The Moonstone audiobook by Wilkie Collins (1824-1889) The story concerns a young woman called Rachel Verinder who inherits a large Indian diamond, the Moonstone, on her eighteenth birthday. The book is widely regarded as the precursor of the modern mystery and suspense novels. T. S. Eliot called it 'the first, the longest, and the best of modern English detective novels'. It contains a number of ideas which became common tropes of the genre: a large number of suspects, red herrings, a crime Read more [...]
The Tenant of Wildfell Hall (dramatic reading) by Anne Bronte (1820-1849) audiobook A mysterious young widow arrives at Wildfell Hall, an Elizabethan mansion which has been empty for many years, with her young son. She lives there under an assumed name, Helen Graham, and very soon finds herself the victim of local slander. Refusing to believe anything scandalous about her, Gilbert Markham discovers her dark secrets. In her diary Helen writes about her husband's physical and moral decline through Read more [...]
Letters of Two Brides by Honore de Balzac (1799-1850) Translated by R.S. Scott. Letters of Two Brides is an epistolary novel. The two brides are Louise de Chaulieu (Madame Gaston) and Ren?e de Maucombe (Madame l'Estorade). The women became friends during their education at a convent and upon leaving began a life-long correspondence. For a 17 year period, they exchange letters describing their lives. Michelle Crandall reads Renee's letters, and Kara Shallenberg reads Louise's. Letters from Read more [...]