Showing results by narrator "NICHOLAS BOULTON" in All Categories

Oscar Wilde's first play confronts the hypocrisy of public "morality" compared with genuine, private kindness. The reasons for its continued popularity are not difficult to identify: the play's witty dialogue contains many of Wilde's most quoted aphorisms, its stylish setting provides opportunities for elegant presentation, and its cast of memorable characters play out a story which is genuinely moving. This new audio production brings together a full cast worthy of Wilde's creative genius.

The French Classics Collection brings together 18 of the greatest works of fiction ever written in French - here collected into one audiobook and all translated into English. Featuring grand epics of love, loss, and survival, as in Les Miserables, to tales of adventure in Jules Verne's Journey to the Center of the Earth, and romances such as Madame Bovary, alongside many more grand stories from 17th, 18th, and 19th century France, this collection will whisk you away into other worlds with some of the greatest characters in literature within some of the greatest novels ever written.

In a fragile time of peace, a covert team monitors a suspect vehicle, ensuring the safety of a recovering community. Families relax, children play, and a cash-strapped Sam Ireland seeks work abroad. But the tranquility shatters when the operatives witness, in vivid technicolor, the car exploding in real-time.

Written in the 14th century by an anonymous English monk, The Cloud of Unknowing explores human interaction with the divine, offering guidance on prayer and achieving unity with God. At the core of the book is the assertion that God is unreachable through cerebral means and only through the power of love. One must abandon the intellect, putting a ‘cloud of forgetting’ beneath oneself, hiding the world and all its concerns, and focus as much as possible on God, who exists behind a cloud of unknowing, which can only be approached through a love that transcends all conceptual thought

Step inside the mind of one of history’s greatest writers with The Selected Letters of Charles Dickens, a fascinating collection of personal correspondence that reveals the character behind the novels. These letters offer an intimate glimpse into Dickens’ life, thoughts, and creative process, from his early days as a struggling writer to his rise as a global literary icon.

Trevelyan d'Augustin and Lady Callista Talliafaire were secret sweethearts, until the day her father dismissed him with a whip across the face. Ten years and three jiltings later, shy Callie is resigned to a quiet village life as the late earl's spinster daughter. But now Trev has returned from his estates in France, upending everything, dragging her into adventures, stealing Hubert the prize-winning bull, and flinging Callie's heart into mayhem again.

Laura Kinsale presents a second novel by talented new author Elizabeth Kingston. Fair, Bright, and Terrible is the riveting companion to The King's Man. Wales is conquered, and Eluned has lost everything: her country, her husband, her hope. All that remains is vengeance, and she will stop at nothing to have it. When Robert de Lascaux is asked to marry the woman he has loved for eighteen years, he never hesitates. No wealth has ever mattered to him as much as Eluned has.

The Charterhouse of Parma is a twisting tale of passion and intrigue following the adventures of Fabrizio del Dongo, a young Italian nobleman who dreams of glory on the battlefields of Europe and finds himself fighting alongside Napoleon at Waterloo. After returning home, Fabrizio becomes entangled in Machiavellian scheming, an ill-advised romance, and a fatal duel that lands him in prison, where he begins a star-crossed love affair with the ethereal Clelia, the commandant’s daughter.

Through their innocent correspondence, a lonely young wife grows to love an imaginary man thousands of miles away. But when he returns to England from India, her idea of reality is turned upside down. Drawn from a safe world of tea and parlor chat into madness and mystery, she cannot find her own cherished Robert in the frightening stranger who claims her love. Laura Kinsale personally chose the exceptional talent of Nicholas Boulton to voice her favorite heroine, sweet, witty Folie with her ferret, Toot.

As a lovely heiress, Roderica Delamore should be a prize catch--except for her shameful secret. She has the ability to hear the thoughts of those around her. Even her family and close friends can't hide from her strange gift. Knowing that she can never marry, for no man could bear it, Roddy still longs hopelessly for a family of her own. Until she meets the man she's been waiting for--the Earl of Iveragh, a mysterious Irish aristocrat whose thoughts are entirely closed to her.

The 18th Century Classics Collection steps into the vibrant and tumultuous world of 18th century Europe. With this captivating anthology of some of the most influential works of 1700s literature, we encounter biting satire, passionate romance, and political tumultuousness. From the philosophical musings of Candide to the dark, gothic suspense of The Monk, this collection provides an eclectic mix of narrative styles and genres, capturing the essence of an age marked by intellectual revolution, social upheaval, and profound artistic expression.

M'lady's name is Shadowless, cos she's the fastest ship in the sky. And she ain't no everyday airship, she's an aethership, meaning she don't need engines nor turbines nor nowt but an aethermancer and the stars t' guide her. When luckless Dil falls half-dead onto the deck of the skyship Shadowless, he joins an outlaw crew haunted by visions of maelstrom. Driven by a ruthless captain, guided by a pilot with madness in her eyes, they hunt the power that holds up the clouds. Until it turns - to hunt them.

In Moscow an unknown author approaches a publisher (the narrator), asking him to read and publish his manuscript. The narrator agrees to read it before the author returns three months later. At the heart of the story in the manuscript is a love triangle and themes of corruption, concealed love, and fatal jealousy. When one of the central characters is discovered dead, the narrative becomes a murder-mystery as the search for the culprit begins.

Love, be it wild or tender, often defies logic. In fact, at times, the only rationale behind the instant connection of two souls is plain magic. Bibiña Aranda, runaway bride, wakes up in the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao still wearing her wedding dress, draped in the loving arms of a naked man whose name she doesn’t know. She and the man with no clothes, Indar Zubieta, attempt to explain to the authorities how they got there. It’s a story of love at first sight and experience beyond compare, one that involves a dreamlike journey through the museum.

These iconic works explore the depths of human suffering, identity, and transformation, showcasing some of the most profound voices of the 20th century. From the haunting reflections on war in All Quiet on the Western Front and A Farewell to Arms to the poetic expression of inner conflict in the works of Owen, Rosenberg, and Brooke, this collection provides a window into the world of writers who grappled with the aftermath of trauma and the search for meaning.

Dumas' novel became one of the great love stories from its first publication in 1848. The title role of the consumptive heroine and her ultimate sacrifice inspired actresses from Sarah Bernhardt to Greta Garbo and led Giuseppe Verdi to write La traviata. In the hands of Nicholas Boulton, the story of passion and conflict is as fresh and moving as when it was first written.

Jane Austen’s most popular novel, originally published in 1813, some 17 years after it was first written, presents the Bennet family of Longbourn. Against the background of gossipy Mrs. Bennet and the detached Mr. Bennet, the quest is on for husbands for the five daughters. The spotlight falls on Elizabeth, second eldest, who is courted by Mr. Darcy, though initially she is more concerned with the fate of her other sisters. This marvelous account of family life in Regency England is read with customary panache by Juliet Stevenson.

A BBC Radio 4 drama about three City traders who launch an aggressive new hedge fund, which they then struggle to prevent from complete failure. Tim, Meredith and Harry are three sassy, thirty something traders who, tired of making money for someone else, combine to launch a new hedge fund...

Richard Mardick is an elderly man with a secret that he has kept since his youth. He recounts his memories to his young protégé and secretary so that his story can be preserved. Faced with illness, the teenage Richard was sent to live with different relatives while being trained as a farmer. Lonely and stifled by family life, he then met a girl and his life changed… with shattering significance for his future.

Daphnis and Chloe is a gem from the pen of the otherwise unknown second-century CE Greek writer Longus. It is the only work of his to survive, and little is known of him. Though perhaps overshadowed by the Roman magnificence of Ovid’s Metamorphoses (dating from a century earlier), Longus’ story entranced the choreographer Michel Fokine, who persuaded the French composer Maurice Ravel to write music for a ballet on the love story as part of the Ballets Russes’ season in Paris in 1912. Ravel, inspired, produced one of the most ravishing scores of the Impressionist period.