Showing 85 to 105 of 419 results:
Author: Elizabeth Gaskell
Format: Stream / Download
Author Elizabeth Gaskell
Narrator Jenny Agutter
Duration 2h 20m
Margaret Hale moves from the country into the inner-city and starts to learn what life is like for the workers. Elizabeth Gaskell highlights the difference between the middle and working classes in this tale set in the time of the Industrial Revolution. A largely autobiographical story, she also highlights the good that each group can do for each...
View BookAuthor: Leo Tolstoy
Format: Stream / Download
Author Leo Tolstoy
Narrator Diana Quick
Duration 2h 24m
Anna Karenina risks her lifestyle and wealth when she falls for the wrong man in this dramatic and romantic tale of choices and consequences. Married to a man of importance in 19th century St.Petersburg, Anna 's world crumbles when she falls passionately in love with the handsome Count Vronsky, and is forced to choose between her lover and her you...
View BookAuthor: Jules Verne
Format: Stream / Download
Author Jules Verne
Narrator Andrew Sachs
Duration 2h 20m
Phileas Fogg sets out on his epic adventure - will he make it back to London in time for tea? Steve Coogan, Jackie Chan and Cecile de France star in a new film version of the book. Here former Manuel actor Andrew Sachs gives full range to hs versatility using his many voices along with brilliant narration.
View BookAuthor: Herman Melville
Format: Stream / Download
Author Herman Melville
Narrator Christopher Timothy
Duration 2h 20m
The action is set within the claustrophobic confines of a British man-of-war ship in the summer of 1797. Here live the crew of the HMS Indomitable, many of them pressed into service against their will. Billy Budd, however, enjoys naval life. But the evil master-at-arms, Claggart, loathes his fresh-faced innocence and accuses him of mutiny. From th...
View BookAuthor: George Eliot
Format: Stream / Download
Author George Eliot
Narrator Hannah Gordon
Duration 2h 21m
Our hero, a carpenter, loves Hetty Sorel, but she loves Arthur Donnington, a local squire. The story soon progresses onto powerful themes, such as: who has the right to determine who lives and who dies? A non-judgemental examination of human relationships and nature, Adam Bede has been highly praised for achieving something 'beyond' realism.
View BookAuthor: William Thackeray
Format: Stream / Download
Author William Thackeray
Narrator Edward Petherbridge
Duration 2h 22m
Becky Sharpe will stop at nothing to increase her social standing, could anything get in her way? Becky Sharp is one of literature's most important and controversial characters; born into the lower classes, she must rely on her wit and guile and sexuality to master regent society. Neither friendship nor trust can even abate Becky's desire to climb...
View BookAuthor: Wilkie Collins
Format: Stream / Download
Author Wilkie Collins
Narrator Juliet Stevenson
Duration 1h 19m
Classic story from the author of The Woman In White, a young woman finds herself caught between true love and her family's honor
View BookAuthor: Victor Hugo
Format: Stream / Download
Author Victor Hugo
Narrator Michael Jayston
Duration 2h 24m
Hugo's vibrant portrait of the characters in late eighteenth century Paris is a world-famous story, which has also been made into an award-winning musical. Jean Valjean, an ex-convict, tries to turn his life around for the sake of his adopted daughter, Cosette. Set in turbulent times, this reading by Michael Jayston of this classic tale is a bustli...
View BookAuthor: Rudyard Kipling
Format: Stream / Download
Author Rudyard Kipling
Narrator Richard Pasco
Duration 30m
Rudyard Kipling classic written in 1890 - the obnoxious Fleete, newly arrived in India, desecrates the temple of Hanuman, the monkey god. A priest avenges Hanuman with a savage bite to Fleete's chest, with grave and mysterious consquences.
View BookAuthor: Edith Wharton
Format: Stream / Download
Author Edith Wharton
Narrator Richard Thomas
Duration 3h 40m
Conventional and circumstance bind the young Ethan Frome to a wife he cannot love. Grimly resigned to his fate, he sees for himself a life as bleak and constricted as the New England farm on which he lives. Then the appearance in his bleak personal landscape of his ailing wife's orphaned young cousin, Mattie Silver, rouses in Ethan a fierce passion...
View BookAuthor: Elizabeth Gaskell
Format: Stream / Download
Author Elizabeth Gaskell
Narrator Harriet Walter
Duration 29m
This is a story about two half-brothers. Though raised by the same man, the brothers' formative experiences are far from similar. Gregory, the child born of his mother's first marriage, was treated unfairly by his stepfather who was jealous and envious of the love his wife showed towards the child. His step-ather wanted this love for himself but he...
View BookAuthor: Charles Dickens
Format: Stream / Download
Author Charles Dickens
Narrator Harriet Walter
Duration 3h 7m
"Now what I want is Facts. Teach these boys and girls nothing but Facts. Facts alone are wanted in life." So says Thomas Gradgrind in Dickens' immortal story set in the North of England in the 19th Century. Gradgrind, a local industrialist, gave this advice to his children set against a backdrop of huge wealth and even huger poverty where the rich...
View BookAuthor: Charles Dickens
Format: Stream / Download
Author Charles Dickens
Narrator Martin Jarvis
Duration 2h 18m
Dickens' most autobiographical novel. It paints a powerful picture of social conditions in Victorian England. One of six Dickens' titles read by the great Martin Jarvis. His interpretation of Uriah Heep for BBC Television is a classic.
View BookAuthor: Stephen Crane
Format: MP3 CD + Stream / Download
Author Stephen Crane
Narrator Jeff Harding
Duration 5h
Henry Fleming, a new recruit in the American Civil War, is desperate to prove his courage but is unprepared for the horror he must witness. A powerful story of fear and duty.
View BookAuthor: F Scott Fitzgerald
Format: Stream / Download
Author F Scott Fitzgerald
Narrator Dean Robertson
Duration 5h 5m
Jay Gatsby is the man who has everything. But one thing will always be out of his reach. Everybody who is anybody is seen at his glittering parties. Day and night his Long Island mansion buzzes with bright young things drinking, dancing, and debating his mysterious character. For Gatsby---young, handsome, and fabulously rich---always seems alone in...
View BookAuthor: Thomas Hardy
Format: MP3 CD
Author Thomas Hardy
Narrator Alan Rickman
Duration 17h 25m
The passionate Eustacia Vye feels herself imprisoned in the wild, isolated Egdon Heath, and although she longs for a love that will free her from it, her marriage to returning native Clym Yeobright only serves to trap her deeper within it.
View BookAuthor: James F Cooper
Format: MP3 CD
Author James F Cooper
Narrator William Hope
Duration 3h 53m
Set against the French and Indian siege of Fort William Henry in 1757, 'The Last of the Mohicans' recounts the story of two sisters, Cora and Alice Munro, daughters of the English commander, who are struggling to be reunited with their father. They are aided in their perilous journey by Hawk-eye, a frontier scout and his companions Chingachgook and...
View BookAuthor: Bram Stoker
Format: MP3 CD
Author Bram Stoker
Narrator Full Cast
Duration 4h
When Jonathan Harker visits Transylvania to help Count Dracula with the purchase of a London house, he makes horrifying discoveries about his client and his castle. Soon afterwards, a number of disturbing incidents unfold in England: an unmanned ship is wrecked at Whitby; strange puncture marks appear on a young woman's neck; and the inmate of a lu...
View BookAuthor: F Scott Fitzgerald
Format: MP3 CD + Stream / Download
Author F Scott Fitzgerald
Narrator William Hope
Duration 2h 38m
Jay Gatsby causes quite a stir when he buys a mansion on the east coast of America and sets about hosting the most lavish parties. Anyone who is anyone wants to be seen at his glittering parties, but Gatsby himself always seems to be watching and waiting. Who or what is he waiting for?
View BookAuthor: Herman Melville
Format: MP3 CD
Author Herman Melville
Narrator Bill Bailey
Duration 4h 45m
'Moby Dick' follows the fortunes of Captain Ahab and the crew of the Pequod, a 19th century whaling ship. The Pequod is on its last voyage in pursuit of Moby Dick, the great white whale which has been Ahab's bitter adversary for many years. This classic story of high adventure, manic obsession and metaphysical speculation is packed with drama, and...
View BookAuthor: Jane Austen
Format: MP3 CD
Author Jane Austen
Narrator Juliet Stevenson
Duration 3h 20m
A classic love story tinged with the heartache of missed opportunities. At 19, Anne Eliot is persuaded to jilt her suitor - Captain Frederick Wentworth - because he has neither rank nor fortune. When they encounter one another eight years later will she make the same mistake again?
View Book