Audiobooks narrated by James Taylor

The Poets of the 19th Century - Volume 2

This is a Century for the history books. The Chinese curse of living in interesting times could not be more suited.A small island continued its expansion across the globe bringing both good and evil in its march. Empires clashed. Revolution shook many. The Industrial Age was upon us.Poets spoke up against slavery bringing social and political pressure upon an abominable horror. It was also the Age of the Romantics; Shelley, Keats, Byron lyrically rapture. Tennyson, Arnold, Browning rode a century of sweeping change of dynamism and great verse.

Emily Dickinson, Gerard Manley Hopkins, Thomas Hardy (Author), Ghizela Rowe, James Taylor, Richard Mitchley (Narrator)

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The Poetry of Thomas Hardy

The Poetry Of Thomas Hardy - An Introduction. Many giants of Literature originate from the shores of these emerald isles; Shakespeare, Dickens, Chaucer, The Brontes and Austen to which most people would willingly add the name Thomas Hardy. Far From The Madding Crowd, Tess Of The D'Urbervilles, The Mayor Of Casterbridge are but three of his literary masterpieces. But let us go further and add to his canon his Poems. Hardy himself thought he was a poet who wrote novels purely for the money. Indeed his poems were not published until he was in his fifties after his major novels were published and his reputation set. Today his poetry is more rightly regarded in its own right. These poems are ready for you by James Taylor, Gideon Wagner, Richard Mitchley, Tim Graham and Ghizela Rowe.

Thomas Hardy (Author), Ghizela Rowe, Gideon Wagner, James Taylor, Richard Mitchley, Tim Graham (Narrator)

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The Novelist As Poet

An Introduction. Novelists stake their claim as artists on works that encapsulate a whole world of characters and narrative across many, usually hundreds of pages. Some also take in other disciplines; plays, short stories, essays but many have also written poetry. For some it is even their first love but for their audience it is too often forgotten; relegated behind their longer works. Charles Dickens, Jane Austen, The Brontes, George Eliot, Thomas Hardy are but a few of our illustrious authors who here reveal works every bit as tender, as expansive and just as good as their longer forms of work. Each would make a fine poet in their own right. We're glad to be able to bring you another side to these incredible talents. Our readers include Richard Mitchley and Ghizela Rowe.

Charles Dickens, Charlotte Bronte, Jane Austen (Author), Aidan Gillen, Alex Jennings, James Taylor (Narrator)

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The Divine Comedy

The Divine Comedy (Italian: Divina Commedia) is a long Italian narrative poem by Dante Alighieri, begun c. 1308 and completed in 1320, a year before his death in 1321. It is widely considered to be the pre-eminent work in Italian literature and one of the greatest works of world literature. The poem's imaginative vision of the afterlife is representative of the medieval world-view as it had developed in the Western Church by the 14th century. It helped establish the Tuscan language, in which it is written, as the standardized Italian language. It is divided into three parts: Inferno, Purgatorio, and Paradiso. The narrative takes as its literal subject the state of souls after death and presents an image of divine justice meted out as due punishment or reward, and describes Dante's travels through Hell, Purgatory, and Paradise or Heaven, while allegorically the poem represents the soul's journey towards God, beginning with the recognition and rejection of sin (Inferno), followed by the penitent Christian life (Purgatorio), which is then followed by the soul's ascent to God (Paradiso). Dante draws on medieval Roman Catholic theology and philosophy, especially Thomistic philosophy derived from the Summa Theologica of Thomas Aquinas. Consequently, the Divine Comedy has been called 'the Summa in verse'. In Dante's work, the pilgrim Dante is accompanied by three guides: Virgil (who represents human reason), Beatrice (who represents divine revelation, theology, faith, and grace), and Saint Bernard of Clairvaux (who represents contemplative mysticism and devotion to Mary). Erich Auerbach said Dante was the first writer to depict human beings as the products of a specific time, place and circumstance as opposed to mythic archetypes or a collection of vices and virtues; this along with the fully imagined world of The Divine Comedy, different from our own but fully visualized, suggests that the Divine Comedy could be said to have inaugurated modern fiction.

Dante Alighieri (Author), Anna Cohen, James Taylor (Narrator)

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The Complete Fairy Tales of the Brothers Grimm

The Complete Fairy Tales of the Brothers Grimm is a collection of the 211 Children's and Household Tales (German: Kinder- und Hausmärchen) by Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm, first published on 20 December 1812. The Brothers Grimm (die Brüder Grimm or die Gebrüder Grimm), Jacob Ludwig Karl (1785-1863) and Wilhelm Carl (1786-1859), were German academics, philologists, cultural researchers, lexicographers and authors who together collected and published folklore during the 19th century. They were among the first and best-known collectors of German and European folk tales, and popularized traditional oral tale types such as Cinderella (Aschenputtel), The Frog Prince (Der Froschkönig), The Goose-Girl (Die Gänsemagd), Hansel and Gretel (Hänsel und Gretel), Rapunzel, Rumpelstiltskin (Rumpelstilzchen), Sleeping Beauty (Dornröschen), and Snow White (Schneewittchen). Their classic collection, Children's and Household Tales (Kinder- und Hausmärchen), was published in two volumes - the first in 1812 and the second in 1815.

Jacob Grimm, Wilhelm Grimm (Author), Helen Pyle, James Taylor (Narrator)

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Leviathan

Leviathan or The Matter, Forme and Power of a Common-Wealth Ecclesiasticall and Civil, commonly referred to as Leviathan, is a book written by Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679) and published in 1651 (revised Latin edition 1668). Its name derives from the biblical Leviathan. The work concerns the structure of society and legitimate government, and is regarded as one of the earliest and most influential examples of social contract theory. Leviathan ranks as a classic Western work on statecraft comparable to Machiavelli's The Prince. Written during the English Civil War (1642-1651), Leviathan argues for a social contract and rule by an absolute sovereign. Hobbes wrote that civil war and the brute situation of a state of nature ('the war of all against all') could only be avoided by strong, undivided government.

Thomas Hobbes (Author), Cynthia Franklin, James Taylor (Narrator)

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Jerome K Jerome: The Short Stories

Jerome K. Jerome - An early life of poverty exacerbated by the death of his parents in his early teens helped to cruelly mould the young Jerome. After early stints on the railways, as an actor, a journalist, a school teacher, a writer and a solicitors clerk he had some minor success with a collection of comic memoirs "On The Stage - And Off" about his earlier stint as an actor. Shortly thereafter he married and his honeymoon on the Thames became the inspiration for Three Men In A Boat. This of course was a wild success both critically and commercially and also his creative highpoint. Although he was now able to write full time he was never able to attain all the heights of that classic humorous novel. However he was prolific at the shorter form and it is from that rich seam that these stories have been mined. These stories are brought to your ears by James Taylor.

Jerome K Jerome (Author), James Taylor, Richard Mitchley (Narrator)

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Fifty Shades of Summer

Nature loosens her limbs, increases her ambition. Summer's work is intense with colour, she paints with a brighter light. The hours of night diminish, quickly shrink. She has no need for rest but a yearning to work. Vibrant swathes of shooting, pulsing colour almost overwhelm. Her tempo is beyond our awed imagination. Inspired, the air, the sea, the parching earth bring elemental strength. Summer storms, forest fires. The endless blue of sky, of ocean water will not still her work. Mistress of all. Our poets merely the inky pens of her will.In fifty poems we take you on their inspiring journey, reflecting on the miracle of summer.

John Keats, Sara Teasdale, William Butler Yeats (Author), Ghizela Rowe, James Taylor, Richard Mitchley (Narrator)

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Edward Lear: Stories & Rhymes

Edward Lear. Ah Nonsense! The English it is often said have a peculiar brand of humour. Along with copious cups of tea and a stiff upper lip it keeps life together in moments of difficulty and strife. One of our much loved humourists is Edward Lear, famed throughout the World for his Nonsense Verse and limericks. Born in Holloway, North London Lear was the 21st child of Ann and Jeremiah Lear and raised by his sister, Ann, who was, of course, 21 years older than Edward. His early life was unsettled, prone to illness especially epileptic fits which gave him a character coloured with guilt and shame. However by his 30s he had published his first book of Limericks in which his touching drawings were also displayed. His works as an artist are easily recognised and he helped to develop many techniques but his later works such as The Owl and the Pussycast, The Jumblies have established first and foremost as a writer of humourous verse. Lear travelled widely during his years and eventually settled in Sanremo it Italy eventually succumbing to death in 1876. On his nearby headstone are inscribed these lines from Tennyson's To E.L. [Edward Lear], On His Travels in Greece: ... all things fair. With such a pencil, such a pen. You shadow forth to distant men, I read and felt that I was there. These verses and stories are read for you by James Taylor, Nigel Planer and Ghizela Rowe.

Edward Lear (Author), Ghizela Rowe, James Taylor, Nigel Planer (Narrator)

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Classic Short Stories - Volume 5

Stories are one of mankind’s greatest artistic achievements. Whether written down or spoken they have an ability to capture our imagination and thoughts, and take us on incredible journeys in the space of a phrase and the turn of a page.Within a few words of text or speech, new worlds and characters form, propelling a narrative to a conclusion with intricate ease. Finely crafted, perfectly formed these Miniature Masterpieces, at first thought, seem remarkably easy to conjure up. But ask any writer and they will tell you that distilling the essence of narrative and characters into a short story is one of the hardest acts of their literary craft. Many attempt, but few achieve.

Edward Lear, Louisa May Alcott, Mark Twain (Author), Eve Karpf, James Taylor, Stuart Milligan (Narrator)

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Classic Short Stories - Volume 23

Jerome K Jerome, Sapper (Author), Jake Urry, James Taylor (Narrator)

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Audiobooks Narrated by James Taylor