It might be said of his words such are Legends born. As Shakespeare is to England and Burns to Scotland then WB Yeats is to the Emerald Isle. In this audiobook we not only bring you some of his greatest works read by Cyril Cusack, Siobahn McKenna but also some by the great man himself. He speaks as he would his work to be heard.Words. The building blocks of literature. The ammunition to wrench emotion from brain to lip to life. All languages of the world have a unique capacity to c...

One of the best-known Irish playwrights, John Millington Synge premiered The Playboy of the Western World in 1907. It immediately provoked controversy, eventually resulting in the infamous ‘Playboy’ riots. It has been recorded and adapted many times, but this timeless recording stars the Irish actors who made it a classic, including Siobhan McKenna and Cyril Cusack.

Cyril Cusack reads a selection from Joyce's semi-autobiographical novel

Cyril Cusack and Siobhan Mckenna read from James Joyce's Finnegans Wake.

A collection of some of William Trevor’s most acclaimed works, as heard on BBC RadioWilliam Trevor was an Irish literary legend. In a 40-year career, he published a multiplicity of novels, plays, and short stories, and received numerous awards and honours. He was often compared to Chekhov for his extraordinary insight into the human condition, and in these eleven tales, he delves into the inner lives of ordinary people, with all their passions, secrets, fears and d...

Two of J M Synge’s remarkable plays and an exploration of the man, his work and his life on the Aran IslandsJ M Synge was one of the giants of Irish theatre, and a leading dramatist of the Irish Literary Renaissance. Together with W B Yeats and others, he co-founded Dublin’s famous Abbey Theatre in 1904, and was a director there until his death in 1909. He is best known for his comic masterpiece The Playboy of the Western World, which appears here alongsid...

An American Tragedy is the story of Clyde Griffiths, who spends his life in the desperate pursuit of success. On a deeper, more profound level, it is the masterful portrayal of the society whose values both shape Clyde's ambitions and seal his fate; it is an unsurpassed depiction of the harsh realities of American life and of the dark side of the American dream. Extraordinary in scope and power, vivid in its sense of wholesale human waste, unceasing in its rich compassion, An ...

When Catherine Morland, a country clergyman’s daughter, is invited to spend a season in Bath with the fashionable high society, little does she imagine the delights and perils that await her. Captivated and disconcerted by what she finds, and introduced to the joys of ‘Gothic novels’ by her new friend, Isabella, Catherine longs for mystery and romance. When she is invited to stay with the beguiling Henry Tilney and his family at Northanger Abbey, she expects mystery and intrigue at every t...

Ulysses is a seminal novel by the Irish writer James Joyce that has had a great impact on the modernist movement. Indeed, for many critics, the novel has established most of the conventions of modern fiction and has become one of its fundamental references. After being serialized in magazines, Ulysses was first collected and published in 1922. The narrative, which is set in the Irish capital Dublin, follows the two principal characters of Leopold Bloom and Stephen Dedalus. Different issues...

""Sebastian proves she is a new force to be reckoned with in historical romances.”--BooklistSome of Ben Sedgwick’s favorite things:Helping his poor parishionersBaby animalsShamelessly flirting with the handsome Captain Phillip DacreAfter an unconventional upbringing, Ben is perfectly content with the quiet, predictable life of a country vicar, free of strife or turmoil. When he’s a...

“Roxane Gay is so great at weaving the intimate and personal with what is most bewildering and upsetting at this moment in culture. She is always looking, always thinking, always passionate, always careful, always right there.” — Sheila Heti, author of How Should a Person Be?A New York Times BestsellerBest Book of the Year: NPR • Boston Globe • Newsweek • Time Out New York • Oprah.com •

‘The Scarlet Letter: A Romance’ is a masterpiece of historical fiction set in the Puritan Massachusetts Bay Colony from 1642 to 1649. Exploring themes of legalism, sin and guilt, it tells the story of Hester Prynne who conceives a child out of wedlock and then struggles to create a new life of dignity. ‘The Scarlet Letter’ was one of the earliest mass-produced books in America and a best-seller. It is still highly regarded in literary circles.