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Progress in the Edwardian era is coming on apace. The motor car is becoming increasingly popular - and you can be sure that in the back seat you’ll find the luscious temptress Dame Jenny, driving someone to delicious distraction. And what about those magnificent men in their flying machines? It’s too early for Jenny to join the mile-high club, but give her an inch (or several) and she’ll do her level best….

Elizabeth Barrett Moulton Barrett was born on 6 March 1806, in Coxhoe Hall, County Durham, the eldest of 12 children. The family's wealth was derived from sugar plantations manned by slaves in Jamaica, enabling them to also purchase a 500-acre estate in Herefordshire. This wealth allowed her to publish poems from an early age. However, by age 20, the family’s fortunes were in decline, though they were never below comfortable, after losing a lawsuit over their plantations.

This collection of four modern tales is a delicious insight into erotic fantaises. We don't want to spoil the fun by telling you too much but perhaps listening to the sample would reveal more.

“If music be the food of love, play on" was one of Shakespeare’s finest lines. If music is food then poetry is the wine. In this volume of classic love poetry the flavoured capture of words and rhythms makes us think more carefully of words and their value to us. They also surprise us with their structure and meaning, layering in thoughts and emotions that we might otherwise shy away from. Poems are wonderful ways to express what we feel for a very special someone.

Northanger Abbey tells the story of a young girl, Catherine Morland who leaves her sheltered, rural home to enter the busy, sophisticated world of Bath in the late 1790s. Austen observes with insight and humour the interaction between Catherine and the various characters whom she meets there, and tracks her growing understanding of the world about her.

Edith Nesbit is more famously known as a writer of children’s stories such as The Railway Children, but in this volume we explore her short stories of the macabre and ghostly sort. Not for the faint of heart, these stories, brought to your ears in eerie detail by George Irving, are just the thing for anyone who enjoys a good scare.

Emily Elizabeth Dickinson was born in 1830 in Amherst Massachusetts. Rightly regarded as a major American poet, her life was sheltered, introverted, and reclusive. Despite writing over 1800 poems, only a dozen or so were published during her lifetime. Her structures and wordings are at times difficult to get to grips with, though recurring themes of religion and death certainly shadow many of her works.

Fast paced and nightmarishly vivid, this greatest of Gothic tales propels the reader into the heart of darkness from its opening pages. Stoker increases the tension and mystery of his masterpiece by setting it in the form of different journal entries and letters by various characters. Only gradually does the full horrifying picture emerge: Dracula, far from being merely an eccentric foreigner, is a threat to all mankind. But this is not discovered until it is too late for some.

Samuel Langhorne Clemens was born in 1835 and is far better known by his pen name: Mark Twain. An American author and humorist of the first order, he is perhaps most famous for The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and its sequel, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. The short stories told here showcase Twain’s true-calling. His wit and humour sparkle from every word; his mastery of the craft is evident with every phase and punctured target.

Neither Jon nor Alice feels like they are getting enough and the frustration is tangible. If the other can’t help then who can? Best friends? Colleagues? The corner shop/kebab house owner? Fighting for the remote are Jon and Alice, a twenty-something couple living together in London. Alice enjoys socialising; Jon hates meeting people. While Alice is climbing her career ladder, Jon is quite content on the bottom rung of his.

Tormented by the spirit of her dead husband - Virginia Preston seeks help from a young medium Simon Elliot. But as questions commence and the investigation begins; Simon uncovers the real truth behind the events leading up to the murder of her younger lover and the execution of her husband, in this intense psychological paranormal thriller from Victor Pemberton.

M R James is widely regarded as THE master of the ghost story. His stories abound with spectres skulking in the shrubbery, in shadowy corners and dark recesses. 'The Mezzotint' is a whimsical and apparently supernatural tale of art on the move; a dying man devises a gruesome plan for testing his heirs in 'The Tractate Middoth', and something is lurking under the bedclothes in 'Rats'.

In this brilliant satire, Oscar Wilde targets the English aristocracy. Lord Arthur's life is thrown into turmoil with the dire prophecy that he will commit murder. His forthcoming marriage postponed, he sets about finding his victim.....This classic story is read for you by Garard Green, who has worked extensively for the BBC and voiced more than 900 films and documentaries.

At a glittering society party in St Petersburg in 1805, conversations are dominated by the prospect of war. Terror swiftly engulfs the country as Napoleon’s army marches on Russia, and the lives of three young people are changed forever. The stories of quixotic Pierre, cynical Andrey, and impetuous Natasha interweave with a huge cast, from aristocrats and peasants, to soldiers and Napoleon himself.

Edmond Dantès, an innocent young sailor, falls into despair when he is arrested on a false charge of treason and thrown into prison without a trial. He learns of his friends' betrayal from the Abbé Faria, an equally innocent prisoner, and plots his revenge following a daring, if nightmarish escape from the Chateau d'If. After becoming a wealthy man, he assumes the guise of the urbane Count of Monte-Cristo and begins to entrap his enemies one by one.

The truth is, it ain't just a race thing. They talk like it is, but really and truly it's black against white, young against old, authorities against the rest. It's countless of things. There's bare reasons for feeling vexed right now. Growing up on a south London estate and excluded from every school that would take her, Alesha is the poster girl for the nation's 'feral youth'.

Born in 1857 in Poland, Joseph Conrad became a British citizen just before he turned 30. In the intervening years he lost both parents, becoming an orphan at 11, being thereafter raised by an uncle, who let the boy go to Marseille, where he began to work on merchant ships. At age 36 his life turned from one of ships to one of literary pursuit. Conrad brought to English literature both a fresh layer of style and a deeper examination of the human psyche in a wealth of works. In this audiobook we dwell among his numerous short stories.

Montague Rhodes James, the greatest English writer of ghost stories, was born in 1862 at Goodnestone Parsonage in Kent, where his father was Curate, and spent most of his boyhood at Livermere, near Bury St Edmunds in East Anglia, where his father had become Rector. From childhood he was passionately interested in mediaeval books and antiques. At the age of six, attending his first children’s party, he burst into tears, but was soon comforted by being taken into the library of the house and left there alone.

This classic and groundbreaking novel by Jane Austen depicts a young woman’s quest for love, surrounded by the themes and issues of the early 19th century. What is perhaps most surprising are the similarities with modern life and its the novel's continuing influence today.

William Shakespeare is of course England's greatest play right and revered the World over. The Merchant of Venice is a masterly tale and is on a par with many of his other works. In his creation of Venice Shakespeare revels in his characters and story. Perhaps best well known for the creation of the character Shylock in a world of money lending the play has survived admirably down the years. This play is performed by a quite magnificent cast and in the lead role of Shylock we have Michael Redgrave.