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LibriVox volunteers bring you 11 recordings of <em>To a Fish</em> by (James) Leigh Hunt. This was the weekly poetry project for the week of October 19th, 2008.

LibriVox volunteers bring you 8 recordings of <em>A Fish Answers</em> by James Leigh Hunt. This was the weekly poetry project for the week of October 26th, 2008.

Dark times for British Catholics hung over England in the days of King Henry VIII. Henry, influenced by the hated Thomas Cromwell, fell into opposition with them, suppressing them, and closing religious houses. In that period a famous shrine, erected centuries earlier at Walsingham and dedicated to our Lady, drew people from far and near for it was a favorite place of pilgrimage and the site of many miracles.<br><br>On their grandmother's and uncle's farm, far removed from this scene of persecution, were Jemmy Reynolds and his sister Joan. For a long time they had been promised the chance to make the pilgrimage to Walsingham, and now at last they were going. Their biggest problem was to find a suitable offering to our Lady, and Joan came upon the idea of presenting a great, fine candle. And so they set out upon a thrilling journey which eventually brings Jem face to face with the crafty Cromwell and King Henry himself.<br><br>What happens when they meet a cunning stranger on the way to the shrine and later when Jem attempts to rescue a friend from Cromwell's power are some of the exciting developments that make A Candle For Our Lady interesting and fast moving. True history and authentic background are woven into this story which provides a taste of the struggles English Catholics knew in a time when cruelty and greed ruled the land. (Summary from original jacket.)

A long poem telling the tragic story of Francesca da Rimini, the duped and adulterous bride, inspired by the character in Dante's Inferno. Published in 1816 and dedicated to Lord Byron, it is considered the pinnacle of Hunt's poetic achievements. Hunt, though having fine artistic sensibilities, was not placed among the first rank of lyric poets, many of whom he championed however. The Story of Rimini was written in prison, where he spent two years for slander of the Prince Regent, and is dramatically and vividly told, with much evocative scene-setting and careful portrayal of emotional conflicts. (Peter Tucker)

Isobel Violet Hunt was a British author renowned for her literary salons, which hosted such notables as H.G. Wells, D.H. Laurence, Henry James, W. Somerset Maugham, Oscar Wilde and Ezra Pound. In White Rose of Weary Leaf (often considered her best work), principal character, Amy, voices many of Hunt's New Woman theories of sexual, financial, and intellectual autonomy. Amy manages to successfully navigate through society in her roles as secretary and governess, until her reputation as an "Adventuress" leads to a supreme test. - summary by Lisa Reichert

James Henry Leigh Hunt, best known as Leigh Hunt, was an English critic, essayist, poet, and writer. - Summary by Wikipedia

An amusing but deeply poignant story, “The Last Ditch” describes the wartime experiences of a British aristocratic family who gradually realize that their old feudal perquisites are passing away in the trenches of the Great War and that unprecedented new forces are pushing out the comfortable old ways. Lady Arles is the matriarch determined to resist to her last breath. Her bohemian young daughter Venice is set on a career as a poet and even dallies with a Socialist lover, but in some ways is the family member who seems the most helpless without her old aristocratic privileges. Another daughter Ilsa brings scandal after scandal to the family because of her endless sexual flings, incorrigible almost to the last page. Audley Bar, beloved by at least two of the Ladies Arles, is the ennui-laden aristocratic adventurer, determined despite his middle age to go forth to war and do his bit, especially after one young friend after another dies on the Western Front. Author Violet Hunt pokes ironical, affectionate fun at her old-fashioned cast of characters, but as an ardent feminist and free-thinker finds ways to show her profound sympathies for the rising poor of England, the previously unprivileged who were finding some new freedoms in the passing of the Old Order. Her novel published while the seemingly endless War was still in full force, Hunt deftly sketches a portrait of a very human family, harrowed by loss and adrift in a new world. - Summary by Expatriate

A travel journal of a year the author spent in Germany. With a preface and two additional chapters by her partner, the novelist Ford Madox Ford (here using the surname Hueffer). - Summary by barbara2

Nine twisty-turny tales of tragic human drama, played out in Victorian parlors, death beds and lonely country roads. This collection of Violet Hunt writings has all the requirements for short story entertainment: flirtatious beauties, mismatched love, ''lung symptoms'', and cruel, cruel fate. Sometimes the horror has a ghostly source, but often the horror is rooted in our very human pathology. - Lisa Reichert

10Captain Sword and Captain Pen: A Poem

By Leigh Hunt

This Poem is the result of a sense of duty, which has taken the Author from quieter studies during a great public crisis. He obeyed the impulse with joy, because it took the shape of verse; but with more pain, on some accounts, than he chooses to express. However, he has done what he conceived himself bound to do; and if every zealous lover of his species were to express his feelings in like manner, to the best of his ability, individual opinions, little in themselves, would soon amount to an overwhelming authority, and hasten the day of reason and beneficence. - Summary by Advertisement

11Peaceful Atom

By Bernice Kohn Hunt

In this children's science book from the early 1960s, the concept of atoms and the science behind them is introduced. The book recounts the history of scientific discoveries related to atoms, radioactivity, and nuclear energy. The author promotes the benefits of atomic power plants and nuclear energy while also exploring other positive uses of radioisotopes. The book pointedly does not discuss the history of nuclear weapons and how the scientific discoveries related to atoms led to the ability to create those weapons. - Summary by Elsie Selwyn

Leigh Hunt was an English poet, essayist and editor best remembered as the host of a literary circle which gathered at his home in Hampstead and attracted many well known writers of the day including Lord Byron, Percy Shelley, John Keats, William Hazlitt, Thomas Moore and Charles Lamb. He wrote many letters to various friends including some Epistles in Verse of which those to Byron, Moore, Hazlitt and Lamb are recorded here. He also made translations from Poets of Antiquity (Homer, Theocritus, Anacreon and Catullus) (Summary by Alan Mapstone)