Showing results by narrator "Steven Green" in All Categories

Brighton, 1957: a sunny seaside resort with a sinister underbelly. This den of villainy is policed by the touchingly innocent Inspector Steine, who naively believes he wiped out all the hoodlums in the Middle Street Massacre six years earlier. Can long-suffering Sergeant Brunswick and keen Constable Twitten persuade him that a criminal mastermind is at large - and that the station's charlady, Mrs Groynes, might bear investigation?

"Far from the Madding Crowd" (1874) is the first novel set in Hardy's fictional county of Wessex in rural southwest England. It deals with the themes of love, honor and betrayal, against a backdrop of the seemingly idyllic, but often harsh, realities of a farming community in Victorian England. It describes the farmer Bathsheba Everdene, her life and relationships - especially with her lonely neighbor William Boldwood, the faithful shepherd Gabriel Oak, and the thriftless soldier Sergeant Troy. The novel was listed at number 48 on the BBC's survey The Big Read in 2003.

"Oliver Twist" (1839) by Charles Dickens is a novel about an orphan boy, who starts his life in a workhouse and is then sold into apprenticeship with an undertaker. He escapes and travels to London, where he meets the Artful Dodger, a member of a gang of juvenile pickpockets led by the elderly criminal, Fagin. Oliver Twist is notable for its unromantic portrayal by Dickens of criminals and their sordid lives, as well as for exposing the cruel treatment of the many orphans in London in the mid-19th century.

"Silas Marner" (1861) by George Eliot is a novel notable for its strong realism and its sophisticated treatment of a variety of issues, like religion, industrialization, community. Silas Marner, a weaver, is a member of a small Calvinist congregation. He is falsely accused of stealing the congregation’s funds while watching over the very ill deacon. Two clues are given against Silas: a pocketknife, and the discovery of the empty money bag in his house.

"Dubliners" is a collection of fifteen short stories by James Joyce, first published in 1914. They form a naturalistic depiction of Irish middle class life in and around Dublin in the early years of the 20th century. The stories were written when Irish nationalism was at its peak and a search for a national identity and purpose was raging; at a crossroads of history and culture, Ireland was jolted by various converging ideas and influences. They center on Joyce’s idea of an epiphany: a moment where a character experiences a life-changing self-understanding or illumination.

"Jude the Obscure" (1895) by Thomas Hardy is a novel dealing with issues of class, education, religion and marriage. Jude is a working-class young man, a stonemason, who dreams of becoming a scholar. As a youth, Jude teaches himself Classical Greek and Latin in his spare time, while working first in his great aunt's bakery, with the hope of entering university. But before he can try to do this the naïve Jude is seduced by Arabella, a rather coarse and superficial local girl who traps him into marriage.

"The Vicar of Wakefield" (1766) lives an idyllic life in a country parish with his wife Deborah, son George, daughters Olivia and Sophia, and three other children. He is wealthy due to investing an inheritance he received from a deceased relative, and he donates the £34 that his job pays annually to local orphans and war veterans. On the evening of George’s wedding to wealthy Arabella, the Vicar loses all his money through the bankruptcy of his merchant investor who has left town abruptly.

"The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists" (1914) is a novel by Robert Tressell. Clearly frustrated at the refusal of his contemporaries to recognize the inequity and iniquity of society, Tressell’s cast of hypocritical Christians, exploitative capitalists and corrupt councilors provide a backdrop for his main target - the workers who think that a better life is "not for the likes of them". Hence the title of the book; Tressell paints the workers as "philanthropists" who throw themselves into backbreaking work for poverty wages in order to generate profit for their masters.

"The Woodlanders" (1887) is a novel by Thomas Hardy. An honest woodsman wants to marry his childhood sweetheart, Grace. Although they have been informally betrothed for some time, her father has made financial sacrifices to give his adored only child a superior education and no longer considers him good enough for her. When the new doctor - a well-born and handsome young man takes an interest in her, her father does all he can to make her forget the woodsman, and to encourage what he sees as a brilliant match.

"A Pair of Blue Eyes" (1873) is a novel by Thomas Hardy. The book describes the love triangle of a young woman, and her two suitors from very different backgrounds. One is a socially inferior but ambitious young man who adores her and with whom she shares a country background. The other is the respectable, established, older man who represents London society. Although the two are friends, the older is not aware of the younger's previous liaison with her.

"Wessex Tales" (1888) by Thomas Hardy is a collection of short stories. Hardy writes of the true nature of nineteenth century marriage and its inherent restrictions, the use of grammar as a diluted form of thought, the disparities created by the role of class status in determining societal rank, the stance of women in society and the severity of even minor diseases causing the rapid onset of fatal symptoms prior to the introduction of sufficient medicinal practices.

"Two on a Tower" (1882) is a tale of star-crossed lovers by Thomas Hardy. The unhappily married Lady Constantine breaks all the rules of social decorum when she falls in love with Swithin St. Cleeve, an astronomer who is eight years her junior. Her husband's death leaves the lovers free to marry, but the discovery of a legacy forces them apart.This is Hardy's most complete treatment of the theme of love across the class and age divide and the fullest expression of his fascination with science and astronomy.