Product Description: Comedy reigns supreme as the Earl of Marshmoreton's sister's plans for marrying off her relatives to landed gentry go terribly awry. (Six CDs)

Product Description: What was Anthony Trollope s favorite Anthony Trollope book? Which was the most difficult for him to write? Which was the easiest? When he settled by the fire for a good read of somebody else s work, whose books did he choose? What non-literary profession occupied him for most of his life? Learn the answers to these and other questions, as one of the great authors in literature takes you on a guided tour of his fascinating life...read more

Product Description: Ben and his trained dog Sancho run away from the circus and soon find a warm welcome in a kind community where spirited games are played. Theatricals and imaginative pageantry are part of the fun. (Six CDs)

Product Description: Hailed as the first realistic American novel, this tragic tale and its companion piece are set in the slums of New York. In the first we meet Maggie, the product of a brutal father, drunken mother, and faithless lover. In 'George's Mother', a novella in which Maggie makes a brief appearance, we see how a loving mother is affected by her selfish, dispassionate son...read more

Product Description: Hostile Martians wreak havoc and destruction after landing in England. This narrative, one of the most famous science-fiction stories ever written, has terrified generations of readers. (Five CDs)

Product Description: Heartbreak House is not merely the name of the play which follows this preface. It is cultured, leisured Europe before the war. When the play was begun not a shot had been fired; and only the professional diplomatists and the very few amateurs whose hobby is foreign policy even knew that the guns were loaded...read more

Product Description: In this comedy of manners, Mrs. Erlynne is suspected of having an affair with Lady Windermere s husband. A misplaced fan causes further complications. (Two CDs)

Product Description: These lively, captivating letters are filled with the excitement of pioneer life. Peopled with fascinating characters, they reveal the isolation, beauty and joy of working on the prairie. (Fout CDs)

The mystery of her parenthood and the pain in loving two men are part of what Norma has to deal with. There is a sweetness in this novel that is enchanting. (Six 90 s and one 60)

Product Description: Mrs. Wiggs copes with poverty and many problems with a valiant spirit and a loving heart, as does Lovey Mary in the companion piece. (Four CDs)

Divine Comedy Summary Dante Alighieri (1265-1321) wrote his epic poem, the Divine Comedy, during the last thirteen years of his life (circa 1308-21), while in exile from his native Florence. There are three parts to this massive work: Inferno, Purgatory and Paradise. In each section Dante the poet recounts the travels of the Pilgrim—his alter ego—through hell, purgatory, and heaven, where he meets God face to face. The primary theme is clear. In a letter to his patron, Can Grande della Scala, Dante wrote that his poem was, on the literal level, about "The state of souls after death." It is, of course, that and much more. The poem works on a number of symbolic levels, much like the Bible, one of its primary sources. Like that sacred text, Dante meant his work and his Pilgrim traveler to serve as models for the reader. He hoped to lead that reader to a greater understanding of his place in the universe and to prepare him for the next life, for the life that begins after death. The greatness of the Divine Comedy lies in its construction as a summa, or a summation of knowledge and experience. Dante was able to weave together pagan myth, literature, philosophy; Christian theology and doctrine, physics, astrology, cartography, mathematics, literary theory, history, and politics into a complex poem that a wide audience, not just the highly educated, could read. For Dante boldly chose to write his poem of salvation in his own Italian dialect, not in Latin, which was the language of Church, State, and epic poetry during his time. Its impact was so great that Dante's Tuscan dialect became what we recognize as modern Italian. As one of the greatest works, not just of the late Middle Ages, but of world literature in its entirety, the influence of the Divine Comedy has been incalculable. The poem was immediately successful— Dante's own sons, Pietro and Jacopo, wrote the first commentaries on it—and it continues to be read and taught today. Many of western literature's major figures were indebted to Dante's masterwork. A highly selective list includes: Giovanni Boccaccio (1313-75); Geoffrey Chaucer (circa 1344-1400); Don Inigo Lopez de Mendoza, the first Marques de Santillana (1389-1458); John Milton (1608-74); William Blake (1757-1827); Victor Hugo (1802-85); Joseph Conrad (Teodor Josef Konrad Korzeniowski) (1857-1924); James Joyce (1882-1941); Ezra Pound (1885-1972); Jorge Luis Borges (1899-1986); and Italo Calvino (1923-85).

Product Description: When the Vicar, an ornithologist, shoots down a strange bird, it turns out to be an angel who finds the customs and manners on Earth very strange indeed. (Four CDs)

Product Description: Caesar s would-be assassins are heroes to the public...until they assassinate Caesar. Discover where political back-stabbing really got its start in this timeless tale of murder and revenge. (Three CDs)

Product Description: The selections taken from Chesterton s books, essays, poems and newspaper articles offer us a sharp, satirical and sometimes poignant look at politics, religion, society and the human race. This collection includes excerpts from Orthodoxy, What Is Wrong With the World, Tremendous Trifles, George Bernard Shaw, All Things Considered, The Ball and the Cross, Heretics, The Defendant, Charles Dickens and Twelve Types, among others...read more

Product Description: This book offers almost a laugh per page under such titles as The Social Life of a Newt, Thoughts on Fuel Saving, The Tortures of a Weekend Visit and When Genius Remained Your Humble Servant. (Three CDs)

Product Description: When this dear old gentleman passes by, he causes quite an uproar. Is the marriage between George Marden and his wife Olivia actually a case of bigamy? A delightful play! (Two CDs)

Product Description: This classic thriller, set in England prior to World War II, involves a murder, espionage, a cross-country chase and international intrigue. (Three CDs)

Product Description: During World War I, a shell-shocked soldier returns home from battle with no memory of his wife. All that he desires is to reunite with Margaret, the love of his life from fifteen years earlier. (Three CDs)

Product Description: Uncle Vanya by Anton Pavlovich Chekhov

Product Description: Considered Anderson s masterpiece, this series of short stories with recurring characters depicts the joy of love, the pain of loss, the prejudices and the secrets of a small town as seen through the eyes of its inhabitants. The main character, George Willard, is said to resemble the author in many ways...read more

Product Description: In Willa Cather s first novel, a successful bridge builder is torn between two women: his beloved, charming wife and the beautiful Irish actress who had been his first love and reappears to enchant and disrupt his middle age. (Three CDs)

Product Description: In this, the first of the Palliser parliamentary novels, the plight of women in marriage, politics, and private life is seen through the eyes of Alice and Kate Vavasor, Lady Glencora, and the coquettish Mrs. Greenow. (Twenty-Five CDs)

Product Description: This is the novel that made Wodehouse famous, before the Jeeves and Blandings books. Jimmy Crocker, who is famous in British press as Piccadilly Jim, returns to New York, gets involved in the kidnapping of his spoiled cousin Ogden and falls in love with Ann Chester, who is behind the plot...read more

Product Description: Urged on by the lovely Hilda, Solness, a successful builder, goes a step too far. (Three CDs)