Showing results by publisher "The Classic Collection" in Literature & Fiction

The Great War changed everything and everyone, and Larry Darrell is no exception. Though his physical wounds from the war heal, his spirit is changed almost beyond recognition. He leaves his betrothed, the beautiful and devoted Isabel; studies philosophy and religion in Paris; lives as a monk, and witnesses the exotic hardships of Spanish life. All of life that he can find - from an Indian Ashrama to labor in a coal mine - becomes Larry's spiritual experiment as he spurns the comfort and privilege of the Roaring 20s.

The Scarlet Pimpernel makes daring raid after daring raid into the heart of France to save aristocrats condemned to the guillotine. At each rescue, he leaves his calling card: a small, blood-red flower--a pimpernel--mocking the power of Robespierre and his Committee of Public Safety.

All the delightful and bizarre inhabitants of Wonderland are here: the White Rabbit and the Cheshire Cat, the hooka-smoking Caterpillar and the Mad Hatter, the March Hare and the Ugly Duchess... and, of course, Alice herself - growing alternately taller and smaller, attending demented tea parties and eccentric croquet games, and observing everything with clarity and rational amazement.

The young and headstrong D'Artagnan, having proven his bravery by dueling with each, becomes a friend of Athos, Porthos, and Aramis, members of the King's Musketeers. At the urging of the woman he loves, he and his friends head for England to reclaim two diamond studs that the Queen imprudently gave to her lover, the Duke of Buckingham. However, the chief minister of King Louis XIII will resort to anything to stop the Musketeers from interfering with his plan to ruin Queen Anne’s reputation…even murder.

Louisa May Alcott’s heartwarming tale of the indelible bond between sisters. This treasured novel, drawn in part from Louisa May Alcott's personal experience, brings to life the provincial yet abundantly full lives of the March sisters. Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy manage to lead an interesting existence despite their father's absence at war and their family's lack of money. Whether they're putting on a play or forming a secret society, their gaiety is infectious. This novel is part of Brilliance Audio's extensive Classic Collection, bringing you timeless masterpieces that you and your family are sure to love.

After a sad and neglected childhood as an orphan, Jane Eyre is hired by Edward Rochester as governess for his ward. Jane is pleased with the quiet country life at Thornfield, with the beautiful old manor house and gardens, with the book-filled library, and with her own comfortable room.

Eliza Harris, a slave whose child is to be sold, escapes her beloved home on the Shelby plantation in Kentucky and heads North, eluding the hired slave catchers. Aided by the Underground Railroad, Quakers, and others opposed to the Fugitive Slave Act, Eliza, her son, and her husband George run toward Canada.

Prince John is plotting to seize the throne from his brother, Richard the Lion-Hearted, and Robin Hood and his merry band are making fools out of the Sheriff of Nottingham. Wilfred, knight of Ivanhoe, the son of Cedric the Saxon, is in love with his father’s ward, Rowena. Cedric, however, wishes her to marry Athelstane, a descendant of the royal Saxon line, whom Cedric hopes will restore the Saxon succession.

Jane Austen's insightful and sometimes wry Pride and Prejudice provides today's listeners with a fascinating look into the British society during the nineteenth century. This delightful novel of manners follows the Bennets, a family of five daughters and humble fortune. With her savory wit and satire, Jane Austen unveils the lives of the Bennet sisters as they endeavor to find their place in society—some taking a long road to get there. The arrival of Mr. Bingley and Mr. Darcy turn their pastoral lives upside down, and listeners will take in the story with rapt attention, eager to discover if Elizabeth, cured of her prejudice, and Mr. Darcy, cured of his pride, will finally fall into each other's arms. This novel is part of Brilliance Audio's extensive Classic Collection, bringing you timeless masterpieces that you and your family are sure to love.

When we first met "the pariah of the village... the son of the drunkard" in The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Tom was "under strict orders not to play with him," so he played with him every time he got the chance. Twain took his most outrageous and outcast character (and perhaps the one he loved the most), Huckleberry Finn, from that timeless tale and wrote his own adventures.

On their quest to reach the very core of the Earth, Professor Lindenbrock and his nephew, Axel, gain access to the interior by travelling north to cold and barren Iceland, where they enter the subterranean regions through the cone of the extinct volcano Sneffels.

The Moon and Sixpence is a fictionalized biography of the artist Paul Gauguin. Charles Strickland, a thinly veiled Gauguin, deserts his wife and children to become a painter. In Paris, he is indifferent to the friendship offered by a fellow artist, Dirk Stroeve, but it is Stroeve and his wife Blanche who take Strickland in when he falls ill. It is only a matter of time before Strickland again devastates those around him by running away with Blanche.

Bram Stoker’s classic Gothic horror novel about a vampire’s search for new blood… Perhaps the most famous vampire story of all time, Dracula is an awesome tale of a thrillingly bloodthirsty vampire whose nocturnal atrocities embody the dark underside of an outwardly moralistic age. As he searches for new prey, desirous to spread the undead curse, Dracula looks toward England. There he is met with resistance from a small band of men and women, led by the intrepid Professor Abraham Van Helsing. Will the people be able to keep the fearsome Dracula from terrorizing their community? This novel is part of Brilliance Audio's extensive Classic Collection, bringing you timeless masterpieces that you and your family are sure to love.

Young Harvey Cheyne is rich, spoiled, prejudiced, and totally lacking in the real experiences of life. When the fifteen-year-old is accidentally washed overboard a great ocean liner headed for Europe, he is picked up by a fisherman and brought aboard the fishing schooner We're Here. Harvey's stories of privilege and wealth mean nothing aboard this hard-working vessel, and the boy receives many lessons in self-reliance, values, and hard-bitten reality—"things every man must know, blind, drunk, or asleep."

Amory Blaine has been brought up by a wealthy, idiosyncratic, and alcoholic mother. Snobbish because he knows no better, he is uncomfortable with others and must learn the proper social etiquette and values embraced by his peers. As he progresses to Princeton University from the Midwest, he flirts with some predatory young women and chances friendship with some intellectual young men. Will he find happiness, or will his life be forever burdened by his ineptitude this side of paradise?

Civility and society come head to head in Henry James’ seminal work. The heroine of this powerful novel is the spirited young American Isabel Archer. Blessed by nature and fortune, she journeys to Europe to seek her future, but what she finds may prove to be her undoing. She is courted by three men: an English aristocrat, an American gentleman, and a sensitive expatriate. Her invalid cousin becomes her benefactor and adviser.

Anne Elliot is a young woman of perfect breeding and unwavering integrity. Seven years after she is persuaded to reject Captain Wentworth's offer of marriage, her feelings for him are still strong. By the time she realizes this, Wentworth seems to only have eyes for the attractive, though flighty, Louisa Musgrove. Set against the world of the country gentry in Regency England, Persuasion critically portrays the many aspects of proper society.

My Ántonia chronicles the life of Ántonia, a Bohemian immigrant woman, as seen through the eyes of Jim, the man unable to forget her. Jim, now a successful New York lawyer, recollects his upbringing on a Nebraska farm. Even after twenty years, Ántonia continues to live a romantic life in his imagination. When he returns to Nebraska, he finds Ántonia has lived a battered life and is now abandoned by the very man to whom she dedicated her life.

Deep inside the dreaded Bastille, a twenty-three-year-old prisoner called merely "Philippe" has languished for eight long, dark years. He does not know his real name or what crime he is supposed to have committed. But Aramis, one of the original Three Musketeers, has bribed his way into the cell to reveal the shocking secret that has kept Philippe locked away from the world. That carefully concealed truth could topple Louis XIV, king of France—which is exactly Aramis' plan.

Great Expectations chronicles the progress of Pip from childhood through adulthood. As he moves from the marshes of Kent to London society, he encounters a variety of extraordinary characters: from Magwitch, the escaped convict, to Miss Havisham and her ward, the arrogant and beautiful Estella. In this fascinating story, Dickens shows the dangers of being driven by a desire for wealth and social status. Pip must establish a sense of self against the plans which others seem to have for him—and somehow discover a firm set of values and priorities.