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The Bet
- Narrated by: Walter Zimmerman
- Length: 19 mins
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The Bet
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Editorial reviews
Anton Chekhov begins his classic 1889 tale "The Bet" with the recollection of an argument that took place 15 years earlier at a party of the self-ordained intelligentsia. The argument - so familiar to our own time - was about the moral legitimacy of capital punishment. While most of the party agreed that capital punishment was inhumane, a middle-aged banker held that it was far more humane than life imprisonment. When a young lawyer disagreed, the bet was on: If the lawyer will spend 15 years in solitary confinement, the banker will give him a large sum of money. Fifteen years on, who will win? As performed by the popular Walter Zimmerman, “The Bet” is a hilarious look at principle, moral value, and the tyranny of caprice.
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Victor Hugo's tale of injustice, heroism and love follows the fortunes of Jean Valjean, an escaped convict determined to put his criminal past behind him. But his attempts to become a respected member of the community are constantly put under threat: by his own conscience and by the relentless investigations of the dogged Policeman, Javert. It is not simply for himself that Valjean must stay free, however, for he has sworn to protect the baby daughter of Fantine, driven to prostitution by poverty.
-
5 out of 5 stars
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Great Book, Great Translation, 5 Great Narrators
- By Rain Wiegartner on 06-07-20
By: Christine Donougher, and others
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The Mysterious Stranger
- By: Mark Twain
- Narrated by: Don Randall
- Length: 4 hrs
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 99
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 76
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 77
Considered one of Twain's most important short works, The Mysterious Stranger tells the story of the devil coming to a medieval village in the persona of a beautiful, lovable, yet exasperatingly amoral young man. Befriending a small group of boys, Satan exhibits strange charm, compassion, and indifference as the tale comes to a surprising comclusion.
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1 out of 5 stars
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Very Poor Narration
- By kgunn66 on 02-24-10
By: Mark Twain
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The Little Prince
- By: Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, Richard Howard - translator
- Narrated by: Humphrey Bower
- Length: 1 hr and 59 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 4,098
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 3,467
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 3,474
A pilot stranded in the desert awakes one morning to see, standing before him, the most extraordinary little fellow. "Please," asks the stranger, "draw me a sheep." And the pilot realizes that when life's events are too difficult to understand, there is no choice but to succumb to their mysteries. He pulls out pencil and paper... And thus begins this wise and enchanting fable that, in teaching the secret of what is really important in life, has changed forever the world for its readers.
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5 out of 5 stars
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A children's story for adults
- By Heather on 07-03-11
By: Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, and others
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Oblomov
- By: Ivan Goncharov
- Narrated by: Leighton Pugh
- Length: 20 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall5 out of 5 stars 76
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 68
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 68
A member of the landed gentry, with a seemingly guaranteed income from his estate in the country, Oblomov lives in Petersburg, uninterested in the business that provides his living and barely aware that the revenue is diminishing. Not that he leads a dissolute life of extravagance, balls and entertainment. Instead he is a dreamer, a sybarite, content above all to spend most of the day supine, in bed. The novel opens with Oblomov thus ensconced, attended only by his dirty, grumbling, indolent servant Zahar, who has looked after him since childhood, catering to his every need.
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5 out of 5 stars
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funny and smart
- By Bennett Weiss on 07-29-20
By: Ivan Goncharov
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The Short Stories of Anton Chekhov, Volume 1
- By: Anton Chekhov
- Narrated by: Charlton Griffin
- Length: 3 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 123
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 62
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Story4 out of 5 stars 62
Anton Pavlovich Chekhov, (1860-1904), was born in Russia at Taganrog on the Sea of Azov. His name has become synonymous with a certain literary style much admired and widely copied since his death. Typically, a Chekhov story is a "mood", a state of mind, usually with regard to relations between one person and another. Under the influence of the constant, infinitesimal, and unforeseen pinpricks of life, there occurs a gradual transformation of that state of mind.
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5 out of 5 stars
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A Box of Chocolates
- By Darlene on 02-08-05
By: Anton Chekhov
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The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde and Other Tales of Terror
- By: Robert Louis Stevenson
- Narrated by: Michael Kitchen
- Length: 5 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 200
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 163
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 162
This dark psychological fantasy is more than a moral tale. It is also a product of its time, drawing on contemporary theories of class, evolution and criminality, and the secret lives behind Victorian propriety, to create a unique form of urban Gothic.
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4 out of 5 stars
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The Dark Human Heart
- By Jefferson on 01-30-11
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The Sorrows of Young Werther
- By: Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
- Narrated by: Leighton Pugh
- Length: 4 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 147
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 127
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 127
Werther, a sensitive young artist, finds himself in Wahlheim, a quiet, attractive village in Germany where he seeks solace from the turmoils of love. It is a young spring, and he hopes that arcadian solitude will prove a genial balm to his mind. But his romantic tendency rules otherwise, and he falls in love with Charlotte - Lotte - even though he knows she is affianced to another.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Great performance for a classical story.
- By Brandon Shaw on 09-15-17
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Foucault's Pendulum
- By: Umberto Eco
- Narrated by: Tim Curry
- Length: 6 hrs and 34 mins
- Abridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 701
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 533
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Story4 out of 5 stars 525
One Colonel Ardenti, who has unnaturally black, brilliantined hair, a carefully groomed mustache, wears maroon socks, and who once served in the Foreign Legion, starts it all. He tells three Milan book editors that he has discovered a coded message about a Templar Plan, centuries old and involving Stonehenge, a plan to tap a mystic source of power far greater than atomic energy.
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2 out of 5 stars
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too much missing
- By Kenneth on 01-29-07
By: Umberto Eco
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Orlando
- By: Virginia Woolf
- Narrated by: Clare Higgins
- Length: 8 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 1,032
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 866
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Story4 out of 5 stars 871
Fantasy, love and an exuberant celebration of English life and literature, Orlando is a uniquely entertaining story. Originally conceived by Virginia Woolf as a playful tribute to the family of her friend and lover, Vita Sackville-West, Orlando's central character, a fictional embodiment of Sackville-West, changes sex from a man to a woman and lives throughout the centuries, whilst meeting historical figures of English literature.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Magical
- By Mayca on 05-31-05
By: Virginia Woolf
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The Posthumous Memoirs of Brás Cubas
- By: Joaquim Maria Machado de Assis
- Narrated by: Edoardo Camponeschi
- Length: 7 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 42
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 31
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Story4 out of 5 stars 31
Joaquim Maria Machado de Assis (1839-1908) was the greatest writer ever to come from Brazil and one of the masters of nineteenth-century fiction. Susan Sontag calls him "the greatest writer ever produced in Latin America", surpassing even Borges. Harold Bloom says that Machado is "the supreme black literary artist to date". And Allen Ginsburg calls him "another Kafka". And The Posthumous Memoirs of Bras Cubas is his masterpiece, a dazzling, tragic, and profound novel that belongs next to the greatest works of his contemporaries Melville and Dostoevsky.
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5 out of 5 stars
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A hidden masterpiece
- By C. Park on 08-09-18
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Plain Tales from the Hills
- By: Rudyard Kipling
- Narrated by: Martin Jarvis
- Length: 4 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 72
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 38
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Story4 out of 5 stars 40
An intimate, evocative, often funny, and always vital portrait of India at the peak of the British Raj. Written at the age of 22, they immediately show Kipling's natural and prodigious talent. Timeless, they can be listened to forever.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Gentle irony
- By Simon Bowler on 01-25-06
By: Rudyard Kipling
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Manalive
- A Novel
- By: G. K. Chesterton
- Narrated by: Kevin O'Brien
- Length: 7 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 93
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 87
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 86
This classic novel by the brilliant G. K. Chesterton tells the rollicking tale of Innocent Smith, a man who may be crazy - or possibly the most sane man of all. Arriving at a dreary London boarding house accompanied by a windstorm, Smith is an exuberant, eccentric, and sweet-natured man. Smith has a positive effect on the house - he creates his own court, brings a few couples together, and falls in love with a paid companion next door. All seems to be well with the world.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Mixed feelings on reading performance
- By TS on 09-23-18
By: G. K. Chesterton
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Powers of Darkness
- The Lost Version of Dracula
- By: Bram Stoker, Valdimar Asmundsson, Hans Corneel de Roos, and others
- Narrated by: Adam Verner, Robertson Dean, Ralph Lister, and others
- Length: 7 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 355
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 317
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Story4 out of 5 stars 317
Powers of Darkness is an incredible literary discovery. In 1900, Icelandic publisher and writer Valdimar Asmundsson set out to translate Bram Stoker's world-famous 1897 novel Dracula. Called Makt Myrkranna (literally, 'Powers of Darkness'), this Icelandic edition included an original preface written by Stoker himself. Makt Myrkranna was published in Iceland in 1901 but remained undiscovered outside of the country until 1986, when Dracula scholarship was astonished by the discovery of Stoker's preface to the book.
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2 out of 5 stars
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An unfinished work
- By Kindle Customer on 09-05-18
By: Bram Stoker, and others
What listeners say about The Bet
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Small Town Global Technologies
- 05-07-16
The Bet
One of my favorite short stories by Anton Chekhov. Strong didactic theme and moral that has much to teach us, even today. It addresses the theme of capital punishment and begs the question, "Which is worse?" and makes us ask ourselves what price we would pay for freedom. Ironic final ending that will "imprison" the reader, long after the final page is turned.
-Deborah Killion, writer
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- The Kindler
- 09-28-16
Great Short Story
Money isn't of much worth. Time in good books, pondering, and seeking peace. Beautifully written and told. Must read when you have a few minutes.
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Michael
- 03-29-13
Pretty good Chekhov Short Story
Although this is not a great story, this is solidly good Chekhov with solidly good narration. Chekhov is my favorite short story writer, yet this in not one of my favorite stories; nevertheless it is clearly worth the twenty minutes and one dollar.
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7 people found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
- James
- 06-17-08
Remarkable
Remarkable short story having to do with - on less than - the real meaning
of life. Thought provoking.
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12 people found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Cory
- 10-20-21
A good short story
This short story shows very real, human flaws of greed and pride. Highly recommend for anyone who has 20 minutes.
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance3 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Joe
- 01-12-20
a pleasurable introduction to chekov
I haven't read much of Chekhov, however I do enjoy this story. it reminds me of other Russian authors who I have right before. The book itself makes me feel conflicted and pensive, akin to how I felt amidst other similar authors. I've always been a fan of short stories because they can be so impactful, this book is the same.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story3 out of 5 stars
- Kassy Brundidge
- 12-25-21
Don’t be materialistic!!!
Never allow your opinion to be the deciding factor of any dispute! Only true facts should matter! It is frivolous to thing but, how many times have we said something and it happened?..the power of life and death is in the tongue!
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