Family Classics

Listen to a collection of classic stories by the world's most beloved writers. Here are the complete stories, unabridged, for you and your family to enjoy together this Christmas and for many Christmases to come. Family favorites and remembered treasures are in this collection, as well as a few light-hearted surprises.

A classic tale of adventure and survival, The Swiss Family Robinson has been a best seller ever since it was published in 1812, just over 200 years ago. Written by Swiss pastor Johann David Wyss, it begins with a shipwreck. A boat carrying a family of settlers to a distant colony is driven onto a reef just off an uncharted tropical island. The sailors desert the ship in lifeboats, leaving the family onboard.

When George, the eldest son of Matthew Silverman, announces he won’t follow in his father’s footsteps as editor of the family-owned local newspaper, the family finds itself on a course for change. The newspaper has been going for nearly 100 years. With younger brother Alexander and sisters Loraine and Alison growing up fast, too, and gradual progress in the world around them, can Matthew do what’s best for them all?

The Spraggs, a wealthy family of Midwesterners, are visiting New York City to marry off their beautiful daughter Undine. While Undine's beauty catches the attention of several high-society men, she finds it difficult to fit in with the old-money social circles that rule New York. When she finally marries Ralph Marvell, she embraces a life full of frivolities, which eventually leads to her tumultuous demise.

Wenn ein großer Intellektueller wie Walter Benjamin über das frühe Werk eines 27-jährigen Schriftstellers sagt, er habe eines der "allerbesten Bücher des Jahrhunderts" verfasst, muss das schon etwas heißen: In einer kleinen Villa in der französischen Provinz wächst Adrienne Mesurat mit ihrer todkranken Schwester bei ihrem herrischen Vater auf. Ihr Alltag ist minutiös getaktet, kleinste Regelverstöße werden vom Vater unerbittlich geahndet. Eines Nachts stößt sie ihn von der Treppe in den Tod. Doch auch dieser Befreiungsakt kann Adrienne nicht retten. Julien Greens 1927 veröffentlichte Tragödie wird meisterlich gelesen von Udo Samel.

If you're a fan of mid-19th Century melodramas with many twists and turns you will love this book. Acclaimed as Holmes greatest commercial success the charming heroine of this tale is Lena Rivers whose mother died when she was a baby. The father is unknown, and she is brought up by her grandparents in the New England mountains. When the grandfather dies, she and her grandmother are uprooted to live with her uncle in Kentucky. His wealthy wife and 3 spoiled children are not at all happy about taking in these poor relations and do all they can to make them feel unwelcome.

Howard's End is about three families in England at the beginning of the twentieth century. The three families represent different gradations of the Edwardian middle class: the Wilcoxes, who are rich capitalists with a fortune made in the Colonies; the half-German Schlegel siblings (Margaret, Tibby, and Helen), who represent the intellectual bourgeoisie and have a lot in common with the real-life Bloomsbury Group; and the Basts, a couple who are struggling members of the lower-middle class. The Schlegel sisters try to help the poor Basts and try to make the Wilcoxes less prejudiced.

Ta niewielkich rozmiarów powieść Dostojewskiego, przenosi nas do fikcyjnego Ruletenberga, w którym ważą się losy arystokratycznej rodziny i osób z nią związanych. Wszyscy grają: sami ze sobą, z najbliższymi, z losem; grają pasjami, zatracając się całkowicie. Nawet stareńka "la baboulinka", 75-letnia Antonida Wasiliewna, która – mogłoby się wydawać – bezbłędnie demaskuje zakłamanie bliskich i ukazuje ich prawdziwe motywy, sama daje się porwać emocjom gry w kasynie przegrywając pieniądze przeznaczone na remont cerkwi. Autor z niezwykłą precyzją opisuje wir uczuć, w jaki wpadają hazardziści.

За миниатюру Гольбейна, известную как Дама с букетом гвоздик, разворачивается настоящее сражение на лондонском аукционе. Кэтрин Лоример удается обойти соперников, однако вместо триумфа она чувствует тревогу и опустошенность. Затея с миниатюрой — это огромная авантюра, и если она не удастся, Кэтрин окажется на грани разорения. К тому же Кэтрин одинока: самый дорогой ей человек, племянница, вскоре выйдет замуж и покинет ее. Портрет красивой, но несчастной женщины завораживает новую владелицу… Но не случится ли так, что она сама повторит судьбу гольбейновской модели?

Ethan Frome (1911), relata la vida de un hombre rodeado de condiciones adversas que demuestran su amargo destino. Él se convierte en un fantasma viviente que deambula su pena por el pueblo de Starkfield. Ethan se encuentra atrapado en un matrimonio sin amor y resignado a su aciaga existencia, hasta la llegada de la prima de su esposa, Mattie Silver, a quien comienza a amar en silencio. En 1993 se realizó una adaptación cinematográfica con el mismo título, protagonizada por el actor Liam Neeson.

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 concern to Philip Herriton, his dour sister Harriet, and their well-meaning friend Miss Abbott.

Isabel Archer is a young American orphan who receives an inheritance from an uncle. Taken under her aunt's wings, she meets Madame Merle, her aunt's worldly friend, who instills in Isabel a sense of European sophistication, a trait that comes to overpower her own common sense. Isabel marries widower Gilbert Osmond, who projects refined tastes and intellectual detachment. Isabel is utterly captivated by Osmond's languid charm, and he is thrilled to have his superior prize.

A collection of 18 pieces of writing, "Shoes and Stockings" by Louisa May Alcott comes with stories about war, love and other important topics, making readers laugh at times, bringing them to tears at other times, and always getting them to contemplate. Louisa May Alcott was one of the most prolific American writers of the 19th century. She wrote novels and poems, and she published her letters written to her family while she was recovering from typhoid after she had started work as a nurse during the Civil War.

Blanche, lady Chester, una joven bella, recién casada y embarazada, y también un poco engreída, se traslada a regañadientes junto con su hermana Aileen a una casa adosada de las afueras mientras su marido, Charles, se encuentra de misión diplomática en Berlín. Al llegar, descubre horrorizada que sus vecinos, los que ocupan la casa adosada a la suya, son de una clase social inferior a la suya.

Booker Prize¿winning novelist Penelope Lively's latest masterpiece opens with a snapshot: Kath, before her death, at an unknown gathering, holding hands with a man who is not her husband. The photograph is in an envelope marked "DON'T OPEN - DESTROY." But Kath's husband does not heed the warning, embarking on a journey of discovery that reveals a tight web of secrets within marriages, between sisters, and at the heart of an affair.

Die Autorin entführt uns in eine farbige Szenerie von Schicksalen - Patrizier, Schausteller, Spekulanten - vor dem Hintergrund der aufbrechenden Gegensätze der Stadt Pilsen um 1870 und der untergehenden Habsburger Monarchie. Der Roman wurde seinerzeit zu Recht mit Thomas Mann "Die Buddenbrocks" in einem Atemzug genannt: Es ist das meisterhafte Portrait einer Familie, psychologisch brillant und in bezwingender Sprache - ein Stück Literatur, wie man es heute kaum mehr findet.

Life on the streets of turn-of-the-century London hurls the orphan Oliver Twist into a danger-filled adventure! With him we meet the Artful Dodger and Fagin, and learn the ways of the hard world...

The Secret Garden is a children's novel by Frances Hodgson Burnett first published as a book in 1911, after a version was published as an American magazine serial beginning in 1910. Set in England, it is one of Burnett's most popular novels and is considered a classic of English children's literature. Several stage and film adaptations have been made. The American edition was published by Stokes with illustrations by Maria Louise Kirk (signed as M. L. Kirk) and the British edition by Heinemann with illustrations by Charles Heath Robinson.

The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain is an 1876 novel about a young boy growing up along the Mississippi River. It is set in the 1840s in the fictional town of St. Petersburg, inspired by Hannibal, Missouri, where Twain lived as a boy. In the novel Tom Sawyer has several adventures, often with his friend Huckleberry Finn. Originally a commercial failure, the book ended up being the best selling of any of Twain's works during his lifetime. Tom Sawyer, an orphan, lives with his Aunt Polly and his half-brother Sid in the fictional town of St. Petersburg, Missouri sometime in the 1840s.

Heidi, a five-year-old orphan girl, is sent to live with her grandfather up in the mountains of Dorfli after her Aunt Dete receives a job offer in the city. Enchanted by the old man and his jaded attitude towards the villagers and God, Heidi wins him over with her enthusiasm and love. When her aunt returns, she insists Heidi go to live with a wealthy family in Frankfurt. Disappointed to leave her grandfather and her friend, Peter, Heidi reluctantly agrees.