Audiobooks narrated by Zacharias Prewett

Shakespeare wrote Much Ado About Nothing towards the middle of his career, sometime between 1598 and 1599. It was first published in quarto in 1600 and later collected into Mr. William Shakespeare's Comedies, Histories, and Tragedies in 1623. The earliest recorded performance of Much Ado About Nothing was performed for the newly-married Princess Elizabeth and Frederick the Fifth, Elector Palatine in 1613. Shakespeare's sources of inspiration for this play can be found in Italian culture and popular texts published in the sixteenth century. Gossip involving lovers deceived into believing each other false was often spread throughout Northern Italy. Works like Ludovico Ariosto's Orlando Furioso and Edmund Spencer's Fearie Queene also feature tricked lovers like Claudio and Hero. Besides these similarities, the idea of tricking a couple like Benedick and Beatrice into falling in love was an original and unusual idea at the time. The play focuses on two couples: upon the noblemen's return to Messina, Claudio and Hero quickly fall in love and wish to marry in a week; on the contrary, Benedick and Beatrice resume their verbal war, exchanging insults with each other. To pass the time prior to the marriage a plot to trick Benedick and Beatrice into falling in love has been set in motion. Unbeknownst to both our couples, a fouler plot to crush the love and happiness between Hero and Claudio has also begun to unfold.

William Shakespeare (Author), Susan Bones, Zacharias Prewett (Narrator)

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The Comedy of Errors

The Comedy of Errors is one of Shakespeare's earliest and shortest plays. This comedy utilizes slapstick humor, word play, and mistaken identities to create a series of farcical accidents. Over time, the play's title has become an idiom used to describe 'an event or series of events made ridiculous by the number of errors that were made throughout.' In Ephesus, the law forbids entry to any merchants from Syracuse, and if they are discovered within the city, they must pay a thousand marks or be put to death. Aegeon, an old Syracusian merchant, is arrested and Solinus, the Duke of Ephesus, listens to his story of coming to the city. Long ago, Aegeon was on a sea voyage. Traveling with him was his wife, his twin sons, and their twin slaves. The family becomes separated during a tempest; Aegeon, one son, and one slave were rescued together, and the others were never to be seen again. Years later his son Antipholus and his slave Dromio left to search for their long lost siblings; after the boys didn't return, Aegeon set out to bring his son back home. Moved by this story, the duke allows Aegeon one day to get the money to pay his fine and to find his family.

William Shakespeare (Author), Susan Bones, Zacharias Prewett (Narrator)

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Measure for Measure

Duke Vincentio has given his deputy Angelo temporary power over Vienna before his leave for a diplomatic mission. But instead of leaving the city, the Duke disguises himself as a friar named Lodowick, and stays behind to observe the city's happenings and Angelo's brief reign. Meanwhile, Angelo decides to enforce the laws on prostitution and debauchery, effectively shutting down the red-light district. A man named Claudio gets arrested for impregnating his lover, and Angelo sentences him to death. Claudio's sister enlists a certain friar's help to trick Angelo into releasing her brother.

William Shakespeare (Author), Susan Bones, Zacharias Prewett (Narrator)

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The Two Gentlemen of Verona

Two close friends, Proteus and Valentine, are saying their goodbyes in the streets of Verona. Valentine plans to travel to Milan and discover the world, but Proteus wants to stay with Julia, a woman he loves. While in Milan, Valentine falls in love with the duke's daughter, Sylvia, and plans to elope with her. Antonio, Proteus' father, later orders his son to join Valentine in Milan. Before leaving, Proteus exchanges rings and vows of undying love with Julia. When Proteus enters the aristocratic courts of Milan, he instantly falls in love with Sylia and forgets all about Julia. The love triangle between Sylvia, Proteus, and Valentine will test the loyalty of friendship.

William Shakespeare (Author), Susan Bones, Zacharias Prewett (Narrator)

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The Merry Wives of Windsor

First published in 1602 by William Shakespeare, The Merry Wives of Windsor features the popular figure Sir John Falstaff, who first appeared in Henry IV, Part 1 and Part 2. Some speculate that Merry Wives was written at the behest of Queen Elizabeth I, who wanted to see Falstaff in love; and that Shakespeare was forced to rush its creation as a result, and so it remains one of Shakespeare's lesser-regarded plays. The play revolves around two intertwined plots: the adventures of the rogue Falstaff who plans to seduce several local wives, and the story of young Anne Page who is being wooed by prominent citizens while she has her sights set on young Fenton. The wives come together to teach Falstaff a lesson, and in the end love triumphs. The Merry Wives of Windsor is believed to have been first performed in 1597 and was subsequently published in quarto in 1602, in a second quarto in 1619, and then in the 1623 First Folio. Despite holding a lesser place in Shakespeare's canon, it was one of the first Shakespearean plays to be performed in 1660, after the reinstatement of Charles II and theatre once again was permitted to be performed in London.

William Shakespeare (Author), Susan Bones, Zacharias Prewett (Narrator)

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The Tempest

The Tempest is a play by English playwright William Shakespeare, probably written in 1610-1611, and thought to be one of the last plays that Shakespeare wrote alone. After the first scene, which takes place on a ship at sea during a tempest, the rest of the story is set on a remote island, where the sorcerer Prospero, a complex and contradictory character, lives with his daughter Miranda, and his two servants: Caliban, a savage monster figure, and Ariel, an airy spirit. The play contains music and songs that evoke the spirit of enchantment on the island. It explores many themes, including magic, betrayal, revenge, and family. In Act IV, a wedding masque serves as a play-within-a-play, and contributes spectacle, allegory, and elevated language. Although The Tempest is listed in the First Folio as the first of Shakespeare's comedies, it deals with both tragic and comic themes, and modern criticism has created a category of romance for this and others of Shakespeare's late plays. The Tempest has been put to varied interpretations, from those that see it as a fable of art and creation, with Prospero representing Shakespeare, and Prospero's renunciation of magic signaling Shakespeare's farewell to the stage, to interpretations that consider it an allegory of Europeans colonizing foreign lands.

William Shakespeare (Author), Susan Bones, Zacharias Prewett (Narrator)

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Collected Works 1917-1924

Collected Works 1917-1924 include all the short stories and novellas of H.P. Lovecraft published between 1917 and 1924. Howard Phillips Lovecraft (August 20, 1890 - March 15, 1937) was an American writer of weird fiction and horror fiction, who is known for his creation of what became the Cthulhu Mythos. Born in Providence, Rhode Island, Lovecraft spent most of his life within New England. He was born into affluence, which ended with the death of his grandfather. In 1913, he wrote a critical letter to a pulp magazine that ultimately led to his involvement in pulp fiction. During the interwar period, he wrote and published stories that focused on his interpretation of humanity's place in the universe. In his view, humanity was an unimportant part of an uncaring cosmos that could be swept away at any moment. These stories also included fantastic elements that represented the perceived fragility of anthropocentrism. Lovecraft was at the center of a wider body of authors known as The Lovecraft Circle. This group wrote stories that frequently shared details between them. He was also a prolific writer of letters. He maintained a correspondence with several different authors and literary proteges. According to some estimates, he wrote approximately 100,000 letters over the course of his lifetime. In these letters, he discussed his worldview and his daily life, and tutored younger authors, such as August Derleth, Donald Wandrei, and Robert Bloch. Throughout his adult life, Lovecraft was never able to support himself from earnings as an author and editor. He was virtually unknown during his lifetime and was almost exclusively published in pulp magazines before he died in poverty at the age of 46, but is now regarded as one of the most significant 20th-century authors of supernatural horror fiction. Among his most celebrated tales are The Call of Cthulhu, The Rats in the Walls, At the Mountains of Madness, The Shadow over Innsmouth, and The Shadow Out of Time. His writings are the basis of the Cthulhu Mythos, which has inspired a large body of pastiches, games, music and other media drawing on Lovecraft's characters, setting and themes, constituting a wider subgenre known as Lovecraftian horror. Included in this collection: 1. A Reminiscence of Dr. Samuel Johnson (1917) 2. Beyond the Wall of Sleep (1919) 3. Dagon (1919) 4. The White Ship (1919) 5. The Statement of Randolph Carter (1920) 6. The Doom that Came to Sarnath (1920) 7. The Cats of Ulthar (1920) 8. Nyarlathotep (1920) 9. Polaris (1920) 10. The Street (1920) 11. Ex Oblivione (1921) 12. Facts Concerning the Late Arthur Jermyn and His Family (1921) 13. The Terrible Old Man (1921) 14. The Picture in the House (1921) 15. The Tree (1921) 16. The Nameless City (1921) 17. The Tomb (1922) 18. The Music of Erich Zann (1922) 19. Celephaïs (1922) 20. Herbert West - Reanimator (1922) 21. The Lurking Fear (1923) 22. Memory (1923) 23. Hypnos (1923) 24. What the Moon Brings (1923) 25. The Hound (1924) 26. The Rats in the Walls (1924)

Howard Phillips Lovecraft (Author), Anna Cohen, Zacharias Prewett (Narrator)

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The Tenant of Wildfell Hall

The Tenant of Wildfell Hall is the second and final novel by the English author Anne Brontë. It was first published in 1848 under the pseudonym Acton Bell. Probably the most shocking of the Brontë's novels, it had an instant and phenomenal success, but after Anne's death her sister Charlotte prevented its re-publication in England until 1854. The novel is framed as a series of letters from Gilbert Markham to his friend about the events connected with his meeting a mysterious young widow, calling herself Helen Graham, who arrives at Wildfell Hall, an Elizabethan mansion which has been empty for many years, with her young son and a servant. Contrary to the early 19th century norms, Helen pursues an artist's career and makes an income by selling her pictures. Mrs Graham's strict seclusion soon gives rise to gossip in the neighbouring village and she becomes a social outcast. Refusing to believe anything scandalous about her, Gilbert befriends Mrs Graham and discovers her past. In the diary she gives Gilbert, Helen chronicles her husband's physical and moral decline through alcohol and debauchery in the dissipated aristocratic society. Ultimately Helen flees with her son, whom she desperately wishes to save from his father's influence. The depiction of marital strife and women's professional identification has also a strong moral message mitigated by Anne Brontë's belief in universal salvation. Most critics now consider The Tenant of Wildfell Hall to be one of the first feminist novels. May Sinclair, in 1913, said that 'the slamming of [Helen's] bedroom door against her husband reverberated throughout Victorian England'. In leaving her husband and taking away their child, Helen violates not only social conventions but also the early 19th century English law.

Anne Brontë (Author), Zacharias Prewett (Narrator)

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The Complete Tales & Novels of Edgar Allan Poe

The Complete Tales & Novels of Edgar Allan Poe includes the 66 tales and 2 full-length novels of Edgar Allan Poe. Edgar Allan Poe (born Edgar Poe; January 19, 1809 - October 7, 1849) was an American writer, poet, editor, and literary critic. Poe is best known for his poetry and short stories, particularly his tales of mystery and the macabre. He is widely regarded as a central figure of Romanticism in the United States and of American literature as a whole, and he was one of the country's earliest practitioners of the short story. He is also generally considered the inventor of the detective fiction genre and is further credited with contributing to the emerging genre of science fiction. Poe was the first well-known American writer to earn a living through writing alone, resulting in a financially difficult life and career. Included in this collection: 1. Metzengerstein (1832) 2. The Duc de L'Omelette (1832) 3. A Tale of Jerusalem (1832) 4. Loss of Breath (1832) 5. Bon-Bon (1832) 6. MS. Found in a Bottle (1833) 7. The Assignation (1834) 8. Berenice (1835) 9. Morella (1835) 10. Lionizing (1835) 11. The Unparalleled Adventure of One Hans Pfaall (1835) 12. King Pest (1835) 13. Shadow (1835) 14. Four Beasts in One (1836) 15. Mystification (1837) 16. Silence (1838) 17. Ligeia (1838) 18. How to Write a Blackwood Article (1838) 19. A Predicament (1838) 20. The Devil in the Belfry (1839) 21. The Man That Was Used Up (1839) 22. The Fall of the House of Usher (1839) 23. William Wilson (1839) 24. The Conversation of Eiros and Charmion (1839) 25. Why the Little Frenchman Wears His Hand in a Sling (1840) 26. The Business Man (1840) 27. The Man of the Crowd (1840) 28. The Murders in the Rue Morgue (1841) 29. A Descent into the Maelström (1841) 30. The Island of the Fay (1841) 31. The Colloquy of Monos and Una (1841) 32. Never Bet the Devil Your Head (1841) 33. Eleonora (1841) 34. Three Sundays in a Week (1841) 35. The Oval Portrait (1842) 36. The Masque of the Red Death (1842) 37. The Landscape Garden (1842) 38. The Mystery of Marie Rogêt (1842/43) 39. The Pit and the Pendulum (1842/43) 40. The Tell-Tale Heart (1843) 41. The Gold-Bug (1843) 42. The Black Cat (1843) 43. Diddling (1843) 44. The Spectacles (1844) 45. A Tale of the Ragged Mountains (1844) 46. The Premature Burial (1844) 47. Mesmeric Revelation (1844) 48. The Oblong Box (1844) 49. The Angel of the Odd (1844) 50. Thou Art the Man (1844) 51. The Literary Life of Thingum Bob, Esq. (1844) 52. The Purloined Letter (1844/45) 53. The Thousand-and-Second Tale of Scheherazade (1845) 54. Some Words with a Mummy (1845) 55. The Power of Words (1845) 56. The Imp of the Perverse (1845) 57. The System of Doctor Tarr and Professor Fether (1845) 58. The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar (1845) 59. The Sphinx (1846) 60. The Cask of Amontillado (1846) 61. The Domain of Arnheim (1847) 62. Mellonta Tauta (1849) 63. Hop-Frog (1849) 64. Von Kempelen and His Discovery (1849) 65. X-ing a Paragrab (1849) 66. Landor's Cottage (1849) 67. The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket (1837) 68. The Journal of Julius Rodman (1840)

Edgar Allan Poe (Author), Anna Cohen, Zacharias Prewett (Narrator)

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Don Quixote

The Ingenious Gentleman Don Quixote of La Mancha (Modern Spanish: El ingenioso hidalgo (in Part 2, cavallero) Don Quijote de la Mancha), or just Don Quixote, is a Spanish novel by Miguel de Cervantes. Published in two parts, in 1605 and 1615, Don Quixote is the most influential work of literature from the Spanish Golden Age and the entire Spanish literary canon. A founding work of Western literature, it is often labeled the first modern novel and is sometimes considered the best literary work ever written. The plot revolves around the adventures of a noble (hidalgo) from La Mancha named Alonso Quixano, who reads so many chivalric romances that he loses his mind and decides to become a knight-errant (caballero andante) to revive chivalry and serve his nation, under the name Don Quixote de la Mancha. He recruits a simple farmer, Sancho Panza, as his squire, who often employs a unique, earthy wit in dealing with Don Quixote's rhetorical monologues on knighthood, already considered old-fashioned at the time. Don Quixote, in the first part of the book, does not see the world for what it is and prefers to imagine that he is living out a knightly story. The book had a major influence on the literary community, as evidenced by direct references in Alexandre Dumas' The Three Musketeers (1844), Mark Twain's Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1884), and Edmond Rostand's Cyrano de Bergerac (1897), as well as the word quixotic and the epithet Lothario; the latter refers to a character in El curioso impertinente (The Impertinently Curious Man), an intercalated story that appears in Part One, chapters 33–35. The 19th-century German philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer cited Don Quixote as one of the four greatest novels ever written, along with Tristram Shandy, La Nouvelle Héloïse, and Wilhelm Meisters Lehrjahre. When first published, Don Quixote was usually interpreted as a comic novel. After the French Revolution, it was better known for its central ethic that individuals can be right while society is quite wrong and seen as disenchanting. In the 19th century, it was seen as a social commentary, but no one could easily tell whose side Cervantes was on. Many critics came to view the work as a tragedy in which Don Quixote's idealism and nobility are viewed by the post-chivalric world as insane, and are defeated and rendered useless by common reality. By the 20th century, the novel had come to occupy a canonical space as one of the foundations of modern literature.

Miguel de Cervantes (Author), Zacharias Prewett (Narrator)

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The Phantom of the Opera

The Phantom of the Opera (French: Le Fantôme de l'Opéra), is a novel by French writer Gaston Leroux. It was first published as a serialization in Le Gaulois from 23 September 1909, to 8 January 1910. It was published in volume form in late March 1910 by Pierre Lafitte and directed by Aluel Malinao. The novel is partly inspired by historical events at the Paris Opera during the nineteenth century and an apocryphal tale concerning the use of a former ballet pupil's skeleton in Carl Maria von Weber's 1841 production of Der Freischütz. It has been successfully adapted into various stage and film adaptations, most notable of which are the 1925 film depiction featuring Lon Chaney, and Andrew Lloyd Webber's 1986 musical.

Gaston LeRoux (Author), Zacharias Prewett (Narrator)

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The Ultimate Sherlock Holmes Collection: 4 Novels, 44 Short Stories & 2 Extracanonical Works

The Ultimate Sherlock Holmes Collection includes the 4 full-length novels, 44 short stories and 2 extracanonical works featuring Sherlock Holmes. Sherlock Holmes is a fictional private detective created by British author Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Referring to himself as a 'consulting detective' in the stories, Holmes is known for his proficiency with observation, forensic science, and logical reasoning that borders on the fantastic, which he employs when investigating cases for a wide variety of clients, including Scotland Yard. First appearing in print in 1887's A Study in Scarlet, the character's popularity became widespread with the first series of short stories in The Strand Magazine, beginning with A Scandal in Bohemia in 1891; additional tales appeared from then until 1927, eventually totalling four novels and 56 short stories. All but one are set in the Victorian or Edwardian eras, between about 1880 and 1914. Most are narrated by the character of Holmes's friend and biographer Dr. Watson, who usually accompanies Holmes during his investigations and often shares quarters with him at the address of 221B Baker Street, London, where many of the stories begin. Included in this collection: 1. A Study in Scarlet (1887) 2. The Sign of the Four (1890) 3. The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (1892): A Scandal in Bohemia / The Adventure of the Red-Headed League / A Case of Identity / The Boscombe Valley Mystery / The Five Orange Pips / The Man with the Twisted Lip / The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle / The Adventure of the Speckled Band / The Adventure of the Engineer's Thumb / The Adventure of the Noble Bachelor / The Adventure of the Beryl Coronet / The Adventure of the Copper Beeches 4. The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes (1894): Silver Blaze / The Adventure of the Cardboard Box / The Adventure of the Yellow Face / The Adventure of the Stock-broker's Clerk / The Adventure of the 'Gloria Scott' / The Adventure of the Musgrave Ritual / The Adventure of the Reigate Squire / The Adventure of the Crooked Man / The Adventure of the Resident Patient / The The Adventure of the Greek Interpreter / The Adventure of the Naval Treaty / The Final Problem 5. The Hound of the Baskervilles (1902) 6. The Return of Sherlock Holmes (1905): The Adventure of the Empty House / The Adventure of the Norwood Builder / The Adventure of the Dancing Men / The Adventure of the Solitary Cyclist / The Adventure of the Priory School / The Adventure of Black Peter / The Adventure of Charles Augustus Milverton / The Adventure of the Six Napoleons / The Adventure of the Three Students / The Adventure of the Golden Pince-Nez / The Adventure of the Missing Three-Quarter / The Adventure of the Abbey Grange / The Adventure of the Second Stain 7. The Valley of Fear (1915) 8. His Last Bow (1917): The Adventure of Wisteria Lodge / The Adventure of the Cardboard Box / The Adventure of the Red Circle / The Adventure of the Bruce-Partington Plans / The Adventure of the Dying Detective / The Disappearance of Lady Frances Carfax / The Adventure of the Devil's Foot / His Last Bow 9. Extracanonical Works: The Field Bazaar (1896) / The Lost Special (1898)

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (Author), Zacharias Prewett (Narrator)

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Audiobooks Narrated by Zacharias Prewett