"A bitter indictment of industrialization, with its dehumanizing effects on workers and communities in mid-19th-century England."
--Merriam-Webster Encyclopedia of Literature
"The narrator's British accent goes well with Dickens's overly dramatic and lush prose."
--AudioFile
Originally written for Dickens's weekly magazine, Household Words, this short novel follows the fate of Sissy Jupe, a warm-hearted circus child, and the family that adopts her. Deserted by her ailing father, Sissy is taken into the cold household of the Gradgrind family, which operates a school. The "eminently practical" Thomas Gradgrind believes only in facts and figures and has raised his children accordingly, thoroughly suppressing the imaginative sides of their nature. They grow up in ignorance of love and affection, of beauty and culture, or of empathy for others, and the consequences are devastating. Only after numerous crises does Thomas realize that his principles have corrupted their lives.
Dickens's satirical expos of the Industrial Revolution condemns the utilitarianism that exploited the bodies, minds, and souls of the vulnerable labor class.
William Shakespeare
Performed By : Full-Cast Production
Publisher : BBC Audiobooks Ltd
Length : 3 hours
Categories : Shakespeare Dramatizations Classic Literature Drama
Download Price : $22.25
The stormy passions of Shakespeare's tragedy resonate with powerful emotion in this BBC radio 3 production. See full description...
|
Henry James
Performed By : Nadia May
Publisher : Blackstone Audio Inc
Length : 19 hours
Categories : Classic Literature
Download Price : $36.95
What befalls a star-crossed triangle of friends and lovers in this novel illustrates exquisitely what happens when a woman’s desire for both her lover and riches makes the object of her affection question his own true worth in her eyes. See full description...
|
Oscar Wilde
Performed By : David Ian Davies
Publisher : One Voice Recordings
Length : 24 minutes
Categories : Classic Literature Classics Fiction
Download Price : $11.00
|
Edgar Allen Poe
Performed By : Full Cast Production
Publisher : Wollcott & Sheridan Aural Performance Library
Length : 34 minutes
Categories : Dramatizations Classic Literature
Download Price : $9.95
|
Thomas Hardy
Performed By : Nadia May
Publisher : Blackstone Audio Inc
Length : 14 hours
Categories : Classic Literature
Download Price : $26.95
Clym Yeobright, a diamond merchant in Paris, returns to his home in Egdon where he falls in love with the sensuous Eustacia Vye. She marries him, hoping he will take her away to Paris. But Eustacia’s dreams of escape are not to be realized. Clym Yeobright, the returning native, cannot bring her... See full description...
Written By : Pete McCarthy
Narrated By : Pete McCarthy
Hodder & Stoughton Audiobooks
Length : 2 hours
Type : Autobiography Biographical Travel
Price : $16.75
The audio of the million-selling book - Pete McCarthy's hilarious journey in search of his Irish roots.
McCarthy's tale of his hilarious trip around Ireland has gained thousands of fans all over the world.
Pete was born in Warrington to an Irish mother and an English father and spent happy summer holidays in Cork. Years later, reflecting on the many places he has visited as a travel broadcaster, Pete admits that he feels more at home in Ireland than anywhere. To find out whether this is due to rose-coloured spectacles or to a deeper tie with the country of his ancestors, Pete sets off on a trip around Ireland and discovers that it has changed in surprising ways.
|