Barchester Towers

Main Street

• UNABRIDGED (19 hrs and 7 mins)
• By Sinclair Lewis
• Narrated By Barbara Caruso
• Whispersync for Voice-ready

Widely hailed as a milestone in American literature, Sinclair Lewis' Main Street vividly describes a country on the verge of massive change, with traditional values being threatened by progress. The novel's heroine, Carol Milford, is a highly educated, ambitious woman who plans to join a newly enlightened society. But after marrying a small-town doctor, she finds herself trapped in the role of a dutiful wife. Carol's desires for social change conflict with the security of her comfortable married life, as she struggles to understand the cost of conformity...and rebellion. As relevant today as it was upon its 1920 publication, Main Street is both a masterful piece of writing and a fascinating microcosm of America's social evolution.

The Warden

• UNABRIDGED (7 hrs and 42 mins)
• By Anthony Trollope
• Narrated By Margaret Hilton
• Whispersync for Voice-ready

Howards End

• UNABRIDGED (12 hrs and 48 mins)
• By E.M. Forster
• Narrated By John Franklyn-Robbins
• Whispersync for Voice-ready

E.M. Forster's Howards End is a vivid portrait of London's golden age, before World War I forever changed its values and culture. Forster brings the great city's upper classes to life, detailing their grandiose spending habits, popular fads, Monet and Debussy, the rise of feminism, and the beginnings of urbanization. More than a mere idealization of pre-war London, Howards End provides insightful commentary on the rapid societal changes that occurred at the onset of the 20th century. Masterfully blending the stories of three vastly different groups of people - the independently wealthy, educated Schlegels; the nouveau riche Wilcoxes; and the ambitious but struggling Leonard Bast - Forster weaves a wonderfully rich, unforgettably poignant novel.

Ten Stories

• UNABRIDGED (7 hrs and 49 mins)
• By Katherine Mansfield
• Narrated By Jenny Sterlin

Although Katherine Mansfield was born in New Zealand in 1888, she spent much of her short life in England and on the Continent. As she wrote about the privileged worlds she encountered there, her stories quickly attracted literary attention. Prelude was hand-published by Leonard and Virginia Woolf at their Hogarth Press. Readers today still applaud the grace with which Mansfield fuses image, mood and meaning. Here are ten of Katherine Mansfield’s extraordinary tales.

The Diamond Necklace and Other Stories

• UNABRIDGED (4 hrs and 19 mins)
• By Guy de Maupassant
• Narrated By George Guidall

Beautifully simple and marvelously strong, the stories of Guy de Maupassant have enchanted generations around the world. One of the finest short story writers of all time, de Maupassant believed that the most heart-wrenching and powerful moments in life lay in the simple events of daily life, and he proved it by turning those moments into timeless stories.