• Legends of the Fall

  • By: Jim Harrison
  • Narrated by: Mark Bramhall
  • Length: 8 hrs and 23 mins
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars (1,093 ratings)

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Legends of the Fall  By  cover art

Legends of the Fall

By: Jim Harrison
Narrated by: Mark Bramhall
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Publisher's summary

From one of America's most versatile and celebrated writers, Legends of the Fall is Jim Harrison's classic trilogy of epic novellas.

The publication of this magnificent trilogy of short novels—Legends of the Fall, Revenge, and The Man Who Gave Up His Name—confirmed Jim Harrison's reputation as one of the finest American writers of his generation. These absorbing novellas explore the theme of revenge and the actions to which people resort when their lives or goals are threatened, adding up to an extraordinary vision of the twentieth-century man.

Set in the Rocky Mountains, Legends of the Fall is the epic tale of three brothers and their lives of passion, madness, exploration, and danger at the beginning of World War I. In Revenge, love causes the course of a man's life to be savagely and irrevocably altered. And in The Man Who Gave Up His Name, a man named Nordstrom is unable to relinquish his consuming obsessions with women, dancing, and food.

©1980 Jim Harrison (P)2013 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

What listeners say about Legends of the Fall

Average customer ratings
Overall
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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Cello music

I chose this book because I have watched “Legends of the Fall” movie countless times, and because Mark Bramhall is one of my favorite narrators. Ranking the three novellas, I thought “Legends” was the best overall story, “Revenge” the one that affected me the deepest, and “The Man Who Gave Up His Name” the least relatable (making it 4 stars instead of 5). If you are already familiar with “Legends” and “Revenge” from their movies, know that the source stories told here are not straight repeats, but still wonderfully written. “Revenge” in particular provided strong characters in Cochran and Tibby.

Strongly masculine tales, there is a common thread of midlife self-doubt and sense of loss that could become depressing if Harrison’s writing was less masterful. If the stories had a soundtrack, it would be the beautiful but melancholy music of the cello – expressing a soulful yearning that communicates to the reader. Bramhall's reading ensures the cello is pitch perfect. I loved the stories, admired the writing, and will likely look for more of Harrison’s offerings.

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15 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

So much more then a movie could ever hope to capture

This is a post midlife MASTERPIECE!
3 embraceable stories that will fill you with contemplation and rip at your soul.
Few books have I ever read that I felt I would return to over and over for the rest of my life

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12 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars

Not the movie! Don't do it

What would have made Legends of the Fall better?

I expected to find the story on which the movie was based. This is a collection of short stories. The first two are simply bad. The last one is a short version of the movie. Rent or buy the movie

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4 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    2 out of 5 stars

A Bit Underwhelming

Legends of the Fall is the title of the third of three separate short stories in this book. It is not one novel but three novellas. Measuring by the sum of its parts, this read falls well short of my expectations, having heard a glowing review in an NPR piece. The first story, about lust and vengeance, develops its hero into an empathetic character in vivid surroundings despite the limitations of the short novella format The story and its supporting characters unfold in a fast paced narrative that turned out to be the high water mark of the total collection. The second story is convoluted and untranslatable into anything resembling an interesting narrative. If you skip it entirely you will save a couple hours and could accomplish a more entertaining task such as doing laundry. The third and final story, the namesake Legends of the Fall, is packed with barely developed characters across a wide timeframe and multiple locations that reads like the Cliff Notes of a larger and much better work. Its ambitions for a sweeping family story across war and rivalry never stays put in any one subplot long enough for the reader to care about anyone or anything happening to these figures. The narrator has the perfect rough-hewn voice for the material and almost succeeds in dragging the listener through the narrative, as if a pitchman selling an ordinary product in an informercial. However, the narrator’s phrasing is off in numerous places, with the cadence of one thought colliding with the following, clear indications that he didn’t pre-read the material before speaking it. The total effort in this work is disappointing.

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3 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Astonishing...

One of the most beautiful written things I've ever had the pleasure to read/listen too...

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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

Not as good as I hoped.

For me the dust story was the best. Then it was down hill from there. Other reviews say the opposite. But at the end of book, I felt nothing.

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3 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Good Narrator for Amazing Work

Any additional comments?

Jim Harrison was at the top of his game when he wrote these three novellas. The title story is the most famous, and it is deserving of its fame, but the other two are just as good. They don't get the same attention, probably because they aren't set during WW1 and Prohibition. They are worth hearing.
Mark Bramhall has a very good voice for Harrison's characters. He's appropriately gravelly.

Jim Harrison was one of our finest authors, and I wish more of his older stuff was on audiobooks.

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Read legends of the fall for legends of the fall

The first story was okay, the second one was not great, but it was all worth it for the third novella that bears the name of the this trilogy, the legends of the fall.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Beautiful. Descriptive. Raw. Real.

Would you consider the audio edition of Legends of the Fall to be better than the print version?

Different. Not better. Each medium has its own beauty.

What other book might you compare Legends of the Fall to and why?

"A River Runs Through it". Masculine. Outdoors. Wilderness. Hunting & fishing in nature and love of being IN nature and how it's so closely related to our human survival. Jim Harrison's "True North" is another one that comes to mind. Other ones are "All the Pretty Horses" and "Lonesome Dove". Loved these books.

Which scene was your favorite?

When Tristan saw Decker again, they "lifted" each other. Guys bear hugs. True affection & friendship. They work outside building and making things with their hands that are necessary for themselves and their families to survive on the ranch.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

YES!

Any additional comments?

Jim Harrison's work in the late 70's are superb. I did not like some of this later works. Some scenes were too graphic for me - I do realize it's probably because there was no sugar coating - which I appreciate.

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2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars

Does not keep interest

What would have made Legends of the Fall better?

Better story line.

Has Legends of the Fall turned you off from other books in this genre?

Yes

How did the narrator detract from the book?

Monotone. Did not engage in the story

If you could play editor, what scene or scenes would you have cut from Legends of the Fall?

Hard to tell, so bad I did not finish

Any additional comments?

nothing further

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