Showing results by publisher "Brilliance Audio" in Classics

Silas Marner is a selfless member of a tight Calvinist sect who's been framed for stealing the congregation's funds. Expelled from his community, he retreats to the rustic hamlet of Raveloe to spend the remainder of his life as a misanthropic hermit, devoted only to the fortune he amasses as a linen weaver. But when his gold is taken, Silas also feels robbed of what's left of his humanity. Then, one snowy New Year's Eve, an orphan girl comes in out of the storm and changes him forever.

The orphaned Mary Lennox is sullen, ill tempered, and unloved when she's sent to live with her uncle, Archibald Craven. A man consumed by grief over the death of his wife, Archibald has allowed his sprawling estate on the moors to fall into grim disrepair. It's when Mary begins tending to her late aunt's mysterious garden - locked up and neglected for years - that she discovers its life-changing secrets and a flowering rejuvenation of the human spirit.

Love is in the air when five sisters discover that a wealthy and eligible bachelor is suddenly within reach. But it is his friend, the haughty Mr. Darcy, who becomes smitten. Unfortunately for him, the object of his affection is not so easily swayed. One of the most popular characters in English literature, Elizabeth Bennet is intelligent, witty, well-spoken and ahead of her time. If the terrible rumors about Mr. Darcy are true, he doesn't stand a chance. Yet not all gossip is to be believed when marriage, money, and reputations are on the line.

The Summer Kingdom has fallen to the Pale Queen, and it's Claire's fault. The Winter Kingdom faces destruction, and it's her fault. Her mother is dead. Everything is her fault. Once the designated assassin for Queen Mab, Claire is now nothing more than a humiliated mortal, haunted by her own failures. Abandoned by her former allies and stripped of her magic, Claire is banished to the Immortal Circus.

Declaring the church corrupt and urging rationality over revelation, Thomas Paine’s The Age of Reason directly opposed the existing political and religious order of his time. Initially printed in pamphlet form, his work audaciously employed “vulgar” everyday language, as Paine sought to bring his message, and the appeal of deism, to the masses.

Many well-loved modern stories have roots in the imaginations of the brothers Grimm, but do you know Rapunzel's real predicament, or Hansel and Gretel's gruesome revenge after eating an old woman out of house and home, or the lengths Cinderella's stepsisters would go to achieve the perfect fit? With these original tales, you'll discover the darker side of once upon a time.

Born in sixteenth-century Argentina, Francisco Maldonado da Silva is nine years old when he sees his father, Don Diego, arrested one harrowing afternoon because of his beliefs. Raised in a family practicing its Jewish faith in secret under the condemning eyes of the Spanish Inquisition, Francisco embarks on a personal quest that will challenge, enlighten, and forever change him.

After prospecting for gold in Arizona, Confederate Civil War hero John Carter stumbles upon a mysterious cave - a portal, it turns out, to the ecologically endangered planet Mars. Once there, he finds his place with a tribe of green Martians, and his newfound powers in the reduced Martian gravity make him an important figure in their war against a rival tribe. At the heart of this conflict lies the beautiful Dejah Thoris, the kidnapped Princess of Helium. Rescuing her soon becomes paramount, for only she can help Carter save the dying planet he now calls home.

What is the terrible secret at the heart of The King in Yellow? The forbidden play’s second act is said to drive all those who read it mad. And the sinister text casts its shadow of dread over Robert W. Chambers’s collection of weird, supernatural stories of the same name. Threaded with elements of fantasy, science fiction, the supernatural, and gothic horror, this cult classic continues to inspire the imagination of artists - from H. P. Lovecraft to the writers of HBO’s True Detective - and delight connoisseurs of the macabre.

Martin Arrowsmith’s youthful curiosity for science has blossomed into an altruistic devotion to medicine and research. The doctor moves from small towns to big cities and from local offices to prestigious institutes. With every step upward that Arrowsmith takes in his career, his idealism is challenged by the greed, corruption, and commercialism of the scientific community, as well as by the temptations of women, money, power, and glory. Against the odds, and through loss and groundbreaking discovery, Dr. Arrowsmith must stay true.

Meet the newest professor at Gooseberry Bluff Community College of Magic, Joy Wilkins. She may suffer from face blindness, but Joy can still recognize people by reading their auras - a skill that comes in handy for her real work as an undercover agent with the Federal Bureau of Magical Affairs. Her mission: Discover the source of weaponized demons being trafficked through the quaint school on the border of Minnesota and Wisconsin, and to locate her predecessor, the school’s missing History of Magic professor.

Humphrey Van Weyden finds himself the captive voyager aboard the Ghost, captained by the brutal and barbaric Wolf Larsen. The desperate character of Van Weyden's voyage is defined by the fact that he is out of his element, in unimaginable peril, and the slave of this cynical and wild soul, Larsen. Almost immediately, the slave plots his freedom - and must confront the weakness in his soul, mind and body.

On the glistening surface of Virginia Woolf’s groundbreaking novel is the Ramsay family, a seemingly stable group of characters, but a group that is ultimately subject to the same alterations and losses that come with the passing of time. Set at the Ramsays’ summerhouse over two September days, ten years apart, Woolf’s influential landmark of twentieth-century literature explores the hopes, frustrations, and small moments of grace and change that permeate everyday life.

Wynema Harjo is an idealistic young Muscogee woman who finds meaning as a teacher for the young people of her village. After the Wounded Knee Massacre and the subsequent Ghost Dance movement, Wynema feels a need to take further action, and she and her husband adopt a Lakota girl. As the years roll by and injustices mount, Wynema and a fellow teacher, Genevieve Weir, consider the repercussions of the oppression that surrounds them—and wonder how their society might eventually be improved.

When The Sport of the Gods opens, the Hamilton family is doing relatively well. They have stable jobs and good reputations as servants for a wealthy Southern family - but they also have little sense of how tenuous their existence has become. When money goes missing, the supposed victim points a finger at patriarch Berry Hamilton, and Berry is sentenced to ten years of hard labor. In response, Berry’s wife, Fannie, and his two children, Joe and Kit, migrate to New York City. Their hope is that the great city of the North will provide them with a fresh start.

While it lived, the tamarind tree stood at the crossroads of a small village in Southern India. For more than fifty years it was a benevolent observer, offering shade without discrimination. It bore witness to laughter and tears, to tragedy and simple pleasures, and to the history of the village itself as it transformed from the old ways of bullock-led carts to a bustling community of social, political, economic, and ecological change.

In Coketown, England, wealthy retiree Thomas Gradgrind has founded a school based on his belief that life should be factual - not fanciful. Among his pupils are his children, Thomas and Louisa, who are raised on his teachings of rational self-interest and grow into loveless, despairing adults. As he bears witness to his children’s suffering, Gradgrind is forced to confront the dangers of his dispassionate, utilitarian philosophy.

Beautiful New York socialite Lily Bart finds herself alone and nearly penniless as her thirtieth birthday approaches. To maintain her station in high society, Lily must wait for her miserly aunt to bequeath her fortune, or marry well. Blessed with wit and charm, she doesn’t lack for suitors, yet the most socially acceptable candidates fail to capture Lily’s interest. Instead, she’s intrigued by a young lawyer who is unafraid to speak his mind.

After Hank Morgan of Hartford, Connecticut, takes a blow to the head, he inexplicably awakens in sixth-century Camelot. At first lost and confused, the time traveler soon realizes that he can use modern knowledge and his ability to foretell the future to his advantage. Consequently, he is granted a place in the king’s court as Arthur’s right-hand man. When the Catholic Church grows fearful of his power, the Connecticut Yankee aims higher and concocts a grandiose plan to bring American ideals to sixth-century England to change the future.

When Constance Reid's new husband, Sir Clifford Chatterley, returns from war paralyzed and in a wheelchair, she sees her future wither. As their marriage grows loveless, she mourns the desires fated to go unfulfilled. But a stirring fascination with Oliver Mellors, the estate's coarse, taciturn gamekeeper, blooms into feelings she feared had died. Soon the lovers find themselves entangled in scandal, and their taboo affair becomes as pernicious as it is passionate.