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Bel Ami
- Narrated by: John McDonough
- Length: 14 hrs and 37 mins
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Publisher's Summary
Guy de Maupassant is revered for his naturalistic fiction, which brilliantly captures flesh-and-blood characters as it evokes the most telling details of everyday life. Considered one of the finest French novels ever written, Bel Ami follows journalist Georges Duroy and his increasing stature among the Paris elite. With an immense thirst for power, Georges is not above an almost gleeful use of wealthy mistresses to achieve his ends.
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What listeners say about Bel Ami
Average Customer RatingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Neil Chisholm
- 12-03-13
Bel Ami or how to socially climb in 1885 Paris
Bel Ami starts as a penniless returned soldier and by the end of the book after affairs and marriages he is one of the most powerful men in Paris if not France. He tramples on all he meets, money and position become everything and his sexual gratification is the cherry on the top.
The women in the story seem to be strong but really are weak and bend to his every whim and it shows that the story is basically a story of human desire, weakness and determination. Maupassant was well know for his excellent characterisation and in Bel Ami the characters are brilliantly portrayed.
Listening to my favourite Maupassant has really stimulated my hunger for more French literature which I have read extensively in my 30s. However, having it read to me gives it a whole extra layer of richness and complexity (and correct pronounciation of the French names and places!).
This book is highly recommended - listen to it before you see the film. The movie has been given a bad review but if you go in knowing the story and the main characters you might get more from it. Certainly you will go in understanding better the times and morals and be less judgemental. I hope to see the movie myself shortly. Standby - I might add to this review after I have seen it!
11 people found this helpful
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- Robyn
- 09-26-11
Thought-provoking commentary on the human conditio
Typical Maupassant story of a young man developing his character during an earlier era.. A social commentary on the mores of the times with a fascinating narrative of a young man finding his way in the world when marital fidelity amongst the upper classes was accepted.
5 people found this helpful
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- D. Evans
- 11-27-12
Scary to think people like Bel Ami actually exist!
I listened and listened and kept hoping one of the characters -- any of the characters -- would give Georges Duroy a good thrashing!
If this story is any indication, Guy de Maupassant doesn't have a good opinion of women. Is there nothing he can do that would make them dump him?! Only one woman in this story had any self-respect, and even she gave in to him!
In any case, while this was written in 1885, I could see the exact same story being written about people today.
And that is scary!
4 people found this helpful
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- Ivan Delevic
- 05-09-15
Pure excellence
This book is extremely well written. I don't understand that it's not more popular and how it didn't find its way to compulsory school literature.
Maupassant is a master story teller. Much more so than many other, far more famous, classic authors.
I was absolutely delighted by this read.
2 people found this helpful
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- Amazon Customer
- 08-25-21
Mediocre performance doesn't do justice
The narrator doesn't do enough voices to keep it interesting and varied. I wish there were more narrators to choose from. He's not bad, but not good. Considering how much scheming, intrigue and seduction there is, his voice does not sell it.
1 person found this helpful
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- Laura G. Marcantoni
- 01-04-19
No wonder it is a classic.
Bel Ami is a dispassionate , non judgmental and elegant description of people and society. The author keeps his distance and this makes the book more enjoyable and the characters more appealing and real. It could be a denunciation of the society of the time of just a portrait in any case it is done with such a mastery that this novel, even after two hundred years, it is very pleasant to read .
1 person found this helpful
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- Jack Thiel
- 04-28-21
Learn but don't imitate
Though the main characters are of dubious moral standing, they still showcase quite a bit of things worth learning.
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- caroline
- 05-14-12
A Great Listen
I loved listening to this book. It is so beautifully written, so evocative, the characters flawed and real.
The narrator is excellent, perfect for this piece. I would definitely recommend Bel Ami.
5 people found this helpful
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- Philip
- 12-11-14
Maupassant in American
Would you try another book written by Guy de Maupassant or narrated by John McDonough?
A North American translation and North American accent are barriers to accessing Maupassant's novel. In addition, French pronunciation is lamentable - remember when you think you're in Caen you're really in Cannes and 'Jock' Rival is really a Frenchman called Jacques......On the plus side John McDonough reads expressively and intelligently at a sensible pace.
4 people found this helpful
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Overall

- Welsh Mafia
- 07-08-12
Des vacances à Paris
I really enjoyed this one over the course of a week in Tenerife and undertook it with the intention of pairing it with the new film version of the novel which doesn’t subsequently seem to have hit the cinemas with anything like the impact that I thought it would have. It has been a good many years since I read the series of Normandy short stories by Maupassant, but it is nice to report that the writing still is as open and accessible as I previously recalled and the narrative was as engaging as I would have anticipated.
For all the recent comment on how contemporary the subject-matter, this story of Paris is dated in the detail but ‘very modern’ in the pre-occupations - which just goes to illustrate that life in all its complexities doesn’t suffer time or national changes.
As always, the perfect way to escape the day to day grind into a new world for the holiday week - really enjoyed.
2 people found this helpful
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- By: Guy De Maupassant
- Narrated by: Martin Geeson
- Length: 8 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
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Guy de Maupassant's scandalous tale of an opportunistic young man corrupted by the allure of power, "Bel-Ami" is translated with an introduction by Douglas Parmee in "Penguin Classics". Young, attractive and very ambitious, George Duroy, known to his admirers as Bel-Ami, is offered a job as a journalist on La Vie francaise and soon makes a great success of his new career. But he also comes face to face with the realities of the corrupt society in which he lives - the sleazy colleagues, the manipulative mistresses, and wily financiers.
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Bel-Ami
- By: Guy de Maupassant
- Narrated by: Thomas Solivérès
- Length: 11 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
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La Belle Époque. Georges Duroy se retrouve à Paris sans argent en quête d'ascension sociale. Un soir, il rencontre Forestier un ancien camarade de régiment qui va lui proposer un poste de journaliste à la Vie Française. Il fait alors la connaissance de Clotilde de Marelle, la cousine de Madeleine Forestier, qui va lui faire découvrir une éducation sentimentale très libre.
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The Entire Original Short Stories by Guy de Maupassant
- By: Guy de Maupassant
- Narrated by: Cate Barratt
- Length: 48 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
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Guy de Maupassant is widely regarded as the father of the modern short story. As his 13 volumes of short stories attest, he was a prolific writer of this form. He had a simple, efficient style of writing and, like Anton Chekhov, found inspiration for his stories in the day-to-day lives of characters, in which their hidden natures are often revealed. Many of his works also centered on the Franco-Prussian War, in which he served.
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Le Pere Goriot
- By: Honoré de Balzac
- Narrated by: Paul Hecht
- Length: 10 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
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At the shabby boarding house in the rue Neuve-Sainte-Geneviève, petty Madame Vauquer and her tenants wonder at the plight of the aging resident Goriot. Once a well-heeled merchant, Goriot was, at first, afforded special treatment from the Madame. But now something is clearly amiss in his financial affairs, and his increasingly tawdry appearance makes him a subject of ridicule in the household.
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balzac rocks
- By beatrice on 03-12-10
By: Honoré de Balzac
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Pierre et Jean
- By: Guy de Maupassant
- Narrated by: John McDonough
- Length: 7 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
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A vague jealousy, one of those dormant jealousies which grow up between brothers or sisters and slowly ripen till they burst, on the occasion of a marriage perhaps, or of some good fortune happening to one of them, kept them on the alert in a sort of brotherly and non-aggressive animosity. They were fond of each other, it is true, but they watched each other. Pierre, five years old when Jean was born, had looked with the eyes of a little petted animal at that other little animal which had suddenly come to lie in his father's and mother's arms and to be loved and fondled by them.
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Needs more ratings! 5 star material!
- By winterspell on 06-05-16
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House of Meetings
- By: Martin Amis
- Narrated by: Jeff Woodman
- Length: 7 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
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There were conjugal visits in the slave camps of the USSR. Valiant women would travel continental distances, over weeks and months, in the hope of spending a night with their particular enemy of the people, in the House of Meetings. The consequences of these liaisons were almost invariably tragic. House of Meetings is about one such liaison.
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Martin Amis at the height of his powers; wonderous
- By Todd on 06-16-15
By: Martin Amis
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Lionel Asbo
- State of England
- By: Martin Amis
- Narrated by: Alex Jennings
- Length: 9 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
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Lionel Asbo, a terrifying yet weirdly loyal thug (self-named after England's notorious "Anti-Social Behaviour Order"), has always looked out for his ward and nephew, the orphaned Desmond Pepperdine. He provides him with fatherly career advice (always carry a knife, for example) and is determined they should share the joys of pit bulls (fed with lots of Tabasco sauce), Internet porn, and all manner of more serious criminality. Des, on the other hand, desires nothing more than books to read and a girl to love .
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Jēz...us! Just don't buy it for your Grans.
- By Darwin8u on 01-03-13
By: Martin Amis
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Bel ami
- By: Guy de Maupassant
- Narrated by: Jacques Roland
- Length: 10 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
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L'histoire d'un illustre inconnu qui, à force d'opportunisme, d'arrivisme et de culot, parvient à conquérir la capitale, à se faire un nom et une place. Une fresque des mœurs parisiennes où règnent l'ambition, l'ambiguïté sexuelle des discours et la décadence amoureuse au XIXème siècle.
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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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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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What An Unexpected Delight!
- By Mimi on 10-22-08
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London Fields
- By: Martin Amis
- Narrated by: Steven Pacey
- Length: 21 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
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The murderee is Nicola Six, a "black hole" of sex and self-loathing who is intent on orchestrating her own extinction. The murderer may be Keith Talent, a violent lowlife whose only passions are pornography and darts; or the rich, honorable, and dimly romantic Guy Clinch. As Nicola leads her suitors towards the precipice, London--and, indeed, the whole world--seems to shamble after them in a corrosively funny novel of complexity and morality.
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Big chewy novel, excellent narration
- By Sand on 08-21-14
By: Martin Amis
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Bel Ami
- By: Guy de Maupassant
- Narrated by: Christoph Bantzer
- Length: 12 hrs and 15 mins
- Abridged
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Paris, Ende des 19. Jahrhunderts: Georges Duroy, mittellos, aber ehrgeizig, gelangt durch seinen Freund Forestier an eine Stelle als Reporter bei der Zeitung "La vie française". Zwar ist Duroy völlig talentfrei, doch durch seinen Charme und seine Art de Vivre verzeichnet er schon bald große Erfolge bei den Pariser Damen - und in der Folge auch in Beruf und Gesellschaft. Voller Ironie und Scharfsinn schildert Maupassant Duroys unaufhaltsamen Aufstieg und zeichnet zugleich ein farbenprächtiges Bild des Paris seiner Zeit.
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The Charterhouse of Parma
- By: Henri Beyle Stendhal
- Narrated by: Edoardo Ballerini
- Length: 19 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
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In the coming-of-age story, we follow a young Italian nobleman, Fabrizio Valserra, Marchesino del Dongo, on many adventures, including his experiences at the Battle of Waterloo, and romantic intrigues.
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Amazing novel finally available on audio!
- By Grant on 03-23-14
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The Three Musketeers (AmazonClassics Edition)
- By: Alexandre Dumas
- Narrated by: Guy Mott
- Length: 27 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
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Young nobleman d’Artagnan has arrived in Paris intent on joining the guardians of King Louis XIII. He befriends the regiment’s most formidable musketeers, Athos, Porthos, and Aramis, and together they unite in their commitment to uphold justice. Soon, a royal indiscretion thrusts them into an audacious escapade of courtly intrigue, thwarted romance, and daring rescue. But it’s the Machiavellian schemes of a powerful enemy and the wicked seductions of an ingenious female spy that will be their greatest challenges.
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terrible narrator. every comma is a 3 second pause
- By Anonymous User on 09-21-21
By: Alexandre Dumas
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Amsterdam
- By: Ian McEwan
- Narrated by: Steven Crossley
- Length: 4 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
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The best-selling author of Atonement and Enduring Love, Ian McEwan is known as one of contemporary fiction’s most acclaimed writers. This Booker Prize-winning novel by McEwan finds two men connecting at the funeral of their ex-lover. Distressed by how she was slowly destroyed by an illness, the two make a pact to save each other from enduring such a fate.
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Quick and engaging, well-read
- By Bronwen on 12-28-11
By: Ian McEwan