Michael Henchard, drunk at a country fair, sells his wife and baby daughter for five guineas. The following day, in despair and remorse, he forswears alcohol and sets out to redeem himself. In time, he becomes a respected merchant and eventually the mayor of the town. But Fate is not to be so easily appeased, and Henchard finds his past actions resonate through and destroy his plans for the future. One of the greatest novels in the English language, the Mayor of Casterbridge sees Thomas Hardy at his best, bringing landscape and richly imagined characters to life, and setti.

Charles Darwin, father of evolution, was one of the greatest pioneers in science. His five-year voyage on the Beagle, his visit to the Galapagos Islands, his careful work in noting small differences of fauna on different islands all led to the concept of natural selection, which radically changed the way mankind and the animal world was viewed. But what kind of man was Darwin, and why did he keep his conclusions secret for so many years? In this clear but informative account, Peter Whitfield sets Darwin in the 19th-century society from which he sprang.

How did the great scientists make their remarkable discoveries? And what kind of men were they? This companion volume to Inventors and their Inventions introduces the work of ten men to younger readers, and range from the world of Ancient Greece to the twentieth century discovery of DNA. Among them are the crucial discovery that the earth goes around the sun (Galileo), the principle of gravity (Newton), the evolution of the species (Darwin) and the principle of inherited characteristics or genetics (Mendel).

Now considered by many to be Charlotte Bronte's best novel, though unlikely to eclipse Jane Eyre in fame and popularity, Villette is largely concerned with the experiences of Lucy Snowe in a girl's boarding school in a fictionalized Belgium. Lucy flees unhappiness in England only to find more abroad. Her love for Dr John unrequited, she slowly realizes that a deeper attachment is growing between her and her irascible domineering mentor and colleague, M. Paul Emanuel.

STORYTELLING AUDIO CD PACK

Four more stories from the master detective. The mystery of the missing suitor is solved and Sherlock Holmes raises his whip... an Indian pot stands in the shadows of a Colonel' death... serious affairs of state and international diplomacy are threatened by.

This widely-studied play is one of the best sellers of the Shakespeare canon. This production is the seventh Shakespeare play in the series undertaken by Naxos Audiobooks in conjunction with Cambridge University Press.

A mysterious boatman on the Thames, a drowned heir, a dustman and his wife, and a host of other Dickens characters populate this novel of relationships between the classes, money, greed and love.

L.P. Hartley’s heartbreaking novel The Go-Between is a haunting, moving, and evocative work about social constraints and childhood innocence. The story is set during the long hot summer of 1900 and follows young Leo Colston who is invited to stay for a month at an aristocratic manor in Norfolk. While there he falls in love with his friend’s sister who commissions him to carry secret notes to her lover, the local farmer. This story has been adapted multiple times for stage and screen, most recently the BBC One TV film starring Jim Broadbent. The story is exclusively licensed to Naxos Audiobooks. Sean Barrett gives a tender and sympathetic interpretation, full of warmth and insight.

Our Island Story by H.E. Marshall is an Edwardian history book for younger listeners (aged six&;twelve years old) which tells the story of England, concluding with the reign of Queen Victoria. Having released it earlier this year unabridged in three volumes, Naxos Audiobooks now offers an attractive collection of the main stories and personalities. This skilful abridgement nevertheless maintains the narrative of British history, from the arrival of Julius Caesar to the height of the British Empire and the long reign of Queen Victoria.

WILDE, O.: Picture of Dorian Gray (The) (Unabridged)

Naxos AudioBook Grandiose and glamorous, Baroque music stands alone, written to glorify the finest courts of Europe. It's greatest composers, such as Vivaldi, Handel and Bach, head a fascinating cast of musical magicians, including Albinoni, Pachelbel and Scarlatti. Their lives are as intriguing as their music: we find virtuoso performers who earned their bread and butter in the cathedrals of Europe while keeping company with kings and queens, and setting opera houses ablaze across the continent with their fabulous new music. Discover Music of the Baroque Era is rich in musical detail.

The unremarkable Catholic priest, Father Brown, combines intuition and a profound interest in human nature to solve more crimes that are seemingly improbable. A prophet of a new religion appears in Westminster. Why does an Italian Prince seek exile in Norfolk? Who killed a jovial old philanthropist, and why? a decadent poet is inexplicably murdered in his own home. Did God kill a priest's brother? What really happened in a British battle glorified in history? This second volume of stories from the Innocence of Father Brown presents six crimes, which are at times surreal, bi.

Maggie Tulliver has two lovers Philip Wakem, son of her father's enemy, and Stephen Guest, already promised to her cousin. But the love she wants most in the world is that of her brother Tom. Maggie's struggle against her passionate and sensual nature leads her to a deeper understanding and to eventual tragedy.

The common view of the Romans is that they were only interested in watching gladiators hack one another to pieces, and in lying on couches while they stuffed large meals down their throats. But of course they were a busy and clever people, who built up a great empire to prove it, with fine cities and harbours, bath houses and roads, laws and good government. In this audiobook you can hear the stories of the great Roman emperors and the enduring legacy that they left for later generations.

Gogol' great Russian classic is the Pickwick Papers of Russian Literature. It takes a sharp but humorous look at life in all it's strata, but especially the devious complexities in the country with it's landowners and serfs. We are introduced to Chichikov.

There is a need for accessible short biographies of key people for younger listeners. Following the success of Famous People, Volume I, Nicolas Soames presents another varied group of men and women who have changed the course of history.

In 1897 Bram Stoker wrote a story expressing the most persistent nightmare of the human condition, and now for over a century Dracula has reigned supreme as the undisputed masterpiece of horror writing. We have all grown up beneath the shadow of the elegant Count, at once an attractive, brutal and erotic creature of the night. Read by David Horovitch, Jamie Parker, Joseph Kloska, Alison Pettitt and cast, this Complete Classic Unabridged Edition, spans a total of 14 CDs. David Horovitch's long and distinguished theatre career includes many West End, National Theatre and RSC stage appearances. Among his many readings for Naxos Audiobooks are Lampedusa's The Leopard, Dickens's Nicholas Nickleby, Ovid's Metamorphoses and Conrad's Heart of Darkness. Known for roles in film, TV and theatre, Jamie Parker has read Hardy's Far From the Madding Crowd and Under the Greenwood Tree for Naxos Audiobooks. Joseph Kloska has appeared in over 100 plays, readings and live broadcasts for the BBC.

Wealthy Maggie Verver has everything she could ever ask for - except for a husband, and a title. While in Italy, acquiring art for his museum back in the states, Maggie's millionaire father Adam decides to remedy this and acquire a husband for Maggie. Enter Prince Amerigo, of a titled, but now poor, aristocratic Florentine family. Amerigo is the perfect candidate. Delighted, Maggie then reciprocates by choosing a partner for her widower father: childhood friend Charlotte Stant. The stage is set, and what unfolds is a deep and gripping exploration of fidelity and the politics of love and marriage. Published in 1904, The Golden Bowl displays Henry James at his finest: James weaves scene upon scene, set piece upon set piece, into a seamless whole, through a richly dense tapestry of beautiful, flowing prose. Along with The Ambassadors and The Wings of the Dove, it constitutes James's final, and most rewarding, phase as a novelist. Juliet Stevenson is an outstanding narrator. She is consistently showered with critical acclaim for her thoughtful, intelligent performances.

On May 8, 1373, 30-year-old Julian of Norwich, sick and near death, had a series of visions of Christ. In these 16 visions she learnt about God's loving nature. God in Julian's visions was not angry and wrathful. Instead, the three properties of God were presented as life, love and light, and all of His creation was good, including his servant, man. In Julian’s version, Man is not to blame for his sin; instead it is something that he must experience and overcome in his spiritual journey with God. The version of Christian theology presented in Revelations of Divine Love – the first published book in English attributed to a woman – was highly liberal and incredibly progressive for its time. The book contains some of the most profound spiritual writing ever written and remains a perennial favourite among Christians.

Set in the court of Urbino in 1507, Castiglione's The Book of the Courtier presents an invaluable look at court life and culture during the Renaissance. Over four nights of dialogue, the book explores the key question, 'What should a courtier be like?' and presents a deep and timeless discussion that is reminiscent of Plato's Symposium and Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics, and invites comparisons with Machiavelli's The Prince. It is absorbing and enlightening, and encompasses a wide range of topics that include dancing, fencing, war, religion, culture, courtly and corporeal love and gender relations, with a surprisingly modern defense of women and equal rights. Nicholas Boulton is an exemplary narrator. He leads us through Castiglione's fascinating courtesy book with great fluency.

After the collapse of her marriage to an illustrious German prince, Baroness Eugenia Münster arrives in America with her brother, in search of wealthy New England relatives. The duo have an immediate impact on their American cousins, the Wentworths. The Baroness captures the eye of young Clifford Wentworth, and his girlfriend’s older brother Robert; meanwhile, Felix falls for his American cousin Gertrude. The Wentworths are overawed by their European cousins and their frivolous lifestyle. What unfolds is a delightful comedy of manners that contrasts the apparently sophisticated and light-hearted Europeans with the serious and puritanical Americans. At times reminiscent of Jane Austen, The Europeans contains beautiful and vivid descriptions of mid-19th century upper-class New England life. Adam Sims trained at LAMDA. His screen and theatre credits include Band of Brothers, Lost in Space and Alice in Wonderland. For Naxos Audiobooks, he has read Mowat’s Never Cry Wolf, and James’s Washington Square and The Aspern Papers, among other titles.

Written from the perspective of an unbeliever, Fear and Trembling explores the paradox of faith, the nature of Christianity and the complexity of human emotion. Kierkegaard examines the biblical story of Abraham, instructed to sacrifice his son Isaac, and forces us to consider Abraham's state of mind. What drove Abraham, and what made him carry out such an absurd and extreme request from God? Kierkegaard argues that Abraham's agreement to sacrifice Isaac, and his suspension of reason, elevated him to the highest level of faith. He explores more comprehensible alternatives, but in each one Abraham fails the test of faith, thus showing that true faith cannot be explained, understood, or made rational. His thesis is a compelling counterpoint to Hegel, who maintained that reason was the highest form of thought, and proved a significant source of inspiration to later existentialist philosophers such as Camus and Sartre.

In this hapless state I looked myself over and saw that I was now no bird, but an ass.... In this ancient picaresque adventure, Lucius, an insatiably curious young man, finds himself transformed into a donkey after his fascination with black magic and witchcraft goes awry. While trapped in his new body, he becomes the property of thieves, farmers, cooks, soldiers and priests, and observes the hypocrisy and ineptitude of Imperial Roman society. The Golden Ass is considered the only novel to survive the Roman period, and the earliest novel to survive complete in the Western literary tradition. It is brimming with slapstick humor and sexual escapades, and foreshadows later works by Boccaccio, Rabelais, Cervantes and Chaucer, upon whom it was a direct influence.

The March sisters are among the most beloved characters in children’s literature, and Little Men picks up the story of fiery, headstrong Jo where Little Women left off. Intelligent, funny, perceptive and genuinely touching, the novel is set at a rather unusual boarding school run by Jo and her husband, where the pupils are encouraged to pillow fight and keep pets. When the penniless but talented orphan Nat Blake shows up on her doorstep, Jo takes him in, and his arrival sets in motion a chain of events that will affect all their lives. Liza Ross has read several titles for younger listeners. Her warm and personable voice perfectly complements Alcott’s gentle tone. Little Women, the first volume, is currently available on Naxos Audiobooks as well. This release is presented for the junior audience as always with attractive classical music.