Audio books Weblog

C.S. Lewis is the author of the Chronicles of Narnia and on this audiobook you can listen to the fantasy about Prince Caspian.

Narnia … the land between the lamp-post and the Castle of Cair Paravel, where animals talk, where magical things happen … and where the adventure begins.

Peter, Susan, Edmund, and Lucy are returning to boarding school when they are summoned from the dreary train station (by Susan’s own magic horn) to return to the land of Narnia — the land where they had ruled as kings and queens and where their help is desperately needed.

Prince Caspian is one of many adventures in The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis you can download and listen to in CIRCUM Online Audio Books Store

An Anthology Of Shakespearian Speches Performed By The World’s Leading Actors

BBC Radio Collection - All The World’s A Stage

Romeo & Juliet - Act I, Scene III
“O Romeo, Romeo - wherefore art thou Romeo”. This impassioned speech is beautifully spoken by Fay Compton in this BBC Sound archives recording.

Hamlet - Act III, Scene I
‘To be or not to be - that is the question….’ In this BBC Sound Archive recording, Michael Redgrave stars as Shakespeare’s troubled Prince of Denmark.

Henry V - Act IV, Scene III
‘This day is called the feast of Crispian….’ In one of the most famous and inspirational of Shakespeare’s speeches, Richard Burton’s rich and resonant voice delivers Henry V’s address to his army on the eve of Agincourt!

King Lear - Act II, Scene IV
‘I prithee, daughter, do not make me mad…’ Alec Guinness’s performance as King Lear stirs the listener in this recording from the BBC Sound Archives.

Macbeth - Act I, Scene VII
‘If it were done when ’tis done…’ From the BBC Sound Archives, one of Shakespeare’s most famous and memorable speeches, with Paul Scofield and Peggy Ashcroft as Macbeth and Lady Macbeth, bringing these ominous words vividly to life.

Macbeth - Act II, Scene II
‘Is this a dagger which I see before me…..’ With Denis Quilley as Macbeth, this recording from the BBC Sound Archives brings Shakespeare’s memorable words to life..

Richard III - Act I, Scene I
‘Now is the winter of our discontent….’ Ian Holm delivers King Richard IIIs soliloquy, bringing Shakespeare’s wonderful lines, full of pyschological insight, vividly to life.

The Merchant Of Venice - Act IV, Scene I
‘The quality of mercy is not strained….’ In this recording from the BBC Sound Archives, Hannah Gordon is Shakespeare’s wise Portia.

Download and listen to William Shakespeare’s most famous speeches now

No one would argue that William Shakespeare is the most performed playwright in the world. Shakespeare plays are the cornerstone of the school curriculum in English Literature studies and they have been translated into almost every language. They have been adapted as television series and movies, attracting a younger generation to the text. Some plays have been updated to modern times and modern locations. A famous example is the musical West Side Story, adapted from Romeo and Juliet. The stage productions are mostly performed in the traditional way but some interpretations have been experimental, expressing the vision of the director.

Shakespeare was equally adept at writing tragedy and comedy. Tragedies such as Macbeth, Othello, Hamlet and King Lear are powerful tales of betrayal, murder and the quest for power. One of the most poplar comedies is A Midsummer Night’s Dream, which also involves a fantasy plot and romance. The long list of Shakespeare plays also include historical themes and royal leaders, such as King Richard III, Henry IV and King John.

The plays were performed at the Globe Theatre in London and in Shakespeare’s home town of Stratford on Avon. A large tourist industry revolves around the locations associated with Shakespeare and his family. The early printed texts are also prized, especially the first published volume of 36 plays known as the First Folio. Copies of this are very valuable, one of which is on public display in the British Library in London.

Scholars pore over the texts, analyzing sources and plot lines. There are those that dispute the authorship of some or all of the Shakespeare plays but they are in the minority. Of this group, most of them cite the real authors as either Francis Bacon or Christopher Marlowe. These claims are not taken seriously by the majority of experts.

Movie versions of the plays date back to the silent era and there have been many memorable performances. Actors tackling the Bard have included Lawrence Olivier, Marlon Brando, Richard Burton and Kenneth Brannagh. One of the most popular adaptations of recent times is Romeo and Juliet, starring Leonardo di Caprio and Clare Danes. The direction is fast paced and takes place in a contemporary setting but the script remains faithful to the text and to the spirit of the story.

It is inconceivable to think of a time when Shakespeare will not be performed in some form. Schoolchildren sometimes struggle with the text, which is why it is so important to keep the plays alive in stage and film productions. Shakespeare plays are like Mount Everest to every actor and will always remain so.

On audio for download

William Shakespear’s - The Merchant of Venice

BBC radio has a unique heritage when it comes to Shakespeare. Since 1923, when the newly formed company broadcast its first full-length play, generations of actors and producers have honed and perfected the craft of making Shakespeare to be heard.

Love, bigotry, greed and justice are entwined in this clear, fast-moving production, where the precision of radio gives added resonance to the powerful words of the trial scene.

The play is introduced by Richard Eyre, former Director of the Royal National Theatre, and the accompanying booklet includes a scene-by-scene synopsis, full character analysis, brief biographies of the leading actors and of Shakespeare himself, as well as an essay from the producer on their interpretation of the play.

Revitalised, original and comprehensive, this is Shakespeare for the new millennium.

Written By
William Shakespeare

Tags:WilliamShakespeare,Shakespeare,The Merchant of Venice

Romeo and Juliet is the play which, in English literature at least, effectively invented the modern love story. Its charm and its power derive from the romantic setting (Verona, an Italian Renaissance city), the youthful innocence and ardour of the lovers, and (perhaps crucially) the excitement and drama created by the opposition which they have to contend with, an opposition which does not simply stem from the older generation but which is starkly present in the feud between their two families and which seems to be supported by the malignity of Fate. The richly realized context of their love is additionally enhanced by (for example) the superbly concrete character of Juliet’s old Nurse, who fondly encourages the pair until the ‘better’ offer of Paris’s love comes along. The Nurse’s sentimentality and materialism are all too convincing, and are symptomatic of the way in which Shakespeare suggests that none of the other characters can match the lovers for sincerity and steadfastness, especially once the brilliant and impulsive Mercutio has gone. Youthful as they are, we see that they are the people who grow and mature as the play progresses: Romeo, as sensitive and intelligent as the later Hamlet, realises that his ‘love’ for Rosaline is no such thing but merely infatuation: however instant the development of his love for Juliet may be, it is ‘the real thing’, as is Juliet’s for him. The imagery of light and religion which Shakespeare consistently bestows upon the lovers is suggestive of the truth and value of their feelings: at the masked ball where they first meet, Romeo’s immediate reaction to Juliet is that ’she doth teach the torches to burn bright’, and their first words to each other are all built on the conceit that he is a ‘pilgrim’ and she a ’saint’.

If You are interested what this is all about

William Shakespeare
Shakespeare’s classic as dramatized by renowned vocal actor David I. Davies

Do you love to listen to shakespeare’s classic, below you see what you have in this audiobook. Hamlet One Voice is published by One Voice Recordings and narrator is David Ian Davies

1. Polonius suggests Hamlet stop mourning his father’s death
2. Hamlet compares two brothers, talks of his mother’s haste into marriage
3. 0! that this too, too, solid flesh would melt
4. Hamlet meets Horatio, learns of his father’s ghost
5. Laertes bids good-bye to his sister
6. Polonius gives advice to his son
7. Hamlet and Horatio confront the ghost
8. Polonius tells the King and Queen that their noble son is mad
9. Hamlet’s speech to the players
10. Hamlet proclaims what a rogue and peasant slave he is
11. Hamlet’s speech,"To be or not to be"
12. Hamlet tells Ophelia to get to a nunnery
13. Claudius feels that Hamlet is not totally mad
14. Polonius and Claudius plot to get rid of Hamlet
15. Hamlet’s speech to the players
16. At the play
17. Polonius prepares to spy on Hamlet
18. Claudius prays and Hamlet refrains from revenge
19. Hamlet’s speech,"Tis now the very witching time of night"
20. Hamlet meets with his mother and kills the spying Polonius
21. Hamlet exposes the King to his mother and ghost reappears to Hamlet
22. Hamlet’s speech,"How all occasions"
23. Claudius summons Hamlet and sends him off to England
24. Ophelia’s mad scene
25. Laertes confronts Claudius and learns of Ophelia’s drowning
26. The graveyard scene featuring Hamlet, Horatio, and grave digger
27. Ophelia’s funeral
28. Osric arranges the fencing duel between Hamlet and Laertes
29. The duel
30. The final death of Hamlet

Tags:classic audio books,william shakespeare,audio books

A BBC Radio a full cast production. C.S. Lewis is the author of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe

When Lucy comes across an old wardrobe standing alone in the spare room, she thinks she has found a good place for hide and seek. But then she tumbles headlong into a magical world of fauns, dwarves and giants, of animals that talk and horses that fly - the land of Narnia.

It is so extraordinary that at first her brothers and sister don’t believe it can be real. Soon, though, Peter, Edmund and Susan find Narnia as well and the adventures really begin. Together they must battle against the evil White Witch to break her cruel grip on Narnia, a land she has cast into perpetual winter, without Christmas. Only one thing can hold fast against such wickedness - the mighty Aslan.

The seven titles in The Chronicles of Narnia, in order, are as follows: The Magician’s Nephew; The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe; The Horse and His Boy; Prince Caspian; The Voyage of the Dawn Treader; The Silver Chair and The Last Battle.

Get more info - The Chronicles of Narnia, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe

Tags:audiobooks,The Chronicles of Narnia,C.S. Lewis,The Lion,the Witch and the Wardrobe

Othello, dating from 1602-1604, is the second in Shakespeare’s great sequence of four trgedies: Hamlet, King Lear and Macbeth. It differs markedly from the others in its essentially domestic milieu - the story unfolds with suffocatingly close intensity, unrelieved by the religious or metaphysical context we expect to find in Shakespearean tragedy.

Now you can listen to 3 hours (Unabridged) classic drama, download Othello

Tags:Othello,William Shakespeare,classic literature. audiobooks

The Silver Cair by C.S. Lewis is a part of The Chronicles of Narnia.

Deep underground, a web of evil magic holds a prince in captivity.

Narnia … where owls speak, where evil weaves a spell … where sorcery enslaves the land.

Narnia is in peril, and only Eustace and Jill can help. Along with Puddleglum, a gloomy but valiant Marsh-wiggle, they are sent by the mighty lion Aslan to find Prince Rilian, heir to the throne. Their quest leads them past hungry people-eating Giants, and deep into the dark underground. But the true test for this noble band of friends comes when they face an evil witch and her deadly enchantments.

Now you can download and listen to The Silver Cair

Tags:The Chronicles of Narnia,C.S. Lewis,Classic Literature,audiobooks

King Lear, perhaps Shakespeare’s most profoundly searching and disturbing tragedy, is the story of a foolish and self-indulgent king who learns, late in life and after terrible suffering, the value of self-knowledge. The play asks the ancient questions about God and the meaning of pain with uncompromising directness, but provides no reassuring answers…

King Lear, probably dating from 1605, was first printed in a quarto version in 1608 and in a different form in the First Folio of 1623. It is the third In Shakespeare’s great sequence of four tragedies: Hamlet (1600-01) and Othello (1602-1604) precede it, and Macbeth (1606) follows. It possesses the widest emotional and thematic reach of them all, occupying a space which achieves an almost abstract, symbolic quality while at the same time offering a painful concreteness of experience: it is both intensely personal and impressively universal, tackling the great questions of suffering and morality (’is there any cause in nature that makes these hard hearts?’) within the context of a social conscience CO! I have ta’en too little care of this’) and an anguished questioning of God (or the gods, who, it seems, ‘kill us for their sport’).

Tags:King Lear,Shakespeare,audiobooks

Listen to The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis - Publisher: Harper Collins UK and read by Derek Jacobi

“Stop it!” cried Eustace. “It’s some silly trick you are playing! Ow!” A great cold salt splash had broken right out of the frame and they were breathless from the smack of it, as well as being wet through.

Lucy and Edmund, stuck with their awful cousin Eustace, suddenly find themselves in a picture of a sailing ship – the Dawn Treader – and realise they have been drawn back into the land of Narnia. They are reunited with old friends, the young King Caspian and Reepicheep the mouse on a voyage of discovery to the End of the World…

The Chronicles of Narnia - The Voyage of the Dawn Treader

Tags:Audio Books,Juvenile Classics,C.S. Lewis,Cronicles of Narnia