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(1377)
- British Literature(2296)
- Drama(132)
- European Literature(866)
- Greek & Roman(141)
- Kids & Young Adults(273)
- Nonfiction(155)
- Poetry(400)
- Shakespeare(302)
- World Literature(664)
Darwin8u
A part-time buffoon and ersatz scholar specializing in BS, pedantry, schmaltz and cultural coprophagia.
- HELPFUL VOTES
- 3137
- ratings
- REVIEWS
- 227
- 223
-
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 Joseph R's Bookshelf
Ian
-
More"Essential childhood reading"
21 of 22 helpful votesI never read this book as a child. Neither was it read to me and I thought that Peter Pan was a cartoo character until I was an adult. I missed out.
If you have children then buy the book and read it to them. If you can't or won't then the next best thing is to let Jim Dale read it to them for you. His delivery is excellent and carries just the right balance of restraint and enthusiasm.
An excellent presentation of a classic story.
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)
![El Arte de la Guerra [The Art of War] (Spanish Edition)](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51RUk2opAtL._SL80_.jpg)
![Moskva i moskvichi [Moscow and Muscovites]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/61qD9RnyaQL._SL80_.jpg)
- American Literature(1377)
- British Literature(2296)
- Drama(132)
- European Literature(866)
- Greek & Roman(141)
- Kids & Young Adults(273)
- Nonfiction(155)
- Poetry(400)
- Shakespeare(302)
- World Literature(664)