Other books that might interest you

• 

  Wuthering Heights

  Emily Brontë

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

  The timeless classic that tells of the doomed romance between Cathy and Heathcliff.  
  Judy Holt, an accomplished British TV actress, (Coronation St, At Home with the Braithwaites, Hollyoaks, Emmerdale and many others) brings this wonderful story to life with her authentic Yorkshire accent and dialect.

  Show book

• 

  Lord of the Dynamos The...

  H. G. Wells

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

  "The Lord of the Dynamos" is a British short story by H.G. Wells. It was originally published in the Pall Mall Budget (6 September 1894), and then included in the collection The Stolen Bacillus and Other Incidents, published by Methuen & Co. in 1895, and subsequently in his Complete Short Stories. It deals with what Wells describes as "certain odd possibilities of the negro mind brought into abrupt contact with the crown of our civilisation" and the narration displays racist attitudes common among British society of the time, in addition to the overt thuggish racism of the character Holroyd.

  Show book

• 

  Amy Foster

  Joseph Conrad

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

  Classic shortish story by Conrad that relates his self-thought alienation from British society, as a young foreign man survives a shipwreck off the coast of Kent, England only to be shunned by most of the townsfolk. The one exception is the loving, if dull-witted, Miss Foster.

  Show book

• 

  The Encased Man

  Anton Chekhov

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

  Anton Chekhov (1860-1904) wrote of the Russian period of depression and pessimism and is the acknowledged leader of the realistic school of the Russian short story. He has been compared to Guy de Maupassant for the masterful way in which he creates an atmosphere and narrates his stories to a climax. No other writer has the same ability to reveal the characters' souls in just two or three pages. Central themes in his works re mediocrity, the tragedy of pettiness, commonplaceness, the meaninglessness and emptiness of everyday life. In "The Encased Man" he describes the life of a schoolmaster whose existence is limited by petty rules, morals, inhibitions and unconscious fears. Despite these traits, the man finds himself on the verge of an unforeseen marriage to a boisterous, energetic, positive woman - in short, his complete opposite. But his character traits rear their heads and destiny rushes in upon him.

  Show book

• 

  The Adventures of Tom Sawyer

  Mark Twain

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

  First published in 1875, this classic excursion into Mark Twain's Mississippi River country will lighten your heart even today. The characters themselves – Tom's aunt Polly, his friends Becky and Huck, even Injun Joe – evoke nostalgia for a simpler, more rural lifestyle. Mark Twain describes a people, and a place, full of affection, wit, and adventure...where a dark summer night in a graveyard searching for black cats, or even getting lost during a cave exploration can be a truly exciting and fulfilling experience.

  Show book

• 

  Heart of Darkness and A Personal...

  Joseph Conrad

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

  This audiobook comprises two works: Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness and his autobiographical A Personal Record. The opening of Heart of Darkness finds Charles Marlow in fading light on the Thames Estuary, as he and his companions relax on deck, waiting for the turn of the tide. He tells of the time he turned 'freshwater sailor' on the River Congo, of his perilous journey upriver in a little steamboat with a band of white colonialists and a group of cannibals that takes him closer to the coveted ivory, closer to Kurtz the rogue agent, closer to certain unspeakable rites and the heart of darkness. Serialised in three parts in 1899, Heart of Darkness was first published in 1902. 
  A Personal Record is a 'fragment of biography', an autobiographical work by Joseph Conrad, published in 1912. It has also been published under the title Some Reminiscences. It is a masterpiece of atmospheric writing and the main contemporary source to detail his early life. Conrad, Polish by birth, who goes on to become one of the greatest novelists of the English language, describes his childhood and adolescence, discusses his forebears, one of whom fought on the side of Napoleon and ate a Lithuanian dog, the exile of his parents, the death of his mother and his relationship with Uncle Tadeusz. Thereafter Conrad beautifully interweaves the tales of why he went to sea and how he came to be a writer. Its digressive structure is precisely what makes it a magical and timeless work about exile, destiny and art.

  Show book