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The Piazza Tales (AmazonClassics Edition)
- Narrated by: David deVries
- Length: 9 hrs and 1 min
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The Piazza Tales (AmazonClassics Edition)
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Publisher's summary
With disparate settings such as a Massachusetts farmhouse and the strange volcanic clime of the Enchanted Isles, this six-story anthology features some of Herman Melville’s most exceptional works. Included here is “Bartleby,” the dark tale of a Wall Street clerk who possesses a confounding and disarmingly passive insubordination; and “Benito Cereno,” in which the captain of a whaler boards a tattered Spanish slave ship in South America only to be drawn into an intricately plotted mutiny.
Exposing the catastrophes of ambition, deception, and alienation, The Piazza Tales is a wide-ranging display of the author’s storytelling genius and dazzling mastery of styles.
AmazonClassics brings you timeless works from the masters of storytelling. Ideal for anyone who wants to read a great work for the first time or rediscover an old favorite, these new editions open the door to literature’s most unforgettable characters and beloved worlds.
Revised edition: Previously published as The Piazza Tales, this edition of The Piazza Tales (AmazonClassics Edition) includes editorial revisions.
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- Narrated by: Bob Thomley
- Length: 16 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 1,309
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 1,157
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 1,164
All of Edgar Allan Poe’s great short stories in one 16-hour collection.
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3 out of 5 stars
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NEVERMORE
- By Jim "The Impatient" on 11-23-15
By: Edgar Allan Poe
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The Toilers of the Sea
- By: Victor Hugo
- Narrated by: Patrick Dickson
- Length: 6 hrs and 52 mins
- Abridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 40
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 37
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 36
Victor Hugo wrote this wonderful story while living in exile on the island of Guernsey, which is where the adventure unfolds. Set in the early 1800s, The Toilers of the Sea tells off a young reclusive fisherman who falls dangerously in love with a beautiful island girl. Her uncle, himself an intrepid seafarer, is the owner of a paddle-steamer, which plies its trade to and from St. Malo on the coast of Brittany.
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3 out of 5 stars
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Interesting, could without the special effects
- By Louise on 07-21-16
By: Victor Hugo
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James Cook
- The Story Behind the Man Who Mapped the World
- By: Peter FitzSimons
- Narrated by: Michael Carman
- Length: 21 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall5 out of 5 stars 245
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 205
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Story5 out of 5 stars 206
The name Captain James Cook is one of the most recognisable in Australian history - an almost mythic figure who is often discussed, celebrated, reviled and debated. But who was the real James Cook? This Yorkshire farm boy would go on to become the foremost mariner, scientist, navigator and cartographer of his era, and to personally map a third of the globe. His great voyages of discovery were incredible feats of seamanship and navigation.
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3 out of 5 stars
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Great. But...
- By Virgil Tracy on 05-01-21
By: Peter FitzSimons
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Nostromo
- By: Joseph Conrad
- Narrated by: Frank Muller
- Length: 16 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 117
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 52
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 56
One of the great adventure novels of our language creates a most engaging central character, Nostromo. A picturesque man of action and popular hero, Nostromo lives to be "well-spoken of" by the citizens of Costaguana, the mythical South American banana republic where the story takes place. Around this figure, Conrad spins a story of revolution, politics, and racial conflict as complex as Nostromo, the man whose greatest enemy is himself.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Wow!
- By Amazon Customer on 07-11-03
By: Joseph Conrad
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The Sea Wolf
- By: Jack London
- Narrated by: Frank Muller
- Length: 9 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 783
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 667
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 673
Wealthy ne'er-do-well Humphrey Van Weyden is a castaway who is put to work on the schooner Ghost, run by brutal Wolf Larsen. Toughened by life at sea, Humphrey develops the strength to protect another castaway, Maud Brewster, and stand up to the increasingly deranged Larsen. Experience the crashing, relentless power of the sea through this compelling story, made hauntingly immediate by author London's vivid prose.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Great entertainment
- By Ross on 05-31-03
By: Jack London
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Tales of Terror
- By: Edgar Allan Poe
- Narrated by: Jack Foreman
- Length: 4 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 65
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 33
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 31
Edgar Allan Poe, the master of terror, wrote some of literature's most entertaining and influential short stories, works that invented or anticipated modern detective novels, science fiction, and the horror genre. Tales of Terror collects nine of Poe's best-loved stories, all performed in chilling, highly dramatic readings by Jack Foreman. This collection includes such classics as "The Tell-Tale Heart", "The Pit and the Pendulum", "The Fall of the House of Usher", and what many consider his masterpiece, "The Murders in the Rue Morgue."
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5 out of 5 stars
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Poe's Best Horror by an Outstanding Narrator
- By Gary on 08-29-04
By: Edgar Allan Poe
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H. P. Lovecraft's Book of the Supernatural
- 20 Classic Tales of the Macabre, Chosen by the Master of Horror Himself
- By: Henry James, Washington Irving, Edgar Allan Poe, and others
- Narrated by: Davina Porter, Steven Crossley, Bronson Pinchot
- Length: 16 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 136
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 123
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Story4 out of 5 stars 122
H. P. Lovecraft is arguably the most important horror writer of the 20th century. Culled from his 1927 essay "Supernatural Horror in Literature”, Lovecraft acknowledges those authors and stories that he feels are the very finest the horror field has to offer, including Washington Irving, Edgar Allan Poe, Henry James, Rudyard Kipling, Bram Stoker, Robert Louis Stevenson, Guy de Maupassant, Ambrose Bierce, and Arthur Conan Doyle. This chilling collection includes 20 works, each prefaced by Lovecraft's own opinions and insights in each author’s work.
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3 out of 5 stars
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Not all the stories are complete
- By SteffiT on 10-21-13
By: Henry James, and others
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The Happy Prince and other Tales
- By: Oscar Wilde
- Narrated by: B.J. Harrison
- Length: 51 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 68
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 56
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Story4 out of 5 stars 58
In "The Model Millionaire", the destiny of a young, ambitious, brilliant pauper changes with an act of his misplaced generosity. "The Happy Prince" is one of Oscar Wilde’s renowned fairy tales. From his vantage point, high above the city, the statue of The Happy Prince gives of himself in a way most astonishing. In "The Sphinx Without a Secret", we learn of an enigmatic woman who holds a secret so close, no suitor can win her.
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4 out of 5 stars
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"Curiouser & Curiouser"
- By Jade Dragon on 09-14-16
By: Oscar Wilde
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Blue Lagoon
- Booktrack Edition
- By: H. De Vere Stacpoole
- Narrated by: Adrian Praetzellis
- Length: 7 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall5 out of 5 stars 28
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 26
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Story5 out of 5 stars 26
Listen to Blue Lagoon with a movie-style soundtrack and amplify your audiobook experience. Two shipwrecked children grow up on a South Pacific island. This beautiful story of adventure and innocent love was H.D. Stacpoole’s most popular work.
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5 out of 5 stars
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love it
- By Angel K on 04-18-24
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Sacred Hunger
- By: Barry Unsworth
- Narrated by: David Rintoul
- Length: 22 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 202
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 178
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 176
In this Booker Prize-winning work, Barry Unsworth follows the failing fortunes of William Kemp, a merchant pinning his last chance to a slave ship; his son, who needs a fortune because he is in love with an upper-class woman; and his nephew, who sails on the ship as its doctor because he has lost all he has loved. The voyage meets its demise when disease spreads among the slaves and the captain's drastic response provokes a mutiny.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Wise, Perceptive, Heart-breaking
- By S. Coldsmith on 04-16-16
By: Barry Unsworth
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The Eerie Adventures of the Lycanthrope Robinson Crusoe
- By: Peter Clines
- Narrated by: Tim Gerard Reynolds
- Length: 8 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 397
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 363
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Story4 out of 5 stars 362
Robinson Crusoe is one of the most enduring adventures of the past four centuries and one of the most well-known works in the English language. Or is it? Recently discovered amidst the papers of the 20th-century writer and historian H. P. Lovecraft is what claims to be the true story of Robinson Crusoe. Taken from the castaway's own journals and memoirs, and fact-checked by Lovecraft himself, it is free from many of Defoe's edits and alterations. From Lovecraft's work a much smoother, simpler tale emerges - but also a far more disturbing one.
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2 out of 5 stars
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95% verbatim Robinson Crusoe
- By La suede on 07-20-18
By: Peter Clines
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The Captain of the Pole Star
- By: Arthur Conan Doyle
- Narrated by: B. J. Harrison
- Length: 1 hr and 6 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 334
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 284
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Story4 out of 5 stars 281
Word goes among the crew of the Pole Star that the captain is haunted by demons. And after the days turn into weeks in the frigid Arctic Ocean, stories begin to circulate of ghosts and midnight hauntings.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Conan Doyle wrote more than Mr. Holmes.
- By Kristi R. on 11-14-11
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Howard Pyle's Book of Pirates
- By: Howard Pyle, Merle Johnson
- Narrated by: Simon Vance
- Length: 7 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 161
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 110
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Story4 out of 5 stars 109
Merle Johnson has here gathered together in one volume all of the nineteenth-century author-artist's classic pirate stories that had been scattered through many magazines and books. Well researched and with richly drawn characters, Pyle's work will appeal to students of history and adventure lovers alike.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Fascinating and wonderfully read
- By Fletch on 09-08-06
By: Howard Pyle, and others
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The Catalpa Rescue
- The Gripping Story of the Most Dramatic and Successful Prison Break in Australian History
- By: Peter FitzSimons
- Narrated by: Michael Carman
- Length: 16 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 105
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 92
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 92
The incredible true story of one of the most extraordinary and inspirational prison breaks in history. Boston, 1869. Members of the Clan na Gael - agitators for an Irish republic - hatch a daring plan to free six Irish political prisoners from the most remote gaol on earth, Fremantle Prison in Western Australia. Under the guise of a whale hunt, Captain Anthony sets sail on the Catalpa, risking his life to rescue the men from the prison, known among the inmates as 'a living tomb'.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Terrific yarn
- By Garrett on 05-13-19
By: Peter FitzSimons
What listeners say about The Piazza Tales (AmazonClassics Edition)
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Tad Davis
- 08-14-19
A Melville sampler
The stories in this collection by Herman Melville cover a lot of territory in terms of style and subject. It starts off with a haunting tale of the mountains that reminded me of Nathaniel Hawthorne. It includes a darkly comic tale of Wall Street (Bartleby the Scrivener) and a grimly suspenseful tale of mutiny on the high seas (Benito Cereno). One of the stories is actually a collection of short sketches about the Galápagos Islands. And there’s a kind of ghost story that is not especially scary but is filled with dread.
Hearing the stories can bring out qualities that may not be apparent when reading them. When I tried to read the opening story — The Piazza — I found the prose so convoluted as to be almost unreadable. But listening to it, I found myself drawn in by its hypnotic quality: not for the first time in this collection, I could swear that long passages had been written in blank verse.
David deVries does an excellent job as narrator. There are other excellent readings of individual stories (like Bartleby and Benito Cereno) on Audible; but this is the best reading of the whole collection. If you’ve “done” Moby Dick and Billy Budd and want to sample Melville’s other wares, this is the place to start.
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4 people found this helpful
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Julie Rae Loving
- 01-28-20
Something Different from Melville
Some of the stories were quite entertaining. Some didn't seem like the kind of thing Melville would have written. All in all, enjoyable!
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