Great Classics

The Great Gatsby is a triumph of descriptive prose, and has entered into the annuls of fame of both American literature as well as Americana. The story transcends time, and while set in the Roaring Twenties, describes the human psyche—its needs, desires, obsessions—in both detail and depth. A must listen for anyone wanting to gain a deeper understanding into the mindset of that time, as well as perhaps modern-day America.

When F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote The Great Gatsby in the early 1920s, the American Dream was already on the skids. Originally based on the idea that the pursuit of happiness involves not only material success but moral and spiritual growth, the dream had by Fitzgerald's time become increasingly focused on money and pleasure—a phenomenon the high-living writer was only too familiar with.

When F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote The Great Gatsby in the early 1920s, the American Dream was already on the skids. Originally based on the idea that the pursuit of happiness involves not only material success but also moral and spiritual growth, the dream had by Fitzgerald's time become increasingly focused on money and pleasure—a phenomenon the high-living writer was only too familiar with.

The Great Gatsby is a 1925 novel by American writer F. Scott Fitzgerald. Set in the Jazz Age on Long Island, near New York City, the novel depicts first-person narrator Nick Carraway's interactions with mysterious millionaire Jay Gatsby and Gatsby's obsession to reunite with his former lover, Daisy Buchanan. Fitzgerald's fictional narrative fully renders that period—known for its jazz music, economic prosperity, flapper culture, libertine mores, rebellious youth, and ubiquitous speakeasies.

Awful, rich people - and the folks who want to be just like them. Drawing freely from the real people and actual events of its setting in 1920s Long Island (with literary license, of course), The Great Gatsby looks at the acquisition of the American Dream of wealth, power, and prestige, and what the costs are to those who realize that dream. And if that sounds a bit too highbrow for you, there are speakeasies, a broken nose, wild parties, and a bit of rough and tumble as well.

"The Great Gatsby" is a 1925 novel by American writer F. Scott Fitzgerald. Set in the Jazz Age on Long Island, near New York City, the novel depicts first-person narrator Nick Carraway's interactions with mysterious millionaire Jay Gatsby and Gatsby's obsession to reunite with his former lover, Daisy Buchanan.

The Great Gatsby, a work that seriously examines the theme of aspiration in an American setting, defines the classic American novel. The novel was inspired by a youthful romance Fitzgerald had with a socialite, and by parties he attended on Long Island's North Shore in 1922. Set in the Jazz Age on Long Island, the novel depicts narrator Nick Carraway's interactions with mysterious millionaire Jay Gatsby and Gatsby's obsession to reunite with his former lover, Daisy Buchanan.Set in the Jazz Age on Long Island, the novel depicts narrator Nick Carraway's interactions with mysterious millionaire Jay Gatsby and Gatsby's obsession to reunite with his former lover, Daisy Buchanan.

Nick Carraway is expecting a normal life. He has a steady, if boring, job and a modest home. He even has some family nearby. But there's one thing he didn't plan for - his neighbor, the mysterious Jay Gatsby. Gatsby hosts lavish parties, while rumors about his sordid past fill the air. After attending an infamous Gatsby bash, Nick is pulled into love triangles, destructive wealth, secrets, and far too much champagne. Join Nick on a journey through art deco decay.

F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby is more than one of America's most-read, taught, and debated novels. Gatsby represents a paradigm shift in the novel form, a deep dive into the intimacies of the dark and selfish aspects of human nature. The novel is an over-the-top display of the Jazz Age as seen through the eyes of a staid and - by his own account - honest Midwestern man, Nick Carraway.

Often considered one of the greatest novels in American classic literature, F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby is the story about a young man named Nick Carraway, who moves to Long Island in pursuit of his dream of becoming a bond salesman, and his next door neighbor, a self-made millionaire named Jay Gatsby, a man who lives a lavish lifestyle, and likes to throw extravagant parties every weekend. As the two get better acquainted, Carraway is thrust into Gatsby’s world of over the top parties, and his love and desire for a married woman he once knew named Daisy Buchanan.

Jay Gatsby is a millionaire who throws extravagant parties that attract famous celebrities, but no one really knows him - no one except for his neighbor, Nick Carraway. Often touted as a Great American Novel, The Great Gatsby is Nick's account of one summer spent with his wealthy friend and Nick's front-row seat to Gatsby's wealth, his dreams, and his impossible quest for love with the enigmatic Daisy Buchanan.

The year is 1922, and young Nick Carraway moves to the village of West Egg, where he discovers that his neighbor is the eclectic millionaire Jay Gatsby. As he and Gatsby become acquainted, Nick is thrown into a world full of dazzling parties, unrequited love, and unchecked idealism. Gatsby, surrounded by riches, yearns for the love of a woman who chose another man. He waits for her every night, using a green light at the end of his dock to call out to her from across the water.

Four years after the Great War, America is enjoying an economic boom. Enigmatic veteran Jay Gatsby, who's risen from being nobody from nowhere to self-made millionaire, is along for the ride. Upwardly mobile, he reaches for status among the "old money" on Long Island - and for all that it promises across the bay, namely Daisy, the lost love of his youth, who has been married for five years to Gatsby's contemptible rival, Tom Buchanan. With all his wealth and charmed aspirations to restore the past, Gatsby is certain he can win her back.

This great American novel describes the lavish lifestyle, along with the cruelty and ugliness, of Long Island society during the Jazz Age. Told through the eyes of Nick Carraway, the book follows events surrounding Jay Gatsby, who, despite his enormous wealth, longs desperately for those things that money can't buy.

Seventeen of Twain's best-loved and funniest shorter works, including "The Jumping Frog of Calavarous County", "The Story of Old Ram", "Fenimore Cooper's Literary Offenses", "Tom Quartz", and "The Facts Concerning the Recent Carnival of Crime in Connecticut". Mark Twain was born Samuel Langhorne Clemens on November 30, 1835 in Florida, Missouri. He grew up in the Mississippi River town of Hannibal. Sam was to be a printer, a river boat pilot, an officer in the Confederacy, a silver prospector and a journalist. He once wrote, "To simply amuse would have satisfied my dearest ambition".

A double adventure written at the end of the 19th century, somewhat in the theme of Jules Verne’s Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea and Journey to the Center of the Earth, telling of a submarine trip in the year 1947 to reach the North Pole and a project to examine the center of the Earth by boring a deep shaft. What they find at the core of the planet surprises the enterprising explorers.

An intriguing collection of short stories by some of the greatest women fiction writers of the last century. The Lifted Veil – George Eliot Miss Brill – Katherine Mansfield The Fly – Katherine Mansfield The Jew’s Beech Tree – Annette von Droste-Hülshoff The Yellow Wallpaper – Charlotte Perkins Gilman Mansize in Marble – Edith Nesbit

In this, perhaps Dickens' most profound and personal novel, we are invited to share in the sentimental education of Pip, the poor boy from the village forge who risks losing himself in snobbery and selfishness when he mysteriously inherits a fortune. The story moves from the bleak Kentish marshes of Pip's childhood to a thrilling climax that mingles tragedy and triumph.

When we hear the name Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, most people think of Sherlock Holmes, his most famous creation. However, detective stories were not Doyle's favorite. His lifelong passion was the supernatural and because of this he wrote a number of fascinationg supernatural stories. This section includes 7 of the best.

Here is the first novel of the famous Balkan Trilogy, previously successfully adapted for BBC television, starring Emma Thompson and Kenneth Brannagh. The book is perfectly suited to audio. Charting the experiences of a young couple caught up in the politics of war when living abroad, it is a compelling story of love, loss and reconciliation.