Welcome to the latest in our series of nightly audio adventures, Tales for Our Time: This month's pick is a far-sighted novel by Robert Hugh Benson - Lord of the World.
Thank you for your kind words about this epic saga. Larry Durham, a South Carolina member of The Mark Steyn Club, writes:
I'm up to date and hanging on. Poor Mabel appears to be waking up and realizing that - if Hell he real - her maniac husband and the whole lot are on the express train to it.
Or maybe a volor to hell. In tonight's episode, especially for our Canadian listeners, Mr Benson manages to predict the rise of mass euthanasia performed by the government:
On the Saturday of the previous week she had gone through her private examination before the magistrate, stating under the usual conditions of secrecy her name, age and home, as well as her reasons for making the application for Euthanasia; and all had passed off well.
Along the way the author also anticipates the coming of "global warming":
There had been but one physical drawback, the intolerable heat of the days and nights. It seemed, scientists said, that an entirely unexpected heat-wave had been generated; there were a dozen theories, most of which were mutually exclusive one of another. It was humiliating, she thought, that men who professed to have taken the earth under their charge should be so completely baffled.
But who knows? Maybe Larry is right and it's just rising heat from that roasting spit in hell.
Members of The Mark Steyn Club can hear Part Thirty-Two of our adventure simply by clicking here and logging-in. That's if you follow our tales twenty minutes before lowering your lamp. If you prefer to leave it to long car journeys and a big binge-listen, you can find all earlier episodes here.
If you have friends who might appreciate Lord of the World or our other capers, we have a special Steyn Club Gift Membership that lets them in on that and all the other fun in The Mark Steyn Club.
If you've only joined the Steyn Club in recent days and missed our earlier serials (Conan Doyle's The Tragedy of the Korosko, Joseph Conrad's The Secret Agent, Baroness Orczy's The Scarlet Pimpernel, Anthony Hope's The Prisoner of Zenda, plus Kipling, Kafka, Dickens, Gogol, Louisa May Alcott, George Orwell, Jane Austen, Scott Fitzgerald and more), you can find them all on our easy-to-access Netflix-style Tales for Our Time home page. Indeed, it's so easy to access that we've introduced a similar format for audio editions of The Mark Steyn Show.
The Mark Steyn Club is now in its eighth year, and helps support all our content - whether in print, audio or video - and keep it out there in the world for everyone. In return, membership confers, aside from Tales for Our Time, a few other benefits:
~Exclusive Steyn Store member pricing on over 40 books, mugs, T-shirts, and other products;
~The opportunity to engage in live Clubland Q&A sessions with yours truly, such as this Wednesday's;
~Transcript and audio versions of The Mark Steyn Show, Mark's Mailbox, and our other video content;
~My video series of classic poetry, my Saturday music show, and other weekend programming;
~Booking for special members-only events such as The Mark Steyn Christmas Show (if my health ever recovers);
~Advance booking for my live appearances around the world such as the Mark Steyn Cruise;
~Customised email alerts for new content in your areas of interest;
~and the opportunity to support our print, audio and video ventures as they wing their way around the planet.
To become a member of The Mark Steyn Club, please click here - and please join me tomorrow for Part Thirty-Three of Lord of the World.
