World Literature

Jane Eyre

• UNABRIDGED (19 hrs and 10 mins)
• By Charlotte Bronte
• Narrated By Thandie Newton
• Whispersync for Voice-ready

Following Jane from her childhood as an orphan in Northern England through her experience as a governess at Thornfield Hall, Charlotte Brontë's Gothic classic is an early exploration of women's independence in the mid-19th century and the pervasive societal challenges women had to endure. At Thornfield, Jane meets the complex and mysterious Mr. Rochester, with whom she shares a complicated relationship that ultimately forces her to reconcile the conflicting passions of romantic love and religious piety.

The Brothers Karamazov [Naxos AudioBooks Edition]

• UNABRIDGED (37 hrs and 8 mins)
• By Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Constance Garnett - translator
• Narrated By Constantine Gregory
• Whispersync for Voice-ready

Fyodor Dostoyevsky is a titanic figure among the world's great authors, and The Brothers Karamazov is often hailed as his finest novel. A masterpiece on many levels, it transcends the boundaries of a gripping murder mystery to become a moving account of the battle between love and hate, faith and despair, compassion and cruelty, good and evil.

Anne of Green Gables

• UNABRIDGED (9 hrs and 22 mins)
• By Lucy Maud Montgomery
• Narrated By Rachel McAdams
• Whispersync for Voice-ready

With all of the pluck and charm of its eponymous young hero, Rachel McAdams (The Notebook, Spotlight, Midnight in Paris) delivers a spectacular reading of Montgomery's beloved bildungsroman. In moments both funny and bittersweet, McAdams' voice is imbued with the spark that has made Anne a much-loved symbol of individualism and cheer for over a century.

The Odyssey

• UNABRIDGED (13 hrs and 26 mins)
• By Homer, Robert Fagles - translator
• Narrated By Ian McKellen
• Whispersync for Voice-ready

The great adventure story tells of Odysseus, a veteran of the Trojan War, who - through a landscape peopled with monsters, sea nymphs, evil enchantresses, and vengeful gods - makes his tortuous way home to his faithful wife, Penelope. Shipwrecked numerous times, faced with apparently insurmountable obstacles, offered the temptations of ease, comfort, and even immortality, Odysseus remains steadfast and determined. Themes of courage and perseverance, fidelity and fortitude.

One Hundred Years of Solitude

• UNABRIDGED (14 hrs and 4 mins)
• By Gabriel García Márquez
• Narrated By John Lee
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One of the 20th century's enduring works, One Hundred Years of Solitude is a widely beloved and acclaimed novel known throughout the world and the ultimate achievement in a Nobel Prize-winning career. The novel tells the story of the rise and fall of the mythical town of Macondo through the history of the Buendía family. Rich and brilliant, it is a chronicle of life, death, and the tragicomedy of humankind. In the beautiful, ridiculous, and tawdry story of the Buendía family, one sees all of humanity, just as in the history, myths, growth, and decay of Macondo, one sees all of Latin America.

Siddhartha

• UNABRIDGED (4 hrs and 33 mins)
• By Hermann Hesse
• Narrated By Harish Bhimani

Hermann Hesse’s classic novel Siddhartha, takes place in ancient India around the time of the Buddha (6th century BC). Siddhartha and his companion Govinda set out in search of enlightenment. Siddhartha goes through a series of changes and realizations as he attempts to achieve this goal. Siddhartha joins the ascetics, visits Gotama, embraces his earthly desires, and finally communes with nature, all in an attempt to attain Nirvana.

Don Quixote (Adapted for Modern Listeners)

• ABRIDGED (4 hrs and 39 mins)
• By Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra
• Narrated By Johnny Heller

Quixotic is a word that the dictionary defines as "extravagantly chivalrous or romantic; visionary...." and that is a fitting definition, indeed, for this charming retelling of Don Quixote, the 17t- century Spanish classic by Miguel de Cervantes, now updated for the modern listener. The gallant and fragile Quixote will touch listeners, as will his faithful squire Sancho Panza and the tragically beautiful heroine of the gentle Don’s chivalries, the fair Dulcinea.

Anna Karenina

• UNABRIDGED (38 hrs and 5 mins)
• By Leo Tolstoy
• Narrated By David Horovitch

Anna Karenina seems to have everything - beauty, wealth, popularity and an adored son. But she feels that her life is empty until the moment she encounters the impetuous officer Count Vronsky.

The Winter of our Discontent

• UNABRIDGED (10 hrs and 20 mins)
• By John Steinbeck
• Narrated By Jeff Harding
• Whispersync for Voice-ready

Ethan Hawley has lost the spirit of his wealthy forebears, a long line of proud New England sea captains and Pilgrims. Scarred by failure, Ethan works as a grocery clerk in a store his family once owned. But his wife is restless and his teenage children hungry for the material comforts he cannot provide. Then a series of unusual events reignites Ethan's ambition, and he is pitched on to a bold course, where all scruples are put aside.

Out of Africa

• ABRIDGED (2 hrs and 57 mins)
• By Isak Dineson
• Narrated By Julie Harris

Danish countess Karen Blixon, known as Isak Dineson, ran a coffee plantation in Kenya in the years when Africa remained a romantic and formidable continent to most Europeans. Out of Africa is her account of her life there, with stories of her respectful relationships with the Masai, Kikuyu, and Somali natives who work on her land; the European friends who visit her; and the imposing permanence of the wild, high land itself. Stage and television actress Julie Harris delivers a reading that is emotionally charged and reflective, recreating Dinesen's lively appreciation for the land she loved so much.

Beyond Good and Evil

• UNABRIDGED (8 hrs and 24 mins)
• By Friedrich Nietzsche
• Narrated By Alex Jennings, Roy McMillan
• Whispersync for Voice-ready

Continuing where Thus Spoke Zarathustra left off, Nietzsche's controversial work Beyond Good and Evil is one of the most influential philosophical texts of the 19th century and one of the most controversial works of ideology ever written. Attacking the notion of morality as nothing more than institutionalised weakness, Nietzsche criticises past philosophers for their unquestioning acceptance of moral precepts. Nietzsche tried to formulate what he called "the philosophy of the future".

Wuthering Heights

• UNABRIDGED (14 hrs and 40 mins)
• By Emily Brontë
• Narrated By Janet Paulson
• Whispersync for Voice-ready

"Wuthering Heights" is Emily Brontë's only novel. It was first published in 1847 under the pseudonym Ellis Bell, and a posthumous second edition was edited by her sister Charlotte. The name of the novel comes from the Yorkshire manor on the moors on which the story centers (as an adjective, "wuthering" is a Yorkshire word referring to turbulent weather). The narrative tells the tale of the all-encompassing and passionate, yet thwarted, love between Heathcliff and Catherine Earnshaw.

The History of World Literature

• ORIGINAL (24 hrs and 37 mins)
• By The Great Courses
• Narrated By Professor Grant L. Voth

Whether around the campfire, between the covers of a great book, or in the theater, the desire to tell stories has been a common human impulse for thousands of years. These 48 lectures take you on a journey through time and around the world-from the enormous auditoriums of ancient Greece to a quiet study in the home of a 19th-century New England spinster - to introduce the history of world literature. In this course, you'll sample some of the greatest literary expressions the world has known and experience storytelling in its many forms, including poetry, drama, and narrative.

Myth in Human History

• ORIGINAL (18 hrs and 27 mins)
• By The Great Courses
• Narrated By Professor Grant L. Voth

Myths provide the keys to truly grasping the ways that principles, rituals, codes, and taboos are woven into the fabric of a particular society or civilization. It's through myths that we can answer these and other fundamental questions: How was the universe created, and why? What is the purpose of evil? Why is society organized the way it is? How did natural features like rivers, mountains, and oceans emerge?This entertaining and illuminating course plunges you into the world's greatest myths.

Marius (La Trilogie marseillaise 1)

• ORIGINAL (2 hrs and 31 mins)
• By Marcel Pagnol
• Narrated By Raimu, Pierre Fresnay, Orane Demazis, and others

Aujourd'hui, pour la première fois, Frémeaux & Associés, les Editions de la Treille et la succession Marcel Pagnol ont restauré les enregistrements sonores du film de 1931 (adaptation de la pièce de 1929) en utilisant les technologies les plus récentes afin de présenter au public la version historique de Marius incluant le texte de liaison interprété par Marcel Pagnol lui-même en 1960 rendant l'œuvre parfaitement adaptée au support audio.

Fanny (La Trilogie marseillaise 2)

• ORIGINAL (2 hrs and 4 mins)
• By Marcel Pagnol
• Narrated By Marcel Pagnol, Raimu, Pierre Fresnay, and others

Après avoir fait paraître Marius, Frémeaux & Associés poursuit l'édition sonore de Marcel Pagnol en mettant à la disposition du public le second volet de la Trilogie : Fanny.

Invitation to a Beheading

• UNABRIDGED (6 hrs and 10 mins)
• By Vladimir Nabokov
• Narrated By Stefan Rudnicki

Like Kafka's The Castle, Invitation to a Beheading embodies a vision of a bizarre and irrational world. In an unnamed dream country, the young man Cincinnatus C. is condemned to death by beheading for "gnostical turpitude", an imaginary crime that defies definition.

Peony: A Novel of China

• UNABRIDGED (12 hrs and 30 mins)
• By Pearl S. Buck
• Narrated By Kirsten Potter
• Whispersync for Voice-ready

Young Peony is sold into a rich Chinese household as a bondmaid - an awkward role in which she is more a servant, but less a daughter. As she grows into a lovely, provocative young woman, Peony falls in love with the family's only son. However, tradition forbids them to wed. How she resolves her love for him and her devotion to her adoptive family unfolds in this profound tale, based on true events in China over a century ago.

The Master and Margarita

• UNABRIDGED (16 hrs and 51 mins)
• By Mikhail Bulgakov
• Narrated By Julian Rhind-Tutt

The Devil comes to Moscow, but he isn't all bad; Pontius Pilate sentences a charismatic leader to his death, but yearns for redemption; and a writer tries to destroy his greatest tale, but discovers that manuscripts don't burn. Multi-layered and entrancing, blending sharp satire with glorious fantasy, The Master and Margarita is ceaselessly inventive and profoundly moving. In its imaginative freedom and raising of eternal human concerns, it is one of the world's great novels.

Sakunaka, the Handsome Young Man: A Story From Nelson Mandela's Favorite African Folktales

• UNABRIDGED (9 mins)
• By Nelson Mandela (editor)
• Narrated By LaTanya Richardson Jackson

Nelson Mandela's Favorite African Folktales is an audiobook benefiting children orphaned and impacted by HIV/AIDS in South Africa, featuring Gillian Anderson, Benjamin Bratt, LeVar Burton, Ricardo Chavira, Don Cheadle, Matt Damon, Whoopi Goldberg, Sean Hayes, Hugh Jackman, Samuel L. Jackson, LaTanya Richardson Jackson, Scarlett Johansson,

Debra Messing, Helen Mirren, Parminder Nagra, Sophie Okonedo, CCH Pounder, Alan Rickman, Jurnee Smollett, Charlize Theron, and Blair Underwood.

The Decameron

• ORIGINAL (28 hrs and 4 mins)
• By Giovanni Boccaccio
• Narrated By Simon Russell Beale, Gunnar Cauthery, Alison Pettitt, and others

The Decameron is one of the greatest literary works of the Middle Ages. Ten young people have fled the terrible effects of the Black Death in Florence and, in an idyllic setting, tell a series of brilliant stories, by turns humorous, bawdy, tragic and provocative. This celebration of physical and sexual vitality is Boccaccio's answer to the sublime other-worldliness of Dante's Divine Comedy.

Tom Swift And His Electric Runabout

• UNABRIDGED (4 hrs and 39 mins)
• By Victor Appleton
• Narrated By Tom Weiss

"Tom Swift And His Electric Runabout", or, "The Speediest Car on the Road", is Volume 5 in the original Tom Swift novel series published by Grosset & Dunlap. Tom Swift enters an upcoming race with his specially designed prototype electric race car. But as he makes the final preparations and adjustments, days before the race, he discovers a plot that would bankrupt not only his family, but also everyone else that relies on the local bank (which is the target of a nefarious bank run scheme).

Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves

• UNABRIDGED (23 mins)
• By Andrew Lang
• Narrated By Matt Stewart

An entertaining retelling of this classic folk tale from Arabian Nights.

Wuthering Heights

• UNABRIDGED (14 hrs and 40 mins)
• By Emily Brontë
• Narrated By Janet Paulson
• Whispersync for Voice-ready

"Wuthering Heights" is Emily Brontë's only novel. It was first published in 1847 under the pseudonym Ellis Bell, and a posthumous second edition was edited by her sister Charlotte. The name of the novel comes from the Yorkshire manor on the moors on which the story centers (as an adjective, "wuthering" is a Yorkshire word referring to turbulent weather). The narrative tells the tale of the all-encompassing and passionate, yet thwarted, love between Heathcliff and Catherine Earnshaw.

The Art of War

• UNABRIDGED (1 hr and 19 mins)
• By Sun Tzu
• Narrated By Roberto Scarlato
• Whispersync for Voice-ready

The Art of War is an ancient Chinese military treatise dating from the 5th century BC and is attributed to the ancient Chinese military strategist Sun Tzu ("Master Sun", also spelled Sunzi). The text is composed of 13 chapters, each of which is devoted to one aspect of warfare and it is commonly thought of as a definitive work on military strategy and tactics.

Frankenstein, Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Time Machine, War of the Worlds: Plus Bonus Books

• UNABRIDGED (35 hrs and 16 mins)
• By Mary Shelley, H. G. Wells, Robert Louis Stevenson, and others
• Narrated By Korey Samuel, Mark Neilson, Christine Hughes, and others

In this program, you will receive unabridged recordings.

Ulysses

• UNABRIDGED (31 hrs and 39 mins)
• By James Joyce
• Narrated By Tadhg Hynes, Kayleigh Payne

Tadhg Hynes, a Dubliner, narrates James Joyce's revolutionary masterpiece. Hynes says, "Don't be put off by its reputation. You don't need a university degree (though some like to think that you do!). It's a book for everyone, and as you become familiar with the way Joyce writes, this becomes obvious. I've tried to bring out the Dublin wit and the unique language of its people, and I hope that this adds to the enjoyment of this great book."

The Scarlet Letter: +Bonus Books

• UNABRIDGED (35 hrs and 4 mins)
• By Nathaniel Hawthorne
• Narrated By Korey Samuel, Benjamin Brown
• Whispersync for Voice-ready

In this program you will receive an unabridged recording of The Scarlet Letter, by Nathaniel Hawthorne. You will also receive the following bonus audiobooks: Love and Friendship, by Jane Austin. A satirical romance audiobook.Aunt Crete's Emancipation, by Grace Livingston Hill. A sweet older woman, who acts as a domestic servant to her sisters, finds herself in a peculiar situation when she is home alone and a "backwoods" cousin arrives at the front door. And more...

Summary, Analysis, and Review of Amor Towles' A Gentleman in Moscow

• UNABRIDGED (26 mins)
• By Start Publishing Notes
• Narrated By Michael Guilboe

A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles, is a novel about Count Alexander Ilyich Rostov, a Russian aristocrat who is condemned by Communists to spend the rest of his life confined in the Metropol, the capital's most glamorous hotel. The story opens on his trial in 1922, where he's shown leniency as a reward for having written a revolutionary poem that pre-dated the Russian Revolution. The only catch? If Rostov ever leaves the hotel, he will be executed.

Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves, The Story of Aladdin, and The Voyages of Sinbad

• UNABRIDGED (3 hrs and 44 mins)
• By Anonymous
• Narrated By David McCallion
• Whispersync for Voice-ready

Three of the most popular stories from ancient Persia come to life in one action-packed, magical audiobook. The story of Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves is about two brothers, one who marries a rich woman out of greed, and the other marries a poor woman out of love. The story gets its name from when the brothers are faced with 40 thieves who try to take their treasure.

The Arabian Nights Entertainments

• UNABRIDGED (13 hrs and 5 mins)
• By Andrew Lang
• Narrated By David McCallion
• Whispersync for Voice-ready

This delightfully narrated classic is a story within a story. In an attempt to postpone execution, the king's new bride spends one thousand and one nights enchanting him with story after story of true love, tragedy, sorcerers, and jinns.

The Little Prince

• UNABRIDGED (1 hr and 41 mins)
• By Antoine De Saint-Exupéry
• Narrated By Alexander Fink
• Whispersync for Voice-ready

"The Little Prince" was published in 1943 by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry. It is a poetic tale in which a pilot strands in the desert and meets a young prince fallen to Earth from a tiny asteroid. The story is philosophical and includes social criticism, remarking on the strangeness of the adult world. While it looks like a children's book, it targets adult relationships with deep thoughts on how adults perceive life and each other. "Children should show great understanding towards grown-ups".

Youth, a Narrative

• UNABRIDGED (1 hr and 16 mins)
• By Joseph Conrad
• Narrated By Christ Hughes
• Whispersync for Voice-ready

"Youth" is an autobiographical short story by Joseph Conrad. It was written in 1898, first published in Blackwood's Magazine, and included as the first story in the 1902 volume "Youth, a Narrative, and Two Other Stories". The volume also included "Heart of Darkness" and "The End of the Tether", which are concerned with maturity and old age, respectively. "Youth" depicts a young man's first journey to the East.

Aesop's Fables, Vol. 4

• UNABRIDGED (49 mins)
• By Aesop, Judith Cummings - contributor
• Narrated By Elliott Gould, Vanessa Redgrave, Burt Reynolds, and others

Dating back to the sixth century BC, Aesop's Fables tell universal truths through the use of simple allegories that are easily understood. Though almost nothing is known of Aesop himself, and some scholars question whether he existed at all, these stories stand as timeless classics known in almost every culture in the world.

A Children's Guide to Folklore and Wonder Tales

• ORIGINAL (12 hrs and 26 mins)
• By The Great Courses
• Narrated By Professor Hannah B. Harvey

In The Children's Guide to Folklore and Wonder Tales, Dr. Hannah Blevins Harvey unpacks more than 60 of our most beloved stories, fables, fairy tales, and songs from around the world - providing you with a fascinating, in-depth view into the history, context, and deeper meaning of the tales we know and love. As you travel through the catalogs of Grimm, Aesop, Hans Christian Andersen, Charles Perrault, Oscar Wilde, and so many more, you'll gain profound insights into how and why these stories came to be.

Aesop's Fables, Vol. 2

• UNABRIDGED (50 mins)
• By Aesop, Judith Cummings - contributor
• Narrated By Stephen Beacham, Harvey Fierstein, Elliott Gould, and others

Aesop's Fables present examples of selfishness turning to generosity, deception evolving into honor, and gloom unfolding to pleasure. These are moral tales which have survived since the life of Aesop and have traveled by language and distance. Celebrity performers include Harvey Fierstein, Sharon Stone, Michael York, Eddie Albert, Glenda Jackson, Rod Steiger, Gregory Hines, Cathy Moriarty, Stephanie Beacham, Elliott Gould, and Vanessa Redgrave.