Quite by accident, we’ve discovered the bargain-priced Penguin and Simon & Schuster Enriched Classics lines of Kindle books and have found quite a few of them are currently also available in Audible audiobook format at deep discounts. Some are even less than just ONE dollar in Audible format! That means you can get both the Kindle version AND the Audible edition of many of these books for a grand total of six dollars or less!
These Enriched versions are ideal for students and anyone else with an interest in digging deeper into these literary masterpieces. From Simon & Schuster:
Enriched Classics offer readers accessible editions of great works of literature enhanced by helpful notes and commentary. Each book includes educational tools alongside the text, enabling students and readers alike to gain a deeper and more developed understanding of the writer and their work. Enriched Classics enhance your engagement by introducing and explaining the historical and cultural significance of the work, the author’s personal history, and what impact this book had on subsequent scholarship. Each book includes discussion questions that help clarify and reinforce major themes and reading recommendations for further research. Read with confidence.
Note that with respect to the Simon & Schuster Enriched Classics, the Audible prices ARE NOT dependent upon buying the Kindle version first. You don’t have to buy both versions to get the bargain price if you really only want the Audible edition. If you’re an Audible member, be sure to click the “Buy Now for [price] with One Click” button to avoid spending Audible credits on these deeply discounted audiobooks.
The Time Machine (4/5 stars, currently FREE in Kindle format, currently 49 cents in Audible format)
The Time Traveller, a dreamer obsessed with traveling through time, builds himself a time machine and, much to his surprise, travels over 800,000 years into the future. He lands in the year 802701: the world has been transformed by a society living in apparent harmony and bliss, but as the Traveler stays in the future he discovers a hidden barbaric and depraved subterranean class. Wells’s transparent commentary on the capitalist society was an instant bestseller and launched the time-travel genre.
The Time Machine inspired the international bestseller The Map of Time by Félix J. Palma. As a gift to our readers, we are including the first three chapters of The Map of Time in this ebook edition.
A Christmas Carol (4.5/5 stars, currently $3.32 in Kindle format, currently 49 cents in Audible format)
In this classic, heart-warming tale, four ghostly guests teach valuable lessons to an old miser.
Ebenezer Scrooge, a selfish, crotchety skinflint, spends his days counting money and grousing, “Bah Humbug!” Scrooge doesn’t care for anyone other than himself.
However, on Christmas Eve, he is visited by his partner Marley, and the Ghosts of Christmas Past, Christmas Present, and Christmas Yet to Come, who teach him about benevolence, charity, and goodwill.
Dr. Jeckyll & Mr. Hyde (4/5 stars, currently $2.15 in Kindle format, currently $1.95 in Audible format)
Stark, skillfully woven, this fascinating novel explores the curious turnings of human character through the strange case of Dr. Jekyll, a kindly scientist who by night takes on his stunted evil self, Mr. Hyde. Anticipating modern psychology, Jekyll and Hyde is a brilliantly original study of man’s dual nature—as well as an immortal tale of suspense and terror.
Published in 1866, Jekyll and Hyde was an instant success and brought Stevenson his first taste of fame. Though sometimes dismissed as a mere mystery story, the book has evoked much literary admirations.
Vladimir Nabokov likened it to Madame Bovary and Dead Souls as “a fable that lies nearer to poetry than to ordinary prose fiction.”
The Count of Monte Cristo (4/5 stars, currently $3.75 in Kindle format, currently $1.95 in Audible format)
ENDURING LITERATURE ILLUMINATED
BY PRACTICAL SCHOLARSHIP
Alexandre Dumas’s thrilling adventure of one man’s quest for freedom and vengeance on those who betrayed him.
Thrown in prison for a crime he has not committed, Edmond Dantes is confined to the grim fortress of If. There he learns of a great hoard of treasure hidden on the Isle of Monte Cristo and becomes determined not only to escape but to unearth the treasure and use it to plot the destruction of the three men responsible for his incarceration. A huge popular success when it was first serialized in the 1840s, Dumas was inspired by a real-life case of wrongful imprisonment when writing his epic tale of suffering and retribution.
Now, on to the Penguin Enriched Classics. Note that for these, the discounted price on the Audible edition is ONLY available to those who buy the Kindle book first.
From Penguin:
The enriched eBook format invites readers to go beyond the pages of these beloved works and gain more insight into the life and times of an author and the period in which the book was originally written for a rich reading experience.
Wuthering Heights: A Penguin Enriched eBook Classic (4.5/5 stars, currently 99 cents in Kindle format, currently 99 cents to add Audible narration AFTER the Kindle book is purchased – look for this option on the purchase confirmation page of the Kindle book after buying)
Emily Bronte’s only novel appeared in 1847, a year before her death at the age of thirty. In the relationship of Cathy and Heathcliff, and in the wild, bleak Yorkshire Moors of its setting, Wuthering Heights creates a world of its own, conceived with a disregard for convention, an instinct for poetry, and for the dark depths of human psychology that make it one of the greatest novels of passion ever written.
Enriched eBook Features Editor Sue Lonoff provides the following specially commissioned features for this Enriched eBook Classic:
* Filmography
* 19th Century Reviews of Wuthering Heights
* Wuthering Heights Trivia
* Suggested Further Reading
* Photos Related to Emily Bronte’s Life
* Enriched eBook Notes
The Scarlet Letter: A Penguin Enriched eBook Classic (4/5 stars, currently $3.38 in Kindle format, currently 99 cents to add Audible narration AFTER the Kindle book is purchased – look for this option on the purchase confirmation page of the Kindle book after buying)
A stark and allegorical tale of adultery, guilt, and social repression in Puritan New England, The Scarlet Letter is a foundational work of American literature. Nathaniel Hawthorne’s exploration of the dichotomy between the public and private self, internal passion and external convention, gives us the unforgettable Hester Prynne, who discovers strength in the face of ostracism and emerges as a heroine ahead of her time.
Enriched eBook Features Editor Monika Elbert provides the following specially commissioned features for this Enriched eBook Classic:
* Filmography
* Nineteenth-Century Reviews of The Scarlet Letter
* Chronology of Hawthorne’s Life and Times (with Images)
* Historical Time Line: Seventeenth-Century England and New England (Massachusetts Bay Colony)
* Witchcraft and The Scarlet Letter (with Images and Martha Corey’s Testimony)
* Puritan Pleasures and Punishments (with Images)
* Puritan Child Rearing and Puritan Children
* Puritan Fashion and The Scarlet Letter: The Good, the Bad, and the Bizarre (with Images)
* Hester Prynne and Nineteenth-Century Women’s Rights Movements
* Bibliography and Further Reading
* Images of The Scarlet Letter
* Enriched eBook Notes
Pride and Prejudice Penguin Enriched eBook Classic (4.5/5 stars, currently $2.44 in Kindle format, currently $2.99 to add Audible narration AFTER the Kindle book is purchased – look for this option on the purchase confirmation page of the Kindle book after buying)
“It is a truth universally acknowledged that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.” So begins the delightful adventures of the witty and free-spirited Elizabeth Bennet and the proud but quite eligible Mr. Darcy in one of the first romantic comedies in the history of the novel.
Enriched eBook Features Editor Juliette Wells provides the following specially commissioned features for this Enriched eBook Classic:
* Filmography
* Nineteenth-Century Reviews
* Chronology
* Further Reading
* What Austen Ate
* How to Prepare Tea
* Austen Sites to Visit in England
* Map of Sites from the Novel
* Behaving Yourself: Etiquette and Dancing in Austen’s Day
* Illustrations of Fashion, Home Décor, Architecture, and Transportation
* Enriched eBook Notes
This list is just a tiny selection of all that’s available. Click here to browse the full selection of Enriched Classics titles from both of these publisher lines, to find more great deals!