Audio book

 

Hard Times

Author : Charles Dickens

Performed By : Frederick Davidson

Publisher : Blackstone Audio Inc

Runtime : 11 hours 30 minutes

Categories : Classic Literature

Our Price : $23.95

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"A bitter indictment of industrialization, with its dehumanizing effects on workers and communities in mid-19th-century England."

--Merriam-Webster Encyclopedia of Literature

"The narrator's British accent goes well with Dickens's overly dramatic and lush prose."

--AudioFile

Originally written for Dickens's weekly magazine, Household Words, this short novel follows the fate of Sissy Jupe, a warm-hearted circus child, and the family that adopts her. Deserted by her ailing father, Sissy is taken into the cold household of the Gradgrind family, which operates a school. The "eminently practical" Thomas Gradgrind believes only in facts and figures and has raised his children accordingly, thoroughly suppressing the imaginative sides of their nature. They grow up in ignorance of love and affection, of beauty and culture, or of empathy for others, and the consequences are devastating. Only after numerous crises does Thomas realize that his principles have corrupted their lives.

Dickens's satirical expos of the Industrial Revolution condemns the utilitarianism that exploited the bodies, minds, and souls of the vulnerable labor class.

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Hamlet

Author : William Shakespeare

Performed By : Full Cast Performance

Publisher : BBC Audiobooks Ltd

Runtime : 3 hours 30 minutes

Categories : Dramatizations
Classic Literature
Audio Theater
Shakespeare
Drama

Our Price : $22.25

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Michael Sheen, Kenneth Cranham and Juliet Stevenson star in the best-known and most powerful tragedy of modern times.

BBC radio has a unique heritage when it comes to Shakespeare. Since I 923, when the newly formed company broadcast its first full-length play, generations of actors and producers have honed and perfected the craft of making Shakespeare to be heard.

Those decades of experience come to fruition in this production.The intimacy of radio gives full rein to the power of Shakespeare's language, taking the listener into the very centre of Hamlet's emotional and moral turmoil.

The play is introduced by Richard Eyre, former Director of the Royal National Theatre, and the accompanying booklet includes a scene-by-scene synopsis, full character analysis, brief biographies of the leading actors and of Shakespeare himself, as well as an essay from the producer on their interpretation of the play.

Revitalised, original and comprehensive - this is Shakespeare for the new millennium.