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The Modern Scholar: Giants of French Literature
- Balzac, Flaubert, Proust, and Camus
- Narrated by: Katherine Elkins
- Length: 8 hrs and 31 mins
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The Modern Scholar: Odyssey of the West III: A Classic Education through the Great Books: The Medieval World
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Odyssey of the West I and II explored timeless works from the ancient world that shaped, and continue to shape, the culture and philosophies of life today. Part three is a richly detailed look at St. Augustine, Beowulf, St. Thomas Aquinas, Authurian legends, Dante, Gothic art, and other highlights of the period. Through the course of these lectures, it becomes apparent that the "dark" ages were in fact a time of immense achievement, and a time that richly rewards those who study its art and philosophies.
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The Modern Scholar: Medieval Mysteries
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The Middle Ages is not only a period of Romance, but of legends, tales, and mysteries. In this course, Professor Thomas F. Madden guides listeners through the most famous and enduring narratives of medieval Europe. Beginning with King Arthur, Professor Madden peels back layers of exaggeration and fiction to lay bare the historical basis for the mythical king.
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Entertaining And Enlightening
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The Modern Scholar: Odyssey of the West III: A Classic Education through the Great Books: The Medieval World
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The Hedgehog and the Fox (Second Edition)
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The first volume of Will Durant's Pulitzer Prize-winning series, Our Oriental Heritage: The Story of Civilization, Volume I chronicles the early history of Egypt, the Middle East, and Asia.
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The Foundations of Western Civilization
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What is Western Civilization? According to Professor Noble, it is "much more than human and political geography," encompassing myriad forms of political and institutional structures - from monarchies to participatory republics - and its own traditions of political discourse. It involves choices about who gets to participate in any given society and the ways in which societies have resolved the tension between individual self-interest and the common good.
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This course addresses three wars fought in antiquity, each of which had - even 2,000 years and more later - a decisive effect in shaping our communal sense of who we are, not only in Europe, but throughout the European cultural diaspora, in the Americas, in Oceania, and to some degree, at least, in Asia and Africa as well - wherever, in short, Western values hold.
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"It doesn't take an Einstein to understand modern physics," says Professor Wolfson at the outset of these 24 lectures on what may be the most important subjects in the universe: relativity and quantum physics. Both have reputations for complexity. But the basic ideas behind them are, in fact, simple and comprehensible by anyone. These dynamic and illuminating lectures begin with a brief overview of theories of physical reality starting with Aristotle and culminating in Newtonian or "classical" physics.
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Blake Ritson, David Warner, Hattie Morahan and John Hurt star in this BBC Radio 4 dramatisation of Dante's epic poem. Inferno: Thirty-five year old Dante finds himself in the middle of a dark wood, in extreme personal and spiritual crisis. Hope of rescue appears in the form of the venerable poet Virgil, now a shade himself, who offers to lead Dante on an odyssey through the afterlife, beginning in the terrifying depths of Hell.
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For the last 20 years, George Saunders has been teaching a class on the Russian short story to his MFA students at Syracuse University. In A Swim in a Pond in the Rain, he shares a version of that class with us, offering some of what he and his students have discovered together over the years. Paired with iconic short stories by Chekhov, Turgenev, Tolstoy, and Gogol, the seven essays in this book are intended for anyone interested in how fiction works and why it’s more relevant than ever in these turbulent times.
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The Modern Scholar: The Iliad and The Odyssey of Homer
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Overall
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Performance
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One of the Modern Scholar’s most popular professors, Timothy B. Shutt, brings his literary acumen and trademark enthusiasm to the study of the epic poems that sit at the very wellspring of Western culture. The earliest surviving works of Greek literature, Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey exert a continuing influence on modern culture, even today shaping people’s values and conduct. In the tales of Achilles and Hector, of Odysseus and Penelope, Homer explored the notion of arête, which translates as "excellence" or "virtue".
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Superb prof
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In Search of Lost Time (Dramatized)
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Overall
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Featuring a fictional version of himself - 'Marcel' - and a host of friends, acquaintances, and lovers, In Search of Lost Time is Proust's search for the key to the mysteries of memory, time, and consciousness. As he recalls his childhood days, the sad affair of Charles Swann and Odette de Crecy, his transition to manhood, the tortures of love and the ravages of war, he realises that the simplest of discoveries can lead to astonishing possibilities.
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Proust Snapshot
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Swann's Way (AmazonClassics Edition)
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When the narrator of Swann's Way dips a petite madeleine into hot tea, the act transports him to his childhood in the French town of Combray. Out of his Pandora's box of reflections comes a memory of an old family friend, Swann - a man who was long ago undone by romantic desire and cruel reality. In this reverie lie the insights the author seeks about his own life and ageless truths about the ephemeral nature of emotions, places, and, ultimately, love.
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Gasping for air!
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By: Marcel Proust, and others
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The Years
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The Years is a personal narrative of the period of 1941 to 2006 told through the lens of memory, impressions past and present - even projections into the future - photos, books, songs, radio, television, and decades of advertising and headlines, contrasted with intimate conflicts and written notes from six decades of diaries. Local dialect, words of the time, slogans, brands, and names for ever-proliferating objects are given a voice here. The voice we recognize as the author's continually dissolves and re-emerges.
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Mixed Feelings
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Publisher's summary
In this series of lectures, Professor Katherine Elkins details the lives and works of the premier French writers of the last two centuries. With keen insight into her subject material, Professor Elkins discusses the attributes that made classics of such works as Balzac's Human Comedy, Flaubert's Madame Bovary, Proust's In Search of Lost Time, and Camus' The Stranger. Literary immortals all, these four French authors produced works that reflected their times and exerted a continuing and lasting influence on all the generations that followed.
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In the heart of the South Pacific lies Point Nemo, the most desolate and remote place on Earth. At its core is a dead zone, devoid of life, where government agencies crash their obsolete satellites and space stations, confident they won't harm a soul. When the International Space Station suffers a catastrophic failure and plummets through the atmosphere, it's here that Mission Specialist Julie Rohr, an astrobiologist studying living space dust called xylem, finds herself marooned. Julie's only hope for rescue lies in the hands of her estranged father, Dr. Finn Maddern, a renowned mycologist.
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Totally original-totally feasible!
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When the call came it seemed like the answer to my prayers. My career as a voice actor had been over for months and me and my little girl Scarlet were living back at my mum’s place. I felt like a failure professionally—and with Scarlet having problems at school, as a parent as well. So, when I was asked to narrate a new book by disappeared novelist Philippa Roberts I jumped at the chance, even if it meant leaving Scarlet with my ex, Hugo, for a few weeks. Hugo, with his perfect new home and his perfect new girlfriend Saskia. But this isn’t a dream come true. It’s a nightmare.
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Love but it's a production issue!
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Uh, what?
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Emma and Ariella, neighbours in one of Sydney’s most exclusive suburbs, appear to have it all—perfect homes, perfect husbands, perfect lives. But they both know dark secrets lurk beneath the surface and shallow waters can’t hide Ariella’s. Now she has been found murdered. Her daughter filmed the killing. Not knowing what she’s filmed, Emma’s daughter Kiki innocently uploads footage of Ariella’s brutal death. Emma fears the worst—the killer will know what she and Kiki have seen. Their safe suburban lives no longer exist.
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recording broke up a lot
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You Shouldn’t Have Come Here
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Grace Evans, an overworked New Yorker looking for a total escape from her busy life, books an Airbnb on a ranch in the middle of Wyoming. When she arrives at the idyllic getaway, she’s pleased to find that the owner is a handsome man by the name of Calvin Wells—and he’s eager to introduce her to his easygoing way of life. But there are things Grace discovers that she’s not too pleased about: a lack of cell phone service. A missing woman. And a feeling that something isn’t right with the ranch.
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Worst. Ever. NOT a true twist. Juvenile writing and story,
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What listeners say about The Modern Scholar: Giants of French Literature
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- Kindle Customer
- 03-21-15
Speaking of Proust, this takes me back
This takes me back to my finest learning experiences in college, and I was blessed with many both in the US and overseas.
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- Lori Tian Sailiata
- 06-11-15
Vastly Exceeded Expectations
Most delightful introduction to four pillars of French literature in the form of the modern novel. I intend to revisit these lectures often as I read and reread these classics.
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- Kindle Customer
- 03-26-24
good introduction to French literature,
i would study the french writers who she have actively recommended. i appreciate it that coming across this one.
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- Brian C Parkinson
- 02-21-24
Great material, but narrator's cadence gets old
Prof Elkins presents well-organized and fascinating lectures. Her enthusiasm and knowledge of the books shines forth. However, she uses a certain cadence (brief pauses followed by speeded up sentences) that grates after a while. All narrators have a style, but I wish hers was a little more creative.
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- Doggy Bird
- 06-25-20
Interesting topic well delivered
I haven't formally studied French literature in decades but from time to time I like to refresh and think back on the pleasures I discovered when first reading Balzac, Flaubert and Proust those many years ago. This was a very good course and I really appreciated the professor's perspective and insights into these authors and their novels. I thought it was very well done and only wish it were longer and discussed more French authors including some of the poets.
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Overall
- Isabelle
- 08-11-11
Decent Lectures
I thought the lecturer did a decent job. She made me curious about the authors. She could have done more to explain why she excluded other authors; how she narrowed it down.
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- Dudley H. Williams
- 11-29-11
The Modern Scholar: Giants of French Literature
This Audible book entitled “The Modern Scholar: Giants of French Literature — Balzac, Flaubert, Proust and Camus” consists of several lectures by Prof. Katherine Elkins. This book, is so instructive in its scope and intellectual insight on the works (and to a lesser degree) lives of the French literary giants Honoré de Balzac, Gustave Flaubert, Marcel Proust and Albert Camus, that I was as a direct result thereof inspired to have the following books delivered to my Kindle: “The Works of Honoré de Balzac”; “The Collected Works of Gustave Flaubert” and Marcel Proust’s “In Search of Lost Time”. I’m yet to purchase Camus.
The publications Prof Elkins discusses critically are:
1. The Balzac novels: “The Wild Asses’ Skin”, “Le Père Goriot”, “Eugénie Grandet”, “Lost Illusions” and“Cousin Betty”.
2. The Flaubert novels:”Madame Bovary” and “Sentimental Education”.
3. Proust’s masterpiece, “In Search of Lost Time”; and
4. Work by Camus incuding: “The Stranger” (aso translated as : “The Outsider”); “The Myth of Sisyphus”, “The Plague”, “The Fall”, and “The First Man”
In my case, this audiobook is where my first experience of reading French literature had its genesis. I would perhaps never have read at least the modest two novels if I hadn’t listened to the lectures by Prof. Elkins. I confess that I first listened to these lectures and with this I was given prescience from which I could draw inspiration and courage to read the novels themselves. Now I’m done reading Proust’s “In Search of Lost Time” as well as Balzac’s “Le Père Goriot” (Father bGoriot”) — in that order. So I’ll deal with them in that order.
1. “In Search of Lost Time” — by Marcel Proust
I can now proudly proclaim that I’ve waded through one of the most influential, difficult and obtuse literary works ever written. Its length exceeds what would have amounted to more than 3,000 pages in hard copy. If you read this work, then you will have read approximately 10 novels in one go —estimating that an average novel spans approximately 300 pages.
I would never have come close to “getting it”. Granted, I still don’t. But I, upon first having listened to the lecture and then only reading the novel, was thereafter made alive to the “sound of the spoon on the plate” and the raising to the lips of “a spoonful of tea in which I had soaked a morsel of the [madeleine] cake”. Now I’m in the position to conclude the following with the narrator of this novel: “And suddenly the memory returns. The taste was that of the little crumb of madeleine . . . “
The novel would only have been a boring written instrument (which it unfortunately has the potential of becoming without the proper guidance this lecture offers), devoid of tastes, smells, sounds and for that matter every sensory perception. Had it not been for Prof Elkins, it would not have been possible for me to have experienced these sensory perceptions with the narrator. I might, to begin with, not even have dreamt of reading a novel exceeding 3,000 pages in length in which (as I had heard it rumoured) nothing really happens, without hardly any plot, with no real beginning or end. And seemingly, to make up for these ostensible shortcomings, hundreds of characters, most of whom are aristocrats with their debatable idiosyncrasies. And the sentences, often paragraphs and sometimes even pages long, would to me have been inexplicable drooling rants and raves of a depressed, more often than not love-sick insomniac. Now, given the assistance of Prof Elkins, they are intellectual challenges ready for me to unravel their inner workings, mysteries and meanings.
Why would anyone want to read this novel? (And let’s call it that— Prof Elkins mentions that Proust might have toyed with the idea of writing a work of literary criticism). My attempt at an answer would be that, if you’ve done reading and you afterwards wonder why you’ve done so (as in my case), then the novel has by default attained its goal, because it has sent you on a quest in search of the time lost reading it. Thereby, I hope you would embark upon a quest in search of the soul of arguably the most impenetrable of masterpieces. This would amount to nothing short of a quest in search of your own soul.
2. “Le Père Goriot” (Father bGoriot”) by Honoré de Balzac
According to Prof Elkins, Balzac, in depicting the city, Paris as a character inspired Dickens to do the same for London, Dostoyevsky for St Petersburg and Joyce for Dublin. And besides, Friedrich Engels asserted that he had learned more about Paris from reading Balzac than he did from talking to his contemporaries.
“Le Père Goriot” was published in 1835 and set in 1819 in a quickly changing Paris. Balzac said that only Parisians will be able to understand his novel. He puts it thus: “Will anyone without the walls of Paris understand it? It is open to doubt”. Prof Elkins informs us that in this Paris, there was very little housing, with the result that people sought lodging in boarding houses. It is in one of such boarding houses, known in the neighbourhood as “Maison Vauquer” and kept for the past forty years by its owner, Madame Vauquer where this novel primarily plays off. This boarding house “receives men and women, old and young, and no word has ever been breathed against her respectable establishment”.
One of this motley crew of lodgers is the protagonist, Father Goriot. He is an elderly vermicelli maker who dotes on his two daughters whom he had married off to wealthy husbands and who hardly return his love in kind. In fact, they effectively ruin him financially, mentally and eventually, physically. Another lodger is Eugene de Rastignac, a young law student, worthy of mentioning owing his involvement with Father Goriot as well as both his daughters. The other lodgers don’t feature as prominently in this regard.
Prof Elkins draws our attention to the intricate interplay of relationships: father, daughters, Rastignac. The backdrop is Balzac’s description of the grim living environment of the “Maison Vauquer”, as well as Balzac’s Paris, at times also grim with muddy streets and boots and at times decadent in the artificial wealth, pomp and ceremony of its aristocrats. Prof Elkins gives us the King Lear analogy of the relationship between Father Goriot, who prematurely gives away his all to his daughters, and the daughters, who only suck their father dry and give nothing in return.
I’m yet to read the other writers also dealt with is this series of lectures, to wit Flaubert and
Camus,. So, I’ll be back.
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27 people found this helpful
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- Kimberly
- 01-03-11
Excellent Lecture!!!
Informative, engaging, interesting, and insightful. Loved this lecture and would like to see many more like it.....Saccio, (Shakespeare), etc.
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5 people found this helpful
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- Judith Seaboyer
- 01-30-11
Aimed at the intelligent reader
This works for those who have studied literature at university, and for what Virginia Woolf called "the common reader." Catherine Elkins is truly a wonderful teacher. I too would like to see lots more Modern Scholar lectures on Audible.
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12 people found this helpful
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- GogolGirl
- 04-14-20
Good lecturer
Enjoyed the lecture and the delivery. Was most interested in the Balzac and Flaubert chapters, not so much Proust and Camus. Would have liked Zola instead.
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1 person found this helpful