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Classic Audiobook Collection - The Ordeal of Mark Twain by Van Wyck Brooks ~ Full Audiobook [biography]
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The Ordeal of Mark Twain by Van Wyck Brooks ~ Full Audiobook [biography]

Classic Audiobook Collection

09/30/22

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The Ordeal of Mark Twain by Van Wyck Brooks audiobook.

Genre: biography

In The Ordeal of Mark Twain, literary critic Van Wyck Brooks reexamines the life and work of Samuel Langhorne Clemens, tracing how a riverboat pilot from the Mississippi became the most recognizable American voice of his age - and how that fame carried a private cost. Brooks follows Twain from the shaping forces of boyhood and the frontier to the whirlwind of lectures, publishing triumphs, and celebrity, reading the books alongside the man who wrote them. As Twain grows into a national icon, Brooks highlights the strain between the humor the public demanded and the darker moral intelligence that pressed to be heard: anger at hypocrisy, disillusionment with politics and profit, and a restless search for artistic honesty. Set against the pressures of the Gilded Age, the story brings forward the personal trials, financial risks, and complicated relationships that tested Twain's resilience and sharpened his satire. Both portrait and argument, this is a vivid, provocative account of an American writer wrestling with his country, his conscience, and the shadow behind the laughter.

Chapters (Approximate)

(00:00:00) Chapter 01

(01:02:03) Chapter 02

(02:05:17) Chapter 03

(02:58:32) Chapter 04

(04:04:12) Chapter 05

(05:14:12) Chapter 06

(06:04:04) Chapter 07

(07:16:43) Chapter 08

(08:05:47) Chapter 09

(09:00:00) Chapter 10

(10:03:57) Chapter 11

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Previous Episode

The Burial of the Guns by Thomas Nelson Page audiobook.

Genre: history

Set in the stunned quiet after Appomattox, The Burial of the Guns follows an aging Confederate artillery commander, known simply as the old Colonel, and the remnants of his veteran battery as they hold a Virginia mountain pass they have defended for years. The war has finally turned, but the battery is still in position, hungry, ragged, and fiercely disciplined, bound not only to one another but to the six beloved cannon they have hauled through campaign after campaign and christened with nicknames like old comrades. When word arrives that Lee has surrendered, the Colonel faces a wrenching dilemma: how to obey his orders, protect his men, and preserve the dignity of a unit that prides itself on never having lost a gun. Around dwindling campfires, the survivors take stock of their dead, their scars, and the homeward road that suddenly feels unfamiliar. As night falls, the battery prepares a last, solemn act part military procedure, part ritual of grief and defiance, meant to mark what they were and what they can no longer be. Thomas Nelson Page blends battlefield memory with postwar uncertainty in a story about honor, loyalty, and the cost of letting go.

Chapters (Approximate)

(00:00:00) Chapter 01

(00:31:14) Chapter 02

(00:58:09) Chapter 03

(01:29:51) Chapter 04

(02:00:13) Chapter 05

(02:43:43) Chapter 06

(03:16:23) Chapter 07

(03:53:30) Chapter 08

(04:26:33) Chapter 09

(04:57:26) Chapter 10

(05:27:06) Chapter 11

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Next Episode

The Kama Sutra by Vatsyayana audiobook.

The Kama Sutra, or Aphorisms on Love, has survived at least 1400 years as a dominant text on sexual relations between men and women. Vatsyayana claimed to have written the Kama Sutra while a religious student, “in contemplation of the Deity” - but references to older works, shrewd disputations by Vatsyayana of those authors' recommendations, and careful cataloging of practices in various of the Indian states indicate much more emphasis on kama, or sensual gratification.

Part of the book discusses the 64 arts of love employed by masters of coitus. Learning each of these and when and how to practice them, Vatsyayana affirms, not only leads to the best gratification, but makes the artist a person of great desirability.

Once the means of sexual congress are discussed, the many types of male-female relationships and their proper prosecution are covered. Some of these have small relevance to the modern world, such as how to sneak into the King's harem, but are interesting nonetheless. Others, such as how to get money from a lover, will probably remain useful as long as there are humans in the world.

The translator's concluding remarks call the book primitive; so might also modern women who are told that if their name ends in “l” or “r” they should not be married, because they are worthless. But in tackling the subject of human sexuality, Vatsyayana nevertheless will always attract readers (or, in this case, listeners!).

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