For Reading Out Loud: Recent Episodes
For Reading Out Loud
G. K. Chesterton's priestly detective Father Brown examines a curse on an old and prominent Devonshire family.
A young girl discovers her passion for New England country life and her love and values for the animals that inhabit it.
Rudyard Kipling's classic tale of a fearless mongoose and the family that took him in: Rikki-Tikki Tavi
Good beginnings, in film, in poetry, in fiction, are solid and memorable gold. Do you have favorites? Here are some of mine.
On the occasion of his 175th birthday, two stories by the French Master Guy de Maupassant
Kathleen Norris's plainly told and moving story of a young widow and mother on the fringes of a tight-knit community.
A ruthless practitioner of logic, Professor Augustus S. F. X. Van Dusen accepts the challenge of escaping from a high security prison. Can his logic work its way around this concrete and iron cage?
Two short spring pieces tonight, by Jerome K. Jerome (Three Men in a Boat) and Elizabeth von Armin (The Enchanted April)
Once upon a time, before there were the Brothers Grimm, there was Charles Perrault, and he gave us (among others) the fairy tale of Sleeping Beauty. Here is the story from his collection of Mother Goose Tales, first published in 1697. His children were charmed. I hope you will enjoy it, too.
In an age of scams, you might enjoy learning about the old “green goods” caper: O. Henry, “Shearing the Wolf.”
All the evidence points to one person, but Hercule Poirot keeps asking questions and solves “The Jewel Robbery at the Grand Metropolitan.”
Werner Bergengruen takes an amused and skeptical look at misleading national identities in his story “The Sand Doctor.”
Sudden and high adventure in the most stolid and regular of lives: "A Source of Irritation" by Stacy Aumonier
A romance set in the theater in Belle Époque Paris: Leonard Merrick’s “The Doll in the Pink Silks Dress”A romance set in the theater in Belle Époque Paris: Leonard Merrick’s “The Doll in the Pink Silks Dress”
Two classic stories by the English writer William Somerset Maugham: A Friend in Need, The Wash Tub
Tonio Kröger, part two of four. After a loving encounter in Munich, Tonio sets forth on a return journey.
Classic Jeeves and Bertie Wooster: P. G. Wodehouse's 1922 story "The Great Sermon Handicap"
A story of romance and cynicism, of kindness and a kind of magic. Lucy Maud Montgomery’s “White Magic.”
When she wasn't working on Uncle Tom's Cabin, she also wrote some pretty good fireside tales: Harriet Beecher Stowe, The Ghost in the Chimney
Tales of two scammers. O. Henry shares with us a couple of stories about his charming rogues, Jeff Peters and Andy Tucker.
“The Black Pearl,” in which Maurice Leblanc’s gentleman thief Arsène Lupin proves himself a better detective than the forces of the law.
“The game’s afoot Watson!” Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes story, “The Adventure of the Greek Interpreter”
An early story by F. Scott Fitzgerald, looking forward to his masterpiece novel, The Great Gatsby
The daydreams of Ephraim Deacon and his friend Phineas Doolittle, who plan to corner the pie market, are examined by the ever-good-humored Ellis Parker Butler.
Rafael Sabatini offers a tale of the 18th century adventurer Casanova in "Casanova's Alibi."
An early piece by Thomas Mann, who would go on to receive the Nobel Prize for Literature: “The Child Prodigy”
“Lobo, the King of Currumpaw,” the first story of Ernest Thompson Seton’s book, Wild Animals I have Known.
Born in 1905, still kickin' and stayin" in print: Ellis Parker Butler's "Pigs Is Pigs."
Maurice Leblanc's greatest creation is the gentleman thief and detective Arsène Lupin. Here he is in The Queen's Necklace.
Two pieces by the English author and playwright, W. Somerset Maugham: The Portrait of a Gentleman and The Ant and the Grasshopper
Sheer delight from Rudyard Kipling, author of the best bedtime stories ever: The Just So Stories.
A beautifully rendered story of a turning point in a young girl’s life: Sarah Orne Jewett’s “A White Heron.”
His name was John Griffith Chaney. When he came to write, he took his stepfather’s surname and made himself immortal as Jack London. Here is one of his short stories, infused with a theme that always fascinated him: Brown Wolf.
The game’s afoot in one of Sherlock Holmes’s truly unique (and witty) cases. “A Scandal in Bohemia,” by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.
G. K. Chesterton’s priest-detective encounters the master criminal Flambeau in “The Queer Feet.”
First appearing in French in 1953, this story has become a favorite with readers worldwide. It is in the first place a lovely and moving story, and it has also served as an inspiration for many who went on to form groups dedicated to ecological regeneration.
Two short stories tonight: one classic, one modern; one Russian, one German; one by Chekhov, one by Kusenberg.
Everyone knows about this story. How many have read it? Here is Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Purloined Letter.”
Katherine Mansfield’s “The Garden Party,” first published in 1922, and as fresh, engaging, and enigmatic now as when it first appeared in the Westminster Gazette.
Werner Bergengruen takes an amused and skeptical look at misleading national identities in his story “The Sand Doctor.”
A brace of stories by the ever-engaging O. Henry: “One Thousand Dollars” and “While the Auto Waits.”
Susan Glaspell’s compassionate story of a professor as he reflects on a forty-year career and what it may have meant.
Alphonse Daudet’s "The Pope's Mule" is the amusing story of an animal that waited patiently for seven years to repay a man who mistreated her.
Was there ever so beloved a 20th century humorist as James Thurber? Here are two of my favorites among his many unforgettable stories: “The Night the Bed Fell” and “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty”.
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes Christmas adventure, roast goose and all the trimmings.
The classic fairy tale Cinderella, reconsidered and retold by Stephan Kalinski and Iain Botterill.
Two old friends find themselves on opposite sides of the law in O. Henry’s “The Clarion Call.”
P. G. Wodehouse created dozens of memorable characters who appeared in their own series of stories. He hit gold when he came up with Bertie Wooster and Jeeves. Tonight’s story presents Bertie’s predecessor, the amiable and well intentioned bungler Reggie Pepper.
I. L. Peretz was one of the great Yiddish storytellers. Here is one of his most famous tales.
Like Sherlock Holmes on the other side of the law, Arsène Lupin played the game for the game's sake. Even from prison!
A tale by the multi-talented author-illustrator Will James, famous tale-teller of the American West.
"The Drover's Wife," a classic tale by one of the great Australian bush poets, Henry Lawson.
H. G. Wells offers an urban fantasy, a kind of comedy-science fiction tale, The Man Who Could Work Miracles.
Two short stories by William Somerset Maugham, the world-traveling author whose stories have captivated generations of readers: “Mr. Know-All” and “The Happy Man.”
The game’s afoot. Introducing Violet Strange, debutante and discreet criminal investigator, in Anna Katharine Green’s “An Intangible Clue.”
One of Lucy Maud Montgomery’s unforgettable characters, Abel Armstrong embodies wonder, affirmation, and sweetness in the face of great personal loss, sharing generously with a young man experiencing his own unnamed troubles. “Abel and His Great Adventure.”
Bertie Wooster and his valet Jeeves (please don’t call him a butler; he is a gentleman’s personal gentleman) are in New York, somewhat on the lam from Aunt Agatha. But he can’t avoid her entirely when an imposing friend of hers shows up. Join the fun in P. G. Wodehouse’s “Jeeves and the Unbidden Guest.”
In celebration of the return of spring, two short pieces by the Pulitzer Prize-winning author Odell Shepard.
Just for the fun of it, one of P. G. Wodehouse’s beloved characters, Stanley Featherstonehaugh Urkidge, as always scheming to make a buck or a pound without actually working.
An intriguing story that admits of various interpretations, the Ukrainian author Nikolai Gogol’s 1842 story “The Overcoat” influenced generations of writers.
St. Patrick’s Day is at hand, and so a couple of Irish fairy tales, collected by W. B. Yeats.
In A. J. Raffles, the amateur cracksman, E. W. Hornung created one of the mythic figures of modern crime fiction. Here is “A Trap to Catch a Cracksman.”
“The Last Class,” Alphonse Daudet’s elegiac story of the lives of ordinary people changing against the background of war with a foreign power.
Dorothy Canfield Fisher’s wise, compassionate, beautifully observed story of an overlooked member of a family: “The Bedquilt.”
‘What will Father say?’ I questioned. ‘Lots o’ things,’ conceded Aunt Philippa grimly. ‘But I don't see as it matters when neither you nor me’ll be there to have our feelings hurt.’ Sometimes speaking tartly but with no nonsense, Aunt Philippa is one of Lucy Maud Montgomery’s truly memorable creations. She never asks for our affections, but we are pleased to give them by the end.
P. G. Wodehouse’s beloved, exasperating character Ukridge. Always low on cash, never seeking an ordinary job that would involve actual work. Always on the lookout for a get-rich-quick scheme. Those fight manager fellows make a lot of money. If you knew the right fighter, you too could make a lot of money. It must be easy, right? “The Début of Battling Billson.”
Twice-divorced Alice Waythorn is seen through the eyes of her third husband, who is haunted, so to speak, by the unexpected appearances of his wife’s former spouses. An amused Edith Wharton offers an engaging portrait of a charming and fascinating woman.
The life of the rogue poet François Villon (1431-1463?) inspired this short story. Robert Louis Stevenson tells of adventures on a bleak and snowy night in Paris and goes on, in a witty but earnest dialogue, to talk of honor, social status, and the human instinct to survive.
Classic Conan Doyle, classic Sherlock Holmes: a neatly constructed adventure of the most famous of detectives and his friend and chronicler Dr. John H. Watson: Silver Blaze, from The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes.
A touching story of plainspoken folk, sensitively narrated by the surprisingly versatile Bram Stoker.
Jack London takes Manhattan as he tells the story of a young woman from the Midwest determined to break into journalism in New York.
On Boxing Day, also called St. Stephan’s Day, two seasonal stories, one based on a medieval legend, the other based on imagined good old days.
Two masters, two stories. One by O. Henry, one by Chekhov. One comic, one melancholy. Both with a kind sympathy for the outsider in the story.
The first yuletide story of the season. Over many stories in the Father Brown saga by G. K. Chesterton, the priestly sleuth pursues the elusive master criminal Flambeau. An important turning point in their lives comes at Christmas.
Kathleen Norris’s engaging story about success and the incidental expenses. Also, in this November month, when we give thanks for abundance, a poem by Dick Ferrell about the poignant and not-so-plain beauty of this month.
Stories for a season of thanks: O. Henry’s “Two Thanksgiving Gentlemen” and selections from Jonathan Sams’ Reflections of a Fishing Parson.
A remarkable portrait of meekness and courage, Mary Freeman’s “The Revolt of ‘Mother’” is told at once with sympathy and amusement.
Mark Twain in high spirits tonight with “The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County” and “The Late Benjamin Franklin.”
Ambrose Bierce (1842-1914?) was a soldier, newspaperman, poet, and short story writer. Settling in San Francisco, he became a journalist with Hearst’s San Francisco Examiner. So savage were his critiques of corruption and human folly that he became known as “Bitter Bierce” and “the wickedest man in San Francisco.” (He loved the tags.) Here is his most famous story, set in the Civil War.
So many stories have taken their inspiration from tonight’s tale as almost to obscure W. W. Jacob’s story, “The Monkey’s Paw.” When even The Simpsons have taken it on, it is time to refresh our acquaintance with the classic original.
“The world is so full of a number of things, I'm sure we should all be as happy as kings,” wrote Robert Louis Stevenson in his Child’s Garden of Verses. Stevenson’s versatility and range of imagination can be imagined when we consider the distance between that gentle and ever-charming volume and the thrilling, sometimes macabre stories he wrote for an older audience. Like tonight’s “The Body Snatcher.”
In Frank R. Stockton’s “The Widow’s Cruise,” we meet some veteran tellers of whoppers: four old salts, wholesalers of tall tales. And who tells the topper?
Far from his normal haunts in New York, the city of “The Four Million,” O. Henry spins a tale set in the American Southwest.
A beautifully observed and crafted early story by Nobel Prize-winning Italian author Grazia Deledda.
If the narrator of tonight’s story were your conversation partner, you might not get in a word edgewise: Ring Lardner’s “Golden Honeymoon.”
Tonight’s high-spirited story features a confrontation between crime fiction’s two most extraordinary minds, Maurice Leblanc’s Arsène Lupin and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes.
Two wryly observed stories by a master storyteller, who said, “It is the lives we encounter that make life worth living”: Guy de Maupassant.
In “Poor Dear Margaret Kirby,” the significance of a devastating loss is realized only much later. A wise, insightful story by Kathleen Norris (1880-1966).
Sports writer, humorist, satirist, novelist, Ring Lardner was a versatile writer with the sharpest of ears for American vernacular speech. Here is one of his great stories, “Haircut.”
Mary Chavelita Dunne Bright (1859-1945) wrote under the pen name George Egerton. Here is a modern love story, written in the Victorian age.
An unforgettable story by the Russian writer Maxim Gorky, five-time nominee for the Nobel Prize for Literature.
Tonight, by kind permission of the author, Max Willi Fischer’s recent prize-winning story, “The Odd Fellow.”
A rogue, not a villain. Enter Arsène: the very first story in the long and fabulous saga of Maurice Leblanc’s Arsène Lupin.
Tonight's story by Pulitzer Prize-winning author Louis Bromfield, epitomizes the craft and vision of his writing. It was first published in 1953.
Two beloved children’s stories tonight from Rudyard Kipling’s collection of Just So Stories.
Three of the most famous stories by the supremely witty and sardonic Edwardian writer H. H. Munro, who wrote under the name of Saki.
Our first visit in this series from Thomas Hardy. Set in Hardy’s beloved Wessex, England, an old man tells to his wondering young friends an extraordinary incident from his boyhood.
A story to revel in: a break from everything drab and prosaic in our lives. Thank you, Haniel Long.
Not all love stories are love stories. What happens when a marriage proposal is made and the two people don’t love each other equally?
Jean Giono’s inspiring story of a man living in quiet obscurity who transformed a landscape.
Two modern fairy tales. The forms and structures are traditional, but their tellers offer us new twists.
The first of Father Brown. Humor, wit, whimsy, theology, invention, memorable characters. What more could you want?
Off to New Orleans this evening for two stories by the many-talented Alice Dunbar-Nelson.
Gotthold Ephraim Lessing (1729-1781) was one of the most influential figures of the European Enlightenment. Many of them were revered in their time. Lessing’s most famous play, Nathan the Wise, is accorded the compliment of being performed to this day.
Long available only in a very limited edition, here is Vincent Starrett’s affectionate and good-humored pastiche, a Sherlockian adventure set in the world of book collectors.
The immortal O. Henry takes us along for scams and the ethical ideas of two favorite confidence tricksters.
Stories tonight be two literary forerunners, celebrated both for their own creative achievements and for their influence on the next generation of writers.
Two short stories this evening by one of the celebrated French masters of the genre, Guy de Maupassant.
A funny, satirical, thoughtful, and memorable story by the author who invented the genre of fantasy fiction and who was once hugely popular but is now largely forgotten: Lord Dunsany (1878-1957).
Two fairy tales tonight: “The Happy Prince” and “The Selfish Giant,” by the incomparable Oscar Wilde.
Two famous fairy tales tonight by the beloved 19th century Danish writer Hans Christian Andersen, “The Tinder-Box” and “The Steadfast Tin Soldier.”
A charming story in an exotic setting tonight. Wilhelm Hauff, in his very short life, was a purveyor of many delights.
Two timely historical documents: George Washington’s Farewell Address (1796) and Dwight D. Eisenhower’s Farewell Address (1961)
A generous-spirited as well as ingenious Sherlock Holmes tale, “The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle.” The game’s afoot in more ways than one.
Expanding the story of the Three Wise Men, Henry van Dyke introduces us to the other wise man, whose name was Artaban, and whose quest and story have much to teach us.
Two Christmas tales this evening: “Our Lady’s Juggler” by Anatole France, and “The Gift of the Magi” by O. Henry.
Tonight’s story features the legendary prankster Hershel of Ostropol. The Hanukkah goblins are making the villagers’ life a misery. But will the goblins be a match for Hershel’s courage, purity of heart, and sly wit? Thanks to author Eric A. Kimmel for permission to share this story with you.
Arthur Schnitzler was one of the writers of “Young-Vienna” at the turn of the twentieth century. His stories are still read, his plays still performed. Stanley Kubrick based his last film, Eyes Wide Shut, on a Schnitzler Novelle. Tonight’s story is one of atmosphere and tension, a compelling read, but it is the conclusion that reveals what a remarkable observer and writer he was.
Written in the late Victorian Age, tonight’s story begins like a Victorian morality story, but Somerset Maugham will present his own view of his characters and their destinies.
The language is Victorian, the ambiguity of the story is strikingly modern. This writer is a real discovery.
A story tonight by the great Anatole France. I discovered it in 1960. It’s been one of my favorites ever since.
For Halloween, two of Edgar Allan Poe’s most famous short stories: The Telltale Heart and The Cask of Amontillado.
My childhood favorite from Rudyard Kipling’s Jungle Book. “Rikki-Tikki-Tavi” is the heroic adventure of a valiant young Indian gray mongoose. He more than returns the kindness of the family that rescues him.
Edgar Allan Poe’s ghastly story first appeared in Graham’s Magazine in 1842. It embraced the traditions of the Gothic tale and has remained popular ever since, appearing in numerous collections and anthologies. Curiously ambiguous, it remains open to many interpretations.
Two authors tonight, one well known, one known to only a few. Both knew at the age of thirteen that they wanted to become famous authors.
Harriet Beecher Stowe’s story “The Ghost in the Mill” is not only a cracking good ghost story; it is also a celebration of the fine old tradition of stories skillfully told around the fire when we were very young.
A yarn from O. Henry’s 1907 collection The Gentle Grafter. A tale of two charming flimflammers, with nicely plotted action, highfalutin dialogue, and, surprisingly, reflections on the ethics of their trade.
A midsummer outing on the lake. Tonight’s author is the beloved Canadian writer Stephen Leacock, and the story is taken from his book Sunshine Sketches of a Little Town. I hope you will enjoy this story, with Leacock’s characteristic gentle irony and wry amusement.
A confirmed bachelor falls under the spell of a young woman on first sight. A story by Guy de Maupassant, one of the supreme short story authors.
When tonight’s author, Kate Chopin (1850-1904), was fifteen years old and living in St. Louis, Missouri, she snatched from the family’s front porch a flag put up by the victorious Union Army. She was promptly arrested and earned herself the affectionate label of the “Littlest Rebel in St. Louis.” When she was married, she and her husband moved to Louisiana, where she began her career as a writer. She was a well-regarded author in her own lifetime but fell into obscurity for many years, dismissed as a “regional writer.” She was rediscovered and seriously reconsidered by the feminist movement of the 1960s, which brought attention to the work of women who had been excluded from the literary canon by its male creators. Today, her work seems assured of its proper place in the canon of American literature. Our story tonight is called “The Locket.”
Tonight’s author is H. H. Munro. Christopher Morley observed that the glass we raise for him is the fragile, hollow-stemmed goblet meant for the driest champagne; it is of finest crystal. Occasionally at his table we are aware that he was also a still wine of elect vintage; but for the most part he preferred to sparkle and fume with incessant bubbles of wit.
Bertie Wooster finds himself on a losing streak and lands himself at the mercy of his Aunt Agatha, a humorless Member of Parliament, and an angry swan. Only Jeeves, the perfect gentleman’s personal gentleman, is capable of extricating him from disaster.
Sometimes early situations and relationships place us under such stress that we develop survival mechanisms and patterns of behavior that help us cope. Having survived and dealt with traumatic stress, we may discover that the special behavior that once served us has become an enduring pattern of how we deal with the world. Is it to our benefit or harm? Caroline Noble, Willa Cather’s central character in tonight’s story, “The Garden Lodge,” is a woman endowed with many gifts. Her early survival meant turning away from her artistic talents to become a practical manager of family finances and affairs. How is she to deal with this now, when she is out of any of the dangers that faced her as a young woman? A beautiful and subtly observed portrait from Cather’s first collection of stories, The Troll Garden.
Join me to listen to a Sherlock Holmes story that was one of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's own personal favorites. Great fun, and one of his cleverest plots.
Of the world that Doyle created, Vincent Starrett wrote, with great affection, a poem entitled 221B:
Here dwell together still two men of note Who never lived and so can never die: How very near they seem, yet how remote That age before the world went all awry. But still the game’s afoot for those with ears Attuned to catch the distant view-halloo: England is England yet, for all our fears– Only those things the heart believes are true.
A yellow fog swirls past the window-pane As night descends upon this fabled street: A lonely hansom splashes through the rain, The ghostly gas lamps fail at twenty feet. Here, though the world explode, these two survive, And it is always eighteen ninety-five.
by Jerome K Jerome (b. 1859) read by Richard Figge
Three Men in a Boat (To Say Nothing of the Dog, published in 1889, is a humorous account by English writer Jerome K. Jerome of a two-week boating holiday on the Thames from Kingston upon Thames to Oxford and back to Kingston. The book was initially intended to be a serious travel guide with accounts of local history along the route, but the humorous elements took over to the point where the serious and somewhat sentimental passages seem a distraction to the comic novel. One of the most praised things about Three Men in a Boat is how undated it appears to modern readers – the jokes have been praised as fresh and witty.