Victorian Classics

A collection of the greatest poetry from the Victorian era, read by some of the 20th century’s most renowned actors. Science, religion and sexuality are played out in these timeless readings of poetry written during the Romantic period.

After her impoverished family sends her to live with her wealthy aunt and uncle at opulent Mansfield Park, Fanny Price finds her life forever changed by the aristocratic Bertrams and the city-dwelling Crawford siblings. But is it for the better? While the others seem content to abandon what’s right to further their own interests, Fanny decides to hold true to her heart - a choice that will make or break her future.

Sexy bartender Seth Marino is the epitome of the allure and sophistication for which the town of Lavender Shores is known. For 20 years, Seth has found contentment and happiness as co-owner of the Blue Blossom Bed and Breakfast. Seth’s kind heart, good looks, and humor charm both locals and tourists - except the one person who despises him. Charley Perez began building the life of his dreams a few years before Seth moved to town.

The golden age of the short story was in Victorian and Edwardian times, when authors made a living by contributing to literary magazines and journals. These popular journals threw up such literary greats as Dickens, Conan Doyle, Rider Haggard, and Jerome K. Jerome. Many of the great writers are undeservedly neglected by modern audience...but what a pleasure it is to rediscover the literary treasures that delighted our great grandparents!

Featuring work by M. R. James, Edith Nesbit, Oscar Wilde, Gertrude Atherton and many more, this enhanced audio collection of eight enduring stories - some well-known, others less familiar - transport you to a candlelit fireside to hear tales of lonely coastlines, deadly rivers, dark, creaking corridors, horrific, everlasting love and unknown entities lurking in black velvet shadows.

During a hospital visit, Lady Violet Thorn overhears a young woman accusing a married couple of her parents' murder and stealing their home, Maccabee House. From body parts scattered around town igniting rumours about a cannibal to a sex worker found brutalised, macabre events soon unfold culminating in Violet receiving a mannequin, resembling herself, stabbed through the heart. With the town of Montford in meltdown, Violet knows that the answers wait at Maccabee House, which lies in the shadow of the old tannery. But with the killer's sights firmly on her, can she make it out alive?

Far from the Madding Crowd is Thomas Hardy's fourth novel. It centers on the lives of five characters: Gabriel Oak, Bathsheba Everdene, Mr Boldwood, Sgt. Troy, and Fanny Robin. The plot involves love, loyalty, death, and betrayal, and all this is delivered to us in Hardy's most eloquent prose. The images of character and nature are painted for our mind's eye with sublime style.

When Queen Victoria stepped onto the throne of Great Britain and Ireland in 1837, gone were the days when the monarch had supreme authority over the kingdom. Victoria ruled at the head of a government with which she was meant to converse, debate, and ultimately guide, and it was a job she sometimes struggled to perform. Victoria described herself as an emotional creature and blamed her gender for what she believed were her shortcomings as a monarch.

A fascinating collection of short stories by some of the greatest Victorian female writers. This anthology covers every theme from spirits and the occult to love and sexuality to sentimentality and romance to social observation and critique. 'The Operation' by Violet Hunt, 'Satan's Circus' by Eleanor Smith, 'A Dream of Wild Bees' by Olive Schreiner, 'A Dill Pickle' by Katherine Mansfield, 'Squirrel in a Cage' by E. M. Delafield, 'Afterward' by Edith Wharton, 'The Yellow Wallpaper' by Charlotte Perkins Gilman....

The Pickwick Papers was Dickens' first novel. Retired businessman and confirmed bachelor Mr. Samuel Pickwick, Esquire, embarks on a journey through the English countryside accompanied by three fellow "Pickwickians": Mr. Tupman, Mr. Snodgrass, and Mr. Winkle. It is a joy to hear of their misadventures in search of stories and characters of interest and the repeated efforts of the quick-witted Sam Weller (Mr. Pickwick's manservant) to rescue them all from disaster.

Iniziato nel 1795 e pubblicato nel 1811, Ragione e sentimento di Jane Austen narra le vicende umane e sentimentali delle sorelle Dashwood...

James Joyce was an Irish novelist and poet. His short story "The Dead", the concluding story in Dubliners, often considered as one of the best works of short fiction, concerns a Christmas-time gathering in Dublin. With a beautiful use of language and the epiphany common to all the stories in Dubliners, this book will remain in your thoughts long after the final emotional passages.

Under the Greenwood Tree, Hardy's second novel, was published in 1872 and became the first of his great series of Wessex novels. The book, subtitled A Rural Painting of the Dutch School, tells the endearing tale of a group of church musicians who accompany the hymns at the local Mellstock parish choir and we follow the fortunes of one of its member, Dick Dewy, who falls in love with the new school mistress, Fancy Day.

Few ghost stories are as chilling as the ones written by Victorian writers. Featuring work by H.G. Wells, Edith Wharton, F.G. Loring and Florence Marryat, this second volume of eight enduring stories, some well-known, others less familiar, transport you to a cosy fireside to hear tales of disembodied voices, haunted objects and unknown entities lurking in the shadows cast by candlelight.

James Joyces classic collection of short stories about life in Dublin in the early 20th century.

A comprehensive and varied collection of the best vampire stories from the Victorian era by the greatest Gothic writers of the time. Includes: 'The Horla' by Guy de Maupassant; 'Mrs. Amworth' by E. F. Benson; 'La Belle Dame Sans Merci' by John Keats; 'Dracula's Guest' by Bram Stoker; 'The Bride of Corinth' by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe; 'Will' by Vincent O'Sullivan; 'Ken's Mystery' by Julian Hawthorne.

Questo ultimo romanzo di Charlotte Bronte è da alcuni considerato il suo capolavoro; da molti la sua opera più matura sia come contenuti che come modernità di scrittura. "Villette" è il nome di una città immaginaria del continente dove una giovane donna inglese approda "in cerca di fortuna", si potrebbe dire, se in realtà la sua non fosse quasi una scelta obbligata, intrapresa per la necessità di sopravvivere e per la fuga da un deserto affettivo.

William Collins Books and Decca Records are proud to present ARGO Classics, a historic catalogue of classic fiction read by some of the world’s most renowned voices. Originally released as vinyl records, these expertly abridged and remastered stories are now available to download for the first...

The Return of the Native (1878) is one of Hardy's most popular novels. Set on the brooding Egdon heath it traces the lives and loves of five people. Clym Yeobright, the native, returns to Egdon from a successful career in Paris to pursue a dream of educating the poorer local people. Eustacia Vye, a young woman unhappy with life on Egdon wishes for love and life in a city. Damon Wildeve, an innkeeper and ex-engineer is a young womaniser.

William Collins Books and Decca Records are proud to present ARGO Classics, a historic catalogue of classic fiction read by some of the world’s most renowned voices. Originally released as vinyl records, these expertly abridged and remastered stories are now available to download for the first...