Showing results by publisher "CSA Word" in Genre Fiction

Elizabeth Gaskell highlights the difference between the middle and working classes in this tale set in the time of the Industrial Revolution. A largely autobiographical story, she also highlights the good that each group can do for each other, and the friendships and understandings that can blossom between two seemingly irreconcilable means and modes of life. Gaskell shows her great love of people, and of love itself, in this touching and enlightening tale.

Emma is set in Highbury, a sizeable village in Surrey, where social life is dominated by the intelligent and wealthy Emma Woodhouse, who has too little to occupy herself and turns to matchmaking on behalf of her friends and neighbours to relieve boredom. Her schemes meet with varying degrees of success, until she finally learns to concentrate on her own life and leave others to live theirs without her interference.

Ahead of its time, Flaubert's exploration of the passions of an unfulfilled wife ranks as one of the great novels of the 19th Century.

Pip, Estella, and Miss Havisham meet in this world-famous masterpiece.

A group of Florentine youths escape to the mountain countryside during the time of the plague, only to regale each other with vignettes of sex, vice, temptation, and come-uppance. This is a strictly adult listen, which will bring a little colour to your cheeks and have you laughing out loud.

Based on Charlotte Bronte's work as a governess in Brussels, Villette concerns the life of Lucy Snowe, an English girl who obtains a post at a girl's school in Belgium. With few friends and little money, Lucy concentrates on her work. However, she starts to find solace in an unlikely suitor. Could there be more to life than loneliness?

Anne Elliot made a big mistake: she let the love of her life get away. But seven years later, he comes back from the sea. As with all Jane Austen novels, this draws much of its appeal from the author's talent for observation and satire. The snobberies of a genteel world are exposed by its demurely mischievious heroine.

Captain Ahab is hell-bent on catching the famous gargantuan whale, who cost him one of his legs on a previous voyage. With disregard for his safety or that of his crew, he persues the beast with an obsession tantamount to madness.

Classic Love Stories 2 read by Joanna David & Edward Fox. Wonderful readings of stories centred around the theme of love, including works by classic writers like Rudyard Kipling and John Galsworthy.

Dracula (1897) first brought vampires to the popular literary consciousness, and they have been firmly entrenched in horror stories ever since. Jonathan Harker, an English solicitor, travels to Transylvania to meet the mysterious 'Count' who has instructed him to purchase a property in England on his behalf. Thus begins a series of awful events, where Harker finds himself in the midst of a nightmare, in a deadly game of cat and mouse where he himself is hunted as prey.

Sons and Lovers is the moving and explicit account of a young man growing up in a closed mining community. Born into a difficult marriage, Paul Morel is shy, introverted, and impressionable. As a young adult he becomes violently caught between the attentions of three women: his influential mother Gertrude; spiritual and devoted Miriam; and the sensual and mature Clara.

Arthur Cadogan West, a young government clerk, is found dead by the railway tracks near Aldgate. On his body Holmes' brother Mycroft finds some secret submarine plans - three pages of which seem to be missing. These pages alone, in the wrong hands, could be used to build a Bruce-Partington submarine that would pose a threat to Britain. Cadogan West's head has been crushed, but it looks like there has been no robbery - was the assailant after the plans?

Maggie and Tom, brother and sister, try to save their livelihood as their parents flounder in the face of modernization. Maggie befriends the disabled son of a family rival in an attempt to build bridges, and Tom fights hard to reclaim the family property. Having drifted apart, they are brought back together in the novel's dramatic and moving conclusion.

A biting satire on American life which turned convention on its head. This story explores the obsessive affections of the radical Olive Chancellor for Verena Tarrant, a gifted young speaker in the feminist movement. When Olive's cousin Basil becomes equally besotted, the scene is set for a bitter tug of war.

Jane Eyre, an orphan, has to suffer appalling conditions when she is sent away to a correctional school. She lands on her feet, or so it seems, when she becomes adult and obtains a job working for Mr Rochester, a brooding and formidable man who initially scares her, but whom she begins to warm to. At the same time, strange things are happening in the house. What is Adele, his ward, afraid of? And what are the strange banging noises coming from the attic at night time?

Frankenstein (1818) is the definitive fable about genetic modification gone haywire which is only too relevant to modern times. Victor Frankenstein decides to build a 'man' from assembled body parts stolen from corpses. What results, of course, is a 'monster', but the mastery of Shelley's storytelling leaves a listener asking themselves what a 'monster' really is - and feeling thoroughly frightened.

Moll Flanders is the epitome of a "bawdy" woman, who makes few excuses for herself and is unashamed of her shady past. Now converted to religion, Moll recounts her history, which includes thievery, prostitution, incest, and deception amongst a list of other necessary evils. Often shocking and always funny, Moll's story is poignant and captivating, and our charismatic narrator is sure to bring joy to a listener's ears and heart.

One of the great love stories of our time. Anna is attracted to the dashing Count Vronsky and has to make a hideous choice.

The famous story of David Copperfield and his journey from young boy to man.

Women in Love begins one blossoming spring day in England and ends with a terrible catastrophe in the snow of the Alps. Ursula and Gudrun are very different sisters who become entangled with two friends, Rupert and Gerald, who live in their hometown. The bonds between the couples quickly become intense and passionate, but whether this passion is creative or destructive is unclear.