Showing results by publisher "Saland Publishing" in All Categories

A collection of Rudyard Kipling's finest poetry read by David Philo, Christopher Hassall, Emma Topping and Rudyard Kipling himself.

The best known of Chaucer's Canterbury's Tales, read by Dame Peggy Ashcroft. After a prologue, in which the Wife of Bath mentions that she would welcome another husband - who would be her sixth - and that she pursues power over her husbands, she tells a tale about a knight who must marry....

Lovers lives are complicated by city law, feuding faerie royalty, and, yes, love. Sir Ian McKellen, Prunella Scales, Frank Duncan, and Joan Hart perform Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream.

Judith Anderson and Anthony Quayle perform Medea, an ancient Greek tragedy written by Euripides. It is based upon the myth of Jason and Medea and first produced in 431 BC. The plot centers on the barbarian protagonist as she finds her position in the Greek world threatened, and the revenge she takes against her husband Jason who has betrayed her for another woman.

Basil Rathbone reads Nathaniel Hawthorne's short story, set in Puritan New England, which addresses one of his common themes: the conflict between good and evil in human nature and, in particular, the problem of public goodness and private wickedness.

Taken from The Old Testament, the story revolves around Judith, a daring and beautiful widow, who is upset with her Jewish countrymen for not trusting God to deliver them from their foreign conquerors. She goes with her loyal maid to the camp of the enemy general, Holofernes, to whom she slowly ingratiates herself, promising him information on the Israelites. Gaining his trust, she is allowed access to his tent one night as he lies in a drunken stupor.

La vida es sueño (Life is a dream) is a philosophical allegory about the human situation and the mystery of life. First published in 1635, the central argument is the conflict between free will and fate. "Life is a dream from which only death awakens us". Performed in Spanish by Alejandro Ulloa and Francisca Ferrandiz.

When John Donne stood in the pulpit of St. Paul's, the lyricism of a great poet fused with the devotion of a holy man. There were no prepared sermons, for he spoke only from notes, and what he said was later transcribed from memory. But the sermons were overwhelming; for behind him was a lifetime devoted, as poet, philosopher and devine, to God.

Sir Lawrence Olivier and Elizabeth Bergner star in this full stage dramatization of Shakespeare's classic.

A Classic recording of Shakespeare's well-loved comedy. Cast including renowned Shakespearean actors John Gielgud, Peggy Ashcroft and Gary Watson.

Basil Rathbone reads Nathaniel Hawthorne's short story about the minister of a small town who suddenly and without explanation starts to wear a black veil.

A lyrical retelling of one of the great Hindu epics, The Ramayana which forms an important part of its literature and greatly influenced Hindu life and culture.

Read in a mixture of Middle-English and modern English, The Canterbury Tales is a collection of stories written by Geoffrey Chaucer at the end of the 14th century. The tales are told as part of a story-telling contest by a group of pilgrims as they travel together on a journey from Southwark to the shrine of Saint Thomas Becket at Canterbury Cathedral.

King Leontes of Bohemia suspects his wife, Hermione, and his friend, Polixenes, of betraying him. When he forces Polixenes to flee for his life, Leontes sets in motion a chain of events that lead to death, a ferocious bear, an infant left in the snow, young love, and a statue coming to life. Sir John Gielgud and Dame Peggy Ashcroft lead a cast recording of Shakespeare's The Winter's Tale.

Sir John Gielgud, Sir Michael Hordern, Leo McKern, and Edward Hardwicke star in this unabridged performance of Shakespeare's Richard II.

But what is a Snark? "Humpty Dumpty's theory, of two meanings packed into one word like a portmanteau, seems to me the right explanation for all." (Lewis Carroll)

Baptista, a rich Paduan merchant, announces that his fair young daughter, Bianca, will remain unwed until her older sister, Katharina, a hellish shrew, has wed. An unabridged cast performance of Shakespeare's comedy about the courtship of Petruchio, a gentleman of Verona, and Katherina, the headstrong, obdurate shrew.

Alec Guinness reads a selection of his favourite poetry including works by Longfellow, Crashaw, and Vaughan.

A short collection of recordings capturing William Butler Yeats reading his own work including "The Fiddler of Dooney" and talking about modern poetry.

Richard Burton reads from Hardy and Donne, and performs a wonderful unabridged version of Samuel Taylor Coleridge's "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner" (along with Robert Hardy and John Neville).