e: Dickens takes time off his novels to give an account of travels which he and his family undertook in France and Italy. There are vivid descriptions of the places, but also of the people and their lives.

A Tale of Two Cities is a novel by Charles Dickens, set in London and Paris before and during the French Revolution. With well over 200 million copies sold, it ranks among the most famous works in the history of fictional literature. The novel depicts the plight of the French peasantry demoralized by the French aristocracy in the years leading up to the revolution, the corresponding brutality demonstrated by the revolutionaries toward the former aristocrats in the early years of the revolution, and many unflattering social parallels with life in London during the same time period...

Great Expectations is written in the first person and is virtually a fictional autobiography of “Pip” from his childhood, through often painful experiences, to adulthood. It charts his progress as he moves from the Kent marshes - his social status radically changed having gained an unknown benefactor - to busy commercial London. The book is richly populated with a variety of extraordinary characters many of whom, unbeknownst to them, have lives that are inextricably linked to the others. It is all there, love, hate, passion, humour, rejection, duplicity, betrayal, a whole gamut of emotions and human strengths and weaknesses ...

Before he started writing novels, Charles Dickens tried his hand at theater. The Village Coquettes is a two act musical. Sadly the music was lost long ago so this will be a spoken version. This play completes the recording of the relatively unknown plays of Dickens in celebration of his 200th birthday!

A small group of people become embroiled in the tumultuous events of the French Revolution.

Hard Times was Dickens's shortest novel and the only one to be set in the industrial north of England. A fast moving story with a typical cast of larger than life characters, the novel is a vehicle for a humanist critique of both utilitarian education ('Teach these boys and girls nothing but facts', says Mr. Gradgrind in the opening paragraph) and the mutual antagonism between capital and the trade union. A humanist education system, it turns out, is Dickens's solution to the class struggle. Hard Times is set in the fictional Coketown and was partly inspired by a visit to Preston during the factory lockout that brought the town's industry to a standstill in 1853...

The classic Christmas story of an old miser and the astonishing effect a series of ghostly visitors has upon him. This version has been read in a whisper and is perfect for night-time listening in a quiet room. The low volume is intentional!

The tale begins on a Christmas Eve exactly seven years after the death of Ebenezer Scrooge's business partner. Scrooge has no place in his life for kindness, compassion, charity or benevolence. He hates Christmas, calling it "humbug", refuses his nephew Fred's dinner invitation, and rudely turns away two gentlemen who seek a donation from him to provide a Christmas dinner for the Poor...

The last of Dickens' Christmas novellas (1848), The Haunted Man and the Ghost's Bargain centres around Professor Redlaw, a teacher of chemistry, whose personal life has been marred by sorrow and, he feels, by wrongs done to him in his past. He is haunted by his ghostly twin, who offers him the opportunity to forget completely all 'sorrow, wrong and trouble', claiming that this will make him happier. Redlaw wavers, but finally accepts this offer, discovering too late that there are conditions attached to it which cause him to infect with this unwanted 'gift' nearly everyone with whom he comes in contact...

In one of Charles Dickens’ most beloved stories, Philip Pirrip, known as “Pip”, narrates his own journey, from the hindsight of 50 years. Pip grows up with his older sister after losing his parents at a very early age. His sister, a tough unloving woman, rules Pip and her gentle husband Joe with an iron hand. During Pip's 7th year, while playing in the marshes, he is accosted by an escaped criminal whom he decides to help by stealing food from his own home. But the convict is caught and returned to prison...

To Paul Dombey, the business is everything, and he must have a son who will learn the business and eventually inherit it. Will his newborn, but sickly son be the fulfilment of his hopes and dreams? And what about his daughter Florence, who made the mistake of being born a girl?

Martin Chuzzlewit was Dickens 6th novel, serially published in 1843 - 44. Irrespective of the fact that Dickens considered - "Chuzzlewit is in 100 points immeasurably the best of my stories"- it failed to resonate with, or capture the public's imagination as many of its predecessors had done. However by the1850s its popularity had risen and it eventually found recognition as the great novel that it is.The beginning is somewhat protracted but the prose is magnificent throughout. The theme of the story is about selfishness and obstinacy...

Nicholas Nickleby was Dickens's third novel following on from Pickwick Papers and Oliver twist. It has a cast of wonderful characters that include Wackford Squeers, the reprehensible and villainous headmaster whose reign of terror at his school in Yorkshire resulted in the abuse and deaths of many of his unwanted and orphaned children, Mr Vincent Crummles and his hilariously inept touring company, the munificent Cheeryble brothers, Ralph Nickleby, Nicholas's uncle, a mean spirited man who is driven...

Twenty stories originally published in the Christmas editions of the magazines “Household Words” and “All The Year Round”. Some of the stories have little holiday sentiment and exhibit much of the indignation Dickens felt at the social and economic injustices of his day. Some of the stories were written in collaboration with other authors. The editor of this volume chose to omit those other chapters and include only Dickens' work. The result is that some of the stories are a bit choppy, not to say confusing.

From 1843 to 1848, Charles Dickens wrote a series of five novellas to be published at Christmas. Most people are familiar with the first, "A Christmas Carol." The others are "The Chimes," "The Cricket on the Hearth," "The Battle of Life," and "The Haunted Man and the Ghost's Bargain."

This very special abridged version was written and performed by Dickens himself during his American Tour of 1862. Without the more terrifying and dark elements of the full length novel, its hour and a half length, and its lighter, comedic style makes this a family listening experience suited for all ages. ( Michael Armenta)

Little Dorrit, one of the three great novels of Charles Dickens’ last period, was produced in monthly installments from 1855 to 1857, and is considered one of his most profound. Dickens’ father spent three months in Marshalsea Prison for debt, which made a lasting impact on his life. This story centers around life in Marshalsea Prison and, as always, society in general.Book One begins in the infamous Marseilles Prison in France, where two prisoners, Rigaud the French rogue and the ever cheerful Italian Cavaletto, share a cell...

"This short collection of 6 selected scenes from "David Copperfield" were abridged and performed by Dickens himself during his American Tour of 1867 and 1868."

Warner's thoughtful and often humorous memoir of his life as a young farm-boy in Charlemont, Massachusetts. (Introduction by Mark Penfold)

This is Warner's contemplative and humorous account of the wondrous and mysterious workings of a garden he tended for 19 weeks. After this is a essay of remembrance for Warner's beloved cat, Calvin.

Eight-year-old Davy reads Lewis Carroll's novel Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and begins to get very sleepy. Suddenly a goblin appears in the fire and takes Davy on a "believing voyage" much like Alice's own adventures in Wonderland, where he meets many characters from fantasy and literature.

Charles Edward Jefferson was pastor of the Broadway Tabernacle in Brooklyn, New York for 33 years. In Quiet Hints, published in 1901, he provided guidance to young preachers on what we would today call ministerial deportment, an old-fashioned word that refers to how a man carries himself, how he presents himself, his manners, his bearing, his habits, and his whole approach to life. Jefferson wrote in short, pithy statements that encapsulate practical truth in just a few words.

Authentic Narratives of the Most Celebrated Sea Robbers.

Dole briefly sketches the history of life, and shows how it has a definite direction - toward the survival of the kind and gentle people. It's a challenging, and quite persuasive argument, and also a much needed one in light of the dog-eat-dog theories out there. Dole shows that in our evolving society, our traditional understanding of "survival of the fittest" needs to be updated. A book that was way ahead of its time, yet so suited to it. Some may argue that - since he was writing The Coming People before the first two world wars - that he was obviously wrong...

Great Men and Famous Women is an 8-volume work by various authors containing “A series of pen and pencil sketches of the lives of more than 200 of the most prominent personages in History.” The set is edited by Charles F. Horne, a prolific American author who wrote mainly history. The focus of Volume 1 is “Soldiers and Sailors”.

LibriVox volunteers bring you 18 recordings of A Poe-em of Passion by C. F. Lummis. This was the Weekly Poetry project for March 17, 2013, and is an amusing parody of Poe's Annabel Lee.

Charles Foster Kent was one of the premier scholars in Jewish Studies at the turn of the century. He was particularly well-known for his comparisons of early Christianity to its Jewish roots. He also wrote several distinguished histories of Israel, the Jewish people, Torah studies, and the development of oral Torah.

Abigail Adams lived the American Revolution as the wife of one of its central figures--John Adams. Her family correspondence, published along with a memoir by her grandson, Charles Francis Adams, brings that era into eloquent focus. What was it like to hear the cannon's roar from your window? to face pestilence? food shortages? rampant inflation? devalued coinage? to raise four children alone--and earn the money to keep your household afloat, while your husband was engaged in politics and diplomacy miles and oceans away ...

These 14 short stories about animals are superb examples of Roberts smooth storytelling style. Knows as the Father of Canadian Poetry, he loved to also write in prose about the wilderness and the personalities of the animals to be found there as well as the exciting things they are capable of. Bears, White Wolves, Lynxs, hawks and yes, cattle are just a few of the animals written about.

As this book will show, there have been a variety of clashes and feuds which have taken place in and near Kentucky over the years, primarily in the 19th century. The most renowned of these was that between the Hatfield and McCoy clans, which is delved into with great detail herein. This is not to downplay some of the other family feuds which occurred however, most of which have not attained the notoriety of the aforementioned. Take a ride through some of Kentucky's Famous Feuds and Tragedies, and begin with the Hatfields and the McCoys.

One man's opinion of woman in 1894. Charles Harper believes in the superiority of the male sex and the subordination of the female. He paints an entire gender with the same brush. He believes all women to be identical in mind (illogical) and body (knock-kneed) and vastly inferior to the male. He presents 'facts' to support his opinions: "Woman's Mission is Submission" "for woman has ever been the immoral sex" "how truly like nature their tongues say 'No,' when their hearts throb 'Yes, yes!'" "She...

"Some delights of the ancient town of Stratford-upon-Avon and the country round about, together with a sketch of the life of Mr. William Shakespeare, in which many things both new and entertaining are to be found...and wherein certain fanatics are handsomely confuted." "Certain fanatics" refers to insistent doubters of Shakespeare's authorship of the great literary works attributed to him. The quoted statement appears before the Preface. The book, which was published in 1913, charmingly describes the area's structures, history, and lore. ~ Lee Smalley