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The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists
- Narrated by: Tony Robinson
- Length: 5 hrs and 11 mins
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The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 245
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 197
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Story4 out of 5 stars 196
This is the story of a young country workman obsessed by his ambition to become an Oxford student, interwoven with his fraught relationships with two women.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Staggering
- By Tad Davis on 02-16-10
By: Thomas Hardy
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Of Human Bondage
- By: W. Somerset Maugham
- Narrated by: Charlton Griffin
- Length: 28 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 410
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 369
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 365
Of Human Bondage is one of the greatest novels of modern times, and it is certainly Maugham's greatest achievement. It was published in 1914, when Maugham was at the height of his creative powers. The story concerns Philip Carey, afflicted at birth with a club foot, and his passionate search for truth in a cruel world. We follow his growth to manhood, his educational progress, his first loves, and the wrenching tragedies and disappointments that life has in store for him. In some of the finest prose of the 20th century, Maugham has presented us with the timeless story of one man's search for the meaning of life.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Greatly Unsettling
- By Michael on 10-04-14
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Decline and Fall
- By: Evelyn Waugh
- Narrated by: Michael Maloney
- Length: 5 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 255
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 222
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 219
Sent down from Oxford after a wild, drunken party, Paul Pennyfeather is oddly surprised to find himself qualifying for the position of schoolmaster at a boys' private school in Wales. His colleagues are an assortment of misfits, rascals and fools, including Prendy (plagued by doubts) and Captain Grimes, who is always in the soup (or just plain drunk). Then Sports Day arrives, and with it the delectable Margot Beste-Chetwynde, floating on a scented breeze.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Black Humor, Satire, and the Absurd
- By Gypsi on 06-09-18
By: Evelyn Waugh
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Anna of the Five Towns
- By: Arnold Bennett
- Narrated by: Peter Joyce
- Length: 9 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 16
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 15
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 15
Set in stifled, industrial Staffordshire in the late 19th century, against a strong evangelical background, Anna of the Five Towns tells of the courting of hard businessman Ephraim Tellright's daughter by prosperous and accomplished Henry Mynors. As her father's fortune grows, so does Anna understanding. She realises her legacy and responsibility for the possible ruination of her father's tenants, Titus Price and his son, Willie, who also loves her.
By: Arnold Bennett
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Golden Buddha
- By: Clive Cussler, Craig Dirgo
- Narrated by: J. Charles
- Length: 11 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 1,827
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 1,659
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 1,660
Juan Cabrillo's first adventure with the Oregon - a state-of-the-art spy ship disguised as a nondescript lumber hauler - takes him and his crew into dangerous waters as they try to put Tibet back in the hands of the Dalai Lama by striking a deal with the Russians and the Chinese.
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3 out of 5 stars
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Horrible Narrative
- By steve on 05-25-16
By: Clive Cussler, and others
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Cold Hand in Mine
- By: Robert Aickman
- Narrated by: Reece Shearsmith
- Length: 8 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 84
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 73
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 74
Cold Hand in Mine stands as one of Aickman's best collections and contains eight stories that show off his powers as a 'strange story' writer to the full. The listener is introduced to a variety of characters, from a man who spends the night in a Hospice to a German aristocrat and a woman who sees an image of her own soul. There is also a nod to the conventional vampire story ("Pages from a Young Girl's Journal") but all the stories remain unconventional and inconclusive, which perhaps makes them all the more startling and intriguing.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Aickman is unique
- By Stark on 08-19-23
By: Robert Aickman
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The P.G. Wodehouse Collection
- By: P. G. Wodehouse
- Narrated by: B. J. Harrison
- Length: 15 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 932
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 825
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 824
This title includes not only the entire audiobook of Right Ho, Jeeves, but also all of the P.G. Wodehouse titles in the current Classic Tales library. It also includes a Jeeves short story only available in the collection: "Extricating Young Gussie". The complete running time is over 15 hours. All titles have been remastered, and have never sounded better!
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1 out of 5 stars
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Don't buy this version of the wonderful Wodehouse stories
- By K Bell on 11-05-16
By: P. G. Wodehouse
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The House of the Dead
- By: Fyodor Dostoevsky
- Narrated by: Nicholas Boulton
- Length: 12 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 91
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 76
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 75
Completed six years after Dostoyevsky's own term as a convict, The House of the Dead is a semi-autobiographical account of life in a Siberian prison camp, and the physical and mental effects it has on those who are sentenced to inhabit it. Alexandr Petrovitch Goryanchikov, a gentleman of the noble class, has been condemned to 10 years of hard labor for murdering his wife.
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5 out of 5 stars
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This was FAR better than what I was expecting!
- By Savva on 05-12-20
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Miss Buncle's Book
- By: D. E. Stevenson
- Narrated by: Patricia Gallimore
- Length: 9 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 590
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 502
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 502
The scene of this entertaining story is laid in a charming English village. The plot centres round Miss Barbara Buncle, a maiden lady who was obliged to write a book because – as she naively explained – her dividends were so poor. Unfortunately, Miss Buncle had no imagination, so she wrote about her friends – quite kindly and truthfully, of course, for she was a benevolent and veracious soul.
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4 out of 5 stars
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A complete pleasure
- By Sara on 01-16-14
By: D. E. Stevenson
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Keep the Aspidistra Flying
- By: George Orwell
- Narrated by: Richard E. Grant
- Length: 9 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 216
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 193
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 189
Gordon Comstock loathes dull, middle-class respectability and worship of money. He gives up a 'good job' in advertising to work part-time in a bookshop, giving him more time to write. But he slides instead into a self-induced poverty that destroys his creativity and his spirit. Only Rosemary, ever-faithful Rosemary, has the strength to challenge his commitment to his chosen way of life.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Gordon's Grey World is Colored with Grant
- By Timothy on 09-25-11
By: George Orwell
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The Berlin Stories
- By: Christopher Isherwood
- Narrated by: Michael York
- Length: 2 hrs and 58 mins
- Abridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 277
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 229
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Story4 out of 5 stars 228
Christopher Isherwood's dramatized memoirs are prophetic images of a country preparing itself to embrace Hitler and the Third Reich. The Berlin Stories includes two works published together: The Last of Mr. Norris and Goodbye to Berlin. These modern classics reveal in poignant detail the tragedy of mid-20th-century Germany.
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2 out of 5 stars
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Nothing happens...
- By Tim Byers on 02-01-07
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Call the Midwife
- A Memoir of Birth, Joy, and Hard Times
- By: Jennifer Worth
- Narrated by: Nicola Barber
- Length: 12 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 9,306
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 8,379
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 8,353
At the age of 22, Jennifer Worth left her comfortable home to move into a convent and become a midwife in postwar London’s East End slums. The colorful characters she met while delivering babies all over London - from the plucky, warm-hearted nuns with whom she lived to the woman with 24 children who couldn't speak English to the prostitutes and dockers of the city’s seedier side - illuminate a fascinating time in history.
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5 out of 5 stars
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The best book I've listened to this year
- By Richard on 06-12-13
By: Jennifer Worth
What listeners say about The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story3 out of 5 stars
- Kenneth
- 09-15-11
Not a must read
As I find reading most politically inspired books, "The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists" is an extreme view. The author portrays all the capitalists as evil and greedy and the poor suffering working class as having no options. While hailing the greatness of socialism, Tressell neglects to take into account the nature of man to be greedy and lazy as well as ignoring that people may actually want to be different, have different things, travel, change their vocation or any other objection you may have to socialism. He just kind of sweeps them under the rug with a statement about how that wouldn't be necessary or simply wouldn't happen.
The story itself moved along pretty well. The characters were well thought out although a little one dimensional. It's not a long book so it was not too much of a drag to get through but don't expect any great philosophical revelations, it's mostly socialist propaganda with very little applicable material to today's society. It's been proven that socialism doesn't work so I kind of found it a moot point.
The narrator does a very good job and I rather enjoyed his performance. I would consider listening to him again.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- brent
- 09-02-15
revolutionary
one of those books like Lord of the Flies or 1984 that are still so relevant today
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3 people found this helpful