Poetry and prose together from literary greats.

Read by Alex Jennings, Richard Mitchley & Eve Karpf (Unabridged: 2hrs 4mins)

Literature is a world of words and wonder, able to take us on almost unimaginable journeys from the wild and fantastic to the grind and minutiae of life.

An author’s ideas are his building blocks, his architecture of the mind, building a structure on which all else will rest; the narrative, the characters, the words - those few words that begin the adventure.

In this series we look at some of our leading classic authors across two genres: the short story and the poem.  In this modern world there is an insatiable need to categorise and pigeon-hole everyone and everything.  But ideas, these grains and saplings of the brain, need to roam, to explore and find their perfect literary use vehicle.  Our authors are masters of many literary forms, perhaps known for one but themselves favouring another.

Story. Poems. Story.  Within these boundaries come all manner of invention and cast of characters.  And, of course, each author has their own way of revealing their own chapter and verse.  

In this compilation -  

1 - Chapter & Verse - Thomas Hardy - An Introduction

2 - An Imaginative Woman by Thomas Hardy

3 - A Broken Appointment by Thomas Hardy

4 - The Mother Mourns by Thomas Hardy

5 - Rain on a Grave by Thomas Hardy

6 - The Dead Man Walking by Thomas Hardy

7 - Rome - Building a New Street in the Ancient Quarter, April 1887 by Thomas Hardy

8 - At the Royal Academy by Thomas Hardy

9 - In the Moonlight by Thomas Hardy

10 - The Seasons of Her Year  by Thomas Hardy

11 - Birds at Winter Nightfall (Triolet) by Thomas Hardy

12 - The Darkling Thrush by Thomas Hardy

13 - The Calf by Thomas Hardy

14 - The Oxen by Thomas Hardy

15 - The Fiddler of the Reels by Thomas Hardy