Audio Podcast Novel: Robinson Crusoe (Part 1)

March 3, 2010April 4, 2012 by Editor

This novel written by Daniel Defoe in 1719 is considered to mark the beginning of English novel-writing. It is one of the greatest books ever written and will completely enthrall readers and listeners alike. If you have only seen movies from the book, you are in for a big surprise. So get comfortable, turn off the TV and listen to the original ‘lost at sea’ novel.

Young Robinson Crusoe decides he wants to leave his father and mother to go to sea. He refuses to take their advice and sets sail.

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Read by Alessandro Cima
Illustration by NC Wyeth (1920) Young Robinson Crusoe refuses to take his father’s advice.

All audio stories are Copyright © Candlelight Stories, Inc., All Rights Reserved. Do not distribute copies of our MP3 audio or video stories. They are for your personal use. If you choose to burn our MP3 stories onto a personal CD, do not make copies of the CD or distribute them to other people. Also, do not sell CDs containing our audio stories. All audio stories are copyrighted by Candlelight Stories, Inc.

Audio Story: Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs

March 3, 2010December 25, 2012 by Editor | 1 Comment

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Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs is possibly the greatest fairy tale of them all from the Brothers Grimm. In this full 30-minute production you will hear a cast of characters, completely original orchestral music, songs, and fantastic sound effects. We tell the story in a way that is unlike any you have heard before. When we made this audio story we worked very hard for months to get it right. We made it as carefully as we would make a film. The entire production is cinematic in its scope and we think it is the most exciting story we have ever done. So turn off every distraction, dim the lights, and enjoy thirty minutes of incredible adventure.

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Audio Story: Tom Thumb

March 3, 2010April 4, 2012 by Editor

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Tom Thumb is a traditional English folktale hero. This version is by the Brothers Grimm from Germany who, in the 1800s, collected tales that were popular in Europe as part of their study of the German language. Their collection became world-famous and has influenced children’s literature ever since. Little Tom is one of the most famous characters in fairy tales. Enjoy his adventures. We’ll post another story about this clever little person soon.

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Read by Alessandro Cima
Duration: 00:12:06

Audio Story: The Three Little Pigs

March 3, 2010April 4, 2012 by Editor | 3 Comments

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Here’s a children’s favorite, The Three Little Pigs. It’s a tale that thrills almost all young children and you can’t go wrong with this one. We’ve created an easy-to-understand version of the story that’s both exciting and amusing.

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Read by Alessandro Cima
Duration: 00:03:39

Here’s the full audio script:

Once upon a time there were three little pigs.

One morning, the mother pig said, “You must go into the world and make your own way.”

So the three little pigs set out into the world.

The first little pig met a man carrying a bundle of straw and said, “Please may I have some of your straw to build a house with?”

The man gave him some straw and the little pig built himself a fine straw house to live in.

Soon, a hungry wolf came along. He knocked at the door and said, “Little pig, little pig, let me come in.”

Audio Story: The Golden Goose

March 3, 2010April 4, 2012 by Editor | 1 Comment

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This is a story from the collection of the Brothers Grimm. It concerns three brothers, one of whom is a simpleton. When this simpleton finds a golden goose opportunities and complications seem to meet him at every turn.

The illustration is by Leslie Brooke and is from a 1905 book entitled, ‘The Golden Goose Book.’

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Read by Alessandro Cima
Duration: 00:09:58

Here’s the full audio script:

THERE WAS a man who had three sons, the youngest of whom was called the Simpleton, and was despised, laughed at, and neglected, on every occasion. It happened one day that the eldest son wished to go into the forest to cut wood, and before he went his mother gave him a delicious pancake and a flask of wine, that he might not suffer from hunger or thirst. When he came into the forest a little old gray man met him, who wished him good day, and said, “Give me a bit of cake out of your pocket, and let me have a drink of your wine; I am so hungry and thirsty.”

Audio Story: Peach Boy

March 3, 2010April 4, 2012 by Editor

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This is the story of young Momotaro, whose name literally means Peach Boy. The story is one of the most popular from Japanese folklore. Its theme of the unification of a people separated by hostility into an effective force for change resonates throughout history and applies to many different cultures.

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Read by Laral Andrews.
Duration: 00:05:57

Here’s the full audio script:

PEACH BOY

ONCE upon a time in Japan, there lived in the country an old man and his wife. They were very lonely because they had no children.

One day the old man went into the mountains to cut firewood and his wife went to the river to wash clothes.

Audio Story: A Chinese Fairytale

March 3, 2010April 4, 2012 by Editor

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A Chinese Fairytale was written in 1904, by Laurence Housman. He was from England and wrote many stories, novels and plays. This story first appeared in a book of stories called The Blue Moon. It tells of the young Tiki-pu who wants desperately to learn how to paint. But he is only a servant and must resort to trickery in order to learn his craft.

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Read by Alessandro Cima
Duration: 00:18:33

Here’s the full audio script:

Tiki-pu was a small grub of a thing; but he had a true love of Art deep down in his soul. There it hung mewing and complaining, struggling to work its way out through the raw exterior that bound it.

Tiki-pu’s master professed to be an artist: he had apprentices and students, who came daily to work under him, and a large studio littered about with the performances of himself and his pupils. On the walls hung also a few real works by the older men, all long since dead.

Audio Story: Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves

March 2, 2010October 8, 2012 by Editor | 1 Comment

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A classic from the Arabian Nights collection. A vast treasure hidden in a secret cave, a band of cutthroat thieves, betrayals and twists of fortune are woven into one of the world’s great stories.

This story contains violent situations that may not be suitable for children under 13 years of age. Adults should listen before playing for young children.

Duration: 1 hr 6 min
File Size: 31 megabytes

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Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves

Translated by Sir Richard Francis Burton

IN days of yore and in times and tides long gone before, there dwelt in a certain town of Persia two brothers, one named Kasim and the other Ali Baba, who at their father’s demise had divided the little wealth he had left to them with equitable division, and had lost no time in wasting and spending it all. The elder, however, presently took to himself a wife, the daughter of an opulent merchant, so that when his father-in-law fared to the mercy of Almighty Allah, he became owner of a large shop filled with rare goods and costly wares and of a storehouse stocked with precious stuffs, likewise of much gold that was buried in the ground. Thus was he known throughout the city as a substantial man. But the woman whom Ali Baba had married was poor and needy. They lived, therefore, in a mean hovel, and Ali Baba eked out a scanty livelihood by the sale of fuel which he daily collected in the jungle and carried about the town to the bazaar upon his three asses.

Audio Story: The Fisherman and His Wife

March 1, 2010April 4, 2012 by Editor | 4 Comments

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A favor done and one returned. But where do they lead. A tale about ambition and greed.

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Grimms’ Fairy Tales: The Mouse, the Bird and the Sausage

March 1, 2010 by Editor | 6 Comments

Once on a time a mouse, a bird, and a sausage became companions, kept house together, lived well and happily with each other, and wonderfully increased their possessions. The bird’s work was to fly every day into the forest and bring back wood. The mouse had to carry water, light the fire, and lay the table, but the sausage had to cook.

Grimms’ Fairy Tales: The Riddle

March 1, 2010 by Editor

There was once a King’s son who was seized with a desire to travel about the world, and took no one with him but a faithful servant. One day he came to a great forest, and when darkness overtook him he could find no shelter, and knew not where to pass the night. Then he saw a girl who was going towards a small house, and when he came nearer, he saw that the maiden was young and beautiful. He spoke to her, and said, “Dear child, can I and my servant find shelter for the night in the little house?” “Oh, yes,” said the girl in a sad voice, “that you certainly can, but I do not advise you to venture it. Do not go in.” “Why not?” asked the King’s son. The maiden sighed and said, “My step-mother practices wicked arts; she is ill-disposed toward strangers.”

Grimms’ Fairy Tales: Cinderella

March 1, 2010March 1, 2010 by Editor | 18 Comments

The wife of a rich man fell sick, and as she felt that her end was drawing near, she called her only daughter to her bedside and said, “Dear child, be good and pious, and then the good God will always protect thee, and I will look down on thee from heaven and be near thee.” Thereupon she closed her eyes and departed. Every day the maiden went out to her mother’s grave, and wept, and she remained pious and good. When winter came the snow spread a white sheet over the grave, and when the spring sun had drawn it off again, the man had taken another wife.

Grimms’ Fairy Tales: The Brave Little Tailor

March 1, 2010 by Editor | 1 Comment

One summer’s morning a little tailor was sitting on his table by the window; he was in good spirits, and sewed with all his might. Then came a peasant woman down the street crying, “Good jams, cheap! Good jams, cheap!” This rang pleasantly in the tailor’s ears; he stretched his delicate head out of the window, and called, “Come up here, dear woman; here you will get rid of your goods.” The woman came up the three steps to the tailor with her heavy basket, and he made her unpack the whole of the pots for him. He inspected all of them, lifted them up, put his nose to them, and at length said, “The jam seems to me to be good, so weigh me out four ounces, dear woman, and if it is a quarter of a pound that is of no consequence.”

Kindles and Little Bookstores

February 28, 2010December 13, 2010 by Editor | 4 Comments

I don’t understand much about the book business. But I do know what makes a person want to go and be somewhere. I read a good blog post at The Devil’s Accountant about the troubles small bookstores have with the existing book business and the emerging business of ebook publishing. Small bookstores have to purchase books at wholesale for too much money and can’t make enough profit when they sell at retail. That’s true. But most movie theaters can’t make much money selling tickets either. They sell candy and sodas at big markups to make good money. In fact, there’s no such thing as the ‘movie business.’ There’s only a candy selling business that uses movies to bring you up to the candy counter.

An important point I’d also like to make about independent and small bookstores is that most of them really suck. Seriously. Most small bookstores are just a modest room full of books on poorly built shelves. Dead boring. Nothing puts me to sleep faster than a crappy independent bookstore. Good riddance to them. Most independent bookstores can’t hold a candle to any Barnes & Noble or a Borders. Don’t open a bookstore if all you want to do is sell books. You’re an idiot if you do. And I won’t give you my money. I’ll give it to Amazon. They are not boring. They are smart and interesting. I enjoy watching them slaughter dull little bookshop owners every single day. It’s a fascinating and wonderful bloodbath. These booksellers are being eaten by lions and their screams are rare amusement.

Alice in Wonderland (1903)

February 26, 2010 by Editor

The British Film Institute has released the first filmed version of Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland. This British film was made in 1903 by Cecil Hepworth and Percy Stow.