Showing results by narrator "Jim Norton" in All Categories

William Butler Yeats remains one of the most popular poets of the 20th century.

"The Lake Isle of Innisfree," "He Wishes for the Cloths of Heaven," "Down by the Salley Gardens," "The Secret Rose": these are just a few of the poems that made William Butler Yeats an international figure. Born in Dublin in 1865, Yeats drew strength from the Irish tradition, as can be seen in this special audiobook, which presents the most important poems in the context of his life and ambitions.

These four works show Samuel Beckett at his most penetrating. Both Krapp's Last Tape (1958) and Not I (1972) are among the most striking pieces written for the theatre in the 20th century. An old man sits at a table, playing back old tapes made when he was younger, mixed glimpses of past feelings. In Not I, we have just a mouth expressing memories and torment in a torrent of words.

Ulysses is regarded by many as the single most important novel of the 20th century. It tells the story of one day in Dublin, 16 June 1904, largely through the eyes of Stephen Dedalus (Joyce's alter ego from Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man) and Leopold Bloom, an advertising salesman. Both begin a normal day, and both set off on a journey around the streets of Dublin, which eventually brings them into contact with one another.

These novelists burst with a literary energy that is hard to contain. They cover a myriad of styles and themes, narratives packed full of fully-formed characters in powerful tales that have become an essential and integral part of our literary heritage.

Christmas may come but once a year but human emotions, the driving force of our characters, are with us every day. Yet, somehow these same emotions when they happen at Christmas seem amplified; we seem more tender to their touch, their words. Whether it’s a long-lost returning soldier wondering how best to return to the arms of his family without too great a risk of shock... Or a prodigal son whose taken path has driven pain into his own and others hearts… These stories reveal much about the human condition.

This is a story from the Dubliners, Volume 2 collection.

This is a story from the Dubliners, Volume 2 collection.

This is a story from the Dubliners, Volume 2 collection.

This is a story from the Dubliners, Volume 2 collection.

This is a story from the Dubliners, Volume 2 collection.

This is a story from the Dubliners, Volume 1 collection.

This is a story from the Dubliners, Volume 1 collection. James Joyce's Dubliners is a collection of short stories about the lives of the people of Dublin around the turn of the century. Each story describes a small but significant moment of crisis or revelation in the life of a particular Dubliner, sympathetically but always with stark honesty. Many of the characters are desperate to escape the confines of their humdrum lives, though those that have the opportunity to do so seem unable to take it.

This is a story from the Dubliners, Volume 1 collection.

This is a story from the Dubliners, Volume 1 collection.

This is a story from the Dubliners, Volume 1 collection.

This is a story from the Dubliners, Volume 1 collection.

This is a story from the Dubliners, Volume 1 collection.

This is a story from the Dubliners , Volume 1 collection.

This is a story from the Dubliners , Volume 1 collection.

This is a story from the Dubliners, Volume 1 collection.