Audiobooks by Thomas Hardy

The Mayor of Casterbridge [With eBook] Audiobook

Thomas Hardy's exploration of his most tragic hero, Michael Henchard, is the classic tale of overambition. From his drunken sale of his wife and baby at a country fair, to his subjugation of a farming village, Henchard's life is an epic attempt to bring the world to heel as he hides even from himself all vestiges of emotional vulnerability.

Thomas Hardy (Author), Simon Vance (Narrator)

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Jude the Obscure

Sexually innocent Jude Fawley is trapped into marriage by the seductive Arabella Donn, but their union is an unhappy one and Arabella leaves him. Jude's welcome freedom allows him to pursue his obsession with his pretty cousin Sue Bridehead, a brilliant, charismatic freethinker who would be his ideal soul mate if not for her aversion to physical love. When Jude and Sue decide to lead their lives outside marriage they bring down on themselves all the force of a repressive society. This fearless and outspoken story caused a furore on its publication and was Hardy's last novel.

Thomas Hardy (Author), Neville Jason (Narrator)

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Tess Of The D'urbervilles: A BBC Radio 4 full-cast dramatisation

The story of Tess Durbeyfield, the most tragic of Thomas Hardy's heroines. Adapted by Alan Sharp for BBC Radio 4. John Durbeyfield (Keith Barron) learns that he is descended from the aristocratic Norman family of d'Urbervilles. He encourages his daughter, Tess (Claire Rushbrook), to befriend the family of Stoke d'Urbervilles where she meets Alec d'Urberville (Adam Godley). Tess is ultimately seduced by Alec and the effects of their affair creates dramatic ripples in Tess's life. In an attempt to make a fresh start, Tess begins work in Wessex at the Talbothay's farm where she encounters Angel Clare (James D'Arcy), the younger son of a parson, who asks her to marry him. Torn between her love for Angel and the events of her past, Tess is faced with the choice to confess all to Angel or bury the memories when an old face reappears culminating in the spiral of tragedies. Director: Mary Peate Music: Composed by Sylvia Hallett Violin: Isabel Watson

Thomas Hardy (Author), , Adam Godley, Claire Rushbrook, James D'arcy, Keith Barron (Narrator)

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Short Stories About Suicide

Life has the capacity of great moments and attainment, of lives well lived, fulfilling for ourselves and for those we touch.But for others life is arduous. There is no spark to ignite the curiosity, to explore and achieve a stability and a growth to their lives. Indeed their lives, in their own eyes, become almost meaningless, their sense of themselves subsumed under a myriad of problems, whether real or imagined. Seismic events in a life might crush them; the loss of a loved one for instance. Coping is difficult, support hard to find and isolation abounds. We never really know the reason or motivation but sometimes one final, dreadful way out is the solution. In this volume our authors including, Amy Levy, Willa Cather, Honore de Balzac, O Henry, Franz Kafka and a wealth or others explore stories that help us to understand and recognise a tragic circumstance.1 - Short Stories About Suicide - An Introduction2 - Suicides by Guy de Maupassant3 - The Dream of a Ridiculous Man by Fyodor Dostovesky4 - A Hunger Artist by Franz Kafka5 - The Legacy by Virginia Woolf6 - The Informer by Joseph Conrad7 - Claude Gueux by Victor Hugo8 - The Furnished Room by O Henry9 - The Mourner by Mary Shelley10 - The Victory by Rabindranath Tagore11 - A Passion in the Desert by Honore De Balzac12 - An Imaginative Woman by Thomas Hardy13 - An Egyptian Cigarette by Kate Chopin14 - Volodya by Anton Chekhov15 - Paul's Case by Willa Cather16 - A Slav Soul by Alexander Kuprin17 - Cohen of Trinity by Amy Levy18 - The Story of A Conscience by Ambrose Bierce19 - The Cold Embrace by Mary Elizabeth Braddon20 - Blessed Are the Meek by Mary Webb21 - The Crystal Man by Edward Page Mitchell22 - The End of a Show by Barry Pain23 - An Outcast of the People by Bithia Mary Croker24 - A Responsibility by Henry Harland25 - When Spirits Steal by Philippa Forest26 - The Spider by Hanns Heinz Ewers27 - The Quadroons by Lydia Maria Child28 - Sokratics in the Strand by Amy Levy29 - In the Penal Colony by Franz Kafka

Ambrose Bierce, Amy Levy, Franz Kafka, Fyodor Dostovesky, Guy De Maupassant, Honore de Balzac, Joseph Conrad, Kate Chopin, Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, O Henry, Rabindranath Tagore, Thomas Hardy, Victor Hugo, Virginia Woolf (Author), Laurel Lefkow, Mark Rice-Oxley, Richard Mitchley (Narrator)

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Far From the Madding Crowd

This story of a proud rural beauty and the three men who court her is the novel that first made Thomas Hardy famous. Despite the violent ends of several of its major characters, Far from the Madding Crowd is the sunniest and least brooding of Hardy’s great novels. The strong-minded Bathsheba Everdene—and the devoted shepherd, obsessed farmer, and dashing soldier who vie for her favor—move through a beautifully realized late nineteenth-century agrarian landscape, still almost untouched by the industrial revolution and the encroachment of modern life.

Thomas Hardy (Author), Nicholas Guy Smith (Narrator)

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Tess of the D'Urbervilles [With eBook]

Thomas Hardy (Author), Simon Vance (Narrator)

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The Mayor of Casterbridge

From its astonishing opening scene in which the drunken Michael Henchard sells his wife and daughter at a country fair to the breathtaking series of discoveries at its conclusion, The Mayor of Casterbridge claims a unique place among Thomas Hardy's finest and most powerful novels. Rooted in an actual case of wife selling in early nineteenth century England, the story builds into an awesome Sophoclean drama of guilt and revenge, in which the strong, willful Henchard rises to a position of wealth and power, only to achieve a most bitter downfall. Proud, obsessed, ultimately committed to his own destruction, Henchard is, as Albert Guerard has said, "Hardy's Lord Jim…his only tragic hero and one of the greatest tragic heroes in all fiction." "The Mayor of Casterbridge is a story of fate. It is Henchard's awful fate to be as he is, a man who seems capable only of turning good fortune to bad. He is a man divided in his nature, so that his worst impulses - the first of which in the novel is, of course, the decision to sell his wife at a fair - rebound against himself. There are many versions available to listen to, as the text, published in 1886, is long out of copyright; I listened to the book unabridged, terrifically read by Pamela Garelick (Blackstone Audio, download from audible.co.uk, £11.69) and I was swept entirely away from my sickbed and deeply into Hardy's Wessex, into the twists and turns of this agonisingly beautiful and affecting book. Hardy's world view is infectious….I am still a little dizzy. Whether from my illness, or from Hardy's brilliance, I could hardly say."-Erica Wagner, Times (London)

Thomas Hardy (Author), Pamela Garelick (Narrator)

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The Return of the Native [With eBook]

Thomas Hardy (Author), Simon Vance (Narrator)

Audiobook

Tess of the D'Urbervilles

Hardy's harrowing novel of seduction and abandonment introduced his most memorable tragic heroine, Tess, whose vivid, breathing life was remarkable even for the author: "I have not been able to put on paper all that she is, or was, to me. On her morning journey to earn money for her impoverished family, Tess's horse has an accident, forcing to go to some newly-rich relatives to seek assistance. There, she is vigorously pursued by Alec, who corners her in a field one night and takes advantage of her. After bearing a child who quickly dies, Tess meets and falls is love with Angel, a minister's son who is infatuated with the image of Tess as the pure country maid. But when he learns the truth of her past, he shuns his new bride and leaves Tess once again to fend for herself in a world where she is only valued for her uses to others.

Thomas Hardy (Author), Ralph Cosham (Narrator)

Audiobook

Tess Of The D'Urbervilles

This masterpiece is beautiful constructed. 1. A QUESTION OF ANCESTRY. Most of the elements of the novel are set in place. From the moment Parson Tringham suggests to Tess's father that he may be descended from a noble family, Tess's life changes. She meets Angel for the first time at the May dance, where, to her slight irritation, he dances with other girls, missing her out. The section ends when Tess's negligence leads to the death of Price, the Durbeyfield horse - who is also the family's breadwinner. Listen for the description of price's of death and see how elsewhere in the novel-most notably in track 9, at Sandbourne - the image of blood comes up again and again. 2. AT TRANTRIDGE. Tess is persuaded by her family to go to Trantridge to find what they believe to be another branch of the family. Mrs Stoke d'Urberville offers work to Tess, who then encounters her seducer, Alec, for the first time. Hardy takes pains to point out that Alec is not related to Tess at all- his family merely acquired the d'Urberville name - a tragic irony in view of what is about to happen. 3. MAIDEN NO MORE. The seduction marks the end of a sustained campaign by Alec. The scene is full of power and pathos. Imagine 'the darkness and the silence' on The Chase that night with only the sound of Tess's breathing as she lies there asleep in white muslin, the birds roosting in the trees above them. No wonder Hardy asks: 'where was her guardian angel?' 4. AT TALBOTHAYS. Back at Marlott, Tess gives birth to the slickly Sorrow. Pathetically, because of his illegitimacy, Tess has to christen him herself - watched by her sister 'Liza-Lu and her other brothers and sisters - before he dies. Stifled at home and determined to make a new start, she takes a job as a milkmaid at Talbothays Dairy, where she meets Angel again. 5. HALCYON DAYS. Angel pursues Tess as earnestly as Alec did but in a more gentlemanly fashion. He kisses her for the first time and then proposes marriage. Aware of the effect knowledge of the past would have on him, Tess refuses. But as the section closes, she gives in to her need for a chance of happiness and in spite of her misgiving, she accepts him. 6. REVELATIONS. This is the centrepiece of the novel. Tess tries unsuccessfully to tell Angel of her past before the wedding but Angel brushes her aside. The marriage appears to be culmination of their love, but we are made aware that Tess's period of happiness is about to come to a close. Only on their wedding night, after Angel has confessed to a short period of debauchery, can she tell her story. The story is observed from Angel's point of view- and his reaction is made all the more sinister because we never hear it. He reacts by stoking the fire - a meaning act - before reply almost in monotone. He is unable to live with this revelation on her past, despite his own past sexual exploits. 7. FLASHBACK. Eight months later, Tess is penniless and is forced to search for Angel's parents for assistance. On her way to Emminster, she finds Alec, now a preacher, addressing his throng in a country barn. He is stunned to see her and genuinely shocked to hear of her situation. He is also immediately attracted to her again. 8. 'MAN AND WIFE'. Alec abandons preaching and wins Tess back with memorable, if chilling, words: 'I was your master once! I will be your master again'. Angel, now in South America, at last rethinks his position and decides to return to England. Tess's father dies, leaving her and the Durbeyfield family homeless. 8. THE FINAL RECKONING. Angel discovers Tess living with Alec at Sandbourne as man and wife. The image of blood reappears with the landlady see the red spot on her ceiling - the first sign that Tess has murdered Alec in the room above. She and Angel are briefly reunited at Stonehenge before their discovery by the police. She is tried and then hanged at Winchester Gaol as Angel, at Tess's bequest walks away with 'Liza-Lu.

Thomas Hardy (Author), Martin Shaw (Narrator)

Audiobook

Jude the Obscure

His last and most controversial novel, Jude the Obscure provoked such widespread and bitter attacks that Hardy claimed it caused him to stop writing novels. The primary causes of the uproar involved Hardy's frank treatment of sexual themes and his unconventional portrayal of the pillars of Victorian society: the British university system, marriage, and religion. Today, many consider this to be Hardy's finest work. The story involves the tragic relationship between Jude Fawley, a village stonemason who is thwarted in his aspirations to the ministry, and Sue Bridehead, a freethinking cousin who is shunned by society for her social and sexual rebellion. Concerned with the annihilation of innocence, Jude the Obscure is powerful in its portrayal of suffering, rich in its evocation of nature, and tragic in its vision of life.

Thomas Hardy (Author), Frederick Davidson (Narrator)

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The Mayor of Casterbridge

Michael Henchard, drunk at a country fair, sells his wife and baby daughter for five guineas. The following day, in despair and remorse, he forswears alcohol and sets out to redeem himself. In time, he becomes a respected merchant and eventually the mayor of the town. But Fate is not to be so easily appeased, and Henchard finds his past actions resonate through and destroy his plans for the future. One of the greatest novels in the English language, The Mayor of Casterbridge sees Thomas Hardy at his best, bringing landscape and richly imagined characters to life, and setting the hope of love against the forces of Providence.

Thomas Hardy (Author), Anton Lesser, Malcolm Blackmoor (Narrator)

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