Final Episode from A Tale of Two Cities: “THE FOOTSTEPS DIE OUT FOR EVER”

Audio narration

I have finally crossed the finish line! My audio narration for Librivox is finally complete, with all forty-five chapters now in the can. I can now say “it’s a wrap.” And what a terrific chapter to end on. Dickens is at his most reflective. A novel of horror somehow has wended its way to a chapter that produces a happy ending for all, at least for all of the good-hearted and well-intended. Dickens even has kind things to say about Parisians and the French, which is quite startling coming from such a prototypical British writer. This is not history but it is magnificently philosophical, spiritual and transcendent, perhaps the best specimen of the age of Romanticism that ever flowed from the pen of men.

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Book the Third, Chapter 14 of A Tale of Two Cities: “The Knitting Done”

Tale of Two Cities, Uncategorized

Madame Defarge discovers that her prey, Lucy, Little Lucy and Dr. Manette, have fled her clutches and are on the country roads of France, fleeing for England, What she does not know is that her most important enemy, Charles Darnay, is with them, having exchanged places in Laforce prison with Sidney Carton. Standing between Madame DeFarge and death for the fleeing prey is Miss Pross. Who will win the battle to the death? Listen to find out.

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“The Substance of the Shadow” from Dickens’s A Tale of Two Cities

Audio narration

In this chapter, Dr. Manette’s long-buried message, found in the Bastille by Ernest Defarge, is used to condemn Charles Darnay, son-in-law of the good doctor and husband of his fair daughter, to death at the Guillotine!  In vain does Dr. Manette protest that he no longer condemned the entire Evremonde family to the last of its line, now that the latest Marquis, dear Charles, has his head on the block.   Madame Defarge is confidant that her use of the doctor’s note of condemnation will foil the doctor’s effort to free Charles.

And, not only that: She has plans to dispatch Lucy and little Lucy, as Evremondes themselves as well as the doctor, hoping that they too will be shaved by the revolutionary razor.  What will stand between Charles and the bloodthirsty wishes of Madame Defarge?  Spoiler alert: Where is Miss Pross as all this is going on?

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“The Game Made,” a “Tell” Chapter from A Tale of Two Cities (Book the Third, Chapter Nine)

Audio narration

In this chapter of A Tale of Two Cities, Charles Darnay is sentenced to death on the accusations of the Dafarges and, incredibly, Dr. Manette, in the form of an old condemnation by the prisoner in the Bastille long before he knew Charles. Sydney Carton persuades Jarvis Lorry to rap up affairs in Paris and prepare to leave at once with Lucy, Little Lucy, Miss Pross and presumably the freed Charles Darnay.  But Carton asks Lorry to keep his safe passage pass with him for when the man arrives at the last minute.  Lorry knows that escape is impossible, but his new-found respect for Sydney assures himself that there is method in this madness.  Carton has made the game by chapter’s end–and has sealed his own fate.

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A Most Difficult Chapter from “A Tale of Two Cities”

Audio narration

“A Hand at Cards,” Book Three, Chapter Eight of A Tale of Two Cities.  Here many of the characters in the novel are on stage in one chapter.  Carton reappears and must “turn” the spy John Barsad to his purposes.  Pross and Cruncher are “over the top,” as usual, but Carton is another matter entirely. He must be played with great skill, conveying both his quickness of mind and his moral regeneration believably. In fact, he rises almost to the level of scrubbed purity as Lucy Manette. And yet, he must be a believable character. You be the judge if I have succeeded.  One thing that is sure, it is exhausting.

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Book Three, Chapter Five of “A Tale of Two Cities:” THE WOOD-SAWYER

Uncategorized

Dickens’s most atypical novel grows still darker, even for him, in this terrifying chapter from A Tale of Two Cities.  Lucy travels into the chaotic streets of revolutionary Paris to try to catch a glimpse of her beloved Charles in the Bastille.  She runs into a wood-sawyer, enraptured by La Guillotine and bent on revenge against aristocrats. Will Charles survive the night, or the chapter? It is announced herein that his trial begins tomorrow.

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“The Grindstone,” from A Tale of Two Cities

Audio narration

Another entry in my evolving audio narration of Charles Dickens’s magisterial novel, A Tale of Two Cities.  This chapter is called “The Grindstone.”  It is a difficult chapter to read because it involves characters of different sexes exchanging dialogue quickly and in states of duress.  Unlike other chapters where the characters are over the top in the writing, and where as a result the dialogue can be read in a similar fashion, here the pathos must be presented sympathetically with a minimum of melodrama.  I hope I have succeeded!

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Newest Episode: “Fire Rising,” Chapter 29 from A Tale of Two Cities

Audio narration

In this episode, the mansion of the Marquis St. Evremonde goes up in flames as the Revolutionary mob torches the ancestral home of Charles Darnay (secretly the new Marquis).  The old Marquis’s functionary, Gabelle, is, in consequence, about to be arrested.   This will draw Darnay from safety in England to mortal peril in France, as he will decide to journey to Paris–and possible imprisonment and death–to save his friend, Gabelle.

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A Sample of my audio narration of “A Tale of Two Cities,” by Charles Dickens

Uncategorized

This chapter of “A Tale of Two Cities,” is called “The Gorgon’s Head,” and is one of the more difficult chapters in the novel to narrate, at least in my opinion.  It has more than its share of the long, meandering and prolix sentences for which Dickens was famous. Even when read with the eyes, it takes time to make sense of them. On top of that it has extensive dialogue intertwined with lines from the omniscient narrator.  One saving grace is that the characters are typically “over the top” in their demeanor, either simon pure (Charles Darnay) or deeply evil (the Marquis de Evremonde), allowing for an “over the top” narrative style.  One does not need to be an Olivier or a Meryl Streep to read these lines correctly!

In about six months the entire novel will be available, free of course, on the open source audiobook site, Librivox. org.  I hope that you enjoy this sample.

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“A Scandal in Bohemia” by Arthur Conan Doyle

Sherlock Holmes

Narrated by Dr. Rick Reiman

In this classic short story in the Sherlock Holmes series, Holmes, with the help of Dr. Watson, matches wits with a woman, Irene Adler. Spoiler alert: The woman wins. It is one of the few Sherlock Holmes stories in which Holmes fails. And he never forgets it!

The players:

Sherlock Holmes: Dr. Rick Reiman

Dr. Watson: Dr. Rick Reiman

The King of Bohemia: Dr. Rick Reiman

Irene Adler: Dr. Rick Reiman 

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The Story Continues (Chapter 2, “The Mail,” from “A Tale of Two Cities,” by Charles Dickens)

course, Tale of Two Cities

Read for you by the host of Audiblyspeaking, Dr. Richard Reiman

Your professor, Dr. Reiman, continues his narration of this classic novel, with “The Mail,” chapter two.  In this chapter we meet some of the characters in the novel.  I hope you enjoy this addition to the Breakaway Cafe in the course.

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The Period

Tale of Two Cities, Uncategorized

The Breakaway Cafe is the name for a place to chill in this course. In this time of Covid sometimes we all need to take a break. Breakaway Cafe is such a place. Historians are people who tell (true) stories. But in Breakaway Cafe, I tell short stories that are often fiction, narrated by yours truly just because yours truly wants to tell them.

You DO NOT have to pay any attention to Breakaway Cafe posts, because they have nothing to do with the course and none of them “are on the exam.” Also, you don’t have to chill, and that’s what Breakaway Cafe is all about. Humans love stories, though, and I would just like to contribute to that because audio narration, as well as telling stories that are fiction is a hobby of mine, in another life of mine.


In this first episode I narrate the first chapter of Charles Dickens’s “A Tale of Two Cities,” a chapter called “The Period.” This novel about people caught up in the maelstrom of the French Revolution was not published as a complete novel originally but was serialized like a magazine, with chapters coming out, one at a time over many months. They were like episodes in a mini-series that could not be binged. So in listening to this episode, you are listening to the novel as Dickens originally intended and as its first readers received it.


Dickens was also an actor, and his first love was theater. So, when there is dialogue (not in the first chapter), I am going to be playing the parts as he intended, with many different voices. Eventually I will add more chapters (as I record them, because I am just beginning to do so, for a public domain web site called Librivox.org). By the way, this is a non-commercial site for which nobody makes any money. It is a site just to make the world a better place, gratis.

I am no Simon Callow, the dean of writers and narrators of the works of Dickens. But, then again I don’t charge for my performances. They are just designed to provide moments of respite and chill in this Breakaway Cafe.

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The Constitution in Context

Constitution Day 2020

The following podcast is a feature of “Constitution Day 2020” at South Georgia State College. As a result of the pandemic, the different elements of the event are presented in a manner consistent with safety and social distancing. The South Georgia College website (http://www.sgsc.edu) contains a webpage with more information on the displays for Constitution Day that appear physically on both the Douglas and Waycross campuses.

This podcast is a presentation of Dr. Rick Reiman, Professor of History. The title, “The Constitution in Context” refers to the fact that the Constitution is a living document that rises or falls on its success in meeting challenges completely unanticipated by its framers. One of the most challenging times for the Constitution was the period of the 1790s, the first decade of our national life under the Constitution. The podcast looks at how two political parties emerged, neither considering the other legitimate, and clashing in their respective interpretations of the meaning of the Constitution. The fact that the framers included not a single word about parties in the Constitution and regarded them as a baneful influence further ratcheted up the tension and danger of this party conflict to the survival of the Republic. The nation passed the test–then. But the Constitution will forever remain challenged, tested by the changing conflicts of each generation of Americans.

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Dancing Around the Rubric Questions: Analyzing Darcy Frey’s “The Last Shot”

DVRS 1101, DVRS 1101 Podcast Episodes

Make sure that you follow the rubric questions exactly in writing your Reflection post on Darcy Frey’s “The Last Shot.” This assignment will have you using GALILEO on your SGSC web site to help answer one of the rubric questions. See the grading rubric in the Advance Organizer for this Reflection assignment for more information about this assignment.

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Dancing Around the Rubric Questions: Analyzing Peggy McIntosh’s “Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack”

DVRS 1101

Here I discuss student reactions in the past to Peggy McIntosh’s 1989 article on “White Privilege.” Some students have said that this article is out of date and does not really apply to today.  Or is that reaction just a dodge to avoid recognizing the reality of white privilege?  Such avoidance may actually “prove” McIntosh’s case.  Make sure you supply her definition of white privilege in your Reflection post, as you answer all of the rubric questions for this assignment.

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