Twisted Classics

When young orphan, Oliver Twist, is sold into an apprenticeship with an undertaker, he leaves behind years of miserable servitude and mistreatment at an English workhouse. Hoping to move on to better things, he decides to escape his new, equally dreary surroundings and head to London. It is there that the novel unravels as Oliver meets a host of larger-than-life characters, including The Artful Dodger, a high-ranking member of a juvenile pickpocketing gang, and their elderly leader, Fagin.

Orphaned at birth, Oliver Twist is born into the grimmest of 19th century English workhouses with a life of grinding poverty ahead of him. But the boy is a fighter and after being evicted from the workhouse for asking for 'more' and surviving a stint as an undertaker’s assistant, he walks many miles to London and finds a whole new life with a gang of young pickpockets led by the Artful Dodger and their guardian Fagin.

Step back into the stories you thought you knew... and discover the darkness beneath. In Dark Fairy Tales Reimagined: 20 Twisted Versions of Classic Tales, beloved fairy tales are transformed into haunting, unsettling stories where magic comes at a price—and happy endings are never guaranteed. A glass slipper binds its wearer to a cursed fate. A hidden kingdom dances to keep an ancient evil asleep. A simple lie twists a boy into something no longer human. These are not the fairy tales of childhood. Each story drags familiar characters into shadowy worlds filled with betrayal, horror, and ...

To live happily harem after, you have to fight for your fairy tale. Five classic fairy tales take on a reverse harem* twist in the first installment of Happily Harem After. Experience Alice in Wonderland, The Four Clever Brothers, Beauty and the Beast, Peter Pan, and Cinderella in ways you never have before.

The multi million copy bestseller that has enthralled generations of readers. A haunting tale of obsessive love. A mesmerizing psychological thriller. In Monte Carlo, our unnamed heroine is swept off her feet by the dashing widower Maxim de Winter and his sudden proposal of marriage. Orphaned...

'One of the best British crime writers' – Lee Child Roy Grace is back in this gripping instalment from number one bestselling author Peter James. Brighton is celebrating. A killer is waiting. And Roy Grace is the target . . . Brighton Pride is the biggest date on the city’s calendar with...

Vampyres, zombies, and werewolves transform Charlotte Brontë’s unforgettable masterpiece into an eerie paranormal adventure that will delight and terrify. Raised by vampyre relatives, Jane grows to resent the lifestyle’s effect on her upbringing. No sunlight, nighttime hours, and a diet of...

Step into the fog-draped streets of Victorian London and join Sherlock Holmes and Dr. John Watson in this compelling collection of ten mystery stories filled with hidden motives, baffling clues, and dangerous secrets. From whispered scandals in drawing rooms to strange disappearances, coded messages, stolen documents, and murders cloaked in respectability, each case draws Holmes deeper into the shadowy corners of London society. With razor-sharp logic, keen observation, and Watson at his side, Holmes must untangle mysteries that test both intellect and nerve. Perfect for readers who love ...

Dominic Cooper reads Dickens' classic tale Oliver Twist. Dickens' timeless novel transports readers to a Victorian England filled with frightened orphans, grim workhouses and gangs of thieving children. Orphaned Oliver lives in a cold grim workhouse until the day he dares to ask for more food. Escaping to London, Oliver finds new friends and thinks he has a home at last. But his troubles are only just beginning.

The Ultimate Classics Collection: Volume Five is the fifth instalment of our wide-ranging classic collections. Volume Five features 14 essential works that reach across Europe, America, and Russia - from Twain to Dostoyevsky to Austen - to bring together some of the most influential authors of the 18th and 19th century. Read by a cast of incredible narrators, this is a chance to expand your listening by going deeper into some of your favourite authors' works and find your new favourite piece of classic literature.

When seven murder victims are found in a small town, the homicide investigation shakes a small-town sheriff to her core in James Patterson's tense thriller. Once a luxurious southern getaway on a rustic lake, then reduced to a dilapidated crash pad, the Summer House is now the grisly scene of a...

Daphne du Maurier's classic novel of lust, suspicion, and obsession that inspired major motion picture starring Rachel Weisz and Sam Claflin. Orphaned at an early age, Philip Ashley is raised by his benevolent older cousin, Ambrose. Resolutely single, Ambrose delights in Philip as his heir, and...

La historia del pequeño Oliver, criado en un hospicio, empleado en una funeraria y reclutado por una banda de ladrones que él no reconoce como tales, no solo es un soberbio escaparate de celebérrimas creaciones dickensianas, sino que además resulta un magnífico y apasionante relato sobre la inocencia acosada. Los distintos personajes que el héroe va encontrando en su camino nos descubren al Dickens idílico y sentimental, en una de las muestras más perdurables de su genio.

Oliver Twist doesn't ask for much—just a little more. When a hungry orphan speaks up, he's hurled from the workhouse into London's maze of alleys, where charm comes cheap and danger wears a friendly grin. Scooped up by a nimble crew of pickpockets and their smooth-talking handler, Oliver must navigate smoky dens, sudden kindnesses, and close calls—keeping hold of a stubborn belief that goodness can still win out.

It’s rumoured that Dickens wanted to return to his classic novel Oliver Twist, to bring him back into a later book as an older character, but he never managed this before he died. However, if Oliver had returned, what would he have been like? Would the scars of his childhood affect the man he would become? And what of ‘Dodger’, sent to a land halfway around the world, his friend, mentor and master dead because of Oliver? Dodge & Twist is that story. The tale of two boys, 12 years later, returning into each other’s lives - for both good and bad.

Oliver, a kind-hearted orphan, navigates the tough streets of London, meeting both danger and kindness as he searches for a better life.

The detective who solved crimes not by reading clues but by reading souls. The most radical inversion of Sherlock Holmes ever written — and, a century later, still the strangest and most morally serious detective fiction in the English language. This Erato Press critical edition brings together four complete Father Brown collections with a critical essay that examines what Chesterton was actually doing: smuggling theology into the detective story and making it work. In 1910, G. K. Chesterton introduced a small, round-faced Catholic priest who carried a shabby umbrella and solved crimes by...

Read the story that inspired the 2026 film starring Margot Robbie and Jacob Elordi — the complete tale, retold for modern readers "Whatever our souls are made of, his and mine are the same." You know the story. Or you think you do. On the wild Yorkshire moors, a foundling named Heathcliff and a girl named Catherine form a bond so fierce it will destroy everyone it touches — and outlast death itself. But you've never read it like this. Wuthering Heights in One Hour is a complete literary adaptation of Emily Brontë's masterpiece — not a summary, not a study guide, but the full story ...

Oliver Twist, Dickens’ second novel, has enthralled generations of readers since its publication in 1838. Orphaned and desolate, Oliver’s journey to London and subsequent induction into its dingy underworld, is narrated with ceaseless energy by Jonathan Keeble. His depictions of Fagin and the terrifying Bill Sikes are particularly mesmerizing, and his reading is infused with a delicious knack for storytelling.

Princess Margrethe has been hidden away while rumors of war threaten her kingdom. One gloomy, windswept morning, as she stands in a convent garden overlooking the icy sea, she witnesses a miracle: a glittering mermaid emerging from the waves, a nearly drowned man in her arms. By the time Margrethe reaches the shore, the mermaid has disappeared into the sea. As Margrethe nurses the handsome stranger back to health, she learns that he is not only a prince but also the son of her father’s greatest rival.