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The Touchstone
- Narrated by: Margaret Melosh
- Length: 2 hrs and 48 mins
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The Touchstone
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Publisher's summary
Stephen has to come up with a way to make more money in order to be able to marry his beloved. He has in his possession a pile of old love letters from a celebrated writer, deceased, at this time. She was called Margaret and was very much in love with Stephen. He finds out he can make lots of profits were he to have the letters published; but he hesitates because he had never really loved her and had not treated her very well. Since their relationship was never known by society at large; he resolves to sell them and publish them anonymously.
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- By: Nella Larsen
- Narrated by: Robin Miles
- Length: 4 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 482
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 411
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 414
First published in 1929, Passing is a remarkable exploration of the shifting racial and sexual boundaries in America. Larsen, a premier writer of the Harlem Renaissance, captures the rewards and dangers faced by two Negro women who pass for White in a deeply segregated world.
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4 out of 5 stars
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If not for the Ending
- By William M Storm on 04-23-12
By: Nella Larsen
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The Professor
- By: Charlotte Brontë
- Narrated by: James Wilby
- Length: 9 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 292
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 263
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Story4 out of 5 stars 261
The Professor is Charlotte Brontë's first novel albeit the last to have been published. Edited and distributed by Arthur Bell Nicholls, two years after Brontë's death, it is based on her experiences of living as a language student in Brussels. The Professor follows the career and love affairs of William Crimsworth, a reserved but compassionate aristocrat who has been ostracised by his family and left penniless.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Beautiful
- By ilene on 12-26-16
By: Charlotte Brontë
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Swann's Way
- By: Marcel Proust, Scott Moncrieff - translator
- Narrated by: George Guidall
- Length: 21 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 89
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 78
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 79
Swann’s Way is the first and best-known part of Proust’s monumental work, Remembrance of Things Past. Often compared to a symphony, this complex masterpiece is ideally suited for audio. Listening lets you appreciate anew the incredible beauty of Proust’s language and the uniqueness of his style. The novel’s narrator, Marcel, finds the true meaning of experience in memories stimulated by some random object or event.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Beautiful, BUT
- By Michael on 02-04-13
By: Marcel Proust, and others
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Sentimental Education
- By: Gustave Flaubert
- Narrated by: Michael Maloney
- Length: 15 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 79
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 72
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 72
Frederic Moreau is a law student returning home to Normandy from Paris when he first notices Mme Arnoux, a slender, dark woman several years older than himself. It is the beginning of an infatuation that will last a lifetime. He befriends her husband, an influential businessman, and their paths cross and re-cross over the years. Through financial upheaval, political turmoil, and countless affairs, Mme Arnoux remains the constant, unattainable love of Moreau’s life.
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4 out of 5 stars
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When Crimes of Passion Were All the Fashion
- By W Perry Hall on 03-12-17
By: Gustave Flaubert
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Villette
- By: Charlotte Brontë
- Narrated by: Davina Porter
- Length: 22 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 435
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 380
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Story4 out of 5 stars 381
Hailed as Charlotte Brontë’s “finest novel” by Virginia Woolf, Villette is the timeless semi-autobiographical tale of Lucy Snowe. Left with no family and no money, Lucy goes against her own timid nature and travels to the small city of Villette, France, where she becomes a school teacher in Madame Beck’s school for girls. During her stay, she falls in love—twice—and discovers an independent, inner strength rarely seen in women of her time.
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5 out of 5 stars
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The Divine Ms. Porter delivers as always
- By peachnmario on 03-17-15
By: Charlotte Brontë
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Something Fresh
- By: P. G. Wodehouse
- Narrated by: Jonathan Cecil
- Length: 7 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 877
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 792
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 792
The one thing that could be expected to disturb the peace of life at Blandings is the incursion of imposters. Blandings has imposters like other houses have mice. On this occasion there are two of them--both intent on a dangerous enterprise.
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5 out of 5 stars
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So That's Where "Upstairs, Downstairs" Came From!
- By Beverly on 01-26-12
By: P. G. Wodehouse
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The Tenant of Wildfell Hall
- By: Anne Brontë
- Narrated by: Mary Sarah Agliotta
- Length: 13 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 535
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Performance3.5 out of 5 stars 476
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 471
Probably the most shocking of the Brontës' novels, this novel had an instant and phenomenal success and is widely considered to be one of the first sustained feminist novels. A mysterious widow, Mrs. Helen Graham, arrives at Wildfell Hall, a nearby old mansion. A source of curiosity for the small community, the reticent Helen and her young son Arthur are slowly drawn into the social circles of the village.
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2 out of 5 stars
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A good story ruined by the narrator
- By i. Ski on 04-17-14
By: Anne Brontë
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The Painted Veil
- By: W. Somerset Maugham
- Narrated by: Kate Reading
- Length: 7 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 3,048
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 2,478
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 2,464
First published in 1925, The Painted Veil is an affirmation of the human capacity to grow, change, and forgive. Set in England and Hong Kong in the 1920s, it is the story of the beautiful but shallow young Kitty Fane. When her husband discovers her adulterous affair, he forces her to accompany him to a remote region of China ravaged by a cholera epidemic.
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4 out of 5 stars
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What An Unexpected Delight!
- By Mimi on 10-22-08
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The Return of the Soldier
- By: Rebecca West
- Narrated by: Nadia May
- Length: 2 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 103
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 87
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Story4 out of 5 stars 86
In this lyrical and poignant story of a wounded man and the three concerned women who seek to heal him, Rebecca West explores the complexity of the mind and its subtle strategies for coping with life's painful realities. Only when Chris has the courage to face one pivotal moment of truth in his married life will he be able to awaken from his boyish fantasy and become, indeed, "every inch a soldier".
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5 out of 5 stars
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a gem
- By beatrice on 09-08-21
By: Rebecca West
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Mrs. Warren's Profession
- By: George Bernard Shaw
- Narrated by: full cast
- Length: 1 hr and 41 mins
- Original Recording
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 43
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 36
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 37
Modern parallels abound in the plight of Cambridge-educated mathematics wiz Vivie Warren, who discovers that her comfortable upbringing was financed in unspeakable ways. George Bernard Shaw pits a clever heroine against a memorable gallery of rogues in this superbly intelligent (and still shocking) comedy, banned for eight years from the English stage.
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4 out of 5 stars
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A Very Lively Play by Shaw
- By Robert M. on 05-01-20
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Anthem
- By: Ayn Rand
- Narrated by: B. J. Harrison
- Length: 2 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 1,886
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 1,666
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 1,671
“It is a sin to write this. It is a sin to think words no others think and to put them down upon a paper no others are to see. It is base and evil.” Deep issues of conscience are explored in Ayn Rand’s dystopian tale of a man who dares to fight against a system that invades his very mind and identity.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Triumphant! A beautiful molding of the mind.
- By Kari on 02-17-16
By: Ayn Rand
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The Voyage Out
- By: Virginia Woolf
- Narrated by: Juliet Stevenson
- Length: 15 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 108
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 95
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 94
The Voyage Out is Virginia Woolf's haunting tale about a naïve young woman's sea voyage from London to a small resort on the South American coast. In symbolic, lyrical, and intoxicating prose, her outward journey begins to mirror her internal voyage into adulthood as she searches for her personal identity, grapples with love, and learns how to face life intellectually and emotionally. Its wit and exquisiteness, and its profound depth and insight into humanity, will capture the imagination of the listener.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Lovely
- By Edith on 05-24-19
By: Virginia Woolf
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A Rogue's Life
- By: Wilkie Collins
- Narrated by: Bernard Mayes
- Length: 5 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 294
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 250
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Story4 out of 5 stars 249
Propelled into society by his ever-hopeful father, Frank is introduced to a variety of professions in order to make his fortune. Not industrious by nature, however, Frank finds working life a challenge, and by his 25th birthday, he has failed medicine, portrait-painting, caricaturing, and even forgery. Disenchanted with life, he despairs of ever finding something to commit to — until he meets Alicia Dulcifer and her inexplicably wealthy father.
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5 out of 5 stars
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One Twisting, Turning, Fun Book!
- By Joseph R on 06-15-09
By: Wilkie Collins