Publisher Description
Nella Braddy (1894–1973), a pioneer among female editors, compiled this seven-story collection and published Masterpieces of Adventure: Stories of Desert Places in 1922. It features seven authors: Egerton Castle, Stephen Crane, Selma Lagerlöf, Bret Harte, Thomas Hardy, O. Henry, and W. H. Hudson. It’s a stellar group.
Braddy went on to write and edit more articles and books, including two more in the Masterpieces of Adventure series, one focused on Helen Keller’s breakthrough teacher, Anna Sullivan Macy, and a biography of Rudyard Kipling.
Once inside Stories of Desert Places, though, listeners will soon realize that Braddy treats the idea of “desert” very loosely. Perhaps it’s about what’s in a protagonist’s mind or heart, rather than the actual setting of the story that Braddy felt evoked the idea of “desert.”
It’s left to us to find the “desert”—physical or metaphorical—of an eastern European castle on a snowy night, somewhere in the American West, Norway, early day California, a rainy night in England, in Texas near the Rio Grande, and Argentina. In these stories, people strive, often foolishly, and yet they persevere in unexpected ways.
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“This far-reaching collection of short stories featuring desert settings contains some of the most engaging tales in the Western canon. The audiobook is delivered at just the right pace by Jack de Golia. Narrating energetically, he takes on the characters’ voices with a chameleon-like effect. His ability to inhabit the spirit and sound of the French, Spanish, and Russians, young and old, highborn and low, elevates these classics…Edited by Nella Braddy in 1922, these adventures have stood the test of time and keep the listener rapt.”
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AudioFile
About the Authors
O. Henry (1862–1910), born William Sydney Porter in Greensboro, North Carolina, was a short-story writer whose tales romanticized the commonplace, in particular, the lives of ordinary people in New York City. His stories often had surprise endings, a device that became identified with his name. He began writing sketches around 1887, and his stories of adventure in the Southwest United States and in Central America were immediately popular with magazine readers.
Thomas Hardy (1840–1928), English poet, dramatist, and novelist, was born on the Egdon Heath in Dorset. He studied in Dorchester and apprenticed to an architect before leaving for London, where he began to write. Unable to find a public for his poetry, which idealized the rural life, he turned to the novel and met with success as well as controversy. The strong public reaction against some of his darker themes turned him back to writing verse. Today several of his novels are considered masterpieces of tragedy.
Stephen Crane (1871–1900) was an American novelist, poet, and journalist. He worked as a reporter of slum life in New York and a highly paid war correspondent for newspaper tycoons William Randolph Hearst and Joseph Pulitzer. He wrote many works of fiction, poems, and accounts of war, all well received but none as acclaimed as his 1895 Civil War novel, The Red Badge of Courage. Today he is considered one of the most innovative American writers of the 1890s and one of the founders of literary realism.
Bret Harte (1836–1902) was born in Albany, New York, and was raised in New York City. He had no formal education, but he inherited a love for books. Harte wrote for the San Franciscan Golden Era paper. There he published his first condensed novels, which were brilliant parodies of the works of well-known authors, such as Dickens and Cooper. Later, he became clerk in the US branch mint. This job gave Harte time to also work for the Overland Monthly, where he published his world-famous “Luck of the Roaring Camp” and commissioned Mark Twain to write weekly articles. In 1871, Harte was hired by the Atlantic Monthly for $10,000 to write twelve stories a year, which was the highest figure paid to an American writer at the time.
Colleen Delany has
been a sparkling jewel in the crown of Washington’s vastly talented acting
community for thirty-seven days now and will confidently challenge to a fierce
best out of three in “paper-rock-scissors” anyone wishing to topple her from
that lofty perch. Primarily a stage actress,—having played roles at Shakespeare
Theatre Company, Goodman Theatre, Arena Stage, Signature Theatre, Folger
Shakespeare Library, Studio Theatre, Olney Theatre, Woolly Mammoth, Theater J,
Washington Stage Guild, Theater of the First Amendment, and Source Theatre,
among others—Ms. Delany does a you-name-it of various acting jobs, including
audiobook narration.
Egerton Castle (1858–1920) was born in London to a wealthy family, which included the publishing magnate, his grandfather Egerton Smith. Castle grew up to be an author, an antiquarian, and a swordsman. He was a champion in reconstruction of historical fencing techniques, and was even the captain of the British épée and sabre teams in the 1908 Summer Olympics. He wrote important books on the art and history of fencing and became an expert on and collector of bookplates. Many of his fiction novels were adapted into films in the early twentieth century, and he even co-wrote many other novels with his wife, Agnes Castle (née Sweetman).
Selma Lagerlöf (1858–1940) was a Swedish author. The first female writer to win the Nobel Prize in Literature, she is most widely known for her children’s book, The Wonderful Adventures of Nils.