I love The Highwayman by Lord Dunsany. It’s a terrific twelve minute tale, a prose poem of career criminals turned beneficent brigands. And my friend Mike Vendetti liked it a whole bunch too, have a listen a listen to his reading of it! |MP3|
Here’s a fully illustrated |PDF|.
Posted by Jesse Willis
Sometimes titled The Highwayman, sometimes The Highwaymen, Lord Dunsany’s elegant prose poem is an 1,800 word tale about a scabrous gang of bastard highwaymen. And it has something for almost everyone.
I think, despite the sacrilege and desecration in the story, that my Christian friends will like it – it’s got a lot of that redemption stuff they are big on.
I’m confident that fans of capital punishment will like it – because it certainly doesn’t repudiate legalized killing.
And my friend, Gregg Margarite, who didn’t believe in any of the underlying mythology, liked it enough to read it for LibriVox.
And me?
Yep, I like The Highwayman too.
I like the overarching premise, about friendship, I think it’s heartwarming.
Plus it’s got lot of ghoulish shit in it, and I like that stuff too.
The Highwayman
By Lord Dunsany; Read by Gregg Margarite
1 |MP3| – Approx. 12 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: LibriVox.org
Published: January 13, 2010
First published in 1908.
Here’s a |PDF| made from the publication in Famous Fantastic Mysteries, December, 1944.
And here’s the Sidney H. Sime illustration from the original 1908 publication in The Sword Of Welleran and Other Stories:
Posted by Jesse Willis
The White Moll
By Frank L. Lampard; Read by Rowdy Delaney
21 Zipped MP3 Files or Podcast – 8 Hours 45 Minutes – [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Librivox.org
Published: November 15, 2008
Themes: / Crime / Gangsters / Superheroes / Thieves / New York City /
“…an angel of mercy who spends her time helping the poor in the slums of New York City is drawn into the criminal world when she attempts to help Gypsy Nan, who is not what she seems. Accused of a crime and on the run from the police, she must battle the most nefarious criminal gang in the New York underworld to prove her innocence.”
The White Moll is an exciting adventure story by Frank L. Packard who also wrote the wonderful Adventures Of Jimmie Dale. Set in New York’s shady underbelly of crime, we follow The White Moll as she strives to do good but finds herself framed by criminals who also blame her for ruining their schemes. Can she foil their plans and also save herself? And what of the adventuring thief with whom she has fallen in love?
This book is not as hard-boiled as a typical noir-ish story but definitely holds its own in New York City’s seamy underbelly as unsavory characters plot thefts and murders with little regard for any sense of decency. The White Moll is a quick thinking and plucky heroine who never performs better than when her back is against the wall and we think there is no way out of a threatening situation. Packard wrote in the early 1900s but the stories have as much zest and adventure as when they were new.
Reader Rowdy Delaney has a low key narrative style. She does not attempt to change voice styles from one character to another yet we still get impressions of the characters as they appear. Her reading is smooth and steady, allowing the story to succeed or fail upon its own merits.
This book is available free from Librivox.
Podcast feed:
http://librivox.org/bookfeeds/the-white-moll-by-frank-l-packard.xml
iTunes 1-Click |SUBSCRIBE|
Posted by Julie D.