Listen to Top 100 Audiobooks in Classics, British Literature

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Title: The King's General

Author: Daphne du Maurier

Narrator: Juliet Stevenson

Format: Unabridged

Length: 13 hrs and 7 mins

Language: English

Release date: 04-29-08

Publisher: Audible Studios

Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 65 votes

Genres: Classics, British Literature

Publisher's Summary:

Exclusively from Audible

When the skeleton of a young cavalier was found by William Rashleigh at Daphne du Maurier's beloved mansion, Menabilly, she once again found inspiration in her surroundings. Putting pen to paper, Daphne created The King's General, a historical tale which takes place during the English Civil War and introduces one of du Maurier's greatest heroines: Honor Harris.

Honor is a beautiful, brave and kind protagonist, a true embodiment of the name by which she goes. Her journey proves challenging as her hopes for marrying the man she loves are dashed when she is left incapacitated. Unwilling to let life pass her by, Honor decides to educate herself in order to gain a true understanding of England's political climate and the devastating impact it would come to have.

Steadfast, caring and intelligent, this heroine embodies female empowerment and resilience in a war-torn England. Having finished the story during the Second World War, parallels are often drawn between Honor and du Maurier herself. Not only was the author describing the frustration of having to stay at home while men fought, through first-hand experience, but much like Honor's love interest, Daphne's husband was a general in the military.

An artful and escapist tale, The King's General reveals a gothic side to Daphne du Maurier's writing which constantly leaves the listener wanting more.

Narrator Biography

Whether she's up on stage, behind the microphone or in front of the camera, Juliet Stevenson never fails to charm her audience. Her acting roles have cemented her status as one of the great British actresses of our time. Her popular performances of hits such as Apple Tree Yard, the book that was turned into a TV series that people just couldn't stop talking about, have earned her an overwhelming amount of well-deserved praise for her spoken word talents

Juliet graduated from the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art and later became a member of its artistic council. Her theatre experience is vast and includes parts in Measure for Measure, Les Liaisons Dangereuses, Burn This and Death and the Maiden.

She is also known for her film career in works such as Bend It Like Beckham, Emma, Truly Madly Deeply and Mona Lisa Smile.

Juliet Stevenson has been BAFTA-nominated and been the winner of a Laurence Olivier Award. In 1999, she was awarded the Commander of the Order of the British Empire in the Queen's Birthday Honours List, for her services to Drama.

Juliet's other audiobook narrations include Sense and Sensibility, North and South, The Portrait of a Lady and Madame Bovary. These and many more can be found at Audible.

Members Reviews:

"Generally" Good, pun intended

I listened to "The King's General" right before reading Ken Follett's "A Dangerous Fortune" and listening to these two books back-to-back clarified my evaluation of this one. "General" is historical fiction, but Follett plays in that genre too so I don't think the comparison is entirely unfair. Daphne Du Maurier is the superior writer-- some of her passages, descriptions, metaphors are memorably rendered. Follett is the more natural storyteller, he is able to establish a pace that keeps the reader engrossed, eager to find out what happens next.

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Title: Thomas Hardy

Subtitle: Selected Short Stories

Author: Thomas Hardy

Narrator: Walter Zimmerman, Jill Masters

Format: Unabridged

Length: 6 hrs and 39 mins

Language: English

Release date: 01-17-08

Publisher: Jimcin Recordings

Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 9 votes

Genres: Classics, British Literature

Publisher's Summary:

Thomas Hardy was born in 1840 near Dorchester in that part of England he called Wessex. With stories sometimes from his own imagination and sometimes from local tradition, Hardy's work, like Dickens and Trollope, creates a strong sense of mood and location. Hardy hoped to be remembered for his poetry, but ours is not a poetic age. Thus his claim to a new generation of readers rests on his prose. There are great similarities between his era, a time of challenge, and our own.

This collection of short stories shows Hardy as his best and includes "The Three Strangers", "The Withered Arm", "The Fiddler of the Reels", "Barbara of the House of Grebe", and "The Distracted Preacher" .

Editorial Reviews:

English writer Thomas Hardy is now best known for novels like Tess of the d'Urbervilles and Jude the Obscure. In Thomas Hardy: Selected Short Stories, the listener can also witness his facility in shorter forms.

The collection opens with "The Three Strangers", given an energetic performance by Walter Zimmerman, in which an executor takes shelter with an escaped convict. Later, Jill Masters offers a soft-spoken performance in The Distracted Preacher, which concerns a young preacher sent to the town of Nether-Moynton. There he meets a beautiful widow, an innkeeper with an interesting side business.

Narrators Zimmerman and Masters use various regional English accents to voice Hardys brilliant evocations of rural England in the 19th century.

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Title: Told after Supper

Author: Jerome K. Jerome, Robert Frost, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Narrator: Robert Bethune, Susie Berneis

Format: Unabridged

Length: 1 hr and 15 mins

Language: English

Release date: 12-20-07

Publisher: Freshwater Seas

Ratings: 3.5 of 5 out of 4 votes

Genres: Classics, British Literature

Publisher's Summary:

A few selected Christmas poems and stories round out the program, including the classic story of the Nativity from the Bible.

"Told after Supper" by Jerome K. Jerome

Here's a hilarious 19th-century piece you've probably never heard of. It's a wonderful spoof of the grand old English tradition of telling ghost stories at Christmas. But in Jerome's work, everything goes hilariously wrong, and the narrator of the story even winds up wandering around on the streets, drunk as a lord, somewhat incompletely dressed!

"Christmas Trees" by Robert Frost

In this early poem, we hear Frost's dry, matter-of-fact New England voice making "a simple calculation" about "Christmas trees I didn't know I had".

"Mistletoe" by Walter de la Mare

This dreamlike experience of a gentle touch from a special person late on Christmas night is as fine a piece of dreamland as one could wish.

"Ring Out!" by Alfred Lord Tennyson

A passionate appeal that the new year may be better than the old.

"The Three Kings" by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

The majesty and indeed the worldly wisdom of the three who came to give great gifts to the infant in the manger has never been better expressed.

Luke 2:1-20 (King James version)

In the beautiful language of the King James Bible - the only successful contribution to literature ever made by a committee - we hear not only how a babe was born, but how his mother came to believe great things of him.

Members Reviews:

This book should be a Christmas Eve tradition.

The Christmas Eve ghost story is a time-honored English tradition, which includes such classics as Charles Dickens' "A Christmas Carol." While I love Dickens, I would suggest giving Scrooge a rest this Christmas Eve and reading "Told After Supper" instead. For one thing, it is much shorter. It is also much funnier. If you enjoy the humor of Mark Twain, P.G. Wodehouse, and Douglas Adams, you will enjoy Jerome K. Jerome.

A marvelous read that I am sorry has been so ...

A marvelous read that I am sorry has been so overshadowed by the wonder Dickens classic. I am keen to see a return of the Yuletide Ghost Story tradition and no such experience would be complete without Jerome K. Jerome's collection of stories.

Funny

It the best $4.99 I ever spent. I had to leave the room where my wife and daughter were watching TV. I was making to much noise laughing. What a great little book. Now I know what they meant in the song "Itâs The Most Wonderful Time Of Year" when they sang "There'll be scary ghost stories, And tales of the glories of Christmases long, long ago". What a great humorist Jerome K. Jerome is. I must have more of his books.

Victorian Holiday Classic

Jerome K. Jerome will make you laugh out loud. Told After Supper is a humorous and entertaining book. It is in the Victorian style when ghost stories were often told at Christmas. The book is a quick read, and could be read in one sitting. Told after supper is going to be a traditional Christmas read for me now.

A Christrmas treat

I dearly love this book. Someone gave me an antique copy when I was in grade school and it's wonderful now to have it on my Kindle. For readers who don't know Jerome K.

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Title: The Open Boat

Author: Stephen Crane

Narrator: Richard Rohan

Format: Unabridged

Length: 58 mins

Language: English

Release date: 11-15-07

Publisher: Listen & Live Audio, Inc.

Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 13 votes

Genres: Classics, British Literature

Publisher's Summary:

As a well-paid war correspondent, Stephen Crane was shipwrecked en route to Cuba in early 1897. He and a small party of passengers spent 30 hours adrift off the coast of Florida, an experience that Crane would later transform into this, his most famous short story, in 1898.

(P)2007 Listen and Live Audio, Inc.

Members Reviews:

Worth hearing again

I first read The Open Boat in college and only remembered that I was astonished when I first read it. I'm so glad that Audible offered it, because it was as astonishing the second time, 50 years later. There is real wisdom in this story, and beauty as well.

what do you mean by headline?

Where does The Open Boat rank among all the audiobooks youve listened to so far?

first and only one so far

Who was your favorite character and why?

the captain, he seems iconic

What does Richard Rohan bring to the story that you wouldnt experience if you just read the book?

the pace of the story quickens and subsides along the plot lines. I suppose in my mind the reading would not do that

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Title: The Adventure of the Red Headed League

Author: Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

Narrator: Walter Zimmerman, Full Cast

Format: Unabridged

Length: 49 mins

Language: English

Release date: 05-22-07

Publisher: Jimcin Recordings

Ratings: 4.5 of 5 out of 11 votes

Genres: Classics, British Literature

Publisher's Summary:

"The Red-Headed League" is one of the 56 short Sherlock Holmes stories written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. It first appeared in Strand in August 1891, with illustrations by Sidney Paget. Conan Doyle ranked "The Red-Headed League" second in his list of his 12 favorite Holmes stories. It is also the second of the 12 stories in The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, which was published in 1892. It is one of Holmes' most intriguing cases, in which he has to solve a problem caused by a strange society in which the only criteria for admission is bright red hair!

© and (P)1980 Jimcin Recordings

Editorial Reviews:

"The Adventure of the Red-Headed League" is surely among the most comical capers to fall under Sherlock Holmes' meticulous gaze. Fiery-maned Jabez Wilson brings his case before Holmes, complaining how he lost a job promised to "all red-headed men who are sound in body and mind and above the age of 21 years". Even Holmes, self-consciously stoic by nature, can't help but laugh. Nevertheless, something's amiss and adventure awaits. Performer Walter Zimmerman - the audiobook authority on all things Arthur Conan Doyle - shines as the jovial John Watson, always brimming with confounded amazement in Zimmerman's capable hands, but perhaps even more excitable given the ridiculous intrigue featured here. Zimmerman counterposes the jocular Watson with his suave, calculating, and strikingly debonair send-up of Holmes.

Members Reviews:

Wonderful CD

I love it. True to the story by Doyle. I would love to have several more CDs.

Five Stars

It was exactly what I was looking for. I needed it for a class study

bradley's review

This book was great!!! It left with cliff hangers that made me keep wanting to read more!!! It was one of those books that you could not put down. The plot of the book was there was a man named Mr Jamez Wilson. One day he had applied for a job in the red headed league. Thins job was only open to those men who had red hair. Mr Wilson was a red headed mad so he applied for the job, along with the thousands of others. This job was an easy one. You get payed a lot for only doing a little job like copping down an encyclopedia. Everything went fine for about eight weeks or so until one day when Mr Wilson went to work it was closed down. Mr Wilson had asked the townspeople and no one has even heard of that before. Mr Wilson was confused, so he went to Mr Holmes a very famous detecive to solve this case. Mr Holmes was waiting in a celler full of money on night because he thought it was spusious. The next thing you knew the door opend! You'll have to read to find out what happend after that!

Great audio book!!!!!

This is an audio book of a legendary story. You will enjoy it if you like mystery novels written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.

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Title: The Story of the Bagman's Uncle

Author: Charles Dickens

Narrator: Walter Zimmerman

Format: Unabridged

Length: 46 mins

Language: English

Release date: 05-22-07

Publisher: Jimcin Recordings

Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 12 votes

Genres: Classics, British Literature

Publisher's Summary:

Although best known for such long novels as

Our Mutual Friend and

The Old Curiosity Shop, Charles Dickens also wrote many wonderful short stories with both a supernatural and a humorous twist. This is one of his best.

(P)1981 Jimcin Recordings

Editorial Reviews:

"The Story of the Bagman's Uncle" has Dickens' usual ornate language, colorful characters, and bright humor, without the massive length of his more famous novels. This short story has a touch of the supernatural, too - think A Christmas Carol - so expect ghosts! Expect murder! And expect to laugh. It is a delight to listen to Walter Zimmerman read Dickens with a his wry, English accent, transporting listeners to the dark streets of Edinburgh, where almost anything could happen to our poor protagonist.

Members Reviews:

Good story

Ghost story that is also very funny. Well written and well read.

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Title: Mowgli's Brothers

Author: Rudyard Kipling

Narrator: Walter Zimmerman, Cindy Hardin Killavey

Format: Unabridged

Length: 48 mins

Language: English

Release date: 05-16-07

Publisher: Jimcin Recordings

Ratings: 3 of 5 out of 1 votes

Genres: Classics, British Literature

Publisher's Summary:

This is the first story of The Jungle Book, in which the reader is introduced to Mowgli, the jungle boy, and his animal friends.

© and (P)1980 Jimcin Recordings

Members Reviews:

but this booklet is excellent for the new chums

I have been a cub scout leader for forty odd years with Australian Scouts. I am well versed in the Mowgli stories etc. and tales by Kipling. So the story Mowgli Brothers is not new to myself, but this booklet is excellent for the new chums, as it does not lead them into the other yarns by Kipling without the base being understood. Kipling has put a lot of thought into the Jungle book tales and the thoughtful intention to be gained from them i.e being a bully and other character building points for the building to assist the youth during this cub scout period..

book as work of art

I disagree with the assertion that the elegance of this book won't appeal to children (as is stated in the book description). With my kids, they appreciate well designed and artful things because they are exposed to them. I don't underestimate their ability to discern and appreciate good design. The color of the paper stock complements the engravings and provides a nice ambience to the story. Christopher Wormell is one of my favorite illustrators - check out The New Alphabet of Animals by him.

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Title: The Dream Woman

Author: Wilkie Collins

Narrator: Walter Covell

Format: Unabridged

Length: 55 mins

Language: English

Release date: 05-15-07

Publisher: Jimcin Recordings

Ratings: 3.5 of 5 out of 8 votes

Genres: Classics, British Literature

Publisher's Summary:

Wilkie Collins was the author of two of the greatest mysteries ever written, The Moonstone and The Woman in White. However, like Poe before him and Conan Doyle after, he shifted easily from rational domains to the "superrational". Like them, he often preferred to indulge his occult predilection, a lifelong interest. "The Dream Woman" is one his most anthologized stories of the supernatural.

© and (P)1982 Jimcin Recordings

Editorial Reviews:

In a powerful, ponderous, and seemingly exhausted baritone, audiobook legend Walter Covell performs Wilkie Collins The Dream Woman, a standout tale in Collins catalogue of the supernatural. Like Poe, Bradbury, and Stephen King, Collins spins tales of everyday life rocked disarmingly off balance. In The Dream Woman, Collins guides the listener to a strange room where a woman stands with a knife in her hand. Her potential victim, Francis Raven, becomes haunted by the experience and follows Percy Fairbank, a humorous nobleman who may provide an explanation, to England. The mystery is told in Percys and Franciss alternating voices and is sure to be a welcome guest at any fireside story session.

Members Reviews:

Terrible audio quality, this product should not be sold at all

Make sure not to buy the audio version of this book. The quality is horrible, the audio files have been mixed up so that the narrative is constantly interrupted by parts of lines from other parts of the book. I really don't get why they sell this, it's impossible to listen to the whole book and follow the story.

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Title: The Voyage Out

Author: Virginia Woolf

Narrator: Nadia May

Format: Unabridged

Length: 13 hrs and 28 mins

Language: English

Release date: 09-14-06

Publisher: Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 39 votes

Genres: Classics, British Literature

Publisher's Summary:

The narrative shifts focus between its heroine and the peripheral characters with their chorus of viewpoints. For Rachel, the voyage becomes a journey toward intellectual and emotional maturity. Arriving in Santa Marina, a village on the South American coast, Rachel is introduced to a group of English expatriates, among them the sensitive young Terence Hewet, an aspiring writer with whom she falls into a doomed romance.

Critic Reviews:

"[An] inspired book whose scene is a South Americana not found on any map, reached by a boat which would not float on any sea, an Americana whose spiritual boundaries touch Xanadu and Atlantis." (E.M. Forster)

"For all its tragic interest, The Voyage Out is not low-keyed; it even has a slight buoyancy of tone, as if clear perception itself brought a continual zest to its writer. Woolf has the diversity of power which makes the great writer of narrative." (New Republic)

Members Reviews:

Tough to get through this one

I'm a big fan of the narrator (Woolf not so much), but it was a chore getting through this one.

Mal de Mer

This is a great presentations of one of the classics. With Miss Woolf second only to Jane Austen in the density of coverage in popular culture it's well worth a visit and a natural starting point as the first novel in the Woolf ouvre.

However, as with her predecessor, The Voyage Out serves principally to highlight what a marvellous achievement Mrs Dalloway was - coming some ten years later when her skills had been honed on Jacob's Room.

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Title: The Diary of a Nobody

Author: George Grossmith, Weedon Grossmith

Narrator: Martin Jarvis

Format: Unabridged

Length: 4 hrs and 51 mins

Language: English

Release date: 05-25-06

Publisher: Naxos AudioBooks

Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 59 votes

Genres: Classics, British Literature

Publisher's Summary:

The Diary of Nobody (1892) created a cultural icon, an English archetype. Anxious, accident-prone, occasionally waspish, Charles Pooter has come to epitomize English suburban life. His diary chronicles encounters with difficult tradesmen, the delights of home improvements, small parties, minor embarrassments, and problems with his troublesome son. The suburban world he inhabits is hilariously and painfully familiar in its small-mindedness and its essential decency.

Editorial Reviews:

Martin Jarvis simply owns this comic novel about hapless London city clerk Charles Pooter, an endearing stuffed shirt whose life is a series of misunderstandings. Written in 1892 by two actor brothers, one of whom starred in Gilbert and Sullivan's operettas, this fictitious diary gives voice to the grandiose hopes, simple pleasures, near misses, and outright disasters that comprise most peoples' lives. Jarvis's Pooter speaks with orotund vowels and a bemused tone. As this is a diary, Pooter necessarily tells the story, but Jarvis gives such life to Pooter's comments about his companions that we imagine their voices clearly. The diary is interspersed with snippets of period classical music, which add to the all-around pleasure.

Members Reviews:

Hilarious and Suprebly Read

This is one of my favourite books. It is delightful and funny. Gentle humour pervades this endearing tale of an ordinary man, his family and friends of a past era. I laugh aloud with this book. The narrator is marvellous and does not let one joke or nuance slip. I have read this book many times and have listened to the audio book version many times too. Charming and uproariously amusing. Magnificent performance. A happy book!

English classic performed very well.

Where does The Diary of a Nobody rank among all the audiobooks youve listened to so far?

Diary of a Nobody is in a class of its own and I do not rank my books. It is amusing and true to its original form, which I first read in the traditional way 30 years ago.

What was one of the most memorable moments of The Diary of a Nobody?

The most memorable moment in Diary of a Nobody is when Pooter paints the bath red and gets into all kinds of subsequent trouble.

I also liked it when Willie changed his name to Lupin, consequently shocking his father.

Have you listened to any of Martin Jarviss other performances before? How does this one compare?

Never listened to Martin Jarvis before, but he does this book 'perfectly' in my opinion.

If you could rename The Diary of a Nobody, what would you call it?

It is impossible to rename this book. The name is perfect.

Any additional comments?

I recommend anyone who has not read or listened to this book to get it; curl up on the sofa on a wet and miserable day, with lots of snacks and a nice fire, and get some free laughter therapy.

This book belongs in the heart of 'everyman' (and woman).

a pleasant period piece

I think I would have enjoyed this more if I'd recognized Mr. Pooter. I wonder if he's too far away in time and place for me to "get" the humor in this nicely crafted work. While I recognized (and laughed at) my own obsessions, vanity, and naivite in Adrian Mole's and Bridget Jones's diaries, Mr. Pooter's adventures left me bemused.