Episodes

Twitter Facebook 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 m...

Twitter Facebook “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....

Twitter Facebook In this chapter, Charles Darnay is saved. Or is he? The good Doctor Manette works his magic. But the Defarges will not give up on their quest to send every member of the Evremonde family to the guillotine. Twitter Facebook

Twitter Facebook 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. Twitter Facebook

Twitter Facebook Book Three, chapter Four of Dickens’s classic novel. Doctor Manette is off to La Force to try to save the life of Charles Darnay. Will he succeed? Stay tuned, as they say, and “Listen to History” on audiblyspeaking.com. Twitter Facebook

Twitter Facebook 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 wit...

Twitter Facebook 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. Twitter Facebook

Twitter Facebook Another preview of my upcoming Librivox recording of A Tale of Two Cities, due out in April 2020. This is chapter 30, “Drawn to the Loadstone Rock.” If you enjoy this, won’t you leave a comment telling me so? Twitter Facebook

Twitter Facebook Book Two, Chapter 21, “Echoing Footsteps,” of A Tale of Two Cities, by the inimitable Charles Dickens. Twitter Facebook

Twitter Facebook Book Two, Chapter 25 of Dickens’s classic novel. Book Two, Chapter 19 of Dickens’s classic. Twitter Facebook

Twitter Facebook 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 “ove...

Twitter Facebook 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 Twitter Facebook

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.

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, yo...

Twitter Facebook 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, ...

Twitter Facebook 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. Twitter Facebook

Twitter Facebook 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. Twitter...

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Twitter Facebook In this podcast episode I discuss how you can best approach the article by Anna Quindlen, “How Reading Changed My Life,” and write a Reflection post to complete the assignment and achieve the highest grade you can possibly earn. Good luck! Twitter Facebook

Twitter Facebook You can find the questions in the grading rubric for this assignment that you need to answer about Francisco Jimenez’s childhood. In this podcast episode, I merely discuss the strategies that you should use to find the answers to these questions. Twitter Facebook

Twitter Facebook In this podcast we look at how primary sources, in this case an audio recording purporting to be from Dealey plaza during the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, can raise questions tentatively resolved through inference. In this case, the inference proved correct, confirmed by additional research. Twitter Facebook

Twitter Facebook Whither the world order created in 1945? Twitter Facebook

Twitter Facebook Click Here for Episode Transcript What are the strengths and weaknesses of the European Union, as well as the prospects for its long-term survival? Twitter Facebook

Twitter Facebook The Cold War from 1962 to 1991. Photo of Mikhail Gorbachev, final president of the Soviet Union. Click Here for an Enhanced Transcript of this Episode Twitter Facebook