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The most renowned and wittiest of Oscar Wilde's comedies, The Importance of Being Earnest ridicules Victorian sensibilities and is still strikingly relevant to this day. This full-cast audio adaptation featuring Tim Brooke-Taylor as Lady Bracknell is unique yet at the same time reassuringly familiar, with wonderful performances from the Offstage Theatre Group.

John Milton (1608-1674) has a unique claim on literary and intellectual history as the author of both Paradise Lost, the greatest narrative poem in English, and prose defenses of the execution of Charles I that influenced the French and American revolutions. Tracing Milton’s literary, intellectual, and political development with unprecedented depth and understanding, Poet of Revolution is an unmatched biographical account of the formation of the mind that would go on to create Paradise Lost - but would first justify the killing of a king.

Here's Dicken's Christmas classic of Ebenezer Scrooge and his encounter with the Ghosts of Christmas Past, Present, and Future. Originally published in 1843, A Christmas Carol has continued to be one of the most popular and enduring Christmas stories of all time.

Two archive BBC Radio programmes in which Judi Dench and Michael Williams, accompanied by friends John Moffatt and Alec McCowen, read a cornucopia of poetry and prose. In this enchanting pair of programmes from 1991 and 1996, Dame Judi Dench and husband Michael Williams shared an eclectic selection of pieces that they loved, admired or simply found entertaining.

In Othello, Shakespeare creates powerful drama from a marriage between the exotic Moor Othello and the Venetian lady Desdemona. Shakespeare builds many differences into his hero and heroine, including race, age, and cultural background. Yet most audiences believe the couple’s strong love would overcome these differences were it not for Iago, who sets out to destroy Othello.

The Man of Property, the first novel in Galsworthy's epic social satire The Forsyte Saga, introduces us to Soames Forsyte, a solicitor and prominent man of his important family. Accustomed to getting whatever he wants, he sets his sights with absolute determination on the beautiful Irene, in spite of her pennilessness and her indifference to him.

A bird of good omen is murdered. A fickle crew is punished by supernatural, spectral beings. A skeletal ship is sighted moving against the wind and tide. The figure of Death along with a singular, gruesome companion man the fiendish craft. And as they draw closer, it becomes clear that the two play at dice for the soul of the ancient mariner. The result is nothing short of cataclysmic.

Sensual, macabre, joyous and liberating, The Flowers of Evil, or Les Fleurs du Mal, is a beautifully debauched reflection on dreams, sin, life, and death. With subjects ranging from travel to drugs, sex to faith, sleep to contemplation, Baudelaire finds new beauty in the most sinister and corrupt of situations. His morbid and nightmarish Romanticism was completely unique: cynical and bleak, but also inspiring. The book was highly controversial upon its release and Napoleon III’s government prosecuted Baudelaire for "an insult to public decency".

One of the great works of the 20th century, Kafka's The Trial has been read as a study of political power, a pessimistic religious parable, or a crime novel where the accused man is himself the problem. In it, a man wakes up one morning to find himself under arrest for an offence which is never explained. Faced with this ambiguous but threatening situation, Josef K. gradually succumbs to its psychological pressure.

The epic grandeur of Dante's masterpiece has inspired readers and listeners for 700 years and has entered the human imagination. But the further we move from the late medieval world of Dante, the more a rich understanding and enjoyment of the poem depends on knowledgeable guidance.

Meet Alex, a photographer on a holiday with his family in the south of France. Meet Abe, a music producer with a baby on the way. Two men - both fathers, husbands, and sons - take us on a journey you will never forget. The finest actors of their generation, Academy Award® nominee Jake Gyllenhaal (Sunday in the Park with George) and Tony Award nominee Tom Sturridge (1984), had audiences roaring to their feet during the sold-out Broadway engagement. Now Sea Wall / A Life, a dramatic exploration of transformative love and devastating loss, comes to Audible.

1913 - Suffragette throws herself under the King's horse. 1969 - Feminists storm Miss World. Now - Caitlin Moran rewrites "The Female Eunuch" from a bar stool and demands to know why pants are getting smaller. There's never been a better time to be a woman: we have the vote and the Pill, and we haven't been burnt as witches since 1727. However, a few nagging questions do remain.... Why are we supposed to get Brazilians? Should you get Botox? Do men secretly hate us? What should you call your vagina?

Cyrano is a brash, strong-willed man of many talents whose whimsical aptitude for the spoken word is overshadowed by an attribute that is iconic, outrageous and gigantic - his nose. How can the curiously-snouted Cyrano ever hope to win the affections of the beautiful Roxane?

Published in 1748, An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding is Scottish empiricist philosopher David Hume's distillation of his mature philosophy. Addressing themes including the limits of human understanding, the compatibility of free will with determinism, weaknesses in the foundations of religion, and the appeal of skepticism, An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding is Hume's attempt to revise and clarify the ideas of his earlier A Treatise of Human Nature.

Eliza Rose is the perfect lady—accomplished in pianoforte, riding, and multiple languages—until a scandal disrupts her privileged world. The fallen Rose family has struggled to regain their standing until a fortuitous connection helps Eliza re-secure her family’s place in Society, giving her everything she believed she wanted.

Suite à une épidémie de peste, les autorités décident de fermer la ville d'Oran. Les habitants s'organisent pour survivre au siège de cette maladie mortelle et en particulier le docteur Rieux. Il est l'un des premiers à identifier les symptômes de la maladie et devient une figure centrale dans l'organisation sanitaire de la ville.

Here are eight fundamental works by one of the few greatest English poets: three lyric pieces, Songs of Innocence, The Book of Thel, Songs of Experience; the prose satire An Island in the Moon, the mystical prose poem The Marriage of Heaven & Hell, and three visionary poems: The French Revolution, Visions of the Daughters of Albion, America, a Prophecy. William Blake (1757-1827) is one of the great relevant figures of his time, who like Beethoven in music bridges the classical and romantic, remaining himself uncategorizable.

'The Waste Land' is a landmark in 20th-century poetry. Here it is read by the late Poet Laureate Ted Hughes. Published in 1922, it is a brilliant exploration of a faithless, immoral society trying to rebuild itself after the devastation of the Great War. Rich in literary references and steeped in allusive and evocative imagery, 'The Waste Land' is widely considered to be the pinnacle of modernist poetry.

Drawing together the mythology and tales of England, Scotland, Ireland, and Wales, this book is a comprehensive collection of the fascinating gods, goddesses, heroes, and monsters that make up the compendium of Celtic myths and legends. Celtic Mythology offers an accessible exploration of the rich tapestry of stories and characters that define Celtic culture and have fascinated people for centuries.

Trying to squeeze an entire history of Chinese civilization into a brief, one volume account is a formidable task, but one that has succeeded brilliantly here. Hilda Hookham has provided us with a concise story that, while not getting too entangled with personalities and cultural issues, manages to navigate the swirling passage of events that comprise over 3,000 years of Chinese political history.