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Searching by tag "British Literature"

The Spire - listen book free online

“There were three sorts of people. Those who ran, those who stayed, and those who were built in”. The Spire is a 1964 novel by the English author William Golding. William Golding was born in his grandmother's house, 47 Mount Wise, Newquay, Cornwall. Golding's mother, who was Cornish and whom he considered "a superstitious celt", used to tell him old Cornish fairy tales from her own childhood. I... Read More

Lord of the Flies - listen book free online

Sir William Gerald Golding, a British novelist, playwright, and poet, won a Nobel Prize in Literature and was awarded the Booker Prize for fiction in 1980 for his novel Rites of Passage. But he is best known for his novel Lord of the Flies. In September 1953, after many rejections from other publishers, Golding sent a manuscript to Faber & Faber. Monteith asked for some changes to the text... Read More

An Imaginative Woman - listen book free online

English novelist and poet Thomas Hardy was highly critical of much in Victorian society, especially on the declining status of rural people in Britain. Many of his novels concern tragic characters struggling against their passions and social circumstances, and they are often set in the semi-fictional region of Wessex. An Imaginative Woman was first published as a serial in Pall Mall Magazine in... Read More

The Three Strangers - listen book free online

Thomas Hardy was an English novelist and poet. Hardy's first novel, The Poor Man and the Lady, finished by 1867, failed to find a publisher. He then showed it to his mentor and friend, the Victorian poet and novelist, George Meredith, who felt that The Poor Man and the Lady would be too politically controversial and might damage Hardy's ability to publish in the future. So Hardy followed his ad... Read More

The Withered Arm - listen book free online

Thomas Hardy was an English novelist and poet. During his long life of 88 years, he wrote fifteen novels and one thousand poems. Considered a Victorian realist, Hardy examines the social constraints on the lives of those living in Victorian England, and criticises those beliefs, especially those relating to marriage, education and religion, that limited people's lives and caused unhappiness. Ha... Read More

Fellow Townsmen - listen book free online

Thomas Hardy is one of Britain’s greatest authors. Among his most famous works are Tess of the D’Urbervilles and Jude the Obscure. For a long time Thomas Hardy's short stories have suffered from critical indifference, perhaps, in part, because of the influence of assessments such as Irving Howe's that Hardy "seems to have regarded the writing of stories as mere journeyman's work by which to ear... Read More

Interlopers at the Knap - listen book free online

English novelist and poet Thomas Hardy was highly critical of much in Victorian society, especially on the declining status of rural people in Britain. Considered a Victorian realist, Hardy examines the social constraints on the lives of those living in Victorian England. Also, Hardy wrote a number of significant war poems that relate to both the Boer Wars and World War I, including "Drummer Ho... Read More

The Distracted Preacher - listen book free online

Thomas Hardy is one of Britain’s greatest authors. Considered a Victorian realist, Hardy examines the social constraints on the lives of those living in Victorian England. Wessex Tales, a collection of short stories including The Three Strangers, The Withered Arm and Fellow Townsmen, deal with a number of timeless themes seen so often in Hardy’s work, including marriage, class, revenge and disa... Read More

The Melancholy Hussar of the German Legion - listen book free online

Thomas Hardy, an English novelist and poet, failed to find a publisher for his first novel. He then showed it to his mentor and friend, the Victorian poet and novelist, George Meredith, who felt that The Poor Man and the Lady would be too politically controversial and might damage Hardy's ability to publish in the future. So Hardy followed his advice and he did not try further to publish it. He... Read More

Far from the Madding Crowd - listen book free online
Author: Thomas Hardy
Reader: Robert Powell

English novelist and poet Thomas Hardy was highly critical of much in Victorian society, especially on the declining status of rural people in Britain. Considered a Victorian realist, Hardy examines the social constraints on the lives of those living in Victorian England. Also, Hardy wrote a number of significant war poems that relate to both the Boer Wars and World War I, including "Drummer Ho... Read More

Tess of the d'Urbervilles - listen book free online

Tess of the d'Urbervilles: A Pure Woman Faithfully Presented is a novel by Thomas Hardy. It initially appeared in a censored and serialised version, published by the British illustrated newspaper The Graphic in 1891. The “fine and handsome” daughter of a poor country peddler, with evidently little more than her brimming emotions and her “large innocent eyes” to distinguish her from the other gi... Read More

The Woodlanders - listen book free online
Author: Thomas Hardy
Reader: Samuel West

English novelist and poet Thomas Hardy was highly critical of much in Victorian society, especially on the declining status of rural people in Britain. Many of his novels concern tragic characters struggling against their passions and social circumstances. The Woodlanders is a novel by Thomas Hardy, published in 1887. The Woodlanders marks the beginnings of controversy for Hardy's novels. At th... Read More

The Return of the Native - listen book free online
Author: Thomas Hardy
Reader: Alan Rickman

As Alexander Theroux once said that Hardy was "committed to the deep expression of ironic chaos and strange apathy, even hostility, toward man." Thomas Hardy was one of Britain’s greatest authors. Hardy's work was admired by many younger writers, including D. H. Lawrence, John Cowper Powys, and Virginia Woolf. One of Thomas Hardy’s most powerful works, The Return of the Native centres famously... Read More

The Old Curiosity Shop - listen book free online

An English writer and social critic Charles Dickens created some of the world's best-known fictional characters and is regarded by many as the greatest novelist of the Victorian era. Dickens's literary success began with the 1836 serial publication of The Pickwick Papers. Within a few years, he had become an international literary celebrity, famous for his humour, satire, and keen observation o... Read More

Barnaby Rudge - listen book free online

Charles Dickens was the most popular novelist of his time and remains one of the best-known English authors. His works have never gone out of print, and have been adapted continually for the screen. Barnaby Rudge was the fifth of Dickens' novels to be published. It had originally been planned to appear as his first, but changes of publisher led to many delays, and it first appeared in serial fo... Read More

Nicholas Nickleby - listen book free online

Charles Dickens enjoyed popularity during his lifetime than had any previous author. Much in his work could appeal to the simple and the sophisticated, to the poor and to the queen. His long career saw fluctuations in the reception and sales of individual novels, but none of them was negligible or uncharacteristic or disregarded, and, though he is now admired for aspects and phases of his work... Read More

The Mystery of Edwin Drood - listen book free online

Charles John Huffam Dickens was an English writer and social critic. He created some of the world's best-known fictional characters. Dickens was regarded as the literary colossus of his age. His 1843 novella, A Christmas Carol, remains popular and continues to inspire adaptations in every artistic genre. Oliver Twist and Great Expectations are also frequently adapted, and, like many of his nove... Read More

A Tale of Two Cities. Book the First - listen book free online

An English writer and social critic Charles Dickens created some of the world's best-known fictional characters and is regarded by many as the greatest novelist of the Victorian era. A Tale of Two Cities has been cited as one of the best-selling novels of all time. It has been stated to have sold 200 million copies since its first publication, though this figure has been dismissed as "pure fict... Read More

A Tale of Two Cities. Book the Second - listen book free online

Charles Dickens was the most popular novelist of his time and remains one of the best-known English authors. Dickens's literary success began with the 1836 serial publication of The Pickwick Papers. His works have never gone out of print, and have been adapted continually for the screen. A Tale of Two Cities is a novel by Charles Dickens, set in London and Paris before and during the French Rev... Read More

Bleak House - listen book free online

Charles John Huffam Dickens, an English writer and social critic, was born in Portsmouth, Dickens left school to work in a factory when his father was incarcerated in a debtors' prison. Despite his lack of formal education, he became the most popular novelist of his time and remains one of the best-known English authors. Dickens wrote his ninth novel Bleak House at that perfect hinge in his car... Read More