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Sarrasine
- Narrated by: John Lang
- Length: 1 hr and 39 mins
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Sarrasine
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Publisher's summary
"Sarrasine" (1830) is a novella by Honoré de Balzac, part of his Comédie Humaine. The stage is set around midnight during a ball, the narrator is sitting at a window. There is an unknown old man around the house, whom the family was oddly devoted to, and who frightened and intrigued the partygoers. When the man sits next to the narrator's guest, Beatrix Rochefide, she touches him, and the narrator rushes her out of the room. The narrator knows who the man is and says he will tell her his story the next evening. Then he portrays Ernest-Jean Sarrasine, a passionate, artistic boy, who after having trouble in school became a prodigy of the sculptor Bouchardon. Sarrasine, a talented young man, after one of his sculptures wins a competition, heads to Rome, where he sees a theatre performance featuring Zambinella. He falls in love with her, going to all of her performances and creating a clay mold of her. The old man is not Sarrasine. Who is he?
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Beautiful
- By ilene on 12-26-16
By: Charlotte Brontë
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Villette
- By: Charlotte Brontë
- Narrated by: Davina Porter
- Length: 22 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 434
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 379
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Story4 out of 5 stars 380
Hailed as Charlotte Brontë’s “finest novel” by Virginia Woolf, Villette is the timeless semi-autobiographical tale of Lucy Snowe. Left with no family and no money, Lucy goes against her own timid nature and travels to the small city of Villette, France, where she becomes a school teacher in Madame Beck’s school for girls. During her stay, she falls in love—twice—and discovers an independent, inner strength rarely seen in women of her time.
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5 out of 5 stars
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The Divine Ms. Porter delivers as always
- By peachnmario on 03-17-15
By: Charlotte Brontë
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First Love
- By: Ivan Turgenev
- Narrated by: David Troughton
- Length: 2 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 742
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 652
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 648
At the end of a dinner party, the remaining guests drink wine and tell stories of their first love. For one of them, it will be a dark journey into his past, reawakening unbearable memories of his obsession with the beautiful Zinaida.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Turgenev's Famous Novel...
- By Douglas on 01-16-14
By: Ivan Turgenev
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Steppenwolf
- By: Hermann Hesse
- Narrated by: Peter Weller
- Length: 7 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 1,548
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 1,246
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Story4 out of 5 stars 1,245
Harry Haller is a sad and lonely figure, a reclusive intellectual for whom life holds no joy. He struggles to reconcile the wild primeval wolf and the rational man within himself without surrendering to the bourgeois values he despises. His life changes dramatically when he meets a woman who is his opposite, the carefree and elusive Hermine.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Save this Hesse novel for your midlife crisis.
- By Darwin8u on 03-02-14
By: Hermann Hesse
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Le Pere Goriot
- By: Honoré de Balzac
- Narrated by: Paul Hecht
- Length: 10 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 181
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 136
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Story4 out of 5 stars 132
At the shabby boarding house in the rue Neuve-Sainte-Geneviève, petty Madame Vauquer and her tenants wonder at the plight of the aging resident Goriot. Once a well-heeled merchant, Goriot was, at first, afforded special treatment from the Madame. But now something is clearly amiss in his financial affairs, and his increasingly tawdry appearance makes him a subject of ridicule in the household.
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5 out of 5 stars
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balzac rocks
- By beatrice on 03-12-10
By: Honoré de Balzac
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The Bondwoman's Narrative
- By: Hannah Crafts, edited by Henry Louis Gates Jr.
- Narrated by: Anna Deavere Smith
- Length: 7 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 190
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 106
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 107
An unprecedented historical and literary event, this tale written in the 1850s is the only known novel by a female African American slave, and quite possibly the first novel written by a black woman anywhere. A work recently uncovered by renowned scholar and professor Henry Louis Gates, Jr., it is a stirring tale of "passing" and the adventures of a young slave as she makes her way to freedom.
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1 out of 5 stars
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Poor reading of an important book
- By Hilary on 11-15-04
By: Hannah Crafts, and others
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The Monk
- By: Matthew Lewis
- Narrated by: Nicholas Boulton, Georgina Sutton
- Length: 14 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 156
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 136
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 135
Father Ambrosio, the most pious and venerated monk in all of Madrid, is held as a paragon of virtue. But after 30 years of study and prayer, evil thoughts begin to permeate his mind. As two plots cleverly converge, torture, murder, incest, rape, poison, and magic prevail, sustained by an elegance in the writing of the 19-year-old Matthew Lewis.
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5 out of 5 stars
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the Platonic Form of the Gothic novel!.org
- By Mao Dom on 11-15-18
By: Matthew Lewis
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Siddhartha
- Booktrack Edition
- By: Hermann Hesse
- Narrated by: Paul Ansdell
- Length: 4 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 131
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 106
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 106
Siddhartha, the ninth book written by Hermann Hesse, is about a young Indian boy who leaves his home in hopes of finding enlightenment with the wise "Goutama", which in this story is the Buddha. After learning what he can from Goutama, he decides to go off into the busy city and leads a life of greed and lust. When he realizes that the lifestyle is not fulfilling, and he reflects on his life, he goes to a river and contemplates suicide. However, it is here that Siddhartha meets a man who will change his life and help lead him to enlightenment.
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5 out of 5 stars
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One of a Kind
- By Anonymous User on 04-04-20
By: Hermann Hesse
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A Woman of No Importance
- By: Oscar Wilde
- Narrated by: Miriam Margolyes, Samantha Mathis, Rosalind Ayres, and others
- Length: 1 hr and 34 mins
- Original Recording
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 225
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 188
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 188
Devilishly attractive Lord Illingworth is notorious for his skill as a seducer. But he is still invited to all the "best" houses, while his female conquests must hide their shame in seclusion. In this devastating drawing-room comedy, Oscar Wilde uses his celebrated wit to expose English society's narrow view of everything from sexual mores to Americans.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Pitch Perfect Performance
- By Cheryl on 08-26-12
By: Oscar Wilde
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Edgar Allan Poe - The Complete Short Stories
- By: Edgar Allan Poe
- Narrated by: Bob Thomley
- Length: 16 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 1,309
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 1,157
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 1,164
All of Edgar Allan Poe’s great short stories in one 16-hour collection.
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3 out of 5 stars
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NEVERMORE
- By Jim "The Impatient" on 11-23-15
By: Edgar Allan Poe
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Le Pere Goriot
- By: Honoré de Balzac
- Narrated by: David McCallion
- Length: 9 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 71
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 61
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 57
Honoré de Balzac uses his classic style of detail to describe a most controversial setting in his novel Le Pere Goriot. The story takes place in Paris just after the fall of Napoleon in 1819. The story focuses on three characters, Rastignac, a student who wants to try and make it big in the capital, Vautrin, an interesting and funny character who is also quite mysterious, and the main character, Goriot, that carries a heavy burden that only a loving parent would endure.
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5 out of 5 stars
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A minor masterpiece
- By Indi Rock on 03-04-18
By: Honoré de Balzac
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Sentimental Education
- By: Gustave Flaubert
- Narrated by: Michael Maloney
- Length: 15 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 79
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 72
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 72
Frederic Moreau is a law student returning home to Normandy from Paris when he first notices Mme Arnoux, a slender, dark woman several years older than himself. It is the beginning of an infatuation that will last a lifetime. He befriends her husband, an influential businessman, and their paths cross and re-cross over the years. Through financial upheaval, political turmoil, and countless affairs, Mme Arnoux remains the constant, unattainable love of Moreau’s life.
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4 out of 5 stars
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When Crimes of Passion Were All the Fashion
- By W Perry Hall on 03-12-17
By: Gustave Flaubert
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The Scarlet Pimpernel
- By: Baroness Orczy
- Narrated by: Mary Sarah
- Length: 7 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 382
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 333
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 339
Set during the Reign of Terror following the start of the French Revolution... The title character represents the original "hero with a secret identity" that inspired subsequent literary creations such as Don Diego de la Vega (El Zorro) and Bruce Wayne (the Batman). The popularity of the novel encouraged Orczy to write a number of sequels for her "reckless daredevil" over the next 35 years. The original play was performed to great acclaim in France, Italy, Germany, and Spain, while the novel was translated into 16 languages.
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3 out of 5 stars
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This version does not do the novel justice!
- By Wayne on 12-04-18
By: Baroness Orczy
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Swann's Way
- By: Marcel Proust, Scott Moncrieff - translator
- Narrated by: George Guidall
- Length: 21 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 89
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 78
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 79
Swann’s Way is the first and best-known part of Proust’s monumental work, Remembrance of Things Past. Often compared to a symphony, this complex masterpiece is ideally suited for audio. Listening lets you appreciate anew the incredible beauty of Proust’s language and the uniqueness of his style. The novel’s narrator, Marcel, finds the true meaning of experience in memories stimulated by some random object or event.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Beautiful, BUT
- By Michael on 02-04-13
By: Marcel Proust, and others