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Father Goriot
- Narrated by: Bill Homewood
- Length: 12 hrs
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Father Goriot
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Publisher's summary
Impoverished young aristocrat Eugene de Rastignac is determined to climb the social ladder and impress himself on Parisian high society. While staying at the Maison Vauquer, a boarding house in Paris's rue Neuve-Sainte-Genevieve, he encounters Jean-Joachim Goriot, a retired vermicelli maker who has spent his entire fortune supporting his two daughters. The boarders strike up a friendship and Goriot learns of Rastignac's feelings for his daughter Delphine. He begins to see Rastignac as the ideal son-in-law, and the perfect substitute for Delphine's domineering husband. But Rastignac has other opportunities too, as the notorious criminal Vautrin, "The Death Dodger", offers to murder the brother of a wealthy woman, giving the ambitious young lawyer a clear path to her fortune. Profound and realistic, Father Goriot is a startling glimpse into the vanity and selfishness of 19th-century Paris. It is considered one of the finest works of Balzac's La Comedie Humaine.
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- By Tad on 04-27-12
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The Count of Monte Cristo (Dramatized)
- By: Orson Welles
- Narrated by: Orson Welles
- Length: 59 mins
- Original Recording
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 55
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 43
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 45
Starring Orson Welles, Anges Moorehead, and Ray Collins, The Count of Monte Cristo is a tale of revenge and retribution. Edmond Dantès, a young, energetic sailor, is falsely accused of treason on his wedding day and incarcerated in the forbidding Château d'If. His escape and ultimate revenge on those who wronged him makes this one of the most thrilling stories in French literature, as compelling now as when it was first published in 1846.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Excellent
- By Stefanie on 05-19-14
By: Orson Welles
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Middlemarch
- By: George Eliot
- Narrated by: Juliet Stevenson
- Length: 35 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 5,130
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 4,652
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 4,615
Dorothea Brooke is an ardent idealist who represses her vivacity and intelligence for the cold, theological pedant Casaubon. One man understands her true nature: the artist Will Ladislaw. But how can love triumph against her sense of duty and Casaubon’s mean spirit? Meanwhile, in the little world of Middlemarch, the broader world is mirrored: the world of politics, social change, and reforms, as well as betrayal, greed, blackmail, ambition, and disappointment.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Best Audible book ever
- By Molly-o on 12-25-11
By: George Eliot
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The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby
- By: Charles Dickens
- Narrated by: Simon Vance
- Length: 30 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 348
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 298
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 291
The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby is closely modelled on the 18h-century novels that Charles Dickens loved as a child, such as Robinson Crusoe, in which the fortunes of a hero shape the plot. The likeable young Nicholas, left penniless on the death of his father, sets off in search of better prospects.
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5 out of 5 stars
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loved it much more than expected!
- By Blue Ridge Book Lover on 05-29-12
By: Charles Dickens
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The Count of Monte Cristo
- By: Alexandre Dumas
- Narrated by: Bill Homewood
- Length: 52 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall5 out of 5 stars 19,329
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 17,668
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Story5 out of 5 stars 17,626
On the eve of his marriage to the beautiful Mercedes, having that very day been made captain of his ship, the young sailor Edmond Dantès is arrested on a charge of treason, trumped up by jealous rivals. Incarcerated for many lonely years in the isolated and terrifying Chateau d'If near Marseille, he meticulously plans his brilliant escape and extraordinary revenge.
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4 out of 5 stars
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This is the one to spend 50 hours listening to!
- By james on 03-05-13
By: Alexandre Dumas
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North and South
- By: Elizabeth Gaskell
- Narrated by: Juliet Stevenson
- Length: 18 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 7,342
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 6,534
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 6,538
Written at the request of Charles Dickens, North and South is a book about rebellion that poses fundamental questions about the nature of social authority and obedience. Gaskell expertly blends individual feeling with social concern and her heroine, Margaret Hale, is one of the most original creations of Victorian literature. When Margaret Hale's father leaves the Church in a crisis of conscience she is forced to leave her comfortable home in the tranquil countryside of Hampshire....
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5 out of 5 stars
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Delightful
- By Sally on 01-04-10
![The Brothers Karamazov [Naxos AudioBooks Edition] Audiobook By Constance Garnett - translator, Fyodor Dostoevsky cover art](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51DpA-g11JL._SL320_.jpg)
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The Brothers Karamazov [Naxos AudioBooks Edition]
- By: Constance Garnett - translator, Fyodor Dostoevsky
- Narrated by: Constantine Gregory
- Length: 37 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 5,779
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 5,193
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 5,177
Fyodor Dostoyevsky is a titanic figure among the world's great authors, and The Brothers Karamazov is often hailed as his finest novel. A masterpiece on many levels, it transcends the boundaries of a gripping murder mystery to become a moving account of the battle between love and hate, faith and despair, compassion and cruelty, good and evil.
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5 out of 5 stars
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A Spiritual and Philosophical Tour-de-Force
- By Rich on 02-27-16
By: Constance Garnett - translator, and others
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Dombey and Son
- By: Charles Dickens
- Narrated by: Frederick Davidson
- Length: 36 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 123
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 68
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 66
In this carefully crafted novel, Dickens reveals the complexity of London society in the enterprising 1840s as he takes the listener into the business firm and home of one of its most representative patriarchs, Paul Dombey.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Perfect pair
- By Philip on 03-25-08
By: Charles Dickens
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The Good Soldier
- By: Ford Madox Ford
- Narrated by: Frank Muller
- Length: 6 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 196
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 148
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Story4 out of 5 stars 147
On the face of it Captain Edward Ashburnham's life was unimpeachable. But behind the mask where passion seethes, the captain's "good" life was rotting away.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Treachery in the Troops
- By Mel on 01-08-15
By: Ford Madox Ford
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Anna Karenina
- By: Leo Tolstoy
- Narrated by: David Horovitch
- Length: 38 hrs
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 2,990
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 2,557
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 2,545
Anna Karenina seems to have everything - beauty, wealth, popularity and an adored son. But she feels that her life is empty until the moment she encounters the impetuous officer Count Vronsky.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Beautiful story, amazing narration
- By Marcus Vorwaller on 08-02-08
By: Leo Tolstoy
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The Posthumous Memoirs of Brás Cubas
- By: Joaquim Maria Machado de Assis
- Narrated by: Edoardo Camponeschi
- Length: 7 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 43
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 32
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Story4 out of 5 stars 32
Joaquim Maria Machado de Assis (1839-1908) was the greatest writer ever to come from Brazil and one of the masters of nineteenth-century fiction. Susan Sontag calls him "the greatest writer ever produced in Latin America", surpassing even Borges. Harold Bloom says that Machado is "the supreme black literary artist to date". And Allen Ginsburg calls him "another Kafka". And The Posthumous Memoirs of Bras Cubas is his masterpiece, a dazzling, tragic, and profound novel that belongs next to the greatest works of his contemporaries Melville and Dostoevsky.
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5 out of 5 stars
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A hidden masterpiece
- By C. Park on 08-09-18
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Oblomov
- By: Ivan Goncharov
- Narrated by: Leighton Pugh
- Length: 20 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall5 out of 5 stars 83
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 74
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 74
A member of the landed gentry, with a seemingly guaranteed income from his estate in the country, Oblomov lives in Petersburg, uninterested in the business that provides his living and barely aware that the revenue is diminishing. Not that he leads a dissolute life of extravagance, balls and entertainment. Instead he is a dreamer, a sybarite, content above all to spend most of the day supine, in bed. The novel opens with Oblomov thus ensconced, attended only by his dirty, grumbling, indolent servant Zahar, who has looked after him since childhood, catering to his every need.
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5 out of 5 stars
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funny and smart
- By Bennett Weiss on 07-29-20
By: Ivan Goncharov
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Anna Karenina
- By: Leo Tolstoy
- Narrated by: Lorna Raver
- Length: 39 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 166
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 138
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Story4 out of 5 stars 137
Vladimir Nabokov called Leo Tolstoy's Anna Karenina "one of the greatest love stories in world literature." Set in imperial Russia, Anna Karenina is a rich and complex meditation on passionate love and disastrous infidelity. Married to a powerful government minister, Anna Karenina is a beautiful woman who falls deeply in love with a wealthy army officer, the elegant Count Vronsky.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Not good dramatization but an ok reading
- By Bookoholics Anon on 05-07-11
By: Leo Tolstoy
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Mary Barton
- A Tale of Manchester Life
- By: Elizabeth Gaskell
- Narrated by: Juliet Stevenson
- Length: 16 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 1,094
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 994
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 986
When her father assassinates Henry Carson, his employer's son and Mary's admirer, suspicion falls on Mary's second admirer, Jem, a fellow worker. Mary has to prove her lover's innocence without incriminating her own father.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Mrs. Gaskell was so far ahead of her time
- By Pat on 08-20-13
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Jude The Obscure
- By: Thomas Hardy
- Narrated by: Stephen Thorne
- Length: 15 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 254
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 206
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Story4 out of 5 stars 205
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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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 71
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5 out of 5 stars
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 58
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 48
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Story4 out of 5 stars 48
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3 out of 5 stars
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Unpleasant people
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By: Honoré de Balzac
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- By: Honoré de Balzac
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