Sent down from Oxford for indecent behaviour, Paul Pennyfeather is oddly unsurprised to find himself qualifying for the position of schoolmaster at Llanabba Castle. His colleagues are an assortment of misfits, rascals, and fools, including Prendy and Captain Grimes, who is always in the soup (or just plain drunk). Then Sports Day arrives, and with...

When the young English widow Lilia Herriton takes off on the grand tour and along the way marries a penniless Italian, her in-laws are far from amused. That the marriage should fail and poor Lilia die tragically are only to be expected. But that Lilia should have had a baby - and that the baby should be raised as an Italian - are matters of grave c...

The Professor is Charlotte Brontës first novel. Our protagonist is William Crimsworth and, like Jane Eyre, he is parentless; like Lucy Snowe in Villette he leaves the familiar surroundings of England to forge a life in Brussels. Brontë explores the relationship between power and sexual desire through William's first person narration. The...

'All the Christmases roll down toward the two-tongued sea, like a cold and headlong moon bundling down the sky that was our street; and they stop at the rim of the ice-edged fish-freezing waves, and I plunge my hands in the snow and bring out whatever I can find.' Cherished by generations as a Christmas classic ever since it was first recorded and...

Stephen Dedalus is a boy on the edge of transformation—questioning his strict Irish Catholic upbringing, the confines of his family, and the weight of tradition. As he comes of age, his inner world brims with restless ambition and a desire to escape conformity through the power of art. In this bold, lyrical, and deeply introspective novel, Ja...

The quintessential novel of the Lost Generation, The Sun Also Rises is one of Ernest Hemingway's masterpieces and a classic example of his spare but powerful writing style. A poignant look at the disillusionment and angst of the post-World War I generation, the novel introduces two of Hemingway's most unforgettable characters: Jake Barnes and Lady...

In this gripping tale of passion, independence, and societal constraints, the young and introspective Robert Moore is caught in the whirlwind of his factory's struggles, while becoming entangled with the fierce and enigmatic Shirley. A strong, unconventional woman with a sharp mind, Shirley challenges the rigid social norms of her time, forcing tho...

Dickens’s final novel, The Mystery of Edwin Drood is a remarkable mystery concerning a complicated love triangle. Left unfinished at the time of Dickens’s death, several adaptations of the book have attempted to provide a fitting conclusion to the story – although Dickens’s plans for the plot remain enigmatic. Published in 1...

A working-class orphan with aspirations for a university education, Jude Fawley is nothing if not ambitious. However, his class and economic situation drive him into a career as a stonemason, rather than to fulfil his scholarly leanings. It is a loveless marriage that finally propels him to pursue his dreams and find new love, but although his life...

Famed for being Dickens’s last completed novel, Our Mutual Friend is a sophisticated social analysis and damning satire of wealth, and the greed and corruption it can bring. First published between 1864 and 1865, Our Mutual Friend revolves around the inheritance of a large fortune left by John Harmon Sr., owner of a huge estate. Once John pas...

The complete collection of Edgar Allan Poe's stories, read by award-winning actor Jonathan Keeble. Edgar Allan Poe was a writer, poet, editor and literary critic. Poe is best known for his poetry and short stories, particularly his tales of mystery and the macabre, and is widely regarded as a central figure of Romanticism in the United States and o...

Kenneth Branagh heads an outstanding cast in playing one of Shakespeare's strongest characters. The eighth production in the widely admired series of Shakespeare plays presented by Naxos AudioBooks in association with Cambridge University Press.

Anne-Marie Duff stars as Blanche DuBois in BBC Radio 3's landmark production of Tennessee Williams' masterpieceTennessee Williams's iconic play tells the story of a catastrophic confrontation between fantasy and reality, embodied in the characters of Blanche DuBois and Stanley Kowalski.Blanche DuBois arrives unexpectedly on the doorstep of her sist...

Los Angeles Private Investigator Philip Marlowe is hired by wheelchair-bound General Sternwood to discover who is blackmailing him. A broken, weary old man, Sternwood just wants Marlowe to make the problem go away. However, with Sternwood's two wild, devil-may-care daughters prowling LA's seedy backstreets, Marlowe's got his work cut out. And that'...

Funny, subversive, fearless and fiercely intelligent, Iris Murdoch was one of the great writers of the twentieth century. To celebrate her centenary Vintage Classics presents special editions of her greatest and most timeless novelsA lay community of thoroughly mixed-up people is encamped outside Imber Abbey, home of an enclosed order of nuns. A ne...

Miss Lydia Bennet may be the youngest, but what she lacks in maturity and responsibility, she more than makes up for in energy, fun - and magic. In this exuberant reimagining of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice, Lydia Bennet puts pen to paper to relate the real events and aftermath of the classic story from her own perspective. Some facts are well...

Captured by a king of darkness. Forced to find the light within. Arwen Valondale never expected to be the brave one, offering her life to save her brother's. Now she's been taken prisoner by the most dangerous kingdom on the continent, and made to use her rare magical abilities to heal the soldiers of the vicious Onyx King. Arwen knows better than...

Brought to you by Penguin.The inspiration for the new film from Oscar award-winning director Barry Jenkins'Achingly beautiful' Guardian Harlem in the 1970s: the black soul of New York City. Tish is nineteen and the man she loves - her lifelong friend and the father of her unborn child - has been jailed for a crime he did not commit. As their famili...

Brought to you by Penguin.'A masterwork... an almost unbearable, tumultuous, blood-pounding experience' Washinton PostWhen Another Country appeared in 1962, it caused a literary sensation. James Baldwin's masterly story of desire, hatred and violence opens with the unforgettable character of Rufus Scott, a scavenging Harlem jazz musician adrift in...

BBC Audio presents Mansfield Park, Jane Austen's perceptive study of middle class morals in the 19th century. Jane Austen's unlikely heroine Fanny Price is plucked from her impoverished family and brought up by wealthy relatives at Mansfield Park.When two outrageous and flirtatious guests arrive at Mansfield Park, Fanny's moral compass is shattered...

A BBC Radio six-part dramatisation of Marcel Proust's groundbreaking series of novels, tracing the extraordinary story of the author's own life. Starring James Wilby and Jonathan Firth, and with a distinguished cast including Harriet Walter, Imogen Stubbs and Corin Redgrave, this rich, multi-layered adaptation brings out all the variety and subtlet...