- Talking Classics

Orbis Audio Books

Hugely popular series,  featuring the voice of famous actors reading from great works of literature. Originally issued on audio cassettes (pair), later issues - less common - were on double CD. Condition is obviously important, so we like to test them out before putting up for sale. If you don't see what you are looking for, don't be afraid to ask - we can usually find them when called upon. The main price quoted is for the twin audio cassette pack only, with option to upgrade to CD whenever this format is available. If the magazine is available, we offer this as an optional extra (free with CD). The numbers after each option indicate the stock we hold available so please check this before ordering or you may be disappointed. If you don't see what you want listed, try contacting us anyway because we may have agents with items available.

These audio books represent some of the greatest works of fiction ever written in the English language. Each expertly abridged novel has been selected for its narrative power, range of characters and its place in our literary heritage. Two cassette tapes (or CDs) hold an abridged version of each novel, average running time 2 hours 25 minutes. Each double cassette is housed in a case in the form of a 5” x 8” book with a beautiful colour cover, often depicting a photo of a scene or character from a film/TV dramatisation. The cassettes have been manufactured using top quality tape for low noise and enhanced clarity. All recordings feature music that has been sensitively chosen to enrich the story. “Talking Classics” assembled a star cast to read the world’s great novels to you including Martin Shaw, Hannah Gordon, Jenny Agutter, Martin Jarvis, Joanna Lumley and Robert Powell.

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1: Tess of the D'Urbevilles

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Thomas Hardy, read by Martin Shaw with Lindsay Duncan

2: Wuthering Heights

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Emile Bronte, read by Hannah Gordon

3*: Rebecca

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Daphne du Maurier, read by Jenny Agutter with Simon Williams
* In one release, this was apparently sandwiched between Wuthering Heights and Oliver Twist at No 3

4*: Oliver Twist

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Charles Dickens, read by Martin Jarvis
* This is sometimes Number 3

5*: Pride & Prejudice

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Jane Austen, read by Joanna Lumley
* This is sometimes No 4

6: Jane Eyre

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Charlotte Bronte, read by Carole Boyd

7: The Hound of the Baskervilles

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Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, read by Peter Egan

8*: Sons & Lovers

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D H Lawrence, read by Robert Powell
* This is sometimes No 5

9: Brideshead Revisted

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Evelyn Waugh, read by Nigel Havers

10: Lorna Doone

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R D Blackmore, read by Ray Brooks

11: The Picture of Dorian Gray

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Oscar Wilde, read by Martin Shaw

12: Middlemarch

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George Eliot, read by Hannah Gordon

13: Far From the Madding Crowd

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Thomas Hardy, read by Robert Powell

14: The Thirty Nine Steps

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John Buchan, read by James Fox

15: Emma

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Jane Austen, read by Belinda Lang

16: David Copperfield

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Charles Dickens, read by Martin Jarvis

17: Anna Karenina

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Leo Tolstoy, read by Diana Quick

18: The Moonstone

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Wilkie Collins, read by Stephen Pacey

19: Three Men in a Boat

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Jerome K Jerome, read by Hugh Laurie

20: The Turn of the Screw

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Henry James

21: Vanity Fair

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William Makepeace Thackeray, read by Edward Petherbridge

22: The Three Musketeers

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Alexander Dumas, read by Jonathan Hyde

23: The Mayor of Casterbridge

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Thomas Hardy, read by Martin Shaw

24: Tom Jones

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Henry Fielding, read by Nigel Davenport

25: Around the World in 80 Days

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Jules Verne, read by Andrew Sachs

26: Dr Jeckyll & Mr Hyde

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Robert Louis Stevenson, read by Tim Piggot-Smith

27: Women in Love

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D H Lawrence, read by Bob Peck

28: Silas Marner

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George Eliot, read by Geraldine James

29: Dracula

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Bram Stoker, read by Anthony Valentine

30: Madame Bovary

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Gustav Flaubert, read by Jenny Agutter

31: Great Expectations

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Charles Dickens, read by Martin Jarvis

32: The Last of the Mohicans

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James Fenimore Cooper, read by Peter Marinker

33: The Mill on the Floss

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George Eliot, read by Hannah Gordon

34: The Great Gatsby

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F Scott Fitzgerald, read by William Roberts

35: The Age of Innocence

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Edith Wharton, read by Gayle Hunnicutt

36: Frankenstein

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Mary Shelley, read by David Rintoul

37: Persuasion

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Jane Austen, read by Anna Massey

38: Hunchback of Notre Dame

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Victor Hugo, read by Andrew Sachs

39: War & Peace 1

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Leo Tolstoy, read by Edward Petherbridge

40: War & Peace 2

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Leo Tolstoy, read by Edward Petherbridge

41: Moby Dick

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Herman Melville, read by Bob Sessions

42: Les Miserables

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Victor Hugo

43: Barchester Towers

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Anthony Trollope, read by Christopher Timothy

44: Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court

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Mark Twain, read by Kerry Shale

45: Nicholas Nickleby

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Charles Dickens, read by Martin Jarvis

46: A Passage to India

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E M Forster

47: Crime & Punishment

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Fyodor Dostoyevsky, read by Nigel Anthony

48: Robinson Crusoe

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Daniel Defoe

49: Villette

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