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The History of the Siege of Lisbon
- Narrated by: Robert Blumenfeld
- Length: 11 hrs and 26 mins
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The History of the Siege of Lisbon
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Publisher's summary
"If proofreaders were given their freedom and did not have their hands and feet tied by a mass of prohibitions more binding than the penal code, they would soon transform the face of the world, establish the kingdom of universal happiness, giving drink to the thirsty, food to the famished, peace to those who live in turmoil, joy to the sorrowful... for they would be able to do all these things simply by changing the words...." The power of the word is evident in Portuguese author José Saramago's novel, The History of the Siege of Lisbon. His protagonist, a proofreader named Raimundo Silva, adds a key word to a history of Portugal and thus rewrites not only the past, but also his own life.
Brilliantly translated from the Portuguese by Giovanni Pontiero, The History of the Siege of Lisbon is a meditation on the differences between historiography, historical fiction, and "stories inserted into history". The novel is really two stories in one: the reimagined history of the 1147 siege of Lisbon that Raimundo feels compelled to write and the story of Raimundo's life, including his unexpected love affair with the editor, Maria Sara. In Saramago's masterful hands, the strands of this complex tale weave together to create a satisfying whole.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Lost Master Work of The New World
- By tomasito on 02-28-17
By: Antonio Di Benedetto, and others
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The Betrothed
- By: Alessandro Manzoni
- Narrated by: Nicholas Boulton
- Length: 24 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 202
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 174
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 174
After the jealous tyrant Don Rodrigo foils their wedding, young Lombardian peasants Lucia and Lorenzo must separate and flee for their safety. Their difficult path to matrimony takes place against the turbulent backdrop of the Thirty Years War, where lawlessness and exploitation are at their height. Lucia takes refuge in a convent, where she is later abducted and taken on a nightmarish journey to a sinister castle, while Lorenzo goes to Milan, where he witnesses famine, riots, and plague - all evoked through meticulous description and with stunning immediacy.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Fantastic reading of a great work of literature
- By Pia Crosby on 03-25-19
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Blindness
- By: José Saramago
- Narrated by: Jonathan Davis
- Length: 12 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 2,574
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 2,114
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Story4 out of 5 stars 2,117
A city is hit by a sudden and strange epidemic of "white blindness", which spares no one. Authorities confine the blind to an empty mental hospital, but there social conventions quickly crumble and the struggle for survival brings out the worst in people.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Surrealistic
- By Richard Pesavento on 10-04-08
By: José Saramago
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Travels with Herodotus
- By: Ryszard Kapuscinski
- Narrated by: Nicolas Coster
- Length: 10 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 54
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 42
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 42
From renowned journalist Ryszard Kapuscinski comes this intimate account of his years in the field, traveling for the first time beyond the Iron Curtain to India, China, Ethiopia, and other exotic locales.
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4 out of 5 stars
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The father of journalism
- By James R. Modrall on 06-22-18
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The Count of Monte Cristo
- By: Alexandre Dumas
- Narrated by: Bill Homewood
- Length: 52 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars 18,958
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 17,329
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 17,287
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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The Ruby in Her Navel
- By: Barry Unsworth
- Narrated by: Andrew Sachs
- Length: 12 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 39
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 36
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 36
Thurstan, a young Norman and would-be Knight at the Court of King Roger in Palermo, has been in love since boyhood with Lady Alicia, now returned a widow from the Holy Land. Thurstan soon finds himself caught in a tangle of plots.
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5 out of 5 stars
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A Well-Earned Five Stars for this Gem
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By: Barry Unsworth
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Thus Bad Begins
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- Narrated by: Robert Fass
- Length: 16 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 47
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 38
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Story4 out of 5 stars 38
Madrid, 1980. Juan de Vere, nearly finished with his university degree, takes a job as personal assistant to Eduardo Muriel, an eccentric, once-successful film director. Urbane, discreet, irreproachable, Muriel is an irresistible idol to the young man. But Muriel's voluptuous wife, Beatriz, inhabits their home like an unwanted ghost, and on the periphery of their lives is Dr. Jorge Van Vechten, a family friend implicated in unsavory rumors that Muriel now asks Juan to investigate.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Fascinating plot, superb performance, psychological depth
- By Doctor George on 12-05-16
By: Javier Marias, and others
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The Phoenix Guards
- By: Steven Brust
- Narrated by: Kevin Stillwell
- Length: 16 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 391
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 357
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 356
Khaavren of the House of Tiassa is a son of landless nobility, possessor of a good sword and “tolerably well-acquainted with its use.” Along with three loyal friends, he enthusiastically seeks out danger and excitement. But in a realm renowned for repartee and betrayals, where power is as mutable as magic, a young man like Khaavren, newly come from the countryside, had best be wary. His life depends on it. And so does the future of Draegara.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Hands down my favorite audiobook now!
- By Thea & Eric on 08-06-12
By: Steven Brust
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The Castle
- By: Franz Kafka
- Narrated by: Allan Corduner
- Length: 13 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 142
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 121
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 119
A land-surveyor, known only as K., arrives at a small village permanently covered in snow and dominated by a castle to which access seems permanently denied. K.'s attempts to discover why he has been called constantly run up against the peasant villagers, who are in thrall to the absurd bureaucracy that keeps the castle shut, and the rigid hierarchy of power among the self-serving bureaucrats themselves.
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5 out of 5 stars
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A masculine and coquettish reading
- By Alan on 05-27-12
By: Franz Kafka
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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
-
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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Molloy
- By: Samuel Beckett
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- Length: 8 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 265
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 195
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 193
Written initially in French, later translated by the author into English, Molloy is the first book in Dublin-born Samuel Beckett's trilogy. It was published shortly after WWII and marked a new, mature writing style, which was to dominate the remainder of his working life. Molloy is less a novel than a set of two monologues narrated by Molloy and his pursuer, Moran.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Nauseating, boring, hilarious, and magnificent
- By Gene on 02-21-05
By: Samuel Beckett
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Aleph
- By: Paulo Coelho
- Narrated by: Mark Bramhall
- Length: 8 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 573
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 489
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Story4 out of 5 stars 489
Transform your life. Rewrite your destiny. his most personal novel to date, internationally best-selling author Paulo Coelho returns with a remarkable journey of self-discovery. Like the main character in his much-beloved The Alchemist, Paulo is facing a grave crisis of faith. As he seeks a path of spiritual renewal and growth, he decides to begin again: to travel, to experiment, to reconnect with people and the landscapes around him. Setting off to Africa, and then to Europe and Asia via the Trans-Siberian Railway, he initiates a journey to revitalize his energy and passion.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Strangely compelling read
- By Kathy in CA on 11-22-11
By: Paulo Coelho
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The Metamorphosis and Other Stories
- By: Franz Kafka
- Narrated by: George Guidall
- Length: 8 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 207
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 178
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 176
In the bizarre world of Franz Kafka, salesmen turn into giant bugs, apes give lectures at college academies, and nightmares probe the mysteries of modern humanity’s unhappiness. More than any other modern writer in world literature, Kafka captures the loneliness and misery that fill the lives of 20th-century humanity.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Great assortment of stories
- By Himanshu Modi on 08-20-18
By: Franz Kafka
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The King's Shadow
- Obsession, Betrayal, and the Deadly Quest for the Lost City of Alexandria
- By: Edmund Richardson
- Narrated by: Julian Elfer
- Length: 8 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 38
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 33
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 33
For centuries, the city of Alexandria Beneath the Mountains was a meeting point of East and West. Then it vanished. In 1833, it was discovered in Afghanistan by the unlikeliest person imaginable: Charles Masson, deserter, pilgrim, doctor, archaeologist, spy, one of the most respected scholars in Asia, and the greatest of nineteenth-century travelers.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Exquisite! A Transporting Tale
- By Meg on 05-02-22
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A Christmas Journey
- By: Anne Perry
- Narrated by: Terrence Hardiman
- Length: 3 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 906
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 830
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 824
It's Christmas and the well-born guests who have gathered at Applecross for a delicious weekend of relaxation are warmed by roaring fires, mistletoe, and gorgeously wrapped gifts. It's scarcely the setting for misfortune, and no one - not even that clever young aristocrat and budding sleuth Vespasia Cumming-Gould - anticipates the tragedy that is to darken this light-hearted holiday house party. But soon one young woman lies dead, a suicide, and Vespasia must uncover the heartbreaking truth behind the tragedy.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Never tire of Anne Perry
- By Joan on 12-22-17
By: Anne Perry
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What listeners say about The History of the Siege of Lisbon
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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Performance3 out of 5 stars
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Story2 out of 5 stars
- TiffanyD
- 08-06-18
Not for those who love a plot-driven novel
I want to love Saramago as much as I love Portugal. But his novels are so thin on plot that I struggle. This is my second attempt (Balthazar and Blimunda was my first) and I just can't do it. The rambling, the lack of chapters, the run-on sentences...I know this is about me and my preferences, but there you have it. If you love a novel with plot, consider finding a different Nobel Prize winner or a different Portuguese author.
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