"Set in 17th-century Puritan Boston, The Scarlet Letter tackles the subjects of social stigma, shame, and judgment. Hester Prynne is at the forefront of the scandal, subject to public humiliation for bearing a child out of wedlock. Forced to wear a scarlet 'A' on her clothing for the rest of her life, she cannot run from her sin. Hester refuses to name her daughter's father, a local reverend whom she is in love with, a timid man who keeps his secret from the community. Hester's husband—presumed lost at sea for two years—returns, seeking to exact revenge on the child's father, whoever he may be. One of the most important novels in American literature, The Scarlet Letter is a tragic tale about sin, punishment, misplaced judgment, and non-conformity to social pressure and religious power."
"A collection of stories about America's bloodiest conflict by some of the greatest writers of the 19th and 20th centuries.
The War between the States comes alive in this outstanding anthology of Civil War stories. Conjuring up the best in historical storytelling, this collection features tales of brother taking up arms against brother; the clash of the blue and the gray; the war between north and south. Tales of heroism and victory, of death and defeat, and most of all–humanity–come alive in these thrilling stories:
'The Little Regiment' by Stephen Crane (read by David Ackroyd)
'The Die Hard' by Stephen Vincent Benet (read by William Windom)
'The Brothers' by Louisa May Alcott (read by Gabrielle de Cuir)
'One of the Missing' by Ambrose Bierce (read by Stefan Rudnicki)
'The Valley Was Still' by Manly Wade Wellman (read Richard Gilliland)
'The Unknown Soldier' by Kristine Kathryn Rusch (read by Dan Musselman)
'The Lamp of Psyche' by Edith Wharton (read by Amanda Karr)
'How Stonewall Came Back' by James Warner Bellah (read by William Windom)
'The Locket' by Kate Chopin (read by Judith Cummings)
'The Face' by Ed Gorman (read by William Sanderson)"
"A brilliant virtuoso of violence, Richard Marcinko rose through Navy ranks to create and command one of this country's most elite and classified counterterrorist units, SEAL TEAM SIX. Now this thirty-year veteran recounts the secret missions and Special Warfare madness of his worldwide military career—and the riveting truth about the top-secret Navy SEALs.
Marcinko was almost inhumanly tough, and proved it on hair-raising missions across Vietnam and a war-torn world: blowing up supply junks, charging through minefields, jumping at 19,000 feet with a chute that wouldn't open, fighting hand-to-hand in a hellhole jungle. For the Pentagon, he organized the Navy's first counterterrorist unit: the legendary SEAL TEAM SIX, which went on classified missions from Central America to the Middle East, the North Sea, Africa and beyond.
Then Marcinko was tapped to create Red Cell, a dirty-dozen team of the military's most accomplished and decorated counterterrorists. Their unbelievable job was to test the defenses of the Navy's most secure facilities and installations. The result was predictable: all hell broke loose.
Here is the hero who saw beyond the blood to ultimate justice—and the decorated warrior who became such a maverick that the Navy brass wanted his head on a pole, and for a time, got it. Richard Marcinko—ROGUE WARRIOR."
"She came to wed his brother and stole the Dragon's heart...
To settle a feud, Dominique Beauchamp was resigned to wed in order to heal their injured lands. Offered in marriage by her brother to the lord of Drakewich, she came to take the d'Lucy name...but never counted on losing her heart to the brother of her betrothed - the Black Dragon.
Blaec d'Lucy mistrusted her from the beginning, believing her to be part of her brother's endless perfidy, but he was powerless to resist the fiery-haired vixen that rode so proudly into their midst. Their love was sealed... once upon a kiss."
"The journey continues, as the Pilgrim's
wife, Christiana, disregards the ridicule
of her neighbors and follows in her husband's
footsteps toward the Celestial City."
"Set against the backdrop of the American Civil War, The Red Badge of Courage tells the story of Henry Fleming, a young private in the Union Army who flees from the horror of battle and then struggles with shame and self-loathing. Outstanding in its portrayal of the quiet tension and violent emotion of war, this powerful psychological study of a young soldier will strike listeners with its undeniable realism. With its masterful description of men under fire, many veterans— both Union and Confederate— praised the novel for its accurate representation of war. This recording is narrated by actor Richard Thomas, who portrayed Private Fleming in the 1974 television adaption of the Stephen Crane classic."
"Bella Ford, aged 19 and inexperienced, is seduced by an older, married man and becomes pregnant. Jilted by her unscrupulous lover, Bella plans revenge and journeys to the place he told her he was from— a lie— and loses the baby during the journey. She is taken in by a family of shoemakers who help her restore her faith in living— until a crisis of extreme tragedy puts her to the highest test.
This brooding, suspenseful story of sensuality and vengeance— set amid the fields and villages of 19th century England— is narrated by Embeth Davidtz, star of the Merchant-Ivory film adaptation of the acclaimed novel."
"In this powerful and moving saga, three extraordinary individuals— two men and one woman— compete for the ultimate glory: the Nobel Prize. Erich Segal takes us inside the research labs and clinics— as well as the homes and hearts— of the world's most elite doctors and scientists whose genius, dedication, and passion cannot always win them the love and recognition they seek. Loyalty and betrayal, disappointment and loss, scandal and secrets— all will play roles in the personal and professional lives of these gifted scientists who hold the key to life and death for so many. While the Nobel Prize beckons with its seductive promise, all three will discover an enduring truth: that life has many treasures to offer, and some of them come in the most unexpected ways."
"One of the century’s most challenging novels of ideas, The Fountainhead champions the cause of individualism through the story of a gifted young architect who defies the tyranny of conventional public opinion.
The struggle for personal integrity in a world that values conformity above creativity is powerfully illustrated through three characters: Howard Roarke, the genius who is resented because he creates purely for the delight of his own work and on no other terms; Gail Wynand, the newspaper mogul and self-made millionaire whose power was bought by sacrificing his ideals to the lowest common denominator of public taste; and Dominique Francon, the devastating beauty whose desperate search for meaning has been twisted, through despair, into a quest to destroy the single object of her desire: Howard Roarke.
Dramatic, poetic, and demanding, The Fountainhead remains one of the towering books on the contemporary intellectual scene."
"With humor and pathos, Little Women follows the lives of four young women and their mother as they face the daily struggles of life in the 19th century. First published in 1868, this memorable and touching coming-of-age masterpiece is beloved by generations.
Set in Concord, Massachusetts, this is the story of four sisters who learn hard lessons of poverty and growing up in New England during the American Civil War. Each of the March sisters has a vision of what their ideal future will bring, though ultimately experiencing, as most young do, something completely different. The sisters are put to the test when their mother must leave them to attend to their father who is badly wounded in the war."
"It was a wonderful summer, a great memory, the kind of love everybody ought to have. It changed my life -- or almost did -- and I think about it more than I should, but that was a long time ago.
In the summer of 1955, Madison Lee 'Bobo' Murphy was a waiter at the Catskills' Pine hill inn, where the eccentric Avrum Feldman became his unlikely friend. A rural Southerner on his exciting first journey north, Bobo learned from Avrum that each life is marked by one grand, undeniable moment of change that never stops mattering. It came for Bobo in his first meeting with Amy Lourie, the most beautiful girl he had ever seen. But for a wealthy Jewish girl and a Georgia farm boy, the summer had to end, leaving Bobo to learn another painful lesson.
Now thirty-eight years later, Avrum's death beckons Bobo to the Catskills once more. When Amy unexpectedly appears, they discover that two lifetimes and a thousand Catskills sunsets stand between who they were and who they have become -- until mysteriously, miraculously, Bobo hears the dreams of his youth, of the young man who went forth and became part of a love larger than himself...."
"When I was a lad twenty or thirty or forty years ago I lived in a small town where they were all after me on account of what I done on Mrs. Nugent.
Welcome to the mind of Francie Brady. Just what Francie did to Mrs. Nugent is the final, terrifying act of a young boy at the end of a relentless descent into a world of scorn and fear, brought to unforgettably vivid life in this tour-de-force performance by author Patrick McCabe.
Francie Brady, the 'pig boy,' is growing up in a poor small Irish town in the early sixties, fueled on an adolescent's comic books, Flash Bars, and John Wayne movies. He is determined to win the Francie Brady Not a Bad Bastard Anymore Diploma. But how do you do that when your mother is sent to the madhouse, your father is an alcoholic, and everyone turns their back on you?
Now a major motion picture from Neil Jordan (Interview with the Vampire, The Crying Game), and read with the bravura performance style that has earned McCabe raves on both sides of the Atlantic, The Butcher Boy is a stunning audio thriller."
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