Great Classics

The Great Gatsby, first Published in 1925 and probably F. Scott Fitzgerald's finest novel, is set on Long Island's North shore, where Nick Carraway begins a new life in New York in the "roaring 20's".

Carraway is invited to join his new neighbour Jay Gatsby's social circle, including the self-made millionaire's legendary parties, and bears witness to Gatsby's rekindled love affair with the unhappily married Daisy, which ends in tragedy. Today the novel is widely regarded as a paragon of the Great American Novel and a literary classic.

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 with which the high-living writer was all too familiar.

Dostoyevsky, Tolstoy, Dickens: The Ultimate Collection brings together the major works of fiction from three of the greatest writers of the 1800s. In this collection you'll hear Jonathan Keeble and David Rintoul expertly narrating the grand epics of The Brothers Karamazov and War & Peace, Stephen Fry narrating Great Expectations, Scrooge's ghostly journey narrated by Jason Isaacs, and other award-winning narrators bringing Tolstoy and Dickens' most beloved stories to life.

This is a newly discovered novel by a newly recognized great author. It is an allegory of the American experience.

For students of Middle English, Andrew and Waldron's The Poems of the Pearl Manuscript has been the key edition of the four Pearl poems for over 30 years. With the changing needs of today's students in mind, the editors produced a complete prose translation of the four poems - the best known of which is "Sir Gawain and the Green Knight". The near-literal translations are intended to facilitate understanding of the four poems - to lead readers to, rather than away from, the original texts.

Leo Tolstoy & Charles Dickens: The Ultimate Collection brings together four major works of fiction from two of the greatest writers of the 1800s, as well as a one piece of their most renowned non-fiction. In this collection you'll hear Jonathan Keeble expertly narrating the grand epics of Anna Karenina and War & Peace, Stephen Fry narrating Great Expectations, Scrooge's ghostly journey narrated by Jason Isaacs, and other award-winning narrators bringing Tolstoy and Dickens' most beloved stories to life.

Hey nonny, nonny - the Bard’s "greatest hits" are all here! Performed with a lively full musical cast ,interspersed with engaging and informative introductory narrative, this imaginative recording uses song and sonnet from Shakespeare’s comedies and tragedies to highlight his works, in his own words. Whether listeners are long-time Shakespearean aficionados or new students of the Englishman’s genius, this educational and entertaining new recording is certain to delight!

This ghostly (and ghastly) collection includes: "The Upper Berth", "The Lady's Maid", "Markheim", "Ghost Stories of the Tiled House","What Was It?", "Madame Crowl's Ghost" and "The Golden Arm".

One afternoon in the late 1970s, deep in the labyrinthine interior of a massive Gothic tower in New Haven, an unsuspecting employee of Yale University opened a long-locked room in the Payne Whitney Gymnasium and stumbled upon something shocking and disturbing. Shocking, because what he found was an enormous cache of nude photographs, thousands and thousands of photographs of young men in front, side, and rear poses. Disturbing, because the photos looked like the record of a bizarre body-piercing ritual.

Gatsby le Magnifique est un roman de l'écrivain américain Francis Scott Fitzgerald. Il est considéré à ce jour comme un chef-d’œuvre de la littérature américaine. Ce roman raconte l’histoire de Jay Gatsby, un jeune et mystérieux millionnaire au style de vie somptueux, ainsi que sa passion pour la belle Daisy qu’il a connue cinq ans plus tôt, mais qui lui a échappé pendant qu’il était mobilisé à la guerre…

Just as the lovely Alvina Houghton comes of age, her widowed father’s business starts to dry up. In a drastic effort to regain his fortune and secure his daughter’s standing in society, James Houghton buys, of all things, a theater. Her father’s plans and dreams go misunderstood in the town, but the theater itself does quite well...for a time. One of the traveling players employed at the theater, a sensual Italian man named Ciccio, catches Alvina’s eye, and she finds herself intensely attracted to him.

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.

William Shakespeare, long hailed as history's greatest dramatic writer, has been lauded for his mastery of poetic expression, his insight into the human condition, and his deep exploration into the psyche and motivations of his characters.

The Essential Classics Collection is a continent-hopping, century-spanning collection of five of the greatest novels ever written, and the perfect way to listen to those classics you've always been meaning to try. Read by a cast of incredible narrators including Joanne Froggatt, Stephen Fry, David Rintoul, Nathan Osgood, and Malk Williams.

(Translated and Annotated: A unique and original translation of this classic work, annotated with extensive modern notes, context, and explanations.) The epic poem of the fall of Troy, the heroic journey, battles and loves of Aeneas, and the founding of Rome, by the great Latin poet Virgil -- as translated, condensed, and explained to modern readers by a professor who uses rhyme and a lively presentation to honor the spirit and true intent of Virgil -- without the customary literalism of previous translations. Epic in every way, this is one of the greatest and most entertaining adventure ...

First published in 1925, The Great Gatsby is widely considered a seminal work of American literature. Set in the post-World War I era, the novel is a captivating exploration of the Roaring Twenties, delving into themes of love, ambition, wealth, and the elusive pursuit of the American Dream. Jane Alexandra's narration of this novel provides a rich and nuanced exploration of the novel's themes, characters, and social backdrop, adding a layer of emotional depth and introspection that illuminates the complexities of human relationships and aspirations in the Jazz Age.

This tale follows eight individuals all searching for the Great Carbuncle, a legendary red gemstone. These wildly disparate individuals camp together one night in the White Mountains, united by their shared desire for the stone. Each wants it for a different reason, though: fulfilment, knowledge, wealth, skepticism, inspiration, posterity, utility. The next morning, they all part ways to continue their quest, but who will be the first to the stone?

Nelson Algren brings a deeply personal tone to his reading about Sophie, the doomed wife of card dealer and drug addict Frankie Machine, wanted for murder, as she waits futilely for him to return home.

One of Dickens’ most fascinating novels, Great Expectations follows the life of an orphan, Pip, from childhood. The novel traces the journey of our young protagonist as he manouveurs various obstacle and characters along his journey, along with a secret benefactor, from the marshes in Kent to the busy, commercial London. He encounters some extraordinary characters along the way, one Miss Havisham, who is locked up with her unhappy past and living with her ward, the arrogant and beautiful Estella.

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."