Classics Literature Collection

Newly re-mastered for digital formats, this is the definitive recording of Hans Christian Andersen's six best-loved stories. Narrator Diane Wolkstein, the artistic director of the Hans Christian Andersen Center in New York City, tells Andersen stories throughout the world. She is the author of 23 award-winning books of folklore and has been honored by the National Storytelling Network as a recipient of its coveted Circle of Excellence Award, a designation reserved for America's best living storytellers.

In The Call of the Wild, Buck is a big-hearted dog whose blissful domestic life gets turned upside down when he is suddenly uprooted from his California home and transplanted to the exotic wilds of the Alaskan Yukon in the 1890s. White Fang is the story of a wolf-dog that is rescued from its brutal owner and gradually becomes domesticated through the patience and kindness of its new owner. Lost Face (Including Other Short Stories) is a collection of seven short stories by Jack London.

In her best-known work, The Yellow Wallpaper, Gilman writes about different kinds of oppression that women were exposed to at the time. Herland is a utopian novel from 1915, in which an isolated society composed entirely of women exists. The result is an ideal social order: free of war, conflict, and domination. The Crux tells the story of a group of New England women who move west to start a boardinghouse for men in Colorado. It is an important early feminist work that brings forward complicated issues of gender, citizenship, eugenics, and frontier nationalism.

Irish fairy tales and legends - full of enchantment, brave deeds and lost loves. The best tales from the Irish tradition, including: 'How Cúchulainn Got His Name', 'The Magic Shoes', 'Deirdre and the Sons of Uisneach', 'The King’s Secret', 'The Children of Lir', 'The Giant’s Causeway', 'The Bodach of the Grey Coat', 'The Pot of Gold', 'Tír na n-Óg' and 'The White Gander'. Irish fairy tales and legends are full of enchantment, brave deeds and lost loves. Told from generation to generation, they are as fascinating now as they were to their original listeners.

Among the oldest stories of human civilization, Aesop's fables are a collection of extended proverbs with moral messages attributed to the Greek slave Aesop, who lived in the fifth century BC. Children will delight in these basic human truths represented by talking animals and plants, and adults will marvel at the plainspoken language of these ancient tales.

Journey into an idyllic, heartwarming, and fanciful story in The Anne Collection, with Anne of Green Gables and Anne of Avonlea by Lucy Maud Montgomery. The Anne of Green Gables series is the tale of Anne Shirley, a young girl orphaned and sent to live with a family who initially wanted to adopt a boy. Anne is kindhearted and charming, and wins over everyone she meets throughout her adventures in this collection.

Robert Louis Stevenson, Scottish essayist, poet, and author of fiction and travel books, was born in 1850 in Edinburgh, Scotland, as an only son of a prosperous civil engineer. He entered the University of Edinburgh at the age of 17 and studied to be an engineer to follow his father in the family business; however, he soon realized that he was not cut out for that profession. His father agreed to let him study law instead and although Stevenson graduated from the law school, he never practiced law because, by then, he knew he wanted to be a writer.

“Still Writing offers up a cornucopia of wisdom, insights, and practical lessons gleaned from Dani Shapiro's long experience as a celebrated writer and teacher of writing. The beneficiaries are beginning writers, veteran writers and everyone in between.” —Jennifer Egan From Dani Shapiro...

Arsène Lupin is a fictional gentleman thief and master of disguise created in 1905 by French writer Maurice Leblanc. The character was first introduced in a series of short stories serialized in the magazine Je sais tout. The first story, The Arrest of Arsène Lupin, was published on 15 July 1905. Lupin was featured in 17 novels and 39 novellas by Leblanc, with the novellas or short stories collected into book form for a total of 24 books.

Sir Ralph Richardson reads a selection of poetry by John Keats, William Blake and Samuel Taylor Coleridge.

Plato's Allegory of the Cave is what many believe to be the foundation of Western Philosophy. It addresses what is visible and invisible, seen and observed versus intuited and imagined, and what is public versus private and just versus unjust. It also concerns the meaning and importance of education, the state of the soul, the conflict between truth and beauty, animal urges versus higher aspirations, knowledge versus ignorance, and on and on.

Hear the Wind Sing is the first novel by Haruki Murakami. First published in the June 1979 issue of Gunzo, one of the most influential literary magazines in Japan, it was published one month later as a book. Hear the Wind Sing is the first book in the "Trilogy of the Rat," a series of...

This audiobook features the classic A Christmas Carol, narrated by actor and performer Sam Goodyear, and ten more of Dickens' most famous and best-loved Christmas stories to celebrate the 200th anniversary of his birth. Dickens was the man who almost literally created the spirit of Christmas as we know it today.

On the Shortness of Life was written by Seneca around the year 49AD. He argues that we waste so much time because we do not properly value it. We expend great effort in protecting other valuables such as money and property, but because time appears intangible, we allow others to occupy it and take time away from us. Wise people, on the other hand, understand that time is the most valuable of all resources, and with effort can free themselves from external control to engage in meaningful introspection and create an intentional life.

William Sydney Porter was born on 11th September 1862 in Greensboro, North Carolina. At age 3 his mother died from tuberculosis. From an early age it was clear Porter had a large appetite for reading as he absorbed the world around him. In December 1899, in McClure’s Magazine, he published a short story as O. Henry.

The Ultimate Classics Collection: Volume Five is the fifth instalment of our wide-ranging classic collections. Volume Five features 14 essential works that reach across Europe, America, and Russia - from Twain to Dostoyevsky to Austen - to bring together some of the most influential authors of the 18th and 19th century. Read by a cast of incredible narrators, this is a chance to expand your listening by going deeper into some of your favourite authors' works and find your new favourite piece of classic literature.

This collection brings together the best British writing of the 20th century, narrated by a trio of beloved voices from the stage and screen. From the ghost stories of M.R. James to the intensity of D.H. Lawrence’s Sons and Lovers, as well as the intrigue of Joseph Conrad’s spy thriller, The Secret Agent, these enthralling modern classics will delight every listener. These classic stories are read by The Jewel in the Crown’s Tim Pigott-Smith; legendary Shakespearean actor Sir Michael Hordern; and Sir Ian McKellen.

The book is one of the most influential ethical treatises of all time. Written in 350 BC, it identifies happiness as life's goal. How do we achieve this goal? Not through the satisfactions that come from pleasure, wealth, or fame. According to Aristotle, the true path to happiness lies in contemplation of philosophic truth. This is the only action through which humans can exercise their distinctively unique trait: the ability to reason.

The incredible saga of Hannibal and his invasion of Italy in 218 B.C. is the subject of this third volume of Livy's magnificent history. As only Livy can describe it, we are swept into the era of the Second Punic War and given a ringside view of the leadership of both sides. The stirring account of Hannibal crossing the Alps, the brutal description of Cannae, and the relentless Roman siege of Syracuse are some of the highlights of this remarkable story.

Originally released as vinyl records, these expertly abridged and remastered stories are now available to download for the first time. What was it like to love, live, and rebel in Britain during the 19th and 20th centuries? These beloved British novels offer three dramatically different but universally recognisable experiences. Read by three luminaries of the stage and screen: Dame Judi Dench, Sir Ian McKellen, and Sir John Gielgud.