Klasika

The Wouldbegoods, a sequel to The Treasure Seekers, reacquaints us with the six Bastable children: Dora, Oswald, Dicky, Alice, Noël and H. O. Again, the story is told by you-may-not-know-who, and the children find all sorts of ways in which to amuse themselves in the country during the summer holidays.

This great children’s classic, written in 1900 and immortalised in the Judy Garland film, retains its charm in this reading by Liza Ross. Dorothy, the Scarecrow, the Tin Woodman and the Cowardly Lion are all here in technicolour – with some of the music that made the film unforgettable.

Audiobook The Wind in the Willows, written by First published in 1908, The Wind in the Willows belongs to a golden age of children’s book. These charming tales of the riverbank, describing the adventures of Ratty, Mole, Badger and their irrepressible but conceited friend, Toad of Toad Hall, have become classics loved as much, perhaps, by adults as by children.

The Wind in the Willows is a classic of children's literature by Kenneth Grahame, first published in 1908. Alternately slow moving and fast paced, it focuses on four anthropomorphised animal characters in a pastoral version of England. The novel is notable for its mixture of mysticism, adventure, morality, and camaraderie and celebrated for its evocation of the nature of the Thames valley.

Audiobook The White Guard written by Mikhail Bulgakov. In the Ukrainian capital Kiev (‘the City’), life has become frightening and fragile. Bulgakov’s first full-length novel is set in the harsh and chaotic winter of 1918–19, as power struggles start to play out with brutal consequences. Echoing Tolstoy’s approach in War and Peace, Bulgakov contrasts the concerns of domestic life with the wide-ranging and destructive historical events; but where Tolstoy’s structure is clear, Bulgakov interweaves narrative, details of military action, snatches of songs, dreams, dialogue and fragments of thought to capture this swirl of confusion on every level, as those caught in the middle of circumstances beyond their control try to ground themselves.

Jocelyn Pierston, a successful sculptor, is helpless in the face of ‘the well-beloved’: the manifestation of perfect womanhood that seems to move like a will-o’-the-wisp from one acquaintance to the next. It shapes his whole life. Where his artistry involves permanence – cold stone objects – his heart is caught by ephemeral beauty.

One abandoned, one unfinished, these short works show Austen equally at home with romance (a widowed clergyman with four daughters must needs be in search of a husband or two in The Watsons) and with social change (a new, commercial seaside resort in Sanditon). Typically touching, funny, charming and sharp.

The Water Babies, A Fairy Tale for a Land Baby is a children's novel by the Reverend Charles Kingsley. Written in 1862-1863 as a serial for Macmillan's Magazine, it was first published in its entirety in 1863. The book was extremely popular in England during its day, and was a mainstay of British children's literature for many decades.

"The Warden" is the first novel in "The Chronicles of Barsetshire" series and was also Trollope’s first breakthrough novel. It is the story of a devoted priest, beloved by all who know him, and who is racked by fear that he is accepting money to which he is not entitled. His antagonist is his prospective son-in-law John Bol, whilst his (somewhat unwelcome) ally is the characterful Archdeacon of Barchester, Dr.

The Voyage Out is the first novel by Virginia Woolf, published in 1915 by Duckworth; and published in the U. S. in 1920 by Doran. Rachel Vinrace embarks for South America on her father's ship and is launched on a course of self discovery in a kind of modern mythical voyage. The mismatched jumble of passengers provide Woolf with an opportunity to satirize Edwardian life.