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Searching by tag "England"

Jane Eyre - listen book free online

Most famous for her passionate novel Jane Eyre, Charlotte Brontë also published poems and three other novels. She was the third of six children of Patrick Brontë, an Irish crofter’s son who rose via a Cambridge education to become, in 1820, a perpetual curate at Haworth, in Yorkshire. Jane Eyre first published in 1847 as Jane Eyre: An Autobiography, with Currer Bell listed as the editor. It is... Read More

Villette - listen book free online
Reader: Nadia May

The three Brontë sisters, Charlotte, Emily and Anne each published works during the Victorian era. Villette uses the biographical structure commonly seen in traditional Victorian literature but deviates somewhat due to its autobiographical nature. Many of the events that happen to the protagonist of the story mirror the events in the author's life. Like Lucy, Charlotte Brontë experienced family... Read More

Wuthering Heights - listen book free online
Author: Emily Brontë
Reader: Hannah Gordon

Wuthering Heights is now a classic of English literature, but back in the Victorian era it was controversial because of its unusually stark depiction of mental and physical cruelty, and it challenged strict Victorian ideals regarding religious hypocrisy, morality, social classes and gender inequality. Emily Brontë's Wuthering Heights was first published in London in 1847 by Thomas Cautley Newby... Read More

The Narrow Corner - listen book free online

W. Somerset Maugham was a British playwright, novelist and short story writer. A year after his first novel Liza of Lambeth was published Maugham began contributing to magazines and periodicals; initially, these were short stories, but he also wrote opinion pieces, non-fictional and autobiographical work, and letters. Much of his non-fictional writing was published in book form. The Narrow Corn... Read More

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

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

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

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

David Copperfield - listen book free online

An English writer and social critic Charles Dickens is regarded by many as the greatest novelist of the Victorian era. His plots were carefully constructed, and he often wove elements from topical events into his narratives. David Copperfield is the eighth novel by Charles Dickens. It marked the point at which Dickens became the great entertainer and also laid the foundations for his later, dar... Read More

The Chimes - listen book free online
Author: Charles Dickens
Reader: George Cole

Charles Dickens was the most popular novelist of his time. The Chimes is a short novel by Charles Dickens and was published in 1844. This is one among the novels in his Christmas Series, which spreads out a strong moral and social message. The book was written in late 1844, during Dickens' year-long visit to Italy. John Forster, his first biographer, records that Dickens, hunting for a title an... Read More

Great Expectations - listen book free online

Charles Dickens, in full Charles John Huffam Dickens, English novelist, generally considered the greatest of the Victorian era. His many volumes include such works as A Christmas Carol, David Copperfield, Bleak House, and Our Mutual Friend. One of Charles Dickens’s most fascinating novels, Great Expectations follows the orphan Pip as he leaves behind a childhood of misery and poverty after an a... Read More

Our Mutual Friend - listen book free online

A satiric masterpiece about the allure and peril of money, Our Mutual Friend revolves around the inheritance of a dust-heap where the rich throw their trash. It was published in nineteen monthly numbers, in the fashion of many earlier Dickens novels, for the first time since Little Dorrit. Dickens remarked to Wilkie Collins that he was "quite dazed" at the prospect of putting out twenty monthly... Read More

Oliver Twist - listen book free online

Charles 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 novels, evoke images of early Victorian London. Oliver Twist; or, the Parish Boy's Progress is Charles Dickens's second novel, an... Read More

Ivanhoe - listen book free online

Sir Walter Scott was a Scottish historical novelist, poet, playwright and historian. Many of his works remain classics of both English-language literature and of Scottish literature. He was extremely popular and widely read, both at home and abroad. Ivanhoe was the first of Scott's novels to adopt a purely English subject and was also his first attempt to combine history and romance, which late... Read More

Emma - listen book free online
Author: Jane Austen
Reader: Belinda Lang

Jane Austen, for some, is simply the supreme English novelist, on any list. Some will say: she is the greatest. Austen's plots often explore the dependence of women on marriage in the pursuit of favourable social standing and economic security. Her works critique the novels of sensibility of the second half of the 18th century and are part of the transition to 19th-century literary realism. Of... Read More

Persuasion - listen book free online

Jane Austen was an English novelist known primarily for her six major novels, which interpret, critique and comment upon the British landed gentry at the end of the 18th century. Persuasion was the last novel Jane Austen completed, and it didn’t appear in print until 1818 after she had passed away. It’s also shorter than most of her other novels, and some critics think that, because she wrote t... Read More

Sense and Sensibility - listen book free online
Author: Jane Austen
Reader: Julie Christie

Novel-writing was a suspect occupation for women in the early 19th century because it imperilled their social reputation by bringing them publicity, viewed as unfeminine. Therefore, like many other female writers, Austen published anonymously. Sense and Sensibility is a novel by Jane Austen that was published anonymously in three volumes in 1811 and that became a classic. The satirical, comic w... Read More