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The Owl and the Nightingale
- A New Verse Translation
- Narrated by: Simon Armitage
- Length: 1 hr and 35 mins
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The Owl and the Nightingale
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Publisher's summary
Simon Armitage narrates a complete verse translation of this spirited and humorous medieval English poem
The Owl and the Nightingale, one of the earliest literary works in Middle English, is a lively, anonymous comic poem about two birds who embark on a war of words in a wood, with a nearby poet reporting their argument in rhyming couplets, line by line and blow by blow. In this engaging and energetic verse translation, Simon Armitage captures the verve and humor of this dramatic tale with all the cut and thrust of the original.
In an agile iambic tetrameter that skillfully amplifies the prosody and rhythm of the original, Armitage’s translation moves entertainingly from the eloquent and philosophical to the ribald and ridiculous. Sounding at times like antagonists in a Twitter feud, the owl and the nightingale quarrel about a host of subjects that still resonate today—including love, marriage, identity, cultural background, class distinctions, and the right to be heard. Adding to the playful, raucous mood of the barb-trading birds is Armitage, who at one point inserts himself into the poem as a “magistrate . . . to adjudicate”—one who is “skilled with words & worldly wise / & frowns on every form of vice.”
Featuring an introduction by Armitage, this volume will delight listeners of all ages.
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-
Beautiful poetry
- By Roger on 01-15-08
By: Alfred Tennyson
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Finnegans Wake
- By: James Joyce
- Narrated by: Barry McGovern, Marcella Riordan
- Length: 29 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 100
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 80
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Story4 out of 5 stars 79
Finnegans Wake is the greatest challenge in 20th-century literature. Who is Humphrey Chimpden Earwicker? And what did he get up to in Phoenix Park? And what did Anna Livia Plurabelle have to say about it? In the rich nighttime and the language of dreams, here are history, anecdote, myth, folk tale and, above all, a wondrous sense of humor, colored by a clear sense of humanity. In this exceptional reading by the Irish actor Barry McGovern, with Marcella Riordan, the world of the Wake is more accessible than ever before.
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5 out of 5 stars
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The keys to. Given!
- By hyand on 06-16-21
By: James Joyce
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The Inferno
- By: Dante, Robert Hollander - translator, Jean Hollander - translator
- Narrated by: Dominic Hoffman
- Length: 4 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 350
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 300
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 298
The epic grandeur of Dante's masterpiece has inspired readers and listeners for 700 years and has entered the human imagination. But the further we move from the late medieval world of Dante, the more a rich understanding and enjoyment of the poem depends on knowledgeable guidance.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Into Hell
- By Adam on 10-25-19
By: Dante, and others
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Faust
- By: Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
- Narrated by: David McCallion
- Length: 5 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 54
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 48
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 45
Faust by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, is a poem, translated by Bayard Taylor, which tells the beautiful and emotional story of a man who has seen and done it all. However, despite all of his learning and education, his life still feels empty and unaccomplished. He believes wholeheartedly that there is something else out there. Faust, having exhausted all other fields of study, turns to magic for fulfillment. He summons the devil and makes a pact - that if the devil can show him something rewarding and fulfilling, he will give the devil his soul.
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2 out of 5 stars
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Misleading
- By Grant Pajak on 03-29-17
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As You Like It
- By: William Shakespeare
- Narrated by: Lynn Collins, Alexis Jacknow, Jeff Gardner, and others
- Length: 2 hrs and 13 mins
- Original Recording
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 43
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 37
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 36
Love triumphs in As You Like It, Shakespeare's joyous comic adventure! Rosalind, arguably Shakespeare's greatest female character, is banished from court and follows her exiled father into the untamed Forest of Arden. Disguised as a man for safety, Rosalind's great wit and good nature show through her male trappings as she engages with fools and philosophers adrift in the woods, and ultimately falls in love.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Very entertaining
- By Laurie on 05-25-20
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Aesop's Fables (AmazonClassics Edition)
- By: Aesop
- Narrated by: Scott Merriman
- Length: 4 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 96
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 73
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 72
Honesty is the best policy. Beware a wolf in sheep’s clothing. Look before you leap. A bird in the hand. These and countless other everyday expressions originated centuries ago with Aesop, the slave and storyteller of ancient Greece. With humor, irony, and commonsense philosophy, Aesop’s Fables illuminates the follies, frailties, and resilience of humankind to this day.
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1 out of 5 stars
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Dirt cheap and worth every penny
- By Hannes Vogel on 06-17-21
By: Aesop
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Macbeth
- By: William Shakespeare
- Narrated by: Stephen Dillane, Fiona Shaw, full cast
- Length: 2 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 123
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 54
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 56
By the time Shakespeare came to write Macbeth - almost certainly in 1605/1606 - he had already completed three of the great tragedies with which modern audiences are so familiar: Hamlet (1601), Othello (1603), and King Lear (1605). Each of those plays gives us an eponymous hero who is in some significant way flawed, but for whom we also inevitably feel deep sympathy, whatever his errors or crimes. But in MacBeth, Shakespeare has chosen for his tragic hero a man guilty of the most terrible crime imaginable to a Jacobean audience, that of regicide - the murder of a king.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Fire burn and cauldron bubble - an excellent stew
- By Marius on 04-06-04
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Lear
- The Great Image of Authority
- By: Harold Bloom
- Narrated by: Simon Vance
- Length: 3 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall5 out of 5 stars 24
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 23
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Story5 out of 5 stars 23
King Lear is perhaps the most poignant character in literature. The aged, abused monarch is at once the consummate figure of authority and the classic example of the fall from majesty. He is widely agreed to be William Shakespeare's most moving, tragic hero. Award-winning writer and beloved professor Harold Bloom writes about Lear with wisdom, joy, exuberance, and compassion. He also explores his own personal relationship to the character.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Bloom being Bloom
- By C. Yuen on 10-05-23
By: Harold Bloom
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Poems by Emily Dickinson
- By: Emily Dickinson
- Narrated by: Marianne Fraulo
- Length: 4 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 48
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 38
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 40
Poems by Emily Dickinson is a compilation of the poetry of Emily Dickinson in three different series, each composed of the following subjects: Life, Love, Nature, Time, and Eternity.
The notoriously reclusive New England poet broke all the rules of Victorian-era poetry to create a new, uniquely American style. Despite the fact that the majority of the poems recited here were never published in her lifetime, Dickinson remains one of the most influential voices in American literature.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Good reading of a gifted poet
- By portlyfox on 09-03-12
By: Emily Dickinson
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The Plays of Sophocles
- Oedipus the King, Oedipus at Colonus, and Antigone
- By: Sophocles
- Narrated by: David McCallion
- Length: 5 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 55
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 49
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 47
Sophocles was born at Colonus, near Athens in about 496 BC and is considered to be one of the premier playwrights of Greek tragedy. His stories may have been filled with strife, but Sophocles himself was prosperous and came from a good family. It is said that he was handsome, wealthy, and a highly respected citizen of Athens. During his life, he wrote over 120 plays and was instrumental in how plays would eventually be performed, including the addition of stage props.
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1 out of 5 stars
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Bad Dialogue
- By Zoe Olvera on 08-12-18
By: Sophocles
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Paradise Lost & Paradise Regained
- By: John Milton
- Narrated by: Charlton Griffin
- Length: 16 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 865
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 728
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 732
Paradise Lost, along with its companion piece, Paradise Regained, remain the most successful attempts at Greco-Roman style epic poetry in the English language. Remarkably enough, they were written near the end of John Milton's amazing life, a bold testimonial to his mental powers in old age. And, since he had gone completely blind in 1652, 15 years prior to Paradise Lost, he dictated it and all his other works to his daughter.
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5 out of 5 stars
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SELL YOUR SHIRT FOR THIS AUDIO BOOK!
- By thomas on 04-23-11
By: John Milton
![The Scarlet Plague [Classic Tales Edition] Audiobook By Jack London cover art](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/61FhtSpkE8L._SL320_.jpg)
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The Scarlet Plague [Classic Tales Edition]
- By: Jack London
- Narrated by: B.J. Harrison
- Length: 2 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 690
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 598
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 595
Twelve billionaires rule the United States, while those called freemen are forced to serve the rich. But that was 60 years ago, before the Scarlet Plague. In this post-apocalyptic novella, a ragged and tattered old man tells his progeny of what life was like before The Scarlet Plague appeared - and wiped out civilization as they knew it.
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5 out of 5 stars
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wonderful listen very relevant today!
- By Johnny on 12-02-17
By: Jack London
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The Complete Collection of Emily Dickinson's Poems
- By: Emily Dickinson
- Narrated by: Elaine Sepani
- Length: 3 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 36
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 30
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 29
Emily Dickinson (1830-1886) was a reclusive poet whose only friendships were carried out in correspondence. Despite writing almost 1800 poems in her life, very few were published until after her death. Here, the poems are presented in chronological order in their original form, unaltered by editorial revision, in one volume. It offers a wide-angle view of Dickinson's poetic development, from the clunky rhyme schemes of her youth, through valentines she wrote in the early 1850s, to the gloomy, hell-obsessed writings of her last years.
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1 out of 5 stars
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It’s not Emily Dickinson’s Fault
- By Mary Beth Hammond on 04-04-21
By: Emily Dickinson
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Medea
- By: Euripides
- Narrated by: Jonathan Waters
- Length: 1 hr and 28 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 119
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 104
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 104
Medea is an ancient Greek tragedy written by Euripides, based upon the myth of Jason and Medea and first produced in 431 BC. The plot centers on the actions of Medea, a former princess of the "barbarian" kingdom of Colchis, and the wife of Jason; she finds her position in the Greek world threatened as Jason leaves her for a Greek princess of Corinth. Medea takes vengeance on Jason by murdering Jason's new wife as well as her own children, after which she escapes to Athens to start a new life.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Great Narrator makes this story work
- By cosmitron on 08-02-18
By: Euripides
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Falstaff
- Give Me Life
- By: Harold Bloom
- Narrated by: Simon Vance
- Length: 3 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 37
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 33
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 34
Falstaff is both a comic and tragic central protagonist in Shakespeare's three Henry plays. He is companion to Prince Hal (the future Henry V), who loves him, goads him, teases him, indulges his vast appetites, and commits all sorts of mischief with him. Award-winning author and esteemed professor Harold Bloom examines Falstaff with the deepest compassion and sympathy and also with unerring wisdom. He uses the relationship between Falstaff and Hal to explore the devastation of severed bonds and the heartbreak of betrayal.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Falstaff brooks no rebuttal.
- By Darwin8u on 02-06-20
By: Harold Bloom
What listeners say about The Owl and the Nightingale
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
- Amazon Customer
- 04-07-23
Well Done
Sir Gawain & the Green knight and The death of Arthur were great too. Love armitages' work.
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