Edgar Rice Burroughs {1975-1950] may be best known for creating Tarzan, King of the Apes, but his tales of John Carter on Mars [which he called Barsoom]  are, to my mind, more exciting. We meet John, a cowboy and Civil War vet, when he steps into a cave in Arizona and emerges on Mars. This is how the novel,  A Princess of Mars, the first John Carter story, begins and it packs a real wallop. [Spoiler alert: It was made into a pretty darned good 2012 movie, “John Carter,” starring Taylor Kitsch and Lynn Collins in the lead roles.] Here is a short, clever intro and the first five audio podcast chapters of “Edgar Rice Burroughs’ 1915 novel,”A Princess of Mars,” from LibriVox, where you can download the entire audiobook for free. It’s read exceedingly well by several…

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We continue our Librivox recordings this month with a lovely reading of Jane Austen’s Emma, read by Sibelia Denton. This is the story of a “handsome, clever, and rich” young woman and her awakening and her struggles with love and relationships. Herewith the first three chapters of one of the most beloved Jane Austen novels, first published in 1815 but which has been adapted again and again on stage and screen. You can continue your listening here.

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Greetings, Podcast Fanatics! Here’s a Sherlock Holmes short story by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle you may have missed in your readings: “The Adventure of the Solitary Cyclist,” drawn from the book The Return of Sherlock Holmes. Published in 1903, this and other stories followed the fabled detective after he had purportedly been killed by the evil Professor Moriarty. It caught my attention because I’m an avid cyclist and wanted to see what the master [indeed, how often does one get English nobility for their writing?] dealt with the bicycle, which was a relatively new invention at the time he wrote. So here it is, and do let me know what you think of it! This is a LibriVox recording by Raynard. Please click on the arrows below to listen to “The Adventure of the Solitary Cyclist”…

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