大象传媒

Most of us have enjoyed a TV adaptation, or marvelled at the Muppet movie version, but now’s the chance to listen in full to Charles Dickens's festive classic about a bitter old man and his Christmas epiphany.

After elderly miser Ebenezer Scrooge is visited by the ghost of his former business partner Jacob Marley – followed by the spirits of Christmas Past, Present and Yet to Come – he is transformed into a kinder, gentler citizen. It’s a wonderfully uplifting, moral tale – perfect ear fodder at a time when we’re all being reminded how important it is to give a helping hand to those around us.

Shelley’s gothic masterpiece explores the dangers of scientific ambition at a time of great social change, and has been heralded as the first major work in the sci-fi genre.

Dr Jekyll is a kind and well-respected scientist who wants to experiment with the duality of human nature and he finds a way to transform himself into Mr Hyde – an evil alter ego. Hyde is violent and murderous, and has no remorse for his terrible crimes. For a while, Jekyll is able to control his darker side, but soon he starts to lose power…

If swashbuckling escapades are your thing, then you’ll love Robert Louis Stevenson’s youthful tale of adventure, across high seas and Highlands. This historical fiction is set in the aftermath of the Jacobite rising of 1745 and is narrated by the teenager David Balfour, a young man from the Lowlands of Scotland. Suddenly an orphan, the seventeen-year-old sets out to seek his fortune, only to discover that his miserly uncle Ebeneezer means to cheat him out of his inheritance. A fact made undoubtedly clear when he is kidnapped aboard a ship and told that he’s to be sold into slavery. Shipwrecks, a desert island and cunning plots ensue…

Silas Marner is a weaver, and a member of a small Calvinist congregation, who lives on a poor street in Northern England. His world is turned upside down when he is falsely accused of stealing the church’s money while watching over the ill deacon. Suddenly an outcast, he moves to a rural town where he lives a hermit-like existence in an isolated cottage, with only money for company. But then his own fortune is stolen and an orphaned child turns up on his doorstep, changing everything…

This iconic sci-fi story is about the battle to save Earth from a terrifying, tentacled race of Martians. The novel is a first-person account – from an unnamed protagonist in Surrey and his brother in London – of how the extra-terrestrials invade and devastate Earth, feeding on humans while their voracious “red weed” spreads. Despite the Earthlings' best efforts to stop them, the planet is soon overrun. However, the people may be powerless but the Martians aren't prepared for Earth's bacteria…

One of the earliest stories about a struggle between mankind and aliens, H.G. Wells’s classic has remained immensely popular since its first serialisation in 1897, and has spawned feature films, radio dramas, and numerous television series.