Audiobooks

 

Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court, A

Author : Mark Twain

Performed By : Kenneth Jay

Publisher : Select Music & Distribution

Runtime : 3 hours 25 minutes

Categories : Classics
Classic Literature

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The magical and romantic legend of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table Is one of the great stories of the world. The most famous version - Le Morte d'Arthur by the 15th century writer Sir Thomas Malory, which told of Arthur, Excalibur, Merlin, Sir Launcelot, Guinevere, Sir Gawain, the search for the Holy Grail and the final battle between the King and Mordred - is full of excitement, heroism and mystery.

Like most of his generation, Mark Twain, the great 19th century comic American writer, knew and loved the book. He wrote mainly about his own time - and his greatest successes such as Huckleberry Finn and Tom Sawyer drew on the Mississippi countryside where he grew up. But he also had a wicked sense of humour, and he wanted to show that Malory's picture of brave knights and rescued damsels was not as shiny or honourable we may like to think.

From the moment the idea came to him, to whisk a modern man (modern=1880s for Twain) back in time to the heyday of Camelot, he couldn't resist elaborating on the realities of life In Arthurian times. His Connecticut hero. Hank Morgan, found not a land of grace and ideals but one which was smelly, dangerous, uncomfortable and backward.

Hank finds that life is regarded as cheap, that torture and execution are commonplace, that superstition is everywhere and even Merlin is a con-man. Few wash, the music is terrible, living in armour is horrendous and deception is everywhere.

So Hank decides that he will make the best of his situation and introduce 6th century England to some of the improvements of his contemporary (19th century) existence - advertising, soap, newspapers, stocks and shares, and the railroad. And, with his superior knowledge, he will become The Boss.

How do the people of an older time take to it? In much the same way Twain suggests, as we would if someone from the distant future came down and tried to make us live their way: The older people generally do not like giving up their traditional ways, even though there were very clear advantages and only the youth can adapt.

Yet despite this, Hank cannot but admire some qualities of those knights and their damsels - not least the ability to stand up and fight in steel armour that would crush the contemporary man.

The novel began mainly as a delightful fantasy, but as Twain wrote, the darker side of his own character and view of the human race emerged. He believed in science, economics and practicalities; and government based on the equalities of opportunity that characterised America of Twain's day He couldn't accept a people who would choose monarchy. A Connecticut Yankee shows what can happen when these two very different societies come together.

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Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire - Part II, The

Author : Edward Gibbon

Performed By : Philip Madoc with Neville Jason

Publisher : Select Music & Distribution

Runtime : 7 hours 45 minutes

Categories : Classic Literature
Ancient

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Edward Gibbon's Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire occupies an immortal place in the pantheon of historical masterpieces. This six-disc recording covers the final three volumes of Gibbon's work, tracing ten centuries in the life of the eastern half of the empire, whose capital city was Constantinople. Among the many figures who stride across Gibbon's stage here are the emperor Justinian I, a noble statesman and successful warrior, brought low by his lascivious wife, the former prostitute Theodora; the murdering Basil I, a peasant who nonetheless proved himself a worthy figure upon which to drape the purple; and the final emperor of all, Constantine XI, who died on the battlements of Constantinople in 1453, valiantly fighting a losing battle to prevent the Turks from gaining a city they had craved for centuries. It is still the work that sets the standard for all histories of the period.