It is the mid-seventeenth century in Boston. Hester Prynne, dignified and silent, is led through prison doors to her public shaming by members of the Puritan town. Holding her illegitimate child to her breast, and bearing a bright scarlet letter “A” embroidered on her bodice, Hester must now struggle to create a new life for herself and her child within this censorious community. When her missing spouse reappears, reveals himself to her, and takes...

"As the inscription on his tombstone reveals, Wilkie Collins wanted to be remembered as the "author of The Woman in White," for it was this novel that secured his reputation during his lifetime. The novel begins with a drawing teacher's eerie late-night encounter with a mysterious woman in white, and then follows his love for Laura Fairlie, a young woman who is falsely incarcerated in an asylum by her husband, Sir Percival Glyde, and his sinister...

Black Beauty enjoys a carefree upbringing in a pleasant meadow with his mother, where his gentle first master trains him well until he is reluctantly forced to sell him. Through a long and varied life, Black Beauty passes from one owner to the next; some treat him well, others are so cruel that they inflict lasting damage. Anna Sewells biographical novel about a horse is one of the bestselling books of all time, and her depiction of Victorian society's...

Listen to this collection of celebrated classic cat stories read by an ensemble cast of beloved audiobook readers-including Samuel West, Lorelei King and Imogen Church. “Classic Cat Stories” is an anthology that includes fairy tales and fables from the likes of Rudyard Kipling and Charles Perrault as well as comic tales from Saki and E. F. Benson. Cats, of course, have always had a dark and mysterious side which is explored to chilling effect...

As the nights draw in and Halloween is just around the corner, what better to listen to than this collection of seriously spooky stories about ghosts, ghouls and things that go bump in the night. Read to you by an ensemble cast of unforgettable readers-including Imogen Church, Samuel West, Thomas Judd and Robert G. Slade. Ghost stories became hugely popular during the nineteenth century and the Victorians became the masters of the genre. This deliciously...

All the stories in “Standing Her Ground” have been chosen to celebrate the skill, the passion and achievements of women writers spanning one hundred years of innovation. Edith Wharton was the first woman to win a Pulitzer Prize for literature. Writer and activist Alice Dunbar Nelson was an early adopter of the Harlem Renaissance movement. Kate Chopin and Elizabeth Gaskell dared to explore themes outside the strict social codes of their times....