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The Diamond
- Narrated by: Simon Vance
- Length: 13 hrs and 35 mins
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The Diamond
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Publisher's summary
Ambitiously conceived, rich with historical detail and nonstop drama, The Diamond is a towering work of imagination all the more fascinating for being based in fact.
Critic reviews
"[A] regal, multi-faceted feat of historical fiction" (Kirkus Reviews)
"The story is deftly told." (Booklist)
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-
Story4 out of 5 stars 44
Born Queen of Scotland, married as a young girl to the invalid young King of France, Mary took the reins of the unruly kingdom of Scotland as a young widow and fought to keep her throne. A second marriage to her handsome but dissolute cousin Lord Darnley ended in murder and scandal, while a third marriage to the dashing, commanding Lord Bothwell, the love of her life, gave her joy but widened the scandal and surrounded her with enduring ill repute.
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2 out of 5 stars
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Fiction being the key word
- By Bonnie-Ann B on 09-25-09
By: Carolly Erickson
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The Many Lives & Secret Sorrows of Josephine B.
- By: Sandra Gulland
- Narrated by: Kim Handysides
- Length: 14 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 60
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 49
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Story4 out of 5 stars 49
In this first of three books inspired by the life of Josephine Bonaparte, Sandra Gulland has created a novel of immense and magical proportions. We meet Josephine in the exotic and lush Martinico, where an old island woman predicts that one day she will be queen. The journey from the remote village of her birth to the height of European elegance is long, but Josephine's fortune proves to be true.
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3 out of 5 stars
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Performance...ugh
- By Lisa on 02-17-18
By: Sandra Gulland
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Sudden Death
- By: Álvaro Enrigue
- Narrated by: Robert Fass
- Length: 6 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 38
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 31
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Story4 out of 5 stars 31
Sudden Death begins with a brutal tennis match that could decide the fate of the world. The bawdy Italian painter Caravaggio and the loutish Spanish poet Quevedo battle it out before a crowd that includes Galileo, Mary Magdalene, and a generation of popes who would throw Europe into the flames. In England, Thomas Cromwell and Henry VIII behead Anne Boleyn, and her crafty executioner transforms her legendary locks into the most sought-after tennis balls of the time.
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5 out of 5 stars
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So erudite, so many good images and juxtapositions
- By Alnia Perpoz on 08-17-19
By: Álvaro Enrigue
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In the Name of the Family
- A Novel
- By: Sarah Dunant
- Narrated by: Nicholas Boulton
- Length: 14 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 356
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 326
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Story4 out of 5 stars 324
It is 1502, and Rodrigo Borgia, a self-confessed womanizer and master of political corruption, is now on the papal throne as Alexander VI. His daughter Lucrezia, age 22 - already three times married and a pawn in her father's plans - is discovering her own power. And then there is his son Cesare Borgia, brilliant, ruthless, and increasingly unstable; it is his relationship with Machiavelli that gives the Florentine diplomat a master class in the dark arts of power and politics.
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4 out of 5 stars
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One of the best historical fiction novels
- By GrandmaNurseHeather on 04-13-17
By: Sarah Dunant
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Mademoiselle Boleyn
- By: Robin Maxwell
- Narrated by: Suzan Crowley
- Length: 13 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 86
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 78
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Story4 out of 5 stars 78
When her father is assigned the task of spying on the French Court, the charming and sweetly innocent Anne Boleyn is delighted by the thought of a new adventure. And she is not to be disappointed, for her beautiful sister, Mary, has been handed a mission: to let herself be seduced by the King of France in order to uncover his secrets. Mesmerized by the thrilling passion, intrigue, and betrayal that unfolds, Anne discovers the power of being a woman who catches the eye of a powerful king.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Intriguing
- By Anonymous User on 11-10-18
By: Robin Maxwell
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To the Scaffold
- The Life of Marie Antoinette
- By: Carolly Erickson
- Narrated by: Davina Porter
- Length: 14 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 122
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 105
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 104
To this day Marie Antoinette remains one of history’s most misunderstood heroines. How she triumphed over the petty jealousies and backstairs rivalries of the court, how she sustained a good-hearted but malleable king, and how she was transformed from French queen to Austrian “whore,” is the story told with skill and fascinating detail.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Davina Porter is a treasure!
- By Missee on 04-08-19
By: Carolly Erickson
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The Secret Diary of Anne Boleyn
- By: Robin Maxwell
- Narrated by: Suzan Crowley
- Length: 13 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 262
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 239
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 240
Robin Maxwell’s debut novel introduces Anne Boleyn and her daughter, Elizabeth: one was queen for a thousand days, the other for more than 40 years. Both were passionate, headstrong women, loved and hated by Henry VIII. At the beginning of Elizabeth’s reign, her mother’s private diary is given to her by a mysterious lady. In reading it, the young ruler - herself embroiled in a dangerous love affair - discovers a great deal about her much maligned mother.
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5 out of 5 stars
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One of the Best Tudor Novels Availalbe
- By Bonnie-Ann on 03-02-13
By: Robin Maxwell
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The Iron King
- The Accursed Kings, Book 1
- By: Maurice Druon
- Narrated by: Peter Joyce
- Length: 11 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 656
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 602
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 601
From the publishers that brought you A Game of Thrones comes the series that inspired George R.R. Martin’s epic work. France became a great nation under Philip the Fair - but it was a greatness achieved at the expense of her people, for his was a reign characterised by violence, the scandalous adulteries of his daughters-in-law, and the triumph of royal authority.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Historical Goodie
- By Syd Young on 08-03-13
By: Maurice Druon
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Abundance
- A Novel of Marie Antoinette
- By: Sena Jeter Naslund
- Narrated by: Susanna Burney
- Length: 11 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 138
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 91
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Story4 out of 5 stars 91
Marie Antoinette was a child of 14 when she was made to leave her family and country to become the wife of another child, France's 15-year-old King Louis the XVI. Far from home and suddenly thrust not only into the role of a woman and wife, but of a queen, Marie Antoinette lived an astonishing, though short, existence.
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2 out of 5 stars
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Not for history fans
- By Cx30 on 12-09-06
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The Autobiography of Henry VIII
- By: Margaret George
- Narrated by: David Case
- Length: 41 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 680
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 512
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 513
Margaret George's novel brings into focus the larger-than-life King Henry VIII, monarch of prodigious appetites for wine, women, and song.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Perfection!
- By Amy M. Walts on 10-20-07
By: Margaret George
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Ambition and Desire
- The Dangerous Life of Josephine Bonaparte
- By: Kate Williams
- Narrated by: Corrie James
- Length: 14 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 46
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 42
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 41
Josephine de Beauharnais began as a kept woman of Paris and became the most powerful woman in France. She was no beauty; her teeth were rotten, and she was six years older than her husband, but one twitch of her skirt could bring running the man who terrorized Europe. The tale of Napoleon and Josephine is one of the most famous love stories in the world. With Josephine, Napoleon became the greatest man in Europe, the Supreme Emperor.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Thrilling, romantic, fascinating, and enlightening
- By Leon Miller on 03-30-17
By: Kate Williams
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The Queen of the Night
- By: Alexander Chee
- Narrated by: Lisa Flanagan
- Length: 19 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 499
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 454
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Story3.5 out of 5 stars 452
Lilliet Berne is a sensation of the Paris Opera, a legendary soprano with every accolade except an original role, every singer's chance at immortality. When one is finally offered to her, she realizes with alarm that the libretto is based on a hidden piece of her past. Only four could have betrayed her: one is dead, one loves her, one wants to own her. And one, she hopes, never thinks of her at all.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Not my typical choice
- By fadedcharacter on 02-15-16
By: Alexander Chee
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The Sisters of Versailles
- Mistresses of Versailles Series # 1
- By: Sally Christie
- Narrated by: Elizabeth Wiley
- Length: 15 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 327
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 294
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Story4 out of 5 stars 293
Set against the lavish backdrop of the French Court in the early years of the 18th century, The Sisters of Versailles is the extraordinary tale of the five Nesle sisters - Louise, Pauline, Diane, Hortense, and Marie-Anne - four of whom became mistresses to King Louis XV. Their scandalous story is stranger than fiction but true in every shocking, amusing, and heartbreaking detail.Court intriguers are beginning to sense that young King Louis XV, after seven years of marriage, is tiring of his Polish wife.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Best book I've listened to in ages
- By Dr. A. on 01-09-16
By: Sally Christie
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Quillifer
- Quillifer, Book 1
- By: Walter Jon Williams
- Narrated by: Ralph Lister
- Length: 18 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 160
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 148
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 147
Quillifer is young, serially in love, studying law, and living each day keenly aware that his beloved homeport of Ethlebight risks closure due to silting of the harbor. His concerns for the future become much more immediate when he returns from a summery assignation to find his city attacked by Aekoi pirates, leading to brigands in the streets and his family and friends in chains.
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5 out of 5 stars
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The opposite of George R R Martin (in a good way)
- By A reader on 10-30-17
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The Leopard
- A Novel
- By: Giuseppe di Lampedusa, Archibald Colquhuon - translator
- Narrated by: Paul Woodson
- Length: 9 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 89
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 74
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Story4 out of 5 stars 73
Set in the 1860s, The Leopard tells the spellbinding story of a decadent, dying Sicilian aristocracy threatened by the approaching forces of democracy and revolution. The dramatic sweep and richness of observation, the seamless intertwining of public and private worlds, and the grasp of human frailty imbue The Leopard with its particular melancholy beauty and power, and place it among the greatest historical novels of our time.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Timeless
- By Robert Massarella on 12-05-23
By: Giuseppe di Lampedusa, and others