’s servants because Mr. Craven doesn’t care to see her.
She meets a young maid named Martha when she wakes up. Martha speaks in a Yorkshire dialect Mary has trouble understanding.This is where we will pick back up.
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Tonight, we’ll read more stories from "King Arthur and His Knights", published in 1903 by Maude L. Radford. If you’d like to listen to the first stories in this series, you can find our episode titled “The Sword Excalibur” that aired on April 10, 2020. King Arthur was a legendary British leader who, according to medieval histories and romances, led the defence of Britain against Saxon invaders in the late 5th and early 6th centuries.
The details of Arthur's story are mainly composed of folklore and literary invention, and modern historians generally agree that he is unhistorical. The Knights of the Round Table are the knightly members of the legendary fellowship of the King Arthurin literature.
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Tonight, we’ll read the second part to the story "Tears of Gold", known as "The Blessing of the Mendicant", from from Folk-Tales of the Khasis compiled by Mrs. Rafy in 1920.
The Khasi people are an indigenous ethnic tribe from India. A unique feature of the Khasi people is that they follow the matrilineal system of descent and inheritance.In part 1, a boy named U Babam Doh grows up not knowing that the father he had never known had was eaten by the dragon U Yak Jakor.
The boy was bestowed the ability to cry tears of gold nuggets, because the boy’s mother had eaten some magical rabbit stew. The rabbit was a gift from a wise beggar. U Babam Doh grows up with another boy that is the heir apparent to rule his chiefdom. The prince grows jealous of U Babam Doh’s uncanny luck at winning, and charges him with witchcraft.
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Tonight, we’ll read a story from Folk-Tales of the Khasis called "The Blessing of the Mendicant" (or Beggar), compiled by Mrs. Rafy in 1920.
The Khasi people are an indigenous ethnic tribe from India. A unique feature of the Khasi people is that they follow the matrilineal system of descent and inheritance. A mendicant is a person who relies on alms to survive. This person is often a monk or otherwise part of a religious order.
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Tonight, we’ll read the next part to Pride and Prejudice, written by Jane Austen. If you’d like to listen from the beginning, episode one aired on August 28th, 2019. If you’d like to listen to the last episode, it aired on June 15th, 2020.
Pride and Prejudice follows Elizabeth Bennet, the dynamic protagonist, who learns about the repercussions of hasty judgments and eventually comes to appreciate the difference between superficial goodness and actual goodness. In the previous episode, Mrs. Bennet arrives with two more of her daughters, Lydia and Catherine, to visit Jane and Elizabeth at Netherfield.
Mrs. Bennet makes a general fool of herself, trying too hard to convince Bingley to remain there, and boasting about Jane’s beauty. Fifteen year old Lydia Bennet boldly asks Bingley whether he will hold a ball at Netherfield.
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Tonight, we’ll read the story "The Man With The Twisted Lip from The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes", published in 1891. This mystery deals with London opium dens, missing gentleman and their worried wives.
[Editor's note: This episode contains themes that may not be suitable for some listeners].
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Tonight, we’ll read the eighth chapter of “Little Women” by American author Louisa May Alcott, published in 1868, titled “Jo Meets Apollyon”. Following the lives of the four March sisters—Meg, Jo, Beth and Amy—the novel details their passage from childhood to womanhood and is loosely based on the author and her sisters.If you would like to start at the beginning, find the first episode that aired on December 18th, 2019.
If you would like a refresher from the last chapter, it aired on June 3rd, 2020. In the previous chapter, Amy’s Valley of Humiliation, Amy borrows money in order to obtain trendy pickled limes, and gets in trouble for it with the teacher. Her harsh punishment leads to her mother, Marmee, allowing her to take a break from going to school, although Marmee also warns Amy about her conceited nature.
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Tonight, we shall read the fifth chapter to Peter Pan, the 1911 novel by J.M. Barrie. If you’d like to start this story from the beginning, you can find the first part aired on March 20th, 2019. If you’d like a refresher by listening to the last most recent episode, part 4 aired on April 15th, 2020.
In chapter 4, Peter Pan, Wendy, John, Michael, and Tinker Bell fly toward Neverland for many days. They approach Neverland as the sun is setting. The island looks ominous at dusk. Pirates fire at them as they approach, and Tinker Bell thinks of a jealous plan to rid herself of Wendy.
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Tonight, we’ll read an excerpt from 1892’s The Chemistry of Cookery by W. Mattieu Williams titled Count Rumford’s Substitute for Tea and Coffee. Who is this Count Rumford, you may ask? Well, to summarize Count Rumford’s life in modern words: Benjamin Thompson was an interesting fellow. Born in Massachusetts in 1753, he charmed and married an heiress from Concord, New Hampshire, then called Rumford NH. He was a British loyalist when the American Revolutionary War began. When a rebel mob attacked his house, he abandoned his house and family to join the British side of the war and conducted experiments on gunpowder. Then he moved to Bavaria, and among other things applied his scientific skills to establishing workhouses for the poor and inventing the method of cooking called Sous Vide. For his efforts in science and society his awarded the title of Count. He chose the name Rumford for the town he was married in some twenty years earlier.
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Tonight, we’ll read the third part to our The Magic Cloak series, from the book Queen Zixi of Ix, or The Story of the Magic Cloak, a children's book written by L. Frank Baum and published in 1905.
The Magic Cloak episode one aired on Nov 11, 2019. If you’d like to listen to the last episode again, Part 2 aired March 30th, 2020. The events of the book alternate between Noland and Ix, two neighboring regions to the Land of Oz.
Baum, who also wrote the Wizard of Oz, commented this was the best book he had written. This episode will start at the opening of Chapter Four. In the last episode, the kingdom of Noland’s high counselors are trying to decide how to choose a successor to the dead king. It turns out that there is an obscure law that the forty-seventh person to pass through the gates would be declared ruler. Meanwhile, orphaned children Meg, AKA Fluff, and Timothy, AKA Bud, along with their stern Aunt Rivette, are headed for town when Meg is gifted a magic cloak by a fairy. The magic cloak brings her a magical happiness.
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Tonight, we'll read pt. 6 from Johanna Spyri's "Heidi" first published in 1881.
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Tonight, we’ll read the second part to the fairy tale called "The White Cat", credited to Madame d’Aulnoy. In part 1, the old king devises to distract his sons from taking over the throne with a sort of fool’s errand to find him the perfect beautiful lap dog. Whoever won would also take over the kingdom.
The youngest son stumbles upon a magical castle with a lovely talking cat, known as the White Cat. She gives him an acorn that she says carries the tiniest, most perfect dog, to bring to his father.
As an aside, the story mentions that the prince brings with him a “turnspit dog”. This was a lowly breed of dog that is now extinct. It was kept in kitchens and ran on a wheel to turn the spit, or rotisserie that meat cooked on. The turnspit may have been an ancestor to either a modern Corgi, or the Glen terrier.
In order not to overexert a dog with this hot and unpleasant work they were often kept in pairs, so that they could be worked in shifts. It is believed that this is the origin of the proverb 'every dog has his day.’The Turnspit dog was also used as foot warmers at church, and it is said that Queen Victoria kept retired turspits as pets.
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Tonight, we’ll read a fairy tale called The White Cat, credited to Madame Comtesse d’Aulnoy. Madame d’Aulnoy’s tales were designed to entertain literary salon attendees for hours so they tended to be long, complicated and political. She could not openly criticize the regime of Louis the Fourteenth, or the way aristocratic women were entrapped within it, but she could tell her fairy tales, as in this one.
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Tonight, we’ll read “If On a Summer’s Night a Traveler...”, a Snoozecast original.
The story is an homage to Julio Cortazar’s “The Continuity of Parks” and Italo Calvino’s “If on a winter’s night a traveler”. This meta-fiction follows a group around the campfire deciding what story to tell, while eventually settling on one that seems to converge — with their own reality.
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Tonight, we’ll read part 4 to, "The Princess and the Goblin", a children’s fantasy novel, published in 1872.
One of the most successful and beloved of Victorian fairy tales, George Macdonald’s "The Princess and the Goblin" tells the story of young Princess Irene and her friend Curdie, who must outwit the threatening goblins who live in caves beneath her mountain home.
When we left off, the princess and her nurse Lootie go for a walk and get lost. As they try to make their way back, the day gets later and the shadows longer. Lootie is afraid of breaking the most important rule- to never let the princess be out in the dark, due to goblin issues. Luckily, they meet a mining boy named Curdie who helps them back to safety.
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pt. 1 air date: April 15, 2019 — pt. 2 air date: July 29, 2019 — pt. 3 air date: March 23, 2020
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Tonight, we’ll read the opening to "The Lazy Tour of Two Idle Apprentices", written in collaboration by Charles Dickens and Wilkie Collins.
The book reads as an autobiographical tour taken by the two of them in the north of Britain. The Lazy Tour takes place in the year 1857 and provides insight into the friendship and adventures of the pair of titans of Victorian literature.
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Tonight, we’ll read excerpts from the book "Fresh Fields" by John Burroughs, published in 1896. The main section we will read is titled At Sea.
John Burroughs was an American nature essayist, active in the U.S.conservation movement. Burroughs accompanied many personalities of the time in his later years, including Theodore Roosevelt, Henry Ford (who gave him an automobile), and Thomas Edison.
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Also known as "The Arabian Nights", "One Thousand and One Nights" is a collection of Middle Eastern folk tales compiled in Arabic during the Islamic Golden Age, which ran from the 8th to the 14th centuries.
In the first part of the story, we meet the Persian emperor Kosrouschah. We also meet 3 sisters- one who becomes the emperor’s queen, and the other two become wives of the emperor’s baker and his royal chef. These two become jealous of the queen so when she gives birth to two sons and a daughter, the sisters secretly steal and abandon each baby. The royal babies are all found by the emperor’s gardener and raised as his own.
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pt. 1 air date: June 24, 2020
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Tonight, we are offering the first part of the story “The Talking Bird, The Singing Tree and the Golden Water” from One Thousand and One Nights. This episode is remastered and rebroadcast - the original air date was on January 11th, 2019. Our next episode will feature part two of this story.
Also known as "The Arabian Nights", "One Thousand and One Nights" is a collection of Middle Eastern folk tales compiled in Arabic during the Islamic Golden Age, which ran from the 8th to the 14th centuries. Some tales themselves trace their roots back to ancient and medieval Arabic, Persian, Greek, Indian, Jewish and Turkish folklore and literature.
What is common throughout all the editions of the "Nights" is the initial frame story of the ruler and his wife and the framing device incorporated throughout the tales themselves. The stories proceed from this original tale; some are framed within other tales, while others begin and end of their own accord. Some editions contain only a few hundred nights, while others include 1,001 or more.
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pt. 2 air date: June 26, 2020
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Tonight, we’ll read another excerpt from “In New England Fields and Woods”, written by Rowland Evans Robinson in 1896. Robinson was, in his time, one of Vermont’s best known writers.
This collection of short essays follows New England's changing seasons and moods in all its natural beauty. This particular selection covers the month of June, along with bullfrogs and angler fishing.
Angling is the type of fishing, unlike trolling or long lining for example, that one typically assumes when one thinks of the activity- that of a hook on a line with a rod.
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Tonight, by Patreon supporter request, we’ll read "A Lady’s Life in the Rocky Mountains", a travel book, by Isabella Bird, describing her 1873 trip to the Rocky Mountains of Colorado.
The book is a compilation of letters, that Isabella Bird wrote to her sister, Henrietta. Women were scarce enough in the Western United States of the late nineteenth century, and a middle-aged English lady traveling alone, by horseback, was quite a phenomenon.
Bird was a nineteenth-century British explorer, writer,photographer,and naturalist. From early on, Bird was frail and suffered from headaches and insomnia. Doctors recommended open air and exercise, so Bird learned to ride horseback.
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Tonight, we’ll read the third part to the classic 1847 novel "Jane Eyre", by English writer Charlotte Bronte. It is the story of a young, orphaned girl who lives with her Aunt and cousins and is mistreated by them. The novel is considered one of the greatest works of English fiction.
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pt. 1 air date: September 9, 2019 — pt. 2 air date: January 29, 2019
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Tonight, we’ll read the next part to "Pride and Prejudice", written by Jane Austen. "Pride and Prejudice" follows Elizabeth Bennet, the dynamic protagonist, who learns about the repercussions of hasty judgments and eventually comes to appreciate the difference between superficial goodness and actual goodness.
In the previous episode, Jane Bennet falls ill on a visit to Bingley’s house, and is forced to remain there sick. Her sister Elizabeth goes to visit her. Jane insists that her sister spend the night. That night, while Elizabeth visits Jane, the Bingley sisters poke fun at the Bennets. Darcy and Mr. Bingley defend them, though Darcy concedes that the Bennets’ lack of wealth and family make them poor marriage prospects.
— read by 'V' —
pt. 1 air date: August 28, 2019 — pt. 2 air date: October 21, 2019 — pt. 3 air date: December 4, 2019 — pt. 4 air date: March 11, 2020
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Tonight, we’ll read a chapter titled “An Old Road” from "A Rambler’s Lease" by Bradford Torrey, published in 1892.
Torrey was an American ornithologist. He also edited a book of Thoreau’s journal writings. He wrote a preface to A Rambler’s Lease paraphrased as follows: “The writer of this little book has found so much pleasure in other men's woods and fields that he has come to look upon himself as in some sort the owner of them. Their lawful possessors will not begrudge him this feeling, he believes, nor take it amiss if he assumes, even in this public way, to hold a rambler's lease of their property. His private opinion is that the world belongs to those who enjoy it.”
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Tonight, we’ll read the opening to, "The Invisible Man", a science fiction novel by H.G. Wells, published in 1897. The Invisible Man refers to a scientist named Griffin, devoted to research into optics.
He invents a way to become invisible. He tests it on himself successfully, only to find that he cannot reverse it. The novel is considered influential, and helped establish Wells as the "father of science fiction".
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Tonight, we’ll read The Golden Goose, from Katherine Pyle’s 1918 "Mother’s Nursery Tales". The Golden Goose was collected by The Brothers Grimm. In this tale, The Golden Goose, a simple and sweet man named John finds a goose with golden feathers- and it turns his whole world on its head.
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Tonight, we’ll read an excerpt from “The Soul of Golf” by P.A. Vaile, published in 1912. Vaile was born in 1866, and wrote many books on the subject of golf.
The modern game of golf originated in 15th century Scotland, but it’s ancient origins are unclear and much debated. Versions of the game may harken back to ancient Rome or China.
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Tonight, we’ll read the seventh chapter of “Little Women” by American author Louisa May Alcott, published in 1868, titled “Amy’s Valley of Humiliation”. Following the lives of the four March sisters—Meg, Jo, Beth and Amy—the novel details their passage from childhood to womanhood and is loosely based on the author and her sisters.
In the previous chapter, shy Beth and old Mr. Laurence become friends. Beth reminds Mr. Laurence of his beloved but deceased granddaughter. He gives Beth a piano as a gift.
— read by 'V' —
pt. 1 air date: December 18, 2019 — pt. 2 air date: December 25, 2019 — pt. 3 air date: January 1, 2020 — pt. 4 air date: February 12, 2020 — pt. 5 air date: March 4, 2020 — pt. 6 air date: April 1, 2020
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Tonight, we’ll read "Snow White", a 19th-century German fairy tale which is today known widely across the Western world. The Brothers Grimm published it in 1812.
The seven dwarfs were first given individual names in the 1912 Broadway play Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs and then given different names in Walt Disney's 1937 film Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.
The Grimm story, which is commonly referred to as "Snow White", should not be confused with the story of "Snow-White and Rose-Red", another fairy tale collected by the Brothers Grimm.
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Tonight, we’ll read excerpts from "Healthful Sports for Boys", by A.R. Calhoun. Also known as Alfred Rochfort, born in 1844, Calhoun was an American soldier, author, journalist and critic. He served in the Union army during the U.S. Civil War. He was born in Kentucky and died in Brooklyn in 1912.
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Tonight, we’ll be reading the third part to "Doctor Dolittle", written in 1920 by British author Hugh Lofting. The full title being, “The Story of Doctor Dolittle, Being the History of His Peculiar Life at Home and Astonishing Adventures in Foreign Parts”.
It is the first of Lofting’s Doctor Dolittle books, a series of children's novels about a man who learns to talk to animals and becomes their champion around the world.
Previously, the good doctor’s animal collection grows. Dr. Dolittle takes a ship to Africa to help with an epidemic, and introduces himself to the native people.
— read by 'M' —
pt. 1 air date: December 2, 2019 — pt. 2 air date: February 3, 2020
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Tonight, we’ll read the opening to "Roughing It", by Mark Twain, published in 1872.
It is a semi-autobiographical travel memoir following a young Twain through the Wild West during the 1860s.
US Astronauts Frank Borman and Jim Lovell read Roughing It aloud to pass the time aboard a two week long mission orbiting the earth in 1965.
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Tonight, we’ll read the opening to "Lorna Doone", a Romance of Exmoor, a novel published in 1869 and written by English author Richard Doodridge Blackmore.
"Lorna Doone" is based on a group of historical characters set in the late 17th century. John Ridd is the son of a farmer who is murdered by a member of the Doone clan.
The Doone’s were once noble but now outlaws. John falls in love with a girl named Lorna who turns out to be from this very clan he loathes.
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Tonight, we’ll read a story called, "Fortunatus". It is inspired by a German tale regarding a legendary hero popular in 15th and 16th century Europe.
"Fortunatus" is a tale which marks the passing of the feudal world into the more modern, globalized, capitalist world.
The moral of the story is that it is far too easy, without wisdom, to lose one's fortune, no matter how it was acquired.
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Tonight, we’ll read a Japanese folk tale called "The Story of Urashima Taro, the Fisher Lad", compiled in Japanese Fairy Tales by Yei Theodora Ozaki.
Urashima is a fisherman rewarded for rescuing a turtle. The tale, sometimes called the “Japanese Rip van Winkle”, originates from 8th century Japanese literature.
It is considered a national fairy tale.
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Tonight, we’ll read "Terra Nova", a Snoozecast original.
In this short story, a young man meets a trio of travellers who provide a new perspective on the isolated village he wants to leave. Set in Canada’s Gros Morne National Park, a World Heritage Site, this tale draws inspiration from The Tablelands.
The striking, desert-esque landscape is notable for illustrating the theory of plate tectonics.
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Tonight, we’ll read the second part to, "The Swiss Family Robinson".
"The Swiss Family Robinson" is an 1812 novel by Johann David Wyss, about a Swiss family shipwrecked in the East Indies en route to Australia. Wyss, a Swiss pastor, originally wrote this book to entertain and instruct his four sons.
In part 1, The Robinsons' ship wrecks and the family decide to explore what is left the next day. They make a boat and decide to set sail for an island on the horizon.
— read by 'N' —
pt. 1 air date: January 22, 2020
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Tonight, by listener request, we’ll read the second and final part to the story, "The Princess of Babylon".
This story is taken from a lesser known philosophical tale by Voltaire, written in 1768. The story focuses on Amazan, a handsome, unknown shepherd, and Formosanta, the Princess of Babylon, whose love and jealousy drive them to travel the world.
In the first episode, the king holds a competition of the world’s rulers who were interested in marrying his daughter, the princess. The games would be impossibly difficult. A handsome and magical stranger appears out of seeming thin air to win the games, however he is suddenly called away to care to matters at home.
— read by 'V' —
pt.1 air date: January 6, 2020
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Tonight, we’ll read the opening to Wassily Kandinsky’s, “Concerning the Spiritual in Art”, published in 1911.
Kandinsky, a Russian painter and art theorist, is credited as the pioneer of abstract art. This text is the artist’s meditation on how the creative process feeds a spiritual hunger within the artist.
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Tonight, we’ll read the opening to, "The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman" by Laurence Sterne and published in 1759.
As its title suggests, the book is about Tristram's narration of his life story. But one of the central jokes of the novel is that he cannot explain anything simply; he must make diversions to add interest to his tale, to the extent that Tristram's own birth is not even reached until far into the book. Its style is marked by digression,double entendre, and graphic devices.
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Tonight, by Patreon supporter request, we’ll read pt. 2 to, "The Yellow Dwarf" from "The Blue Fairy Book" edited by Andrew Lang in 1889.
"The Yellow Dwarf" story originated from the Countess d'Aulnoy, a 17th century French writer known for her fairy tales. In part I, Bellissima is a beautiful princess who has a spell put on her by the yellow dwarf that her and him should marry.
Bellissima moves forward with her life in hopes that the spell isn’t true, and plans to marry one of the many kings who want to betroth her.
— read by 'V' —
pt. 1 air date: May 4, 2020
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Tonight, by listener request, we’ll read the fourth installment to 1877’s, "Black Beauty" by Anna Sewall. "Black Beauty" is one of the best-selling books of all time.
When we left off, we learned Ginger’s story. Ginger is a mean-spirited horse- or so she seems, until you hear her experience and mistreatment. Even the well behaved pony named Merrylegs sometimes has trouble with human behavior, but Merrylegs is wiser in how he responds.
— read by 'V' —
pt. 1 air date: September 25, 2019 — pt. 2 air date: November 20, 2019 — pt. 3 air date: January 20, 2020
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Tonight, we’ll read the second part to "The Secret Garden",a novel by Frances Hodgson Burnett first published in 1911. Set in England, it is now one of Burnett's most popular novels and seen as a classic of English children's literature.
In the first episode, we learn of the unloved and unloving Mary. When cholera breaks out, she is left all alone in the world. She is then sent from India to England to live with her uncle, Archibald Craven.
— read by 'V' —
pt. 1 air date: March 9, 2020
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Tonight, we’ll read some selected Himalayan Folk Tales from a 1906 book called "Simla Village Tales", written by Alice Elizabeth Dracott.
From the author in her preface: "Himalayan folk-lore, with its beauty, wit, and mysticism, is a most fascinating study, and makes one grieve to think that the day is fast approaching when the honest rugged hill-folk of Northern India will lose their fireside tales under the influence of modern civilisation....From their cradle under the shade of ancient deodars, beside the rocks, forests and streams of the mighty Himalayan mountains, have I sought these tales to place them upon the great Bookshelf of the World.”
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Tonight, we’ll read about the basics of bread making, from Volume 1 of 1925’s "Woman’s Institute Library of Cookery", written by The Woman’s Institute of Domestic Arts and Sciences.
This institute was founded by Mary Brooks Picken in Scranton, PA. An expert on fashion, Picken also wrote the first dictionary to be published by a woman in the English language.
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Tonight, we’ll read the opening to "Moonfleet", a 1898 novel written by English writer J. Meade Falkner. The plot is an adventure tale of smuggling, treasure, and shipwreck set in 18th century England. Falkner is best known for writing this book.
A feature of the narrative is a continuing reference to the board game of backgammon which is played by the patrons of the "Why Not? Inn" on an antique board which bears a Latin inscription that translates to: “As in life, so in a game of hazard, skill will make something of the worst of throws.”
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Tonight, we’ll read from "Princess Belle Etoile", written by the 17th century French writer and mother of modern western fairy tales, Marie-Catherine Le Jumel de Barneville, AKA the Madame Countess d'Aulnoy.
She originated the term that is now generally used for the genre. "Princess Belle Etoile" was itself inspired by an Italian fairy tale, which may have originally spun from an Arabic tale.
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Tonight, we’ll read another excerpt from, “In New England Fields and Woods”, written by Rowland Evans Robinson in 1896. Robinson was, in his time, one of Vermont’s best known writers.
This collection of short essays follows New England's changing seasons and moods in all its natural beauty. This particular selection covers the month of April, along with woodchucks, chipmunks and garter snakes.
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Tonight, we shall read the fourth installment to Peter Pan, the 1911 novel by J.M. Barrie.
In the last part, chapter 3, Peter promises Wendy to teach her to fly if she will come to Neverland and tell stories to him and “the lost boys”. Nanna the dog nanny does her best to alert the parents, but it is too late.
All the children, along with Peter and Tinkerbell, had just flown out the window into the night.
— read by 'V' —
pt. 1 air date: March 20, 2019 — pt. 2 air date: April 29, 2019 — pt. 3 air date: February 10, 2020
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Tonight, by listener request, we’ll read the opening to Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm, a classic American 1903 children's novel by Kate Douglas Wiggin.
It tells the story of Rebecca and her aunts, one stern and one kind, in the fictional village of Riverboro,Maine. Rebecca's joy for life inspires her aunts, but she faces many trials in her young life, gaining wisdom and understanding.
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Tonight, we’ll read the opening stories in Tales of King Arthur and the Round Table, published in 1918 by Andrew Lang. King Arthur was a legendary British leader who, according to medieval histories and romances, led the defense of Britain against Saxon invaders in the late 5th and early 6th centuries.
The details of Arthur's story are mainly composed of folklore and literary invention, and modern historians generally agree that he is unhistorical. The Knights of the Round Table are the knightly members of the legendary fellowship of the King Arthurian literature.
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Tonight, we'll read A Case of Identity, a short story from the Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, written by Arthur Conan Doyle in 1892. In general the stories in Sherlock Holmes identify, and try to correct, social injustices. In this story, a wealthy woman’s fiancé disappears and she hires the detective to help find him.
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Tonight, by listener request, we’ll finish the story of Rip Van Winkle. "Rip Van Winkle" was originally a short story by the American author Washington Irving, published in 1819.
It follows a Dutch-American villager in colonial America named Rip Van Winkle who falls asleep in the Catskill Mountains and wakes up 20 years later, having missed the American Revolution. Irving wrote it while in England and later admitted he had never been to the Catskill Mountains when he wrote the story.
When we left off, Rip awakens from his long sleep on the mountain, and walks back to town, unaware of how long he had been asleep.
— read by 'V' —
pt. 1 air date: August 26, 2019
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Tonight, we’ll read "The Yellow Dwarf" from "The Blue Fairy Book", edited by Andrew Lang in 1889. "The Yellow Dwarf" story originated from the Countess d'Aulnoy, a 17th century French writer known for her fairy tales. She originated the term that is now generally used for the genre.
— read by 'V' —
pt. 2 air date: May 4, 2020
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Tonight, we’ll read the sixth chapter of “Little Women” by American author Louisa May Alcott, published in 1868, titled “Beth Finds the Palace Beautiful”. Following the lives of the four March sisters—Meg, Jo, Beth and Amy—the novel details their passage from childhood to womanhood and is loosely based on the author and her sisters.
In the previous chapter, on a snowy day Jo finds that Laurie is shut in his mansion, lonely and with a cold, and she brings in the warmth of friendship.
— read by 'V' —
pt. 1 air date: December 18, 2019 — pt. 2 air date: December 25, 2019 — pt. 3 air date: January 1, 2020 — pt. 4 air date: February 12, 2020 — pt. 5 air date: March 4, 2020 — pt. 7 air date: June 3, 2020
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Tonight, by listener request, we’ll read the next section to "Queen Zixi of Ix, or The Story of the Magic Cloak", a children's book written by L. Frank Baum and published in 1905.
The events of the book alternate between Noland and Ix, two neighboring regions to the Land of Oz, and Baum himself commented this was the best book he had written.
In Chapter 1, the fairy Queen Lulea calls their merrymaking to a halt, and suggests they do something practical and helpful for a change. The fairies decide to create a magic cloak that can grant its wearer one wish. A fairy is set forth to give the cloak to the first unhappy person they meet.
— read by 'V' —
pt. 1 air date: November 11, 2019
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Tonight, by listener request, we’ll read the opening to "Riverby" by John Burroughs. The section is titled "Among the Wild Flowers".
John Burroughs was an American nature essayist, active in the U.S.conservation movement. Burroughs accompanied many personalities of the time in his later years, including Theodore Roosevelt, Henry Ford (who gave him an automobile),and Thomas Edison.
According to Ford, "John Burroughs, Edison, and I made several vagabond trips together. We went in motor caravans and slept under canvas."
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Tonight, we’ll read the opening to "Sketches of Gotham: A Collection of Unusual Stories Told in an Unusual Way", written by Owen Gould Davis in 1906.
Davis was an American dramatist. In 1919, he became the first elected president of the Dramatists Guild of America. He penned hundreds of plays and scripts for radio and film. Before the First World War, he also wrote racy sketches of New York City high jinks and low-life like this one under the pen-name, Ike Swift.
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Tonight, by listener request, we’ll read the third part to "The Princess and the Goblin", a children’s fantasy novel, published in 1872.
One of the most successful and beloved of Victorian fairy tales, George Macdonald’s, "The Princess and the Goblin" tells the story of young Princess Irene and her friend Curdie, who must outwit the threatening goblins who live in caves beneath her mountain home.
When we left off, the Princess had met a mysterious old woman introduced to her as her grandmother. The Grandmother keeps magical pigeons and eats their eggs. When the princess goes back downstairs to her nurse-maid, she doesn’t believe the Princess’s tale to be true.
— read by 'V' —
pt. 1 air date: April 15, 2019 — pt. 2 air date: July 29, 2019 — pt. 4 air date: July 3, 2020
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Tonight, by listener request, we’ll read the next section of the classic children’s story "Heidi", published in 1881 by Swiss author Johanna Spyri.
It is a novel about the life of a young girl in her grandfather's care in the Swiss Alps. "Heidi" is one of the best-selling books ever written and is among the best-known works of Swiss literature. We will pick up where we left off, at the start of chapter 5.
In the last episode, it is the middle of winter on the mountain. Peter gives Grandfather and Heidi the idea that she should visit his grandmother. Grandmother is grateful for the company, and Heidi inspires her Grandfather to help repair the Grandmother’s cottage.
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pt. 1 air date: March 8, 2019 — pt. 2 air date: August 12, 2019 — pt. 3 air date: October 28, 2019 — pt. 4 air date: January 15, 2020
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Tonight, we’ll read "The Golden Mermaid", a story found in Andrew Lang’s The Green Fairy Book. In this story, a beautiful mermaid falls in love with a prince. But it’s not The Little Mermaid, it’s different. We promise. Because she’s golden.
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Tonight we’ll read an excerpt from the book “Abigail Adams and Her Times”, by Laura Elizabeth Howe Richards. Richards wrote more than 90 books including biographies,poetry, and several for children. Her father was an abolitionist and her mother wrote the words to the Battle Hymn of the Republic.
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Tonight, we’ll read the next part to "Pride and Prejudice", part to the 1813 romantic novel of manners Pride and Prejudice, written by Jane Austen, starting with Chapter 7.
The novel follows Elizabeth Bennet, the dynamic protagonist, who learns about the repercussions of hasty judgments and eventually comes to appreciate the difference between superficial goodness and actual goodness.
In the previous episode, the relationships between Jane and Elizabeth Bennet and the Bingley sisters develops as the girls make their formal visits.
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pt. 1 air date: December 18, 2019 — pt. 2 air date: December 25, 2019 — pt. 3 air date: January 1, 2020 — pt. 5 air date: March 4, 2020 — pt. 6 air date: April 1, 2020 — pt. 7 air date: June 3, 2020
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Tonight, we’ll read the opening to "The Secret Garden",a novel by Frances Hodgson Burnett first published in 1911. Set in England, it is now one of Burnett's most popular novels and seen as a classic of English children's literature.
During Burnett’s life, The Secret Garden was overlooked but the book has risen in prominence as more scholarly studies have been done on children’s literature. If you enjoy The Secret Garden, be sure to listen to "A Little Princes"s on Snoozecast, also written by Burnett.
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pt. air date: April 29, 2020
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Tonight, we'll read excerpts from "Candy-Making Revolutionized: Confectionery from Vegetables" by Mary Elizabeth Hall, printed in 1912. Hall wrote that her hope was that through this book “the more vegetable candy is made, the less unhealthful confectionery there will be consumed."
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Tonight, we’ll read the fifth chapter of “Little Women” by American author Louisa May Alcott, published in 1868, titled “Being Neighborly”. Following the lives of the four March sisters—Meg, Jo, Beth and Amy—the novel details their passage from childhood to womanhood and is loosely based on the author and her sisters.In the previous chapter, Burdens, the holidays are over and the girls return to their work, and to the burdens of life.
— read by 'V' —
pt. 1 air date: December 18, 2019 — pt. 2 air date: December 25, 2019 — pt. 3 air date: January 1, 2020 — pt. 4 air date: February 12, 2020 — pt. 6 air date: April 1, 2020 — pt. 7 air date: June 3, 2020
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Tonight, by listener request, we’ll read the opening to "Greyfriars Bobby", a 1912 novel by Eleanor Atkinson based on the true story of the dog Greyfriars Bobby.
This novel is written from the point-of-view of the dog, Bobby, and uses Scottish dialogue as the novel is set in Edinburgh,Scotland. The book is written from the mind of a dog, which makes every-day events strange —the opening line references a church clock as a "time-gun", for example.
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Tonight, we’ll read excerpts from “Oregon, Washington And Alaska: Sights And Scenes for the Tourist” written in 1890 by E.L. Lomax. Officially incorporated in 1851, Portland grew steadily, forming an identity as an industrial trading town. Up into the 1890s,Portland hosted the Pacific Northwest's largest port, only to be surpassed later by Seattle.
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Tonight, we’ll read the opening to "The Scarlet Pimpernel", a historical fiction novel by Baroness Orczy, published in 1905. The novel is set during the Reign of Terror following the start of the French Revolution.
The title is the nom de guerre of its hero, a chivalrous Englishman who rescues aristocrats before they are sent to the guillotine. Sir Percy Blakeney leads a double life: apparently nothing more than a wealthy fop, but in reality a formidable swordsman and a quick-thinking escape artist.
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Tonight, by listener request, we’ll read the opening to "A Little Princess", a children's novel by Frances Hodgson Burnett, first published as a book in 1905. It is considered one of the top children’s books in the US of all time, along with Burnett’s other book, "The Secret Garden".
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Tonight, we’ll read another excerpt from “In New England Fields and Woods”, written by Rowland Evans Robinson in 1896. Robinson was, in his time, one of Vermont’s best known writers. This collection of short essays follows New England's changing seasons and moods in all its natural beauty. This particular selection is part of the late winter time section.
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Tonight, we'll read "The Juno," a Snoozecast original. In this story, an unexpected guest causes a stir aboard a tall ship bound for Antarctica. Told through journal entries written by the ship's fictional navigator, this tale is inspired by the Ross expedition.
The voyage lasted from 1839 to 1843 and made substantial contributions to the fields of botany and zoology. It proved to be the final significant voyage of discovery powered only by sail.
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Tonight, by listener request, we’ll read the second part to "My Father’s Dragon", written by Ruth Stiles Gannett in 1948. We released the first episode quite a while ago so you may need to scroll back a ways if you want to listen to that first.
The novel is about a young boy, Elmer Elevator, who runs away to Wild Island to rescue a baby dragon.We will start at the beginning of Chapter 5, where the boy has finally made it to the island, where he encounters a pack of hungry tigers.
— read by 'V' —
pt. 1 air date: May 20, 2019
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Tonight, we’ll read a letter Thomas Jefferson sent to Maria Cosway in 1786. Jefferson, a widower, met Cosway, who was married, while travelling in France and was rather charmed by the Italian-English artist.
In this letter, a sorrowful Jefferson pines for her and imagines a debate between his head and his heart. He writes, the only “effective security against such pain of unrequited love, is to retire within ourselves and to suffice for our own happiness.”
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Tonight, we’ll read the fourth chapter of “Little Women” by American author Louisa May Alcott, published in 1868, titled “Burdens”. Following the lives of the four March sisters—Meg, Jo, Beth and Amy—the novel details their passage from childhood to womanhood and is loosely based on the author and her sisters.In the previous chapter, Meg and Jo attend a party, and Jo gets acquainted with the Laurence boy, aka Laurie.
— read by 'V' —
pt. 1 air date: December 18, 2019 — pt. 2 air date: December 25, 2019 — pt. 3 air date: January 1, 2020 — pt. 5 air date: March 4, 2020 — pt. 6 air date: April 1, 2020 — pt. 7 air date: June 3, 2020
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Tonight, by listener request, we’ll read the third installment to "Peter Pan", the 1911 novel by J.M. Barrie.
In the last part, chapter 2, Nanna the dog catches Peter Pan’s shadow in the nursery and Mrs. Darling the mother stashes it away.
Mr. Darling treats Nanna badly and ties her up outside, and the Darling parents go out for the night, leaving the children alone inside.
— read by 'V' —
pt. 1 air date: March 20, 2019 — pt. 2 air date: April 29, 2019 — pt. 4 air date: April 15, 2020
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Tonight we’ll read a story called "The White Seal" from 1894’s "The Jungle Book" written by Rudyard Kipling. Kipling was born in India and raised both there and in England, working in India before settling to write these tales from a home he built in Vermont, USA.
It is believed that Kipling wrote the collection of stories for his daughter Josephine, who died from pneumonia in 1899, aged 6. Many names in the White Seal story are Russian, as the Pribilof Islands had been bought (with Alaska) by the United States in 1867, and Kipling had access to books about the islands.
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Tonight, by listener request, we’ll read the opening to 1794’s "The Mysteries of Udolpho" by English author Ann Radcliffe. Radcliffe was a pioneer of Gothic fiction and the most popular author of her day.
Later the author Dostoevsky would write that he had been influenced by Radcliffe as a child. "I used to spend the long winter hours before bed listening... agape with ecstasy and terror, as my parents read aloud to me from the novels of Ann Radcliffe. Then I would rave deliriously about them in my sleep.”
The Mysteries of Udolpho tells of Emily St. Aubert, who suffers, among other misadventures, the death of her mother and father, supernatural terrors in a gloomy castle and machinations of an Italian brigand.
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Tonight, we’ll be reading the second part to "Doctor Dolittle", written in 1920 by British author Hugh Lofting. The full title being, “The Story of Doctor Dolittle, Being the History of His Peculiar Life at Home and Astonishing Adventures in Foreign Parts”.
It is the first of Lofting’s Doctor Dolittle books, a series of children's novels about a man who learns to talk to animals and becomes their champion around the world.
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pt. 1 air date: December 2, 2019 — pt. 3 air date: May 27, 2020
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Tonight we’ll read an excerpt from Benjamin Franklin’s autobiography where he describes his childhood. “The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin”is the traditional name for the unfinished record of his own life memoirs written by Franklin,from 1771 to 1790.
Only published well after his death, this work has become one of the most famous and influential examples of an autobiography ever written.
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Tonight, by listener request, we’ll read the second part to the classic 1847 novel "Jane Eyre" by English writer Charlotte Brontë. It is the story of a young, orphaned girl who lives with her Aunt and cousins and is mistreated by them.
The novel is considered one of the greatest works of English fiction. In Part 1, we read Chapter 1 and the opening of Chapter 2. Poor little Jane is bullied by her entire adopted family of an aunt and cousins, along with being misunderstood and treated meanly by their servants. After she is unfairly punished for standing up for herself by being locked in a guest room, she starts to examine this red colored room further.
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pt. 1 air date: September 9, 2019 — pt. 3 air date: June 17, 2020
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Tonight we’ll read "The Treasure Seeker", a story found in the "Crimson Fairy Book" written by Andrew Lang and published in 1903.
In this story, a party of shepherds sat one night telling of the strange things that had happened to them in their youth. One of their stories was more exciting than expected, regarding a mysterious dark spirit who was The Treasure Seeker of the mountain.
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Tonight, we’ll read the opening section from, "From the Caves and Jungles of Hindustan" written by Helena Blavatsky and published in 1883.
Madame Blavatsky was a Russian occultist and philosopher who traveled around the world, including India, before moving to New York City. She co-founded the Theosophical Society in 1875 and gained an international following from the esoteric religion that the society promoted.
Madame Blavatsky was a controversial figure, championed by supporters as an enlightened guru and derided as a fraudulent charlatan by critics. Her Theosophical doctrines influenced the spread of Hindu and Buddhist ideas in the West as well as the development of Western esoteric currents like the New Age Movement.
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Tonight, by listener request, we’ll read the opening to "The Swiss Family Robinson", a novel by Johann David Wyss, about a Swiss family shipwrecked in the East Indies en route to Australia.
Wyss, a Swiss pastor, originally wrote this book to entertain and instruct his four sons. Years later, one of his sons, persuaded his father to allow him to complete and edit the unfinished manuscript. It was published in Zurich in 1812.
— read by 'M' —
pt. 2 air date: May 13, 2020
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Tonight, by listener request, we’ll read the third part to 1877’s "Black Beauty" by Anna Sewall. "Black Beauty" is one of the best-selling books of all time.
When we left off, our young main character has been trained by his kindly master and wise mother to learn the ways of a properly “broken in” horse. In the last episode, Black Beauty bonds with his stable boy John, who is considerate and pleasant to work with. Our protagonist also starts to learn the ways of his carriage partner, Ginger.
Black Beauty also expresses a sense of melancholy over the tedium of being a stable horse, and his desire for more freedom.
— read by 'V' —
pt. 1 air date: September 25, 2019 — pt. 2 air date: November 20, 2019 — pt. 4 air date: May 1, 2020
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Tonight, we’ll read an excerpt titled "A Micronesian Fish Drive", from a book of short stories called "Ridan the Devil", by Louis Becke, published in 1899. Becke was an Australian Pacific trader, short-story writer and novelist.
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Tonight, by listener request, we’ll read the next section of the classic children’s story "Heidi", published in 1881 by Swiss author Johanna Spyri.
It is a novel about the life of a young girl in her grandfather's care in the Swiss Alps. "Heidi" is one of the best-selling books ever written and is among the best-known works of Swiss literature.
We will pick up where we left off towards the end of chapter 3, with Heidi coming back to her grandfather after an amazing first day of wonderful experiences on the mountain with Peter and his goat herd.
— read by 'V' —
pt. 1 air date: March 8, 2019 — pt. 2 air date: August 12, 2019 — pt. 3 air date: October 28, 2019 — pt. 5 air date: March 20, 2020
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Tonight, we’ll read the opening stories of "Sinbad the Sailor and His Seven Voyages", taken from "The Arabian Nights", edited by Andrew Lang and published in 1898. Sinbad is a fictional mariner and the hero of a story-cycle of Middle Eastern origin.
He is described as hailing from Baghdad during the 9th century. In the course of seven voyages, he has fantastic adventures in magical realms, encountering monsters and witnessing supernatural phenomena.
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Tonight, we’ll read a chapter from "Three Hundred Things a Bright Boy Can Do", titled "Ventriloquism and Polyphony", written by “Many Hands” and published in 1914.
Ventriloquy, an act of stagecraft in which a person changes their voice so that it appears that the voice is coming from elsewhere, usually a puppet, known as a “dummy". Originally, ventriloquism was a religious practice among the ancient Greeks.
The noises produced by the stomach, for example were thought to be the voices of the unliving, who took up residence in the stomach of the ventriloquist. The ventriloquist would then interpret the sounds, as they were thought to be able to speak to the dead, as well as foretell the future.
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Tonight, we’ll read the opening chapters of “New Amazonia: A Foretaste of the Future”, written by Elizabeth Burgoyne Corbett under the pen name “Mrs. James Corbett” and first published in 1889.
Categorized as “feminist utopian”, it was one element in the wave of utopian and dystopian literature that marked the later nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. In her novel, Corbett envisions a successful suffragette movement eventually giving rise to a breed of highly evolved "Amazonians" who turn Ireland into a utopian society.
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Tonight, we’ll read the story "The Princess of Babylon", taken from "The Strange Storybook" by Mrs. Lang, published in 1913. The story is taken from a lesser known philosophical tale by Voltaire, written in 1768.
The story focuses on Amazan, a handsome, unknown shepherd, and Formosanta, the Princess of Babylon, whose love and jealousy drive them to travel the world. Through their travels they encounter the basic values of the Enlightenment.
— read by 'V' —
pt. 2 air date: May 11, 2020
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Tonight, we’ll read the opening chapters to "Mazes and Labyrinths: A General Account of their History and Development", written by W. H. Matthews and published in 1922.
The history of the maze is paradoxically explored as both a tool for spiritual inquiry and as a vexing trap. Apparently he wrote the heavy tome in less than three years — and it may have been a way for Matthews to deal with the aftermath of his time as a soldier in the labyrinthine trenches of World War I.
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Tonight, we’ll read the third chapter of “Little Women”, by American author Louisa May Alcott, published in 1868, titled “The Laurence Boy”. Following the lives of the four March sisters—Meg, Jo, Beth and Amy—the novel details their passage from childhood to womanhood and is loosely based on the author and her sisters.
In the previous chapter, on Christmas morning, the girls wake to find books under their pillows. They find their mother has gone to aid poor neighbors. When she returns, she asks her daughters to give their delicious Christmas breakfast to the starving family. That evening, they perform their play, in which Jo gets to play male roles. After the performance, the girls come downstairs to find a feast laid out on the table, provided by another neighbor, who has a grandson that Jo would like to meet.
— read by 'V' —
pt. 1 air date: December 18, 2019 — pt. 2 air date: December 25, 2019 — pt. 4 air date: February 12, 2020 — pt. 5 air date: March 4, 2020 — pt. 6 air date: April 1, 2020 — pt. 7 air date: June 3, 2020
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Tonight, we’ll read the story of "Sleeping Beauty", from the Lang’s "Blue Fairy Book" published in 1889. It is a classic fairy talea bout a princess who is cursed to sleep for a hundred years by an evil fairy, where she would be awakened by a handsome prince.
The earliest known version of the story is found in the narrative “Perceforest”, composed in the 14th century. "Perceforest" provides an original Genesis of the Arthurian World.
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Tonight, we’ll read another chapter from the book "Bird Watching" published in 1901 by Edmund Selous, titled "Watching Birds at a Straw Stack".
The author started as a conventional naturalist, but Selous developed a hatred of the common practice at the time of killing animals for scientific study and was a pioneer of bird-watching as a method of scientific study.
The author was a solitary man and was not well known in ornithological circles. He avoided both the company of ornithologists and reading their observations so as to base his conclusions entirely on his own observations. And to be clear, Straw Stacks are similar to Hay Stacks in that both are field crops, although hay is the remains of grasses and straw is made from the stalks of wheat.
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Tonight, we’ll read the second chapter titled “A Merry Christmas” to “Little Women” by American author Louisa May Alcott, published in 1868.
Following the lives of the four March sisters—Meg, Jo, Beth and Amy—the novel details their passage from childhood to womanhood and is loosely based on the author and her sisters.
In Chapter 1, the March sisters lament that they won’t receive Christmas presents as their family has fallen into poverty. They discuss a Christmas play they are going to put forth, and their mother arrives with a letter from their father who is away in the Civil War. They resolve to practice their Christian faith’s values in their daily lives in order to rise above their material complaints.
— read by 'V' —
pt. 1 air date: December 18, 2019 — pt. 3 air date: January 1, 2020 — pt. 4 air date: February 12, 2020 — pt. 5 air date: March 4, 2020 — pt. 6 air date: April 1, 2020 — pt. 7 air date: June 3, 2020
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Tonight, we’ll read “Balsam Fir”, a Snoozecast original. Experience tromping through an evergreen tree farm to pick the perfect tree to bring home.
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Tonight, we’ll read an excerpt about traveling to a high alpine winter resort, from a book called Winter Sports in Switzerland, written by E. F. Benson in 1913. Benson was an English novelist, biographer, memoirist, archaeologist and short story writer.
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Tonight, we’ll read the opening chapter to “Little Women” by American author Louisa May Alcott, published in 1868. Following the lives of the four March sisters—Meg, Jo, Beth and Amy—the novel details their passage from childhood to womanhood and is loosely based on the author and her sisters.
Alcott wrote the books over several months at the request of her publisher. She later recalled that she did not think she could write a successful book for girls and did not enjoy writing it. "I plod away," she wrote in her diary, "although I don't enjoy this sort of things.” The book's immediate success surprised both her and her publisher.
— read by 'V' —
pt 2 air date: December 25, 2019 — pt. 3 air date: January 1, 2020 — pt. 4 air date: February 12, 2020 — pt. 5 air date: March 4, 2020 — pt. 6 air date: April 1, 2020 — pt. 7 air date: June 3, 2020
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Tonight, we’ll read a story called "The Blue Parrot", taken from The Olive Fairy Book by Andrew Lang and H. J. Ford, and published in 1907. The story originated from a French book of tales titled Contes de Fée from the late 1700s.
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Tonight, we’ll read the opening to "Afloat and Ashore" a nautical fiction novel by James Fenimore Cooper, published in 1844.
Set at the turn of the 19th century, the novel follows the maritime adventures of Miles Wallingford Jr., the son of wealthy New York landowners who chooses to go to sea after the death of his parents.
The novel is partially autobiographical, in part by Cooper's own experiences as a sailor. Throughout his career, Cooper wrote profusely with the objective of countering European prejudices and nurturing an original American art and culture.
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Tonight, by listener request, we’ll read the opening to "The Woman in White", written in 1859 by Wilkie Collins. It is considered to be among the first mystery novels, and an early example of detective fiction.
Modern critics and readers regard it as Collins's best novel, although at the time of publication, critics were generally hostile. The novel opens with Walter Hartright, a young art teacher, who encounters a mysterious and distressed woman dressed entirely in white, lost in London; he is later informed by policemen that she has escaped from an asylum.
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Tonight, we’ll read the second and final part to the classic tale "Beauty and the Beast", taken from the Blue Fairy Book by Andrew Lang, published in 1889.
When we left off, the merchant and father to Beauty was caught picking a rose from the Beast’s garden as a gift to Beauty. In punishment, the Beast demanded that the father bring back one of his daughters.
The catch was that she must choose to come willingly. Of course, the kind-hearted Beauty offers to go despite the sacrifice it entailed. Father and daughter arrive at the Beast’s castle and are about to meet him.
— read by 'V' —
pt. 1 air date: November 4, 2019
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Tonight, we bring you “Sunday Dinner” a Snoozecast Original. In this story, experience visiting an old friend’s cozy farm home and the comforting meal prepared and enjoyed inside.
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Tonight, by listener request, we’ll read the third part to the 1813 romantic novel of manners "Pride and Prejudice", written by Jane Austen. The novel follows Elizabeth Bennet, the dynamic protagonist, who learns about the repercussions of hasty judgments and eventually comes to appreciate the difference between superficial goodness and actual goodness.
In the last episode, discussion of the ball continues when the daughters of the Bennets' neighbor visit. The oldest daughter, Charlotte, is Elizabeth's close friend, and commiserates with Elizabeth over Mr. Darcy's snub.
Charlotte acknowledges, however, that Mr. Darcy's family and wealth give him the right to be proud. Elizabeth agrees, noting that her resentment of his proud nature stems from his wounding her own pride. We will pick up at the start of chapter 6.
— read by 'V' —
pt. 1 air date: August 28, 2019 — pt. 2 air date: October 21, 2019 — pt. 4 air date: March 11, 2020 — pt. 5 air date: June 15, 2020
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Tonight, we’ll read the opening chapters to "Doctor Dolittle", written in 1920 by British author Hugh Lofting. The full title being, “The Story of Doctor Dolittle, Being the History of His Peculiar Life at Home and Astonishing Adventures in Foreign Parts”.
It is the first of Lofting’s "Doctor Dolittle" books, a series of children's novels about a man who learns to talk to animals and becomes their champion around the world. It was one of the novels in the series which was adapted into the 1967 film "Doctor Dolittle".
— read by 'M' —
pt. 2 air date: February 3, 2020 — pt. 3 air date: May 27, 2020
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Tonight, we’ll read another excerpt from “In New England Fields and Woods” written by Rowland Evans Robinson in 1896. Robinson was in his time one of Vermont’s best known writers.
This collection of short essays follows New England's changing seasons and moods in all its natural beauty. This particular selection is part of the November and December time of year.
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Tonight, we’ll read Thanksgiving recipes and sample menus from a magazine called "American Cookery", published in 1921. This periodical was formerly titled less succinctly “The Boston Cooking-School Magazine of Culinary Science and Domestic Economics.
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Tonight, we’ll read, "Tales of Peter Rabbit and Friends", from "The Great Big Treasury of Beatrix Potter", written by Beatrix Potter.
"The Tales of Peter Rabbit" was first self-published in 1902, when she was in her thirties. Potter was an English writer, illustrator, natural scientist, and conservationist best known for her children's books featuring animals.
Though Potter was typical of women of her generation in having limited opportunities for higher education, her study and watercolors of fungi led to her being widely respected in the field of mycology. In all, Potter wrote thirty books; the best known being her twenty-three children's tales.
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Tonight we’ll read the opening to “Sea and Sardinia”, a travel book by the English writer D. H. Lawrence. It describes a brief excursion undertaken in January 1921 by Lawrence and his wife from Sicily to the interior of Sardinia. Despite the brevity of his visit, Lawrence distills an essence of the island and its people that is still recognizable today.
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Tonight, by listener request, we’ll read the second part to 1877’s "Black Beauty" by Anna Sewall. This novel became an immediate best-seller at the end of Sewall’s life, but she lived long enough to briefly see her only novel would become.Black Beauty is one of the best-selling books of all time.
— read by 'V' —
pt. 1 air date: September 25, 2019 — pt. 3 air date: January 20, 2020 — pt. 4 air date: May 1, 2020
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Tonight, by listener request, we’ll read the opening to the 1883 novel by American illustrator and writer Howard Pyle, "Robin Hood". Consisting of a series of episodes in the story of the English outlaw Robin Hood and his band of Merry Men, the novel helped solidify the image of a heroic Robin Hood, which had begun in earlier works such as Walter Scott's 1819 novel "Ivanhoe".
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Tonight, we’ll read some of the folklore of the Cherokee people from the 1900 book "Myths of the Cherokee" by James Mooney. Mooney was an American ethnographer who lived for several years with the Cherokee. He became a self-taught expert on American tribes by his own studies and his careful observation during long residences with different groups.
— read by 'N' —
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Tonight, we’ll read the opening two chapters of 1859’s "A Tale of Two Cities", written by Charles Dickens. It is a historical novel, set in London and Paris before and during the French Revolution.
The novel tells the story of the French Doctor Manette, his 18-year-long imprisonment in Paris and his release to live in London with his daughter Lucie, whom he had never met. The story is set against the conditions that led up to the French Revolution and the Reign of Terror. It has become Dickens’ best known work of historical fiction.
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Tonight, we’ll read "Queen Zixi of Ix", or "The Story of the Magic Cloak", a children's book written by L. Frank Baum and published in 1905. The events of the book alternate between Noland and Ix, two neighboring regions to the Land of Oz, and Baum himself commented this was the best book he had written.
The book was made into the 1914 film "The Magic Cloak of Oz". Although no part of the book's story takes place in the Land of Oz, by the time the movie was made, it had become clear that the Oz franchise was Baum's most popular creation.
— read by 'V' —
pt. 2 air date: March 30, 2020
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Tonight, we'll read a couple famous speeches by President John F. Kennedy: His 1961 inauguration speech and his 1962 moon speech. The youngest president elected in United States history, he was the first man born in the 20th century to hold that office. His speeches inspired the nation to reach for the stars.
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Tonight, we'll read the opening to the 1911 novel titled “Me-Smith” written by Caroline Lockhart. Lockhart was a journalist, a newspaper owner, and a ranch owner along with writing novels set in her adopted home of Cody, Montana.
The Caroline Lockhart Ranch is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.In 2018, the National Cowgirl Museum and Hall of Fame inducted her. Me-Smith was her first novel.
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Tonight, we’ll read the classic tale "Beauty and the Beast", taken from the Blue Fairy Book by Andrew Lang, published in 1889.
The original story of Beauty and the Beast was written by Gabrielle-Suzanne de Villeneuve, within the culture of the aristocratic salons of the 1700s. It is thought that it has roots even longer ago, in the tale of "Cupid and Psyche", the ancient chronicle from the Latin novel "Metamorphoses".
— read by 'V' —
pt. 2 air date: December 9, 2019
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Tonight, we’ll read a section of the book “Mushrooms: How to Grow Them” called “Mushroom Growing in the Paris Caves”, written by William Falconer and published in 1892.
The famous architecture of Paris was built using the limestone extracted from underneath the city. The resulting catacombs were also used to grow the Paris mushroom, a variety of the button variety.
Legend has it that mushroom farming in these caves started when some deserters of Napoleon’s army, along with their horses, discovered that mushrooms naturally flourished on the mixture of limestone and horse manure within.
— read by 'V' —
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Tonight, as the final episode of our October classic horror series, we’ll be reading the opening to "The Dunwich Horror", written in 1928 by H.P. Lovecraft. It takes place in Dunwich, a fictional town in central Massachusetts. It is considered one of the core stories of the Cthulhu Mythos.
— read by 'N' —
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Tonight, by listener request, we’ll read the next section of the classic children’s story "Heidi", published in 1881 by Swiss author Johanna Spyri.
It is a novel about the life of a young girl in her grandfather's care in the Swiss Alps. Heidi is one of the best-selling books ever written and is among the best-known works of Swiss literature.
We left off at the end of chapter 2, with Heidi’s first night at grandfather’s house on the mountaintop. Heidi and Grandfather get along better than would be expected, given his reputation as a surly recluse. Heidi falls to sleep in her new hay loft bedroom, dreaming of the two captivating goats she met that day.
— read by 'V' —
pt. 1 air date: March 8, 2019 — pt. 2 air date: August 12, 2019 — pt. 4 air date: January 15, 2020 — pt. 5 air date: March 20, 2020
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Tonight, we’ll read the opening to 1887’s "A Crystal Age by W. H. Hudson. The book, a pastoral Utopian novel has been called a "significant sci-fi milestone" and has been noted for its anticipation of the "modern ecological mysticism" that would evolve a century later.
— read by 'N' —
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Tonight, as part of our October classic horror series, we'll read the opening to The "Turn of the Screw", an 1898 Gothic ghost story by Henry James.
The novella focuses on a governess who, caring for two children at a remote estate, becomes convinced that the grounds are haunted. Some critics have argued that the brilliance of "The Turn of the Screw" results from its ability to create an intimate sense of confusion and suspense within the reader.
— read by 'V' —
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Tonight, by listener request, we’ll read the second part to the 1813 romantic novel of manners "Pride and Prejudice", written by Jane Austen. The novel follows Elizabeth Bennet, the dynamic protagonist, who learns about the repercussions of hasty judgments and eventually comes to appreciate the difference between superficial goodness and actual goodness.
In the first episode, news that a wealthy young gentleman named Charles Bingley has moved in nearby causes a stir among the Bennet family. The Bennet’s have five unmarried daughters so are eager to matchmaker with the stranger.
The daughters attend a ball also attended by Bingley, along with a friend of Bingley named Darcy. The impression others get of Bingley at the ball is charm and of Darcy- rude and snobbish. We will pick up with the daughters coming home to tell their father about the evening.
— read by 'V' —
pt. 1 air date: August 28, 2019 — pt. 3 air date: December 4, 2019 — pt. 4 air date: March 11, 2020 — pt. 5 air date: June 15, 2020
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Tonight, we’re bringing you a Snoozecast original titled “Get This Bread”. In this soft-boiled who-dun-it, a rising star editor is suddenly fired, leaving a pair of co-workers to pick up the pieces — and the clues — to solving the mystery.
— read by 'M' —
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Tonight, as part of our October classic horror series, we’ll read the opening to "The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde", a Gothic novella by Scottish author Robert Louis Stevenson, first published in 1886.
It is about a London legal practitioner named Gabriel John Utterson who investigates strange occurrences between his old friend, Dr Henry Jekyll, and the evil Edward Hyde. The novella's impact is such that it has become a part of the language, with the phrase "Jekyll and Hyde" entering the vernacular to refer to people with an unpredictably dual nature: usually very good, but sometimes shockingly evil.
— read by 'M' —
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Tonight, we'll read the opening chapter to "The Count of Monte Cristo", completed in 1844 by French author Alexander Dumas. Considered a literary classic today, the story takes place in France, Italy, and islands in the Mediterranean during the historical events of 1815–1839: the era of the Bourbon Restoration through the reign of Louis-Philippe of France.
An adventure story primarily concerned with themes of hope, justice, vengeance, mercy, and forgiveness; it centres on a man who is wrongfully imprisoned, escapes from jail, acquires a fortune, and sets about exacting revenge on those responsible for his imprisonment. His plans have devastating consequences for both the innocent and the guilty.
— read by 'V' —
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Tonight, we’ll read the opening to Lord Tennyson’s 1847 "The Princess". Tennyson was Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom from 1850 to 1892 and remains one of the most popular English poets.
The poem tells the story of a heroic princess who forswears the world of men and founds a women's university where men are forbidden to enter. The prince to whom she was betrothed in infancy enters the university with two friends, disguised as women students.
— read by 'M' —
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Tonight, as part of our October classic horror series (every Wednesday this month), we'll read the opening to "Frankenstein, or, the Modern Prometheus", written by Mary Shelley and published anonymously in 1818 when she was just 20 years old.
It tells the story of a scientist named Victor Frankenstein who creates a hideous humanoid creature. Since the novel's publication, the name "Frankenstein" has often been used to refer to the monster itself, although in the novel the monster is never given a formal name. Shelley’s story of Frankenstein has been referred to as the first true science fiction novel.
— read by 'N' —
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Tonight, we'll be reading a story called "The Adventures of a Spanish Nun" from the "Strange Storybook" by Mrs. Andrew Lang — Leonora Blanche Alleyne, published in 1913. This story tells of a young woman who had been raised in a convent but had dreams of exploring the world. She then acts upon them, dressed as men, and full of exploits and daring.
— read by 'V' —
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Tonight, we’ll read, "A Voyage in the Dark" an excerpt from “In New England Fields and Woods” written by Rowland Evans Robinson in 1896. Robinson was in his time one of Vermont’s best known writers.
This collection of short essays follows New England's changing seasons and moods in all its natural beauty. This particular selection is part of the late summer, early autumn.
— read by 'M' —
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Tonight, as part of our October classic horror series (every Wednesday this month), we’ll read the opening to "The Fall of the House of Usher", written by Edgar Allen Poe and published in 1839.
This short story is a work of Gothic fiction and includes themes of madness, family, isolation, and metaphysical identities. Poe's inspiration for the story may be based upon events of the Hezekiah Usher House, located near what is now Downtown Crossing in Boston, Mass. When the Usher House was torn down in 1830, two bodies were found embraced in a cavity in the cellar.
— read by 'V' —
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Tonight, we’ll read the second part to "Aladdin", our version is out of the Blue Fairy Book, edited by Andrew Lang in 1889. Aladdin is a middle eastern folk tale and is one of the tales from the Book of One Thousand and One Nights otherwise known as The Arabian Nights.
In Part One, Aladdin is a lazy boy without a trade to earn money from, until a magician posing as his uncle tries to use him for a spell to receive great powers. By luck, Aladdin receives the magical powers of a magic lantern and a wish-granting genie for himself. He uses his powers to gain the daughter of the Sultan as his wife. We pick up at their marriage.
— read by 'V' —
pt. 1 air date: July 1, 2019
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Tonight, we'll read from the "Tao Te Ching". This Chinese classic text is traditionally credited to the 6th-century BC sage Laozi. The text's authorship, date of composition and date of compilation are debated. The "Tao Te Ching" has multiple translations, in general "Tao" means "the way" or "the path", here's some examples of different opening lines:
- "The Tao that can be trodden is not the enduring and unchanging Tao."
- Translated by James Legge (1891)
- "The Tao-Path is not the All-Tao. The Name is not the Thing named."
- Translated by Aleister Crowley (1918)
- "The tao that can be told, is not the eternal Tao."
- Translated by Stephen Mitchell (1988)
- "If you can talk about it,it ain't Tao."
- Translated by Ron Hogan (1994)
- "The way you can go, isn't the real way."
- Translated by Ursula Le Guin (1998)
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Tonight, we'll read the opening to the 1877 novel, "Black Beauty" by English author Anna Sewell.
Due to a severe injury early in life, Sewell needed to use crutches to walk and developed a love for horses, as horseback riding gave her a sense of freedom.This novel became an immediate best-seller at the end of her life, with Sewell dying just five months after its publication, but having lived long enough to see her only novel become a success.
With fifty million copies sold, Black Beauty is one of the best-selling books of all time. While forthrightly teaching animal welfare, it also teaches how to treat people with kindness, sympathy, and respect.
— read by 'V' —
pt. 2 air date: November 20, 2019 — pt. 3 air date: January 20, 2020 — pt. 4 air date: May 1, 2020
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Tonight, we'll read an excerpt focused on tree spirits, from the 1890 book, "The Golden Bough: A Study in Magic and Religion" written by Scottish anthropologist Sir James George Frazer. The book scandalized the public when first published because it compared biblical stories to pagan rituals.
Despite the controversy generated by the work, "The Golden Bough" inspired many authors from the period including: HP Lovecraft, James Joyce, Sigmund Freud, Carl Jung and T.S. Elliot.
— read by 'V' —
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Tonight, we’ll read from “Butterflies Worth Knowing” by Clarence Moores Weed in 1926. Weed was a New England based naturalist. He was the author or co-author of more than 20 books, many of them on insect pests and insect-plant relationships.
— read by 'M' —
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Tonight, we’ll be reading "The Red Headed League", a short story from "The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes", written by Arthur Conan Doyle in 1892.
In this story, which Doyle ranked as number 2 of his favorite top 12 Sherlock stories, the focus is on Jebez Wilson, the owner of a pawnbroker shop who sports a head of bright red hair and receives an invitation to join an exclusive club.
— read by 'N' —
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Tonight, we’ll read a selection of South African folk-tales collected during the 19th century. It includes animal tales with classic wisdom, including The Monkey’s Fiddle and The Lost Message. These stories were collected by Dr. James Honey and published in 1910.
— read by 'V' —
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Tonight, we’ll be reading from "The Art of Lawn Tennis", written by William “Big Bill” Tilden, published in 1921. Tilden was considered one of the greatest tennis players of all time.
Born into wealth, Tilden earned large sums of money during his long career and he spent it lavishly, keeping a suite at the Algonquin Hotel in New York City. Much of his income went towards financing Broadway shows that he wrote, produced, and starred in.
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Tonight, we’ll read the opening to Willa Cather’s 1918 novel My Ántonia. It is the final book of her "prairie trilogy" of novels, preceded by O Pioneers! and The Song of the Lark.
The novel tells the stories of an orphaned boy from Virginia, Jim Burden, and the elder daughter in a family of Bohemian immigrants, Ántonia Shimerda, who are each brought as children to be pioneers in Nebraska towards the end of the 19th century.
This novel is considered Cather's first masterpiece. Cather was praised for bringing the American West to life and making it personally interesting.
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Tonight, by listener request, we will read the opening to the classic 1847 novel "Jane Eyre" by English writer Charlotte Brontë and published under the pen name “Currer Bell”. It is the story of a young, orphaned girl who lives with her Aunt and cousins and is mistreated by them.
The novel is considered one of the greatest works of English fiction. It revolutionized writing style by being the first to focus on its protagonist's moral and spiritual development through an intimate first-person narrative, where actions and events are coloured by psychological intensity.
Charlotte Brontë has been called the "first historian of the private consciousness", and the literary ancestor of writers like Proust and Joyce.
— read by 'V' —
pt. 2 air date: January 29, 2019 — pt. 3 air date: June 17, 2020
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Tonight, we'll read a Snoozecast original story, "Baseball." Settle in and watch a Little League game unfold during the waning days of summer. Without a clock to keep time, baseball, otherwise known as America's Pastime, is always played at its own pace.
— read by 'N' —
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Tonight, we’ll read from the 1899 novel by Kate Chopin, "The Awakening". Set in New Orleans and on the Louisiana Gulf coast at the end of the 19th century, the plot centers on Edna Pontellier and her struggle between her increasingly unorthodox views on femininity and motherhood. It is widely seen as a landmark work of early feminism, and a precursor of American modernist literature.
— read by 'V' —
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Tonight, we’ll read “Jack and the Beanstalk”, from the 1918 Mother’s Nursery Tales by Katherine Pyle. Born in 1863, Pyle was an American artist, poet and children’s book writer. “Jack and the Beanstalk” is the best known of the “Jack Tales”, a series of stories featuring the archetypal hero and stock character “Jack.” According to researchers, the story originated more than five millennia ago.
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Tonight, we’ll be reading from the 1895 novel "The Wonderful Visit", by H.G. Wells. With an angel—a creature of fantasy unlike a religious angel—as protagonist and taking place in contemporary England, the book could be classified as contemporary fantasy, although the genre was not recognized in Wells's time.
The Wonderful Visit also has strong satirical themes, gently mocking customs and institutions of Victorian England as well as idealistic rebellion itself.
— read by 'M' —
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Tonight, we’ll read the opening to the 1813, romantic novel of manners, "Pride and Prejudice", written by Jane Austen.
The novel follows Elizabeth Bennet, the dynamic protagonist, who learns about the repercussions of hasty judgments and eventually comes to appreciate the difference between superficial goodness and actual goodness.
Filled with comedy, its humor lies in its honest depiction of manners, education, marriage and money during the Regency era in Great Britain.
— read by 'V' —
pt. 2 air date: October 21, 2019 — pt. 3 air date: December 4, 2019 — pt. 4 air date: March 11, 2020 — pt. 5 air date: June 15, 2020
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Tonight, for our 100th episode, we’ll be reading "Rip Van Winkle" originally a short story by the American author Washington Irving, published in 1819.
It follows a Dutch-American villager in colonial America named Rip Van Winkle who falls asleep in the Catskill Mountains and wakes up 20 years later, having missed the American Revolution. Irving wrote it while living in England and later admitted he had never been to the Catskill Mountains.
— read by 'V' —
pt. 2 air date: April 6, 2020
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Tonight, we’ll read the opening to Stephen Leacock’s 1912, "Sunshine Sketches of a Little Town." This humorous and affectionate account of small-town life in the fictional town of Mariposa is inspired by the author’s experience living in Ontario, Canada. The book illustrates the inner workings of life in Mariposa—from business to politics to steamboat disasters.
— read by 'V' —
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Tonight, we’ll read the opening to the 1922 travel memoir "The White Heart of Mojave: An Adventure with the Outdoors of the Desert" by Edna Brush Perkins.
It recounts the adventure of Perkins and her friend Charlotte Hannahs Jordan, both independent-minded and early suffragettes; at the end of the Great War, the two friends wanted nothing more than to escape the crowded, oppressive city for wild, open space.
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Tonight, we’ll read a folk tale called "The Nodding Tiger" from the 1919 “A Chinese Wonder Book”, by Norman Hinsdale Pitman. In the story, a tiger kills an old woman’s only son. To make amends, the mother convinces the court’s judge to require the tiger to take the son’s place in her life. (Note: There is some mild "off-screen" violence in this vintage folk-tale.)
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Tonight, we’ll read from Charles Darwin’s "The Voyage of the Beagle", the title most commonly given to the book published in 1839 as his "Journal and Remarks", bringing him considerable fame and respect. The book is a vivid travel memoir as well as a detailed scientific field journal covering biology, geology, and anthropology that demonstrates Darwin's keen powers of observation.
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Tonight, we’ll read "After London", a Science Fiction precursor by Richard Jefferies first published in 1885. In it’s day referred to as Fantasy or Romance, now we may describe it as eco-apocalyptic. The story tells of how London becomes a swampland after an unspecified natural disaster delivers England over to the mercy of nature.
— read by 'V' —
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Tonight, we’ll read the next selection of the classic children’s story Heidi, published in 1881 by Swiss author Johanna Spyri. It is a novel about the life of a young girl in her grandfather's care in the Swiss Alps. Heidi is one of the best-selling books ever written and is among the best-known works of Swiss literature.
— read by 'V' —
pt. 1 air date: March 8, 2019 — pt. 3 air date: October 28, 2019 — pt. 4 air date: January 15, 2020 — pt. 5 air date: March 20, 2020
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Tonight, we'll read from "Luck on the Wing" by Major Elmer Haslett. This 1920 book offers a first hand account of combat in the air by an American observer or "sky spy."
World War I was the first conflict where combat took to the skies in machines that provided powered and maneuverable flight. This was a risky profession where brave young men flew into battle in machines made of fabric and wood. The author was regarded as one of the finest practitioners of his craft.
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Tonight, we’ll read the opening to Jane Austen’s 1811, "Sense and Sensibility". It was published anonymously; 'By A Lady' appears on the title page where the author's name might have been. It tells the story of the Dashwood sisters as they must move with their widowed mother from the estate on which they grew up.
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Tonight, we’ll read a fairy tale called "Little One Eye, Two Eyes and Three Eyes" from The Green Fairy Book, published in 1892 and published by Andrew Lang, written by Jacob Grimm, according to the original book.
Lang’s wife Nora Lang took over the editing of the many more published starting in the 1890s. There were 25 collections of stories total published between 1889 and 1913 by the couple. These collections have been immensely influential; the Langs gave many of the tales their first appearance in English.
British fairy tale collections were rare at the time; fairy tales were seen as brutal, escapist and unrealistic and thus a bad influence for young readers. Over a generation, Lang's books worked a revolution in this public perception.
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Tonight, we’ll read a chapter from the book, "Bird Watching" titled "Watching Blackbirds, Nightingales, Sand-martins, etc. “Bird Watching” was published in 1901 by Edmund Selous.
The author started as a conventional naturalist, but Selous developed a hatred of the killing of animals for scientific study and was a pioneer of bird-watching as a method of scientific study. He was a strong proponent of non-destructive bird-study as opposed to the collection of skins and eggs. The shooting of birds for scientific purposes, like building museum collections, he strongly rejected.
The author was a solitary man and was not well known in ornithological circles. He avoided both the company of ornithologists and reading their observations so as to base his conclusions entirely on his own observations. Selous continued bird-watching and writing until near the end of his life.
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Tonight, we’ll read the short story "Araby", from the collection "Dubliners", written by James Joyce in 1914. The stories in Dubliners form a naturalistic depiction of Irish middle class life in and around Dublin in the early years of the 20th century.
The stories were written when Irish nationalism was at its peak, and a search for a national identity and purpose was raging; at a crossroads of history and culture, Ireland was jolted by various converging ideas and influences.
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Tonight, by listener request, we’ll read the second part to "The Princess and the Goblin", a children’s fantasy novel, published in 1872.
One of the most successful and beloved of Victorian fairy tales, George MacDonald’s "The Princess and the Goblin" tells the story of young Princess Irene and her friend Curdie, who must outwit the threatening goblins who live in caves beneath her mountain home.
When we left off, the little princess found herself lost in a labyrinth of halls and rooms. She then is introduced to a beautiful, kind and strange old woman sitting at a yarn spinning wheel.
— read by 'V' —
pt. 1 air date: April 15, 2019 — pt. 3 air date: March 23, 2020 — pt. 4 air date: July 3, 2020
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Tonight, we’ll be reading selections from, "The Gentlemen’s Book of Etiquette and Manual of Politeness" written by Cecil B. Hartley in 1860.
Snoozecast was surprised to find nothing online about the author besides having written another book on the life of Daniel Boone. Perhaps it is not coincidental that the author of, "The Ladies Book of Etiquette" was published the same year by an author with the same last name - Florence Hartley.
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Tonight, we’ll read from, "A Trip to Venus" published in 1897 and written by John Munro.In the story, Our Narrator, his old friend Professor Grazen an astronomer, Mr. Carmichael an engineer, and his daughter Miss Carmichael, travel in a spaceship to the planet Venus. We pick up in Chapter 6, "In Space" just after the crew has launched out of Earth's atmosphere.
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Tonight, we’ll read, "Wuthering Heights" published in 1847, it was Emily Brontë's only novel.
Early critics were mixed in their assessment and many were puzzled by the novel's multiple narrators and non-chronological structure. Much of the Victorian public believed the novel was written by a man based on the violent and passionate imagery.
Even though the novel received mixed reviews when it came out, it has since become an English literary classic, and tells the tale of a tempestuous romance between Heathcliff, an orphan, and Catherine Earnshaw who becomes his close companion.
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Tonight, we’ll read the opening to the fantastic classic, "Madame Bovary". It was the debut novel of French writer, Gustave Flaubert, published in 1856.
Madame Bovary lives beyond her means in order to escape the banalities and emptiness of provincial life. A seminal work of literary realism, the novel is now considered Flaubert's masterpiece, and one of the most influential literary works in history.
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Tonight, we’ll read a Snoozecast original,“Acadia National Park”. Come wander inside this 108 square mile oasis on your way to Blackwoods campground where ultimately you plan on falling asleep to the rhythmic waves of the Atlantic.
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Tonight, by listener request, we’ll read two versions of a traditional Chinese folk-tale called "The Cowherd and the Weaver" a story about star-crossed lovers that spurred the Qixi Festival, a romantic festival that is often regarded as Chinese Valentine's Day. The Qixi festival inspired the Tanabata festival in Japan and the Chilseok festival in Korea.
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Tonight, we'll read from a book called, "The Oregon Trail: Sketches of Prairie and Rocky-Mountain Life" by Francis Parkman. It was originally serialized in Knickerbocker's Magazine and subsequently published as a book in 1849.
The account of a summer tour of the High Plains of Nebraska, Wyoming, Colorado, and Kansas met with the acclaim of early reviewers like Herman Melville, who, though he on the whole lauded the book for "the true wild-game flavor," complained of its demeaning presentation of Native Americans and its misleading title.
Parkman's excursion led him only along the first third, the flat stretch of the 2,100 mile trail; he never saw the cruelest parts across the mountains and deserts.
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Tonight, we’ll read the opening to, "The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes" written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle in 1892. "The Adventures" are a collection of twelve short stories, starting with, "A Scandal in Bohemia". Holmes is portrayed as offering a new, fairer sense of justice.
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Tonight, we’ll read the second part to Miguel de Cervante’s, “Don Quixote”.
Written in the early 1600s of Spain, Don Quixote is considered to be, perhaps, the most influential work from Spanish history. It depicts a nobleman who reads so many romantic adventure novels that he decides to become a knight.
In pt. 1, we read chapter one, where Don Quixote decides to become a knight, and sets about in preparation for his adventure: he fashions a homemade suit of armor and cardboard, names his old frail horse, “Rocinante”, and officially proclaims a pretty village girl named Aldonza Lorenzo to be in knightly love with. He renames her Dulcinea del Toboso. He has never actually met her and she may or may not actually exist.
— read by 'V' —
pt. 2 air date: January 7, 2019
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Tonight we'll read two selections from, "How to Amuse Yourself and Others" published in 1893 and written by Lina and Adelia Beard. A listener wrote to us asking for a Snoozecast about pressed flowers, so the passages tonight include that and other flower crafts, along with how to build a hammock.
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Tonight, we’ll read a medley of poems concerning Independence Day. Titles include, "The New Colossus" by Emma Lazarus, "Concord Hymn" by Ralph Waldo Emerson, "I Hear America Singing" by Walt Whitman, "To The Fourth of July" by Swami Vivekanada and, "The Building of a Ship" by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. We'll begin with, "Paul Revere's Ride" also by Longfellow.
The poem commemorates the actions of Paul Revere on April 18, 1775. Modern critics emphasize the poem's many historical inaccuracies, most significantly perhaps is Longfellow giving sole credit to Revere for the collective achievements of multiple riders.
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Tonight, we’ll read, "Aladdin and the Wonderful Lamp", a story out of the Blue Fairy Book, edited by Andrew Lang in 1889. "Aladdin" is a middle eastern folk-tale thought to be originally written by Hanna Diyab, and is one of the tales from the book, "One Thousand and One Nights", otherwise known as "The Arabian Nights. Since it first appeared in the early 18th century, Aladdin has been one of the best known and most retold of all folk-tales.
— read by 'V' —
pt. 2 air date: September 30, 2019
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Tonight, we’ll read the opening to the 1946 autobiography by Paramahansa Yogananda, titled, "Autobiography of a Yogi."
Yogananda lived from 1893-1952 and was born in India. Besides detailing his life, the book is an introduction to the methods of attaining God-realization and to the spiritual thought of the East, starting with his childhood search for a Guru.
The book inspired many people, including Steve Jobs who read it once a year throughout his life, and gave it away as a gift to attendees at his posthumous memorial service.
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Tonight, we’ll read the 1899 short story by Russian author Anton Chekhov titled, "The Lady with a Dog". The story describes a surprising love affair between two unhappily married people — Dmitri and Anna. This is one of Chekhov's most famous pieces of short fiction. Vladimir Nabokov, for instance, considers it as one of the greatest short stories ever written.
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Tonight, we'll read the opening to, "The Study of Plant Life" by M.C. Stopes, published in 1910. M.C. Stopes, short for Marie Charlotte, lived from 1880-1958 and was a British author, paleobotanist, and women's rights campaigner.
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Tonight, we'll read from the, "Ladies' Book of Etiquette" written in 1860 by Florence Hartley. Hartley was a Victoria-era writer whose work was meant for women of the era, covering topics of etiquette and needlework. She was also an advocate for women's health. (Don't worry fellas, we'll be dropping the "Gentleman's Book of Etiquette", also by Hartley in a future episode.)
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Tonight, we’ll read from Isaac Asimov’s 1952 science fiction short story titled, “Youth”. "Youth" is one of the rare Asimov stories with alien characters. It features two boys and some strange alien creatures.
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Tonight, we'll read from, "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" an 1865 novel written by Lewis Carroll. It tells the story of a young girl named Alice who falls through a rabbit hole into a fantasy world populated by peculiar creatures.
The tale plays with logic, giving the story lasting popularity with all ages. It is considered to be one of the best examples of the literary nonsense genre.
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Tonight, we’ll read from “A Princess of Mars”, the 1912 science fantasy novel by American author Edgar Rice Burroughs. Full of swordplay and daring feats, the novel is considered a classic example of 20th-century pulp fiction, and of planetary romance. The story is set on Mars, imagined as a dying planet with a harsh desert environment.
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Tonight, we’ll be reading a Snoozecast original, "Mount Monadnock". Learn about the majestic New Hampshire mountain and experience a leisurely hike up it and perhaps - the opportunity for a well earned snooze.
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Tonight, we'll read "The Velveteen Rabbit" by listener request. "The Velveteen Rabbit" is a British children's book written by Margery Williams in 1922. It chronicles the story of stuffed rabbit's desire to become real through the love of his owner.
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Tonight, we’ll read from, "Nature", an essay published in 1836 by Ralph Waldo Emerson. In the essay Emerson puts forth the foundation of transcendentalism, a belief system that espouses a non-traditional appreciation of nature. Transcendentalism suggests that the divine, or God, suffuses nature, and suggests that reality can be understood by studying nature.
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Tonight we'll read from, "The Voyage Out" by Virginia Woolf, first published in 1915. In the story Rachael 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 novel also introduces Clarissa Dalloway, who would become the central character of Woolf's later novel, "Mrs Dalloway."
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Tonight, we'll read the opening to, "The Jungle Book", an 1894 collection by the English author Rudyard Kipling. Most of the characters are animals such as a tiger and a bear, though a principal character is the boy or "man-cub" Mowgli, who is raised in the jungle by wolves. The stories are set in a forest in India.
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Tonight, we’ll read from, "The Island of Dr. Moreau" an 1896, classic, early science-fiction novel, by author H. G. Wells.
The novel is the earliest depiction of the science fiction motif "uplift" in which a more advanced species intervenes in the evolution of an animal species to bring the later to a higher level of intelligence.
In this story, a shipwrecked man is rescued by a passing boat who is let on the island home of Dr. Moreau, a mad scientist who creates human-like hybrid beings from animals. This remains one of Wells' best-known works.
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Tonight, we’ll read from “This Side of Paradise”, the 1920 debut novel from F. Scott Fitzgerald, who later wrote "The Great Gatsby". The book examines the lives and morality of post–World War I youth. The novel famously helped F. Scott Fitzgerald gain Zelda Sayre's hand in marriage; its publication was her condition of acceptance.
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Tonight, we’ll read a classic Chinese folk tale, “Bamboo and the Turtle” from “A Chinese Wonder Book”, written by Norman Hinsdale Pitman in 1919. The tale features a boy named Bamboo and a special talking turtle.
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Tonight, we read another snoozy excerpt from Walden, chapter 9, "The Ponds”, by transcendentalist Henry David Thoreau. Originally published in 1854, it is a reflection upon simple living in natural surroundings. The work is part personal declaration of independence, social experiment, voyage of spiritual discovery, satire, and—to some degree—a manual for self-reliance.
— read by 'V' —
pt. 1 air date: February 15, 2019
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Tonight, we'll be reading "Bartleby, the Scrivener: A Story of Wall Street". A short story, by Herman Melville, first serialized anonymously in two parts in 1853.
In the story, a Wall St. lawyer hires a new clerk who, after an initial bout of hard work, refuses to do any task required of him. Though no great success at the time of it's publication "Bartleby, the Scrivener" is now among the most noted of American short stories, and is considered a precursor of absurdist literature.
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Tonight, we read the beginning of, “My Father’s Dragon” by Ruth Stiles Gannett, first published in 1948. A Newbery Honor Book, this children’s story follows the adventures of a young boy, Elmer Elevator, who runs away to Wild Island to rescue a baby dragon.
— read by 'J' —
pt. 2 air date: February 17, 2020
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We read from Robert Frost's, 1924 Pulitzer Prize winning poetry collection titled, "New Hampshire" tonight. Frost was an American poet who was much admired for his depictions of the rural life of New England, his command of American colloquial speech, and his realistic verse portraying ordinary people in everyday situations.
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Mark Twain's, "Following the Equator" (sometimes titled "More Tramps Abroad") is a non-fiction social commentary in the form of a travelogue published in 1897. Twain found himself nearly bankrupt at the age of 60 — so he took a lecture tour of the British Empire to generate funds and published this book, which was critical of Imperialism.
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Tonight, we read a tale from Hans Andersen’s Fairy Tales called The Bell. In a village, everyone can hear the sounds of a mysterious bell. The townspeople set out to find the source. Hans Christian Andersen, a Danish writer, is known as one of the world’s classic storytellers.
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"The Prophet" by the Lebanese American poet and writer Kahlil Gibran, was first published in 1923. "The Prophet" has been translated in over one hundred languages making it one of the most translated books in history, and it's never been out of print.
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Tonight, we read from, "The Age of Innocence", a 1920 novel by American author Edith Wharton. It won the 1921 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, making Wharton the first woman to win the prize. The story is set in the 1870s, in upper-class, "Gilded-Age" New York City.
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Tonight, we read the classic Japanese folk tale, "Momotaro", or, "The Story of the Son of a Peach." The story is about a boy who comes from heaven inside a giant peach to be the son of an old childless couple. This English translation is from Yei Theodora Ozaki, who included it in her 1911 compilation, Japanese Fairy Tales.
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Tonight, we're pleased to read a Snoozecast original story, "Night Swim" is a short, 2nd person narrative that finds you meeting an old friend to find a secret swimming spot, a lake within the hills, as the night slips away...
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"The Call of the Wild" is the classic 1903 adventure story by Jack London. The novel is set in Yukon, Canada, during the 1890s Klondike Gold Rush, when strong sled dogs were in high demand.
The central character of the novel is a dog named "Buck". The story opens at a Californian ranch, when Buck is stolen from his home and sold into service as an Alaskan sled dog. The story, which was enormously popular at the time of publication, is a tale of survival and return to primitivism.
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Tonight, we'll continue reading, "Peter Pan" the 1911 novel by J. M. Barrie. When we last left off the Darling children, Wendy, Michael and John, as well as Mrs. Darling herself were fast asleep in the nursery, while Peter Pan, the free-spirited boy from Neverland sneaks into the room. We pick up at the start of Chapter 2, "The Shadow."
— read by 'V' —
pt. 1 air date: March 20, 2019 — pt. 3 air date: February 10, 2020 — pt. 4 air date: April 15, 2020
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Tonight, we read from the detective novel "The Mysterious Affair at Styles", which is the very first published novel by Agatha Christie. She wrote it in the middle of World War I, and it was first published in 1920.
The story features many of the elements that have become icons of the Golden Age of Detective Fiction, largely due to Christie's influence. “The Mysterious Affair at Styles” launched Agatha Christie's writing career. It is set in a large, isolated country manor. Christie and her husband subsequently named their house "Styles".
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Tonight, we read from the classic 1908 novel, "Anne of Green Gables", written by Lucy Maud Montgomery. Written for all ages, it recounts the adventures of an orphan named Anne on Prince Edward Island, Canada.
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"The Hunchback of Notre Dame", is a French Gothic novel by Victor Hugo, published in 1831. Hugo wrote it largely to make his contemporaries more aware of the value of the Gothic architecture, which was neglected and often destroyed to be replaced by new buildings or defaced by replacement of parts of buildings in a newer style.The story is set in Paris in 1482 during the reign of Louis XI.
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Belgian author, Maurice Maeterlinck, wrote this essay collection, "Old Fashioned Flowers" in 1905. Maeterlinck, who lived from 1862-1949, was awarded the Nobel Prize for literature in 1911. This book is an ode to flowers and springtime.
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We read the opening to, "The Picture of Dorian Gray" written by Oscar Wilde and first published in 1890. The Gothic and philosophical story was considered offensive and indecent by Victorian English sensibilities. It was thus censored, sparking much controversy. The title character, Dorian Gray, sells his soul to make a portrait of himself age, rather than himself.
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Published in 1872, "The Princess and the Goblin" is a children's fantasy novel. One of the most successful and beloved of Victorian fairy tales, George MacDonald's, "The Princess and the Goblin" tells the story of young Princess Irene and her friend Curdie, who must outwit the threatening goblins who live in caves beneath her mountain home.
Anne Thaxter Eaton writes in, "A Critical History of Children's Literature" that, "The Princess and the Goblin" and its sequel, "quietly suggest in every incident ideas of courage and honor."
— read by 'V' —
pt. 2 air date: July 29, 2019 — pt. 3 air date: March 23, 2020 — pt. 4 air date: July 3, 2020
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Written in 1884 by Edwin Abbott Abbott, "Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions" was written under the pseudonym, "A. Square." The book used the fictional two dimensional world of Flatland to comment on the hierarchy of Victorian Culture. The novella's more enduring contribution is it's examination of different dimensions.
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"Ceteology" is the title of Chapter 32 of Herman Melville's 1851 "Moby Dick". This chapter is a detour from the progress of the plot, and Melville delves into the study of marine mammal like dolphins and whales.
Moby Dick was a commercial flop at the time, out of print by Melville's death, and only found it's reputation as a great American novel in the 20th century.
Author D.H. Lawrence called it, "one of the strangest and most wonderful books in the world," and "the greatest book of the sea ever written."
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Tonight, we read another excerpt from L. Frank Baum's, "The Sea Fairies", picking up more or less where we left off. Baum is best known for, "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz".
"The Sea Fairies" is a magical underwater fantasy following Mayre Griffiths, nicknamed Trot, as she fulfills her wish of seeing a mermaid for the first time. Her adventure is filled with a journey through an underwater kingdom where she meets kings, queens, and villains along the way.
When we left off, Trot and her old sailor friend, Cap'n Bill are paddling on a row boat along the shore and looking at sea caves.
— read by 'M' —
pt. 1 air date: February 25, 2019
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Tonight, we read "The Early History of the Airplane" written by Orville and Wilbur Wright. This book consists of three short essays about the beginnings of human flight.
The Wright Brothers weren't the first to build and fly an aircraft, but they were the first to invent the ability to control the aircraft's wings and make modern flight possible in 1903. This is their recounting of the world-changing feat.
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Tonight, we read from Albert Einstein’s, "The Meaning of Relativity". This compilation of Princeton lectures address the consequences of Einstein's theories of relativity. Einstein
developed these theories which became one of the two pillars of modern physics (alongside quantum mechanics).
Special relativity applies to elementary particles and their interactions, describing all their physical phenomena except gravity. General relativity explains the law of gravitation and its relation to other forces of nature. It applies to the cosmological and astrophysical realm.
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Tonight, we continue where we left off from a Japanese folk story called The Bamboo-Cutter and the Moon-Child. It is taken from a book originally published in 1908 by Yei Theodora Ozaki, from Tokyo.
The author’s story was inspired by the Japanese classic, "Taketari Monogatari.” In the story, the father, the bamboo-cutter, beseeches his beautiful and magical moon-princess adopted daughter to pick one of five gallant knights as her husband. She has demanded further trials to vie for her love.
— read by 'V' —
pt. 1 air date: March 1, 2019
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"Vistas in Sicily" is a 1912 travel memoir by Arthur Stanley Riggs. Riggs was an American writer and historian, in 1898 he served in the navy for the Spanish American War, and decades later served as librarian for the Office of Censorship during World War II.
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Tonight, we read the opening to the 1910 speech by Theodore Roosevelt entitled, "Citizenship in a Republic" at the Sorbonne in Paris. The speech is popularly known as "The Man in the Arena." To this day, someone who is heavily involved in a situation that requires courage, skill, or tenacity is sometimes referred to as "the man in the arena."
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Tonight, we read from the beginning of a book called "Viking Tale", written in 1902 by Jennie Hall. This book is focused around the story of Harald Fairhair, first king of Norway around the year 900, but also draws upon other sources to produce a view of Viking life.
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"The Flower Garden", by Ida Dandridge Bennett is a 1903 "how-to" horticultural book.
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Tonight, we'll read the opening to the 1911 novel, "Peter Pan" by J. M. Barrie. Peter Pan is a mischievous boy who can fly and has many adventures on the island of Neverland.
— read by 'V' —
pt. 2 air date: April 29, 2019 — pt. 3 air date: February 10, 2020 — pt. 4 air date: April 15, 2020
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"Cave Diving in Tulum", is a story by Snoozecast. Tulum is the site of a pre-Columbian Mayan walled city which served as a major port for Coba, in the Mexican state of Quintana Roo . Cave diving is a popular attraction as the area boasts thousands of cenotes, or underground caves.
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Generally considered to be the first detective novel, "The Moonstone", originally published in 1868, set the groundwork for the genre's format to come.
The Moonstone of the title is a diamond, not to be confused with the semi-precious moonstone gem. It gained its name from its association with the Hindu god of the moon, Chandra. It was said to be protected by hereditary guardians on the orders of Vishnu, and to wax and wane in brilliance along with the light of the moon.
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Tonight, we read part of a poem by Walt Whitman titled, "Song of Myself", found in his 1855 collection, "Leaves of Grass". "Song of Myself" is considered one of the most influential poems in American history. Rather than being written in a structured, metered form, it is written in a rhythmic, chant-like quality through a series of vignettes.
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Tonight, we read a story out of the "Blue Fairy Book" called, "East of the Sun and West of the Moon", edited by Andrew Lang in 1889. This story is a Norwegian fairy tale about the search for a lost husband.
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Tonight, we'll read the classic children’s story, "Heidi" published in 1881 by Swiss author Johanna Spyri. It is a novel about the life of a young girl in her grandfather's care in the Swiss Alps. Heidi is one of the best-selling books ever written and is is among the best-known works of Swiss literature.
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pt. 2 air date: August 12, 2019 — pt. 3 air date: October 28, 2019 — pt. 4 air date: January 15, 2020 — pt. 5 air date: March 20, 2020
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Tonight, we read the opening to a 1918 collection of essays titled, "Mysticism and Logic", by Bertrand Russell. Russell, a Nobel Prize winner, is one of the world’s best-known authorities on logic. In it, he challenges the romantic mysticism of the 19th century, positing instead his theory of logical atomism.
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Tonight, we read a Japanese folk story called, "The Bamboo-Cutter and the Moon-Child". It is taken from a book originally published in 1908 by Yei Theodora Ozaki, from Tokyo. The author’s story was inspired by the Japanese classic, "Taketari Monogata."
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pt. 2 air date: April 1, 2019
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"Cattle Brands" by Andy Adams is a collection of short stories best heard around a campfire. This tale, called "Drifting North" is a brief anecdote of the troubles a band of cow punchers run into while moving a herd through some dangerous country.
The author, whose most famous work "Log of a Cowboy", writes from personal experience. Adams spent ten years driving cattle on western trails in Texas during the 1880s.
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"Village Folk-Tales of Ceylon, Volume 3" was written by a British engineer living in colonial Ceylon during the Victorian era named Henry Parker. During his work as an engineer he developed an admiration for the skills displayed by the ancient Sinhalese at the time of the construction of their reservoirs.
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While L. Frank Baum is best known for the 14 novels in the “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz” series the prolific children’s author explored other fantastical worlds. “The Sea Fairies” is an magical underwater fantasy following Mayre Griffiths, nicknamed Trot or occasionally "Tiny Trot” as she fulfills her wish of seeing a mermaid for the first time.
Her adventure is filled with a journey through an underwater kingdom where she meets kings, queens and villains along the way.
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pt. 2 air date: April 8, 2019
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“The Kentish Coast” by Charles G. Harper is one of many self-illustrated travel books, exploring the regions, roads, coastlines, literary connections, old inns and more - of Britain.
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Originally published in 1920, “Our Family Affairs, 1867-1896” by E. F. Benson is a memoir by the precocious and prolific British author. Many of his works are famed for their wry and dry camp humor and social observation.
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Tonight we read a Snoozecast original titled, "The Toboggan Nationals" - the story is a second person narrative that takes you on a cold winter car ride through Maine's coastal landscape from owls head to your destination at The Toboggan National Championships in Camden.
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"Walden" is Henry David Thoreau's reflection upon simple living in natural surroundings, originally published in 1854. The work is part personal declaration of independence , social experiment, voyage of spiritual discovery, satire, and — to some degree — a manual for self reliance.
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pt. 2 air date: May 24, 2019
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Originally published in 1881, “The Prince and the Pauper” was Twain’s first attempt at historical fiction. In the novel, two boys identical in appearance exchange identities. Although written for children, “The Prince and the Pauper" is a critique of social inequality and has been adapted for the screen and television a number of times.
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Originally published in 1905, this biographical book on Beethoven gives a glimpse of the great composer who died in 1827.
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Tonight we read an excerpt from, "Creation of the Teton Landscape" by David Love, John Calvin Reed and Kenneth Lee Pierce, originally published in 1968. This booklet, prepared by members of the U.S. Geological Survey, discusses how geological phenomena are responsible for the magnificent scenery of the Teton region.
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"Siddhartha" by Herman Hesse was originally published in 1951. It deals with the spiritual journey of self-discovery by a man named Siddhartha during the time of the Gautama Buddha.
The word Siddhartha is made up of two words in Sanskrit language, siddha (achieved) + artha (what was searched for), which together means "he who has found meaning (of existence)" or "he who has attained his goals."
In fact, the Buddha's own name, before his renunciation, was Siddhartha Gautama, Prince of Kapilavastu. In this book, the Buddha is referred to as "Gotama."
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"My Robin” by Frances Hodgson Burnett was originally published in 1912. Burnett was an American-English novelist and playwright. She is perhaps best known for her children’s stories, in particular “The Secret Garden.” “My Robin” is a charming anecdote that further expands upon the Robin featured in “The Secret Garden.”
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Tonight we read a snoozy opening to, "The Flower Fields of Alpine Switzerland" by George Flemwell, originally published in 1911. You'll hear lots of descriptions of mountains and flowers, and flowers on mountains.
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Tonight we read the opening to "The Young King", a shorty story within Oscar Wilde’s "A House of Pomegranates". "A House of Pomegranates" was written in 1891 as a collection of fairy tales that Wilde may have said was "intended neither for the British child nor the British public.” "The Young King" tells the story of the illegitimate shepherd son of the recently dead king's daughter, and now the only heir to the kingdom.
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Tonight, we'll read a Snoozecast original story titled, “What Murfee Remembered”. In this short story, Murfee is a dog who lives in a city apartment building with his two humans. He has something important on the tip of his mind that he spends his day trying to remember.
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Published in 1895, Wells paints a vision of the distant future in his first novel. Considered to be one of science fiction’s most important authors, Wells contributed to the genre with many notable works: “The Island of Doctor Moreau”, “The Invisible Man”, and “The War of the Worlds”.
In his non-fiction futurologist works, Wells predicted the advent of airplanes, space travel and even Wikipedia – although he called it “Permanent World Encyclopaedia”. The term itself “Time Machine” was coined by Wells and is now universally used to refer to any such vehicle.
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"Great Expectations" is the thirteenth novel by Charles Dickens and one of his last completed novels. It depicts the personal growth and personal development of an orphan nicknamed Pip.
It is Dickens's second novel, after David Copperfield, to be fully narrated in the first person. The novel was first published as a serial in a periodical between 1860 and 1861, and shortly thereafter was published as a novel.
The novel is set in Kent and London in the early to mid-19th century and contains some of Dickens's most memorable scenes.
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"Miss Ludington’s Sister", written in 1885, is an earlier work by Edward Bellamy. The author later found fame as a socialist Utopian science fiction writer. This particular book, however, is a standard love story with a twist.
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While most listeners may be familiar with the highly successful film adaptation starring Judy Garland released in 1939, "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz" was originally published in 1900 written by L. Frank Baum and illustrated by W. W. Denslow.
The Library of Congress has declared Oz to be "America's greatest and best-loved homegrown fairy-tale." The story follows Dorothy a young girl from Kansas who is transported via cyclone (along with her dog Toto) to the magical Land of Oz.
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This adorable turn-of-the-century children's book was originally published in 1900 by Mary Dow Brine, a New York based author who published several works in Harper's Magazine in the 1800s.
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Also known as "Home of the Gentry" and "A Nest of the Gentry", "A House of Gentlefolk" is a novel by Ivan Turgenev published in 1859 Russia. It was enthusiastically received by Russian society and remained Turgenev's least controversial and most widely read novel until the end of the 19th century.
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Also known as "The Arabian Nights," "One Thousand and One Nights" is a collection of Middle Eastern folk tales compiled in Arabic during the Islamic Golden Age, which ran from the 8th to the 14th centuries. This story is called "The Talking Bird, The Singing Tree and the Golden Water."
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pt. 2 air date: June 26, 2020
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This 1864 science fiction novel tells the story of professor Otto Lidenbrock, his nephew Axel and their guide Hans as they encounter many adventures and hazards traveling through the center of the Earth. The English language edition read tonight changes the professor's name to Hardwigg and Axel's name to Harry.
The book was inspired by Charles Lyell's "Geological Evidences of the Antiquity of Man" written in 1863. Although this genre of subterranean fiction already existed long before Verne, "Journey to the Center of the Earth" considerably added to the genre's popularity and influenced later such writings.
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Written in early 1600s Spain, "Don Quixote" is considered to be perhaps the most influential work from Spanish history. It depicts a nobleman who reads so many romantic adventure novels that he decides to become a knight. Don Quixote sees what he wants in the world, and the word quixotic stems from this character - meaning impractically idealistic.
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pt. 2 air date: July 8, 2019
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