Classics
Your Likes make Audible better!
'Likes' are shared on Facebook and Audible.com. We use your 'likes' to improve Audible.com for all our listeners.
You can turn off Audible.com sharing from your Account Details page.
OK- American Literature(1386)
- British Literature(2299)
- Drama(135)
- European Literature(866)
- Greek & Roman(141)
- Kids & Young Adults(273)
- Nonfiction(154)
- Poetry(400)
- Shakespeare(302)
- World Literature(665)
Darwin8u
A part-time buffoon and ersatz scholar specializing in BS, pedantry, schmaltz and cultural coprophagia.
- HELPFUL VOTES
- 3227
- ratings
- REVIEWS
- 228
- 224
-
More"!"
Les Misérables is one of those defining social/protest novels that deserves to be read (and listened to) in its entirety. It is easily on par with the great social novels of the 19th century: Brothers Karamazov, Anna Karenina, Uncle Tom's Cabin and Hard Times.
I remember the first time I read the unabridged version in high school, I was stunned that Hugo could engage me with such force. I practically read it straight through. Listening to Rose's relatively new translation and Guidall's audio version, I was transported back to the emotions and engagement I felt 20 years ago. All those memories and I was again anchored to my pro-unabridged novel bias. If you are going to attempt this work, please go the unabridged route, you will NOT regret it. There are few books I've read twice, but Les Misérables defintely makes the cut.
When you begin this novel it DOES looks like a beast (1376 pgs or 60.5 hours), but when you finish it you realize you have sat down to a feast with a master novelist and social gospel writer. Dollar per page or dollar per minute, you can't get much better for its price, unless you steal it. -
More"Mitchell's Translation is Brilliant..."
I would love to write like a blast of a sudden squall
whose strong five-beat rhythm can with light and thunder, churning
the dark page into a fury, and countless words
surge and toss on its pages, high-arched and white-capped,
and crash down onto the Internets in endless ranks:
just so did the translators charge in their ranks, each simile
packed close together. -
More"Simple, Beautiful, and Exquisitely ..."
I am a ravenous reader. I consume books (audio, electronic, and paper) by the pound and byte. I RARELY go back and reread a novel I've read before. It just seems a waste of time, a waste of an opportunity for another book, another story. The Great Gatsby, however, is one of those handful of books, those rare literary jewels, where this rule of thumb is consistently bent and re-broken. For readers of good literature, this novel is like scripture. IT is something you read to enjoy the page, the paragraphs, the sentences, the words. It draws you back. It haunts future books you read. It invades you.
For American Literature, The Great Gatsby stands with 'Moby-Dick' and 'Huckleberry Finn' as a monument of not just literature but the uniquely American experience. It captures the excess, the energy, and the decadence of the 'Lost Generation'. Other Fitzgerald books are amazing, but Gatsby is one of those novels that seems to have surprised everyone, even Fitzgerald.
Finding the right narrator for any book is an art form (often misunderstood, almost always ignored). Certain books require a certain type of reader. Gyllenhaal was an inspired pick for the Great Gatsby. He has the range to subtly capture the different characters, but the charisma and the energy to embody the dialogue of Gatsby and the easygoing narrator Nick.
A Peek at C. Telfair's Bookshelf
- Helpful
Votes - 518
Connie
trying to see the world through my ears
- HELPFUL VOTES
- 134
- ratings
- REVIEWS
- 126
- 15
-
More"respite from the madding crowd"
22 of 22 helpful votesThough there are some audio quirks, they didn't significantly interfere with the listen (at least when formatted for ipod). I suppose the quick transmission to downloadable audio may keep the novel's price cheap?
I fell in love with this novel (and Gabriel Oak) when I was 14 and have re-read the paper version several times over the last 35+ years. I hesitated to download it, thinking such a beloved book would suffer in audio, but I really enjoyed the listen. I loved the narrator. She brought to life Hardy's poetic sections, especially those involving the English countryside and farming practices. As others have pointed out, the novel contains a somewhat misogynist portrait, but of a strong-ish heroine (for a Victorian character). In middle age, I felt the misogyny more deeply than back in the 70s, but I put up with it (and often much stronger) in Hardy's contemporaries and predecessors for the beauty if the prose and old fashioned romanticism and realism. Well, admittedly the ending is "too happy;" as someone pointed out --it wasn't Hardy's original ending; I think he had to tone down his realism to get published, but as a teen and now as an old fart, I love the ending. There's enough angst in the world and contemporary lit to suffice for me!
The listen motivates me to download and reacquaint myself with other Hardy novels and perhaps download his bio.
What's Trending in Classics:
- Be the first to like something in Classics!
Customer Favorites
(More Customer Favorites)
![Master i Margarita [The Master and Margarita]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51PxBZwwEeL._SL80_.jpg)
![Jane Eyre [Brilliance Edition]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/413myKjSdFL._SL80_.jpg)
- American Literature(1386)
- British Literature(2299)
- Drama(135)
- European Literature(866)
- Greek & Roman(141)
- Kids & Young Adults(273)
- Nonfiction(154)
- Poetry(400)
- Shakespeare(302)
- World Literature(665)