Historical Classics

Brought to you by Penguin. This Penguin Classic is performed by Emma Naomi, best known for Bridgerton. This definitive recording includes an introduction by Marilyn Butler. With its irrepressible heroine and playful literary games, Northanger Abbey is the most youthful and optimistic of Jane...

Katherine comes to the court of Edward III at the age of 15. The naïve convent-educated orphan of a penniless knight is dazzled by the jousts and the entertainments of court. Nevertheless, Katherine is beautiful, and she turns the head of the King's favourite son John of Gaunt. But he is married, and she is soon to be betrothed. A few years later their paths cross again and this time their passion for each other cannot be denied or suppressed.

Brought to you by Penguin. Peter and Paul, the two sons of German businessman Harald Winter, are bonded together by a childhood trauma. But as they grow up the brothers also grow apart. When the shadow of the Third Reich falls they become divided by war and their differing ideals - only to meet...

Brought to you by Penguin. This Penguin Classic is performed by Andrew Scott, star of Sherlock, Fleabag and Black Mirror, also known for his on-stage roles in Present Laughter and Hamlet. This definitive recording includes an Introduction by Terence Brown. Joyce's first major work, written when...

Brought to you by Penguin. This Penguin Classic is performed by Chloe Pirrie, Sam Woolf, Michael Fox, Olivia Darnley and Terence Wilton. 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...

Brought to you by Penguin. This Penguin Classic is performed by award-winning actress Emilia Fox who is best known for her starring role in the long running BBC drama Silent Witness. She has also won acclaim for her performances in Strangers, Pride and Prejudice and Delicious. This definitive...

Widely considered the greatest tale of revenge ever written, Alexandre Dumas's The Count of Monte Cristo dives deep into the psychology of a man wronged by his closest friends. It is a masterclass of plot and intrigue where every kindness is rewarded, and every sin is punished with mathematical precision.

Sir Richard Hannay introduces this last adventure involving his old friends.

John Blenkiron discovers that a ruthless industrialist is plotting to destabilise America and cause global turmoil. Although Bavarian born, Castor plans to dominate the world from Olifa, a small country in Latin America. Hannay realises he is now too old for the job of thwarting these evil designs and enlists the aid of his old friend Sandy Arbuthnot, now Lord Clanroyden.

Six outstanding tales of suspense and adventure by the master storyteller. Markheim, The Bottle Imp, The Body Snatcher, The Suicide Club - Story of the Young Man with the Cream Tarts, The Suicide Club – The Story of the Physician and the Saratoga Trunk, The Suicide Club – The Adventure of the Hansom Cabs.

Educated in Lebanon, United States, and France, Gibran was influenced by the European modernists of the late 19th century, but even more by Francis Marrash, who introduced poetic prose and prose poetry in the Arab world. Gibran's style of writing and ideas he wrote about are believed to have been greatly influenced by Marrash, particularly the concept of universal love.

Set in a mythical, feudal, Japanese land, a world both beautiful and cruel, the intense love story of two young people takes place against a background of warring clans, secret alliances, high honour and lightning swordplay. Lian Hearn's stunningly powerful bestseller, Across the Nightingale...

THIS AUDIOBOOK INCLUDES AN EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW WITH PATERSON JOSEPH AND MALORIE BLACKMAN, AUTHOR OF NOUGHTS AND CROSSES. PICKED FOR THE TIMES BIGGEST BOOKS FOR AUTUMN 2022 'An absolutely thrilling, throat-catching wonder of a historical novel. Told with dazzling energy and brilliant panache...

We are all classicists - we come into touch with the classics on a daily basis: in our culture, politics, medicine, architecture, language, and literature. What are the true roots of these influences, however, and how do our interpretations of these aspects of the classics differ from their original reality? 

Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice is an enduring classic that perfectly balances sparkling comedy with deep emotional truth. Enter the world of the Bennet family, a household of five unmarried daughters facing an uncertain future in a society where marriage is the only path to security.

Have you ever wondered why silence is sometimes the loudest voice of all? Mansfield Park is widely considered Jane Austen's most ambitious and psychologically complex novel. Unlike her lighter works, this story delves into the quieter, more resilient strength of the human spirit, exposing the fragility of Regency social order and the profound difference between superficial charm and genuine moral worth.

Random House presents the audiobook edition of Sashenka by Simon Sebag Montefiore, read by Tuppence Middleton. Winter, 1916: In St Petersburg, Russia on the brink of revolution. Outside the Smolny Institute for Noble Young Ladies, an English governess is waiting for her young charge to be...

Brought to you by Penguin. This Penguin Classic is performed by Paterson Joseph, known for his roles in the forthcoming BBC adaption of Malorie Blackman's Noughts and Crosses, Peep Show, and Neil Gaiman's Neverwhere. This definitive recording includes an Introduction by Richard Pevear. Young...

Brought to you by Penguin. This Penguin Classic is performed by Juliet Aubrey, who won the BAFTA for Best Actress for her role as Dorothea in the BBC serial Middlemarch. This definitive recording includes an Introduction by Rosemary Ashton. George Eliot's most ambitious novel is a masterly...

Brought to you by Penguin. 'A man can't scrap his bloodline, can't snip the thread of immortality.' Such is the strength of Joe Saul's desperate longing for a child, that he feels as if a dark curse is upon him after three unfruitful years of marriage. Yet unbeknown to him, he is sterile. His...

War and Peace is one of the greatest monuments in world literature. Set against the dramatic backdrop of the Napoleonic Wars, it examines the relationship between the individual and the relentless march of history. Here are the universal themes of love and hate, ambition and despair, youth and age, expressed with a swirling vitality which makes the book as accessible today as it was when it was first published in 1869.