Classics Read Aloud

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The Turn of the Screw, Part 1 , by Henry James

Henry James was raised as a member of the American elite—shuttling between the New and the Old Continent—under the watchful attention, customary to the time, of governesses and household staff. H...

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The Shadows on the Wall by Mary E. Wilkins Freeman, 1903

Mary Wilkins Freeman was the grande dame of writers, recording “quiet” New England life at the turn of the twentieth century. As the first recipient of the William Dean Howells Gold Med...

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The Fall of the House of Usher, by Edgar Allan Poe

Outside of his writing, Edgar Allan Poe led a rather unremarkable life. It was an existence that would give any mother cause for concern. Not his, for Poe was an orphan.

As a young adult, Poe ...

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"The Happy Prince" & "The Selfish Giant" by Oscar Wilde

Oscar Wilde is most often known for his witticisms, which can lead one to assume he moved in an air of lightness. Words like “dazzling,” “frivolous,” and “enchanting” are often bandied a...

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"The Coup de Grace" by Ambrose Bierce & "Araby" by James Joyce

Suffering is a fact of the human condition. Shaping it has been the basis of many religions, and coming to terms with it the lifeblood of many a writer’s work. This unavoidable st...

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Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, Chapters 7-12, by Lewis Carroll

The second half of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland is all about wordplay and games. There are misunderstandings, clarifications, and songs galore as we are yanked, just like A...

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Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, Chapters 1-6, by Lewis Carroll

When I first conceived of the concept for Classics Read Aloud, I had Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland near the top of my list, but rather dismissed it as resting on ground that ...

Big Two-Hearted River by Ernest Hemingway

Every day, dozens of outdoorsmen head out into nature, armed with video cameras, battery packs, and oh-so-many envelopes of instant oatmeal, to capture their communion with nature. And every day, tens of thousands of would-be outdoorsmen tune into YouTube to watch the newest videos coming from the field.

The outdoor genre is booming, with estimates easily topping more than 1 billion views per...

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"The Devoted Friend" by Oscar Wilde & "The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County" by Mark Twain

There are a number of well-known themes in classic literature: love, power and corruption, nature versus machine, and on and on. Today’s sto...

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Double Birthday by Willa Cather

By the time the short story “Double Birthday” appeared in the pages of The Forum in February of 1929, Willa Cather was already well-known and widely published. One of Ours had earned the author a Pulitzer in 19...