Listen free for 30 days

Listen with offer

Get this deal Try for £0.00
Offer ends May 1st, 2024 11:59PM GMT. Terms and conditions apply.
£7.99/month after 3 months. Renews automatically.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
The Christmas Collection (Unabridged Selections) cover art

The Christmas Collection (Unabridged Selections)

By: Thomas Hardy, William Shakespeare, Clive Sansom
Narrated by: Peter Jeffrey, John Moffatt
Get this deal Try for £0.00

Pay £99p/month. After 3 months pay £7.99/month. Renews automatically. See terms for eligibility.

£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Buy Now for £7.99

Buy Now for £7.99

Pay using card ending in
Switch payment method
By completing your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and authorise Audible to charge your designated card or any other card on file. Please see our Privacy Notice, Cookies Notice and Interest-based Ads Notice.

Editor reviews

This Christmas package contains poetry and prose from diverse authors. The addition of Christmas carols in many languages adds to the holiday spirit. The text begins with a recipe for Christmas pastry from 1594, which is skillfully recited in a charming, old-fashioned English accent. Dickens's Christmas articles from Household Words magazine are enthusiastically delivered, concluding beautifully with the phrase, "There was everything and more." In stark contrast is George R. Sims's "Christmas in the Workhouse," in which a meek pauper changes when his wife is killed by the greed of the rich who are offering a Christmas "feast" at the workhouse. His moving proclamation, "I will not eat this vulture's feast," is heartbreaking and inspiring, much like the Christmas season itself.

Summary

Christmas brings out the best and the worst in us, as can been seen in this evocative anthology. Among what Thomas Love Peacock calls the "many poetical charms in the heraldings of Christmas," there are eulogies by saints and diatribes from curmudgeons. Here, Christmas is expounded by divines, sung by rustics, deplored by philosophers, made mystical in stories and summed up in a line by the poet Elizabeth Jennings: "The hush, the star, the baby, people being kind again."

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying reference material will be available in your My Library section along with the audio.
(P)1997 NAXOS AudioBooks Ltd.; ©1997 NAXOS AudioBooks Ld.
Anthologies Classics
Show More Show Less

What listeners say about The Christmas Collection (Unabridged Selections)

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    6
  • 4 Stars
    0
  • 3 Stars
    0
  • 2 Stars
    1
  • 1 Stars
    1
Performance
  • 5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    4
  • 4 Stars
    0
  • 3 Stars
    0
  • 2 Stars
    0
  • 1 Stars
    0
Story
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    4
  • 4 Stars
    0
  • 3 Stars
    0
  • 2 Stars
    1
  • 1 Stars
    0

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

Audible.co.uk reviews

Amazon reviews
Sort by:
Filter by:
  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
Profile Image for Andrew

Wonderful Christmas!

The Christmas Collection caters for all festive tastes. Speaking personally, I would say I found the historic accounts of the festive season to be very pleasurable listening, being in part, both humorous and serious. It is so diverse in its coverage of Christmas that all who have a love of the season will find the collection to be of interest. There is nothing I like better than to curl up on a quiet December afternoon or evening and listen to this collection, being at Yuletide, one of my principal sources of pleasure.

Report this

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

7 people found this helpful