Classic Fiction

ADAM BEDE

by George Eliot

read by David King

running time 22hrs 30mins

Hetty Sorrel is loved by Adam Bede but she is in love with a young squire who seduces her and by whom she has a child. Hetty kills the child by abandoning it in a field and is tried and sentenced to death for murder.

BALLET STORIES

by David Angus

read by Jenny Agutter

running time 1hr 45mins

The magic of ballet is evoked in these enchanting stories presented with many musical excerpts from the works themselves. Jenny Agutter, who, before turning to acting was a dancer, presents the stories of two French ballets -- Giselle and Coppelia -- and the three great ballets by Tchaikovsky, in engaging style.

CAMILLA

by Fanny (Frances) Burney

read by Lucy Scott

running time 37hrs 30mins

Naive Camilla Tyrold is in love with Edgar Mandlebert, a noble young man, but must suffer a series of misunderstandings that threaten their happy union. Her sister Eugenia, destined to inherit her uncle’s great wealth, is plagued with misfortune as she is left disfigured by smallpox and men court her for financial gain only. Meanwhile their cousin, beautiful but selfish Indiana, never finds a fortune for her good looks.

DANSE MACABRE

by Gerald Elias

read by Jim Frangione

running time 8hrs 30mins

Daniel Jacobus, reclusive blind concert master and amateur sleuth, returns to solve a most despicable crime and to clear an innocent man when violinist and humanitarian Rene Allard is brutally murdered. Jacobus follows a trail of broken violins and broken lives as it leads inexorably to the truth, and to his own mortal peril.

EAST LYNNE

by Ellen Wood

read by Rachel Atkins

running time 23hrs 30mins

When the aristocratic Lady Isabel abandons her husband and children for her wicked seducer, more is at stake than moral retribution. Ellen Wood played upon the anxieties of the Victorian middle classes who feared a breakdown of the social order as divorce became more readily available and promiscuity threatened the sanctity of the family. In this novel the simple act of hiring a governess raises the spectres of murder, disguise, and adultery.

FAR FROM THE MADDING CROWD

by Thomas Hardy

read by Stephen Thorne

running time 13hrs 30mins

Bathsheba Everdene moved to Weatherbury to take up her position as a farmer on the largest estate in the area. Pursued by three very different suitors, her life is made complicated and unsettled by each in different ways. But when tragedy ensues the stability of the community is threatened.

G K CHESTERTON: THREE BBC RADIO MYSTERIES

by G K Chesterton

read by Miscellaneous

running time 11hrs

Best known as the creator of clerical detective Father Brown, G. K. Chesterton was a prolific and talented writer in virtually every area of literature: from novels, poetry and short stories to plays, biographies and essays. A noted thinker, controversialist, raconteur and wit, he has influenced authors from Neil Gaiman to Jorge Luis Borges. This collection comprises his two most famous novels, The Man Who Was Thursday and The Napoleon of Notting Hill, as well as half a dozen tales from his short story collection, The Club of Queer Trades.

HANS CHRISTIAN ANDERSEN'S FAIRY TALES

by Hans Christian Andersen

read by Jonah Hauer-King

running time 4hrs 30mins

Hans Andersen's Fairy Tales is an enchanting collection, retold by writer and critic Naomi Lewis, and contains 12 of Hans Christian Andersen's magnificent stories, including Thumbelina, a little girl no more than a thumb-joint high, The Emperor's New Clothes, the tale of a man who cares only for his appearance and The Little Mermaid, who longs to one day marry a human prince.

THE IDIOT

by Fyodor Dostoevsky

read by Barry Wilsher

running time 27hrs 45mins

Classic Russian literature whose central themes are based upon the love of Prince Myshkin for two women. The author vividly describes St Petersburg and the Prince's emotions: compassion and desire.

JANE EYRE

by Charlotte Brontë

read by Maureen O'Brien

running time 19hrs 30mins

Orphaned Jane Eyre, a spirited young woman, obtains the post of governess at Thornfield Hall and falls in love with the enigmatic Mr Rochester. When she learns his dark secret she must choose whether to stay, and live with the consequences, or uphold her principles and leave - both Thornfield and the man she loves.

KENILWORTH: A ROMANCE

by Sir Walter Scott

read by Tony Pearce-Smith

running time 20hrs

In the court of Elizabeth I, Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, is favoured by the Queen and it is rumoured that she may choose him for her husband. But Leicester has secretly married the beautiful Amy Robsart. Fearing ruin if this were known, he keeps his lovely young wife a virtual prisoner in an old country house.

LADY AUDLEY'S SECRET

by Mary Elizabeth Braddon

read by Kim Hicks

running time 15hrs

When beautiful young Lucy Graham accepts the hand of Sir Michael Audley, her fortune and her future look secure. But Lady Audley's past is shrouded in mystery, and Sir Michael's nephew, Robert, has vague forebodings. When Robert's friend George Talboys disappears, he is determined to find him and to unearth the truth. His quest reveals a tangled story of lies and deception, crime and intrigue, which turn the conventional picture of Victorian womanhood on its head. Can Robert's darkest suspicions really be true?

THE MABINOGION

by Sioned Davies (Translator)

read by David Hobbs

running time 9hrs 20mins

Celtic mythology, Arthurian romance, and an intriguing interpretation of British history - these are just some of the themes embraced by the anonymous authors of the eleven tales that make up the Welsh medieval masterpiece known as the Mabinogion.

THE NARRATIVE OF ARTHUR GORDON PYM

by Edgar Allan Poe

read by Adam Sims

running time 7hrs 20mins

A riveting story, told in the first person. It tells of a disastrous sea voyage involving storms, mutiny, starvation, thirst - and a mysterious conclusion.

THE ODYSSEY

by Homer

read by Anton Lesser

running time 12hrs 45mins

The Trojan War is over and Odysseus, the cunning King of Ithaca, sets out for home, his wife Penelope and his son Telemachus. It proves a long, 10-year journey, fraught with dangers, from Polyphemus, the one-eyed Cyclops, and the seductive Sirens, to the love of Calypso on her all-too-comfortable isle.

A PAIR OF BLUE EYES

by Thomas Hardy

read by Hazel Douglas

running time 17hrs

Elfrida, the clergyman's daughter, wants an attractive, sensible husband, but the attentions of rival suitors leads to tragedy.

REDGAUNTLET

by Sir Walter Scott

read by Sandy Morison

running time 21hrs

Set in the mid-eighteenth century in the fictitious third Jacobite rebellion, Redgauntlet tells of Darsie Latimer, a student of law who becomes embroiled in a plot to put Prince Charles Edward (aka, Bonnie Prince Charlie) on the British throne.

SANSHIRO

by Natsume Soseki

read by Andrew Koji

running time 8hrs

One of Soseki's most beloved works of fiction, the novel depicts the 23-year-old Sanshiro leaving the sleepy countryside for the first time in his life to experience the constantly moving 'real world' of Tokyo, its women and university. In the subtle tension between our appreciation of Soseki's lively humour and our awareness of Sanshiro's doomed innocence, the novel comes to life. Sanshiro is also penetrating social and cultural commentary.

A TALE OF TWO CITIES

by Charles Dickens

read by Richard Pasco

running time 14hrs 5mins

Set in Paris and London in the French revolution. Dr Manette has recently been released from the Bastille after 18 years as a political prisoner. Brought to England he begins to recover his sanity. Charles Darnay also arrives, and falls in love with Manette's daughter, Lucie. In the Terror he returns to Paris to rescue a servant, but is caught. He is only saved when barrister Sydney Carton, also in love with Lucie, takes his place on the scaffold.

UNDER THE GREENWOOD TREE

by Thomas Hardy

read by Grace Dives

running time 7hrs

This delightful portrayal of a picturesque rural society established Hardy as a writer. However, the double-plot, in which the love story of Dick Dewey and Fancy Day is inter-related with a tragic chapter in the history of Mellstock Choir, hints at the poignant disappearance of a long-lived and highly-valued traditional way of life.

THE VALLEY OF FEAR

by Arthur Conan Doyle

read by Ian Wallace

running time 6hrs 30mins

A cipher message and a horrible murder in a Sussex village begin the case which has Sherlock Holmes battling against his arch enemy, Dr Moriarty.

WAITING FOR GODOT

by Samuel Beckett

read by Miscellaneous

running time 1hr

Beckett's classic 'Waiting for Godot', has been famously described as a play in which "nothing happens, twice". As Vladimir and Estragon await the arrival of Godot, they discuss their lives and consider hanging themselves, but choose to wait for Godot instead, in the hope that he can tell them what their purpose is.