17 h 8 minAudiobook7 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at costPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
What makes a passage strong enough to hold a room when you speak it aloud?
Standard Selections brings poetry and prose together for reciting, reading aloud and declaiming. Robert I. Fulton, Edwin P. Trueblood and editor Thomas C. Trueblood gather passages chosen for sound, feeling and force. This is a collection to explore with your voice, where the shape of a sentence matters as much as its meaning.
The anthology belongs to the American tradition of teaching elocution. Its verse and prose offer material for the practical work of public speaking: standing, breathing, shaping the voice and holding listeners’ attention. Grief, humour, courage and conviction give the reader different feelings to express, and different ways to make words reach a room.
What you’ll discover
- Words made to carry Explore passages selected for the sound and force they bring to spoken words.
- Poetry beside prose Move between verse and prose, discovering how each gives your voice different work.
- A range of feeling Find grief, humour, courage and conviction in pieces meant to move the listener.
- The classroom speaking tradition Explore the kind of collection used to practise elocution in schools and colleges.
- A slower first reading Read silently, then aloud, noticing where the sense asks you to pause.
Who will love it
You will love this if you enjoy reading aloud, recitation, ballads and old speeches, or teach and practise public speaking and look for varied pieces to try in your own voice.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- A book made to be spoken aloud
- Stories of love and loss in verse and prose
- Ballads of courage, duty and quick wit
- Quiet poems of faith, work and wonder
- Seven orators who set the standard
- Six American triumphs of persuasion
- Speeches on war, peace and the nation
- Laughter, dialect and gentle comedy
- Dramatic readings and scenes from the stage
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- Audiobook
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- 15-minute summary
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- Paperback
- 6 × 9 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Hardcover
- 6 × 9 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Large print paperback
- 8.5 × 11 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Large print hardcover
- 8.5 × 11 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
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Selecciones escogidas
by Robert I. Fulton; Edwin P. Trueblood; Thomas C. Trueblood (editor)
A thieving jackdaw, a blind flower girl and a call to arms share one volume of verse, tales and speeches.
Medium level10–20 hours to read25 languages
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In short
What would you choose to read aloud to a room? This volume gathers poems, tales, speeches and play scenes picked for the voice.
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
A book made to be spoken aloud
Standard Selections is built for the classroom and the platform. Three professors of elocution, from Ohio Wesleyan, Michigan and Earlham, choose pieces that test a speaker and still hold an audience. Every item is meant to be heard rather than read in silence.
The editors sort the contents into six sections by mood. First come narrative and pathetic pieces, then solemn and sublime ones, then patriotic and oratorical works. After these come comic pieces, dramatic readings that stand outside the theater, and finally scenes from plays. They leave out Shakespeare on purpose, since his scenes are easy to find elsewhere, and they trim the plays to a practical length.
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What is Standard Selections about?
It is a 1907 anthology of poems, short stories, speeches and play scenes chosen for reading aloud. The editors sort them into six sections by mood, from sad and solemn pieces to patriotic oratory, comedy and drama.
Who compiled Standard Selections?
Robert I. Fulton, Thomas C. Trueblood and Edwin P. Trueblood put it together. All three taught elocution and oratory at American colleges, and they chose pieces for classroom practice and public performance.
What are the seven great orators in this book?
The editors name Demosthenes, Cicero, Chrysostom, Bossuet, Chatham, Burke and Webster. Each is represented by a passage from a well known speech or sermon that students can practise aloud.
The author
Robert I. Fulton
American elocutionist and author
The book was arranged by three teachers of speech. Robert I. Fulton was dean of the School of Oratory at Ohio Wesleyan University, Thomas C. Trueblood taught elocution and oratory at the University of Michigan, and Edwin P. Trueblood taught the subject at Earlham College. Together they also produced other books on public speaking. The poems and speeches themselves come from many authors named beside each piece.
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