Books in Complete Classics series

MP3 CD Format The Trial is one of the great works of the twentieth century an extraordinary vision of a man put on trial by an anonymous authority on an unspecified charge.Josef K., thirty, lives in a large town in an unspecified country when he is summoned to answer a charge and appear in the courtroom for his trial. Franz Kafka evokes all the realities of trial without any of the specifics in a society that seems to have degraded into chaos: a squalid environment, rats, and yellow liquid shooting out of a hole in the wall. Guards, claustrophobia, anxiety The Trial is a gripping story and an allegory of modern life that remains just as relevant a century after it was written.

Elegiac, bittersweet and profoundly moving, The Leopard chronicles the turbulent transformation of the Risorgimento, in the period of Italian Unification. The waning feudal authority of the elegant and stately Prince of Salina is pitted against the materialistic cunning of Don Calogero, in Tomasi's magnificently descriptive memorial to a dying age. Tomasi's award-winning, semi-autobiographical book became the best-selling novel in Italian history, and is now considered one of the greatest works of 20th-century fiction. It tells an age-old tale of the conflict between old and new, ancient and modern, reflecting bitterly on the inevitability and cruelty of change.

Gregor Samsa wakes up one morning to find he has been transformed into a giant insect, much to the horror, and eventual revulsion, of his family. This extraordinary tale of imagination was written against the backdrop of increasing turmoil in central Europe and remains an affecting tale and disturbing allegory. It is read here, in a new translation, by Martin Jarvis.

This delightful Victorian comic diary is a classic of English humor which has never been out of print since its first publication in 1892. City clerk Charles Pooter asks: ""Why should I not publish my diary because I do not happen to be a somebody'?"" He proceeds to catalog all the social clangers he unwittingly makes as he bumbles his way through everyday life in Victorian London.

Dombey and Son is vintage Dickens and explores the classic themes of betrayal, cruelty and deceit. The novel follows the fortunes of Dombey, a businessman par excellence, who craves a son to inherit his enterprises. His family, and especially his daughter, the sweet and good-natured Florence, bear the brunt of his frustrations. Dombey's dysfunctional relationships are painted against a backdrop of social unrest in industrialised London, which is populated by a host of fascinating and memorable secondary characters. This novel is brought spectacularly to life by veteran reader David Timson.

The heroic and honorable Zorro, an ace with a gun and a demon with a sword, fights for the poor and oppressed a far cry from the effete young aristocrat Don Diego, who spends his days reading poetry and dreaming of the beautiful Lolita Pulido. When Lolita s family faces ruin and accusations of treason, Zorro must step in to save her family and her honor. But who is this masked caballero?With action aplenty, The Mark of Zorro, also known as The Curse of Capistrano, is an exciting tale of adventure and romance that has charmed generations of readers and film-goers alike.

Single woman of 29, Lily Bart is Edith Wharton's quintessential trapped heroine. Orphaned following the death of her parents, Lily understands that she must use her beauty, grace and charm to attain the social position she longs for, but she is caught between her desire for wealth and a strong moral conscience, which sabotages every opportunity she encounters. Lily's employment as a maid finds her visiting the houses of New York's upper echelons, where she is invited to live lavishly and party with her patrons until the early hours. She meets many eligible bachelors and rich men; however, she is captivated by Laurence Seldon, a struggling attorney who sees through the glossy superficiality of upper society. She cannot bring herself to marry a man of working class, nor a millionaire whom she does not love. Thus begins her downward spiral into penury

Joseph Conrad’s The Secret Agent is a tale of anarchism, espionage, and terrorism.Our agent, a man named Mr. Verloc, minds his own business while he tends to his shop in London’s Soho district, alongside his wife, who attends to her aged mother and disabled brother. Their lives are turned upside down when Verloc is reluctantly employed to plant a bomb and destroy an observatory in London. What was once the perfect bomb plot inevitably turns awry and Verloc, his family, and his associates are forced to face the consequences.Conrad’s later political novel bears all the hallmarks of his captivating style. The Secret Agent brims with melodious and poetic language and crystal clear psychological insights that could only be the work of a uniquely gifted storyteller.

In a remote corner of early Victorian England, where traditional practices remain untouched by time, Bathsheba Everdene stands out as a beacon of feminine independence and self-reliance. However, when confronted with three suitors, among them the dashing Captain Troy, she shows a reckless capriciousness that threatens the stability of the whole community.Published in 1874 and an immediate bestseller, Far from the Madding Crowd established Thomas Hardy as one of Britain’s foremost novelists.

This fictionalized portrait of James Joyce s youth is one of the most vivid accounts of the growth from childhood to adulthood.Early twentieth-century Dublin provides the backdrop as Stephen Dedalus moves from town and society towards the irrevocable decision to leave. This decision, made by Joyce himself, resulted in the mature novels Ulysses and Finnegans Wake. A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man is read unabridged by the incomparable Joyce expert Jim Norton.

Erewhon: or, Over the Range, is a novel by Samuel Butler which was first published anonymously in 1872. The title is also the name of a country, supposedly discovered by the protagonist. The greater part of the book consists of a description of Erewhon. The nature of this nation is intended to be ambiguous. At first glance, Erewhon appears to be a Utopia, yet it soon becomes clear that this is far from the case. Yet for all the failings of Erewhon, it is also clearly not a dystopia, such as that depicted in George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four. As a satirical utopia, Erewhon has sometimes been compared to Gulliver's Travels (1726), a classic novel by Jonathan Swift; the image of Utopia in this latter case also bears strong parallels with the self-view of the British Empire at the time. It can also be compared to the William Morris novel, News from Nowhere.