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The Death of the Heart
- Narrated by: Pearl Hewitt
- Length: 13 hrs and 8 mins
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Publisher's Summary
The Death of the Heart is perhaps Elizabeth Bowen's best-known book. As she deftly and delicately exposes the cruelty that lurks behind the polished surfaces of conventional society, Bowen reveals herself as a masterful novelist who combines a sense of humor with a devastating gift for divining human motivations.
In this piercing story of innocence betrayed set in the 30s, the orphaned Portia is stranded in the sophisticated and politely treacherous world of her wealthy half-brother's home in London. There she encounters the attractive, carefree cad Eddie. To him, Portia is at once child and woman, and her fears her gushing love. To her, Eddie is the only reason to be alive. But when Eddie follows Portia to a sea-side resort, the flash of a cigarette lighter in a darkened cinema illuminates a stunning romantic betrayal - and sets in motion one of the most moving and desperate flights of the heart in modern literature.
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What listeners say about The Death of the Heart
Average Customer RatingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
- R. Decker
- 10-18-22
Superbly listenable classic
In the first few seconds I wasn’t sure I’d enjoy the narrator’s performance, but quickly this turned out to be the most listenable, for long stretches, book I’ve purchased so far on Audible.
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
- MartinS
- 09-28-22
Terrible narration
Every syllable is crisply and clearly articulated, but it's almost impossible to tell if a character is speaking or if it's meant to be text. The reader also provides almost no variation between characters, and that variation fades by the 5th word, making it very difficult to follow who is saying what to whom. The reader's delivery is done via metronome, with almost no variation in the pace. Together, these attributes make the reading very flat. The narration is also perverse. If the book directs that a character speaks with surprise or makes an exclamation, the narrator breaks in to a sort of whisper. When a character is described as speaking defensively, the narrator goes deadpan. Whatever the writer's direction, the reader does something quite in the opposite direction. Because the reading is so monotone, yes crisp and clear, but with so little variation, it is almost impossible to follow what the writer was trying to convey. I gave up after 3 hours.
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Performance
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Story
- Lori M
- 07-02-22
Where's the plot?
I kept waiting for this story to go somewhere. Did not make it through.
There seemed to be no plot.
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Overall
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Performance
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Story

- F. Wynn
- 04-22-21
The Pains of Growing Up.
This was a beautifully written story. The narration was excellent. It was a pleasure to listen to.
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Story
Lawrence explores love, sex, passion, and marriage through the eyes of two sisters, Gudrun and Ursula Brangwen. Intelligent, incisive, and observant, the two very different sisters pursue thrilling, torrid affairs with their lovers, Rupert and Gerald, while searching for more mature emotional relationships. Against a haunting World War I backdrop of coal mines, factories, and a beleaguered working class, Gudrun and Ursula's temperamental differences spark an ongoing debate regarding their society and their inner lives.
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A masterpiece
- By lois b on 01-28-23
By: D. H. Lawrence
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The Day of the Locust
- By: Nathanael West
- Narrated by: Grover Gardner
- Length: 5 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
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Admired by F. Scott Fitzgerald, Dorothy Parker, and Dashiell Hammett, and hailed as one of the best 100 English-language novels by Time magazine, The Day of the Locust continues to influence American writers, artists, and culture. Bob Dylan wrote the classic song "Day of the Locusts" in homage, and Matt Groening's Homer Simpson is named after one of its characters. No novel more perfectly captures the nuttier side of Hollywood. Here the lens is turned on its fringes-actors out of work, film extras with big dreams, and parents lining their children up for small roles.
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great writing, bleak story
- By Amazon Customer on 06-08-21
By: Nathanael West
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The Chrysalids
- By: John Wyndham
- Narrated by: Noah Reid
- Length: 6 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
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David Strorm's father doesn't approve of Angus Morton's unusually large horses, calling them blasphemies against nature. Little does he realise that his own son, his niece Rosalind and their friends have their own secret aberration that would label them as mutants. But as David and Rosalind grow older it becomes more difficult to conceal their differences from the village elders. Soon they face a choice: wait for eventual discovery or flee to the terrifying and mutable Badland....
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It is awfully exciting
- By S. Corney on 11-27-21
By: John Wyndham
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The Sea, the Sea
- By: Iris Murdoch, Mary Kinzie - introduction
- Narrated by: Simon Vance, Kimberly Farr
- Length: 21 hrs
- Unabridged
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Charles Arrowby, leading light of England's theatrical set, retires from glittering London to an isolated home by the sea. He plans to write a memoir about his great love affair with Clement Makin, his mentor, both professionally and personally, and amuse himself with Lizzie, an actress he has strung along for many years.
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Murdoch Amazes
- By Sara on 08-30-17
By: Iris Murdoch, and others
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Light in August
- By: William Faulkner
- Narrated by: Scott Brick
- Length: 17 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
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Joe Christmas does not know whether he is black or white. Faulkner makes of Joe's tragedy a powerful indictment of racism; at the same time, Joe's life is a study of the divided self and becomes a symbol of 20th century man.
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Simply great.
- By Jamie on 08-18-05
By: William Faulkner
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I, Claudius
- By: Robert Graves
- Narrated by: Nelson Runger
- Length: 16 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
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Here is one of the best historical novels ever written. Lame, stammering Claudius, once a major embarrassment to the imperial family and now emperor of Rome, writes an eyewitness account of the reign of the first four Caesars: the noble Augustus and his cunning wife, Livia; the reptilian Tiberius; the monstrous Caligula; and finally old Claudius himself. Filled with poisonings, betrayal, and shocking excesses, I Claudius is history that rivals the most exciting contemporary fiction.
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Unsurpassed, addictive brilliance
- By Chris on 06-09-09
By: Robert Graves
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The Forsyte Saga
- By: John Galsworthy
- Narrated by: Fred Williams
- Length: 42 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
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The three novels that make up The Forsyte Saga chronicle the ebbing social power of the commercial upper-middle class Forsyte family through three generations, beginning in Victorian London during the 1880s and ending in the early 1920s. Galsworthy's masterly narrative examines not only their fortunes but also the wider developments within society, particularly the changing position of women.
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A delight
- By Kay in DC on 03-02-06
By: John Galsworthy
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Of Human Bondage
- By: W. Somerset Maugham
- Narrated by: Steven Crossley
- Length: 25 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
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Philip Carey, a sensitive orphan born with a clubfoot, finds himself in desperate need of passion and inspiration. He abandons his studies to travel, first to Heidelberg and then to Paris, where he nurses ambitions of becoming a great artist. Philip's youthful idealism erodes, however, as he comes face-to-face with his own mediocrity and lack of impact on the world. After returning to London to study medicine, he becomes wildly infatuated with Mildred, a vulgar, tawdry waitress, and begins a doomed love affair.
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You won't want it to end!
- By Rbjurnee on 04-18-11
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Buddenbrooks
- The Decline of a Family
- By: Thomas Mann
- Narrated by: David Rintoul
- Length: 26 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
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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.
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Where Have You Been All My Life, Thomas Mann?
- By Virginia Waldron on 03-30-17
By: Thomas Mann
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The Sheltering Sky
- A Novel
- By: Paul Bowles
- Length: 12 hrs
- Unabridged
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In this classic work of psychological terror, Paul Bowles examines the ways in which Americans apprehend an alien culture—and the ways in which their incomprehension destroys them. The story of three American travelers adrift in the cities and deserts of North Africa after World War II, The Sheltering Sky is at once merciless and heartbreaking in its compassion. It etches the limits of human reason and intelligence—perhaps even the limits of human life—when they touch the unfathomable emptiness and impassive cruelty of the desert.
By: Paul Bowles