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  Great Expectations

  Charles Dickens

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  Great Expectations is the thirteenth novel by Charles Dickens and his penultimate completed novel. It depicts the education of an orphan nicknamed Pip (the book is a bildungsroman, a coming-of-age story). It is Dickens's second novel, after David Copperfield, to be fully narrated in the first person. The novel was first published as a serial in Dickens's weekly periodical All the Year Round, from 1 December 1860 to August 1861. In October 1861, Chapman and Hall published the novel in three volumes.The novel is set in Kent and London in the early to mid-19th century and contains some of Dickens's most celebrated scenes, starting in a graveyard, where the young Pip is accosted by the escaped convict Abel Magwitch. Great Expectations is full of extreme imagery - poverty, prison ships and chains, and fights to the death - and has a colourful cast of characters who have entered popular culture. These include the eccentric Miss Havisham, the beautiful but cold Estella, and Joe, the unsophisticated and kind blacksmith. Dickens's themes include wealth and poverty, love and rejection, and the eventual triumph of good over evil. Great Expectations, which is popular both with readers and literary critics, has been translated into many languages and adapted numerous times into various media.

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  The Adventures of Sherlock...

  Arthur Conan Doyle

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  THE ADVENTURES OF SHERLOCK HOLMES is a collection of twelve short stories by Arthur Conan Doyle, featuring his fictional detective Sherlock Holmes. It was first published on 14 October 1892, though the individual stories had been serialised in The Strand Magazine between June 1891 and July 1892. The stories are not in chronological order, and the only characters common to all twelve are Holmes and Dr. Watson. As with all but four of the Sherlock Holmes stories, those contained within The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes are told by a first-person narrative from the point of view of Dr. Watson. 
  In general, the stories in THE ADVENTURES OF SHERLOCK HOLMES identify, and try to correct, social injustices. Holmes is portrayed as offering a new, fairer sense of justice. The stories were well received, and boosted the subscriptions figures of The Strand Magazine, prompting Doyle to be able to demand more money for his next set of stories. The first story, 'A Scandal in Bohemia', includes the character of Irene Adler, who, despite being featured only within this one story by Doyle, is a prominent character in modern Sherlock Holmes adaptations, generally as a love interest for Holmes. Doyle included four of the twelve stories from this collection in his twelve favourite Sherlock Holmes stories, picking 'The Adventure of the Speckled Band' as his overall favourite.

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  Pericles Prince of Tyre (Argo...

  William Shakespeare

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  William Collins Books and Decca Records are proud to present ARGO Classics, a historic catalogue of classic prose and verse read by some of the world’s most renowned voices. Originally released as vinyl records, these expertly remastered stories are now available to download for the first time. 
  ‘For death remembered should be like a mirror, 
  Who tells us life’s but breath, to trust it error.’ 
  The medieval poet John Gower returns from the grave to tell the story of Pericles, Prince of Tyre. 
  Pericles, Prince of Tyre leaves home to escape death only to win a jousting contest and marry a princess. Once he can return home, his family sails with him, but a storm separates them, so Pericles returns alone. Years later, Pericles finds his daughter and reunites with the wife he had thought was dead. 
  All of the Shakespeare plays within the ARGO Classics catalogue are performed by the Marlowe Dramatic Society and Professional Players. The Marlowe was founded in 1907 with a mission to focus on effective delivery of verse, respect the integrity of texts, and rescue neglected plays by Shakespeare’s contemporaries and the less performed plays of Shakespeare himself. The Marlowe has performed annually at Cambridge Arts Theatre since its opening in 1936 and continues to produce some of the finest actors of their generations. 
  Thurston Dart, Professor of Music at London University and a Fellow of Jesus College Cambridge, directed the music for this production. 
  The full cast includes: Frank Duncan; William Squire; Tony Church; John Tydeman; Michael Bate; Philip Strick; Norman Mitchel; Yvonne Bonnamy; David King; Margaret Rawlings; Denis McCarthy; Michael Hordern; Peter Orr; Margaretta Scott; Peter Woodthorpe; Patrick Wymark; David Buck; Gary Watson; Janette Richer; Prunella Scales; Richard Marquand; David Jones; Patsy Byrne. 
  The best of Shakespeare's work is encapsulated in this short, yet powerful play. A top performing piece in European theatre, it is a testament to the timeless appeal of the Bard's work. 
  For fans of Richard Parsons (GCSE English Shakespeare Text Guide), and Arthur Miller (Incident at Vichy).

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  The Novels of Beryl Bainbridge...

  Beryl Bainbridge

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  Three darkly comic novels from the two-time Whitbread Award winner whose “masterful restraint . . . reveals an author in complete control of her artistry” (The Guardian). With taut prose and mordant wit, Dame Beryl Bainbridge established a unique position for herself as “one of the most distinctive and admired voices in postwar British fiction” (The New York Times). In the three novels collected here, she deploys her signature, unforgiving insight into human nature, drawing on her own life experience to produce tightly knit tales of innocence and mischief.  The Dressmaker: For seventeen-year-old Rita, romance with an American GI feels like a Hollywood-style escape from wartime England—and the two aunts who’ve raised her. But in this Man Booker Prize–shortlisted novel, Rita soon discovers that life is nothing like the movies.   “A little triumph of economy with pent thoughts and cramped emotions that whisper frantically on when the book is shut.” —The Guardian  The Bottle Factory Outing: Working at an Italian wine-bottling factory, London flatmates Brenda and Freda anticipate a rare day of pleasure on a company outing. Winner of the Guardian Fiction Prize and shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize, this comic novel takes an unsettling turn only Bainbridge could deliver.   “An outrageously funny and horrifying story.” —Graham Greene  Injury Time: In this Whitbread Literary Award–winning novel, Edward and his mistress try to host a discreet dinner party, but it’s an awkward affair to say the least. With the addition of two uninvited, rather forceful guests, more than feelings will get hurt in this “comic and sinister” novel (The Sunday Times).   “A near-masterpiece . . . horribly true to life.” —London Evening Standard

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  The History of the Man in Black

  Oliver Goldsmith

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  Oliver Goldsmith (1730-1774) was an Irish novelist, playwright and poet. In The History of the Man in Black he describes the cynical journey of a generous and benevolent young man from dire pecuniary circumstances to riches, achieved by divesting himself of any moral considerations for others.

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  Wild Flowers of the Asphalt

  William Dean Howells

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  A short story that intricately discusses the wild flowers found amoung the asphalt and concrete of New York City.

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