Classic Fiction (part 1)
Talking Books
The titles in this booklist are just a selection of the titles available for loan from the
RNIB National Library Talking Book Service.
Don’t forget you are allowed to have up to 6 books on loan. When you return a title,
you will then receive another one.
If you would like to read any of these titles then please contact the Customer Services
Team on 0303 123 9999 or email library@rnib.org.uk
If you would like further information, or help in selecting titles to read, then please
contact the Reader Services Team on 01733 37 53 33 or email
libraryinfo@rnib.org.uk
You can write to us at RNIB NLS, PO Box 173, Peterborough PE2 6WS
Austen, Jane
Pride and prejudice. 2005. Read by Emilia Fox, 12 hours 59 minutes. TB 13967.
When Elizabeth Bennett first meets eligible bachelor Fitzwilliam Darcy, she thinks him
arrogant and conceited; he is indifferent to her good looks and lively mind. When she
later discovers that Darcy has involved himself in the troubled relationship between
his friend Bingley and her beloved sister Jane, she is determined to dislike him more
than ever. TB 13967.
Austen, Jane
Emma. 1816. Read by Richard Baker, 17 hours 36 minutes. TB 1174.
Emma, a clever and very self-satisfied young lady, takes under her wing Harriet, a
pretty but foolish girl of 17; this is a delightful account of Emma's injudicious schemes
for Harriet's advancement. TB 1174.
Baldwin, James
Go tell it on the mountain. 1991. Read by David Graham, 9 hours 42 minutes. TB
10178.
A story of the guilt, bitterness and spiritual strivings of the Grimes family which is told
as the son, John, faces the issue of religious conversion in the Temple of the Fire
Baptised. TB 10178.
Balzac, Honore de
Old Goriot. 1834. Read by Robin Holmes, 12 hours. TB 763.
In a boarding house in Paris we meet old Goriot and his daughters and hear of the
intrigues of the ambitious Rastignac and the criminal Vautrin. TB 763.
Beckett, Samuel
Molloy. 2003. Read by Sean Barrett, Dermot Crowley and Nigel Graham, 8 hours
41 minutes. TB 13920.
Molloy is divided into two sections. In the first section, Molloy goes in search of his
mother. In the second, he is pursued by Moran, a private detective. Spoken in the first
person, the novel raises the questions of being and aloneness that marks so much of
Beckett's work. Molloy was written as a separate novel, but is often regarded as the
first part of the Beckett trilogy, followed by Malone Dies and The Unnameable. TB
13920.
Bennett, Arnold
Anna of the Five Towns. 1936. Read by Ray Jones, 8 hours 31 minutes. TB
6867.
Anna is one of Bennett's "modern" heroines: brought up in a typical Potteries' town
with its prayer meetings and rent collecting, stark Sunday schools and dark interiors,
by a father who is a miser as well as a tyrant. Gradually her spirit expands until - at
2
last - she manages to defy him. Almost a character in its own right, the community in
which they live is shown as gossipy, myopic and uncaring. TB 6867.
Blackmore, R D
Lorna Doone. 1869. Read by Stephen Jack, 25 hours 15 minutes. TB 348.
Set in the times of Charles II and James II, this is the story of John Ridd, an Exmoor
yeoman, and his revenge for the murder of his father by the Doones. His love for
Lorna complicates the issue until it is discovered that she is the daughter of a Scottish
noble, so that the impediment to the marriage becomes one of social situation. This is
soon overcome by her fidelity and by his services to an old kinsman of Lorna and to
the king. TB 348.
Borges, Jorge Luis
Fictions. 1962. Read by David Banks, 6 hours 8 minutes. TB 6541.
Seventeen stories from one of the greatest short story writers, a myth-maker who can
build imaginary worlds and through them provide a new depth to reality. The author
was born in Buenos Aires in 1899 and yet has so contemporary an appeal that his
works have become best sellers in England as well as in native Latin America. The
book is in two sections: "The Garden of Forking Paths" and "Artifies". TB 6541.
Bronte, Charlotte
Jane Eyre. 1994. Read by Lucy Scott, 20 hours 32 minutes. TB 14397.
A story of passionate love, travail and final triumph. The relationship between the
heroine and Mr Rochester is only one episode, albeit the most important, in a detailed
fictional autobiography in which the author transmuted her own experience into high
art. TB 14397.
Bronte, Emily
Wuthering heights. 1847. Read by Robin Holmes, 12 hours 30 minutes. TB 283.
The story of a strange and terrible love, set on the wild Yorkshire moors. TB 283.
Buchan, John
The thirty-nine steps. 1915. Read by Andrew Timothy, 3 hours 56 minutes. TB
897.
The first of the famous Richard Hannay spy stories; a web of international intrigue
spun in London and Scotland. TB 897.
Bunyan, John
Pilgrim's progress. 1678. Read by Eric Gillett, 12 hours 15 minutes. TB 792.
The dream allegory of Christian's flight from the City of Destruction towards the
Celestial City. TB 792.
3
Butler, Samuel
The way of all flesh. 1903. Read by John Richmond, 18 hours 15 minutes. TB
1639.
In the form of a novel, brilliant with wit and irony, the author presents a study of his
favourite theme, the relations of parents to children. The idiosyncrasy of the Pontifex
family is traced from father to son through several generations: old John Pontifex, the
village carpenter, George, the domineering publisher, Theobold his son, who is bullied
into taking orders and jockeyed into marriage with the smug Christina, and Ernest,
their child, who in turn suffers cruelly from the pharisaical tyranny of his father during
childhood and schooldays. TB 1639.
Camus, Albert
The plague. 2002. Read by Steve Hodson, 11 hours 6 minutes. TB 13857.
The townspeople of Oran are in the grip of a deadly plague, which condemns its
victims to a swift and horrifying death. Fear, isolation and claustrophobia follow as
they are forced into quarantine, each responding in their own way to the lethal
bacillus: some resign themselves to fate, some seek blame and a few, like Dr Rieus,
resist the terror. Unsuitable for family reading. TB 13857.
Cervantes Saavedra, Miguel de
The adventures of Don Quixote. 1950. Read by Eric Gillet, 21 hours 45 minutes.
TB 2230.
In this classic among comic novels, Don Quixote sets out to roam the world, imitating
the knights-errant of whom he had read. Only his practical and trusty servant Sancho
Panza brings him down to earth and saves him from the danger to which he exposes
himself on all occasions. TB 2230.
Chekhov, A P
The shooting party. 1986. Read by Robert Gladwell, 9 hours 12 minutes. TB
6651.
This is Chekhov's only novel and was written in serial form for St Petersburg
newspaper when he was 24 years old. It is a steamy story of murder and betrayal on
a decaying estate in provincial Russia where the local landowner, a bored and
extravagant Count, organizes senseless parties to pass the time. The story is told by
a dissolute magistrate, seducer of a few lonely local women, one of whom is fated to
die at the shooting party... TB 6651.
Collins, Wilkie
The woman in white. 1860. Read by Gabriel Woolf, 25 hours. TB 1651.
Late one night, a drawing teacher has a midnight encounter on a lonely road with a
mysterious and agitated woman dressed entirely in white, whom he helps to escape
from pursuers. Who is she, and what is her connection to the teacher's new pupil, a
beautiful heiress? TB 1651.
4
Compton-Burnett, Ivy
The mighty and their fall. 1990. Read by Gretel Davis, 7 hours 41 minutes. TB
8328.
With his wife's death, Ninian Middleton turned to his eldest daughter, Lavinia, as a
companion. When, some years later, he decides to marry again, a chasm opens in
the life of the young girl. TB 8328.
Conrad, Joseph
Lord Jim. 1900. Read by Nigel Graham, 14 hours 15 minutes. TB 8199.
In this, another of Joseph Conrad's historical adventure tales, the central figure is Jim,
the sensitive first mate of the Patna. Conrad is at great pains to show the reader that
beneath such adventure there is a powerful psychological element. "Lord Jim" traces
the development of this character as he moulds himself and the society in which he is
marooned. Plain Jim becomes Tuan or "Lord Jim". TB 8199.
Conrad, Joseph
Youth: a narrative; Heart of darkness; and! The end of the tether. 1967. Read by
Alistair Maydon, 13 hours 19 minutes. TB 5404.
Three of Conrad's most well-known stories in one book. In "Youth" he explores a
boy's reactions to his first sea-voyage. "Heart of Darkness" describes the search for a
long-lost explorer in the depths of the jungle. In the final story, "The End of the
Tether", an honourable sea-captain discovers that he can be as corrupt as his crew
and in so doing commits the unpardonable sin of endangering his ship. TB 5404.
Cooper, James Fenimore
The last of the Mohicans. 1990. Read by Jonathan Oliver, 16 hours 53 minutes.
TB 8856.
This is a fictional novel with a factual core, namely, the massacre of the British by the
Indians at Fort William Henry in 1757. This fictional aspect involves romance,
sexuality and heroism, but within the placid character of the novel there lurks a
dramatic and violent inner part, which reflects the hatred felt between the two warring
factions. TB 8856.
Defoe, Daniel
Moll Flanders. 1722. Read by Robert Gladwell, 13 hours 25 minutes. TB 1485.
A moral comedy of low life set in the reign of Charles II. TB 1485.
5
Dickens, Charles
Tale of two cities. 2005. Read by Anton Lesser, 14 hours 56 minutes. TB 14956.
A story of the French Revolution set in London and Paris. Sydney Carton sacrifices
his life on the guillotine for the happiness of Lucie Manette, the French girl he loves.
TB 14956.
Dickens, Charles
Oliver Twist. 1994. Read by Peter Wickham, 16 hours 53 minutes. TB 14480.
The famous story of the workhouse boy and his adventures with Fagin, Bill Sykes, the
Artful Dodger, and many other well-known characters, showing many of the social
evils of the 19th century. TB 14480.
Dickens, Charles
David Copperfield. 1994. Read by Nigel Carrington, 34 hours 16 minutes. TB
14499.
David Copperfield relates the story of his life - transmuting many of the early
experiences of his creator - right from his birth to his attainment of settled maturity
and successful authorship. On his journey, David encounters a gallery of memorable
characters, kind, cruel or grotesque: Mr Micawber, Uriah Heep and Steerforth are
among the many who shape his development. TB 14499.
Dickens, Charles
Bleak House. 1852. Read by Maurice Turner, 36 hours 15 minutes. TB 756.
The tragic results of Esther's discovery that she was not an orphan, as she had
supposed, and the story of her friend Ada, ward and victim with her cousin Richard, of
the Court of Chancery. TB 756.
Dickens, Charles
Great expectations. 1861. Read by Andrew Timothy, 17 hours 35 minutes. TB
315.
Tells of Pip and his encounter with a convict, of his friendship with the eccentric Miss
Havisham and adopted daughter, and of his life as a young man of great
expectations. TB 315.
Dickens, Charles
A Christmas carol. 1843. Read by Maurice Turner, 3 hours 15 minutes. TB 896.
Ebenezer Scrooge is a heartless old miser who doesn't enjoy Christmas and doesn't
think anyone else should, either. But, one Christmas Eve, some ghostly visitors take
Scrooge on a journey that changes his mind for ever. TB 896.
6
Dostoevskii, F M
Crime and punishment. 1866. Read by Corbett Woodall, 23 hours 50 minutes.
TB 1507.
A psychological study of a young student who kills an old money-lender and his
subsequent fear and remorse. TB 1507.
Dostoevskii, F M
The brothers Karamazov. 1958. Read by Gabriel Woolf, 38 hours 29 minutes. TB
4770.
Fydor Karamazov, a mean and disreputable landowner, has three sons, Dmitry, a
profligate army officer; Ivan, a writer with revolutionary ideas; and Alexey, a religious
novice. A drama of patricide and fraternal jealousy unfolds, involving the questions of
anarchism and atheism, and giving a portrait of Russian society in the turbulent
1870's. TB 4770.
Doyle, Arthur Conan
The complete Sherlock Holmes. 1992. Read by Robert Gladwell, 77 hours 28
minutes. TB 10083.
The only complete, definitive edition of the authoritative text of every Sherlock Holmes
story ever written, this volume contains all four novels and all fifty six short stories. TB
10083.
Dumas, Alexandre
The three musketeers. 1844. Read by Andrew Timothy, 26 hours 45 minutes. TB
3153.
A historical romance, this novel tells of the adventures of the hot-headed young
Gascon, d'Artagnan and his three companions Athos, Porthos and Aramis as they
gallantly defend the Queen of France, using their wit and their swords. Set in the
seventeenth century. TB 3153.
Dumas, Alexandre
Count of Monte Cristo. 1909. Read by Andrew Timothy, 51 hours 5 minutes. TB
2354.
Falsely condemned to life imprisonment, Dantes escapes to Monte Cristo and sets
out to avenge himself on all who have wronged him. TB 2354.
Eliot, George
Adam Bede. 1859. Read by John Richmond, 23 hours 54 minutes. TB 1394.
Adam Bede loves Hetty Sorel, who is seduced by the young squire, convicted of the
murder of her child, and transported. He finds ultimate happiness with Dinah Morris, a
young Methodist preacher. TB 1394.
7
Eliot, George
The mill on the Floss. 1860. Read by Gabriel Woolf, 21 hours. TB 1118.
Maggie Tulliver is deeply attached to her brother Tom, but their conflicting
temperaments and outlook produce only stress and misunderstanding until they are
finally reconciled in a moment of revelation before tragedy overtakes them. TB 1118.
Eliot, George
Middlemarch. 1871. Read by Gabriel Woolf, 31 hours 45 minutes. TB 279.
Dorothea's disastrous marriage and subsequent difficulties against a background of
mid - Victorian life in a provincial town. TB 279.
Faulkner, William
As I lay dying. 1935. Read by Marvin Kane, 6 hours 14 minutes. TB 1987.
Successive episodes in the death and burial of Addie Bundren are recounted by
various members of the family circle, principally as they are carting their mother's
coffin to Jefferson, Mississippi, in order to bury her among her people. TB 1987.
Fielding, Henry
Tom Jones. 1749. Read by John Richmond, 39 hours 30 minutes. TB 1486.
This novel takes its wide-eyed hero from innocence to experience through inns and
bedrooms from Somerset to London and back, while at the same time continuing a
farcical debate about the true nature of the novelist's art. TB 1486.
Fitzgerald, F Scott
The great Gatsby. 1926. Read by John Dunn, 5 hours 30 minutes. TB 1487.
Gatsby in his fabulous Long Island mansion is the enigmatic central figure of this
picture of the Jazz age. TB 1487.
Flaubert, Gustave
Madame Bovary. 1857. Read by John Richmond, 15 hours 50 minutes. TB 1337.
A French novel renowned for its realistic picture of smalltown bourgeois life of an
ambitious, ruthless wife who drives her doctor-husband to despair and destruction
with her deceits and schemes. TB 1337.
Forster, E M
A room with a view. 1908. Read by Corbett Woodall, 8 hours 15 minutes. TB
1525.
The moral of this story is that many people, though good, are ruled by catchwords
and phrases rather than the truth of their inner hearts. TB 1525.
8
Forster, E M
A passage to India. 1924. Read by Alvar Liddell, 12 hours 45 minutes. TB 447.
An episode involving an Englishwoman and a Mohammedan doctor unleashes the
forces of racial antagonism. TB 447.
Garcia Marquez, Gabriel
One hundred years of solitude. 1972. Read by Patrick Romer, 16 hours 41
minutes. TB 4957.
A saga spanning three generations of the Buendia family. Jose Buendia founds a
town in the heart of the South American Jungle and the family is dominated by his
passion for alchemy. But the world is changing, and succeeding generations are
caught up in a political and social turmoil. TB 4957.
Gaskell, Elizabeth
North and south. 1854. Read by Gabriel Woolf, 19 hours. TB 1129.
This novel is a study of the contrast between the values and habits of rural southern
England and industrial northern England. The heroine, Margaret Hale, is the daughter
of a parson whose religious doubts force him to resign his Hampshire living and to
move with his family to a northern city. TB 1129.
Gaskell, Elizabeth
Cranford. 1853. Read by Marjorie Anderson, 6 hours 59 minutes. TB 16000.
A quietly humorous study of village life and Victorian ladies, tea parties and gossip.
TB 16000.
Gaskell, Elizabeth
Mary Barton: a tale of Manchester life. 1970. Read by Gabriel Woolf, 17 hours.
TB 1959.
A social document depicting Manchester in the Hungry Forties of the 19th century,
and also a grippingly told love story and murder plot, enlivened by the author's genius
for making her characters so individually human. TB 1959.
Gissing, George
New Grub Street. 1997. Read by Michael Tudor Barnes, 21 hours 50 minutes. TB
12019.
Through the foggy gloom of the British Library Reading Room and the garrets of
Tottenham Court Road, this novel follows a collection of hack journalists, aspiring
newcomers and embittered veterans through the literary world of the 1880's. This
study edition also contains a commentary. TB 12019.
9
Golding, William
Rites of passage. 1980. Read by George Hagan, 8 hours 46 minutes. TB 4022.
There is a strange assortment of people aboard the wooden ship making her way
early in the last century from the South of England to Australia. For his godfather's
entertainment a young man, Edmund Talbot, keeps a journal of the voyage. TB 4022.
Grass, Gunter
The tin drum. 1961. Read by Robert Gladwell, 26 hours 15 minutes. TB 437.
Shut up in a lunatic asylum for a murder he did not commit, a man reviews his strange
life. Unsuitable for family reading. TB 437.
Greene, Graham
The end of the affair. 2003. Read by Patrick Romer and Joan Walker, 7 hours 5
minutes. TB 14055.
The novelist Maurice Bendrix's love affair with his best friend's wife, Sarah, had begun
in London. One day, without warning, Sarah had broken off the relationship. It
seemed impossible that there could be a rival for her heart. TB 14055.
Greene, Graham
The power and the glory. 1940. Read by Clive Champney, 10 hours 15 minutes.
TB 294.
Unhappy story of a priest who hopes to find refuge in Mexico in the 1930s. TB 294.
Haggard, Henry Rider
She. 1886. Read by Marvin Kane, 12 hours 25 minutes. TB 1050.
A Victorian thriller, set in Africa. "She" is Ayesha, the mysterious white queen of a
Central Africa tribe. She is also the goal of a quest bequeathed to three English
gentlemen who travel through shipwreck, fever, and cannibals to find her hidden
realm. TB 1050.
Hall, Radclyffe
The well of loneliness. 1982. Read by Gretel Davis, 18 hours 16 minutes. TB
5208.
This book was banned in 1928 for twenty years because it is the story of an "invert",
that is a woman who is born with the mind and soul of a man trapped in a female
body. Stephen was baptised with a saint's name by her father who had longed for a
boy and she grew up with all the virtues of a son. As a daughter she thinks, feels and
desires in a way that was forbidden to a woman and must therefore be an outlaw. TB
5208.
10
Hardy, Thomas
The mayor of Casterbridge. 1886. Read by Robin Holmes, 14 hours. TB 1228.
Michael Henchard, a Dorset man, sells his wife and child to an unknown sailor. The
story shows the lifelong result of this folly. TB 1228.
Hardy, Thomas
Far from the madding crowd. 1874. Read by George Hagan, 16 hours 17
minutes. TB 317.
In which the patient devotion of shepherd Gabriel to Bathsheba is contrasted with her
ill treatment by her selfish husband. TB 317.
Hardy, Thomas
Tess of the D'Urbervilles. 1891. Read by Stephen Jack, 17 hours 15 minutes. TB
1014.
When Tess Durbeyfield is driven by family poverty to claim kinship with the wealthy
D'Urbervilles and seek a portion of their family fortune, meeting her 'cousin' Alec
proves to be her downfall. A very different man, Angel Clare, seems to offer her love
and salvation, but Tess must choose whether to reveal her past or remain silent in the
hope of a peaceful future. TB 1014.
Hawthorne, Nathaniel
The scarlet letter. 1850. Read by Marvin Kane, 9 hours. TB 1626.
The scene is 17th century Boston: Hester is ostracised with her illegitimate child, and
her husband wreaks terrible revenge on the man who causes her unhappiness. TB
1626.
Hemingway, Ernest
For whom the bell tolls. 1994. Read by John Chancer, 21 hours 56 minutes. TB
10384.
A passionate evocation of the civil war that tore Spain apart. High in the pine forests
of the Spanish Sierra, a guerilla band prepares to blow up a vital bridge. Robert
Jordan, a young American volunteer, has been sent to handle the dynamiting. There,
in the mountains, he finds the dangers and the intense comradeship of war and there
he discovers Maria, a young woman who has escaped from Franco's rebels. TB
10384.
Huxley, Aldous
Brave new world. 1932. Read by David Brown, 9 hours 30 minutes. TB 608.
Prophesies on the future of man-kind, which may perhaps come to pass. The world of
Bernard Marx and Lenina Crowne is one where human beings are brewed from test
tubes and then conditioned to accept the duties of their predestined castes in society.
It is a world of soma tablets and ultimate stability. TB 608.
11
Hugo, Victor
Les miserables. 1862. Read by Andrew Timothy, 61 hours 15 minutes. TB 1993.
Valjean returns after serving nineteen years' hard labour, and after a bad start robbing
the man who is trying to help him, he becomes an honest, hard-working and
respected man, always shadowed by the mistrusting Javert, who is himself ultimately
denounced as a spy. TB 1993.
James, Henry
The ambassadors. 1957. Read by Peter Gray, 20 hours 45 minutes. TB 3253.
Lambert Strether goes to Paris to bring back Chad, son of the wealthy New England
widow he plans to marry. But he gradually comes to feel that life in Paris may hold
more for him than in Woollett, Massachusetts. TB 3253.
James, Henry
The wings of the dove. 1902. Read by Marvin Kane, 21 hours 45 minutes. TB
1110.
Milly, an American suffering from an incurable disease, comes to Europe in search of
happiness, and cannot, because of her own innocence of spirit, recognise those she
loves for what they are. TB 1110.
Joyce, James
Ulysses. 1986. Read by Denys Hawthorne and Kate Binchy, 36 hours 18
minutes. TB 8275.
A day in the life of the author's city, Dublin, becomes a wild and joyous celebration of
the love of a man for his home town. Blum, the Jew, the outcast, and Stephen, young,
Catholic, and in his own eyes a failure, come together in a hilarious scene in a
brothel. It is as if Stephen takes the place of the son who died when Blum was a
young man and the story becomes a celebration of life itself. Unsuitable for family
reading. TB 8275.
Kerouac, Jack
On the road. 2000. Read by John Chancer, 14 hours 21 minutes. TB 12211.
On the road swings to the rhythms of 1950s underground America, jazz, sex,
generosity, chill dawns and drugs, with Sal Paradise and his hero Dean Moriarty,
traveller and mystic, the living epitome of Beat. TB 12211.
Kipling, Rudyard
Kim. 1901. Read by Anthony Parker, 15 hours 30 minutes. TB 955.
Kim is an orphan sahib and bazaar-boy who lives by his wits. His chameleon's talent
for disguise draws him into the Great Game - British Intelligence in India - and on a
mission to thwart foreign agents on the North-West Frontier. His travels coincide with
12
the quest of his friend the Tibetan Lama, who is seeking redemption from the Wheel
of Life. TB 955.
Lawrence, D H
Lady Chatterley's lover. 1973. Read by Richard Earthy, 14 hours 18 minutes. TB
5814.
The now-classic story of the relationship between Constance Chatterley and Mellors,
her crippled husband's gamekeeper. TB 955.
Lawrence, D H
Women in love. 1921. Read by David Strong, 21 hours 50 minutes. TB 1292.
Set in Midlands mining country against a background of class consciousness, the
development of the love affairs of two sisters is examined through their relationship
with each other and through the feelings between the men with whom they are in
love. TB 1292.
Lee, Harper
To kill a mockingbird. 1960. Read by Marvin Kane, 10 hours 45 minutes. TB
2289.
In Maycombe County, Alabama, Atticus Finch and his children lived a quiet, upright
sort of life until the day Atticus defended a negro on a rape charge; then danger
seemed to lurk in the bushes and to threaten them from all dark places. TB 2289.
Mailer, Norman
The naked and the dead. 1993. Read by John Chancer, 30 hours 23 minutes. TB
14232.
The story of a platoon of young Americans soldiers as they pick their way through
treacherous terrain across the Japanese-held island of Anopopei. Caught up in the
confusion of close-armed combat, preyed upon by snipers, the men are pushed to the
limit of human endurance. Held together only by the raw will to survive and barely
sustained dreams of life beyond the maelstrom, each man finds his innermost hopes
and deepest fears laid bare by the unrelenting stress of battle. Contains violence. TB
14232.
Melville, Herman
Moby Dick. 1851. Read by Duncan Carse, 24 hours 34 minutes. TB 1700.
The story of Captain Ahab's relentless pursuit of a cunning and ferocious whale. TB
1700.
13
Nabokov, Vladimir
Lolita. 2004. Read by Jeremy Irons, 11 hours 31 minutes. TB 15108.
The story of Humbert Humbert, poet and pervert, and his obsession with 12-year-old
Dolores Haze. Determined to possess his "Lolita" both carnally and artistically,
Humbert embarks on a disastrous courtship that can only end in tragedy. Contains
passages of a sexual nature. TB 1700.
Orwell, George
1984: a novel. 1949. Read by David Brown, 13 hours. TB 1459.
A novel of the future showing how people are affected by propaganda and brainwashing. TB 1459.
Orwell, George
Animal farm. 1945. Read by John Richmond, 3 hours 42 minutes. TB 4677.
Farm animals drive out their master, and themselves take over. They set out to
govern on the principle that "all animals are equal"; fairly rapidly some animals
become "more equal than others". A modern fable on the history of a revolution, with
excellent excuses at every step of the descent into dictatorship for each perversion of
the original ideas. TB 4677.
Poe, Edgar Allan
Tales of mystery and imagination. 1842. Read by David Bauer, 9 hours. TB 1529.
Ten of Poe's best mysteries, including 'The Murders in the Rue Morgue' and 'The Pit
Pendulum'. TB 1529.
Richardson, Samuel
Clarissa. 1847. Read by Pauline Munro, 93 hours 10 minutes. TB 4727.
Clarissa is of lower birth than her would-be lover: the Harlowes are indeed country
gentry, but only recently enriched in the city, while the devious Lovelace is a young
nobleman. This is a margin sufficient to breed suspicion on the one side and
arrogance on the other; a story of male determination pitted against feminine
principles and told in the form of letters. There is a post-script of approximately one
hour to this story which for technical reasons we are unable to include. TB 4727.
Scott, Walter
Ivanhoe. 1819. Read by Stanley Pritchard, 21 hours 15 minutes. TB 1024.
Scott's noble knight, Ivanhoe, returns home from the Crusades to claim Rowena, an
Anglo-Saxon princess, to be his bride. Before long he is embroiled in the struggle
between Prince John and his brother Richard the Lionheart. TB 1024.
14
Shelley, Mary Wollstonecraft
Frankenstein. Read by Robert Trotter, 7 hours 13 minutes. TB 8912.
Mary Shelley's nightmare vision has haunted generations of readers and inspired
innumerable literary imitations and film versions. Here is the original story of the
brilliant scientist whose magnificent obsession not only destroys himself and everyone
he loves, but threatens the entire human race. TB 8912.
Steinbeck, John
The grapes of wrath. 1939. Read by Marvin Kane, 19 hours 34 minutes. TB 1354.
Set against the background of dust bowl Oklahoma and Californian migrant life, it tells
of the Joad family, who, like thousands of others, are forced to travel West in search
of the promised land. Their story is one of false hopes, thwarted desires and broken
dreams. TB 1354.
Steinbeck, John
Of mice and men. 1992. Read by Billy J Mitchell, 2 hours 56 minutes. TB 9501.
This is the story of itinerant farm workers George and Lennie, one of nimble wits and
the other of huge physique, whose simple arrangement keeps them in work.
However, even his best friend and mentor cannot save Lennie from his own worst
enemy - his own strength. TB 9501.
Sterne, Laurence
Tristram Shandy. 1791. Read by Peter Barker, 21 hours 41 minutes. TB 5664.
Beginning with an account of his own conception (because his father had forgotten to
wind the clock!) this parson-turned-writer uses the story of his birth and early years as
a vehicle for many bizarre and hilarious digressions. These include - amongst others his Uncle Toby, nursing his 'wound in the groin' and playing war games with Tristam's
father and Dr. Slop whose delivery technique gave the author a birthday present of a
bent nose. TB 5664.
Stevenson, Robert Louis
Treasure Island. 1883. Read by Gabriel Woolf, 7 hours 31 minutes. TB 655.
The famous story of Jim Hawkins, who sailed as a cabin boy on an 18th century
voyage in search of a pirate's buried gold. TB 655.
Stoker, Bram
Dracula. 1985. Read by Christopher Saul, 17 hours 15 minutes. TB 6193.
Jonathan Harker's fearful experience at Count Dracula's castle in Transylvania marks
the beginning of a chain of unspeakable horrors, as the vile Count claims innocent
victims to join his diabolical world of the un-dead. Only Doctor Van Helsing has the
key to salvation... TB 6193.
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Swift, Jonathan
Gulliver's travels. 1726. Read by John Richmond, 11 hours 40 minutes. TB 179.
A powerful satire on mankind, morals, and social habits, written in the form of travel in
wonderland. TB 179.
Thackeray, W M
Vanity fair. 1847. Read by Eric Gillett, 37 hours 15 minutes. TB 1545.
No one is better equipped in the struggle for wealth and worldly success than the
alluring and ruthless Becky Sharp, who defies her impoverished background to
clamber up the class ladder. Her sentimental companion Amelia, however, longs only
for caddish soldier George. As the two heroines make their way through the tawdry
glamour of Regency society, battles - military and domestic - are fought, fortunes
made and lost. The one steadfast and honourable figure in this corrupt world is
Dobbin with his devotion to Amelia, bringing pathos and depth to Thackeray's
gloriously satirical epic of love and social adventure. TB 1545.
Tolkien, J R R
The fellowship of the ring: being the first part of The Lord of the Rings. 1999.
Read by David Banks, 20 hours 27 minutes. TB 14529.
A saga of dwarves, elves, and fierce goblins of long ago, and the story of Frodo, who,
through the Ring, sets out to save his world from evil. TB 14529.
Tolstoi, L N
War and peace. 1872. Read by Garard Green, 79 hours. TB 1374.
An epic tale of the Napoleonic invasion of Russia, contrasting the life of the nobility
and the hard life of the soldiers and people. TB 1374.
Trollope, Anthony
The way we live now. 1941. Read by Tony Chambers, 36 hours 42 minutes. TB
5714.
When Trollope returned to England from the colonies in 1872 he was horrified by the
immorality and dishonesty he found in English society. In this book nothing escapes
his satirical pen as he describes a world of bribes and vendettas, swindling and
suicide in which heiresses are won like gambling stakes. TB 5714.
Turgenev, Ivan Sergeevich
Selected stories of Ivan Turgenev. 1974. Read by Peter Gray, 11 hours 45
minutes. TB 2742.
Seven short stories and selected prose poems. TB 2742.
16
Twain, Mark
The adventures of Tom Sawyer. 1968. Read by Antony Higginson, 7 hours. TB
5759.
Brought up by long-suffering Aunt Polly in a small American riverside town, Tom
scrapes through a number of escapades at home, at school or on the Mississippi
accompanied by wicked Huckleberry Finn. TB 5759.
Verne, Jules
Around the world in eighty days. 1873. Read by Corbett Woodall, 8 hours 16
minutes. TB 1356.
The extraordinary and wonderful adventures which befall Phileas Fogg and his
servant Passepartout when they set out to win a bet by going round the world in
eighty days. TB 1356.
Voltaire
Candide. 1759. Read by Peter Snow, 4 hours. TB 917.
This tale begins with the hero, Candide, being expelled from the Westphalian castle of
Baron Thunder-ten-tronckh for making love to the Baron's daughter, Cunegonde. So
begins a series of disastrous misadventures on a fantastic odyssey for Candide,
Cunegonde and Dr Pangloss. TB 917.
Walpole, Hugh
Rogue Herries. 1930. Read by George Hagan, 22 hours 6 minutes. TB 1671.
The story of the eighteenth century rake and spendthrift Francis Herries, his daughter
Deborah and stalwart, straightforward son David. TB 1671.
Waugh, Evelyn
Brideshead revisited: the sacred and profane memories of Captain Charles
Ryder. 2003. Read by Greg Wagland, 12 hours 25 minutes. TB 14560.
This tells the story of Charles Ryder's infatuation with the Marchmain family and the
rapidly disappearing world of privilege they inhabit. Enchanted first by Sebastian at
Oxford then by his doomed Catholic family, in particular his remote sister, Julia,
Charles comes finally to recognise his spiritual and social distance from them. TB
14560.
Waugh, Evelyn
A handful of dust. 1958. Read by John Richmond, 8 hours 39 minutes. TB 3203.
After seven years of marriage, the Lady Brenda Last is bored with country life at
Hetton Abbey. She drifts into an affair with shallow young socialite, John Beaver, and
forsakes her unsuspecting husband as she becomes involved with the glamorous
Belgravia set. TB 3203.
17
Wells, H G
The invisible man. 1897. Read by Jon Curle, 6 hours 6 minutes. TB 12998.
The classic story of the extraordinary experiences of a chemistry student who
succeeded in making himself invisible. TB 12998.
Wells, H G
The war of the worlds. 1898. Read by Robin Holmes, 7 hours. TB 1900.
A very early science fiction novel in which Martians land in Surrey, overcome our
forces and are themselves overthrown by another agency. TB 1900.
West, Rebecca
The return of the soldier. 1980. Read by Pauline Munro, 3 hours 10 minutes. TB
5243.
A shell-shocked soldier returns from the First World War. There are three women who
love him and who are waiting for him. But he can only remember two of them as they
were years ago, and he cannot remember his wife at all. The three women have a
choice - to leave him or to "cure" him. TB 5243.
Wharton, Edith
The age of innocence. 1920. Read by Gretel Davis, 12 hours 16 minutes. TB
4661.
Fashionable life of the 1870s in New York and Newport as seen by a woman looking
back from the changed post-war world to a girlhood passed amidst the totems of
these vanished tribes. The book was a Pulitzer Prizewinner. TB 4661.
Wilde, Oscar
The picture of Dorian Gray. 1890. Read by David Brown, 10 hours. TB 759.
"If it were I who was to be always young, and the picture that was to grow old...I
would give my soul for that!" The wish uttered by Dorian Gray as he gazes on his
portrait forms the basis of this story, of a gilded and spoilt hedonist who is willing to
sell his soul for his beauty. TB 759.
Wilder, Thornton
The bridge of San Luis Rey. 1927. Read by Marvin Kane, 3 hours 45 minutes. TB
1647.
In 1714 a priest witnesses the collapse of a bridge in Peru, and his suspicions about
the cause of the accident lead him to investigate the lives of the five people killed. TB
1647.
18
Woolf, Virginia
The years: a novel. 1937. Read by Gabriel Woolf, 13 hours 31 minutes. TB 3178.
A chronicle of the Pargiter family from 1880, containing many vivid evocations of
London life at the time. TB 3178.
Woolf, Virginia
To the lighthouse. 1927. Read by Duncan Carse, 7 hours 15 minutes. TB 767.
Their desire to row to the lighthouse is the subject of much self-conscious and
deliberate discussion for Mrs. Ramsey and her family, and the lighthouse itself is a
symbol carrying different meanings for all the members of the party. TB 767.
If you have read a book you particularly enjoyed (or didn't enjoy) and want to share
your thoughts with other readers, visit the new RNIB Readers Forum at
www.rnib.org.uk/booktalk digital and post your review on the Forum".
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