A Princess's Vengeance | Catherine Louisa Pirkis | A Bitesized Audiobook
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- Опубликовано: 8 июл 2024
- Dyer's Detective Agency is consulted by Major Druce, who is concerned at the mysterious disappearance of his mother's attractive Swiss secretary, Lucie Cunier. Mr. Dyer assigns his best female detective, Loveday Brooke, to unravel the network of relationships caught up in the case... The story begins at 00:01:18
Narrated/performed by Simon Stanhope, aka Bitesized Audio. If you enjoy this content and would like to help me keep creating, there are a few ways you can support me (and get access to exclusive content):
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Timestamps:
00:00:00 Introduction
00:01:18 A Princess's Vengeance
00:51:10 Credits, thanks and further listening
Catherine Louisa Pirkis (1839-1910), often credited as C. L. Pirkis, was born Catherine Louisa Lyne to a middle class family in London. She became a prominent author of detective and mystery fiction in the last quarter of the 19th century, publishing 14 novels between 1877 and 1894, after which she gave up writing in order to focus on campaigning for animal rights. She co-founded, with her husband Frederick Edward Pirkis and some like-minded friends, the British National Canine Defence League, which still exists today under the name 'The Dogs Trust'. As a writer she is best remembered for her last published work, 'The Experiences of Loveday Brooke, Lady Detective', a short series of adventures featuring the eponymous sleuth, almost certainly the first female detective in fiction, and the first to be created by a female author. An insight into contemporary attitudes to the revolutionary nature of the character may be seen in an 1893 review in the Glasgow Herald, which, after praising Loveday Brooke's insights and detective skill, added "We are just afraid Miss Brooke is too clever in catching criminals ever to catch a husband." Almost inevitably "Miss Brooke" became known as "The female Sherlock Holmes"; she certainly shared Holmes' eye for detail and ability to see past the obvious solution to find the truth behind the crime.
Catherine Louisa Pirkis died after a long illness in October 1910, just two days before her husband also died; they were survived by their two children.
'A Princess's Vengeance' first appeared in May 1893 as part of 'The Experiences of Loveday Brooke, Lady Detective', the fourth instalment of a six-part series of stories printed in the Ludgate Monthly magazine between February and July 1893; the series was subsequently published in book form by Hutchinson in 1894.
Recording © Bitesized Audio 2023 
Развлечения
This story is one of a short series featuring Loveday Brooke, one of several "rivals to Sherlock Holmes" who featured in British periodicals in the 1890s and early 1900s. She is almost certainly the first professional female detective in English fiction, and the first to be created by a female author. You may like to hear some of Loveday Brooke's other adventures available on this channel: ruclips.net/p/PLi95qAoufCZKziCYPPNgXcx1Uk40ulkJL
Or for more Victorian and Edwardian detective adventures, you may enjoy my "Rivals of Sherlock Holmes" playlist:
ruclips.net/p/PLi95qAoufCZL5tiXECltwXUI2QDDFrDHD
Timestamps:
00:00:00 Introduction
00:01:18 The Story begins
00:51:10 Credits, thanks and further listening
I thank you with bunches of gratitude 😊❣️ Yesterday, Jasper L'Estrange graced my ears with sincere creepiness. Now today, you Mr. Stanhope give us a mystery to make us guess who dun it!!!! 😊😊😊
I hope you are having a great time with the plays you are in, and getting superb reviews 👏👏👏👏👏👏
Thank you Simon for still managing to get an upload for us all to enjoy. I hope all is going well with your current theatre roles 😊
You're most welcome, thanks Sam. Yes, all going well, thank you for asking!
So glad you could squeeze us in. Hope the theatre work is fulfilling your hopes and advancing your career.
When I receive your notification, I automatically click "like". All your work is great. Thank you, Simon.
Mee to😅❤
Greatly appreciated, thank you!
me three @@skytten64
Huzzah! More Loveday! I've been looking forward to this after listening to the previous ones earlier this week. Piriks really is criminally under appresciated as a writer.
She is; but she's clearly popular with listeners here, which is wonderful
Love when you get in that little soundproof studio and do a recording, JUST FOR US, your loyal fans! I remember some of your other C.L.P. recordings and I'm sure I'll love this one just as much! Great way to start the weekend! Thanks, Simon!!
I agree with the great way to start a weekend.
@sugarfalls1 You're welcome, glad to know you enjoy this series.... only a couple of her stories left to record now!
I know all will understand here, but I literally burst into tears 😭 seeing a new story today! Very grateful Simon 🙏🏽 hope your acting 🎭 gigs are progressing apace !
Ahhh yes... my neighbors oft look down their noses at me whilst I run past naked, conservatively pumping my fist in the air. They just don't understand our hunger for the scant nuggets of culture buried beneath the abyss of cybertrash 🧐
Nuggets amongst the trash indeed!
@stephaniealeman8522 What a lovely comment, Stephanie, I'm touched! Thank you so much. It's lovely being back on stage, but glad to say I have a little break from it coming up, during which I hope to record some more material for the channel!
Wonderful Simon! You will take us into the chilly season before heading off for the Carol…🙏🏽 i hope you get Marley’s ghost and old Fezziwig in your multiroles!!💚
Funnily enough, I think I might be playing both of those! Still awaiting final confirmation, but they've been mooted...
Hit Like even before I heard the new story!!! 😊😊😊
Thanks for your faith!
Stanhope is an excellent voice actor and has a wonderful voice.
What fun! I was so excited to see a new story from you that I couldn't make myself wait until bedtime to listen. Excellent as usual!!! Thank you. 👏👏👏
Thanks Sonja, appreciated
Superb! I do so enjoy the Loveday Brooke stories. Thank you so much for bringing them to such vibrant life for us, Simon.
You're most welcome, Yvonne, so glad to know you enjoy them
Yay! Yay! Yay! More Simon!!🎉 Thank you!
A classy mystery for a rainy evening. Can’t wait to see what chilling tales you have for us in Oct my good man. Enjoy your weekend :)
Thanks Max. A couple of things in the pipeline already but I'm just sitting down to plan the rest of my autumn offerings now...
Great bedtime stories. Than you..
Excellent ! Another Loveday Brooke story !
You're my favourite - and it doesn't get much better than Loveday Brooke. Always a winning combination. ❤
Recently somewhere , i saw some brief snippets of your on stage work Simon . Im truly grateful that you take the time to forward us your youtube stories , they are always thoroughly enjoyed and can make quite a difference to an elderly solo living remotely . You are a very talented and most articulate man , a breath of fresh air from the mundane ... thankyou Sir .
Another exquisite performance! Thank you, Mr. Stanhope👏🎉
Thanks so much Simon, I can never thank you enough for all the joy you have brought into my life. You are such a blessing to all of us who enjoy your work.
Thanks so much for your lovely comment
It's the "rainy season" here in the Andes mountains of Peru. Your narrations are a cozy and welcome comfort on these rainy nights.Thank you so much!
Glad to know that, thank you! It's rather rainy here in the UK at the moment... it's been pretty relentless since before Christmas and the New Year is incredibly wet so far....
Glad to hear your theatrical adventures are going well. Also glad you are finding time to present us with your narrative work which we appreciate no end! 😊
Spot on, as ever. Rather a charming little comedy of manners as much as a mystery 😀♥️
I thnk pirkis is one of the greatest writers in your retinue...hope for more.
A little more to come: only two more stories left in the series, sadly. But I'd certainly like to complete the cycle
I wouldn't have lasted 30 seconds in such subtle and complex manners and mores!
Another great reading! Thank you@
Can't wait to get ready to listen - thank you 🙏 😊
You are part of my life!!! THANK YOU!!!
Thank You *Simon* we all appreciate your time & efforts b/c we understand there is only so much time available...we know you are busy in other words😊
Kind of you, thanks Miji Yoon
Thank you Simon. I was delighted to see another story by Ms Pirkus. She was a wonderful authoress. So glad you incuded Loveday's adventures in your great bundle of stories. Shes such a likeable character. Since my sister Clare passed away last April 2023, audiobooks have been so helpful to me in taking my mind off things. Im so grateful to you. Hope all is well with your other ventures. Id definitely try to attend the plays if i lived over in the UK. Thank you again from Ireland.
My condolences on the loss of your sister. Thank you so much for your kind comments. Best wishes
0:58 Thanks for posting these great stories, Simon.
Thank you John, glad you like them
This channel is wonderful, a refuge in today's demented world. The ghost stories are not my cup of tea , but all the rest are a pleasure ! Thank you!!! ❤
Appreciated, thank you. We're coming into the spooky season now so there are one or two ghost stories in the pipeline, but rest assured I've plenty of other content planned as well!
@@BitesizedAudio🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻❤️
Simon, such a joy to relax and let your voice immitate a sweer breeze across my stressed soul. I can think of no better balm for my aches.
Thank you.
Thank you, Patricia, what a lovely compliment!
@@BitesizedAudio You're welcome.
Of course I, like the rest of us here obviously, have been nothing less than thoroughly entertained, engaged and delighted by virtually all of these stories you have chosen to bring to us, always wondering how I could have lived as an adult for so long and not known of them before discovering your work.
Now, the likes of, say, Dean Koontz or Stephen King, even Ray Bradbury and HP Lovecraft, are of course epic and incomparable, crafted by literary geniuses as they are, but although classic and even iconic, they are modern tales, different in different ways, certainly longer and more complex, but it is my opinion that these stories of yesterday stand alongside them with their own power, forever worthy in my view, but second to none in terms of their indomitable charm.
It may sound trite but to me it is merely true, that these stories from the Victorian and Edwardian era have an immeasurable appeal for us, readers 100 + years hence, where things like the absence of cell phones, sometimes even automobiles, cannot help but seem like a great treat, even a gift, for those of us who love the past for our own reasons. Again, how did I live without these wonderful stories? (In 21st century parlance, "who knew?")
I'm not sure whether it's because I'm female but I do find the very 'modern' Poliy, in the Old Man in the Corner stories, the savvy and intuitive, Loveday Brooke (such a wonderfully improbable name!) as well as the female detective heroine in the story ~one of my very favorites~, How He Cut His Stick, (whose name escapes me at the moment).. particularly appealing. Can only attempt to imagine all of the nonsense female professionals were forced to deal with~both real as well as fictional~during their own times. That awareness just also might be why I have such a particular fondness and an extremely hearty and heartfelt respect for all of them.
I'm so happy to have met them now, and, Simon, thats down to you.
To belatedly see the notification, click and find that the author is Catherine Louise Pirkis... To say that you have made this rainy morning in autumnal Connecticut a guaranteed .. knockout for one basketball mom... Well I think you can figure out the rest of that sentence, because I'm off to hang with my girl, Loveday!
@Frenchblue8 Wonderful, thank you so much for sharing your thoughts, much appreciated!
Excellent. Been waiting for this.
Quite so! Sorry I kept you waiting... Only a couple more Loveday stories to go, sadly, so I'm spacing her out a bit, but I'll get round to her again soon I hope
Thank you so much Simon, your efforts bring great joy God bless you 🙏
Goody gumdrops, another Loveday story! 👍🏼👍🏼
So pleased to see your notification of a new story, the first in a few weeks, really appreciate your narration, very relaxing to listen to your voice, reading a new tale, Thank You for your excellent work Simon 😊
Thanks Irena. I did release a few new Saki shorts a couple of weeks ago, perhaps you didn't get the notification - that seems to happen sometimes, I'm not sure why. There may be an occasional hiatus, but I'm still aiming to keep posting as regularly as I can in the run up to Christmas
Will google search bitesize & see if I can get the earlier postings I've missed over the last few week's, hope so thanks for letting me know your still posting, YT does seem to be selective on what you get to see of late, instead of keeping to your subscriptions only
Loveday's back! Yippee. I hope your rehearsals are going well Simon - sorry I can't cross the Cotswolds to see you.
I watch and hear your stories regularly. Your narration is really superb. Many thanks Simon.
Hello Simon. I'm revisiting your bite sized stories because I do so enjoy your narrations. I am also at a loss to find much that interests me any more. It's about 7 years since I took up audio books and rid myself of the fear box 📺. Thank you Simon ❤😀
Wonderful, welcome back!
Your velvety tone is gift. Great story choices. Best to you.
Thanks for elevating this delightful author I'd never heard of before 🎉
What a treat :) Thank you Simon - hope the rehearsing is going well
It went well, thanks - in fact the first play has been up and running for three weeks, it's gone remarkably quickly! Just coming up to a little break now, before starting rehearsals for Christmas.... Looking forward to getting back into the recording studio soon
Thank you Simon, as always, a treat to hear your performance, and interesting profile of this superb author.
That poor young thing. Beset on all sides by gnats she couldn't swat! I'm glad she achieved the outcome she desired.
Thank you for all of your work. I enjoy your readings very much. I look forward to each new one.
A new Loveday Brooke!Yesssssssss
Another great read Simon ❤ Thank you!
Loved this! I''m fascinated with early "lady detectives", really enjoyed getting to know Loveday Brooke in this one. Definately gonna catch up on other stories and I hope to see even more with her :) Thank you as always for the amazing work you do!
Thanks Cationna. There are only a couple of Loveday stories left for me to do, unfortunately, but I hope to finish the series next year and will then put all of them together as a compilation
Excellent short story and as always, beautifully read. Thanks.
Woohoo ! Love these and I can’t wait to listen tonight 😊
Thank you Simon! It's like getting a present 🎁!
Thank you for this wonderful reading, I thoroughly enjoyed it!
Thank you so much, Simon!!
Thank you. Much appreciated.
Excellent...! Thank You
Yaaaay new story . Thank you Sir. X
Lovely! Playful. Thoughtfully read.
I wonder if it could possibly be Simon playing the piano? There is the same gentle sensitivity.
Thank you! I'm binging on your wonderful channel as I am laying in bed, getting through a cold. ❤
I hope you feel better soon!
loved the story thanks
Always so excited to see a Lovejoy story! Thank you! ❤️
Glad to know that, thanks Gina
It’s my birthday today and this is a wonderful present. Thank you so much!!❤️❤️❤️
Belated happy birthday! I hope you had a lovely day
I was not surprised to see the comparison to Sherlock Holmes, exactly what I was thinking as I listened to the story...
Thank you God Bless You for all you do for us sir
Thank you for this story 🤗🧡
You’re most welcome 😊 Thanks for listening
Were you actually the voice on the Rocky and Bullwinkle Show? It would explain your professionalism. Love your stories, beautifully done. ❤
Yea:) tks
Just discovered your channel. Thank you ! New follower. 🇺🇸
Thanks for subscribing, welcome to the channel!
" One does not often get a Turkish princess in London" - not even in Victorian and Edwardian fiction, in my experience, but perhaps it's too limited: the next thing like a comparable fictional example that occurred to me is the presence of the high-ranking Persians in Charles Williams's Many Dimensions (1932)! In real life, there is Sayyida Salama bint Said who married the German merchant, Rudolph Heinrich Ruete, in a Church of England ceremony in 1867, and, as Emily Ruete published her Memoirs of an Arabian Princess in German in 1886, with an English translation following soon after in 1888 (and another in 1907: all online). Again, a Loveday Brooke story with fascinating religious dimensions. "Is Mademoiselle Catholic or Protestant, can you tell me?" But, according to Major Druce, a much greater variety, "And they're on the increase too".
I see you've been working your way through my Loveday Brooke readings recently, so glad to know you enjoy them. I hope to complete the series (only two more to go) in the coming months... in fact I'm mid-way through preparing the next one, coming up in a few weeks all being well
@@BitesizedAudio Excellent - thank you! Meanwhile I have a lot more delightful catching up to do on unfamiliar stories and authors, here!
Simon time is perfect time that time is when ever the hell he feels like and that time is just Dandy to Smee .
Hope all is well in Simon Vill.
😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂
Zet vas a lovely story.
This one was a little confusing as it was entertaining. But I think I got it down now after listing couple of times.
Oh goody😊
🙂
Nice voice, good looking too
😎
I didn t get the end..... He said this: I'll trouble my mother or the Princess; and I shall be glad, if you have the opportunity, if you will make people understand that I only moved in the matter at all out of-of mere kindness to a young and friendless foreigner."
Did he gave up on the princess? Not want to continue the relation with her? Was he talking about her in the last sentence? 😅 I just feel he should brake up with her somehow
I don't think he does give up on the Princess (although whether she will give up on him is debatable... she didn't seem very impressed when we last saw her). The final paragraph actually starts: " 'I don't think,' he said slowly, 'I'll trouble my mother or the Princess' ", i.e. he doesn't want to talk any more about it to either of them, he's embarrassed by his actions in pushing the investigation now he knows the truth about what happened to the missing girl, and why. I hope that helps to clarify things!
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Simone, how the new acting job going?
Going very well, thank you. Quite full on at times, but it's lovely to be back on stage. I've got a short break coming up in October before starting the Christmas rehearsals, but I've lots of audio work to keep me busy, so all good!
I think in Turkey the princess's vengeance may have taken a different (and cheaper) form.
But, I am a cynic.
Just in time for #victober. 🎉❤
This is very confusing!!! The princess was Turkish not Swiss and you give her 2 (!) last names!!! Is it Duveé or the first one where you call her Lucy Cunier!?!? It is NOT clear that you are talking about 2 separate persons!!! I think that you must've cut something that related that fact clearly, out! Also, it is sometimes difficult to understand you because of the British pronunciation, i.e a clerk-- where you pronounce it as "a clark" but you don't leave any space between "a" and "clark". I am not criticizing you; I actually enjoy your English accent. In general, I also enjoy the way you tell stories; it's just that I think that with respect to this one, you should not have left out important parts.
I can assure you I haven't left out any parts of the story, it's read as written by the author and I didn't cut anything. It sounds like you have confused two different female characters [Spoiler alert for anyone who hasn't listened yet] ... The Princess is indeed Turkish, and her last name is Dullah-Veih; whereas Lucie Cunier is Swiss, and she is the secretary to Mrs Druce. That lady's son, Major Druce, is engaged to the Turkish Princess but appears also to be smitten with the Swiss Lucie. These relationships are all outlined in the opening paragraphs of the story, and over the course of the story it becomes clear that both Mrs Druce and the Princess have their own reasons for not wanting Major Druce to discover what has become of Lucie following her disappearance. I hope that helps clear up some of the confusion!
@@BitesizedAudioYes. I did confuse the two. I am sorry I thought that you left something out that related that fact. Then the author did. I am sure it would have become more evident down the line but I just kept wracking my brain about it. I shall still give it a listen as I do really enjoy your stories. May I just suggest that you leave more of a space between words? Just a tad more? It is sometimes difficult to understand certain words due to the English accent. Thank you in advance and thank you for responding. 👍👋🙂
@@drina4706 I just found the text online at the University of Pennsylvania Celebration of Women Writers collection - with original illustrations. It's often possible to find Victorian and Edwardian texts online and fun to read along - but I'm enjoying these so much as read by Simon Stanhope that I am not going to read ahead!
Very bad sound
No. 1....
This was so enjoyable. Thank you Simon. Your usual outstanding narration.