Great Classics

Penguin Classics presents Henry Fielding's Joseph Andrews, adapted for audio and available as a digital download as part of the Penguin English Library series. Read by the actor Sean Barrett. 'Kissing, Joseph, is but a prologue to a Play. Can I believe a young fellow of your Age and Complexion...

Penguin Classics presents Laurence Sterne's The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman, adapted for audio and available as a digital download as part of the Penguin English Library series. Read by Steven Pacey. 'I am got, I know not how, into a cold unmetaphorical vein of infamous...

Penguin Classics presents Elizabeth Gaskell's North and South, adapted for audio and now available as a digital download as part of the Penguin English Library series. Read by the actress Diana Quick. 'How am I to dress up in my finery, and go off and away to smart parties, after the sorrow I...

Abbot's Ghost Maurice Traherne is wrongly accused of fraud and gambling and must play a careful hand if he is to win his love, Octavia, from the grasp of other, less honorable men and retain the trust of those who had faith in him. Traherne is temporarily crippled saving the life of his...

Left unfinished after Dickens died in 1870, The Mystery of Edwin Drood centers on Edwin Drood's uncle, John Jasper, and his love for Rosa Bud, Edwin's fiancee. Set in the dark, fictional cathedral city of Cloisterham, the novel is awash with guilt, disguise and mystery. It contains some fine writing, and just before his death, Dickens left an indication of where the plot was going, which is included.

Friedrich Engels spent two years (from 1842 to 1844) in Manchester, England, working at his father's factory. During that period he observed and recorded the effect of the industrial revolution on the labor market and the subsequent condition of what became the working class of England.

Edward Exeter assumes the mantle of Liberator in the strange, alternate world called Nextdoor - a far-flung outpost of British imperialism where earthborn mortals possess the powers of gods. His decision has made him the target of betrayals and murderous plots. But Exeter has learned the Game well in his short time in Nextdoor and he plays it boldly to its unexpected, worlds-shattering conclusion.

In the shadow of World War One and set against the backdrop of the Roaring Twenties, "The Great Gatsby" is F. Scott Fitzgerald's magnum opus. In it, he explores the themes of decadence, idealism, social class, and the mystery of human identity.

James Baldwin reading from Another Country and Giovanni's Room; WIlliam Styron reading from Lie Down in Darkness; James Jones reading from From Here to Eternity; and Philip Roth reading from Letting Go.

Unveiling the Mysteries of the Great Gatsby is a comprehensive guide to F. Scott Fitzgerald's classic novel, offering insights and analysis on the complex themes, characters, and symbols that make the book a masterpiece of American literature.

In the midst of the horror of the first World War, a stranger falls from nowhere into the mud and death of the Flanders battlefield - bruised, babbling, and stark naked...with a remarkable story to tell. Wrongly accused murderer Edward Exeter has reappeared on this Earth hearing scars and secrets. From somewhere he calls next door - a place old godly intrigues and an ancient prophecy that he wants no part of. But powerful forces on both sides of a mystical border have other plans for the young fugitive.

Inspired by a trip to a graveyard in Wales, the novella was originally not well received. The Great God Pan is now considered an excellent example of Gothic fiction, and has influenced such writers as Bram Stoker, H.P. Lovecraft, Stephen King, and Ray Bradbury.

Pip—the orphaned hero of Great Expectations—is one of Charles Dickens's best-loved characters. Young Philip Pirrip—nicknamed Pip—is apprenticed to his blacksmith brother-in-law, but an anonymous benefactor changes the boy's future. After he is lifted to what seems a higher station in life, Pip shuns his kind friends and slips into debt. But as he matures, he progresses from thoughtless selfishness to humble industry.

"The Great God Pan" is a novella written by Arthur Machen. A version of the story was published in the magazine Whirlwind in 1890, and Machen revised and extended it for its book publication (together with another story, "The Inmost Light") in 1894. On publication it was widely denounced by the press as degenerate and horrific because of its decadent style and sexual content, although it has since garnered a reputation as a classic of horror. Machen’s story was only one of many at the time to focus on Pan as a useful symbol for the power of nature and paganism.

Book Reviews gives readers an efficient way to quickly go through and digest famous and well-loved titles. Offering easy-to-read and comprehensive synopsis of every chapter of bestselling books, each Brainy Book Review highlights the key ideas behind critically acclaimed titles, helping listeners swiftly get the most out of a book.

Henry James was born 15th April 1843, in New York City. A prolific author he was able to easily move across genres to create vivid and totally real worlds and situations and to offer sophisticated observations of human relations as well as realistic social criticism. The Great Good Place is a formidable short story with a sharp view of a writer who really needs to find peace but unexpectedly finds himself in paradise. Or does he?

A Son of the Middle Border is an epic story of the quest for new frontiers during the last half of the nineteenth century, and of the gradual, heartbreaking failure of America's pioneer ideal.

From the New York Times bestselling author of The Women, a historical novel about three women’s lives on a California island On a tiny, desolate, windswept island off the coast of Southern California, two families, one in the 1880s and one in the 1930s, come to start new lives and pursue...

One of the great literary classics of Western literature and the only published novel written by Oscar Wilde. The Picture of Dorian Gray created great controversy on publication because of its homosexual undertones, and was later used as evidence against him at his trial at the Old Bailey in 1895. "If it were I who was to be always young, and the picture that was to grow old...I would give my soul for that!" The wish uttered by Dorian Gray as he gazes on his portrait forms the basis of this story.

One of the great literary classics of Western literature, Gulliver's Travels is a powerful satire on mankind, morals, and social habits, written in the form of a Travel in Wonderland.

The most celebrated novel by Jonathan Swift (1667-1745) is a culmination of his active years in politics with the Whigs and then the Tories.