BBC Classics Ultimate Story Collecti..., Oscar Wilde
BBC Classics Ultimate Story Collecti..., Oscar Wilde
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BBC Classics: Ultimate Story Collection
90 unmissable tales

Author: Oscar Wilde, Arthur Conan Doyle, Virginia Woolf

Series: BBC Classics

Narrator: Various, Sam Dale, Joseph Ayre, Carolyn Pickles, Don Gilet, Clare Corbett, Ronny Jhutti, Helen Clapp, Susan Jameson, Full Cast

Unabridged: 26 hr 5 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 06/03/2021

Synopsis

A treasure chest of timeless short stories by some of the world's greatest authors

Suspense and horror
1 The Adventure of the Sussex Vampire - Arthur Conan Doyle
2 The Signalman - Charles Dickens
3 Lost Hearts - MR James
4 The Sealed Room - Arthur Conan Doyle.
5 Mrs Badgery - Wilkie Collins
6 Wailing Well - MR James
7 The Open Window - Saki
8 How it happened - Arthur Conan Doyle
9 The Tell-Tale Heart - Edgar Allan Poe
10 The Cone - HG Wells
11 A Haunted House - Virginia Woolf
12 Rats - MR James
13 The Oval Portrait - Edgar Allan Poe
14 Tarquin of Cheapside - F. Scott Fitzgerald
15 One Crowded Hour - Arthur Conan Doyle
16 The Mezzotint - MR James
17 The Masque of the Red Death - Edgar Allan Poe

Love
18 The Kiss - Kate Chopin
19 Eleonora - Edgar Allan Poe
20 About Love - Anton Chekhov
21 The Lovers - Hans Christian Anderson
22 Love - Guy De Maupassant
23 The Sphinx Without a Secret - Oscar Wilde
24 A Wedding Gift - Guy De Maupassant
25 Kew Gardens - Virginia Woolf
26 The District Doctor - Ivan Turgenev
27 Happiness - Guy De Maupassant
28 A Blunder - Anton Chekhov
29 The Bride Comes to Yellow Sky - Stephen Crane
30 In a Far-Off World - Olive Schreiner
31 The Cook's Wedding - Anton Chekhov
32 The Recruit - Honore de Balzac
33 The Nightingale and the Rose - Oscar Wilde
34 Pyramus and Thisbe - Ovid
35 Aunt Hetty on Matrimony - Fanny Fern
36 A Country Cottage - Anton Chekhov
37 Marriage a la Mode - Katherine Mansfield
38 The Statue of Limitations - Ernest Dowson
39 The Dilettante - Edith Wharton

Humorous
40 Tobermory - Saki
41The Mesmeric Mountain - Stephen Crane
42 The Children's Joke - Louisa May Alcott
43 At The Siren - Anton Chekhov
44 The Garden Party - Katherine Mansfield
45 The Cask of Amontillado - Edgar Allan Poe
46 The New Dress - Virginia Woolf
47 How I Built Myself A House - Thomas Hardy
48 The Model Millionaire - Oscar Wilde
49 A Pair of Silk Stockings - Kate Chopin
50 At The Barbers - Anton Chekhov
51 A Respectable Woman - Kate Chopin

Folk & Fable
52 The Happy Prince - Oscar Wilde.
53 The Elves and the Shoemaker - The Brothers Grimm
54 The Emperor's New Clothes -Hans Christian Andersen
55 The Tongue Cut Sparrow - Yei Theodora Ozaki
56 Finn and the Scottish Giant - Harold F. Read
57 The Postmaster - Rabindranath Tagore
58 The Toys of Peace - Saki
59 The Selfish Giant - Oscar Wilde
60 The Flower Gatherer - Edward Thomas
61 Araby - James Joyce
62 The Interlopers - Saki
63 Tom Thumb - The Brothers Grimm
64 The Kabuliwalah - Rabindranath Tagore
65 The Monkey's Paws - WW Jacobs

Christmas
66 The Little Match Girl - Hans Christian Andersen
67 Papa Panov's Special Christmas - Leo Tolstoy
68 Christmas Storms and Sunshine - Elizabeth Gaskell.
69 The Gift of the Magi - O'Henry
70 At Christmas Time - Anton Chekhov
71 A Dill Pickle - Katherine Mansfield

Classic Tales
72 The Yellow Wallpaper - Charlotte Perkins Gilman
73 The Fall of Lord Barrymore - Arthur Conan Doyle
74 The Necklace - Guy De Maupassant
75 Holiday Group - EM Delafield
76 Three Questions - Leo Tolstoy
77 The Cop and the Anthem - O'Henry
78 The Fly - Katherine Mansfield
79 The Christening - DH Lawrence
80 After the Race - James Joyce
81 The String Quartet - Virginia Woolf
82 Two Friends - Guy De Maupassant
83 An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge - Ambrose Bierce.
84 A Gentleman Friend - Anthon Chekhov
85 Ma'ame Pelagie - Kate Chopin
86 Second Best - DH Lawrence
87 El Verdugo - Honore de Balzac
88 The Story of an Hour - Kate Chopin
89 The Man of No Account - Bret Hart
90 The Piece of String - Guy De Maupassant
©2021 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd (P)2021 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd

About Oscar Wilde

Oscar Wilde was born in Dublin on October 16, 1854. He excelled at Trinity College in Dublin from 1871 to 1874, eventually winning a scholarship to Magdalene College in Oxford, which he entered in 1875. The biggest influences on his development as an artist at this time were Swinburne, Walter Pater, and John Ruskin.

In 1875, Wilde began publishing poetry in literary magazines. In 1876 he found himself back in Ireland when the death of his father left the family with several debts. Wilde continued writing poetry in earnest, and in 1878, he won the coveted Newdigate Prize for English poetry. He soon left Oxford to build himself a reputation among the literati in London.

During the 1880s, Wilde established himself as a writer, poet, and lecturer, but above all as a "professor of aesthetics." In 1884, he married Constance Lloyd in London. Sons soon followed: Cyril in 1885 and Vyvyan in 1886. During these years, Wilde worked as a journalist and reviewer, while also continuing with his other writing of poetry and plays. In 1890 he published his well-known story The Picture of Dorian Gray. The early 1890s were the most intellectually productive and fruitful time for Wilde. Some of his most familiar plays-including Lady Windemere's Fan and Salome-were written and performed upon the London stages. In 1893 Wilde produced A Woman of No Importance and An Ideal Husband, followed in 1894 by The Importance of Being Earnest.

Wilde's life took a turn for the worst when, in May 1895, he was convicted of engaging in homosexual acts, which were then illegal, and sentenced to two years imprisonment with hard labor. He soon declared bankruptcy, and his property was auctioned off. In 1896, Wilde lost legal custody of his children. When his mother died that same year, his wife Constance visited him at the jail to bring him the news. It was the last time they saw each other. In the years after his release, Wilde's health deteriorated. In November 1900, he died in Paris at the age of forty-six.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Scoobs on July 21, 2008

Oh Dorian. Oh Dorian. When I first read this book in the fruitless years of my youth I was excited, overwhelmed and a blank slate (as Dorian is, upon his first encounter with Lord Henry) easily molded, persuaded, influenced, etc. Certain Wildisms (Wildeisms?) would take my breath away. Would become my......more

Goodreads review by Sean Barrs on March 13, 2022

I finished reading this last night, and afterwards I spent an entire hour staring into space so I could contemplate over the majesty of this work. It left me speechless. This book is exquisite; it is an investigation into the human soul, the power of vanity and the problems of living a life with not......more

Goodreads review by Emily May on January 26, 2019

"The sitter is merely the accident, the occasion. It is not he who is revealed by the painter; it is rather the painter who, on the coloured canvas, reveals himself. The reason I will not exhibit this picture is that I am afraid that I have shown in it the secret of my own soul." And so b......more

Goodreads review by Paula on December 04, 2013

This book reminded me why I hate classics. Like Frankenstein, it starts out with a great premise: what if a portrait bore the brunt of age and sin, while the person remained in the flush of youth? How would that person feel as they watched a constant reminder of their true nature develop? And like Fr......more

Goodreads review by Ruby on March 15, 2021

2021 - I re-read this for university and loved it even more the second time round... Lord Henry is a paradigmatic sophist and his epigrams are delightful (partly because it's easy to forget that he is more rhetoric than truth). The connection between youthful appearance and character is also so fasc......more

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