Condition: New. CHECK your CD player manual BEFORE ordering. Your player must be able to play MP3 files on CD or these CDs will not play. Thank you. Audio Source: Librivox, Public Domain Pride and Prejudice Jane AUSTEN (1775 - 1817) Pride and Prejudice is the most famous of Jane Austen?s novels, and its opening is one of the most famous lines in English literature - ?It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.? Its manuscript was first written between 1796 and 1797, and was initially called First Impressions, but was never published under that title. Following revisions it was published on 28 January 1813 by the same Mr. Egerton of the Military Library, Whitehall, who had brought out Sense and Sensibility. Like both its predecessor and Northanger Abbey, it was written at Steventon Rectory. (Summary from wikipedia) Genre(s): Romance Frankenstein, or The Modern Prometheus (Edition 1831) Mary Wollstonecraft SHELLEY (1797 - 1851) A mentally unstable genius, Victor Frankenstein, inspired by the dreams of ancient alchemists and empowered by modern science, creates a humanoid but fails to nurture and educate it after it comes to life. It wanders alone into a hostile world, where fear of its size and ugliness subjects it to violence and ostracism, which in time it learns to blame upon its maker. As compensation for its suffering, it demands that he create a companion with whom to share its outcast life. Moved by the creature's account of its sufferings, the scientist agrees, but a long period of procrastination awakens doubts that ultimately cause him to break his promise. In retaliation, the creature begins a campaign of vengeance. Although its serious crimes are limited to those which will wound his maker's heart, Victor imagines much more widespread harm, supposing the human race itself to be the creature's intended victim. There then follows a chase into the frozen north, which the creature prolongs so as to destroy his pursuer by exposure and exhaustion. This story, narrated by Victor, forms a frame surrounding the creature's tale of its wanderings, education, and unhappy encounters with human beings. Victor's narrative is itself framed within a series of letters written by the young mariner who rescues him from an iceberg while engaged in his own ambitious scientific endeavor, searching for the North Pole. This novel was begun while the author and her lover, Percy Shelley, were in hiding from her father and Percy's wife on the shores of Lake Geneva, where they were the frequent house guests of Lord Byron. The young people all began to write "ghost" stories, but only Mary's was destined to enjoy success. The novel was published in 1818. Percy contributed a preface and later made extensive emendations. After his death Mary herself thoroughly revised the text and published it again in 1831. This is the text read in this project. (Summary by Thomas Copeland) Genre(s): Literary Fiction Alice's Adventures in Wonderland Lewis CARROLL (1832 - 1898) In this children's classic, a girl named Alice follows falls down a rabbit-hole into a fantasy realm full of talking creatures. She attends a never-ending tea party and plays croquet at the court of the anthropomorphic playing cards. (Summary written by Gesine) "I loved all the voices in this project and probably wouldn?t have put the time into checking into this book without this LibriVox version of it. Great project and well done by all. What people can do really amazes me from time to time. This reminds me of how beautiful the world can be." ? skinned mink Genre(s): Children's Fiction, Fantastic Fiction The Importance of Being Earnest Oscar WILDE (1854 - 1900) Oscar Fingal O?Flahertie Wills Wilde (1854 ? 1900) was an Irish playwright, novelist, poet, and author of short stories. Known for his barbed wit, he was one of the most successful playwrights of late Victorian London, and one of the greatest celebrities of his day. In Wilde?s classic play The Importance of Being Earnest, Jack Worthing and Algernon Moncrieff discover the perils of love, assumed identities, and telling the truth. (Summary by Toby Paradis and Wikipedia) LibriVox cast: John Worthing, J.P.: Hans-Stefan Ducharme Algernon Moncrieff: Simon Ferland Rev. Canon Chasuble, D.D.: Toby Paradis Merriman, Butler: Toby Paradis Lane, Manservant: Toby Paradis Lady Bracknell: Sarah A. Farnham Hon. Gwendolen Fairfax: Nyssa Gatcombe Cecily Cardew: Rebecca Bailey Miss Prism, Governess: Eileen Nadeau Sound Tech - Keagan Rae Genre(s): Humorous Fiction, Plays A Tale of Two Cities Charles DICKENS (1812 - 1870) A Tale of Two Cities is a novel by Charles Dickens, set in London and Paris before and during the French Revolution. With well over 200 million copies sold, it ranks among the most famous works in the history of fictional literature. The novel depicts the plight of the French peasantry demoralized by the French aristocracy in the years leading up to the revolution, the corresponding brutality demonstrated by the revolutionaries toward the former aristocrats in the early years of the revolution, and many unflattering social parallels with life in London during the same time period. It follows the lives of several protagonists through these events. The 45-chapter novel was published in 31 weekly instalments in Dickens' new literary periodical titled All the Year Round. From April 1859 to November 1859, Dickens also republished the chapters as eight monthly sections in green covers. Dickens' previous novels had appeared only as monthly instalments. The first weekly instalment of A Tale of Two Cities ran in the first issue of All the Year Round on 30 April 1859. The last ran thirty weeks later, on 26 November. (Summary by Wikipedia) Genre(s): Historical Fiction, Literary Fiction Little Women Louisa May ALCOTT (1832 - 1888) This story follows the lives of four sisters Meg, Jo, Beth and Amy. Set in the tumultuous days of the American Civil war, readers grow to love the four sisters as they grow and mature into young women. This book has characters any girl can relate to because each of the four March sisters has a unique and different personality. A story that the young and old have enjoyed for years, this book truly is a classic. (Summary by Abigail Rasmussen) Genre(s): Children's Fiction, Action Adventure Fiction, General Fiction The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde Robert Louis STEVENSON (1850 - 1894) This story deals with the obvious fact that we humans are split, dual. We have urges to do the 'right' thing, to be honorable and wise, but we also frequently fail to follow these better instincts and follow instead urges to do dishonorable, evil things. We seem to battle within ourselves. Are we really composed of two different personalities housed within the same brain, within the same person? Dr Jekyll in this story is so convinced and manages by scientific means to actually split himself into his ordinary composite self, and his evil self whom he calls Mr. Hyde. The horror of this unnatural split is well documented here and shows what might happen were this possible. (summary by phil chenevert) Genre(s): Action Adventure Fiction Moby Dick, or the Whale Herman MELVILLE (1819 - 1891) Few things, even in literature, can really be said to be unique ? but Moby Dick is truly unlike anything written before or since. The novel is nominally about the obsessive hunt by the crazed Captain Ahab of the book?s eponymous white whale. But interspersed in that story are digressions, paradoxes, philosophical riffs on whaling and life, and a display of techniques so advanced for its time that some have referred to the 1851 Moby Dick as the first ?modern? novel. (Summary by Stewart Wills) Genre(s): Action Adventure Fiction, Nautical Marine Fiction