The Classic Tales Podcast
Designed to make classic literature less intimidating, The Classic Tales Podcast has been showcasing the greatest literary authors for years. Narrating with gusto, BJ Harrison performs each word of the classic texts, elevating them with character voices, sharp accents and bridled emotion. Adventure, Mystery, Horror, Humor and more - The Classic Tales Podcast has something for everybody. It really is The Cure for the Common Commute. Winner - Outstanding Podcast Host: Arts and Entertainment , Society of Voice Arts and Sciences- 2022 Winner of w3 Silver Award by the Academy of Interactive and Visual Arts-2022 Winner of w3 Gold Award by the Academy of Interactive and Visual Arts-2021 Winner of Independent Audiobook Award for "Scaramouche", by Raphael Sabatini - 2021

When all of it comes out, who is, in fact, engaged to Ernest? Oscar Wilde, today on The Classic Tales Podcast.

Welcome to The Classic Tales Podcast. Thank you for listening.

The Classic Tales Podcast is listener supported. If you’ve enjoyed The Classic Tales over the years, please consider becoming a supporting member. Making a monthly donation really helps us to create a support flow we can count on. If you can step up with just $5/month, that really helps us keep moving forward. Go to www.classictalesaudiobooks.com and become a monthly supporter. You’ll get a monthly code good toward any digital audiobook download, as a ‘thank you’ gift. It’s a great deal, and a great feeling. Thank you so much. 

And for those of you with the Classic Tales App, check out your special features for more Meditations of Marcus Aurelius - just enough to wet your whistle. In the app, tap on the box with a bow on the left when you play the episode. That’s the special features area.

If you’re a regular listener of The Classic Tales Podcast, perhaps you've heard me read a passage that really stands out to you. One of the limitations of podcasts as a format is that there has not been a great way to save those brief moments for yourself or share them with other people in your life that would enjoy them.

Beta testing for the Airr app is going well, and there’s a new update for it which smoothes things along nicely. It’s a handy tool to share Oscar Wilde’s pithier moments with your friends on social media. Share your AirrQuote with me on my twitter feed, @bjharrisonaudio, and I might give you a shout out and feature you on the podcast! How many have done it yet? Nobody. So the odds are in your favor! You can find a link to the Airr app in the show notes for this episode.

Also, be sure to check us out on Spotify! They are beginning to feature us here and there, and we appreciate it.

Okay, so now we are back to episode 2 of The Importance of Being Earnest. Here’s the story so far:

Jack Worthing is known as Jack in the country, and Ernest in town. He has invented a reprobate brother whom he’s given the name of Ernest. His best friend, Algernon, likewise has an imagined acquaintance named Bunbury, whom he visits when he wants to escape the tedium of town.

Jack is in love with Gwendolyn, Angernon’s cousin. But Gwendolyn’s mother, Lady Bracknell, is not to be overlooked. After giving Jack the third degree, it is discovered that Jack doesn’t know who his parents are, and that he was discovered as an infant in a handbag in a railway station. After recommending that Jack acquire some parents post haste, Lack Bracknell has left Jack standing dumbfounded, while Algernon plays the piano in the adjoining room.

Meanwhile, Algernon goes to Jack’s country house masquerading as Jack’s profligate brother Ernest. Introducing himself as such, he woos and is quickly engaged to young Cecily, Jack’s ward.

When Jack arrives, he demands that Algernon leave, and he feigns to do so. In the mean time, Gwendolyn has traveled to Jack’s house in the country, and meets Jack’s ward, Cecily. Again, Cecily is engaged to Algernon, who introduced himself as Ernest. And Gwendolyn is still persuaded that Jack’s name is Ernest, as she only knows him when he is in London.

And now, The Importance of Being Earnest, Part 3 of 4, by Oscar Wilde.

 

Tap here to go to www.classictalesaudiobooks.com and become a financial supporter!

 

Tap here to get early access to the Airr app, and share your favorite snippets of the episode with your friends! Share on Twitter @bjharrisonaudio, and your clip might be on the show!

  

Tap here to purchase Huckleberry Finn – the first Hybrid Audiobook

 

 

Tap here to go the The Classic Tales Merchandise store!

 

Hear us on roku:

 

 

 

Direct download: CT_633_TheImportanceofBeingEarnest_Part3of4.mp3
Category:Literature -- posted at: 12:30am MDT

Though Jack announces that his brother Ernest is dead, what happens when his brother himself appears at Jack’s country home? Oscar Wilde, today on The Classic Tales Podcast.

Welcome to The Classic Tales Podcast. Thank you for listening.

The Classic Tales Podcast is listener supported. If you’ve enjoyed The Classic Tales over the years, please consider becoming a supporting member. Making a monthly donation really helps us to create a support flow we can count on. If you can step up with just $5/month, that really helps us keep moving forward. Go to www.classictalesaudiobooks.com and become a monthly supporter. You’ll get a monthly code good toward any digital audiobook download, as a ‘thank you’ gift. It’s a great deal, and a great feeling. Thank you so much.

And for those of you with the Classic Tales App, check out your special features for more Meditations of Marcus Aurelius - just enough to wet your whistle. In the app, tap on the box with a bow on the left when you play the episode. That’s the special features area.

If you’re a regular listener of The Classic Tales Podcast, perhaps you've heard me read a passage that really stands out to you. One of the limitations of podcasts as a format is that there has not been a great way to save those brief moments for yourself or share them with other people in your life that would enjoy them.

Beta testing for the Airr app is going well, and there’s a new update for it which smoothes things along nicely. It’s a handy tool to share Oscar Wilde’s pithier moments with your friends on social media. Share your AirrQuote with me on my twitter feed, @bjharrisonaudio, and I might give you a shout out and feature you on the podcast! How many have done it yet? Nobody. So the odds are in your favor! You can find a link to the Airr app in the show notes for this episode.

Also, be sure to check us out on Spotify! They are beginning to feature us here and there, and we appreciate it!

Okay, so now we are back to episode 2 of The Importance of Being Earnest. Here’s the story so far:

Jack Worthing is known as Jack in the country, and Ernest in town. He has invented a reprobate brother whom he’s given the name of Ernest. His best friend, Algernon, likewise has an imagined acquaintance named Bunbury, whom he visits when he wants to escape the tedium of town.

Jack is in love with Gwendolyn, Angernon’s cousin. But Gwendolyn’s mother, Lady Bracknell, is not to be overlooked. After giving Jack the third degree, it is discovered that Jack doesn’t know who his parents are, and that he was discovered as an infant in a handbag in a railway station. After recommending that Jack acquire some parents post haste, Lack Bracknell has left Jack standing dumbfounded, while Algernon plays the piano in the adjoining room.

And now, The Importance of Being Earnest, Part 2 of 4, by Oscar Wilde.

 

Tap here to go to www.classictalesaudiobooks.com and become a financial supporter!

 

Tap here to get early access to the Airr app, and share your favorite snippets of the episode with your friends! Share on Twitter @bjharrisonaudio, and your clip might be on the show!

  

Tap here to purchase Huckleberry Finn – the first Hybrid Audiobook

  

Tap here to go the The Classic Tales Merchandise store!

  

Hear us on roku:

 

 

Direct download: CT_632_TheImportanceofBeingEarnest_Part2of4.mp3
Category:Literature -- posted at: 12:30am MDT

Where, (and when) does Dr. Nikolai Rostof disappear to while teaching a classroom full of children? Charles F. Hall, today on The Classic Tales Podcast.

Welcome to The Classic Tales Podcast. Thank you for listening.

The Classic Tales Podcast is listener supported. If you’ve enjoyed The Classic Tales over the years, please consider becoming a supporting member. We really need your help right now. Making a monthly donation really helps us to create a support flow we can count on. If you can step up with just $5/month, that really helps us out. Go to www.classictalesaudiobooks.com and become a monthly supporter. You’ll get a monthly code good for $8 toward any digital audiobook download, as a ‘thank you’ gift. It’s a great deal, and a great feeling. Thank you so much.

And for those of you with the Classic Tales App, check out your special features for more Meditations of Marcus Aurelius - just enough to wet your whistle. In the app, tap on the box with a bow on the left when you play the episode. That’s the special features area.

If you’re a regular listener of The Classic Tales Podcast, perhaps you've heard me read a passage that really stands out to you. One of the limitations of podcasts as a format is that there has not been a great way to save those brief moments for yourself or share them with other people in your life that would enjoy them.

Join us in beta testing the Airr app, and sharing your favorite Classic Tales moments with your friends on social media. Share your AirrQuote with me on my twitter feed, @bjharrisonaudio, and I might give you a shout out and feature you on the podcast! You can find a link to the Airr app in the show notes for this episode.

We’re also on Spotify, who has recently featured our show on one of their curated podcast playlists, “Mind Massage”. Check us out on Spotify!

And now for something completely different.

I am heading out of town with my family this week, and so we’re bringing you a rare story from the vaults.

C.S. Lewis wrote, in his preface to The Great Divorce: “I must acknowledge my debt to a writer whose name I have forgotten and whom I read several years ago in a highly coloured American magazine. The unbendable and unbreakable quality of my heavenly matter was suggested to me by him, although he used the fancy for a different and more ingenious purpose. His hero traveled into the past and there very properly found raindrops that would pierce him like bullets and sandwiches that no strength would bite because, of course, nothing in the past can be altered. If the writer of that story ever reads these lines I ask him to accept my grateful acknowledgment.”

Lewis was wrong about the story appearing in an American magazine. In fact, it appeared in a short-lived British Magazine, Tales of Wonder. And it’s small wonder that the author’s name slipped Lewis’ mind. He published two stories for this obscure magazine in 1938, and then disappeared. Today’s story is the first, and the one that Lewis referred to as influencing his writing in such a unique way.

This recording was originally released in 2011, in Season Five of The Classic Tales Podcast.

Rest assured, we will return to The Importance of Being Earnest next week. 

And now, The Man Who Lived Backward, by Charles F. Hall.

 

Tap here to go to www.classictalesaudiobooks.com and become a financial supporter!

 

Tap here to get early access to the Airr app, and share your favorite snippets of the episode with your friends! Share on Twitter @bjharrisonaudio, and your clip might be on the show!

  

Tap here to purchase Huckleberry Finn – the first Hybrid Audiobook

  

Tap here to go the The Classic Tales Merchandise store!

 

Hear us on roku:

 

 

Direct download: CT_631_ManWhoLivedBackwards.mp3
Category:Literature -- posted at: 12:30am MDT

Who is the owner of the mysterious cigarette case? The answer is anything but simple. Oscar Wilde, today on The Classic Tales Podcast.

Welcome to The Classic Tales Podcast. Thank you for listening.

The Classic Tales Podcast is listener supported. If you’ve enjoyed The Classic Tales over the years, please consider becoming a supporting member. Making a monthly donation really helps us to create a support flow we can count on. If you can step up with just $5/month, that really helps us out. Go to www.classictalesaudiobooks.com and become a monthly supporter. You’ll get a monthly code good for $8 toward any digital audiobook download, as a ‘thank you’ gift. It’s a great deal, and a great feeling. Thank you so much.

And for those of you with the Classic Tales App, check out your special features for more Meditations of Marcus Aurelius - just enough to wet your whistle. In the app, tap on the box with a bow on the left when you play the episode. That’s the special features area. 

If you’re a regular listener of The Classic Tales Podcast, perhaps you've heard me read a passage that really stands out to you. One of the limitations of podcasts as a format is that there has not been a great way to save those brief moments for yourself or share them with other people in your life that would enjoy them.

That's why I'm excited to announce that I’m experimenting with a great new tool, Airr, that lets you save and share the best moments of Classic Tales episodes. Their app lets you capture the moments that stand out to you while listening, and then send these clips to your friends or share them on social media.

Airr is a free, iPhone app that is currently in private beta. Now, this isn't a paid sponsorship or an ad of any sort. Instead, the founders are working with me to give Classic Tales listeners early access to the app, which launches publicly this August. You can sign up for early access through the link, which I will also link in the show notes.

And, perhaps most importantly, I want all of you to share your favorite moments from Classic Tales with me! If you use Airr and tweet your favorite moment from the latest episodes @bjharrisonaudio, you might just appear on a Classic Tales episode. Each week, before the story begins, I’ll shoutout the fan who submitted my favorite moment, read their accompanying tweet, and play their clip on the show!

This week we are doing a play that I have adapted into the audiobook format. I’ve done this before with Shakespeare’s Hamlet and Coriolanus. I think I’m finally hit my stride. I’m very happy with the way this turned out. I hope you enjoy it.

And now, The Importance of Being Earnest, Part 1 of 4, by Oscar Wilde.

 

Tap here to go to www.classictalesaudiobooks.com and become a financial supporter!

 

Tap here to get early access to the Airr app, and share your favorite snippets of the episode with your friends! Share on Twitter @bjharrisonaudio, and your clip might be on the show!

 

 

Tap here to purchase Huckleberry Finn – the first Hybrid Audiobook

 

Tap here to go the The Classic Tales Merchandise store!

 

Hear us on roku:

 

 

Direct download: CT_630_TheImportanceofBeingEarnest_Part1of4.mp3
Category:Literature -- posted at: 1:02am MDT