Audio Literature Odyssey

The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman

podcast@nikolledoolin.com (Nikolle Doolin) — Tue, 29 Mar 2011 20:14:00 -0400

The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman was published in the New England Magazine in 1892. The story is told through the protagonist's journal, which she writes secretly over the course of several months, while staying in a rented mansion. As she narrates the story, she reveals that she has been suffering from a nervous condition and has been prescribed rest with strict orders not to work or socialize. Unfortunately, her husband is a physician who doesn't think anything is wrong with her that a little rest and fresh air won't cure. As time passes and the narrator is alienated from the activities and people that enliven her spirit, she sinks deeper and deeper into a depression that preys upon her mind. She becomes obsessed with the hideous yellow wallpaper in her room and succumbs to a delusion, which drives her across the line separating reality from fantasy.

Lord Arthur Savile's Crime by Oscar Wilde

podcast@nikolledoolin.com (Nikolle Doolin) — Tue, 29 Mar 2011 20:13:00 -0400

During a reception hosted by Lady Windermere, Lord Arthur Savile has his palm read by the chiromantist Mr. Podgers who sees a most alarming future. Lord Arthur is destined to commit murder, according to the odd little man. This news provokes a crisis for Lord Arthur who feels the weight of the world upon his shoulders. He wants to forget all about it, but this would be the easy way out. No, it is his duty to fulfill his destiny and to make this heroic sacrifice for his fiancee Sybil Merton before their marriage, so that no wrongdoing will sully their union. Thus, Lord Arthur is determined to lend destiny a hand.

The Fulness of Life by Edith Wharton

podcast@nikolledoolin.com (Nikolle Doolin) — Tue, 29 Mar 2011 20:12:00 -0400

When a woman dies, the Spirit of Life rewards her with the opportunity to spend all of eternity with her true soul mate (something she did not experience in life). Trouble is, she still feels an allegiance to her awkward husband alive on earth who believed her to be his soul mate. Which man will she choose?

The Tell-Tale Heart by Edgar Allan Poe

podcast@nikolledoolin.com (Nikolle Doolin) — Tue, 29 Mar 2011 20:11:00 -0400

The old man is kind, but he has a vulture eye and his heart beats like a watch enveloped in cotton. It is too much for the narrator to bear, whose senses are acute. No, the old man must die. Yet, will death stop the beating heart, or will it never cease?

The Cask of Amontillado by Edgar Allan Poe

podcast@nikolledoolin.com (Nikolle Doolin) — Tue, 29 Mar 2011 20:10:00 -0400

Set in Italy during the carnival season, The Cask of Amontillado delves into the mind of a diabolical man bent on revenge. Montressor narrates the horrifying tale, which alerts the reader to impending doom for the buffoon Fortunato, who has reportedly inflicted a thousand injuries upon Montressor. Yet, the unwitting Fortunato is easily lured to his demise with an appeal to his vanity. He is asked to authenticate the Amontillado, which Montressor has stored in the catacombs of his palazzo. With each step, the tale's suspense grows, until at last, the shocking retribution has been exacted.

The Poetry of Emily Dickinson

podcast@nikolledoolin.com (Nikolle Doolin) — Tue, 29 Mar 2011 20:09:00 -0400

The Chariot, Before the Ice is in the Pools, Retrospect, Power, Forbidden Fruit, Much Madness Is Divinest Sense, Success, Our Share Of Night To Bear, If I Can Stop One Heart From Breaking, Almost, The Heart Asks Pleasure First, Exclusion, In A Library, The Secret, I Felt A Funeral In My Brain, The Mystery of Pain, As Imperceptibly As Grief, The Bustle in a House

To Hope by John Keats

podcast@nikolledoolin.com (Nikolle Doolin) — Tue, 29 Mar 2011 20:08:00 -0400

The poet solicits Hope to turn his dark days into brighter ones.

Six Sonnets by Various Authors

podcast@nikolledoolin.com (Nikolle Doolin) — Tue, 29 Mar 2011 20:07:00 -0400

This episode contains sonnets by Sir Thomas Wyatt, Henry Howard, Edmund Spenser, William Shakespeare, John Donne, and Percy Bysshe Shelley.

Poems by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

podcast@nikolledoolin.com (Nikolle Doolin) — Tue, 29 Mar 2011 20:06:00 -0400

A PSALM OF LIFE

THE BUILDERS

SOMETHING LEFT UNDONE

MOONLIGHT

The Lady of Shalott by Tennyson

podcast@nikolledoolin.com (Nikolle Doolin) — Tue, 29 Mar 2011 20:05:00 -0400

The Lady of Shalott borrows from the Arthurian legend and is a poem about a woman who is isolated in a tower with a curse hanging over her. She cannot venture outside into the world to be with others. What is worse, she cannot even look directly outside. She sits at her loom weaving daily and looks at shadows of the world cast in a mirror. She envies the freedom of others and grows sick of her limitations. When Sir Lancelot appears, she spies a gallant knight and dares to look outside. The curse is set in motion as she races toward Camelot in a boat. Yet, the Lady of Shalott cannot escape her doom.

To Mary, On Receiving Her Picture by Byron

podcast@nikolledoolin.com (Nikolle Doolin) — Tue, 29 Mar 2011 20:04:00 -0400

Byron narrates a poem celebrating the beauty of a woman called Mary whose picture he will cherish forever, as it inspires him to live and feel good, when times are difficult; and he states that it will comfort him when he dies gazing at it.

Jabberwocky by Lewis Carroll

podcast@nikolledoolin.com (Nikolle Doolin) — Tue, 29 Mar 2011 20:03:00 -0400

Jabberwocky is a nonsense poem from the novel Through the Looking-Glass by Lewis Carroll in 1872. It describes the slaying of a monster called the Jabberwock. Carroll made up the more eccentric words. You can learn more about the poem at Wikipedia.

Sonnet 18 by William Shakespeare

podcast@nikolledoolin.com (Nikolle Doolin) — Tue, 29 Mar 2011 20:02:00 -0400

The narrator is comparing someone he knows intimately with the season of summer. To him, the most pleasant season is not as pleasant as this person who will last an eternity and will never die, because he/she will live forever in the lines of this sonnet.

Sonnet 116 by William Shakespeare

podcast@nikolledoolin.com (Nikolle Doolin) — Tue, 29 Mar 2011 20:01:00 -0400

The narrator of Sonnet 116 tells us that love lasts forever and never changes, even when the lovers change themselves.