The Great American Classics

byMark Twain, Herman Melville, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Washington Irving, Henry David Thoreau, Kate Chopin, Nathaniel Hawthorne

22 Full-Cast BBC Radio Dramatisations

Format:

Audio Download

Pre-order:

Apple Books Bookshop.org Hive Kobo Libro.fm xigxag

A large collection of full-cast dramatisations of classic American novels that helped define American Literature

This is an exciting offering of novels dramatized by the BBC of American classic and legendary novels. A real eclectic mix of writers and authors showing the breadth of American life and culture. From Willa Cather’s amazing ghost stories; to Harriet Jacobs first hand account of escaping slavery, from Huckleberry Finn’s and Moby Dicks adventures to Henry David Thoreau and Sara Orne Jewett’s beautiful portrayals of rural life. We have some crucial pieces from female writers such as The Awakening and The Yellow Wallpaper. There is something for everyone in this collection.

Cast includes Andrew Scott, Pippa Bennett Warner, Karl Johnson, Andrew Buchan, Deborah Findley, Maureen Lipman, and Lorelei King etc.

Contents:
The Great Gatsby – F. Scott Fitzgerald
Walden – Henry David Thoreau
The Legend of Sleepy Hollow – Washington Irving
Moby Dick – Herman Melville
The Awakening – Kate Chopin
The Scarlett Letter – Nathaniel Hawthorne
Flight – Walter White
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn – Mark Twain
Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl – Harriet Jacobs
The Age of Innocence – Edith Wharton
The Yellow Wallpaper –Charlotte Perkins Gilman
The Affair of Grover Station – Willa Cather
The Call of the Wild - Jack London
Wizard of Oz – L. Frank Braum
The Coast of Maine – Sara Orne Jewett
Riders of the Purple Sage – Zane Gray
The Virginians - Owen Wister
Anna Christie – Eugene O'Neill

About Mark Twain

Mark Twain's real name was Sam Clemens, and he was born in 1835 in a small town on the Mississippi, one of seven children. He smoked cigars at the age of eight, and aged nine he stowed away on a steamboat. He left school at 11 and worked at a grocery store, a bookstore, a blacksmith's and a newspaper, where he was allowed to write his own stories (not all of them true). He then worked on a steamboat, where he got the name 'Mark Twain' (from the call given by the boat's pilot when their boat is in safe waters). Eventually he turned to journalism again, travelled round the world, and began writing books which became very popular. The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn are his most famous novels. He poured the money he earned from writing into new business ventures and crazy inventions, such as a clamp to stop babies throwing off their bed covers, a new boardgame, and a hand grenade full of extinguishing liquid to throw on a fire. With his shock of white hair and trademark white suit Mark Twain became the most famous American writer in the world. He died in 1910.

Learn more

About Washington Irving

Washington Irving was born 3 April 1783 in New York. He trained as lawyer before deciding to pursue a literary career and, with his brother, producing a series of satirical essays and poems. Irving wrote under pseudonyms at first: ‘Diedrich Knickerbocker’ for ‘A History of New York from the Beginning of the World to the End of the Dutch Dynasty’, and ‘Geoffrey Crayon, Gent.’ for ‘Sketch Book’. The latter included pieces inspired by his travels to London during his unsuccessful efforts to save the family business from bankruptcy, and Rip Van Winkle and The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, for which he became famous. Irving worked in Spain as a diplomatic attaché, where he wrote ‘Legends of the Alhambra’ in 1832, and London as secretary to the US legation. His final work was a vast biography of George Washington published in 1855. He died on 28 November 1859.

Learn more