Welsh Literature

In the 1880's, an American senator observes, with some perplexity, English country life and all of its social echelons. To add some spice along the way, we follow the romances and intrigues of the flirtatious Arabella Trefoil.

BBC Radio dramatisations and readings of the great Welsh writer's works A novelist, playwright, broadcaster and raconteur, Gwyn Thomas was celebrated as one of Wales’s finest writers in the English language. He wrote countless novels, short stories and plays for stage, radio, and television...

À Middlemarch, cité imaginaire de la province anglaise, vers 1830, la jeune et intelligente Dorothée aspire à de grandes réalisations. Elle épouse le pasteur Casaubon, beaucoup plus âgé qu'elle et espère aider son mari dans les travaux de recherche pour un livre qui devrait être son chef d'œuvre. Mais Casaubon ne la prend pas sérieux, la néglige. De plus, il prend ombrage de l'amitié qui rapproche Will Ladislaw, son cousin, et Dorothée. Ce mariage se révèle être une erreur.

Captain Marryat's The Children of the New Forest is a wonderful tale in narrative, historically rich and quite fascinating. This story of adventure, treachery, and love takes place during the English Civil War, when fellow countrymen are found enemies, and are set against each other, Roundhead and Cavalier, Parliament and the King. Many hoped for the same thing: justice. But, for a long time, neither could find it. In the midst of all were the Beverlies, the family of a faithful Cavalier, who died in service of the king.

Even among the Celtic nations with their noble tradition of bards and story-tellers, the Welsh stand out for the sheer weight and number of their stories. Drawn from many sources including the great book of 'The Mabinogion1, traditional Celtic mythology, and local folklore this collection of tales has been adapted by popular children's author Faye Saxeby and brought to life in an enchantingly warm reading by the lovely Welsh actress Angharad Rees.

Mary Ann Evans (1819-1880), known by her pen name George Eliot, was one of the leading writers of the Victorian era. Her novels are known for their realism and psychological insight. Four of them are included in this volume: Middlemarch, Daniel Deronda, The Mill on the Floss, and The Lifted Veil.

Finnegans Wake is the greatest challenge in 20th-century literature. Who is Humphrey Chimpden Earwicker? And what did he get up to in Phoenix Park? And what did Anna Livia Plurabelle have to say about it? In the rich nighttime and the language of dreams, here are history, anecdote, myth, folk tale and, above all, a wondrous sense of humor, colored by a clear sense of humanity. In this exceptional reading by the Irish actor Barry McGovern, with Marcella Riordan, the world of the Wake is more accessible than ever before.

When Gustavus Pulvertoft finds himself saddled with a horse with the power of human speech, he little imagines how quickly he will come a cropper. His courtship of the horse-loving Diana Chetwynd goes swimmingly so long as his talking horse is on good terms with Miss Chetwynd's grey mare... but when their trusty mounts fall out, a series of terrible events ensues which Pulvertoft is powerless to prevent. His determination to get revenge on the horse leads to his ultimate downfall.

Young, impressionable Aubrey is fascinated by the enigmatic Lord Ruthven, and accompanies him on a tour to Europe. But Aubrey develops a growing distaste for Lord Ruthven’s sinister and grotesque conduct - especially as it concerns human blood. This novella, penned during that tempestuous night in Switzerland amongst such notables as Percy Shelley, Lord Byron, and Mary Shelley, served as the great inspiration for Bram Stoker to create Dracula.

The Mystery of the Missing Man Murder, mystery and a dog of distinction. Heathcliff Lennox investigates. Summer 1924. Seven archaeologists board the morning train from Oxford to witness the Roman villa excavation at Ashton Steeple. Only six arrive. Dr Mortimer Quayle was seen settling into his compartment with his leather case. The conductor punched his ticket. Witnesses claimed to have seen him. But somewhere during the thirty-mile journey through the peaceful Cotswold countryside, Dr. Quayle vanished without a trace. How does a man disappear from a moving train?

Oh, no! Jake has lost his favorite stuffed animal, Bunny, at the Carnival! Will you help Team Umizoomi save the day? Thanks, Umifriend!

Three Men on the Bummel, also titled Three Men on Wheels, is a humorous novel by Jerome K. Jerome, published in 1900, 11 years after his best seller, Three Men in a Boat. This time, the three companions J, George, and Harris take a bicycle tour through the Black Forest in Germany. Besides the bicycling travelogue, humorous vignettes or "set pieces" are constructed by a gradual accumulation of detail, including commentary on German culture from the point of view of a British tourist, and sitcom-like scenarios of the interactions between the characters.

The famed—some would say notorious—author of Trainspotting and many other brilliant offenses against common literary decency comes at last to America, with a dark and twisted tale of personal training and abject codependency in the fading glitter of Miami's South Beach, with a novel that...

An outbreak of plague in London forces a gentleman, Lovewit, to flee temporarily to the country, leaving his house under the sole charge of his butler, Jeremy. Jeremy uses the opportunity given to him to use the house as the headquarters for fraudulent acts. He transforms himself into "Captain Face", and enlists the aid of Subtle, a fellow conman and Dol Common, a prostitute. In The Alchemist, Jonson unashamedly satirizes the follies, vanities and vices of mankind, most notably greed-induced credulity. People of all social classes are subject to Jonson's ruthless, satirical wit.

Barchester Towers, the sequel to The Warden, is the second novel in Trollope's major series, the Chronicles of Barsetshire. It focuses on the power struggle between Archdeacon Grantly, Mr. Slope and the Proudies as they fight for control of the diocese of Barchester. Meanwhile, another struggle is taking place for the heart of Eleanor Bold. Who will win her? The vile Mr. Slope, the idling Bertie Stanhope or someone else entirely?

Owen Lucton, senior accountant and family man, feels trapped by his life. He buys a luxury motor car, which he loves; but an accident sends the vehicle headlong into the river and presents him with an opportunity for change. Wandering incognito across the Malvern Hills, he encounters eccentric locals, the warmth of country pubs, the camaraderie of cricket matches, and a sense of belonging–until he is presented with a dilemma: will he risk his anonymity and freedom to help his friends?

The dark truth behind the Johnstown Flood of 1889 - one of the greatest calamities our country has ever experienced - is revealed in a beautiful, harrowing story, told in luminous verse.

Lady Isabel Carlyle leaves her husband and children for the aristocratic Francis Levison, who, as it turns out, has no intention of marrying her. Having been disfigured in a train accident, the unrecognizable Isabel then takes up the position of governess to her own children in the Carlyle household, with tragic consequences.

This audiobook includes unabridged recordings of all George Orwell's six novels: 1984; Animal Farm; Burmese Days; Coming Up For Air; Keep the Aspidistra Flying; and A Clergyman's Daughter.

At the opening of The Claverings (1866) the beautiful Julia Brabazon jilts her lover Harry Clavering in order to make a marriage of convenience with a wealthy but dissolute earl. Harry licks his wounds, leaves London to train as a civil engineer, and falls in love with his employer's daughter, to whom he soon becomes engaged. But when Julia returns unexpectedly as a wealthy widow, the flame of Harry's old love is rekindled.