Fireside Story Telling Evening
In 2010, and again in 2012, a local family held a "Fireside Story Telling Evening" for us, reciting extracts from English literature.
Below are links to several literature websites where this literature is freely available to read online, followed by links to the passages that were read.
Literature Websites
- Shakespeare-online.com appears to contain a complete collection of
Shakespeare's work (along with discussion and study guides!):
Select "plays" or "sonnets" in the left hand menu for a list of them.
- Pemberley.com is dedicated to Jane Austen - all her works (including many less well known writings,
such as letters to friends, etc, some of which make interesting reading), and discussions, etc.
I find it hard to navigate round this site - it certainly seems rather less well laid out than the one for Shakespeare.
So here's a link to the (long) list of contents of the actual works.
- Nonsenselit.org seems the best site for Edward Lear's works.
- For other classic authors, these sites are extremely valuable, with many and various Authors,
including Lewis Carroll, Charles Dickens, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, and many others.
(I prefer these sites in this order, where the book is available.
The middle site appears to use the occasional "pop-up" advertising;
unfortunately most of the books we looked at during Story-Telling are as yet only available on this site,
and it does have a much larger selection of authors.
The last site splits the chapters up into smaller pages, which means more clicking -
although this may make it more suitable for use on portable devices.
They do keep adding books and authors all of these sites).
Passages from the Story Telling Evenings
Below is the list of Authors and their works that were read (or listed to be read) at the Story Telling evenings in 2010 and 2012,
with links to where they can be read online (where available).
William Shakespeare
1564 - 1616
The Bible (King James Translation)
Translated 1611
William Wordsworth
1770 - 1850
Charles Dickens
1812 - 1870
Lewis Carroll
1832 - 1898
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
1839 - 1932.
Most famous for his detective character, Sherlock Holmes of 221b Baker Street.
- The Terror of Blue John Gap (a short story from "Tales of Terror and Mystery")
This was on the list for 2010, but we ran out of time. Thankfully in 2012 we were given an excellent rendition of this.
Jerome K. Jerome
1859 - 1927
Kenneth Grahame
1859 - 1932
Beatrix Potter
1866 - 1943.
We didn't read from Beatrix Potter's works,
although this was on the list for 2010's Story-Telling:
George Orwell
1903 - 1950
- Nineteen Eighty-Four.
This book remains copyrighted until 2020; therefore no legal version is available online.
See Wikipedia for more information.
Douglas Adams
1952 - 2001
- A Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.
Originally written as a comedy series for radio.
This is still copyrighted; therefore no legal version is available online.
See Wikipedia for more information.
I had a look online for the local ghost story, "Shucky, Hettie and Thu", told to us in 2010 but couldn't find it online.
If you prefer paper copies, you can of course usually buy the books new - but the best thing to do is look for good second hand copies.
Charity Shops can be a place to look, however you can't beat a dedicated second hand bookshop.
There used to be a couple in Guildford, but sadly they both closed not long after their original owners died.
The only one I know of in the local area is in Queen Street in Godalming (just a couple of doors down from the Baptist Church.
GU7 1BA) - a real treasure trove for second hand books (of all sorts, not just classics!) and you will get some great bargains.
Worth a visit (or a few visits!)
If anyone knows of any other good second hand bookshops near Guildford, do let me know!