Three full-cast BBC Radio productions of Shakespeare's most famous Roman playsFeaturing all-star casts and introduced by Sir Richard Eyre, these three iconic productions of Shakespeare's dynamic Roman histories are full of political intrigue, passion and tragedy.Julius CaesarThis updated version of Shakespeare's classic play is set in Italy in 1925. Julius Caesar, a new Roman dictator, has swept to power, and his way is clea...

In this BBC full-cast production of Romeo And Juliet, the two star-crossed lovers fight for each other until their dying breath. Can their two feuding families reconcile?With the intimacy of radio, the full beauty and meaning of some of the most lyrical lines ever written can be truly heard: tenderness and passion, betrayal and bigotry are brilliantly evoked as the tale comes to its tragic conclusion.Douglas Henshall stars as Romeo, with So...

In this BBC full-cast production of Coriolanus, allies and enemies become blurred just as Rome is in sight...Coriolanus tells of a proud Roman general who captures the town Corioli but subsequently falls from favour with the Roman people. He allies himself with the Volscians and leads an attack on Rome, but allegiances are won and lost before the final tragic end.Starring Samuel West as Coriolanus and Susannah York...

This is the book that made Lord Byron (George Gordon) famous. He was a published and a known poet, but until this book took the English-speaking world by storm in 1812, he was not a famous poet.Byron was, however, a celebrity. As an aristocrat whose personal life was considered shockingly scandalous - and even today would be good stuff for celebrity gossip magazines - his name was known. His previous work was received out of a mixture of literary merit and personal notoriety. This ...

“How can men best live together?” Twenty-three centuries after its compilation, Politics still has much to contribute to this central question of political science. Aristotle’s thorough and carefully argued analysis covers a huge range of political issues in the effort to establish which types of constitution are best, both ideally and in particular circumstances, and how they may be maintained.Like his predecessor, Plato, Aristotle believed that the ideal constitution sho...

The bard's sonnets read by a leading actor of stage and screen Simon Callow.Savor the most celebrated love poems in the English language. Written almost 400 years ago, the sonnets of William Shakespeare are passionate and exalted, rich in imagery and alliteration, and full of mystery and intrigue.This selection presents all 154 sonnets composed from 1593-1601. In words and rhyme, he reveals his infatuation with the "Dark Lady," his relationship with a rival poet, and his pr...

Macbeth, Shakespeare’s last great tragedy, has remained one of the most popular plays since it’s first performance in 1606 probably in front of King James. This exciting new audiobook production is directed with fresh imagination by Fiona Shaw who breaks the conventional strait jacket that has hampered the development of Shakespeare on audio. We are as much in the twenty-first century as in medieval Scotland the tensions, the politics, the struggle for power and dark ambition is part of ou...

“Civil Disobedience” (also known as “On the Duty of Civil Disobedience” and “Resistance to Civil Government”) is an essay published in 1849 by American writer and philosopher Henry David Thoreau. In this essay, Thoreau puts forward the argument each of us has an obligation to resist obedience to a government that acts unjustly lest we become agents of those same injustices. Using slavery and the Mexican-American war in his examples, Thoreau combines philosophical argument with sharing his ...

This book is the basis for Whit Stillman's feature film Love and Friendship starring Kate Beckinsale andChloe Sevigny

Born out of the political turmoil of the English Civil War, Leviathan stands out as one of the most influential political and philosophical texts of the 17th century. It argues for the restoration of the monarchy, in light of the Republic, and calls for a commonwealth ruled by an authoritative, autocratic figure with absolute sovereignty. This would put an end to all controversy, war and fear, and establish peace via social contract. Over the course of the book Hobbes targets Christianity ...

Two couples—Benedick and Beatrice, and Hero and Claudio—must overcome deception, gossip, and, occasionally, their own misplaced pride if their love is to persevere. Aided by military commander Don Pedro and impeded by his brother Don John, the friends go to great lengths in the pursuit of marriage.

Shakespeare’s most famous play is one of the greatest stories in the literature of the world.Distressed by his father’s death and his mother’s over-hasty remarriage, Hamlet, prince of Denmark is faced by a specter from beyond the grave bearing a grim message of murder and revenge. The young prince is driven to the edge of madness by his struggle to understand the situation he finds himself in and to do his duty. Many others, including Hamlet’s beloved, the innocent...