Resultado narrado por "Charlton Griffin" em Todas as categorias

In August of 1588, a Spanish fleet of 130 ships departed from La Coruña under the command of the Duke of Medina Sidonia. Its purpose was to rendezvous with the Spanish army at the Dutch port of Sluys. At this point, the fleet was to act as a screen while the Spanish army was shuttled across the English Channel in barges. But there was one problem: the English fleet. Though much smaller than the Spanish fleet, it was a demonstrably superior fighting force of sailors, ships, naval technology, and guns.

Don Quixote is widely considered to be the first modern novel. As a classic of Western literature, it is regarded by scholars worldwide to be one of the finest works of fiction ever written, and a magnificent product of the Spanish Golden Age of literature. Cervantes’ influence on the Spanish language has been so great that his work is often called “la lengua de Cervantes.” The work was written in two separate volumes, both of which are contained in this production. It introduces the character of Don Quixote de la Mancha, a hero who carries his enthusiasm and self-deception to unintentional and comic ends.

In all of human history there has never been an era as richly endowed with human creativity as the Italian Renaissance. When the economic boom of the Late Middle Ages had allowed a flourishing and wealthy merchant class to emerge, a plethora of artists, sculptors, architects, and thinkers followed in their wake. In an astonishingly short period of time, Italy was transformed mentally, physically, and spiritually.

This is the story of John Ridd, a yeoman farmer of the border country in southwest England. Set in the turbulent late 17th century, amid political tensions aroused by the religious animosities of a nation that had just emerged from the Commonwealth government of Cromwell, the story follows the adventures of John Ridd and his love, Lorna Doone, an aristocratic beauty who was kidnapped by the Doone family as a child. How John Ridd meets Lorna, wins her love, rescues her from the clutches of the Doone clan, and tries to keep her safe constitutes the bulk of the plot.

In the space of 400 years, Western man methodically set out to explore and map the entire earth. During some of the most dangerous expeditions ever mounted, an extraordinary group of determined men forced passages through vast oceans, dark jungles, and withering deserts. Never has their like been seen since. What drove these soldiers, sailors, and civilians to leave the comforts of civilized life and face the horrors of shipwreck, starvation, cannibals, and disease?

As the 18th century approached its midpoint, commercial and military competition between the European states became fierce. And whoever obtained accurate information about distant lands would hold an advantage. Were there continental landmasses in the Pacific? Was there a Northwest Passage to Japan and China? What lay in the interior of Africa? Was it possible to cross the Sahara? Where did the rivers Nile and Congo originate?

The exemplary life of a noble soldier/statesman, a description of ancient Germany, and a discussion of oratory are the subjects of three short masterpieces by the brilliant Roman historian, Tacitus.

Inspired by the chaos of the French Revolution, Rafael Sabatini wrote one of the finest historical novels of the early 20th century. Scaramouche is the story of André-Louis Moreau, a lawyer brought up as an orphan in a noble household. Moreau, as a young man in his 20s, has been threading his way through a pleasant life until a close friend is brutally killed in a duel of swords by a member of the aristocracy. Because of Moreau’s vow to seek revenge, his life begins an arc toward becoming a revolutionary.

In all of Roman history there was never a more turbulent year than A.D. 69, the ill-omened "Year of the Three Emperors". By some miracle, the greatest historian of the age, Tacitus, was able to chronicle those momentous events in a work he called The History. In its pages are some of the most memorable events of Roman history described in some of the most intensely passionate prose ever devised.

The story of the Roman Republic is the greatest epic in human history. Seen in the long perspective of time, it seems too fantastic to be real. From its modest beginnings as a convenient fording place on the Tiber to its eventual destiny as the mistress of the Mediterranean, Rome offers a strange tale of fate, sacrifice, and indomitable willpower. The stern realities of war shaped its policies from the very beginning.

The first crusade of 1096 unleashed a wave of impassioned, personally felt, deeply pious Christian fury that was expressed in a mass movement centered in France and spreading to other European kingdoms, including Flanders, German speaking principalities, and Italy. Master historian Harold Lamb tells the incredible story of how Pope Urban II fanned the sparks of Christian anger into a mighty conflagration of righteous indignation with his speech of 1095 in Clermont. The resulting armed clashes produced some of the most amazing stories you will ever hear.

When the Muslims swept out of the Arabian peninsula in the eighth century, one of the first areas to fall under their power was the Holy Land; it was an event that would have long term consequences for three distinct civilizations.

The Cassique of Kiawah is the romantic story of Harry Calvert, a privateer in service to King Charles II of England. Set in the year 1684, it is a colonial romance set in South Carolina. Because of a change of political winds in London, Calvert is hiding his crew and ship in the backwaters near Charleston. He sets out in disguise to see his friend, the governor of Carolina, in order to gauge the situation. But then he learns that his titled older brother, who has become the Cassique (or lord) of the beautiful island of Kiawah, is in the area and has married the woman Harry was previously in love with back in England....

We enter directly into the intrigues between the Greeks and Persians. Darius, infuriated with Athens because of her support for the liberation of the Ionian Greeks, initiates the first invasion of Greece, which ends with the Athenian victory at Marathon. When Xerxes ascends the Persian throne a few years later, the war is resumed on a vastly greater scale. In some of the most wonderful prose of all time, Herodotus describes the events ending in the naval battle of Salamis and the clash of armies at Plataea.

The Persian Wars is part history, part geography, part anthropology...and completely entertaining. It possesses a charm that is legendary. However, over and above this, Herodotus has succeeded for all time in brilliantly expressing the conflict between the ideal of the free man defending his liberty within a state based on the rule of law, and that of the despot who bases his rule on brute force and whose subjects are considered slaves.

Translated by W. E. D. Rouse, The March of the Ten Thousand is one of the most admired and widely read pieces of ancient literature to come down to us. Xenophon employs a very simple, straightforward style to describe what is probably the most exciting military adventure ever undertaken. It is an epic of courage, faith and democratic principle.

The legend of Robin Hood was based on the career of a real outlaw who lived in the forests near Nottingham, England, in the last half of the 12th century. His character has become world famous and is the subject of hundreds of plays, novels, stories, and films. As a man of the people who was a partisan for the lower classes, he also became strongly associated with an anticlerical yet pious Christian attitude, an animosity toward the sheriff of Nottingham, and a special regard toward women, children, and the infirm.

First published in 1850, David Copperfield is the eighth novel of Charles Dickens. Like most of his work, it had been previously published in serial form in 1849. It is said to be the most autobiographical of all his novels, and Dickens late wrote of it, "… like many fond parents, I have in my heart of hearts a favourite child. And his name is David Copperfield." The book has been greatly praised by some of the world's greatest authors, including Tolstoy, Lawrence, and Dostoevsky.

Among the finest poets of ancient Greece was Hesiod, a contemporary of Homer, who lived in the eighth century B.C. It is still a matter of dispute whether Homer or Hesiod was the earlier poet, and sometimes whether they were one and the same person! At any rate, Hesiod's incredible poetry serves as a major source for our understanding of Greek mythology, farming practices, time keeping and astronomy. In and of itself, the "Works and Days" is unparalleled in its richness and beauty, easily rivaling Homer.

Out of the mixture of Latin and Germanic paganism and the Christianity of the Early Middle Ages has sprung one of the world's supremely great pieces of literature. J.R.R. Tolkien, author of The Lord of the Rings, delivered a famous lecture to the British Academy in 1936 in which he maintained that Beowulf was a poem all of a piece, and not (as had been suggested) a jumble of fragments for pedantic scholars to paw over.