Audiobooks narrated by Leni

"The first story, 'The Blonde Lady', opens with the purchase of an antique desk by a mathematics professor. The desk is subsequently stolen, as it turns out, by Arsène Lupin. Later, both Lupin and the professor realize that a lottery ticket, left inadvertently in the desk, is the winning ticket, and Lupin proceeds to ensure he obtains half of the winnings while executing a near-impossible escape with a blonde lady. After the theft of the Blue Diamond, again by a blonde lady, Ganimard made the connection to Lupin and an appeal was made to Herlock Sholmes to match wits with Lupin. Inadvertently, Lupin and his biographer met with the newly arrived Sholmes and his assistant, Wilson, in a Parisian restaurant, and they shared a cautious détente before Lupin sets off to lay his traps. Despite Lupin's efforts, Sholmes is able to unveil the identity of the blonde lady and Lupin's involvement in the crimes linked to her. Lupin succeeded in trapping Sholmes, however, and sends him off to Southampton in a boat, but Sholmes manages to escape back to Paris and engineer the arrest of Lupin. After Sholmes leaves, however, Lupin outfoxes his French captors and manages to bid farewell to Sholmes and Wilson at the Gare du Nord. 'The Jewish Lamp' opens with another appeal to Herlock Sholmes for help in recovering a Jewish lamp. After reading the appeal, Sholmes is shocked to read a second letter, this time by Lupin and arriving on the same day's post, which warns him not to intervene. Sholmes is outraged by Lupin's audacity and resolves to go to Paris. At the Gare du Nord, Sholmes is accosted by a young lady, who again warns him not to intervene, and finds that the Echo de France, Lupin's mouthpiece newspaper, is proclaiming his arrival. Sholmes proceeds to investigate the crime and finds out the true reason for Lupin's appeal not to intervene."

Maurice Leblanc (Author), Leni (Narrator)

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The Letters of a Portuguese Nun

"The Letters of a Portuguese Nun (Les Lettres Portugaises) were first published anonymously in Paris in 1669. The five passionate letters in book form were a publishing sensation since their appearance, with five editions in the first year, followed by more than forty editions throughout the 17th century. A Cologne edition of 1669 stated that the Marquis de Chamilly was their addressee, but, aside from the fact that she was female, the author's name and identity remained unknown. The letters were translated in several languages, and set a precedent for sentimentalism in European culture at large, and for the literary genres of the sentimental novel and the epistolary novel into the 18th century. The interest in the Letters was so strong that the word "portugaise" became synonymous with "a passionate love-letter" in the 17th century. The authorship of the work was assigned to Mariana Alcoforado, a Portuguese nun, as early as the 18th century. During the 20th century, however, many scholars have supported the idea that they are a work of epistolary fiction written by Gabriel-Joseph de La Vergne, comte de Guilleragues, a French politician, who had been secretary of the King's Chamber and also director of the Gazette de France. Nevertheless, any doubts about the authorship do not detract from the beauty and power of the letters themselves, presented here in a prose translation followed by a versified one. - Summary by Leni"

Mariana Alcoforado (Author), Leni (Narrator)

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[Portuguese] - Os Escravos

"Os Escravos é uma coleção de poemas do escritor brasileiro Castro Alves com temática centrada no drama da exploração dos escravos. Em função de sua renhida luta contra pelo fim da escravidão no Brasil, este poeta ficou conhecido como "Poeta dos Escravos". Este volume, publicado postumamente em 1883, recolhe muitos dos poemas que tornaram Castro Alves um símbolo da luta dos que não tem voz, como lembra Pablo Neruda em poema dedicado a Alves: "em portas até então fechadas para que, combatendo, a liberdade entrasse". (Sumário adaptado da Wikipedia por Leni)"

Antônio Frederico De Castro Alves (Author), Leni (Narrator)

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[Portuguese] - Eu e Outras Poesias

"Augusto dos Anjos é um dos mais originais poetas brasileiros, e também um dos mais populares. Sua obra consiste, porém, em apenas um livro. "Eu" foi publicado ainda em vida do autor; outros poemas, publicados em periódicos ou inéditos, foram coligidos após sua morte e acrescentados ao volume organizado pelo autor, renomeado então "Eu e Outras Poesias". Aclamada pelo público e pela crítica, sua obra foi repudiada por muitos em sua época, e ainda causa estranheza, pela mistura de vocabulário coloquial e científico, pelos temas exacerbadamente macabros e pessimistas, pelo exagero sistemáticos na linguagem e no tratamento dos temas. Não obstante as controvérsias que cercam sua obra, muitos de seus versos caíram no uso popular, tais como "um urubu pousou em minha sorte", "a mão que afaga é a mesma que apedreja" e outros. Esta é a gravação da obra completa de Augusto dos Anjos. (Sumário escrito por Leni)"

Augusto Dos Anjos (Author), Leni (Narrator)

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[Portuguese] - Saudades: Historia de Menina e Moça

""Saudades" é o primeiro romance pastoril escrito em língua portuguesa. É também conhecido como "História de Menina e Moça' ou somente "Menina e Moça", em razão da primeira frase do livro: "Menina e moça me levaram de casa de minha mãe para muito longe". Publicado pela primeira vez em 1554, o romance é considerado o precursor do gênero bucólico em Portugal, e por isso tornou-se importante, mesmo que inacabado. A linguagem do romance, semelhante à dos árcades de um século depois e repleta de misticismo, é comparada à da Bíblia, nos cânticos e salmos. O texto agrega elementos das novelas de cavalaria, do romance pastoril e da novela sentimental. O enredo, contado sempre do ponto de vista feminino, desenvolve-se a partir de histórias intercaladas, ligadas todas pelo desencontro amoroso e pelo fatalismo do sofrimento. Quase nada se sabe da vida de seu autor, cujas obras se resumem a dois romances e um punhado de poemas, alguns dos quais constam do Cancioneiro Geral de Garcia e Resende. (Sumário por Leni)"

Bernardim Ribeiro (Author), Leni (Narrator)

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The Life of Jesus Critically Examined

"Strauss was an early pioneer in the ongoing 'Quest of the Historical Jesus' movement, and his Life of Jesus is one of the few landmarks in the field. The first edition of Strauss' book was published in Germany in 1835, when he was only 27 years old. He focused his attention on battling two theological fronts which were current at the time - the biblical Literalists who believed the miracles in the Gospels were to be taken as literal history, and the Rationalists, who believed that the Gospel miracles were true but could be explained by natural and rational causes. Strauss rejected both camps and, in a historical analysis of the Gospels that was scrupulous and exhaustive, concluded that our knowledge of the Historical Jesus is hopelessly buried under layers of legend and myth. The price that Strauss paid for publication was high - his book scandalized Europe, and cost him his job as Chair of Theology at the University of Zurich, and ultimately his career. Dozens of books, mostly from Germany, were written in rebuttal. The school of Rationalism died in the 19th century, due in no small part to Strauss' criticism. The school of Literalism that Strauss criticized evolved into Fundamentalism in the early 20th century, which was in large part a reaction to the groundbreaking path started by Strauss and his revolutionary book. Medical missionary Albert Schweitzer described Strauss' Life of Jesus as, "one of the most perfect things in the whole range of learned literature. In over fourteen hundred pages he has not a superfluous phrase; his analysis descends to the minutest details, but he does not lose his way among them; his style is simple and picturesque, sometimes ironical, but always dignified and distinguished". (Introduction by JoeD)"

David Friedrich Strauss (Author), Leni (Narrator)

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Brazilian Tales

""Brazilian Tales" is a collection of six short stories selected by Isaac Goldberg as best representative of the Brazilian Literature of his period - the end of the 19th century. His comprehensive preface aims at familiarizing the reader with a literature that was - and still is - virtually unknown outside the boundaries of its own land, and the pieces chosen by Goldberg to be translated belong to writers that reached popularity and appreciation while still alive. This "pioneer volume", as the translator himself puts it, still keeps its charm and interest as a way of offering to the English speaking public some "sample cases" of Brazilian Literature. (Summary by Leni)"

Various Authors (Author), Leni (Narrator)

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[Portuguese] - Os Sertões

"Os Sertões é um livro brasileiro, escrito por Euclides da Cunha e publicado em 1902. Trata da Guerra de Canudos (1896-1897), no interior da Bahia. Euclides da Cunha tinha presenciado uma parte desta guerra como correspondente do jornal O Estado de S. Paulo, e ao retornar escreveu um dos maiores livros já escritos por um brasileiro. Pertence, ao mesmo tempo, à prosa científica e à prosa artística. Pode ser entendido como um obra de Sociologia, Geografia, História ou crítica humana. Mas não é errado lê-lo como uma epopéia da vida sertaneja em sua luta diária contra a paisagem e a incompreensão das elites governamentais.(Sumário extraído da Wikipédia)"

Euclides Da Cunha (Author), Leni (Narrator)

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Senhora

""Senhora" is one of the most important classics of Brazilian Literature, and the third book by this author about the situation of women in the 19th century Brazilian society. Through a story of love and separation between the two main characters, Aurélia and Fernando, the author criticizes the decadence of the court society, the importance given to possessions and the marriages for money. The novel, divided in four parts, satirizes these relationships in its own structure, by having its parts called: price, purchase, possession, solvency. (Summary by Leni)"

José de Alencar (Author), Leni (Narrator)

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The Lusiads

"The Lusiads (Os Lusíadas) is a Portuguese epic poem, written in the 16th century by Luis Vaz de Camões. The poem tells the tale of the Portuguese discoveries in the 15th and 16th centuries, specially the voyage to India by Vasco da Gama. Modelled after the classic epic tradition, Camões' Lusiads are considered not only the first literary text in Modern Portuguese, but also a national epic of the same level as Vergil's Aeneid. In the 19th century, Sir Richard Francis Burton translated Camões' Lusiads, in what he considered "the most pleasing literary labour of his life". (Summary by Leni)"

Luis Vaz De Camoes (Author), Leni (Narrator)

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A Dialogue Concerning Oratory, or the Causes of Corrupt Eloquence

"The scene of the Dialogus de Oratoribus, as this work is commonly known, is laid in the sixth year of Vespasian, 75 a.D. The commentators are much divided in their opinions about the real author; his work they all agree is a masterpiece in the kind; written with taste and judgement; entertaining, profound, and elegant. It is normally considered to have been written by Tacitus, even though some ascribe it to Quintilian. The main subject is the decadence of oratory, for which the cause is said to be the decline of the education, both in the family and in the school, of the future orator. In a certain way, it can be considered a miniature art of rhetoric. (Summary by Leni)"

Publius Cornelius Tacitus (Author), Leni (Narrator)

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A Brief Grammar of the Portuguese Language

"Dr. Branner was a recognized authority on the geology of South American republics, especially Brazil, having organized and headed the Stanford Expedition to Brazil in 1911, among others. In 1910 he published this "little book", as the author himself calls it, for the use of English-speaking students who needed a fast and practical way of learning Portuguese. Contrary to the belief of many back then, John C. Branner claims that Brazilian Portuguese isn't "badly spoken Portuguese", and, even though using examples from both Portuguese and Brazilian writers, seems to give more proeminence to Brazilian Portuguese. (Summary by Leni)"

John Casper Branner (Author), Leni (Narrator)

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Audiobooks Narrated by Leni