Other books that might interest you

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  A Simple Soul

  Gustave Flaubert

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  A Simple Heart, also called Un cœur simple or Le perroquet in French, is a story about a servant girl named Felicité. After her one and only love Théodore purportedly marries a well-to-do woman to avoid conscription, Felicité quits the farm she works on and heads for Pont-l'Évèque where she immediately picks up work in a widow's house as a servant. She is very loyal, and easily lends her affections to the two children of her mistress, Mme Aubain. She gives entirely to others, and although many take advantage of her she is unaffected. She is the epitome of a selfless character, and Flaubert shows how true altruism – the reality of being truly selfless – is the reward in itself. Whatever comes her way she is able to deal with it.

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  The Bus Conductor

  E.F. Benson

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  Edward Frederic Benson (1867-1940) was an English novelist, biographer, memoirist, archaeologist, and short story writer, best known for his masterly and uncanny ghost stories. One of the most famous of these is "The Bus Conductor". It is a deceptively simple tale of a mysterious apparition which comes into view on an ordinary London street under most peculiar circumstances. The chilling catchphrase spoken by the mysterious figure: "Just room for one inside, Sir" takes on an altogether sinister meaning.

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  The History of Tom Jones A...

  Henry Fielding

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  The ‘Voice of the Year’ competition introduced and sponsored by Naxos AudioBooks and The Times books pages, edited by Erica Wagner, took place in Spring 2004. Readers without any formal drama training or professional acting experience were invited to send in recordings of a short extract of either Dickens, Austen or from The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame and an own choice. The judging panel – Martin Jarvis, Juliet Stevenson, and Anton Lesser, with John Tydeman, David Timson, and Christina Hardyment (audiobook reviewer for The Times), under the chairmanship of Naxos AudioBooks’ managing director Nicolas Soames – chose the winner and finalists from nearly one thousand entries. First prize was to read a classic for Naxos AudioBooks. The winner was Maurice West, a fifty-five-year-old English teacher from Croydon. His chosen piece was from Tom Jones and he was invited to read an extended abridgement of the same novel. ‘We were very impressed by the natural storytelling talent shown by Mr West, with a strong narrative character, a sense of period style as well as a firm grasp of the many characters who appear,’ said Nicolas Soames. After graduating from Cambridge, Mr West applied to LAMDA on the main acting course and was accepted. Unfortunately, he didn’t have sufficient funds to take up the offer and had to confine his thespian interests to amateur dramatics. Now, later in life, he has a chance to open a new thread of activity. This recording of Tom Jones is an important addition to the eighteenth-century audio library on Naxos AudioBooks.

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  The Purple Wig

  G.K Chesterton

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  Publisher's SummaryGilbert Keith Chesterton (1874-1936) was an English writer best known for his fictional priest-detective, Father Brown.In The Purple Wig, an investigative journalist, Frances Finn, sets out to discover the strange secret of the dukes of Exmoor and the legend of their mysterious hereditary deformed ear. When Finn meets the current duke, he is wearing a hideous purple wig, which apparently he never takes off in the presence of anybody. It would appear to be an ugly way of hiding his deformity...but Father Brown, who is visiting the duke at the time, is suspicious about the motives for wearing such a wig. As the investigation progresses, the story takes a highly unexpected turn.

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  Tales of a Traveller

  Washington Irving

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  This collection by the author of The Legend of Sleepy Hollow recounts the experiences of an American abroad in the early nineteenth century.In Tales of a Traveller, renowned essayist and short story writer Washington Irving turns his talents to the genre of travel writing. Based on his excursions across Europe, Irving tells of the people he meets in France, England, Italy, and elsewhere, recounting the many tall tales they tell him. First published in 1824, this collection includes the narrative of a young German student living in Paris during the French Revolution; an account of Italian bandits who prey on travelers on the road to Naples; and legends of the pirate Captain Kidd, including the story “The Devil and Tom Walker,” which served as the inspiration for Stephen Vincent Benét’s “The Devil and Daniel Webster.”

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  Persuasion

  Jane Austen

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  The novel revolves around the life of Anne Elliot, a young woman who had rejected the proposal of her true love, Captain Frederick Wentworth, on the advice of her family and friends, who considered him beneath her in social status and fortune. Years later, Anne finds herself unmarried and regretful of her decision to refuse Wentworth's proposal. He, on the other hand, has become a successful naval captain and has acquired wealth and social status. When they meet again, Anne finds that her feelings for Wentworth have not diminished, but he appears to be indifferent towards her. Read in English, unabridged.

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