Most Popular
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Gilgamesh: The New Translation
- By: Gerald J. Davis
- Narrated by: John Hanks
- Length: 3 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
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Story
The tale of the fifth king of the first dynasty of Uruk (in what is modern-day Iraq), who reigned for 126 years, according to the ancient Sumerian list of kings....
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Good
- By Duncan Macfarlane on 25-06-2022
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The Iliad
- By: Homer, Emily Wilson - translator
- Narrated by: Audra McDonald
- Length: 20 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
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Story
Wilson has returned with an equally revelatory translation of Homer’s other great epic―the most revered war poem of all time....
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The Iliad & The Odyssey
- By: Homer
- Narrated by: Andrea Giordani
- Length: 29 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
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Story
The Iliad and The Odyssey are epic poems traditionally attributed to Homer, of which the written versions are dated to the 8th century BCE. Chronicling events in the Greek Bronze Age, this magnificent pair of poems forms the cornerstone of Western literature....
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The Canterbury Tales
- Penguin Classics
- By: Geoffrey Chaucer, Nevill Coghill (Translation)
- Narrated by: Lesley Manville, Daniel Weyman, Derek Jacobi, and others
- Length: 16 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
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Performance
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Story
In The Canterbury Tales Chaucer created one of the great touchstones of English literature, a masterly collection of chivalric romances, moral allegories and low farce....
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Better than expected
- By Brydie Robinson on 07-02-2023
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Paradise Lost
- By: John Milton
- Narrated by: Anton Lesser
- Length: 10 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Milton tells the story of man's creation, fall and redemption, "to justify the ways of God to men"....
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Worth listening to
- By Simon on 02-05-2019
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Layli and Majnun
- By: Nezami Ganjavi, Dick Davis - translator introduction
- Narrated by: Dick Davis, Peter Ganim, Serena Manteghi, and others
- Length: 7 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
The iconic love story of the Middle East, by a 12th-century Persian poet who has been compared to Shakespeare for his subtlety, inventiveness, and dramatic force, Layli and Majnun tells of star-crossed lovers whose union is tragically thwarted by their families....
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Gilgamesh: The New Translation
- By: Gerald J. Davis
- Narrated by: John Hanks
- Length: 3 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
The tale of the fifth king of the first dynasty of Uruk (in what is modern-day Iraq), who reigned for 126 years, according to the ancient Sumerian list of kings....
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Good
- By Duncan Macfarlane on 25-06-2022
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The Iliad
- By: Homer, Emily Wilson - translator
- Narrated by: Audra McDonald
- Length: 20 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Wilson has returned with an equally revelatory translation of Homer’s other great epic―the most revered war poem of all time....
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The Iliad & The Odyssey
- By: Homer
- Narrated by: Andrea Giordani
- Length: 29 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
The Iliad and The Odyssey are epic poems traditionally attributed to Homer, of which the written versions are dated to the 8th century BCE. Chronicling events in the Greek Bronze Age, this magnificent pair of poems forms the cornerstone of Western literature....
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The Canterbury Tales
- Penguin Classics
- By: Geoffrey Chaucer, Nevill Coghill (Translation)
- Narrated by: Lesley Manville, Daniel Weyman, Derek Jacobi, and others
- Length: 16 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
In The Canterbury Tales Chaucer created one of the great touchstones of English literature, a masterly collection of chivalric romances, moral allegories and low farce....
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Better than expected
- By Brydie Robinson on 07-02-2023
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Paradise Lost
- By: John Milton
- Narrated by: Anton Lesser
- Length: 10 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Milton tells the story of man's creation, fall and redemption, "to justify the ways of God to men"....
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Worth listening to
- By Simon on 02-05-2019
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Layli and Majnun
- By: Nezami Ganjavi, Dick Davis - translator introduction
- Narrated by: Dick Davis, Peter Ganim, Serena Manteghi, and others
- Length: 7 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
-
Story
The iconic love story of the Middle East, by a 12th-century Persian poet who has been compared to Shakespeare for his subtlety, inventiveness, and dramatic force, Layli and Majnun tells of star-crossed lovers whose union is tragically thwarted by their families....
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Paradise Lost
- Penguin Classics
- By: John Milton, John Leonard
- Narrated by: Adrian Schiller
- Length: 12 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
In Paradise Lost, Milton produced a poem of epic scale, conjuring up a vast, awe-inspiring cosmos and ranging across huge tracts of space and time....
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Epic
- By Jamin on 21-04-2021
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The Poets' Corner
- The One-and-Only Poetry Book for the Whole Family
- By: John Lithgow
- Narrated by: Morgan Freeman, Susan Sarandon, Helen Mirren, and others
- Length: 6 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
John Lithgow has compiled an outstanding collection of memorable poems and has gathered his famous friends to read them....
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IGNITED MY JOY OF POETRY - THANK YOU JOHN LITHGOW!!!!
- By Jennifer Collins on 02-11-2023
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Metamorphoses
- Penguin Classics
- By: Ovid, David Raeburn - translator, Denis Feeney
- Narrated by: Martin Jarvis, John Sackville, Maya Saroya, and others
- Length: 18 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Ovid's sensuous and witty poetry brings together a dazzling array of mythological tales, ingeniously linked by the idea of transformation - often as a result of love or lust - where men and women find themselves magically changed into new and sometimes extraordinary beings....
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I probably should have paid for this
- By Katherine Cooper on 22-08-2023
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The Mahabharata
- By: John D. Smith - translator
- Narrated by: Shaheen Khan, Sagar Arya
- Length: 44 hrs and 7 mins
- Abridged
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Story
The Mahabharata is one of the two major Sanskrit epics of ancient India. It is of immense importance to the culture of the Indian subcontinent and is a major text of Hinduism....
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The Iliad & The Odyssey
- By: Homer
- Narrated by: John Lescault
- Length: 28 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
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Performance
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Story
Little is known about the Ancient Greek oral poet Homer, the supposed 8th century BC author of the world-read Iliad and his later masterpiece, The Odyssey....
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Epic
- By Anonymous User on 22-05-2023
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Rumi's Little Book of Life
- The Garden of the Soul, the Heart, and the Spirit
- By: Rumi, Maryam Mafi - translator, Azima Melita Kolin - translator
- Narrated by: Natasha Soudek
- Length: 2 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
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Performance
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Story
This beautiful collection of 196 of his poems, previously unavailable in English and now translated by native Persian speakers Maryam Mafi and Azima Melita Kolin, will appeal to Rumi lovers everywhere who want a guidebook for their inner journey....
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The Iliad
- By: Homer, Alexander Pope - translator
- Narrated by: Michael Page
- Length: 20 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
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Story
One of the foremost achievements in Western literature, Homer's Iliad tells the story of the darkest episode in the Trojan War....
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The Eclogues and Georgics
- By: Virgil
- Narrated by: Andrew Wincott, Jamie Parker, Paul Panting, and others
- Length: 4 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
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Story
Though it is for the sparkling epic, Aeneid, that the Roman poet Virgil is best known, it was these two poems, The Eclogues and Georgics, which first established his reputation....
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Beowulf
- By: Michael Alexander, Anonymous
- Narrated by: Royce Pierreson, Roy McMillan - introduction
- Length: 4 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
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Performance
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Story
Beowulf is the greatest surviving work of literature in Old English, unparalleled in its epic grandeur and scope....
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Ion
- By: Plato
- Narrated by: Bryan Godwin
- Length: 47 mins
- Unabridged
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Performance
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Story
Ion is a very short Platonic dialogue between Socrates and a rhapsode by the name of Ion who specializes in reciting the poetry of Homer...
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The Iliad and The Odyssey
- By: Homer
- Narrated by: Rob Goll, Lance Rasmussen, Josh Innerst, and others
- Length: 27 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
The Iliad, set 9 years into the Trojan War, tells the story of the wrath of Achilles. The Odyssey tells the story of Odysseus as he wearily travels home from the war. The two epics provide the basis of Greek education and culture in the classical age....
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The Divine Comedy
- Penguin Classics
- By: Robin Kirkpatrick - translator, Dante Alighieri
- Narrated by: Jot Davies, Robin Kirkpatrick, Kristin Atherton
- Length: 17 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
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Performance
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Story
The Divine Comedy describes Dante's descent into Hell with Virgil as a guide, his ascent of Mount Purgatory and his encounter with his dead love Beatrice, and finally, his arrival in Heaven....
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Great story, excruciating performance.
- By Anonymous User on 26-08-2021
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The Selected Poems of Li Po
- By: Li Po, Po Li, David Hinton, and others
- Narrated by: David Shih
- Length: 2 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
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Performance
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Story
Li Po (AD 701-762) lived in T'ang Dynasty China, but his influence has spanned the centuries: the pure lyricism of his poems has awed readers in China and Japan for over a millennium....
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The Argonautica
- Jason and the Golden Fleece
- By: Apollonius of Rhodes
- Narrated by: Charlton Griffin
- Length: 14 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
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Performance
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Story
The Argonautica, also known as Jason and the Golden Fleece or Jason and the Argonauts, is the only surviving epic poem from Hellenistic Greece. Virgil and other later poets were greatly influenced by it....
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On Believing in Mind
- By: Seng Ts'an
- Narrated by: Denis Daly
- Length: 12 mins
- Unabridged
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Performance
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This enigmatic poem is attributed to Seng-t'san, the third Chinese patriarch of Zen, who died in 606 CE. The tone of the work is revealed in the opening stanza in which the patriarch recommends dynamic introspection as the ideal attitude in solving the apparent problems of life....
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Beowulf
- By: Anonymous
- Narrated by: Crawford Logan
- Length: 2 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
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Performance
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Story
The oldest long poem in Old English, written about AD 1,000, Beowulf tells the story of a great warrior of southern Scandinavia, in both youth and maturity....
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Eneide [Italian Edition]
- By: Publio Virgilio Marone
- Narrated by: Claudio Carini
- Length: 11 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
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Scritta da Virgilio tra il 29 e il 19 A. C., nei primi anni del regno di Augusto, l'Eneide chiude il ciclo epico degli eroi iniziato da Omero con l'Iliade e l'Odissea....
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Dante's Divine Comedy
- A Guide for the Spiritual Journey
- By: Mark Vernon
- Narrated by: Mark Vernon
- Length: 17 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
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The Divine Comedy was born in a time of troubling transition, which is why it still speaks today. In this narrative retelling and guide, Mark Vernon offers a vivid introduction and interpretation of a book that, 700 years on, continues to open minds and change lives....
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Rama the Steadfast
- An Early Form of the Ramayana
- By: M Valmiki, John Brockington, Mary Brockington
- Narrated by: Sid Sagar
- Length: 17 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
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Performance
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Story
Warrior-prince Rama is about to be crowned Young King, when he hears the devastating news that his father, king of Ayodhya, has been tricked into banishing him to the forest....
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The Satyricon
- By: Petronius
- Narrated by: Nicholas Boulton
- Length: 6 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
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Libidinous, licentious, salacious and very, very funny, The Satyricon is one of the most remarkable documents from Ancient Rome....
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The Odyssey
- By: Homer
- Narrated by: Charles Purkey
- Length: 10 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
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Performance
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Story
Odysseus has been away from Ithaca, the Greek city-state under his rule, for ten years while fighting in the Trojan War. After the fall of...
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Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
- Penguin Classics
- By: Bernard O'Donoghue
- Narrated by: Frank Turner
- Length: 2 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
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Story
Composed during the 14th century in the English Midlands, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight describes the events that follow when a mysterious green-coloured knight rides into King Arthur's Camelot in deep mid-winter....
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The Odyssey (Dramatized)
- By: Homer, Simon Armitage - dramatisation
- Narrated by: Tim McInnerny, Amanda Redman, full cast
- Length: 3 hrs and 49 mins
- Original Recording
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Performance
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In a 20-year journey, fabulous fantasy mixes with extraordinary reality as Odysseus encounters enchantresses, nymphs, monsters, prophets, and ghosts....
New Releases
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Völsunga Saga
- By: Eiríkr Magnússon
- Narrated by: Corbang
- Length: 4 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
The Völsunga saga is a legendary saga, a late 13th-century poetic rendition in Old Norse of the origin and decline of the Völsung clan (including the story of Sigurd and Brynhild and the destruction of the Burgundians). It is one of the most famous legendary sagas and an example of a "heroic saga" that deals with Germanic heroic legend. The saga covers topics including the quarrel between Sigi and Skaði, a huge family tree of great kings and powerful conquerors and the quest led by Sigmund and Sinfjǫtli to save princess Signý from the evil king Siggeir.
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Paradise Lost
- By: John Milton
- Narrated by: Sam Kusi
- Length: 10 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Paradise Lost is an epic poem in blank verse by the 17th-century English poet John Milton (1608–1674). The first version, published in 1667, consists of ten books with over ten thousand lines of verse. A second edition followed in 1674, arranged into twelve books (in the manner of Virgil's Aeneid) with minor revisions throughout. It is considered by critics to be Milton's major work, and it helped solidify his reputation as one of the greatest English poets of his time.
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Inferno
- The Divine Comedy, Book 1
- By: Dante Alighieri
- Narrated by: Joe Carlson
- Length: 5 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Have you ever heard the sounds of Hell? Felt the darkness and the ice? Tasted the burnt air on your tongue? Dante’s Inferno will give you a flavor of the wretchedness of sin that you will never forget. The images and action that bring you down into the very center of judgment and consequence, into that eternal realm of woe, will stick to the ribcages of your mind, and change the way you see the world, the devil, and your own flesh.
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The Theogony
- By: Hesiod
- Narrated by: Peter Coates
- Length: 1 hr and 10 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
The Theogony "the genealogy or birth of the gods" is a poem by Hesiod (8th – 7th century BC) describing the origins and genealogies of the Greek gods, composed c. 730–700 BC. It is written in the Epic dialect of Ancient Greek and contains 1022 lines. Hesiod's Theogony is a large-scale synthesis of a vast variety of local Greek traditions concerning the gods, organized as a narrative that tells how they came to be and how they established permanent control over the cosmos. It is the first known Greek mythical cosmogony.
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The Complete Poems
- By: Sappho
- Narrated by: Kelli Winkler
- Length: 1 hr and 5 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Sappho is widely recognized as one of the great poets of world literature, an author whose works have caused her readers to repeat in many different forms Strabo's amazed epithet when he wrote that she could only be called "a marvel." The reception of Sappho's poetry even through the twentieth century offers a case study of the conflicts induced by the sexual preferences she seemingly alludes to in her verse. Little is known with certainty about the life of Sappho, or Psappha in her native Aeolic dialect. She was born probably about 620 B.C. to an aristocratic family on the island of Lesbos during a great cultural flowering in the area.
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10 Masterpieces of Ancient Greek Literature
- The Odyssey, the Works and Days, Theogony, the Complete Poems of Sappho, Medea, Antigone, Oresteia, the Odes of Anacreon
- By: Homer, Hesiod, Sappho, and others
- Narrated by: Peter Coates, Kelli Winkler, Mark Bowen
- Length: 25 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
The earliest surviving works of ancient Greek literature, dating back to the early Archaic period, are the two epic poems the Iliad and the Odyssey. These two epics, along with the Homeric Hymns and the two poems of Hesiod, Theogony and Works and Days, comprised the major foundations of the Greek literary tradition that would continue into the Classical, Hellenistic, and Roman periods. This carefully selected collection contains: The Odyssey ; The Works and Days ; Theogony ; The Complete Poems of Sappho ; Medea ; Antigone ; Agamemnon ; The Choephori ; Eumenides.
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Völsunga Saga
- By: Eiríkr Magnússon
- Narrated by: Corbang
- Length: 4 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Völsunga saga is a legendary saga, a late 13th-century poetic rendition in Old Norse of the origin and decline of the Völsung clan (including the story of Sigurd and Brynhild and the destruction of the Burgundians). It is one of the most famous legendary sagas and an example of a "heroic saga" that deals with Germanic heroic legend. The saga covers topics including the quarrel between Sigi and Skaði, a huge family tree of great kings and powerful conquerors and the quest led by Sigmund and Sinfjǫtli to save princess Signý from the evil king Siggeir.
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Paradise Lost
- By: John Milton
- Narrated by: Sam Kusi
- Length: 10 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Paradise Lost is an epic poem in blank verse by the 17th-century English poet John Milton (1608–1674). The first version, published in 1667, consists of ten books with over ten thousand lines of verse. A second edition followed in 1674, arranged into twelve books (in the manner of Virgil's Aeneid) with minor revisions throughout. It is considered by critics to be Milton's major work, and it helped solidify his reputation as one of the greatest English poets of his time.
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Inferno
- The Divine Comedy, Book 1
- By: Dante Alighieri
- Narrated by: Joe Carlson
- Length: 5 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Have you ever heard the sounds of Hell? Felt the darkness and the ice? Tasted the burnt air on your tongue? Dante’s Inferno will give you a flavor of the wretchedness of sin that you will never forget. The images and action that bring you down into the very center of judgment and consequence, into that eternal realm of woe, will stick to the ribcages of your mind, and change the way you see the world, the devil, and your own flesh.
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The Theogony
- By: Hesiod
- Narrated by: Peter Coates
- Length: 1 hr and 10 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Theogony "the genealogy or birth of the gods" is a poem by Hesiod (8th – 7th century BC) describing the origins and genealogies of the Greek gods, composed c. 730–700 BC. It is written in the Epic dialect of Ancient Greek and contains 1022 lines. Hesiod's Theogony is a large-scale synthesis of a vast variety of local Greek traditions concerning the gods, organized as a narrative that tells how they came to be and how they established permanent control over the cosmos. It is the first known Greek mythical cosmogony.
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The Complete Poems
- By: Sappho
- Narrated by: Kelli Winkler
- Length: 1 hr and 5 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Sappho is widely recognized as one of the great poets of world literature, an author whose works have caused her readers to repeat in many different forms Strabo's amazed epithet when he wrote that she could only be called "a marvel." The reception of Sappho's poetry even through the twentieth century offers a case study of the conflicts induced by the sexual preferences she seemingly alludes to in her verse. Little is known with certainty about the life of Sappho, or Psappha in her native Aeolic dialect. She was born probably about 620 B.C. to an aristocratic family on the island of Lesbos during a great cultural flowering in the area.
-
10 Masterpieces of Ancient Greek Literature
- The Odyssey, the Works and Days, Theogony, the Complete Poems of Sappho, Medea, Antigone, Oresteia, the Odes of Anacreon
- By: Homer, Hesiod, Sappho, and others
- Narrated by: Peter Coates, Kelli Winkler, Mark Bowen
- Length: 25 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The earliest surviving works of ancient Greek literature, dating back to the early Archaic period, are the two epic poems the Iliad and the Odyssey. These two epics, along with the Homeric Hymns and the two poems of Hesiod, Theogony and Works and Days, comprised the major foundations of the Greek literary tradition that would continue into the Classical, Hellenistic, and Roman periods. This carefully selected collection contains: The Odyssey ; The Works and Days ; Theogony ; The Complete Poems of Sappho ; Medea ; Antigone ; Agamemnon ; The Choephori ; Eumenides.