Great Classics

Kendall Taylor examines the dalliance between the southern belle and the French pilot from a fresh perspective. Drawing on conversations and correspondence with Jozan's daughter, as well as materials from the Jozan family archives, Taylor sheds new light on this romantic triangle. More than just a casual fling, Zelda's tryst with Edouard affected Scott as much as it did his wife - and ultimately influenced the author's most famous creation, Jay Gatsby. Were it not for Zelda's affair with the pilot, Scott's novel might be less about betrayal and more about lost illusions.

Philip Pirrip, also known as Pip, a blacksmith’s apprentice in a country village, falls in love with Estella, the beautiful but cold-hearted daughter of eccentric Miss Havisham, a wealthy woman who lives in seclusion. He becomes motivated and aspires to become a gentleman to win her affection. His hopes are fueled when he receives a large and mysterious inheritance from a mysterious benefactor, this sets off a chain of events that will change his life.

This eerie collection includes: "The Doll's Ghost", "Thrawn Janet", "The Watcher", "The Old Nurse's Story", and "The Canterville Ghost".

A terrifying encounter with an escaped convict in a graveyard on the wild Kent marshes; a summons to meet the bitter, decaying Miss Havisham and her beautiful, cold-hearted ward Estella; the sudden generosity of a mysterious benefactor—these form a series of events that change the orphaned Pip's life forever, and he eagerly abandons his humble origins to begin a new life as a gentleman. Dickens's haunting late novel depicts Pip's education and development through adversity as he discovers the true nature of his great expectations.

Here is perhaps Charles Dickens’ most beloved story, Philip Pirrip, known as “Pip”, narrates his own incredible journey, from the hindsight of 50 years. Pip grows up with his older sister after losing his parents as a boy. His sister, a tough woman, rules Pip and her husband Joe with an iron fist. While playing in the marshes, Pip is accosted by an escaped criminal whom he decides to help by stealing food from his own home. Miss Havisham, an eccentric recluse, sends for Pip to come to her house to play with Estella, a haughty girl about his age.

Great Expectations is arguably Dickens' greatest achievement, and remains a joy from start to finish. Featuring many of his most memorable characters and scenes, the novel follows the narrator, Pip, as he grows from a frightened child of the marsh country, to be transmuted into a prosperous young gentleman by a mysterious benefactor; and the story explores themes of crime and punishment, guilt and innocence, revenge and reward, wealth and poverty, love and rejection, and good and evil.

Another great audiobook classic from the world’s most prolific and prestigious new company, Icon Audio Arts. Presented by actor author Geoffrey Giuliano, here is an exciting "listen while you learn" audio production which promises to entertain, enlighten, and enliven the listener. Icon productions offers a daring, fresh perspective on the hundreds of perennial favorite tales which have inspired generations and imbued a deep love of literature and art in millions over time.

The story is told from the point of view of Pip, an orphan of humble origins who dreams of being a gentleman. From a chilling encounter with a convict when he was seven, through his coming of age and early adulthood, he tells of his "memorable days" and the "great changes" they wrought in him. Pip is apprenticed to kind-hearted Joe Gargery, the blacksmith, husband to his ill-tempered sister. On meeting the eccentric and reclusive Miss Havisham and her proud and haughty ward, the beautiful Estella, Pip becomes ashamed of his origins and hopes to one day better himself.

In this unflaggingly suspenseful story of aspirations and moral redemption, humble, orphaned Pip, a ward of his short-tempered older sister and her husband, Joe, is apprenticed to the dirty work of the forge, but dares to dream of becoming a gentleman. And, indeed, it seems as though that dream is destined to come to pass - because one day, under sudden and enigmatic circumstances, he finds himself in possession of "great expectations."

Great Expectations is the 13th novel by Charles Dickens and his penultimate completed novel: a bildungsroman that depicts the personal growth and personal development of an orphan nicknamed Pip. It is Dickens's second novel, after David Copperfield, to be fully narrated in the first person. The novel was first published as a serial in Dickens's weekly periodical All the Year Round, from 1 December 1860 to August 1861.

A bumper collection of classic ghost stories and strange supernatural tales.

A terrifying encounter with an escaped convict in a graveyard on the wild Kent marshes; a summons to meet the bitter, decaying Miss Havisham and her beautiful, cold-hearted ward Estella; the sudden generosity of a mysterious benefactor - these form a series of events that change the orphaned Pip's life forever, and he eagerly abandons his humble origins to begin a new life as a gentleman. Dickens' novel depicts Pip's development through adversity as he discovers the true nature of his 'great expectations'.

The society of the early 19th century in England was not especially kind to orphans, and young Pip is no exception. Forced to live a life of sneaking and stealing from an early age, he has trouble finding a place to belong and make a home for the beginning of his life. When he meets the lonely and reclusive Miss Havisham, it seems that his luck changes, as his relationship with her inspires him to begin making an honest living in a trade. But when he suddenly gains a mysterious inheritance, his life is totally transformed, and he is able to live beyond his wildest dreams.

After an escaped prisoner bullies him into freeing him using stolen tools, seven-year-old orphan Pip is made to pay regular visits to the mysterious spinster Miss Havisham, who lives in the wedding dress she wore when jilted at the altar and keeps every clock in her crumbling mansion frozen at the same time. While there, he meets and instantly falls in love with her beautiful but aloof ward Estella

A gripping collection of 30 minute stories by some of the greatest storytellers in the English language....

While visiting his parents gravesite in the marshy mists of a village graveyard, Pip, a young orphan living with his older sister, encounters a shivering, limping convict on the run. In spite of his fear of the man, Pip befriends the convict and gives aid, an act that spells considerable consequences for Pip later in life. Fate intervenes and Pip is sent to the household of Miss Havisham, a wealthy and eccentric spinster. Pip shares the household with Miss Havisham and her beautiful, but cold, adopted daughter Estella.

Listen to the story of Pip, an English orphan who rises to wealth. After he deserts his true friends, he becomes humbled by his own arrogance. Great Expectations is Dickens at his finest.

Great Expectations is one of Charles Dickens’ greatest critical and popular successes. The first-person narrative relates the coming-of-age of Pip (Philip Pirrip). Reared in the marshes of Kent by his disagreeable sister and her sweet-natured husband, the blacksmith Joe Gargery, the young Pip one day helps a convict to escape. Later he is sent to live with Miss Havisham, a woman driven half-mad years earlier by her lover's departure on their wedding day. Her other ward is the orphaned Estella, whom she is teaching to torment men with her beauty.

A gripping collection of outstanding American classic short stories by some of America's greatest writers: 'A Ghost Story' by Mark Twain; 'Pomegranate Seed' by Edith Wharton; 'Pigeons from Hell' by Robert E. Howard; 'Pickman's Model' by H. P. Lovecraft; 'The Adventure of the German Student' by Nathaniel Hawthorne; 'Absolute Zero' by Morgan Robertson; and many more.

Pip's life was stricken with tragedy as a small boy, being orphaned with the loss of his mother, father, and siblings. Pip forms a relationship with the odd Miss Havisham and her lovely adopted daughter, Estella. An anonymous benefactor whisks Pip away from the life he once knew and the people he cared for to one of class and high society. When his beloved Estella enters his life once more after many years apart, she denies him the affections he longs for.