Showing results by narrator "Gregory Dwyer" in Literature & Fiction

For the Term of His Natural Life can be described as a “ripping yarn.” While it relies on slightly unrealistic coincidences, the story follows the (mis)fortunes of Rufus Dawes, a young man transported for a murder he did not commit. The story also explores the harsh environment and the often inhumane treatment meted out to the convicts in the early penal settlements, some of whom were transported for minor crimes. The appalling conditions experienced by the convicts are graphically described. But the story also involves a heartfelt rescue and its long-term consequences.

Robbery Under Arms, together with Marcus Clarke’s For the Term of His Natural Life, is considered to be one of the seminal Australian novels of the nineteenth century. It is a barnstorming yarn, delivered in the first person by one Dick Marston, a vigorous and basically honourable young man, who is lured into crime due to unfavourable circumstances.

Bert Smallways, a “kind of bicycle engineer,” is creatively trying to avoid bankruptcy when he meets by chance a certain Mr. Butteridge—the inventor of a new form of aircraft. Butteridge, Bert discovers, has plans to sell his invention either to British Government—or to the Germans, if the British won’t have it. When one of Butteridge’s aircrafts is shot down while Bert is aboard, Bert stumbles across a secret German plot to destroy the United States. As the story unfolds, Bert finds himself in an unexpected position, called upon to perform tasks he never could have foreseen.

Few of Emily Dickinson’s poems were published in her lifetime. Her posthumous fame is largely due to the efforts of her editors and supporters Thomas W. Higginson and Mabel Loomis Todd.

Emily Dickinson was one of the most reclusive of all poets. She spent much of her life in seclusion in her father’s house in Amherst, and only a handful of her 1800 poems were published in her lifetime. Credit for the posthumous publication of her work must be given to her editor and friend Thomas W. Higginson, who reported that, in spite of the voluminous correspondence which passed between himself and Dickinson, he only met her twice in person.

At the time of a passing comet in the sky, while the world is at a turning point and the industrialization of Victorian England is affecting lives. Willie Leadford is a young man facing personal crises of life. A breakdown in his employment, social beliefs, and relationship initially turns him towards a trail of vengeance against those he holds responsible. And then “The Change” occurs.

This full cast presentation includes Part 1 and Part 2 of Shakespeare’s Henry IV.

Johah describes the social atmosphere of many of the working class, and in particular traces the change in the main character of Jonah, a hunchback, from his beginnings in life as a “streetarab” to rising successfully in the world of business with his own street smarts. The narrative reflects many social views of the time, some of which may be considered unacceptable today, but the author’s writing brings a real-life and identifiable cheerfulness in his characters. His expectation that a person’s better qualities will eventually find expression remains engaging to the audience of today.

A delightful selection of entertaining poems, short essays, and written conversations involving the people of 20th century rural Australia and some of their working animals. This collection includes “When Dad Drives Home From Town,” “When the Sailor Rode the Brumby,” “The Old Barn School,” and many more.

The longest major poem by renowned English poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge tells of a wedding guest who is intercepted on his way to the ceremony by an old mariner. The mariner engages the guest with an incredible tale of a fateful sea journey, the story of which he is compelled to relate.