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1Esperanto Self-Taught with Phonetic Pronunciation, Volume 1

By William W. Mann

This is Volume 1 of William Mann’s “Esperanto Self-Taught with Phonetic Pronunciation”. It is part of a series of Self-Taught books written by various authors that include vocabularies of common words, elementary grammars and conversational phrases. The present volume contains thirty-seven vocabularies of common Esperanto words. If you want to learn Esperanto words or improve your Esperanto vocabulary, this volume may be of use to you. Mann writes, in the preface, that his work “supplies very full and comprehensive vocabularies of the words required by the tourist or traveller, visitor or resident abroad, health or pleasure seeker, and professional or business man, together with a large number of conversational sentences of a typical and practical character. The words and phrases are classified according to subject, and the phonetic pronunciation of every word is added in accordance with Marlborough's simple and popular system of phonetics. With the aid of this book anyone may undertake a trip to a foreign land, even if he know nothing of the language of the country he is going to, and, if he will put himself beforehand in communication with Esperantists in the various places he intends to visit, he will find them ready to help him in many ways, and his stay abroad will thus be made much more entertaining and instructive than if he had spent his time in the conventional manner of the ordinary tourist. A further great advantage of this international language is, that it opens up to the traveller, not merely one particular country, but the whole of Europe.”<BR><BR>(Summary by Nicholas James Bridgewater)<BR>For convenience, his book has been divided into 3 volumes in this audiobook version, the other 2 volumes will be recorded in the future.

2Esperanto Self-Taught with Phonetic Pronunciation, Volume 2

By William W. Mann

This is Volume 2 of William Mann’s “Esperanto Self-Taught with Phonetic Pronunciation”. It is part of a series of Self-Taught books written by various authors that include vocabularies of common words, elementary grammars and conversational phrases. The present volume contains an elementary grammar of Esperanto. If you want to understand Esperanto grammar, this volume may be of use to you. Mann writes, in the preface, that with “the aid of this book anyone may undertake a trip to a foreign land, even if he know nothing of the language of the country he is going to, and, if he will put himself beforehand in communication with Esperantists in the various places he intends to visit, he will find them ready to help him in many ways, and his stay abroad will thus be made much more entertaining and instructive than if he had spent his time in the conventional manner of the ordinary tourist. A further great advantage of this international language is, that it opens up to the traveller, not merely one particular country, but the whole of Europe.”

3Esperanto Self-Taught with Phonetic Pronunciation, Volume 3

By William W. Mann

Volume 3 of William Mann’s “Esperanto Self-Taught with Phonetic Pronunciation” is part of a series of Self-Taught books written by various authors that include vocabularies of common words, elementary grammars and conversational phrases. The present volume contains an conversational phrases in Esperanto. If you want to learn Esperanto phrases or improve your knowledge of conversational Esperanto, this volume may be of use to you. Mann writes, in the preface, that with “the aid of this book anyone may undertake a trip to a foreign land, even if he know nothing of the language of the country he is going to, and, if he will put himself beforehand in communication with Esperantists in the various places he intends to visit, he will find them ready to help him in many ways, and his stay abroad will thus be made much more entertaining and instructive than if he had spent his time in the conventional manner of the ordinary tourist. A further great advantage of this international language is, that it opens up to the traveller, not merely one particular country, but the whole of Europe.” (Introduction by Nicholas James Bridgewater)

4Present Picture of New South Wales

By David Dickinson Mann

Convicted of forgery at the age of 23, David Dickenson Mann narrowly escaped hanging and was transported instead to New South Wales, where he arrived in 1799. Three years later he received a full pardon and was soon working in the secretary's office of the colonial government. Mann fell foul of Governor William Bligh and was about to leave for England, but in 1808 found himself in favour with the rebel government that deposed him. The Present Picture of New South Wales, dedicated to the recently arrived Governor John Hunter, gives a detailed account of the colony . It includes a brief history, an A-Z encyclopedia of political and economic progress and Mann's own ideas on the future development of New South Wales. Mann returned to England in 1809, where he published his book in 1811, dying in the same year. - Summary by Phil Benson

5Royal Highness

By Thomas Mann

Royal Highness is the story of Prince Klaus Heinrich, a member of a struggling German duchy and an exotic American heiress who comes to live as his neighbor. The novel is a microcosm of Europe before World War I, with Mann's depiction of a decaying society that is rejuvenated by modern forces. A true modern day fairy tale. (Summary by Margaret Espaillat)

Horace Mann is called The Father of the Common School and was one of the first progressive thinkers on education in the United States. His <i>Annual Reports to the Massachusetts Board of Education</i>, written between 1837 and 1848, are wide-ranging essays on topics, including philosophical arguments on the role of education in a democracy, curricular matters such as textbook choice and methods of reading instruction, and nitty-gritty details of classroom furnishings and buildings. Even in the much-changed society of the 21st century, much of Mann's writing still speaks to us, recalling us to the roots of our faith in education for all. - Summary by Maria Kasper

7Bashan And I

By Thomas Mann

Simple and unpretentious as a statement by Francis d’Assisi, yet full of a gentle modern sophistication and humour, this little work will bring delight and refreshment to all who seek flight from the heavy-laden hour. It is, moreover, one of the most subtle and penetrating studies of the psychology of the dog that has ever been written—tender yet unsentimental, realistic and full of the detail of masterly observation and description, yet in its final form and precipitation a work of exquisite literary art. - Summary from the Foreword by Herman George Scheffauer

8Untertan

By Heinrich Mann

Der Untertan ist ein Roman von Heinrich Mann aus dem Jahr 1914. Die erste Buchausgabe erschien 1918 im Kurt Wolff Verlag. Heinrich Mann erzählt mit scharfem Witz die Lebensgeschichte des fiktiven Opportunisten und Karrieristen Diederich Heßling von dessen Kindheit bis hin zur Sicherung seiner Stellung in der wilhelminischen Gesellschaft des deutschen Kaiserreichs um die Jahrhundertwende vom 19. zum 20. Jahrhundert. Die Satire ist eine unverhohlene Kritik am Kaiserreich unter dem Regiment Wilhelms II., eine politische Kritik am kaiserfanatischen Bürgertum wie dem erschlafften Altliberalismus und eine Mentalitätsstudie über den autoritären Typus. Der Roman gilt als das wichtigste literarische Dokument über das Kaiserreich. Zeitgenossen und spätere Autoren wie Historiker erkannten im Untertan die mustergültige Zeichnung eines zeitgeistigen Männertypus und Darstellung der Vorgeschichte zum Ersten Weltkrieg. Als Gegenspieler des kaisertreuen Heßling ist der Honoratior Buck gezeichnet, ein Teilnehmer der Revolution von 1848, der durch Heßlings Ränke nicht nur den Verlust seiner Anhänger und das Ende der städtischen Bürgerlichkeit wie auch die Isolation seiner Familie, sondern den politischen Sieg der Kaisertreuen mit Hilfe korrupter Gewerkschafter erleben muss, ehe ihm auf dem Sterbebett ausgerechnet Heßling als der Leibhaftige vor der Türe erscheint. Der Untertan wird als Heinrich Manns größter Beitrag zur deutschen Literatur des 20. Jahrhunderts gewertet. (Wikipedia)

9Death in Venice

By Thomas Mann

Thomas Mann, author of Death in Venice (German: Der Tod in Venedig) was a winner of the Nobel Prize for literature. The main character in this novella is Gustav von Aschenbach, a famous author in his early 50s who was widowed at an early age. In poor health, he visits Venice and becomes increasingly obsessed by the sight of a stunningly beautiful lad of 14. This book has been acclaimed a masterpiece and in 1971 was adapted as a film starring Dirk Bogarde. (Summary by Lee Smalley)

When Thomas Mann was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature (1929), the citation made special mention of his first novel, “Buddenbrooks,” published in 1901, describing it as “the first great novel of the 20th century.” <br><br> Events in the novel center on the Buddenbrook family, bourgeois owners of a wholesale grain enterprise in the northern German city of Lübeck. (The city is never named as such, but detailed references to landmarks leave no doubt that the setting is closely based on Mann’s hometown, just as the story is inspired by the Mann family history.) We follow four generations of Buddenbrooks through the middle decades of the 19th century. The novel is subtitled “The Decline of a Family.” This “decline” occurs through subtle interplay of character and circumstance. Family members — individuals each with their own romantic, social, and artistic interests — struggle to adapt to the expectations of the “family firm” and to the evolving conditions of German society in the 1800s. <br><br> Mann views his characters with both irony and intense empathy, propelling the reader’s journey through this momentous narrative. - Summary by Bruce Pirie

Thomas Mann’s epic novel depicts a decaying, corrupted European society on the eve of the First World War. Set in a luxurious sanatorium high up in the Swiss mountains, we follow the destinies of a variety of exotic characters – members of a bourgeois elite drawn from all parts of Europe. Most suffer from consumption, dream of a cure - yet are at the same time squeezing as much pleasure and distraction as they can out of a situation ever-shadowed by sickness, pain, and death. Part surreal comedy, part grim tragedy, part allegory, and part novel of ideas, Mann’s novel is regarded by many as one of the key literary texts of the twentieth century. Summary by Steve Gough

Thomas Mann’s epic novel depicts a decaying, corrupted European society on the eve of the First World War. Set in a luxurious sanatorium high up in the Swiss mountains, we follow the destinies of a variety of exotic characters – members of a bourgeois elite drawn from all parts of Europe. Most suffer from consumption, dream of a cure - yet are at the same time squeezing as much pleasure and distraction as they can out of a situation ever-shadowed by sickness, pain, and death. Part surreal comedy, part grim tragedy, part allegory, and part novel of ideas, Mann’s novel is regarded by many as one of the key literary texts of the twentieth century. - Summary by Steve Gough