-
In the Penal Colony
- Narrated by: Peter Yearsley
- Length: 1 hr and 5 mins
Failed to add items
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
Prime members: New to Audible?Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
In the Penal Colony
Buy for $6.95
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
Listeners also enjoyed...
-
The Trial
- By: Franz Kafka
- Narrated by: George Guidall
- Length: 8 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 753
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 562
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 567
If Max Brod had obeyed Franz Kafka's dying request, Kafka's unpublished manuscripts would have been burned, unread. Fortunately, Brod ignored his friend's wishes and published The Trial, which became the author's most famous work. Now Kafka's enigmatic novel regains its humor and stylistic elegance in a new translation based on the restored original manuscript.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
We are all the straw that breaks a camel's back
- By Dan Harlow on 10-14-13
By: Franz Kafka
-
A Hunger Artist
- By: Franz Kafka
- Narrated by: Cori Samuel
- Length: 28 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars 41
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 34
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 35
A Hunger Artist. the last book Kafka prepared for publication, was printed after Kafka's death. The protagonist, a hunger artist who experiences the decline in appreciation of his craft, is an archetypical creation of Kafka: an individual marginalized and victimized by society at large.
By: Franz Kafka
-
Metamorphosis
- A BBC Radio 4 Reading
- By: Franz Kafka
- Narrated by: Benedict Cumberbatch
- Length: 1 hr and 38 mins
- Abridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 1,184
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 1,030
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 1,022
Benedict Cumberbatch reads the enduring classic of Franz Kafka's Metamorphosis. Gregor Samsa wakes to discover that he has turned into a large, monstrous insect-like creature. He attempts to adjust to his new condition as he deals with being burdensome to his parents and sister, who are repelled by the horrible creature he has become. First published in 1915, Kafka's darkly comic novella explores concepts such as the absurdity of life, alienation and the disconnect between mind and body.
-
3 out of 5 stars
-
Disappointed
- By Jonas Jones on 03-05-19
By: Franz Kafka
-
The Country Doctor
- By: Franz Kafka
- Narrated by: Glenn Hascall
- Length: 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 21
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 19
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 18
An odd but well-loved short story following steps into madness. A country doctor has had more work than he can handle, and the stress seems to have taken him to a place that seems as at home in nightmares as in the madness of an overworked mind. Kafka's work often lends itself to the turmoil of the human mind. In this respect the story does not fail to impress.
By: Franz Kafka
-
The Metamorphosis
- A New Translation by Susan Bernofsky
- By: Franz Kafka, Susan Bernofsky - translator
- Narrated by: Edoardo Ballerini, Victor Bevine, Christa Lewis
- Length: 2 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 950
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 837
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 835
Franz Kafka's 1915 novella of unexplained horror and nightmarish transformation became a worldwide classic and remains a century later one of the most widely read works of fiction in the world. It is the story of traveling salesman Gregor Samsa, who wakes one morning to find himself transformed into a monstrous insect. This hugely influential work inspired George Orwell, Albert Camus, Jorge Louis Borges, and Ray Bradbury, while continuing to unsettle millions of readers.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Mysterious and beautiful
- By Tad Davis on 05-02-15
By: Franz Kafka, and others
![The Trial [Alpha DVD] Audiobook By Franz Kafka cover art](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/61lMGXPrdHL._SL320_.jpg)
-
The Trial [Alpha DVD]
- By: Franz Kafka
- Narrated by: Dick Hill
- Length: 8 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 182
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 144
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 149
Josef K. is an ordinary man who is arrested on his 30th birthday. He is prosecuted by a remote, inaccessible authority, yet the nature of his crime is never revealed to him. One year after his arrest he is executed. His last words describe his own death: "Like a dog!"
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Dick Hill's narration makes it special!
- By Wayne on 05-29-20
By: Franz Kafka
-
The Trial
- By: Franz Kafka
- Narrated by: George Guidall
- Length: 8 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 753
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 562
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 567
If Max Brod had obeyed Franz Kafka's dying request, Kafka's unpublished manuscripts would have been burned, unread. Fortunately, Brod ignored his friend's wishes and published The Trial, which became the author's most famous work. Now Kafka's enigmatic novel regains its humor and stylistic elegance in a new translation based on the restored original manuscript.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
We are all the straw that breaks a camel's back
- By Dan Harlow on 10-14-13
By: Franz Kafka
-
A Hunger Artist
- By: Franz Kafka
- Narrated by: Cori Samuel
- Length: 28 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars 41
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 34
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 35
A Hunger Artist. the last book Kafka prepared for publication, was printed after Kafka's death. The protagonist, a hunger artist who experiences the decline in appreciation of his craft, is an archetypical creation of Kafka: an individual marginalized and victimized by society at large.
By: Franz Kafka
-
Metamorphosis
- A BBC Radio 4 Reading
- By: Franz Kafka
- Narrated by: Benedict Cumberbatch
- Length: 1 hr and 38 mins
- Abridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 1,184
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 1,030
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 1,022
Benedict Cumberbatch reads the enduring classic of Franz Kafka's Metamorphosis. Gregor Samsa wakes to discover that he has turned into a large, monstrous insect-like creature. He attempts to adjust to his new condition as he deals with being burdensome to his parents and sister, who are repelled by the horrible creature he has become. First published in 1915, Kafka's darkly comic novella explores concepts such as the absurdity of life, alienation and the disconnect between mind and body.
-
3 out of 5 stars
-
Disappointed
- By Jonas Jones on 03-05-19
By: Franz Kafka
-
The Country Doctor
- By: Franz Kafka
- Narrated by: Glenn Hascall
- Length: 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 21
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 19
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 18
An odd but well-loved short story following steps into madness. A country doctor has had more work than he can handle, and the stress seems to have taken him to a place that seems as at home in nightmares as in the madness of an overworked mind. Kafka's work often lends itself to the turmoil of the human mind. In this respect the story does not fail to impress.
By: Franz Kafka
-
The Metamorphosis
- A New Translation by Susan Bernofsky
- By: Franz Kafka, Susan Bernofsky - translator
- Narrated by: Edoardo Ballerini, Victor Bevine, Christa Lewis
- Length: 2 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 950
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 837
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 835
Franz Kafka's 1915 novella of unexplained horror and nightmarish transformation became a worldwide classic and remains a century later one of the most widely read works of fiction in the world. It is the story of traveling salesman Gregor Samsa, who wakes one morning to find himself transformed into a monstrous insect. This hugely influential work inspired George Orwell, Albert Camus, Jorge Louis Borges, and Ray Bradbury, while continuing to unsettle millions of readers.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Mysterious and beautiful
- By Tad Davis on 05-02-15
By: Franz Kafka, and others
-
The Trial [Alpha DVD]
- By: Franz Kafka
- Narrated by: Dick Hill
- Length: 8 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 182
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 144
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 149
Josef K. is an ordinary man who is arrested on his 30th birthday. He is prosecuted by a remote, inaccessible authority, yet the nature of his crime is never revealed to him. One year after his arrest he is executed. His last words describe his own death: "Like a dog!"
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Dick Hill's narration makes it special!
- By Wayne on 05-29-20
By: Franz Kafka
-
Amerika
- The Missing Person: A New Translation by Mark Harman Based on the Restored Text
- By: Franz Kafka
- Narrated by: George Guidall
- Length: 9 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 94
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 75
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 72
A Brilliant new translation of the great writer's least Kafkaesque novel, based on a German-language text that was produced by a team of international scholars and that is more faithful to Kafka's original manuscript than anything we have had before. With the same expert balance of precision and nuance that marked his translation of Kafka's The Castle, the award-winning translator Mark Harman now restores the humor and particularity of language to Amerika.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
ha ha ha this is terrific
- By tom on 01-29-14
By: Franz Kafka
-
The Stranger
- By: Albert Camus
- Narrated by: Jonathan Davis
- Length: 3 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 5,898
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 4,811
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 4,802
Albert Camus' The Stranger is one of the most widely read novels in the world, with millions of copies sold. It stands as perhaps the greatest existentialist tale ever conceived, and is certainly one of the most important and influential books ever produced. Now, for the first time, this revered masterpiece is available as an unabridged audio production.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
Is amorality bad?
- By Rolando on 03-10-14
By: Albert Camus
-
The Plague
- By: Albert Camus
- Narrated by: James Jenner
- Length: 10 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 1,988
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 1,605
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 1,612
In the small coastal city of Oran, Algeria, rats begin rising up from the filth, only to die as bloody heaps in the streets. Shortly after, an outbreak of the bubonic plague erupts and envelops the human population. Albert Camus' The Plague is a brilliant and haunting rendering of human perseverance and futility in the face of a relentless terror born of nature.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
Translator Please!
- By Placeholder on 06-04-11
By: Albert Camus
-
The Metamorphosis and Other Stories
- By: Franz Kafka
- Narrated by: George Guidall
- Length: 8 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 207
-
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.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
Great assortment of stories
- By Himanshu Modi on 08-20-18
By: Franz Kafka
-
Slaughterhouse-Five
- By: Kurt Vonnegut
- Narrated by: James Franco
- Length: 5 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 18,539
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 16,580
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 16,555
Traumatized by the bombing of Dresden at the time he had been imprisoned, Pilgrim drifts through all events and history, sometimes deeply implicated, sometimes a witness. He is surrounded by Vonnegut's usual large cast of continuing characters (notably here the hack science fiction writer Kilgore Trout and the alien Tralfamadorians, who oversee his life and remind him constantly that there is no causation, no order, no motive to existence).
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
Don't Quit Your Daytime Job, James
- By Keith on 11-20-15
By: Kurt Vonnegut
-
One Hundred Years of Solitude
- By: Gabriel García Márquez, Gregory Rabassa - translator
- Narrated by: John Lee
- Length: 14 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 6,126
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 5,367
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 5,369
One of the 20th century's enduring works, One Hundred Years of Solitude is a widely beloved and acclaimed novel known throughout the world and the ultimate achievement in a Nobel Prize-winning career. The novel tells the story of the rise and fall of the mythical town of Macondo through the history of the Buendía family. Rich and brilliant, it is a chronicle of life, death, and the tragicomedy of humankind. In the beautiful, ridiculous, and tawdry story of the Buendía family, one sees all of humanity, just as in the history, myths, growth, and decay of Macondo, one sees all of Latin America.
-
1 out of 5 stars
-
What in the heck happened?????
- By Melinda on 02-05-14
By: Gabriel García Márquez, and others
-
Notes from the Underground
- By: Fyodor Dostoevsky
- Narrated by: Simon Vance
- Length: 4 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 1,457
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 1,261
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 1,253
A predecessor to such monumental works such as Crime and Punishment and The Brothers Karamazov, Notes From Underground represents a turning point in Dostoyevsky's writing towards the more political side.
In this work, we follow the unnamed narrator of the story, who, disillusioned by the oppression and corruption of the society in which he lives, withdraws from that society into the underground.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Awful hero, great narrator
- By Tad Davis on 10-13-09
-
Civilization and Its Discontents
- By: Sigmund Freud
- Narrated by: Steven Crossley
- Length: 3 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 553
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 462
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 455
First published in 1930, Civilization and Its Discontents is one of the most influential works of pioneering psychologist Sigmund Freud. Focusing on the tension between the primitive drives of the individual and the demands of civilization for order and conformity, Freud draws upon his psychoanalytic theories to explain the fundamental structures, conflicts, and consequences of society.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
Don't conform
- By Sam Motes on 03-26-14
By: Sigmund Freud
-
The Bell Jar
- By: Sylvia Plath
- Narrated by: Maggie Gyllenhaal
- Length: 7 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 8,589
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 7,667
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 7,638
The Bell Jar chronicles the crack-up of Esther Greenwood: brilliant, beautiful, enormously talented, and successful but slowly going under - maybe for the last time. Sylvia Plath masterfully draws the reader into Esther's breakdown with such intensity that Esther's insanity becomes completely real and even rational, as probable and accessible an experience as going to the movies. Such deep penetration into the dark and harrowing corners of the psyche is an extraordinary accomplishment and has made The Bell Jar a haunting American classic.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
A must-read for every woman
- By Julie W. Capell on 05-06-16
By: Sylvia Plath
-
The Cave and the Light
- Plato Versus Aristotle, and the Struggle for the Soul of Western Civilization
- By: Arthur Herman
- Narrated by: Paul Hecht
- Length: 25 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 508
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 444
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 443
The Cave and the Light reveals how two Greek philosophers became the twin fountainheads of Western culture, and how their rivalry gave Western civilization its unique dynamism down to the present.
-
1 out of 5 stars
-
All of Western Philosphy Leads to Ayn Rand?!?
- By Leslie on 06-22-15
By: Arthur Herman
-
The Once and Future King
- By: T. H. White
- Narrated by: Neville Jason
- Length: 33 hrs
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 5,446
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 4,792
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 4,794
The complete "box set" of T. H. White's epic fantasy novel of the Arthurian legend. The novel is made up of five parts: "The Sword in the Stone", "The Witch in the Wood", "The Ill-Made Knight", "The Candle in the Wind", and "The Book of Merlyn".
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
My favorite book this year.
- By Robert on 12-13-12
By: T. H. White
-
Collected Fictions
- By: Jorge Luis Borges, Andrew Hurley - translator
- Narrated by: George Guidall
- Length: 5 hrs and 14 mins
- Abridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 559
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 459
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 461
From his 1935 debut with "The Universal History of Iniquity", through his immensely influential collections Ficciones and The Aleph, these enigmatic, elaborate, imaginative inventions display Borges' talent for turning fiction on its head by playing with form and genre and toying with language.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
Good but incomplete
- By Aaron on 12-17-18
By: Jorge Luis Borges, and others
Publisher's summary
"In the Penal Colony" ("In der Strafkolonie") (also translated as "In the Penal Settlement") is a short story by Franz Kafka written in German in October 1914, revised in November 1918, and first published in October 1919. The story is set in an unnamed penal colony. Internal clues and the setting on an island suggest Octave Mirbeau's "The Torture Garden" as an influence. As in some of Kafka's other writings, the narrator in this story seems detached from, or perhaps numbed by, events that one would normally expect to be registered with horror. "In the Penal Colony" describes the last use of an elaborate torture and execution device that carves the sentence of the condemned prisoner on his skin before letting him die, all in the course of 12 hours. As the plot unfolds, the listener learns more and more about the machine, including its origin and original justification.
More from the same
Related to this topic
-
The Metamorphosis and Other Stories
- By: Franz Kafka
- Narrated by: George Guidall
- Length: 8 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 207
-
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.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
Great assortment of stories
- By Himanshu Modi on 08-20-18
By: Franz Kafka
-
The Metamorphosis
- A New Translation by Susan Bernofsky
- By: Franz Kafka, Susan Bernofsky - translator
- Narrated by: Edoardo Ballerini, Victor Bevine, Christa Lewis
- Length: 2 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 950
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 837
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 835
Franz Kafka's 1915 novella of unexplained horror and nightmarish transformation became a worldwide classic and remains a century later one of the most widely read works of fiction in the world. It is the story of traveling salesman Gregor Samsa, who wakes one morning to find himself transformed into a monstrous insect. This hugely influential work inspired George Orwell, Albert Camus, Jorge Louis Borges, and Ray Bradbury, while continuing to unsettle millions of readers.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Mysterious and beautiful
- By Tad Davis on 05-02-15
By: Franz Kafka, and others
-
Hunger
- A Novel
- By: Knut Hamsun
- Narrated by: Kevin Foley
- Length: 6 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 109
-
Performance4 out of 5 stars 96
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 94
Knut Hamsun's Hunger, first published in 1890 and hailed as the literary beginning of the 20th century, is a masterpiece of psychologically driven fiction. The story of a struggling artist living on the edge of starvation, the novel portrays the unnamed first-person narrator's descent into paranoia, despair, and madness as hunger overtakes him. As the protagonist loses his grip on reality, Hamsun brilliantly portrays the disturbing and irrational recesses of the human mind through increasingly disjointed and urgent prose.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
Book quite good; wrong narrator
- By Erez on 05-05-11
By: Knut Hamsun
-
Hunger
- By: Knut Hamsun
- Narrated by: Gunnar Cauthery
- Length: 6 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 81
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 71
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 71
Verging on death, a starving, destitute writer navigates the cold and indifferent city of Kristiania in search of his next meal. Frenzied and fevered, he chews on stale bread, devours scraps of wood, and bites his own finger, sleeping under the stars in old, pungent blankets, until one day he is able to sell an article and buy some food - only for the cycle then to repeat itself....
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Great book great narrator
- By Gunnar on 08-27-20
By: Knut Hamsun
-
Out of the Darkness
- The Story of Mary Ellen Wilson
- By: Eric A. Shelman
- Narrated by: Deb Thomas
- Length: 11 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 359
-
Performance4 out of 5 stars 325
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 321
In New York City, in April of 1874, a most unusual event took place. A severely abused nine-year-old girl named Mary Ellen Wilson became the first child in America to be rescued from an abusive home. She had been beaten, burned, slashed with scissors, locked in a closet, and had never been outside of her tenement home in over 7 years. Thanks to the concern and dedication of a missionary named Etta Wheeler, the child was finally saved from her cruel captors.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
Harrowing Story
- By musa on 03-21-17
By: Eric A. Shelman
-
Crime and Punishment
- By: Fyodor Dostoyevsky
- Narrated by: Constantine Gregory
- Length: 22 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 2,035
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 1,847
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 1,845
A century after it first appeared, Crime and Punishment remains one of the most gripping psychological thrillers. A poverty-stricken young man, seeing his family making sacrifices for him, is faced with an opportunity to solve his financial problems with one simple but horrifying act: the murder of a pawnbroker. She is, he feels, just a parasite on society. But does the end justify the means? Rodion Romanovitch Raskolnikov makes his decision and then has to live with it.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
A masterpiece
- By Timothy on 02-20-16
-
The Metamorphosis and Other Stories
- By: Franz Kafka
- Narrated by: George Guidall
- Length: 8 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 207
-
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.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
Great assortment of stories
- By Himanshu Modi on 08-20-18
By: Franz Kafka
-
The Metamorphosis
- A New Translation by Susan Bernofsky
- By: Franz Kafka, Susan Bernofsky - translator
- Narrated by: Edoardo Ballerini, Victor Bevine, Christa Lewis
- Length: 2 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 950
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 837
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 835
Franz Kafka's 1915 novella of unexplained horror and nightmarish transformation became a worldwide classic and remains a century later one of the most widely read works of fiction in the world. It is the story of traveling salesman Gregor Samsa, who wakes one morning to find himself transformed into a monstrous insect. This hugely influential work inspired George Orwell, Albert Camus, Jorge Louis Borges, and Ray Bradbury, while continuing to unsettle millions of readers.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Mysterious and beautiful
- By Tad Davis on 05-02-15
By: Franz Kafka, and others
-
Hunger
- A Novel
- By: Knut Hamsun
- Narrated by: Kevin Foley
- Length: 6 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 109
-
Performance4 out of 5 stars 96
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 94
Knut Hamsun's Hunger, first published in 1890 and hailed as the literary beginning of the 20th century, is a masterpiece of psychologically driven fiction. The story of a struggling artist living on the edge of starvation, the novel portrays the unnamed first-person narrator's descent into paranoia, despair, and madness as hunger overtakes him. As the protagonist loses his grip on reality, Hamsun brilliantly portrays the disturbing and irrational recesses of the human mind through increasingly disjointed and urgent prose.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
Book quite good; wrong narrator
- By Erez on 05-05-11
By: Knut Hamsun
-
Hunger
- By: Knut Hamsun
- Narrated by: Gunnar Cauthery
- Length: 6 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 81
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 71
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 71
Verging on death, a starving, destitute writer navigates the cold and indifferent city of Kristiania in search of his next meal. Frenzied and fevered, he chews on stale bread, devours scraps of wood, and bites his own finger, sleeping under the stars in old, pungent blankets, until one day he is able to sell an article and buy some food - only for the cycle then to repeat itself....
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Great book great narrator
- By Gunnar on 08-27-20
By: Knut Hamsun
-
Out of the Darkness
- The Story of Mary Ellen Wilson
- By: Eric A. Shelman
- Narrated by: Deb Thomas
- Length: 11 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 359
-
Performance4 out of 5 stars 325
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 321
In New York City, in April of 1874, a most unusual event took place. A severely abused nine-year-old girl named Mary Ellen Wilson became the first child in America to be rescued from an abusive home. She had been beaten, burned, slashed with scissors, locked in a closet, and had never been outside of her tenement home in over 7 years. Thanks to the concern and dedication of a missionary named Etta Wheeler, the child was finally saved from her cruel captors.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
Harrowing Story
- By musa on 03-21-17
By: Eric A. Shelman
-
Crime and Punishment
- By: Fyodor Dostoyevsky
- Narrated by: Constantine Gregory
- Length: 22 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 2,035
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 1,847
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 1,845
A century after it first appeared, Crime and Punishment remains one of the most gripping psychological thrillers. A poverty-stricken young man, seeing his family making sacrifices for him, is faced with an opportunity to solve his financial problems with one simple but horrifying act: the murder of a pawnbroker. She is, he feels, just a parasite on society. But does the end justify the means? Rodion Romanovitch Raskolnikov makes his decision and then has to live with it.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
A masterpiece
- By Timothy on 02-20-16
-
The Pale Blue Eye
- By: Louis Bayard
- Narrated by: Charles Leggett
- Length: 15 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 424
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 372
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 371
When the body of a suicide victim disappears at West Point Military Academy in 1831, only to be discovered hours later missing its heart, the Academy calls on retired detective Gus Landor to investigate. Landor is something of a legend among his peers, noted for an uncanny, Holmesian ability to read people. When Edgar Allan Poe, a new cadet, comes forth with his own cryptic conclusion—that the man Landor is looking for is a poet—Landor is intrigued and enlists Poe as his assistant.
-
3 out of 5 stars
-
Could not get through it
- By Amazon Customer on 10-25-15
By: Louis Bayard
-
Blind Goddess
- A Hanne Wilhelmsen Novel, Book 1
- By: Tom Geddes - translator, Anne Holt
- Narrated by: Kate Reading
- Length: 11 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 135
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 115
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 116
A small-time drug dealer is found battered to death on the outskirts of the Norwegian capital, Oslo. A young Dutchman, walking aimlessly in central Oslo covered in blood, is taken into custody but refuses to talk. When he is informed that the woman who discovered the body, Karen Borg, is a lawyer, he demands her as his defender, although her specialty is civil, not criminal, law. The young man is adamant: he will speak to Karen Borg, and to her alone.
-
2 out of 5 stars
-
Not Sure Why I Didn't Like It
- By Tracey Rains on 05-28-13
By: Tom Geddes - translator, and others
-
Fatelessness
- A Novel
- By: Imre Kertész, Tom Wilkinson - translator
- Narrated by: Josh Bloomberg
- Length: 8 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 36
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 32
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 32
At the age of 14, György Köves is plucked from his home in a Jewish section of Budapest and, without any particular malice, placed on a train to Auschwitz. He does not understand the reason for his fate. He doesn't particularly think of himself as Jewish. And his fellow prisoners, who decry his lack of Yiddish, keep telling him, "You are no Jew." In the lowest circle of the Holocaust, György remains an outsider.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Shockingly Mundane
- By D. A. Elliott on 01-13-20
By: Imre Kertész, and others
-
Buddenbrooks
- The Decline of a Family
- By: Thomas Mann
- Narrated by: David Rintoul
- Length: 26 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 664
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 599
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 597
First published in 1900, when Thomas Mann was 25, Buddenbrooks is a minutely imagined chronicle of four generations of a North German mercantile family - a work so true to life that it scandalized the author’s former neighbours in his native Lübeck.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Where Have You Been All My Life, Thomas Mann?
- By Virginia Waldron on 03-30-17
By: Thomas Mann
-
Blindness
- By: José Saramago
- Narrated by: Jonathan Davis
- Length: 12 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 2,574
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 2,114
-
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.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
Surrealistic
- By Richard Pesavento on 10-04-08
By: José Saramago
-
Cover Her Face
- By: P. D. James
- Narrated by: Penelope Dellaporta
- Length: 9 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 793
-
Performance4 out of 5 stars 681
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 673
Headstrong and beautiful, the young housemaid Sally Jupp is put rudely in her place, strangled in her bed behind a bolted door. Coolly brilliant policeman Adam Dalgliesh of Scotland Yard must find her killer among a houseful of suspects, most of whom had very good reason to wish her ill. Cover Her Face is P. D. James' electric debut novel, an ingeniously plotted mystery that immediately placed her among the masters of suspense.
-
3 out of 5 stars
-
A Bit slow
- By ListenLoud on 05-24-12
By: P. D. James
-
Jack Maggs
- By: Peter Carey
- Narrated by: Steven Crossley
- Length: 13 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 89
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 37
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 38
With scars on his back and silver in his pocket, the huge figure of Jack Maggs strides across the rich landscape of 19th century London. As this enigmatic man moves through its streets and houses, his single-minded quest to find his son will engender love, deceit, and vengeance in the lives around him.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Jack Maggs
- By Kathleen on 04-04-05
By: Peter Carey
-
In the First Circle
- By: Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, Harry T. Willets - translator
- Narrated by: Derek Perkins
- Length: 31 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 549
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 478
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 476
Moscow, Christmas Eve, 1949. The Soviet secret police intercept a call made to the American embassy by a Russian diplomat who promises to deliver secrets about the nascent Soviet Atomic Bomb program. On that same day, a brilliant mathematician is locked away inside a Moscow prison that houses the country's brightest minds. He and his fellow prisoners are charged with using their abilities to sleuth out the caller's identity, and they must choose whether to aid Joseph Stalin's repressive state - or refuse and accept transfer to the Siberian Gulag camps, and almost certain death.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
One of the five finest novels written in the 20th Century
- By Ellis D Vener on 04-08-19
By: Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, and others
-
Death at La Fenice
- Commissario Brunetti Mysteries, Book 1
- By: Donna Leon
- Narrated by: David Colacci
- Length: 9 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 600
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 529
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 523
During intermission at the famed La Fenice opera house in Venice, Italy, a notoriously difficult and widely disliked German conductor is poisoned—and suspects abound. Guido Brunetti, a native Venetian, sets out to unravel the mystery behind the high-profile murder. To do so, he calls on his knowledge of Venice, its culture, and its dirty politics. Along the way, he finds the crime may have roots going back decades—and that revenge, corruption, and even Italian cuisine may play a role.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Hercule Poirot in Venice...!!!
- By Emil Grancagnolo on 10-09-22
By: Donna Leon
-
Except the Dying
- A Murdoch Mystery, Book 1
- By: Maureen Jennings
- Narrated by: David Marantz
- Length: 8 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 302
-
Performance4 out of 5 stars 257
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 258
In the cold Toronto winter of 1895, the naked body of a servant girl is found frozen in a deserted laneway. The young victim was pregnant when she died. Detective William Murdoch soon discovers that many of those connected with the girl's life have secrets to hide. Was her death on attempt to cover up a scandal in one of the city's influential families?
-
1 out of 5 stars
-
If you like the show - don't buy
- By Sarah on 06-09-16
By: Maureen Jennings
-
The Strangler Vine
- By: M. J. Carter
- Narrated by: Alex Wyndham
- Length: 10 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 2,634
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 2,386
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 2,382
India, 1837: William Avery is a young soldier with few prospects except rotting away in campaigns in India; Jeremiah Blake is a secret political agent gone native, a genius at languages and disguises, disenchanted with the whole ethos of British rule, but who cannot resist the challenge of an unresolved mystery.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Don't Waste Time Reading Reviews-Just Buy the Book
- By Tracey Rains on 03-09-17
By: M. J. Carter
-
Anna of the Five Towns
- By: Arnold Bennett
- Narrated by: Peter Joyce
- Length: 9 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 16
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 15
-
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
People who viewed this also viewed...
-
The Metamorphosis and Other Stories
- By: Franz Kafka
- Narrated by: George Guidall
- Length: 8 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 207
-
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.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
Great assortment of stories
- By Himanshu Modi on 08-20-18
By: Franz Kafka
-
In the Penal Colony
- By: Franz Kafka
- Narrated by: Deaver Brown
- Length: 1 hr and 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall3 out of 5 stars 4
-
Performance2 out of 5 stars 4
-
Story3.5 out of 5 stars 2
The story is set in an unnamed penal colony. In the Penal Colony describes the last use of an elaborate torture and execution device that carves the sentence of the condemned prisoner on his skin in a script before letting him die, all in the course of 12 hours. As the plot unfolds, the listener learns more and more about the machine, including its origin, and original justification.
-
1 out of 5 stars
-
Could not listen
- By Sara Lundquist on 01-21-23
By: Franz Kafka
-
The Castle
- By: Franz Kafka
- Narrated by: George Guidall
- Length: 11 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 242
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 131
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 131
On his deathbed, Franz Kafka asked that all his unpublished manuscripts be burned. Fortunately, his request was ignored, allowing such works as The Trial to earn recognition among the literary masterpieces of the 20th century. This brilliant new translation of The Castle captures comedic elements and visual imagery that earlier interpretations missed.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
Obscure, enigmatic, and not for everyone
- By John on 02-08-06
By: Franz Kafka
-
Metamorphosis
- A BBC Radio 4 Reading
- By: Franz Kafka
- Narrated by: Benedict Cumberbatch
- Length: 1 hr and 38 mins
- Abridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 1,184
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 1,030
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 1,022
Benedict Cumberbatch reads the enduring classic of Franz Kafka's Metamorphosis. Gregor Samsa wakes to discover that he has turned into a large, monstrous insect-like creature. He attempts to adjust to his new condition as he deals with being burdensome to his parents and sister, who are repelled by the horrible creature he has become. First published in 1915, Kafka's darkly comic novella explores concepts such as the absurdity of life, alienation and the disconnect between mind and body.
-
3 out of 5 stars
-
Disappointed
- By Jonas Jones on 03-05-19
By: Franz Kafka
-
The Metamorphosis
- By: Franz Kafka
- Narrated by: Ralph Cosham
- Length: 2 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 3,370
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 2,909
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 2,904
“One morning, as Gregor Samsa was waking up from anxious dreams, he discovered that in bed he had been changed into a monstrous verminous bug.” With this startlingly bizarre sentence, Kafka begins his masterpiece, The Metamorphosis. It is the story of a young traveling salesman who, transformed overnight into a giant, beetle-like insect, becomes an object of disgrace to his family, an outsider in his own home, a quintessentially alienated man. Rather than being surprised at the transformation, the members of his family despise it as an impending burden upon themselves.
-
3 out of 5 stars
-
Written in 1915
- By Jim "The Impatient" on 09-04-12
By: Franz Kafka
-
In the Penal Colony
- By: Franz Kafka
- Narrated by: Richard Mitchley
- Length: 1 hr and 11 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars 1
-
Performance0 out of 5 stars 0
-
Story0 out of 5 stars 0
Franz Kafka was born on 3rd July 1883, in Prague, then in Bohemia, the eldest of 6, into a middle-class Jewish family. His literary works are few in number but towering in influence. His masterpieces include ‘The Trial’, ‘The Metamorphosis’ as well as a number of short stories which reveal facets of humankind that truthfully could only be born from Kafka’s brain and pen. His classic short story ‘In the Penal Colony’ begins with the innocuous words “It’s a peculiar apparatus,” as the Officer explains to the Traveller, what this grisly machine will do to the prisoners who serve their time here.
By: Franz Kafka
-
The Metamorphosis and Other Stories
- By: Franz Kafka
- Narrated by: George Guidall
- Length: 8 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 207
-
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.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
Great assortment of stories
- By Himanshu Modi on 08-20-18
By: Franz Kafka
-
In the Penal Colony
- By: Franz Kafka
- Narrated by: Deaver Brown
- Length: 1 hr and 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall3 out of 5 stars 4
-
Performance2 out of 5 stars 4
-
Story3.5 out of 5 stars 2
The story is set in an unnamed penal colony. In the Penal Colony describes the last use of an elaborate torture and execution device that carves the sentence of the condemned prisoner on his skin in a script before letting him die, all in the course of 12 hours. As the plot unfolds, the listener learns more and more about the machine, including its origin, and original justification.
-
1 out of 5 stars
-
Could not listen
- By Sara Lundquist on 01-21-23
By: Franz Kafka
-
The Castle
- By: Franz Kafka
- Narrated by: George Guidall
- Length: 11 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 242
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 131
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 131
On his deathbed, Franz Kafka asked that all his unpublished manuscripts be burned. Fortunately, his request was ignored, allowing such works as The Trial to earn recognition among the literary masterpieces of the 20th century. This brilliant new translation of The Castle captures comedic elements and visual imagery that earlier interpretations missed.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
Obscure, enigmatic, and not for everyone
- By John on 02-08-06
By: Franz Kafka
-
Metamorphosis
- A BBC Radio 4 Reading
- By: Franz Kafka
- Narrated by: Benedict Cumberbatch
- Length: 1 hr and 38 mins
- Abridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 1,184
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 1,030
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 1,022
Benedict Cumberbatch reads the enduring classic of Franz Kafka's Metamorphosis. Gregor Samsa wakes to discover that he has turned into a large, monstrous insect-like creature. He attempts to adjust to his new condition as he deals with being burdensome to his parents and sister, who are repelled by the horrible creature he has become. First published in 1915, Kafka's darkly comic novella explores concepts such as the absurdity of life, alienation and the disconnect between mind and body.
-
3 out of 5 stars
-
Disappointed
- By Jonas Jones on 03-05-19
By: Franz Kafka
-
The Metamorphosis
- By: Franz Kafka
- Narrated by: Ralph Cosham
- Length: 2 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 3,370
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 2,909
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 2,904
“One morning, as Gregor Samsa was waking up from anxious dreams, he discovered that in bed he had been changed into a monstrous verminous bug.” With this startlingly bizarre sentence, Kafka begins his masterpiece, The Metamorphosis. It is the story of a young traveling salesman who, transformed overnight into a giant, beetle-like insect, becomes an object of disgrace to his family, an outsider in his own home, a quintessentially alienated man. Rather than being surprised at the transformation, the members of his family despise it as an impending burden upon themselves.
-
3 out of 5 stars
-
Written in 1915
- By Jim "The Impatient" on 09-04-12
By: Franz Kafka
-
In the Penal Colony
- By: Franz Kafka
- Narrated by: Richard Mitchley
- Length: 1 hr and 11 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars 1
-
Performance0 out of 5 stars 0
-
Story0 out of 5 stars 0
Franz Kafka was born on 3rd July 1883, in Prague, then in Bohemia, the eldest of 6, into a middle-class Jewish family. His literary works are few in number but towering in influence. His masterpieces include ‘The Trial’, ‘The Metamorphosis’ as well as a number of short stories which reveal facets of humankind that truthfully could only be born from Kafka’s brain and pen. His classic short story ‘In the Penal Colony’ begins with the innocuous words “It’s a peculiar apparatus,” as the Officer explains to the Traveller, what this grisly machine will do to the prisoners who serve their time here.
By: Franz Kafka
What listeners say about In the Penal Colony
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars
-
Story5 out of 5 stars
- Nora Louise Brown
- 04-05-23
Dark, Twisted and Interesting
Very interesting and will keep you hanging onto every word. When you finally get the whole picture, IT’S SHOCKING
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars
-
Story5 out of 5 stars
- Thomas E. Chase
- 09-25-23
I’m a fan
I have a similar personal perspective, no civil rights from early childhood, and no permitted affection for life, because of just another hocus-pocus condemnation from the extreme prejudice of criminals and bigots
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars
-
Performance4 out of 5 stars
-
Story5 out of 5 stars
- joseph Gonzalez
- 08-06-18
a bit confusing, but not for Kafka fans
in the penal colony, is a must for any Kafka fan, his views on judgement and punishment, all dark btw, are worthy of our contemplation
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
1 person found this helpful