Great Classics

Great Expectations is one of a series of retellings of classic literature by publisher Real Reads. True to the original plot, characters and themes, Real Reads also imitate the the original author's style. An intelligent, lively and enjoyable introduction to this classic tale.An escaped convict threatens to eat young Pip's heart for breakfast. The ghostly Miss Havisham invites Pip to her eerie home.

George Ward Nichols was born in Tremont, Maine, on 21st June, 1831. He worked as a journalist until the outbreak of the American Civil War and then joined the Union Army. He served under General William Sherman and rose to the rank of lieutenant colonel. He published The Story of the Great March, essentially a journal he kept during that march in 1865 and it became an immediate best seller.

Pearl Zane Grey was born on 31st January 1872, in Zanesville, Ohio. From an early age, he was intrigued by history, fishing, baseball, and writing. Grey was an avid reader of adventure stories, consuming dime store novels by the dozen. His first magazine article, about one of his fishing expeditions, was published in 1902. It was not until 1910 that he wrote his first Western, ‘The Heritage of the Desert’. It was a breakthrough title and quickly became a bestseller.

Bill and Joe, two best friends, discover they have both fallen in love with Mary, a girl they have grown up with and enjoyed a close friendship with throughout their lives. They both decide that they do not want to tell her about their feelings, but they must do something about it before another man comes along and steals her away. And so they decide that Joe will go to her first and confess his feelings, and let Mary decide if she feels the same or if she might prefer Bill instead. But even after she makes her choice, the other man winds up making the ultimate sacrifice out of his love for Mary.

On a blazing hot summer’s day, holidaymakers at a guesthouse on a Norwegian island are shocked to discover a fellow guest has been found murdered out on a desolate plain. The nameless narrator, an author, was the last person to see the victim alive; shortly afterwards, he was disturbed by a noise like "a rattling of chains". A local tells him this is "the iron chariot", which is said to presage death. Drawn unwillingly into the investigation, the narrator is puzzled by an enigmatic detective’s apparent inaction, and troubled by unfolding events.

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.

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.

For almost seventy years, people the world over have fallen in love with Frank Capra’s classic Christmas movie It’s a Wonderful Life. But few of those fans know that Capra’s film was based on a short story by Philip Van Doren Stern, which came to Stern in a dream one night. Unable at first to find a publisher for his evocative tale about a man named George Pratt who ponders suicide until he receives an opportunity to see what the world would be like without him.

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.

Considered one of the greatest American novels ever written, The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald follows a cast of characters living in the fictional towns of West Egg and East Egg on prosperous Long Island in the summer of 1922. The story of the book primarily concerns the young and mysterious millionaire Jay Gatsby and his quixotic passion and obsession to reunite with his ex-lover, the beautiful former debutante Daisy Buchanan. Midwesterner Nick Carraway is lured into the lavish world of his neighbor, Gatsby.

The Charles Dickens Collection: 10 Novels & A Christmas Carol brings together all of the major novels written during Dickens' lifetime. Dickens wrote into life some of the most beloved and well-known characters in literature - introducing us to Pip, Oliver Twist, David Copperfield, Little Nell, Scrooge, Nicholas Nickleby, Miss Haversham, and many more who have lived long in the memory for generations of listeners.

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.

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 dying light, an ancient hope, a coming evil. The Epic of Haven trilogy will compel listeners to journey along in this allegorical tale of poets and priests and warriors and heroes. When the great burning tree of Haven begins to die, leaving the otherwise unlit world of Aeinor in a state of ever-growing darkness, a young man sets upon a quest to discover a new source of light before the unknown evils lurking in the shadows unleash their fury upon the unsuspecting world.

The styles and rhythms of English can vary fully as much as in poetry. This wonderful collection of highlights from the greats of English literature aims to illustrate the ways in which each great writer has bent the language to his will. The recordings were made in the 1950s by members of the University of Cambridge and directed by George Rylands.

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.

From minimalist cocktails to classic renditions, become the toast of the town who knows how to mix the perfect drink. This updated edition contains more than 400 classic and contemporary craft cocktail recipes, paired with exceptional writing and the authoritative voice of The New York Times.

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.

The 1920s in the United States were known as the "Roaring Twenties" and the Jazz Age, a time in the nation that glorified hard and fast living. Nobody personified the age or wrote so descriptively about it better than F. Scott Fitzgerald. In addition to covering Fitzgerald’s timeless classic in detail, Everything You Need to Know About The Great Gatsby includes a biography of the Fitzgeralds, discussion about Fitzgerald's inspiration for the novel's characters, and a full-fledged explanation of the plot, themes, and symbols of this "Great American Novel".

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.