House Classics

"What is your favorite story?" is the question children across the country often ask professional storyteller Pleasant DeSpain. As he attempts to answer, his list grows longer and longer, until he confesses he likes them all. An untiring researcher of oral traditions, DeSpain is known for his concise versions of world folktales specifically crafted for retelling.

Growing up in North Carolina, Donald Davis heard stories that came to America through Scots-Irish immigrants about a fellow named Jack who was so real that young Davis thought he was a distant relative or otherside-of-the-mountain neighbor. Now Davis knows that Jack is a universal legendary figure who, by various names, is found in nearly every culture.

Former teachers Richard and Judy Dockrey Young bring their frightening performances alive on tape with 14 ghost stories from the American Southeast.

Some folk stories endure generation after generation because, although they are not literal, they resound in truths on a human scale. Folktales remind us of wisdom so elemental it is often lost in the rush of everyday life, so that "sometimes common sense makes no sense at all." The six wonder tales on this audiobook are gems of the genre. They have a "long ago and far away" quality.

One of America's most beloved storytellers tells of spirits that have nurtured her in these four tales: "The Accidental Angel", "Wilbur Martin: God's Maintenance Man", "The Water Lilies", and "Angels in Disguise". Jackie Torrence, a frequent headliner at the National Storytelling Festival, is known to audiences nationwide as The Story Lady. She has performed at the Kennedy Center, Wolftrap, the International Children's Festival, and Lincoln Center.

H.G. Wells, a pioneer in the science fiction genre, produced awesomely imaginative novels whose technologies seem impossibly sophisticated for a writer living in an era before automobiles and the widespread application of electricity. In his work The Time Machine, Wells’ Time Traveller, a gentleman inventor living in England, traverses first thousands of years and then millions into the future, before bringing back the knowledge of the grave degeneration of the human race and the planet.

Anne's House of Dreams is a novel by the Canadian author Lucy Maud Montgomery. It was first published in 1917 by McClelland, Goodchild and Stewart. The novel is from a series of books written primarily for girls and young women, about a young girl named Anne Shirley. The books follow the course of Anne's life. It is set principally on Canada's Prince Edward Island, Montgomery's birthplace and home for much of her life.

El señor Wonka, dueño de la magnífica fábrica de chocolate, ha escondido cinco billetes de oro en sus chocolatinas. Quienes los encuentren serán los elegidos para visitar la fábrica. Charlie tiene la fortuna de encontrar uno de esos billetes y, a partir de ese momento, su vida cambiará para siempre.

Lily Bart, a beautiful, intelligent, but penniless young woman, lives on the outskirts of New York's high society, craving the luxurious lifestyle of her wealthy contacts. But while Lily possesses the grace, taste, and morality of the ideal turn-of-the-century lady, her delicate innocence threatens her survival in that very world. As she fights to maintain her newfound place among the aristocracy, Lily struggles mightily against what lurks beneath all the glitter and gold - greed, vulgarity, and ruthless competition.

The "Songs of Innocence" were published in 1789 and republished in 1794 together with the "Songs of Experience". They represent Blake's two perspectives on the world, that of the child (innocence) and that of the adult (experience). Blake's poetical works were largely neglected in their own time but are today considered some of the most brilliant of English verse. The "songs" are presented here together with "Auguries of Innocence".

From Mary Karr comes the gorgeously written, often hilarious story of her tumultuous teens and sexual coming-of-age.

This story of a young woman's confrontation with death and her past is a poetic study of human relations.

An assembly of family, friends, lovers, and enemies are ensnared by the long-running court case Jarndyce and Jarndyce. For orphan Esther Summerson, it might lead to the truth of her parentage. The arrogant Lady Dedlock fears the legal tangle could expose her secret. For the malevolent solicitor Mr. Tulkinghorn, the costly dispute is a gainful opportunity. As for John Jarndyce, Esther’s guardian and master of Bleak House, it’s a chance to correct the past. When questions of inheritance become a trigger for murder, the sharp-eyed Inspector Bucket enters the fray.

Ein Kampf mit allen Mitteln: der Klassiker von 1981 erstmals als deutsches Hörbuch. Smalltown, USA, 1973: die erste Energiekrise. Aber der neue Highway soll trotzdem gebaut werden. Und die Planierraupe nähert sich unaufhaltsam dem Haus, in dem Barton Dawes seit 20 Jahren lebt. Ist es da ein Wunder, dass Dawes alles tut, um das zu verhindern?

Herman J. (1897-1953) and Joseph L. Mankiewicz (1909-1993) wrote, produced, and directed over 150 pictures. With Orson Welles, Herman wrote the screenplay for Citizen Kane and shared the picture's only Academy Award. Joe earned the second pair of his four Oscars for writing and directing All About Eve, which also won Best Picture.

Aterrada por la posibilidad de volverse loca, Anna decide plasmar sus vivencias y pensamientos en cuatro cuadernos de distintos colores: en el de color negro registra su vida como escritora, en el rojo sus ideas políticas, en el amarillo sus experiencias personales y emociones más íntimas, y en el azul su cotidianidad. Sin embargo es un quinto cuaderno, el cuaderno dorado, el que reúne todos los cabos sueltos de su vida y el que posee la clave para recuperarse de aquel bloqueo en el que se encuentra estancada.

A Study in Scarlet is a detective mystery novel written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, introducing his new characters, "consulting detective" Sherlock Holmes and his friend and chronicler, Dr. John Watson, who later became two of the most famous characters in literature. Conan Doyle wrote the story in 1886, and it was published the following year.

Desde que se publicó en 1928, Orlando ha sido una de las novelas más populares de Virginia Woolf por su originalidad y espíritu transgresor. Cuenta las peripecias de un joven aristócrata inglés, apuesto, rico, seductor y amante de la literatura—figura inspirada en la vida y la personalidad de la escritora Vita Sackville-West, gran amiga de la autora—que cabalga la Historia con mayúsculas desde el siglo XVI hasta el siglo XX y que, durante el reinado de Carlos II, se convierte en mujer.

The horrors of the Tribulation are over, and Jesus Christ has set up his perfect kingdom on earth. Believers all around the world enjoy a newly perfected relationship with their Lord, and the earth itself is transformed. Yet evil still lurks in the hearts of the unbelieving. As the Millennium draws to a close, the final generation of the unrepentant prepares to mount a new offensive against the Lord Himself, sparking the final and ultimate conflict from which only one side will emerge the eternal victor.

Frankenstein, or, The Modern Prometheus was written by the English author Mary Shelley. It recounts the tale of Victor Frankenstein, a scientist who creates a grotesque, living creature in an unorthodox scientific experiment. The first edition was published anonymously in 1818 when Shelley was only 20 years old. Her name finally appeared in the second edition, published in France in 1823. She was supposedly influenced by knowledge of alchemist experiments carried out by Johann Dippel in the Frankenstein Castle in Germany.