A Great and Terrible Beauty

By: Libba Bray

Narrated by: Josephine Bailey

Length: 11 hrs and 13 mins

Publisher's summary

It's 1895, and after the suicide of her mother, 16-year-old Gemma Doyle is shipped off from the life she knows in India to Spence, a proper boarding school in England. Lonely, guilt-ridden, and prone to visions of the future that have an uncomfortable habit of coming true, Gemma's reception there is a chilly one. To make things worse, she's been followed by a mysterious young Indian man, a man sent to watch her. But why? What is her destiny? And what will her entanglement with Spence's most powerful girls, and their foray into the spiritual world, lead to?

©2003 Libba Bray (P)2004 Random House, Inc. Listening Library, an imprint of the Random House Audio Publishing Group

Critic reviews

"A delicious, elegant gothic." (Publishers Weekly)

Give it time!

Starts off slowly, but give it time. It’s a wonderful “listen”! Narrator was really good as well!

A true instrument of escapism.

Libba Bray is remarkable in her ability to combine authentic characters, emotions and settings. Showing us an England that sees it's young, well bred women as commodities. Making it easy to really "feel" with the characters when they make decisions they believe to be scandalous. Toss in a bit of magic and the mystery of the realms and you soon find yourself unable to put the book down. If your looking to be whisked away by your imagination this book is just the vehicle you need. Hint:: At the end of the book, Ms. Bray tells a bit of the process of how the book came about - it's worth a listen either before you read A Great and Terrible Beauty or after.

Great

I read this trilogy in high school just after they came out and forgot how much I loved these books. The audiobook was really well done.

Victorian page-turner

This book may be classified as Young Adult fiction but don?t let that stop you. It?s an intriguing, well-crafted story that will monopolize the time of anyone who enjoys the Victorian era, magic, life lessons, and complex characters. The author has perfectly captured the essence of sixteen-year-old girls, but there are no stereotypes here. The narrator manages to give each of the girls a distinctive voice ? and there are quite a few of them. I would recommend the book on the narrator?s performance alone.

Certainly Great Reading!!

I know some people would not enjoy this book because it's mostly not what they 've been expecting. At first, I was sort of dissapointed, even feel bored, but then things started to get real exciting in the end. To read this book, you have to have patience and maturity, and you'll find it valuable. Really great book, great narration too.

New details second time around...

I read this series out of order in high school on accident. That was over 10 yrs ago! I’m reading it I. Order this time lol and I love it all the same. I found new details that I missed the first time around. I love Libby Bray’s writing style. It’s easy to follow, but detailed enough to take you there. I would recommend this to young adults or teens.

Entertaining yet deeply moving.

this book has some highly sophisticated concepts for being considered a young adult book even as a 25 year old I find a very relatable and relevant to life itself

I love this book series.

I love these books. Thank you Audible for making it possible to read and crochet.

Mysterious

What made the experience of listening to A Great and Terrible Beauty the most enjoyable?

Libba Bray does a fantastic job with this feminist magical novel. The best thing about this novel is how the girls start to discover that life is so much more than finding a good match.

Which character – as performed by Josephine Bailey – was your favorite?

Felicity has a marvelous voice. It really brought the character to life.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

I did like to take small breaks in between the chapters

Any additional comments?

This book is meant for young adult readers. I do no recommend for anyone under 14

I love this book, as a book

Personally, the choice in narrator seems to be a bad one. I've read this book many times but can't get through half of it in audible format. It's a shame.