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In Praise of Shadows
- Narrated by: David Rintoul
- Length: 1 hr and 28 mins
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In Praise of Shadows
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"Were it not for shadows there would be no beauty."
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The popular translation by Thomas J. Harper and Edward G. Seidensticker is essential listening for anyone interested in Japan and Japanese culture.
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 888
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Story4 out of 5 stars 893
Fantasy, love and an exuberant celebration of English life and literature, Orlando is a uniquely entertaining story. Originally conceived by Virginia Woolf as a playful tribute to the family of her friend and lover, Vita Sackville-West, Orlando's central character, a fictional embodiment of Sackville-West, changes sex from a man to a woman and lives throughout the centuries, whilst meeting historical figures of English literature.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Magical
- By Mayca on 05-31-05
By: Virginia Woolf
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April of Enchantment
- By: Jennifer Blake
- Narrated by: Holly Fielding
- Length: 5 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 43
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 37
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Story4 out of 5 stars 37
Laura Nichols was always up for a challenge and the job Justin Roman has offered her is the perfect showcase for her talents. Not only was he dubious of her ability to complete the restoration of his Louisiana mansion in time for his wedding, but she was also frustrated by his arrogance tempered only by his good looks. But if he is so doubtful of her then why does he give her full artistic license even when it obviously angers his fiancé? Laura dives into the job, determined to prove the maddening man wrong.
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1 out of 5 stars
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Narrator, No!
- By Priss on 04-26-21
By: Jennifer Blake
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The End of the Story
- By: Clark Ashton Smith
- Narrated by: Josh Greenwood
- Length: 44 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall0 out of 5 stars 0
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Performance0 out of 5 stars 0
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Story0 out of 5 stars 0
In “The End of the Story” by Clark Ashton Smith, mysterious passion and ardor lead us through forbidden manuscripts, mystical encounters, and matters of the heart. Set in 17th-century France, young law student Christophe Morand discovers the tale of Gerard de Venteillon, a knight seduced by a lamia dwelling in the ruins of Chateau des Faussesflammes near Perigon. Will Morand share his fate? The choice between heart and the abbot’s counsel becomes pivotal, and the enigmatic woman continues to tempt.
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The Great God Pan
- Esoteric Classics: Occult Fiction
- By: Arthur Machen
- Narrated by: Shea Taylor
- Length: 2 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 162
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 146
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 144
Machen's novella The Great God Pan is often cited as one of Lovecraft's most notable influences. In it, Dr. Raymond's ultimate goal is to devise a way to open the mind of man so that he may experience all the world has to offer. He calls this "seeing the great god Pan". After much study of the human mind, he devises an experiment that involves minor brain surgery. He performs this experiment on a young woman named Mary, but when she awakens she is terrified and mentally crippled.
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5 out of 5 stars
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classic horror
- By Shantee on 05-04-16
By: Arthur Machen
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Beauty and Sadness
- By: Yasunari Kawabata
- Narrated by: Brian Nishii
- Length: 5 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 128
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 103
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Story4 out of 5 stars 105
Returning to Kyoto, where temple bells announce the New Year, a grave and penitent Oki is drawn to a haunting obsession from his past. Gently lyrical, yet fierce with the stark intensity of passion, Kawabata's last novel tells the story of the lasting consequences of a brief love affair.
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4 out of 5 stars
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nostalgic literature from Japan
- By Emily on 10-29-10
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Time Pieces
- A Dublin Memoir
- By: John Banville
- Narrated by: John Lee
- Length: 4 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 31
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 26
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 26
As much about the life of the city as it is about a life lived, sometimes, in the city, John Banville's "quasi-memoir" is as layered, emotionally rich, witty, and unexpected as any of his novels. Born and bred in a small town a train ride away from Dublin, Banville saw the city as a place of enchantment when he was a child, a birthday treat, the place where his beloved, eccentric aunt lived.
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5 out of 5 stars
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‘loved it!
- By SandyK on 02-24-24
By: John Banville
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The Gift
- By: Vladimir Nabokov
- Narrated by: Stefan Rudnicki
- Length: 15 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 51
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 40
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Story4 out of 5 stars 42
The Gift is the last of the novels Nabokov wrote in his native language and the crowning achievement of that period in his literary career. It is also his ode to Russian literature, evoking the works of Pushkin, Gogol, and others in the course of its narrative: the story of Fyodor Godunov-Cherdyntsev, an impoverished émigré poet living in Berlin, who dreams of the book he will someday write - a book very much like The Gift itself.
One of the twentieth century’s master prose stylists, Vladimir Nabokov was born in St. Petersburg in 1899.
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4 out of 5 stars
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A complex and rich Künstlerroman
- By Darwin8u on 11-30-13
By: Vladimir Nabokov
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The Waves
- By: Virginia Woolf
- Narrated by: Frances Jeater
- Length: 8 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 189
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 174
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 175
The Waves traces the lives of six friends from childhood to old age. It was written when Virginia Woolf was at the height of her experimental powers, and she allows each character to tell their own story, through powerful, poetic monologues. By listening to these voices struggling to impose order and meaning on their lives, we are drawn into a literary journey that stunningly reproduces the complex, confusing and contradictory nature of human experience. It is read with affection and skill by Frances Jeater.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Not an easy read but worth it
- By Lena on 03-26-16
By: Virginia Woolf
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The Fairy Tales of Herman Hesse
- By: Hermann Hesse, Jack Zipes - translator
- Narrated by: Donovan
- Length: 2 hrs and 53 mins
- Highlights
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 71
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 53
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 55
Step into a world of visions, philosophy, and passion in which dreamers, seekers, princesses, and wandering poets dwell. The 6 wonderful, romantic tales in this collection are reminiscent of ancient Oriental and German fairy tales. The selections, "The Poet," "The Flute Dream," "The Dwarf," "Faldum," "Ziegler," and "Dream of the Gods" were hand-picked by the narrator, legendary folk and rock musician Donovan.
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5 out of 5 stars
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The reading is quiet and heavenly
- By Atalante Lemuria on 11-12-20
By: Hermann Hesse, and others
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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 102
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 86
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Story4 out of 5 stars 85
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
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The Book of Tea
- By: Okakura Kakuzo
- Narrated by: Ken Cohen
- Length: 2 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 94
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 81
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 80
The Book of Tea is much more than a book about tea. It's a celebration of the arts and culture of Japan, and a portrait of tea ceremony, the "Way of Tea", as the pinnacle of Japanese spirituality and artistic life. Written in 1906 by Kakuzo Okakura, curator of Chinese and Japanese Art at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts and a noted scholar and art critic, this modern classic traces the history of tea from its early medicinal uses in China, through the development of Chinese tea culture, and finally to the role of tea in Japanese Zen, culture, and politics.
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5 out of 5 stars
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A moving narration of The Book of Tea
- By DanielA on 01-17-16
By: Okakura Kakuzo
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The Book of Disquiet
- By: Fernando Pessoa
- Narrated by: Adam Sims
- Length: 17 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 147
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 121
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 119
Assembled from notes and jottings left unpublished at the time of the author’s death, The Book of Disquiet is a collection of aphoristic prose-poetry musings on dreams, solitude, time and memory. Credited to Pessoa’s alter ego, Bernardo Soares, who chronicles his contemplations in this so-called "factless" autobiography, the work is a journey of one man’s soul and, by extension, of all human souls that allow their minds and hearts to roam far and free.
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5 out of 5 stars
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The book that saved my life
- By Hutchinson on 03-09-21
By: Fernando Pessoa
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Pale Fire
- By: Vladimir Nabokov
- Narrated by: Marc Vietor, Robert Blumenfeld
- Length: 9 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 536
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 453
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Story4 out of 5 stars 454
A 999 line poem in heroic couplets, divided into 4 cantos, was composed - according to Nabokov's fiction - by John Francis Shade, an obsessively methodical man, during the last 20 days of his life.
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5 out of 5 stars
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An amazing feat for such a unique novel
- By AmazonCustomer on 03-27-12
By: Vladimir Nabokov
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The Loved One
- By: Evelyn Waugh
- Narrated by: Simon Prebble
- Length: 3 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 106
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 87
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Story4 out of 5 stars 88
Following the death of a friend, the poet and pets' mortician Dennis Barlow finds himself entering the artificial Hollywood paradise of the Whispering Glades Memorial Park. Within its golden gates, death, American-style, is wrapped up and sold like a package holiday - and Dennis gets drawn into a bizarre love triangle with Aimée Thanatogenos, a naïve Californian corpse beautician, and Mr. Joyboy, a master of the embalmer's art.
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2 out of 5 stars
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Satire? Or just mean spirited?
- By 🔥 Phx17 🔥 on 02-08-23
By: Evelyn Waugh
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The Book of Tea
- By: Okakura Kakuzo
- Narrated by: Ken Cohen
- Length: 2 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 94
-
Performance4 out of 5 stars 81
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 80
The Book of Tea is much more than a book about tea. It's a celebration of the arts and culture of Japan, and a portrait of tea ceremony, the "Way of Tea", as the pinnacle of Japanese spirituality and artistic life. Written in 1906 by Kakuzo Okakura, curator of Chinese and Japanese Art at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts and a noted scholar and art critic, this modern classic traces the history of tea from its early medicinal uses in China, through the development of Chinese tea culture, and finally to the role of tea in Japanese Zen, culture, and politics.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
A moving narration of The Book of Tea
- By DanielA on 01-17-16
By: Okakura Kakuzo
-
Sita: A Tale of Ancient Love
- By: Bhanumathi Narasimhan
- Narrated by: Anahita Uberoi
- Length: 9 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars 5
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 4
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 5
Sita, the beloved princess of Mithila, is one of the most revered women in Indian history; so well known, yet probably the least understood. At every crossroad of her life, she chose acceptance and grace over self-pity. Her life was filled with sacrifice yet wherever she was, there was abundance. It was as if she was carved out of an intense longing for Rama, yet she had infinite patience.
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5 out of 5 stars
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amazing.
- By Dillon on 01-17-23
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Doing Harm
- By: Maya Dusenbery
- Narrated by: Dara Rosenberg
- Length: 13 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 158
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 137
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 137
Editor of the award-winning site Feministing.com, Maya Dusenbery brings together scientific and sociological research, interviews with experts within and outside the medical establishment, and personal stories from women across the country to provide the first comprehensive, accessible look at how sexism in medicine harms women today.