War and Peace is one of the greatest monuments in world literature. Set against the dramatic backdrop of the Napoleonic Wars, it examines the relationship between the individual and the relentless march of history. Here are the universal themes of love and hate, ambition and despair, youth and age, expressed with a swirling vitality which makes the book as accessible today as it was when it was first published in 1869. Translated by Aylmer and Louise Maude.
When Mrs. Fenwick learns of Mr.D'Arcy's income, she envisages the end to one of the five principle problems in her life. If her single-minded daughter Elizabeth can be married off to someone of means, her four remaining problems might be less daunting.
However, Mr. D'Arcy and Miss Elizabeth appear to take an instant dislike to each other - not that the dour Mr. D'Arcy would ever take a liking to anyone in any event! Luckily for Mr. Bennett, fate, in the guise of another couple's elopement, enters the scene.
An audio-dramatisation with full cast, sound effects, and 'audio-ambience' created for you by AudioscapePlayers.
Though The Arabian Nights are generally known as stories for children, they were originally tales for adults full of adventure, sexuality, violence and the supernatural. They certainly inspired the imagination of Sir Richard Burton, the nineteenth-century explorer, linguist and erotologist who brought all his worldly experience and a superbly expressive prose style to bear on the tales of Sinbad the Seaman and Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves. Scheherazade must keep her king entertained with stories if she is to avoid the promised sentence of death. Philip Madoc's sonorous performance allows the tales to weave their own enchantment as they have done down the centuries.
When Rachel Verinder inherits the Moonstone, a huge and priceless diamond, her delight turns to dismay when the gem disappears. But this is no ordinary theft. Sergeant Cuff of Scotland Yard is called in and immediately suspects an intricate plot. However, not even his powers of detection can penetrate fully the mysteries surrounding the diamond. And as we listen to each character tell their version of the events, layer upon layer of drama and suspense builds to the final and astonishing dénoument of the first, and most magnificent English detective novel.
The Nantucket whaling ship, the Pequod, spirals the globe in search of Moby Dick, the mythical white whale of the Southern Oceans. Driven on by the obsessive revenge of Captain Ahab, the crew and the outcast Ishmael find themselves caught up in a demonic pursuit which leads inexorably to an apocalyptic climax.
The scandalous turn-of-the-century story follows 28-year-old Edna Pontellier, wife and mother, who one day awakens to the pangs of passion for the first time in her life. But societal restraints place limits on any kind of authentic expression of desire. Her final gesture is a defiant, desperate reach for freedom.
The first European novel, and one of the greatest, is a marvellously comic study of delusion and its consequences: Don Quixote, the old gentleman of La Mancha, takes to the road in search of adventure and remains undaunted in the face of repeated disaster.
Set in the days of the British Raj, Kipling's finest novel is the exciting and touching tale of an Irish orphan-boy who has lived free in the streets of Lahore before setting out, with a Tibetan Lama, on a double quest. This eventually leads to enrolment in the Indian Secret Service and a thrilling climax in the Himalayas.
Kenneth Branagh, director and star of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, provides one of the most spectacular spoken audio performances ever recorded in this electrifying audio adaptation of Mary Shelley's masterpiece.
One of the greatest horror stories ever written, Frankenstein comes to spellbinding life once again this tour-de-force performance by the acclaimed director and star of Henry V, Dead Again, and Much Ado About Nothing. The definitive recording of one of the most haunting tales of all time, Kenneth Branagh's performance of Frankenstein is a true audio classic.
Adam Bede, a young village carpenter, loves pretty, vain Hetty Sorrel. Hetty's seduction by another leads Adam through a calamitous triangle of seduction, retribution, and murder. The young and beautiful Dinah Morris is his redemption.
Ulysses is one of the greatest literary works in the English language. In his remarkable tour de force, Joyce catalogues one day - June 16 1904 - in immense detail as Leopold Bloom wanders through Dublin, talking, observing, musing - and always remembering Molly, his passionate, wayward wife. Set in the shadow of Homer's Odyssey, internal thoughts - Joyce's famous stream of consciousness - give physical reality extra colour and perspective. Though Ulysses is widely regarded as a 'difficult' novel, this fresh and lively reading shows its comic genius as well as its great moments of poignancy, making it more accessible than ever before.
When I was a lad twenty or thirty or forty years ago I lived in a small town where they were all after me on account of what I done on Mrs. Nugent.
Welcome to the mind of Francie Brady. Just what Francie did to Mrs. Nugent is the final, terrifying act of a young boy at the end of a relentless descent into a world of scorn and fear, brought to unforgettably vivid life in this tour-de-force performance by author Patrick McCabe.
Francie Brady, the "pig boy," is growing up in a poor small Irish town in the early sixties, fueled on an adolescent's comic books, Flash Bars, and John Wayne movies. He is determined to win the Francie Brady Not a Bad Bastard Anymore Diploma. But how do you do that when your mother is sent to the madhouse, your father is an alcoholic, and everyone turns their back on you?
Soon to be a major motion picture from Neil Jordan (Interview with the Vampire, The Crying Game), and read with the bravura performance style that has earned McCabe raves on both sides of the Atlantic, The Butcher Boy is a stunning audio thriller.
