The Ancient category has 62 audiobooks on Listento.it, with an average listener rating of 4.7★ across 263 ratings. The most-rated is Arabian Nights: Volume 1.
The Tragedy of Macbeth, Part II: The Seed of Banquo
Summary
In 1610, The Tragedy of Macbeth was first performed. Four hundred years later: the sequel, written as a five-act play in blank verse. Ten years king, Malcolm sits on an uneasy throne. If Malcolm’s mind is haunted by the ghosts of his royal father (“gracious Duncan”) as well as the thane and lady who so bloodily betrayed him, Malcolm’s soul is sickened, as was Macbeth’s, by the witches’ prophecy that from Banquo’s seed would spring a line of Scottish kings: a prophecy that remained unfulfilled at the end of Shakespeare’s play. The witches also taunt Malcolm with riddles all his own: that sorrows will visit him from Ireland (where his younger brother fled upon their father’s death); that his love for Macbeth will breed fresh treachery. True to the Shakespearean model, its devious plot unfolding in five acts and its speech set to the measure of blank verse, Macbeth, Part II, draws bold the tragedy of a powerful man undone by the terrors he imagines and the truths he fails to see.
©2011 Noah Lukeman (P)2019 Noah Lukeman
Pride and Prejudice
Summary
Angela Lansbury plays Elizabeth Bennet as she deals with matters of upbringing, marriage, moral rightness and education in her aristocratic society.
©2009 Saland Publishing (P)2009 Saland Publishing
![Cover art for Romeo y Julieta (Dramatizado) [Romeo and Juliet (Dramatized)]](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51jKVoa3pNL._SL500_.jpg)
Romeo y Julieta (Dramatizado) [Romeo and Juliet (Dramatized)]
Summary
FonoLibro está orgulloso en presentar el audiolibro en español una de las más famosas y primera historias de amor, Romeo y Julieta escrita por William Shakespeare. Este audiolibro magníficamente dramatizado es una manera maravillosa de experimentar y escuchar a Shakespeare a todo volumen. Con música asombrosa, y el efectos de sonido musical que reviven la hermosa historia de amor de Romeo y Julieta. Romeo y Julieta es un cuento sencillo y dramático acerca del amor imposible entre una pareja de jóvenes descendientes de dos familias enemigas. Captura el entusiasmo juvenil y la pasión poética que caracterizan todo de los primos trabajos de William Shakespeare que hace Romeo y Julieta en la creación más sublime y romántica en la Literatura Universal. Note: This audiobook is in Spanish.
Public Domain (P)2007 FonoLibro Inc.
Lysistrata
Summary
Lysistrata is an ancient Greek comedy by Aristophanes, which was originally performed in Athens in 411 BC. It is a comic account of a woman's extraordinary quest to terminate the Peloponnesian War between Greek city states, by advocating that the women deny all the men of the land any sex. At a meeting, Lysistrata persuades the women of the warring cities to withhold sexual privileges from their men. She has also persuaded the older women of Athens to seize the Acropolis. As the women sacrifice a bottle of wine to the gods in celebration of their oath, they hear the sounds of the older women taking the Acropolis, the fortress that houses the treasury of Athens. Unfortunately, Lysistrata’s policy triggers a war between the sexes....
©Public Domain (P)2020 Museum Audiobooks
Thirukkural
Summary
Written by Thiruvalluvar in Tamil 10,000 years ago, Thirukkural and its Pearls of Wisdom is as relevant today as it was when written. Hence, it is known as a book for all ages. The Thirukkural is a classic Tamil sangam literature consisting of 1,330 couplets or Kurals. The Tirukku is one of the most important works in the Tamil language. This is reflected in some of the other names by which the text known, such as Tami Marai (Tamil Veda), Poyyamozhi (words that never fail) and Deiva Nool (divine text). The work is dated to sometime between the third and first centuries BCE and is considered to precede Manimekalai and Silappatikaram, since they both acknowledge the Kural text. Please note: This audiobook is in Tamil and English.
©2009 M. Rajaram (P)2018 Audible, Inc.
Aeneis
Summary
Troja steht in Flammen und ist unrettbar verloren. Nun soll der Trojaner Aeneas, im Auftrag Jupiters, in der Ferne die Stadt Rom gründen. Doch die Göttermutter Juno zürnt Aeneas und seinen Gefährten. Unzählige Prüfungen müssen die Trojaner bestehen, hungrige Zyklopen überlisten und gegen die Heere Latiums kämpfen, bevor sie am Tiber eine neue Heimat finden. Die hochkarätig besetzte Hörspielinszenierung des SWR erweckt Vergils mythischen Bericht von der Entstehung Roms auf mitreißende Weise zu neuem Leben. Ein absolutes Muss für alle Klassiker-Fans! Hörspiel mit Joachim Nottke, Gisela Uhlen u.v.a.
©2020 keine Buchvorlage. Übersetzung von Johann Heinrich Voß (P)2020 DAV
Death and the Devil
Summary
Death and the Devil: A Dance of Death in Three Scenes by Frank Wedekind. Translated by Samuel A. Eliot and Denis Daly. Cast: The Marquis Casti-Piani - John Burlinson; Fräulein Elfriede von Malchus - Amanda Friday; Herr König - Mark Crowle-Groves; Lisiska - Leanne Yau. Stage directions read by Denis Daly. Audio edited by Denis Daly. This play forms part of a tetralogy which focuses on one of Wedekind's obsessive themes: the destructive interplay between primal sexual urges and social convention. Each play revolves around a powerful young female character, who has the power to control and captivate men, but who in turn is destroyed by the exercise of that power. In this play, the dominant female is Fräulein Elfriede von Malchus, an idealistic crusader who visits a brothel operated by the cynical impresario Casti-Piani in order to rescue a young woman who has fallen into his clutches. In a perverse way, Wedekind's plays are morality tales, in which he gives a new twist to the biblical admonition; "Forgive them, for they know not what they do." In most cases, when characters finally do become aware of who they are and what they have done, the knowledge leads to their destruction. In Death and the Devil, Casti-Piani kills himself when he learns that prostitution can actually provide its victims with a path to moral glorification.
Public Domain (P)2018 The Online Stage
Death and the Maiden
Summary
Suspense mounts when Paulina and her husband offer hospitality to a stranger. Paulina thinks she recognizes, in their guest, the man who tortured her in prison, and she subsequently takes him hostage to find out the truth. A stunningly blunt and compelling play, Death and the Maiden explores brilliantly the issues of torture, power, vulnerability, ethics, and trust. An award-winning play by Chilean writer Ariel Dorfman, forced into exile in 1973.
©2009 L.A. Theatre Works (P)2009 L.A. Theatre Works
Henrik Ibsen's Ghosts
Summary
Controversy and hidden pasts are suddenly and painfully exposed as wealthy widow Mrs Alving prepares to open a new orphanage in memory of her husband. Her treasured son Oswald’s return from Paris and her relationship with old friend Pastor Manders are no longer the source of joy they once were, as secrets are turned into a frightening and desperate reality. First published in 1881 and performed the following year, Ibsen paints a bleak picture of the sacred institution of marriage and the family, and with its open discussion of the taboo subjects of free love, incest, and venereal disease, it is hardly surprising that this masterpiece caused such a hostile reaction with audiences and critics alike.
©2010 Stephen Mulrine (P)2010 Fantom Films
Abraham Lincoln: A Little Book of Verse
Summary
Not many people have influenced the world we live in today in quite the same way as Abraham Lincoln. A visionary, scholar, and gentle soul. Simple qualities we all have within us, but few use these qualities to benefit mankind in quite the same way as Abe did. Centuries after his passing into spirit, we still remember his name, his work, and his legacy and will continue to do so for centuries to come. This short trilogy of verse I feel best capture his essence and the feeling of people who lived with and knew him.
©2018 Matthew Hutton (P)2018 Matthew Hutton
Ovid
Summary
"Vivam" is the very last word of Ovid's masterpiece, the Metamorphoses: "I shall live". If we're still reading it two millennia after Ovid's death, this is by definition a remarkably accurate prophecy. Ovid was not the only ancient author with aspirations to be read for eternity, but no poet of the Greco-Roman world has had a deeper or more lasting impact on subsequent literature and art than he can claim. In the present day, no Greek or Roman poet is as accessible, to artists, writers, or the general listener: Ovid's voice remains a compellingly contemporary one, as modern as it seemed to his contemporaries in Augustan Rome. But Ovid was also a man of his time, his own story fatally entwined with that of the first emperor Augustus, and the poetry he wrote channels in its own way the cultural and political upheavals of the contemporary city, its public life, sexual mores, religion, and urban landscape, while also exploiting the superbly rich store of poetic convention that Greek literature and his Roman predecessors had bequeathed to him. Llewelyn Morgan explores Ovid's immense influence on later literature and art, spanning from Shakespeare to Bernini. Throughout, Ovid's poetry is revealed as enduringly scintillating, his personal story compelling, and the issues his life and poetry raise of continuing relevance and interest.
©2020 Llewelyn Morgan (P)2020 Tantor
Fifty Poems of Emily Dickinson
Summary
Emily Dickinson was born into a prominent New England family. Sociable as a child, she grew increasingly withdrawn and in later years became known as a recluse. Only seven of her poems were published during her lifetime. After Emily's death in 1886, her sister Lavinia discovered 1,775 poems bound and small packets tied with thread. They were first published in 1890, attracting unexpected attention in literary circles. With sparse, precise language, Emily Dickinson conveyed a penetrating vision of the natural world and an acute understanding of the most profound human truths. Her poems have been widely recognized as among the greatest in the English language.
Public Domain (P)1997/2018 Dove Audio/Phoenix Books
Henry V
Summary
Henry V defeats the French army at Agincourt to claim the throne of France and Catherine de Valois as his bride. This play contains Henry's famous "Feast of Saint Crispin" address, perhaps the greatest pep-rally speech ever given!
©2007 Public Domain (P)2007 Audio Book Contractors, Inc.
A Room with a View (Dramatized)
Summary
In this original adaptation of E.M. Forster’s novel, an encounter in Florence and an offer to exchange rooms brings George Emerson to the attention of Lucy Honeychurch. Their flirtation is cut short by Lucy’s chaperone, but when they meet again back home in England, Lucy must negotiate the demands of her station with the desires of her heart. Includes an interview with Julian Sands. Recorded before a live audience at UCLA's James Bridges Theater in March 2019. Adapted and Directed by Kate McAll Producing Director: Susan Albert Loewenberg Rosalind Ayres as Charlotte Bartlett Edita Brychta as Mrs. Honeychurch, Miss Lavish, Signora Alastair James Murden as Freddy Honeychurch, Guide, Italian Driver Moira Quirk as Miss Catherine Alan, Miss Teresa Alan, Maid Darren Richardson as Mr. Beebe and Sir Harry Julian Sands as Mr. Emerson Eugene Simon as George Emerson Eleanor Tomlinson as Lucy Honeychurch Matthew Wolf as Cecil Vyse, Shopkeeper, English Driver Associate Artistic Director: Anna Lyse Erikson. Sound Designer, Recording and Mixing Engineer: Mark Holden for The Invisible Studios, West Hollywood. Senior Radio Producer: Ronn Lipkin. Foley Artist: Brian Wallace. Production Manager: Jessie Vachiano. Editor: Julian Nicholson
©2019 L.A. Theatre Works (P)2019 L.A. Theatre Works
The Mysterious Bride
Summary
Hogg recounts a time where he knows he met a ghost. He addresses the audience, stating that the common folk no longer believe in ghosts, although he is a believer. Any person he talks to tells him the young women he's seen doesn't exist.... Museum Audiobooks strives to present audiobook versions of authentic, unabridged historical texts from prior eras which contain a variety of points of view. The texts do not represent the views or opinions of Museum Audiobooks, and in certain cases may contain perspectives or language that is objectionable to the modern listener.
Public Domain (P)2019 Museum Audiobooks
An Ideal Husband
Summary
An Ideal Husband is an 1895 comedy by Oscar Wilde which revolves around blackmail and political corruption, and touches on the themes of public and private honor. The action is set in London, and takes place over the course of 24 hours. Together with The Importance of Being Earnest, it is often considered Wilde's dramatic masterpiece and is one of his most frequently produced plays. Cast: Lord Caversham - Alan Weyman, Mabel Chiltern - Amanda Friday, Lord Goring - Ben Lindsey-Clark, Sir Robert Chiltern - Chris Marcellus, Mason - David Prickett, Mr. Montford and Harold - Denis Daly, Lady Chiltern - Elizabeth Klett, Mrs. Marchmont - Erin Louttit, James - Jeff Moon, Lady Markby - Linda Barrans, Phipps - Noel Badrian, Vicomte de Nanjac - Peter Tucker, Mrs. Cheveley - PJ Morgan, Lady Basildon - Leanne Yau. Stage directions narrated by Tiffany Halla Colonna. Audio edited by Elizabeth Klett.
Public Domain (P)2016 The Online Stage
Earth Spirit
Summary
Earth Spirit: A Tragedy in Four Acts by Frank Wedekind Translated by Samuel A. Eliot Presented by the Online Stage Frank Wedekind (1864-1918) was the most controversial dramatist of his age. Most of his work focuses on the ubiquity and inevitably corrupting influence of sexual attraction. His most famous plays are the two that depict the rise, fall, and eventual gruesome death of the vampish Lulu, who, in Wedekind’s presentation, became a ghastly parody of Goethe’s “Eternal Feminine”. The first of the plays is Earth Spirit, in which Lulu marries and survives three husbands, only to face prosecution for the shooting of the third. Lulu’s later adventures are described in the following play, Pandora’s Box. The two plays were later bundled with Death and the Devil and Castle Wetterstein to form a tetralogy that was published as Tragedies of Sex. Cast Ringmaster/Rodrigo - Ron Altman Lulu - Charlotte Duckett Countess Geschwitz - Leanne Yau Schigolch - Marty Krz Alva Schön - Brett Downey Dr. Schön - John Burlinson Schwartz - Garrison Moore Prince Escerny and Ferdinand - Joseph Tabler Dr. Goll and Escherich - Alan Weyman Alfred Hugenberg and Henriette - Chyanne Donnell Stage directions read by Denis Daly Audio edited by Denis Daly
Public Domain (P)2018 The Online Stage
A Woman of No Importance
Summary
A Woman of No Importance takes place in a 24-hour period during a house party hosted by Lady Hunstanton at her country estate. The upper echelons of English society mix, mingle and flirt, including Lady Caroline Pontefract (who is on her fourth husband), the witty and ironic Mrs. Allonby and the dandyish Lord Illingworth. Wilde balances these worldly characters with a visiting young American woman, Hester Worsley, who becomes attracted to the earnest Gerald Arbuthnot, soon to become Lord Illingworth's secretary. When Gerald's mother pays a visit, however, the secret of his scandalous parentage will be revealed, and more than one future placed in jeopardy. Cast Lord Alfred: Alan Weyman Lady Hunstanton: PJ Morgan Lord Illingworth: Ben Lindsey-Clark Farquhar: Chris Marcellus Gerald Arbuthnot: David Prickett Archdeacon: Denis Daly Mrs. Arbuthnot: Elizabeth Klett Mrs. Allonby: Erin Louttit Francis: Jeff Moon Lady Caroline Pontefract: Linda Barrans Sir John Pontefract: Noel Badrian Mr. Kelvil: Peter Tucker Alice: Leanne Yau Hester Worsley: Susan Iannucci Lady Stutfield: Tiffany Halla Colonna Stage directions read by Amanda Friday Audio, edited by Elizabeth Klett.
Public Domain (P)2017 The Online Stage
Faces of Love
Summary
Acclaimed translator Dick Davis breathes new life into the timeless works of three masters of 14th-century Persian literature Together, Hafez, a giant of world literature; Jahan Malek Khatun, an eloquent princess; and Obayd-e Zakani, a dissolute satirist, represent one of the most remarkable literary flowerings of any era. All three lived in the famed city of Shiraz, a provincial capital of South-Central Iran, and all three drew support from arts-loving rulers during a time better known for its violence than its creative brilliance. Here Dick Davis, an award-winning poet widely considered "our finest translator of Persian poetry" (The Times Literary Supplement), presents a diverse selection of some of the best poems by these world-renowned authors and shows us the spiritual and secular aspects of love, in varieties embracing every aspect of the human heart. "Davis [is] widely acknowledged as the leading translator of Persian literature in our time.... Faces of Love has made the Persian originals into real and moving English poems." (Michael Dirda, The Washington Post) For more than 65 years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,500 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Listeners trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators. This audiobook includes a downloadable PDF that contains notes from the book. PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.
©2013 Hafez (P)2021 Penguin Audio
The Persian Expedition
Summary
In The Persian Expedition (also known as The March of the Ten Thousand and Anabasis), Xenophon, a disciple of Socrates, relates his experiences of fighting with the Greek mercenary army "The Ten Thousand" in Persia, and how he led them back to the safety of the Black Sea coast. Seeking to depose his brother Artaxerxes and take his place upon the Persian throne, Cyrus the Younger leads the 10,000 mercenaries on a dangerous campaign deep into the heart of Persia. There, Cyrus is killed and his generals overthrown, leaving a young Xenophon to lead the army on its treacherous journey home. Snowy mountains, wide rivers, violent blizzards, and hostile tribes obstruct their way, testing Xenophon's leadership and his soldiers' perseverance to the extreme. PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.
Public Domain (P)2020 Naxos Audiobooks