Classics audiobooks

A Bell for Adano

By: John Hersey

Narrated by: David Green

Length: 8 hours 35 minutes

Abridged: No

John Hersey grew up in China, studied at Yale and Cambridge, worked as a journalist, and astonished the nation when he won the Pulitzer Prize in 1945 for A Bell for Adano. His first novel, its offbeat blend of patriotism and warm humor immediately captured readers' hearts. In 1943, the American Major Victor Joppolo finds himself the civil... Read more

Blues

By: John Hersey

Narrated by: Norman Dietz

Length: 5 hours 31 minutes

Abridged: No

From the revered Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist and writer comes his national bestseller on one of the world’s oldest and most popular activities, fishing. Presented in narrative form as a conversation between a fisherman and the Stranger, Hersey draws upon his own experiences and passion as the fisherman reflects on the age-old sport,... Read more

The Golden Pot and Other Tales

By: E.T.A. Hoffmann

Narrated by: John McDonough

Length: 21 hours 55 minutes

Abridged: No

Hoffmann, among the greatest and most popular of the German Romantics, is renowned for his humorous and sometimes horrifying tales of supernatural beings. This selection, while stressing the variety of his work, focuses on those stories in which the real and the supernatural are brought into contact and conflict. This new translation includes... Read more

Les Miserables

By: Victor Hugo

Narrated by: George Guidall

Length: 60 hours 27 minutes

Abridged: No

One of the great classics of world literature and the inspiration for the most beloved stage musical of all time, Les MisErables is legendary author Victor Hugo's masterpiece. This extraordinary English version by renowned translator Julie Rose captures all the majesty and brilliance of Hugo's work. Here is the timeless story of the... Read more

Crome Yellow

By: Aldous Huxley

Narrated by: James Langton

Length: 6 hours 12 minutes

Abridged: No

A satirical account of English society in the early 20th century, Crome Yellow is Aldous Huxley's first novel. Henry Wimbush is the owner of Crome, a stately manor house, and the host of a large party. His guests take advantage of his hospitality, pursuing their own romantic, political, and social agendas. Denis Stone, the hero of the tale,... Read more

The Lost Weekend

By: Charles Jackson

Narrated by: Donald Corren

Length: 9 hours 26 minutes

Abridged: No

Reprint of modern classic originally published in 1944 by Farrar & Rinehart, Inc. The classic tale of one man's struggle with alcoholism, this revolutionary novel remains Charles Jackson's best-known book--a daring autobiographical work that paved the way for contemporary addiction literature. It is 1936, and on the East Side of Manhattan, a... Read more

Dubliners

By: James Joyce

Narrated by: Donal Donnelly

Length: 8 hours 48 minutes

Abridged: No

Published in 1914 after 10 years of argument with publishers over charges of "obscenity," these stories were once described by Joyce as "a chapter in the moral history of my country." Their collection in one volume offers a unified vision across the Joycean literary landscape, where a claustrophobic and "paralyzed" Dublin spirals outward to a... Read more

The Castle

By: Franz Kafka

Narrated by: George Guidall

Length: 11 hours 50 minutes

Abridged: No

On his deathbed, Franz Kafka asked that all his unpublished manuscripts be burned. Fortunately, his request was ignored, allowing such works as The Trial to earn recognition among the literary masterpieces of the 20th century. This brilliant translation of The Castle captures comedic elements and visual imagery that earlier interpretations... Read more

Zorba the Greek

By: Nikos Kazantzakis

Narrated by: George Guidall

Length: 12 hours 37 minutes

Abridged: No

A wonderful tale of a young man's coming of age, Zorba the Greek has been a classic of world literature since it was first translated into English in 1952 and made into an unforgettable movie with Anthony Quinn. Zorba, an irrepressible, earthy hedonist, sweeps his young disciple along as he wines, dines, and loves his way through a life... Read more

A Separate Peace

By: John Knowles

Narrated by: Spike McClure

Length: 6 hours 34 minutes

Abridged: No

Nominated as one of America’s best-loved novels by PBS’s The Great American Read.

An American classic and great bestseller for over thirty years, A Separate Peace is timeless in its description of adolescence during a period when the entire country was losing its innocence to World War II.

Set at a boys' boarding school in New England during the... Read more

Darkness at Noon

By: Arthur Koestler

Narrated by: Frank Muller

Length: 8 hours 15 minutes

Abridged: No

A fictional portrayal of an aging revolutionary, this novel is a powerful commentary on the nightmare politics of the troubled 20th century. Born in Hungary in 1905, a defector from the Communist Party in 1938, and then arrested in both Spain and France for his political views, Arthur Koestler writes from a wealth of personal experience.... Read more

Lady Chatterley's Lover

By: D.H. Lawrence

Narrated by: Margaret Hilton

Length: 12 hours 59 minutes

Abridged: No

Lady Chatterley's husband returns from the War paralysed from the waist down. Frustrated by his attitudes as much as his disability, she begins a love-affair with the gamekeeper, Mellors. She realises that to be fully alive she must live the life of the body as well as the mind, but in doing so she angers the conventions of her day. Banned for... Read more

The Prussian Officer

By: D.H. Lawrence

Narrated by: Jill Tanner

Length: 9 hours 17 minutes

Abridged: No

Because of his frank and honest portrayal of human sexuality in the controversial works for which he is best known, e.g. "Lady Chatterley's Lover" and "Women in Love", D. H. Lawrence was not widely respected in his day. In fact at the time of his death he was considered little more than a pornographer. However E. M. Forester challenged this... Read more

The Virgin and the Gypsy

By: D.H. Lawrence

Narrated by: Margaret Hilton

Length: 3 hours 42 minutes

Abridged: No

In a claustrophobic household, oppressed by her blind, toad-like grandmother and a cowardly, conventional father, Yvette's exuberance seems doomed to suppression. But meeting a gypsy awakens unfamiliar emotions in her, making her challenge the family's accepted morality. As she wavers between conformity and rebellion, a flash flood threatens her... Read more

Hyde

By: Daniel Levine

Narrated by: John Curless

Length: 16 hours 32 minutes

Abridged: No

An authentic, gothic reimagining of Robert Louis Stevenson' s The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde , told from the villain' s perspective, that takes readers deep into the seedy side of Victorian London and explores the nature of personality and of the subconscious Mr. Hyde is trapped in Dr. Jekyll' s surgical cabinet, counting the days... Read more

The Monk

By: Matthew Gregory Lewis

Narrated by: Jefferson Mays

Length: 15 hours 31 minutes

Abridged: No

'Few could sustain the glance of his eye, at once fiery and penetrating' Savaged by critics for its supposed profanity and obscenity, and bought in large numbers by readers eager to see whether it lived up to its lurid reputation, The Monk became a succEs de scandale when it was published in 1796 - not least because its author was a member of... Read more

Arrowsmith

By: Sinclair Lewis

Narrated by: John McDonough

Length: 20 hours 41 minutes

Abridged: No

The son of a country doctor, Sinclair Lewis turned to writing instead of medicine. He won the Nobel Prize in 1930. Arrowsmith was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Literature. This is the story of a brilliant young man who dedicates his life to science, yet finds that corruption, not disease, is his greatest foe. Martin Arrowsmith is fascinated by... Read more

Martin Eden

By: Jack London

Narrated by: Andrew Garman

Length: 14 hours 30 minutes

Abridged: No

The author of such masterpieces as The Call of the Wild and White Fang, Jack London is one of American literature's most revered writers. In this semi-autobiographical tale, London tells the story of Martin Eden, a young sailor who, through self-education and determination, rises out of poverty to passionately pursue a dream of literary and... Read more

Death in Venice and Other Tales

By: Thomas Mann

Narrated by: Paul Hecht

Length: 12 hours 53 minutes

Abridged: No

Joachim Neugroschel’s brilliant new translation lets you enjoy the work of Nobel-Laureate Thomas Mann as never before. By using creative, contemporary language, Neugroschel reinterprets Mann for modern English-speaking readers. The author’s superb literary craftsmanship, his psychological insight, and the deeply erotic content of his work shine... Read more

Northanger Abbey

By: Val McDermid

Narrated by: Liz Pearce

Length: 10 hours 6 minutes

Abridged: No

Internationally best-selling crime writer Val McDermid has riveted millions of readers worldwide with her acutely suspenseful, psychologically complex, seamlessly plotted thrillers. In Northanger Abbey, she delivers her own, witty, updated take on Austen's classic novel about a young woman whose visit to the stately home of a well-to-do... Read more

Common Sense

By: Thomas Paine

Narrated by: Adrian Cronauer

Length: 1 hour 42 minutes

Abridged: No

"When my country, into which I had just set foot, was set on fire about my ears, it was time to stir," wrote Paine. This pamphlet, which he had published in 1776, put into print the word every man was thinking but no man dared say: Independence! It captured the imagination of the colonists as no other document had. Read more

The Light in the Forest

By: Conrad Richter

Narrated by: Joel Fabiani

Length: 4 hours 9 minutes

Abridged: No

"True Son's heart felt like a stone. How could this fantastic and inferior figure in a long fawn-colored garment like a woman's be possibly anything to him-this pallid creature who revealed his feelings in front of all! In the boy's mind came the picture of his Indian father. How differently he would have looked and acted. With what dignity and... Read more

Lore of the Stars

By: Timothy B. Shutt

Narrated by: Timothy B. Shutt

Length: 4 hours 18 minutes

Abridged: No

One of Kenyon College's most honored professors, Timothy B. Shutt is widely renowned as a gifted polymath and lecturer. The night sky was the ancient world's cinema, and storytellers have used this panorama to weave fascinating tales since the earliest days of mankind. This captivating series of lectures explores the mythological sagas found in... Read more

Emma

By: Alexander McCall Smith

Narrated by: Susan Lyons

Length: 10 hours 54 minutes

Abridged: No

An unstoppable combination: Alexander McCall Smith and Jane Austen, as Sandy modernizes the story of Emma Woodhouse. Emma Woodhouse's widowed father is an anxious man, obsessed with nutrition and the latest vitamins. He lives the life of a country gentleman in contemporary England, protectively raising his young daughters, Isabella and Emma.... Read more