Classic Nonfiction

THE MAN WHO MADE THE WORLD AFRAID TO LOOK AWAY Behind every masterpiece of suspense lies a secret… and behind Alfred Hitchcock lay a shadow that refused to die. For over half a century, Alfred Hitchcock ruled Hollywood with his camera, his silence, and his genius. But behind the calm, droll smile and polished English wit was a man haunted by fear, driven by obsession, and consumed by the need to control everything—and everyone—around him. The Shadow Behind the Camera: The Untold Story of Alfred Hitchcock pulls back the curtain on the most shocking, little-known truths of cinema’s ...

This Penguin Classic is performed by Luke Thompson, best known for his role in the hit Netflix drama Bridgerton. This definitive recording includes an introduction by David McDuff. A deep, complex examination of the crucial philosophical questions of human existence, from one of the world's most...

More than three decades after his death, John Steinbeck remains one of the nation's most beloved authors. Yet few know of his career as a journalist who covered world events from the Great Depression to Vietnam. Now, this original collection offers a portrait of the artist as citizen, deeply...

A Family Chronicle by Sergei Timofeyevich Aksakov is a timeless Russian classic that blends memoir, family saga, and cultural history. First published in 1856, this deeply personal work traces the lives of Aksakov’s ancestors, parents, and relatives, offering readers a vivid portrait of provincial Russian life from the late eighteenth to early nineteenth century. Unlike the sweeping epics of Tolstoy or Dostoevsky, Aksakov’s masterpiece shines in the quiet details: the rhythms of the estate, the moral struggles of family members, and the passing of traditions across generations. His ...

Leo Tolstoy: The Complete Collection includes unabridged recordings of Leo Tolstoy's 3 timeless novels; all his major novellas and short stories; and 4 renowned works of non-fiction in one audiobook, all read by Audie Award-winning narrators.

Brought to you by Penguin. 'One of the greatest books of a very great thinker' Michael Tanner This Penguin Classic is performed by Leighton Pugh, known for his various roles at the National Theatre. This definitive recording includes an introduction by Michael Tanner. Beyond Good and Evil...

A novel in The L.A. Quartet. Internationally acclaimed author James Ellroy presents another literary noir masterpiece of historical paranoia. Los Angeles, 1958. Killings, beatings, bribes, shakedowns—it's standard procedure for Lieutenant Dave Klein, LAPD. He's a slumlord, a bagman, an...

This Penguin Classic is performed by Richard Armitage, star of Peter Jackson'sThe Hobbit trilogy and also known for his roles in Ocean's 8 and Spooks. This definitive recording includes an Introduction by Diskin Clay. Originally written only for his personal consumption, Marcus Aurelius's...

Everyone has met Count Dracula. Almost no one has met Bram Stoker. The man who wrote the most famous horror novel ever published spent thirty-five years writing twelve novels, dozens of stories, and two strange works of nonfiction—and nearly all of it vanished into the shadow of his single masterpiece. This volume brings the whole of it back. Here, complete in one volume, is the entire surviving work of Bram Stoker. At its center stands Dracula itself, unabridged. Around it gather the other gothic novels that fed the same dark imagination—The Jewel of Seven Stars and its ancient ...

Brought to you by Penguin. This Penguin Classic is performed by Saul Reichlin, known for their roles in War and Peace and Miss Marple. This definitive recording includes an introduction by R.J. Hollingdale, also read by Saul Reichlin. Nietzsche was one of the most revolutionary thinkers in...

Author and illustrator Martín Prechtel is internationally known for his explorations of ancient folklore and uncovering the lessons therein for modern readers. In The Disobedience of the Daughter of the Sun, he revives a hitherto unknown Guatemalan Tzutujil Mayan tale of the beginnings of the...

“Compulsively readable—a masterpiece, maybe the masterpiece of science journalism.” —Bill McKibben, Audubon A brilliant, stirring work, breathtaking in its scope and far-reaching in its message, The Song of the Dodo is a crucial book in precarious times. Through personal observation...

The most intimate and elaborately enhanced addition to the Hemingway Library series: Hemingway’s memoir of his safari across the Serengeti—presented with archival material from the Hemingway Collection at the John F. Kennedy Library and with the never-before-published safari journal of...

ONE OF THE ATLANTIC'S 10 BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR A NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW  EDITORS' CHOICE PICK AND 2024 NOTABLE BOOK AN NPR FAVORITE READ OF 2024 “Peri’s joint biography is a thrilling, haunting yarn of the sort that the Scottish writer Robert Louis Stevenson himself became famous...

Brought to you by Penguin. This Penguin Classic is performed by Jim Barclay, best known for their roles in The Young Ones and Jeeves and Wooster. This definitive recording includes an introduction by Christopher Rowe, also read by Jim Barclay. 'We set about founding the best city we could...

Six hundred years later, Machiavelli still explains why some people rise — and why so many others don't. This is not an academic translation of the 1513 original. It's a modern, readable interpretation of The Prince, reorganized into six thematic parts and rewritten for a reader today, with no prior knowledge of Renaissance history required. You'll follow Cesare Borgia building — and losing — a kingdom in a matter of years. You'll see why Machiavelli believed being feared beats being loved, and why he was almost never as cynical as his reputation suggests. You'll read the fox-and-lion...

NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOK NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW EDITORS' CHOICE From the bestselling historian and National Book Critics Circle Award finalist, the moving untold story of the eighteenth-century men and women behind the making of Handel’s Messiah. "A delicious history of music...

The definitive biography of Edward Gorey, the eccentric master of macabre nonsense. From The Gashlycrumb Tinies to The Doubtful Guest, Edward Gorey's wickedly funny and deliciously sinister little books have influenced our culture in innumerable ways, from the works of Tim Burton and Neil Gaiman...

This program is read by the authors (David Zucker, Jim Abrahams, and Jerry Zucker), Laura Orrico and Joe Praino, with special appearances by an all-star cast of comedy giants, including the film's stars, Julie Hagerty and Robert Hays, as well as Beau Bridges, Barry Diller, Michael Eisner, Peter...

Brought to you by Penguin. The Battle of Arnhem is one of the best-known stories in British military history: a daring but thwarted attempt to secure a vital bridgehead across the Rhine in order to end the war before Christmas. It is always written about, with the benefit of unerring 20/20...