Adventure Books
00 Preface
https://www.solgoodmedia.com Listen to hundreds of audiobooks, thousands of short stories, and ambient sounds all ad-free! Step into a world of daily intrigue and timeless tales with our Classic Adventure Podcast Series! Each day, we bring to life a new chapter from a beloved classic, inviting you on an exhilarating journey through some of the greatest adventure stories ever written. Imagine unraveling the mysteries with Sherlock Holmes, exploring bizarre landscapes with Alice, or circumnavigating the globe in just eighty days. Why settle for mundane daily commutes or routine chores when you can escape into the thrilling escapades of "Treasure Island" or the eerie encounters in "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow"? Our podcast transforms your every day into a captivating adventure, perfect for both the literary enthusiast and the casual listener seeking an escape from the ordinary. Join us as we traverse the dark depths of "Heart of Darkness," soar through the imaginative realms of "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz," and survive the wilds with "Robinson Crusoe." Each episode is crafted to make the classics accessible and exciting, ensuring that whether you're reliving your favorite tales or discovering them for the first time, you're guaranteed a gripping experience. Subscribe to our Classic Adventure Podcast Series today and start your daily adventure! Let us awaken the explorer in you as we delve into these timeless narratives, chapter by chapter, transforming your daily routine into an extraordinary journey through the pages of history's most thrilling adventures. Don't just listen to stories—live them every day with us!
- Broadcast on:
- 29 Sep 2024
- Audio Format:
- other
We wear our work, day by day, stitch by stitch. At Dickies, we believe work is what we're made of. So, whether you're gearing up for a new project, or looking to add some tried and true work wear to your collection, remember that Dickies has been standing the test of time for a reason. Their work wear isn't just about looking good. It's about performing under pressure and lasting through the toughest jobs. Head over to Dickies.com and use the promo code "Workwear20" at checkout to save 20% on your purchase. It's the perfect time to experience the quality and reliability that has made Dickies a trusted name for over a century. When you need meal time inspiration, it's worth shopping king supers for thousands of appetizing ingredients that inspire countless mouth-watering meals. And no matter what tasty choice you make, you'll enjoy our everyday low prices. Plus, extra ways to save, like digital coupons worth over $600 each week, and up to $1 off per gallon at the pump with points, so you can get big flavors and big savings, king supers, fresh for everyone, fuel restrictions apply. While my husband and Mr. Henley were engaged in writing plays and born-mouth, they made a number of titles, hoping to use them in the future. Traumatic composition was not what my husband preferred, but the toward of Mr. Henley's enthusiasm swept him off his feet. However, after several plays had been finished, and his health seriously impaired by his own death, his death, however, after several plays had been finished, and his health seriously impaired by his endeavors to keep up with Mr. Henley, playwriting was abandoned forever, and my husband returned to his legitimate vocation. Having added one of the titles, the hanging judge, to the list of projected plays now thrown aside, and emboldened by my husband's offer to give me any help needed, I concluded to try and write it myself. As I wanted a trial scene in the Old Bailey, I chose the period of 1700 for my purpose, but being shamefully ignorant of my subject, and my husband confessing to little more knowledge than I possessed, a London bookseller was commissioned to send us everything he could procure bearing on Old Bailey trials. A great package came in response to our order, and very soon we were both absorbed, not so much in the trials, as in following the brilliant career of a Mr. Garro, who appeared as counsel in many of the cases. We sent for more books, and yet more, still intent on Mr. Garro, whose subtle cross-examination of witnesses, and masterly, if sometimes startling, methods of arriving at the truth, seem more thrilling to us than any novel. Occasionally other trials than those in the Old Bailey would be included in the package of books we received from London. Among these, my husband found and read with avidity, the trial of James Stewart, in O'Karn, in Durer of Appen, for the murder of Colin Campbell, of Glenier E. F. Q., a factor for his majesty on the forfeited estate of Artfield. My husband was always interested in this period of his country's history, and had already the intention of writing a story that should turn on the Appen murder. The tale was to be of a boy, David Balfour, supposed to belong to my husband's own family, who should travel in Scotland as though it were a foreign country, meeting with various adventures and misadventures, by the way. From the trial of James Stewart, my husband gleaned much valuable material for his novel, the most important being the character of Alan Breck. Aside from having described him as "smallish in stature," my husband seems to have taken Alan Breck's personal appearance, even to his clothing, from the book. A letter from James Stewart to Mr. John MacFarlane introduced his evidence in the trial says, "There is one Alan Stewart, a distant friend of the late hard-heels, who is in the French service, came over in March last, as he said to some in order to settle at home, to others, that he was to go soon back, and was, as I hear, the day that the murder was committed, seen not far from the place where it happened, and is not now to be seen, by which it is believed he was the actor. He is a desperate foolish fellow, and if he is guilty, came to the country for that very purpose. He is a tall, hawk-pitted lad, very black hair, and wore a blue coat and metal buttons, an old red vest, and breeches of the same color." A second witness testified to having seen him wearing a blue coat with silver buttons, a red waistcoat, black shag breeches, tartan hose, and a feathered hat, with a big coat, done colored, a costume referred to by one of the council as "French clothes," which were remarkable. There are many incidents given in the trial that point to Alan's fiery spirit, an island quickness to take offense. One witness declared also that the said "Alan Breck," threatened that he would challenge Belly Violen and his sons to fight because of his removing the declaret last year from Glenduror. On another page, Duncan Campbell, changekeeper at Annette, aged 35 years, married, witness-cited, sworn, purged, and examined at Supra, de Ponece, that in the month of April last, the opponent met with Alan Breck Stewart, with whom he was not acquainted, and John Stewart, in Oknachuan, in the house of the Walkmiller of Okofragan, and went on with them to the house. Alan Breck Stewart said that he hated all the name of Campbell, and the opponent said he had no reason for doing so, but Alan said he had very good reason for it, that thereafter they left that house, and, after drinking a dram at another house, came to the de Ponece house, where they went in and drunk some drams, and Alan Breck renewed the former conversation. "And the de Ponece, making the same answer," Alan said that, "if the de Ponece had any respect for his friends, he would tell them that if they offered to turn out the possessors of Artheel's estate, he would make black cocks of them, before they entered into possession, by which the de Ponece understood, shooting them, it being a common phrase in the country." Sometime after the publication of Kidnapped, we stopped for a short while in the Appen country, where we were surprised and interested to discover that the feeling concerning the murder of Glenier, the Red Fox, also called Colin Roy, was almost as keen as though the tragedy had taken place the day before. For several years my husband received letters of expostulation or commendation from members of the Campbell and Stewart Clans. I have in my possession a paper, yellow with age, that was sent soon after the novel appeared, containing the pedigree of the family of Appen. We're in it said that Alan III Baron of Appen was not killed at Flowdone, though there but lived to a great old age. He married a Cameron daughter to Ewan Cameron of Joachil. Following this as a paragraph stating that John Stewart first of Artziel of his descendants Alan Breck had better be omitted, Duncan Baines Stewarting, Akhanderak, his father was abastered. One day, while my husband was busily at work, I sat beside him reading an old cookery book called The Complete Housewife, an accomplished gentlewoman's companion. In the midst of receipts for rabbits and chickens mumbled, pickled samphire, and scurrot pie, baked tansy, and other forgotten delicacies, there were directions for the preparation of several lotions for the preservation of beauty. One of these was so charming that I interrupted my husband to read it aloud. "Just what I wanted," he exclaimed, and the receipt for the lily of the valley water was instantly incorporated into kidnap. Signed. F.V.D.G.S. Dedication. My dear Charles Baxter. If you ever read this tale you will likely ask yourself more questions than I should care to answer, as for instance how the App and Murder has come to fall in the year 1751. How the Toren Rocks have crept so near to air raid, or why the printed trial is silent as to all the touches David Balfour. These are nuts beyond my ability to crack. But if you tried me on the point of Allen's guilt or innocence, I think I could defend the reading of the text. To this day you will find the tradition of App and Clear and Allen's favor. If you inquire, you may even hear that the descendants of the other man who fired the shot are in the country to this day. But that other man's name, inquire as you please, you shall not hear. For the Highlander values a secret for itself, and for the congenial exercise of keeping it, I might go on for long to justify one point and own another indefensible. It is more honest to confess it wants how little I am touched by the desire of accuracy. This is no furniture for the scholar's library. But a book for the winter evening schoolroom when the tasks are over and the hour for bed draws near, and honest Allen, who was a grim old fire eater in his day, has in this new avatar no more desperate purpose than to steal some young gentleman's attention from his ovid, carry him a while into the highlands in the last century, and pack him to bed with some engaging images to mingle with his dreams. As for you, my dear Charles, I do not even ask you to like this tale; but perhaps when he is older, your son will, he may then be pleased to find his father's name on the fly-leaf; and in the meanwhile it pleases me to set it there, in memory of many days that were happy and some, now perhaps is pleasant to remember, that were sad. It is strange for me to look back from a distance both in time and space on these bygone adventures of our youth. It must be stranger for you who tread the same streets, who may tomorrow open the door of the old speculative, where we began to rank with Scott and Robert Emmet and a beloved and inglorious MacBean. Or may pass the corner of the close, where that great society, the L.J.R., held its meetings and drank its beer, sitting in the seats of Burns and his companions. I think I see you, moving there by plain daylight, beholding with your natural eyes those places that have now become for your companion a part of the scenery of dreams. How, in the interval of present business, the past must echo in your memory. Let it not echo often without some kind thoughts of your friend, Robert Louis Stevenson, signed in scary-born mouth. And now a disclaimer. Your reader is an American. I'm sorry. I will do my absolute level best to pronounce the Scott's words accurately and the names as well. But I cannot promise that they are accurate. Neither can I pretend to a highland or a lowland Scott's accent. I will make some kind of an attempt, but please bear with me when I fall short. Thank you and good listening. We wear our work, day by day, stitch by stitch. At Dickies, we believe work is what we're made of. So, whether you're gearing up for a new project or looking to add some tried and true work wear to your collection, remember that Dickies has been standing the test of time for a reason. The work wear isn't just about looking good. It's about performing under pressure and lasting through the toughest jobs. Head over to Dickies.com and use the promo code Workwear20 at checkout to save 20% on your purchase. It's the perfect time to experience the quality and reliability that has made Dickies a trusted name for over a century. When you need meal time inspiration, it's worth shopping king supers for thousands of appetizing ingredients that inspire countless mouthwatering meals. And no matter what tasty choice you make, you'll enjoy our everyday low prices. Plus extra ways to save, like digital coupons worth over $600 each week and up to $1 off per gallon at the pump with points. So you can get big flavors and big savings, king supers, fresh for everyone, fuel restrictions apply.