The Great Irish Classics

byBram Stoker, Sheridan Le Fanu, James Joyce, Oscar Wilde, George Bernard Shaw, Maria Edgeworth, Dion Boucicault

15 Full-Cast BBC Radio Dramatisations

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Discover the extraordinary storytelling tradition that changed the world. The Great Irish Classics brings together a magnificent collection of BBC Radio full-cast dramatisations of some of the greatest novels ever written by Irish authors, performed by an all-star cast of acclaimed actor.

From gothic masterpieces and sweeping social novels to biting satire and unforgettable adventures, The Great Irish Classics celebrates the extraordinary literary legacy of Ireland's greatest writers.

For a country of its size, Ireland has had an unparalleled influence on world literature, producing some of the most celebrated authors in history. Home to multiple Nobel Prize-winning writers and six Booker Prize winners, its storytelling tradition has shaped literary culture across the globe. Many of these works have become enduring classics, their characters, themes and stories woven into our collective imagination and continuing to inspire readers and audiences generations later.

This outstanding collection brings together acclaimed full-cast dramatisations of some of the finest Irish novels ever written. Featuring iconic works including Dracula, The Picture of Dorian Gray, Carmilla and Gulliver's Travels, alongside rediscovered gems such as Maria Edgeworth's pioneering novel The Absentee, it showcases the remarkable breadth and brilliance of Irish fiction.

Performed by an exceptional cast of award-winning actors including Tom Hiddleston, David Suchet, Michael Sheen, Martin Clunes, Dame Judi Dench, Miriam Margolyes, Samantha Bond, Roger May, Celia Imrie, Kenneth Cranham, Anne-Marie Duff, Joanne Froggatt and Stephen Rea, these acclaimed productions bring timeless stories vividly to life.

Rich in wit, imagination, suspense and unforgettable characters, The Great Irish Classics is an essential collection for lovers of classic literature, outstanding audio drama and the enduring power of Irish storytelling.

About Bram Stoker

Abraham 'Bram' Stoker (1847-1912) was educated at Trinity College, Dublin and joined the Irish Civil Service before his love of theatre led him to become the unpaid drama critic for the Dublin Mail. He went on to act as as manager and secretary for the actor Sir Henry Irving, while writing his novels, the most famous of which is Dracula.

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About James Joyce

James Joyce was born in Dublin on 2 February 1882, the eldest of ten children in a family which, after brief prosperity, collapsed into poverty. He was nonetheless educated at the best Jesuit schools and then at University College, Dublin, and displayed considerable academic and literary ability. Although he spent most of his adult life outside Ireland, Joyce's psychological and fictional universe is firmly rooted in his native Dublin, the city which provides the settings and much of the subject matter for all of his fiction. He is best known for his landmark novel Ulysses (1922) and its controversial successor Finnegans Wake (1939), as well as the short story collection Dubliners (1914) and the semi-autobiographical novel A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (1916). James Joyce died in Zürich, on 13 January 1941.

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About Oscar Wilde

Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde was born in Dublin in 1854. He went to Trinity College, Dublin and then to Magdalen College, Oxford, where he began to propagandize the new Aesthetic (or 'Art for Art's Sake') Movement.

Despite winning a first and the Newdigate Prize for Poetry, Wilde failed to obtain an Oxford scholarship, and was forced to earn a living by lecturing and writing for periodicals. After his marriage to Constance Lloyd in 1884, he tried to establish himself as a writer, but with little initial success. However, his three volumes of short fiction, The Happy Prince (1888), Lord Arthur Savile's Crime (1891) and A House of Pomegranates (1891), together with his only novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray (1891), gradually won him a reputation as a modern writer with an original talent, a reputation confirmed and enhanced by the phenomenal success of his Society Comedies - Lady Windermere's Fan, A Woman of No Importance, An Ideal Husband and The Importance of Being Earnest, all performed on the West End stage between 1892 and 1895.

Success, however, was short-lived. In 1891 Wilde had met and fallen extravagantly in love with Lord Alfred Douglas. In 1895, when his success as a dramatist was at its height, Wilde brought an unsuccessful libel action against Douglas's father, the Marquess of Queensberry. Wilde lost the case and two trials later was sentenced to two years' imprisonment for acts of gross indecency. As a result of this experience he wrote The Ballad of Reading Gaol. He was released from prison in 1897 and went into an immediate self-imposed exile on the Continent. He died in Paris in ignominy in 1900.

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