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Audiobook The Charterhouse of Parma, written by Stendhal. The Charterhouse of Parma is a twisting tale of passion and intrigue following the adventures of Fabrizio del Dongo, a young Italian nobleman who dreams of glory on the battlefields of Europe and finds himself fighting alongside Napoleon at Waterloo. After returning home, Fabrizio becomes entangled in Machiavellian scheming, an ill-advised romance, and a fatal duel that lands him in prison, where he begins a star-crossed love affair with the ethereal Clelia, the commandant’s daughter.

Set against the chaotic backdrop of the 1848 Revolution, Sentimental Education follows the romantic adventures of Frederick Moreau, a young law student, and his education in the affairs of the heart. Upon arriving home in Normandy, Frederick catches his first glimpse of Marie Arnoux, a mysterious and beautiful woman who leaves a lasting impression on him.

Audiobook Little Women, closely based on Louisa May Alcott’s own experience of family life, was first published in 1869 and follows the lives of the four March sisters and their mother, ‘Marmee’. With the heartrending story of gentle Beth, the humorous adventures of tomboyish Jo, Meg’s vain attempts to cut a fashionable figure in ‘society’, and the artistic ambitions of the youngest sister Amy, it has never lost its extraordinary power to move and delight.

Known for inspiring James Joyce’s Leopold Bloom in Ulysses, Zeno Cosini is the bumbling yet charming alter ego of Italo Svevo, who here lays bare a hilarious litany of neuroticisms about his health, friendships, family and women. Having submitted himself to Freudian psychoanalysis, the narrator keeps a diary with the aim of conquering his addiction to smoking.

This famous novel deals with the early frontier period of American history and is set in 1757 during the Seven Years War between the French and the British. Intrepid frontiersman and scout Natty ‘Hawkeye’ Bumppo, has lived among Indians for most of his life, respecting their customs and acquiring the skills of an experienced woodsman.

Young, wealthy Arabella is obsessed with French romances: brought up by a reclusive widowed father in an isolated castle, she has educated herself through their pages, and been led to believe that their dramas and absurdities are reality. She blindly adheres to their example and interprets her everyday life through their lens, thinking that life consists of uncontrollable passions and murderous violence, and that any man would die for her.

‘What is more vulgar than the ideal of novelists? In real life, how many men and women fall in love?’ So says Rhoda Nunn, George Gissing’s formidable heroine. Through a gripping and thought- provoking story, Gissing presents the reality for Victorian women: a society in which marriage is judged to be the only acceptable way forward.

Two Years Before the Mast is Richard Henry Dana Jr’s captivating account of life as a common sailor on board a merchant ship in the early 1830s. Initially an attempt to remedy the author’s eye fatigue, the two-year voyage from Boston to California had a transformative effect on Dana, whose diary gives a fascinating snapshot of pre-Gold Rush California.

Audiobook Uncle Silas written by Sheridan Le Fanu. The sinister Madame de Rougierre is employed as governess to the young Maud Ruthven, bringing with her a dark cloud of impending doom that hangs over the whole household. The governess eventually leaves, in possession of a dark secret, but that is not the end of her, much to Maud’s dismay. Maud is later orphaned and sent to live with Uncle Silas, a man with a mysterious and scandalous past, and she once again meets Madame de la Rougierre, whose role in shaping Maud’s destiny becomes all too clear.

Audiobook The Nether World, written by George Gissing. Dramatic, fast-moving and brutal, Gissing’s highly regarded early novel lays bare the reality of urban poverty in 1870s London. Old Michael Snowdon returns to the city with an inheritance that he determines should go towards helping the poor – but goodness and charity are not to play a part here. Everyone has an agenda, and scheming spreads through the story like a disease.