Showing results by publisher "Naxos AudioBooks" in Genre Fiction

The Castle of Otranto is regarded as the first Gothic novel. The son of Manfred, Prince of Otranto, is mysteriously killed on his wedding day by a huge helmet. The event leads to a fast-paced story of jealous passion, intrigue, murder, and supernatural phenomena unfolding in an atmosphere of thunderclaps, moonlight, and dark castle walls, mirroring the inner turmoils of the characters themselves. Horace Walpole's tale, an immediate success when it first appeared in 1764, is a classic of its genre.

Nostromo is Conrad's masterwork, a forerunner of Modernism, and one of the greatest novels of the 20th century. A profoundly dark moral fable set in the surroundings of a silver mine, it is a story of power, love, and revolution in the fictional South American country of Costaguana.

One of the great novels of nineteenth-century England, Middlemarch is concerned with the blighted marriage of a young idealistic woman, but also presents a vivid portrait of England during the 1830s.

In Tess Durbeyfield, Thomas Hardy created one of the most tragic heroines of English literature. Against the backdrop of a changing and haunting landscape, Tess battles for her freedom from penury and abuse. The story of her heroism and fortitude, as her destiny is relentlessly played out, is moving and unforgettable.

Barnaby Rudge, one of only two historical novels by Dickens, deals with the "Popery" riots of 1780. It is read here by one of Britain's most popular readers, Sean Barrett, whose reading of Bleak House was widely praised. This recording is part of the extended Dickens collection offered in both abridged and unabridged form by Naxos AudioBooks.

Follow the fortunes and misfortunes of the famous Moll Flanders. She was born in Newgate, and during a life of continued variety for three-score years, besides her childhood, was 12 years a whore, 5 times a wife (where of once to her own brother), 12 years a thief, 8 years a transported felon in Virginia, at last grew rich, lived honest, and died a penitent.

William Dorrit has been a resident of the Marshalsea debtors prison for so many years that he has gained the nickname "The Father of the Marshalsea". However, his suffering is eased by his close bond with youngest daughter Amy, or "Little Dorrit". The dashing Arthur Clennam, returning to London after many years in China, enters their lives and the Dorrits' fortunes begin to rise and fall. A biting satirical work on the shortcomings of 19th-century government and society.

Filled with wit and humour, Nesbit's 1902 fantasy tells the adventure of five siblings sent to spend the summer with their uncle. One day, when the children wander from the strange house by the sea to play in old gravel pits, they uncover 'It', a prehistoric Sand-fairy. The unusual Sand-fairy grants the children one wish a day, each lasting until sunset. Though wishes can come true, they are not always as pleasant as they might seem, which the children soon discover.

This famous novel deals with the early frontier period of American history and is set in 1757 during the Seven Years War between the French and the British. Hawkeye and his friends, Chingachgook and Uncas, are the last remaining Mohican chieftains. When the evil Magua threatens the life of an innocent English woman, Hawkeye finds himself at the center of a battle for honor and vengeance.

Maupassant is hailed as one of the greatest masters of the short story. This collection focuses upon the land he knew and loved so well - Normandy. Its people and its countryside are portrayed here in vivid color and with great warmth.

Lost in the blacked-out streets of Paris during the First World War, Marcel stumbles into a brothel and accidentally witnesses a shocking scene involving the Baron de Charlus. Later, at a reception given by the Prince de Guermantes, his meditations on the passage of time lead to his determination to embark on his life's work at last. Time Regained is the twelfth and final part of Marcel Proust's Remembrance of Things Past cycle.

In A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, Joyce describes the early life of Stephen Dedalus: significant memories from infancy, schooldays, family life, his first taste of sin, guilt, repentance - and his passage to freedom as he elects to leave Ireland forever. This is, in effect, an autobiography. Dedalus is Joyce; every person he encounters and every incident he experiences, is drawn from life. The writing, though, displays the colour and imagination of the very finest fiction.

A new pupil, Augustin Meaulnes, arrives at a rural school, and his bravado and charisma make an immediate impact on all those around him, including the 15-year-old François Seurel. The newcomer suddenly disappears for several days, during which time he stumbles across a mysterious manor house, which is home to a beautiful girl, Yvonne de Galais. After returning, ‘Le Grand Meaulnes’ embarks on a search to find again the lost manor and the happiness he found there.

A Christmas Carol is the best-known and best-loved of Dickens' Christmas books, and the story of the miser Scrooge's redemption has become as much part of the Christmas tradition as plum pudding and carols themselves.

When Mr. Earnshaw brings a black-haired foundling child into his home on the Yorkshire moors, he little imagines the dramatic events which will follow. The passionate relationship between Cathy Earnshaw and the foundling, Heathcliff, is a story of love, hate, pity and retribution, the effects of which reverberate throughout the succeeding generations....

Laughter is unique to man. This delightful anthology presents some of the funniest extracts in English literature. It opens with Anglo-Saxon riddles and continues with medieval memories, Tudor comic turns, and Restoration buffoonery.

One of the great novels of 19th-century France, Flaubert draws a deeply-felt but sympathetic portrait of a woman who, having warned a country doctor and found herself unhappy with a rural, genteel existence, longs for love and excitement. Her aspirations and her desires lead her into a tragic spiral downwards.

Sons and Lovers, Lawrence’s third published novel, was written by the author at the height of his literary powers. The story of class differences (the relationship between a woman of middle-class family and a miner) in the tough world of coal mining, it brought a refreshing realism to literature. It remains a challenging text (and is studied widely). It is particularly effective as an audiobook in the hands of reader Paul Slack, who comes from Nottinghamshire.

This is a story from the "Great Ghost Stories" collection.