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Rasselas
- Prince of Abyssinia
- Narrated by: Walter Zimmerman
- Length: 4 hrs and 28 mins
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Rasselas
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Publisher's summary
A literary giant of the 18th century, Samuel Johnson made lasting contributions to English literature as an essayist, moralist, poet, biographer, literary critic and editor. His philosophical novella Rasselas became so popular that it was translated into five languages. A new English edition was published every year and even today there are multiple print editions available.
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 77
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 76
Edward Bulwer-Lytton's book is ostensibly a work of Science Fiction. It deals with an underground race of advanced beings, masters of Vril energy - a strange power that can both heal and destroy - who intend to leave their subterranean existence and conquer the world. But the book has been seen by many as a barely concealed account of Hidden Wisdom, a theory that has attracted many strange bed-fellows, including the French author Louis Jacolliot, the Polish explorer Ferdinand Ossendowsky, and Adolf Hitler.
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1 out of 5 stars
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dated - worked to get through it
- By Cat Lover who doesn't work out on 10-10-19
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Essays by Ralph Waldo Emerson
- By: Ralph Waldo Emerson
- Narrated by: Jeff Riggenbach
- Length: 14 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 116
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 105
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 100
Here in one volume are both the Essays: First Series and Essays: Second Series from one of the most influential philosophers in American history. Although Ralph Waldo Emerson, perhaps America’s most famous philosopher, did not wish to be referred to as a transcendentalist, he is nevertheless considered the founder of this major movement of nineteenth-century American thought. Emerson was influenced by a liberal religious training; theological study; personal contact with the Romanticists Coleridge, Carlyle, and Wordsworth; and a strong indigenous sense of individualism and self-reliance.
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1 out of 5 stars
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Riggenbach's Essays, Not Emerson's
- By Jake Behm on 12-01-15
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The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling
- By: Henry Fielding
- Narrated by: Kenneth Danzinger
- Length: 35 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 260
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 204
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 203
A foundling of mysterious parentage, Tom Jones is brought up by the benevolent and wealthy Squire Allworthy as his own son. Tom falls in love with the beautiful and unattainable Sophia Western, a neighbor’s daughter, whose marriage has already been arranged. When Tom’s sexual misadventures around the countryside get him banished, he sets out to make his fortune and find his true identity.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Well read, many accents, older recording
- By Elizabeth on 12-16-10
By: Henry Fielding
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Plato's Symposium
- By: Plato
- Narrated by: Ray Childs
- Length: 2 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 106
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 89
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 89
The dramatic nature of Plato's dialogues is delightfully evident in Symposium. The marriage between character and thought bursts forth as the guests gather at Agathon's house to celebrate the success of his first tragedy. With wit and insight, they all present their ideas about love - from Erixymachus' scientific naturalism to Aristophanes' comic fantasy. The unexpected arrival of Alcibiades breaks the spell cast by Diotima's ethereal climb up the staircase of love to beauty itself.
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5 out of 5 stars
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fantastic
- By Aleksander on 11-09-16
By: Plato
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Waverley
- By: Sir Walter Scott
- Narrated by: David Rintoul
- Length: 17 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 137
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 118
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Story4 out of 5 stars 117
Waverley by Sir Walter Scott is an enthralling tale of love, war and divided loyalties. Taking place during the Jacobite Rebellion of 1745, the novel tells the story of proud English officer Edward Waverley. After being posted to Dundee, Edward eventually befriends chieftain of the Highland Clan Mac-Ivor and falls in love with his beautiful sister Flora. He then renounces his former loyalties in order actively to support Scotland in open rebellion against the Union with England. The book depicts stunning, romantic panoramas of the Highlands.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Loved it
- By Tad Davis on 04-12-18
By: Sir Walter Scott
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Oroonoko
- By: Aphra Behn
- Narrated by: Clare Wille
- Length: 3 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 43
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 37
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Story4 out of 5 stars 38
A vivid love story and adventure tale, Oroonoko is a heroic slave narrative about a royal prince and his fight for freedom. The eponymous hero, Oroonoko, deemed royalty in one world and slave in another, is torn from his noble status and betrayed into slavery in Surinam, where he is reduced to chains, fetters, and shackles. But his high spirit and admirable character will not be suppressed.
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3 out of 5 stars
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Outstanding Narration, Story Less So
- By Carsley on 07-14-18
By: Aphra Behn
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Self Reliance
- By: Ralph Waldo Emerson
- Narrated by: Alana Munro
- Length: 1 hr and 20 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 1,015
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 857
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Story4 out of 5 stars 847
The most thorough statement of one of Emerson's recurrent themes, the need for each individual to avoid conformity and false consistency, and follow his or her own instincts and ideas. It is the source of one of Emerson's most famous quotations, "A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds." This essay is a considered a watershed moment in which transcendentalism became a major cultural movement. An American classic.
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1 out of 5 stars
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Don't buy this
- By Leah L on 07-31-16
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The Vampyre
- By: John Polidori
- Narrated by: B.J. Harrison
- Length: 59 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 252
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 228
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Story4 out of 5 stars 226
Young, impressionable Aubrey is fascinated by the enigmatic Lord Ruthven, and accompanies him on a tour to Europe. But Aubrey develops a growing distaste for Lord Ruthven’s sinister and grotesque conduct - especially as it concerns human blood. This novella, penned during that tempestuous night in Switzerland amongst such notables as Percy Shelley, Lord Byron, and Mary Shelley, served as the great inspiration for Bram Stoker to create Dracula.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Kicking it oldschool
- By Rebecca on 08-13-12
By: John Polidori
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Don Quixote
- By: Tobias Smollett - translator, Miguel de Cervantes
- Narrated by: Robert Whitfield
- Length: 36 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 1,089
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 657
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Story4 out of 5 stars 653
Don Quixote, the world's first novel and by far the best-known book in Spanish literature, was originally intended by Cervantes as a satire on traditional popular ballads, yet he also parodied the romances of chivalry. By happy coincidence he produced one of the most entertaining adventure stories of all time and, in Don Quixote and his faithful squire, Sancho Panza, two of the greatest characters in fiction.
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5 out of 5 stars
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A MUST READ CLASSIC
- By Randall on 04-25-09
By: Tobias Smollett - translator, and others
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Seneca - On the Shortness of Life: Adapted for the Contemporary Reader
- By: Lucius Seneca, James Harris
- Narrated by: Scott R. Smith
- Length: 59 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 141
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 115
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 112
De Brevitate Vitae (frequently referred to as On the Shortness of Life in English) is a moral essay written by Seneca the Younger, a Roman Stoic philosopher, to his father-in-law Paulinus. The philosopher brings up many Stoic principles on the nature of time, namely that men waste much of it in meaningless pursuits. According to the essay, nature gives man enough time to do what is really important and the individual must allot it properly.
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1 out of 5 stars
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Terrible narration. Sorry I purchased this one!
- By Ellis Vee on 01-12-17
By: Lucius Seneca, and others
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Plato's Phaedrus
- By: Plato
- Narrated by: Ray Childs
- Length: 2 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 108
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 94
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 94
Phaedrus lures Socrates outside the walls of Athens, where he seldom goes, by promising to share a new work by his friend and mentor, Lysias, a famous writer of speeches. This dialogue provides a powerful example of the dialectical writing that Plato uses to manifest ideas that are essential to human existence and to living a good life. Phaedrus shows how oral and written forms of language relate to each other and to philosophy.
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1 out of 5 stars
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six pages (Hackett Complete Works edition) missing
- By S. Lee on 01-17-19
By: Plato
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The Autobiography of Benvenuto Cellini
- By: Benvenuto Cellini
- Narrated by: Robert Whitfield
- Length: 15 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 68
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 49
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Story4 out of 5 stars 48
Master Italian sculptor, goldsmith, and writer Benvenuto Cellini is best remembered for his magnificent autobiography. In this work, which was actually begun in 1558 but not published until 1730, Cellini beautifully chronicles his flamboyant times. He tells of his adventures in Italy and France, and his relations with popes, kings, and fellow artists.
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2 out of 5 stars
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The problem is with Cellini himself.
- By Leslie Ross on 06-07-10
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Northanger Abbey
- By: Jane Austen
- Narrated by: Harriet Stevens
- Length: 8 hrs
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 109
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 104
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 104
As Jane Austen's first completed novel that was submitted to be published, Northanger Abbey is a miraculously weaved tale of love, society, and deception, themes that would come to be synonymous in literature with Austen's name. The young Catherine Morland receives a fantastic opportunity to explore the city of Bath with some family friends, and while there, she experiences a level of mental and emotional growth that was as yet unparalleled in her life.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Great Listening Experience
- By Robert Jennings on 05-18-16
By: Jane Austen