Tragedy Audiobooks

Shakespeare's passion for the history of Rome is evident in plays such as Titus Andronicus, Julius Caesar and Antony, and Cleopatra. His tragedy, Coriolanus, probably written around 1605-07, dramatizes the rise and fall of a great Roman general, Caius Martius (later known as Coriolanus because of...

Joseph Addison is best known for The Spectator, a magazine he co-authored with his friend Richard Steele. But he did find time to write a couple of plays -- with and without Steele (Cato didn't) -- before being named foreign secretary and putting drama aside. The play is said to have been staged by...

Cain: A Mystery is Lord Byron's retelling of the classic Bible story from the perspective of his opponent. Undoubtedly, influenced by Milton's "Paradise Lost", Byron's Cain is full of provocation and questioning. In order to accept the punishment of death for human beings, he met Lucifer,...

Inspired by the stunning betrayal of Denmark by his Norwegian motherland after the Prussian invasion of Danish territory, Ibsen wrote "Bland" as an indictment of human complacency and mental rigidity. When Ibsen composed this "dramatic poem" after self-imposed exile in Italy, he...

"Beyond the Horizon" is a play written by American playwright Eugene O'Neill in 1920. It was O'Neill's first feature-length work and the winner of the 1920 Pulitzer Prize for Drama. The play focuses on a family, especially two brothers, Andrew and Robert. In the show's first act, Robert...

Roman Emperor Titus wanted to marry Queen Berenice of Palestine, but felt that Rome could not marry him to a foreign queen. Berenice refused to stay under the circumstances and left Rome. Unlike many of Racine's other dramas, this one has actual survivors (albeit heartbroken survivors) at the end!...

In this tragedy [about the aftermath of the Trojan War] in 1667, the plot is generally more complex than Racine's plays and offers a greater variety of characters and motives. Love, jealousy, friendship, marital fidelity, maternal tenderness, anger, and despair are all subtly portrayed. If the...

Alcestis is the earliest surviving play of Euripides. King Admetus' devoted wife, Alcestis, agrees to die in his stead, and as the drama begins, she is close to death. In the first act, Apollo argues with Thanatos (Death) and asks for the extension of Alcestis' life, but Thanatos refuses. Apollo...

The play "Agamemnon" describes the Argos king Agamemnon's return from the Trojan War. Waiting at home for him is his wife Clytemnestra, who plans to murder him, partly in revenge for sacrificing their daughter Iphigenia, partly The reason is that during the ten years of Agamemnon's...

A Yorkshire Tragedy: Not As Fresh as Sad and True (1619) tells the gruesome story of Walter Calverly, who stabbed his wife and killed his two children in April 1605. young son. This recording is adapted from a text attributed to William Shakespeare on the title page of the second quarto. This...