Showing results by narrator "Jim Norton" in All Categories

Three men, Kevin, Dermot and Joe, stand and tell their stories on a bare stage. They never meet. Or do they? From this simplest of dramatic devices emerges a rounded tale of Irish life across the generations, accurate and poignant and therefore unforgettable: The poetry of ordinary life.

Flann O'Brien's most popular and surrealistic novel concerns an imaginary, hellish village police force and a local murder. Weird, satirical, and very funny, it is read by Irish master reader Jim Norton.

Holding none of the difficulties of Joyce's most powerful and moving prose. Holding none of the difficulties of Joyce's later novels, such as Ulysses, Dubliners is, in its way, just as radical. These stories introduce us to the city which fed Joyce's entire creative output, and to many of the characters who made it such a well of literary inspiration.

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.

Set against the background of Dublin at the turn of the century, Joyce's celebrated collection of short stories recount a series of unremarkable incidents in the lives of ordinary men and women. Stylistically straightforward, it is Joyce's eye for detail, matched only by his interest in the habits and patterns of daily life and celebration of the unique wit and landscape of the Irish, that makes these stories so enchanting.

Thorndyke is arguably the first true forensic detective, for while we remember Sherlock Holmes for his genius in unearthing significant detail, only Thorndyke's methods pass the test of real-world authenticity. It might be maintained that while Holmes perhaps did it with style, Thorndyke does it with science.

In this series we explore the many facets of love through literary talents that span both time and country. There are times when love is not a revelation and a calling from one soul to another but a carefully navigated path, or maybe a badly chosen path that decimates happiness. Which way will our literary leviathans take us? Inevitably it will be more than one.

Sound interesting? The author thinks so too! Listen to The Top 10 Short Stories - Christmas today.

Sadness can be about so many things from places to people, from thoughts to actions. Our classic authors including Arnold Bennett, James Joyce, Willa Cather, Joseph Conrad, Ivan Turgenev and many others use their pens and stories to demonstrate the many ways this feeling can take a hold of lives and its consequences.

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.