Books in The Complete Classics series

Barnaby Rudge, one of only two historical novels by Dickens, deals with the Popery riots of 1780. Sean Barrett is one of Britains most popular readers. He recently produced a widely praised reading of Bleak House for the Naxos collection and he returns, now, to narrate another Dickens classic. The recording is part of the extensive Dickens collection offered in both abridged and unabridged form by Naxos AudioBooks.

The first novel in Trollope's series Chronicles of Barsetshire, The Warden is a compassionate portrait of the gentle, thoughtful warden and percent of Barchester Cathedral, Mr Septimus Harding. Loved and appreciated by all with whom he works, Harding lives an ordered, regular life in his protected religious environment. Then a young reformer feels he has uncovered a mismanagement of funds used to support twelve bedesmen in the almshouse, Hiram's Hospital, and Harding is held to blame. The accusation comes as a shock not only to Harding himself but also to the cathedral community. It then comes to wider notice when the cause is taken up by a national newspaper.

In The Three Musketeers, one of the greatest adventure stories ever written, we follow the fortunes of the dashing young swordsman D'Artagnan and his daredevil companions Athos, Aramis and Porthos. As the thrilling story unfolds, 'The Four' find themselves embroiled in duels, love-tangles and sinister intrigues which threaten the future King, Queen and France herself.

The Way We Live Now is a complex and compulsive tale that traces the career of Augustus Melmotte, a strange and mysterious financier who bursts into London society like a guided missile. In setting up a dubious scheme based on speculative money and stock market gambles, Melmotte manages to lure in several members of the English aristocracy, for whom money is the summum bonum. The world is at his feet, until the corruption catches up with him. Considered one of Trollope's greatest works, The Way We Live Now leaves the listener questioning whether much has changed in the last century, or if this, after all, is the way we live now.

We have met the intrepid hunter-tracker Allan Quatermain before, in H. Rider Haggards marvellous King Solomons Mines. This time, grieving from the tragic loss of his son, Quatermain longs to return to his beloved Africa. He sets out in search of a lost white tribe, the Zu-Vendis, ruled by two beautiful sister Queens. Once again, Quatermains companions are the indefatigable Sir Henry Curtis and Captain Good, and the magnificent Zulu warrior Umslopogaas. The journey is incredibly dangerous, and thrillingly told. After a fantastic underground journey by canoe, our heroes are embroiled in a bloody civil war when both queens fall in love with the irresistibly handsome Curtis.

Left unfinished after Dickens died in 1870, The Mystery of Edwin Drood centres on Edwin Drood's uncle, John Jasper, and his love for Rosa Bud, Edwin's fiancee. Set in the dark, fictional cathedral city of Cloisterham, the novel is awash with guilt, disguise and mystery. It contains some fine writing, and just before his death, Dickens left an indication of where the plot was going, which will be included.

Thomas Hardys novels about the cruel twists of fate that blight our lives have a timeless power to move us. In The Mayor Casterbridge, a young Michael Henchard makes a rash, alcohol-fuelled decision to sell his wife. Despite abstaining from alcohol from this point forward and living an upstanding life, this lapse is a revenant that returns to plague him at the peak of his career. In his struggles to overcome his hot-headed, belligerent nature, Henchard is very recognisably human and sympathetic hero.

We add to our acclaimed, unabridged Dickens collection with Martin Chuzzlewit Dickenspersonal favourite from among his own novels. Greed, suspicion and hypocrisy flourish as family and other hangers-on compete to be shown preference in the inheritance of the aging Martin Chuzzlewit. Dickens explores the theme of selfishness, but also its converse generosity, friendship and loyalty in this funny and richly-plotted novel. It features some of the most notorious Dickens villains, Seth Pecksniff and Jonas Chuzzlewit, as well as one of his most endearing characters, Tom Pinch. This captivating reading is by Sean Barrett, who was last heard in Bleak House.