-
The Jane Austen Remedy
- It Is a Truth Universally Acknowledged That a Book Can Change a Life
- Narrated by: Nicolette McKenzie
- Length: 9 hrs and 16 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.
The Jane Austen Remedy
Buy for $15.26
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
Listeners also enjoyed...
-
Godmersham Park
- A Novel of the Austen Family
- By: Gill Hornby
- Narrated by: Bessie Carter
- Length: 10 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 53
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 45
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 45
On January 21, 1804, Anne Sharpe arrives at Godmersham Park in Kent to take up the position of governess. At thirty-one years old, she has no previous experience of either teaching or fine country houses. Her mother has died, and she has nowhere else to go. Anne is left with no choice. For her new charge—twelve-year-old Fanny Austen—Anne’s arrival is all novelty and excitement.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Great book for Austin fans
- By Vijaya on 01-30-23
By: Gill Hornby
-
Emma
- An Audible Original Drama
- By: Jane Austen, Anna Lea - adaptation
- Narrated by: Emma Thompson, Joanne Froggatt, Isabella Inchbald, and others
- Length: 8 hrs and 21 mins
- Original Recording
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 21,288
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 19,339
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 19,203
Austen wrote, 'I am going to take a heroine whom no-one but myself will much like' and thus introduces the handsome, clever, rich - and flawed, Emma Woodhouse. Emma is perfectly content with her life and sees no need for either love or marriage; nothing however delights her more than matchmaking her fellow residents of Highbury. But when she ignores the warnings of her good friend Mr. Knightley and attempts to arrange a suitable match for her protegee Harriet Smith, her carefully laid plans soon unravel and have consequences that she never expected.
-
3 out of 5 stars
-
Background sonds RUINED this
- By Sandra Dodd on 09-09-18
By: Jane Austen, and others
-
Northanger Abbey
- By: Jane Austen
- Narrated by: Juliet Stevenson
- Length: 8 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 2,809
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 2,315
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 2,311
When Catherine Morland, a country clergyman's daughter, is invited to spend a season in Bath with the fashionable high society, little does she imagine the delights and perils that await her. Captivated and disconcerted by what she finds, and introduced to the joys of "Gothic novels" by her new friend, Isabella, Catherine longs for mystery and romance. When she is invited to stay with the beguiling Henry Tilney and his family at Northanger Abbey, she expects mystery and intrigue at every turn.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Awesome
- By Johnny on 08-01-09
By: Jane Austen
-
Well-Read Black Girl
- Finding Our Stories, Discovering Ourselves
- By: Glory Edim
- Narrated by: Glory Edim
- Length: 5 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 443
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 376
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 373
Remember that moment when you first encountered a character who seemed to be written just for you? That feeling of belonging remains with readers the rest of their lives - but not everyone regularly sees themselves on the pages of a book. In this timely anthology, Glory Edim brings together original essays by some of our best black women writers to shine a light on how important it is that we all - regardless of gender, race, religion, or ability - have the opportunity to find ourselves in literature.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
I wish I had...
- By S. Hayes on 03-18-19
By: Glory Edim
-
These Fevered Days
- Ten Pivotal Moments in the Making of Emily Dickinson
- By: Martha Ackmann
- Narrated by: Martha Ackmann
- Length: 9 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 38
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 33
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 32
On August 3, 1845, young Emily Dickinson declared, "All things are ready" - and with this resolute statement, her life as a poet began. Despite spending her days almost entirely "at home" (the occupation listed on her death certificate), Dickinson's interior world was extraordinary. She loved passionately, was ambivalent toward publication, embraced seclusion, and created 1,789 poems that she tucked into a dresser drawer. In These Fevered Days, Martha Ackmann unravels the mysteries of Dickinson's life through 10 decisive episodes that distill her evolution as a poet.
-
3 out of 5 stars
-
Captivating But Too Much Information
- By Sara B. on 08-05-20
By: Martha Ackmann
-
Red Comet
- The Short Life and Blazing Art of Sylvia Plath
- By: Heather Clark
- Narrated by: Laura Jennings
- Length: 45 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars 342
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 292
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 290
With a wealth of never-before-accessed materials, Heather Clark brings to life the brilliant Sylvia Plath, who had precocious poetic ambition and was an accomplished published writer even before she became a star at Smith College. Refusing to read Plath’s work as if her every act was a harbinger of her tragic fate, Clark considers the sociopolitical context as she thoroughly explores Plath’s world.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Amazing!
- By Blurryface on 10-28-20
By: Heather Clark
-
Godmersham Park
- A Novel of the Austen Family
- By: Gill Hornby
- Narrated by: Bessie Carter
- Length: 10 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 53
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 45
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 45
On January 21, 1804, Anne Sharpe arrives at Godmersham Park in Kent to take up the position of governess. At thirty-one years old, she has no previous experience of either teaching or fine country houses. Her mother has died, and she has nowhere else to go. Anne is left with no choice. For her new charge—twelve-year-old Fanny Austen—Anne’s arrival is all novelty and excitement.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Great book for Austin fans
- By Vijaya on 01-30-23
By: Gill Hornby
-
Emma
- An Audible Original Drama
- By: Jane Austen, Anna Lea - adaptation
- Narrated by: Emma Thompson, Joanne Froggatt, Isabella Inchbald, and others
- Length: 8 hrs and 21 mins
- Original Recording
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 21,288
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 19,339
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 19,203
Austen wrote, 'I am going to take a heroine whom no-one but myself will much like' and thus introduces the handsome, clever, rich - and flawed, Emma Woodhouse. Emma is perfectly content with her life and sees no need for either love or marriage; nothing however delights her more than matchmaking her fellow residents of Highbury. But when she ignores the warnings of her good friend Mr. Knightley and attempts to arrange a suitable match for her protegee Harriet Smith, her carefully laid plans soon unravel and have consequences that she never expected.
-
3 out of 5 stars
-
Background sonds RUINED this
- By Sandra Dodd on 09-09-18
By: Jane Austen, and others
-
Northanger Abbey
- By: Jane Austen
- Narrated by: Juliet Stevenson
- Length: 8 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 2,809
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 2,315
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 2,311
When Catherine Morland, a country clergyman's daughter, is invited to spend a season in Bath with the fashionable high society, little does she imagine the delights and perils that await her. Captivated and disconcerted by what she finds, and introduced to the joys of "Gothic novels" by her new friend, Isabella, Catherine longs for mystery and romance. When she is invited to stay with the beguiling Henry Tilney and his family at Northanger Abbey, she expects mystery and intrigue at every turn.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Awesome
- By Johnny on 08-01-09
By: Jane Austen
-
Well-Read Black Girl
- Finding Our Stories, Discovering Ourselves
- By: Glory Edim
- Narrated by: Glory Edim
- Length: 5 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 443
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 376
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 373
Remember that moment when you first encountered a character who seemed to be written just for you? That feeling of belonging remains with readers the rest of their lives - but not everyone regularly sees themselves on the pages of a book. In this timely anthology, Glory Edim brings together original essays by some of our best black women writers to shine a light on how important it is that we all - regardless of gender, race, religion, or ability - have the opportunity to find ourselves in literature.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
I wish I had...
- By S. Hayes on 03-18-19
By: Glory Edim
-
These Fevered Days
- Ten Pivotal Moments in the Making of Emily Dickinson
- By: Martha Ackmann
- Narrated by: Martha Ackmann
- Length: 9 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 38
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 33
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 32
On August 3, 1845, young Emily Dickinson declared, "All things are ready" - and with this resolute statement, her life as a poet began. Despite spending her days almost entirely "at home" (the occupation listed on her death certificate), Dickinson's interior world was extraordinary. She loved passionately, was ambivalent toward publication, embraced seclusion, and created 1,789 poems that she tucked into a dresser drawer. In These Fevered Days, Martha Ackmann unravels the mysteries of Dickinson's life through 10 decisive episodes that distill her evolution as a poet.
-
3 out of 5 stars
-
Captivating But Too Much Information
- By Sara B. on 08-05-20
By: Martha Ackmann
-
Red Comet
- The Short Life and Blazing Art of Sylvia Plath
- By: Heather Clark
- Narrated by: Laura Jennings
- Length: 45 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars 342
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 292
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 290
With a wealth of never-before-accessed materials, Heather Clark brings to life the brilliant Sylvia Plath, who had precocious poetic ambition and was an accomplished published writer even before she became a star at Smith College. Refusing to read Plath’s work as if her every act was a harbinger of her tragic fate, Clark considers the sociopolitical context as she thoroughly explores Plath’s world.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Amazing!
- By Blurryface on 10-28-20
By: Heather Clark
-
Zora and Langston
- A Story of Friendship and Betrayal
- By: Yuval Taylor
- Narrated by: Bahni Turpin
- Length: 8 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 61
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 48
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 49
They were best friends. They were collaborators, literary gadflies, and champions of the common people. They were the leading lights of the Harlem Renaissance. Zora Neale Hurston, the author of Their Eyes Were Watching God, and Langston Hughes, the author of "The Negro Speaks of Rivers" and "Let America Be America Again", first met in 1925, at a great gathering of black and white literati, and they fascinated each other.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
Fascinating Story
- By Amazon Customer on 08-19-19
By: Yuval Taylor
-
Free as a Jew
- A Personal Memoir of National Self-Liberation
- By: Ruth R. Wisse
- Narrated by: Suzanne Toren
- Length: 14 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 30
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 27
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 27
First came parents with the good sense to flee Europe in 1940 and the good fortune to reach the land of freedom. Their daughter, Ruth, grew up in the shadow of genocide - but in tandem with the birth of Israel, which remained her lodestar. She learned that although Jewishness is biologically transmitted, democracy is not, and both require intensive, intelligent transmission through education in each and every generation.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
great book
- By Dan M. Cooper on 12-26-21
By: Ruth R. Wisse
-
Edith Wharton
- By: Hermione Lee
- Narrated by: Kate Reading
- Length: 8 hrs and 38 mins
- Abridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 57
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 45
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 45
With profound empathy and insight, Hermione Lee brilliantly interweaves Wharton's life with the evolution of her writing, the full scope of which shows her to be far more daring than her stereotype as lapidarian chronicler of the Gilded Age. In its revelation of both the woman and the writer, Edith Wharton is a landmark biography.
-
3 out of 5 stars
-
Gardens Over Great Novels
- By Aaron Elliott on 04-26-07
By: Hermione Lee
-
The Narnian
- The Life and Imagination of C.S. Lewis
- By: Alan Jacobs
- Narrated by: Alan Jacobs
- Length: 9 hrs and 45 mins
- Abridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 239
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 151
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 153
The White Witch, Aslan, fauns and talking beasts, centaurs and epic battles between good and evil: these have become a part of our collective imagination through the classic volumes of The Chronicles of Narnia. Yet who was the man who created this world? This audiobook attempts to unearth the making of the first Narnian, C. S. Lewis himself.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
The Narnian
- By Stephie on 10-21-05
By: Alan Jacobs
-
The Fellowship
- The Literary LIves of the Inklings: J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Owen Barfield, Charles Williams
- By: Philip Zaleski, Carol Zaleski
- Narrated by: John Curless
- Length: 26 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 490
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 446
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 443
C. S. Lewis is the 20th century's most widely read Christian writer and J. R. R. Tolkien its most beloved mythmaker. For three decades they and their closest associates formed a literary club known as the Inklings, which met weekly in Lewis' Oxford rooms and a nearby pub. They read aloud from works in progress, argued about anything that caught their fancy, and gave one another invaluable companionship, inspiration, and criticism.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
If You Love Literature...
- By Ray M on 07-14-16
By: Philip Zaleski, and others
-
My Life in Middlemarch
- By: Rebecca Mead
- Narrated by: Kate Reading
- Length: 9 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 258
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 220
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 224
Rebecca Mead was a young woman in an English coastal town when she first read George Eliot's Middlemarch,regarded by many as the greatest English novel. After gaining admission to Oxford and moving to the United States to become a journalist, through several love affairs, then marriage, and family, Mead read and reread Middlemarch. The novel, which Virginia Woolf famously described as "one of the few English novels written for grown-up people," offered Mead something that modern life and literature did not.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
A Reader's Pleasure!
- By Doggy Bird on 02-17-14
By: Rebecca Mead
-
Philosopher of the Heart
- The Restless Life of Søren Kierkegaard
- By: Clare Carlisle
- Narrated by: Simon Vance
- Length: 10 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 68
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 60
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 59
Søren Kierkegaard is one of the most passionate and challenging of all modern philosophers, and is often regarded as the founder of existentialism. Over about a decade in the 1840s and 1850s, writings poured from his pen pursuing the question of existence - how to be a human being in the world? - while exploring the possibilities of Christianity and confronting the failures of its institutional manifestation around him.
-
3 out of 5 stars
-
Fatally flawed
- By Citizen M on 02-26-23
By: Clare Carlisle
-
Book Girl
- By: Sarah Clarkson, Kate Mulligan - foreword
- Narrated by: Erica Sullivan
- Length: 8 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 124
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 113
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 111
Books were always Sarah Clarkson's delight. Raised in the company of the lively Anne of Green Gables, the brave Pevensie children of Narnia, and the wise Austen heroines, she discovered reading early on as a daily gift, a way of encountering the world in all its wonder. But what she came to realize as an adult was just how powerfully books had shaped her as a woman to live a story within that world, to be a lifelong learner, to grasp hope in struggle, and to create and act with courage. She's convinced that books can do the same for you.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
This book makes my heart happy!
- By Demi Dusterhoft on 11-14-18
By: Sarah Clarkson, and others
-
Bookworm
- A Memoir of Childhood Reading
- By: Lucy Mangan
- Narrated by: Lucy Mangan
- Length: 7 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 32
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 30
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 30
When Lucy Mangan was little, stories were everything. They opened up new worlds and cast light on all the complexities she encountered in this one. She was whisked away to Narnia and Kirrin Island and Wonderland. She ventured down rabbit holes and womble burrows into midnight gardens and chocolate factories. She wandered the countryside with Milly-Molly-Mandy and played by the tracks with the Railway Children.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
I love this!
- By M. Ashby on 03-12-20
By: Lucy Mangan
-
C. S. Lewis - A Life
- Eccentric Genius, Reluctant Prophet
- By: Alister E. McGrath
- Narrated by: Robin Sachs
- Length: 13 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 403
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 370
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 363
In honor of the 50th anniversary of C. S. Lewis' death, celebrated Oxford don Dr. Alister McGrath presents us with a compelling and definitive portrait of the life of C. S. Lewis, the author of the well-known Narnia series. For more than half a century, C. S. Lewis’ Narnia series has captured the imaginations of millions. In C. S. Lewis - A Life, Dr. Alister McGrath recounts the unlikely path of this Oxford don, who spent his days teaching English literature to the brightest students in the world and his spare time writing.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Awakening my curiosity and desire to read more!
- By Pearl Glacier on 03-13-13
-
Tom Stoppard
- A Life
- By: Hermione Lee
- Narrated by: Stephen Crossley
- Length: 37 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 42
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 35
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 36
Tom Stoppard is a towering and beloved literary figure. Known for his dizzying narrative inventiveness and intense attention to language, he deftly deploys art, science, history, politics, and philosophy in works that span a remarkable spectrum of literary genres: theater, radio, film, TV, journalism, and fiction. His most acclaimed creations - Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, The Real Thing, Arcadia, The Coast of Utopia, Shakespeare in Love - remain as fresh and moving as when they entranced their first audiences.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
great biography
- By Aidan O'Reilly on 03-11-21
By: Hermione Lee
-
Isak Dinesen
- The Life of a Storyteller
- By: Judith Thurman
- Narrated by: Davina Porter
- Length: 21 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 71
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 54
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 52
Isak Dinesen earned international fame for Seven Gothic Tales and Out of Africa, and other stories that skillfully combine elements of fable, social conflict, and psychological drama. She was twice nominated for the Nobel Prize. Yet the story of her life - her travels, affairs, and friendships - remains the greatest story of all.
-
3 out of 5 stars
-
over-written
- By Jacqui Good on 10-19-18
By: Judith Thurman
Publisher's summary
As she approached the age of seventy, Ruth Wilson began to have recurring dreams about losing her voice. And as she grappled with feelings of unfathomable sadness, she made the radical decision to retreat from her conventional life with her husband to a small sunshine-yellow cottage in New South Wales, Australia where she lived alone for the following ten years.
Ruth had fostered a lifelong love of reading, and from the moment she first encountered Pride and Prejudice in the 1940s she had looked to Jane Austen's heroines as her models for the sort of woman she wanted to become. She resolved to re-read Austen's six novels; to reflect on her life in relation to what she discovered in each of them. And as Ruth read between the lines of both the novels and her own life, she began to reclaim her voice.
A beautiful, life-affirming memoir of love, self-acceptance and the curative power of reading. Published the year Ruth turns ninety, The Jane Austen Remedy is an inspirational account of the lessons learned from Jane Austen over nine decades, as well as a timely reminder that it's never too late to seize a second chance.
Critic reviews
"Moving and inspiring, this is a book you want to start reading again, as soon as you have finished." (Susannah Fullerton)
"Wilson's memoir is essential reading for anyone who wants to experience and understand the unique comfort that Austen's works universally provide." (Natalie Jenner, author of The Jane Austen Society)
"A tour de force memoir on the power of reading to light up a life at any age." (Devoney Looser)
More from the same
Related to this topic
-
Isak Dinesen
- The Life of a Storyteller
- By: Judith Thurman
- Narrated by: Davina Porter
- Length: 21 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 71
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 54
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 52
Isak Dinesen earned international fame for Seven Gothic Tales and Out of Africa, and other stories that skillfully combine elements of fable, social conflict, and psychological drama. She was twice nominated for the Nobel Prize. Yet the story of her life - her travels, affairs, and friendships - remains the greatest story of all.
-
3 out of 5 stars
-
over-written
- By Jacqui Good on 10-19-18
By: Judith Thurman
-
Square Haunting
- Five Writers in London Between the Wars
- By: Francesca Wade
- Narrated by: Corrie James
- Length: 13 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 31
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 22
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 22
Mecklenburgh Square has always been a radical address. Nestled in the heart of Bloomsbury, these townhouses have borne witness to the lives of some of the century's most revolutionary cultural figures - many of whom were extraordinary women. United by their desire to experiment with new ways of living - and, therefore, of being - these authors and thinkers were trailblazers in their commitment to creative independence.
By: Francesca Wade
-
C.S. Lewis
- A Biography of Friendship
- By: Colin Duriez
- Narrated by: Simon Vance
- Length: 7 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 27
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 25
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 25
An Oxford student of C.S. Lewis' said he found his new tutor interesting and was told by J.R.R. Tolkien, "Interesting? Yes, he's certainly that. You'll never get to the bottom of him." You can learn a great deal about people by their friends and nowhere is this more true than in the case of C.S. Lewis, the remarkable academic, author, popularizer of faith - and creator of Narnia. He lost his mother early in life and became estranged from his father, much to his regret.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
It's a Great Concept
- By James on 08-13-20
By: Colin Duriez
-
J.R.R. Tolkien
- The Making of a Legend
- By: Colin Duriez
- Narrated by: Simon Vance
- Length: 6 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 36
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 34
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 34
J.R.R. Tolkien's creations, imagination, and characters captured the attention of millions of readers. But who was the man who dreamt up the intricate languages and perfectly crafted world of Middle-earth? Tolkien had a difficult life, for many years: orphaned and poor, his guardian forbade him to communicate with the woman he had fallen in love with, and he went through the horrors of the First World War. An intensely private and brilliant scholar, he spent over 50 years working on the languages, history, peoples, and geography of Middle-earth,
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Very insightful
- By Luke B. on 10-27-20
By: Colin Duriez
-
Sontag
- Her Life and Work
- By: Benjamin Moser
- Narrated by: Tavia Gilbert
- Length: 22 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 106
-
Performance4 out of 5 stars 85
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 84
No writer is as emblematic of the American 20th century as Susan Sontag. Mythologized and misunderstood, lauded and loathed, a girl from the suburbs who became a proud symbol of cosmopolitanism, Sontag left a legacy of writing on art and politics, feminism and homosexuality, celebrity and style, medicine and drugs, radicalism and Fascism and Freudianism and Communism and Americanism, that forms an indispensable key to modern culture.
-
3 out of 5 stars
-
Cloying voice
- By Suzanne on 11-02-19
By: Benjamin Moser
-
Charlotte Brontë
- A Fiery Heart
- By: Claire Harman
- Narrated by: Corrie James
- Length: 16 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 90
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 75
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 76
Charlotte Brontë's life contained all the drama and tragedy of the great Gothic novels it inspired. Like Jane Eyre, she was raised motherless on remote Yorkshire moors and sent away to a brutally strict boarding school at a young age. Charlotte grew up and watched helplessly as, one by one, her five beloved siblings sickened and died; by the end of her short life, she was the only child of the Brontë clan remaining.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Clear-Eyed Bio of Literature's Most Elusive Figure
- By wally on 09-02-16
By: Claire Harman
-
Isak Dinesen
- The Life of a Storyteller
- By: Judith Thurman
- Narrated by: Davina Porter
- Length: 21 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 71
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 54
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 52
Isak Dinesen earned international fame for Seven Gothic Tales and Out of Africa, and other stories that skillfully combine elements of fable, social conflict, and psychological drama. She was twice nominated for the Nobel Prize. Yet the story of her life - her travels, affairs, and friendships - remains the greatest story of all.
-
3 out of 5 stars
-
over-written
- By Jacqui Good on 10-19-18
By: Judith Thurman
-
Square Haunting
- Five Writers in London Between the Wars
- By: Francesca Wade
- Narrated by: Corrie James
- Length: 13 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 31
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 22
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 22
Mecklenburgh Square has always been a radical address. Nestled in the heart of Bloomsbury, these townhouses have borne witness to the lives of some of the century's most revolutionary cultural figures - many of whom were extraordinary women. United by their desire to experiment with new ways of living - and, therefore, of being - these authors and thinkers were trailblazers in their commitment to creative independence.
By: Francesca Wade
-
C.S. Lewis
- A Biography of Friendship
- By: Colin Duriez
- Narrated by: Simon Vance
- Length: 7 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 27
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 25
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 25
An Oxford student of C.S. Lewis' said he found his new tutor interesting and was told by J.R.R. Tolkien, "Interesting? Yes, he's certainly that. You'll never get to the bottom of him." You can learn a great deal about people by their friends and nowhere is this more true than in the case of C.S. Lewis, the remarkable academic, author, popularizer of faith - and creator of Narnia. He lost his mother early in life and became estranged from his father, much to his regret.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
It's a Great Concept
- By James on 08-13-20
By: Colin Duriez
-
J.R.R. Tolkien
- The Making of a Legend
- By: Colin Duriez
- Narrated by: Simon Vance
- Length: 6 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 36
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 34
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 34
J.R.R. Tolkien's creations, imagination, and characters captured the attention of millions of readers. But who was the man who dreamt up the intricate languages and perfectly crafted world of Middle-earth? Tolkien had a difficult life, for many years: orphaned and poor, his guardian forbade him to communicate with the woman he had fallen in love with, and he went through the horrors of the First World War. An intensely private and brilliant scholar, he spent over 50 years working on the languages, history, peoples, and geography of Middle-earth,
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Very insightful
- By Luke B. on 10-27-20
By: Colin Duriez
-
Sontag
- Her Life and Work
- By: Benjamin Moser
- Narrated by: Tavia Gilbert
- Length: 22 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 106
-
Performance4 out of 5 stars 85
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 84
No writer is as emblematic of the American 20th century as Susan Sontag. Mythologized and misunderstood, lauded and loathed, a girl from the suburbs who became a proud symbol of cosmopolitanism, Sontag left a legacy of writing on art and politics, feminism and homosexuality, celebrity and style, medicine and drugs, radicalism and Fascism and Freudianism and Communism and Americanism, that forms an indispensable key to modern culture.
-
3 out of 5 stars
-
Cloying voice
- By Suzanne on 11-02-19
By: Benjamin Moser
-
Charlotte Brontë
- A Fiery Heart
- By: Claire Harman
- Narrated by: Corrie James
- Length: 16 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 90
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 75
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 76
Charlotte Brontë's life contained all the drama and tragedy of the great Gothic novels it inspired. Like Jane Eyre, she was raised motherless on remote Yorkshire moors and sent away to a brutally strict boarding school at a young age. Charlotte grew up and watched helplessly as, one by one, her five beloved siblings sickened and died; by the end of her short life, she was the only child of the Brontë clan remaining.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Clear-Eyed Bio of Literature's Most Elusive Figure
- By wally on 09-02-16
By: Claire Harman
-
The Fellowship
- The Literary LIves of the Inklings: J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Owen Barfield, Charles Williams
- By: Philip Zaleski, Carol Zaleski
- Narrated by: John Curless
- Length: 26 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 490
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 446
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 443
C. S. Lewis is the 20th century's most widely read Christian writer and J. R. R. Tolkien its most beloved mythmaker. For three decades they and their closest associates formed a literary club known as the Inklings, which met weekly in Lewis' Oxford rooms and a nearby pub. They read aloud from works in progress, argued about anything that caught their fancy, and gave one another invaluable companionship, inspiration, and criticism.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
If You Love Literature...
- By Ray M on 07-14-16
By: Philip Zaleski, and others
-
Butterfly in the Typewriter
- The Tragic Life of John Kennedy Toole and the Remarkable Story of a Confederacy of Dunces
- By: Cory MacLauchlin
- Narrated by: Nick Sullivan
- Length: 11 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 58
-
Performance4 out of 5 stars 48
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 48
The saga of John Kennedy Toole is one of the greatest stories of American literary history. In Butterfly in the Typewriter, Cory MacLauchlin draws on scores of new interviews with friends, family, and colleagues as well as full access to the extensive Toole archive at Tulane University, capturing his upbringing in New Orleans, his years in New York City, his frenzy of writing in Puerto Rico, his return to his beloved city, and his descent into paranoia and depression.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
Worth it! Good biography. Informative.
- By French Quarter on 07-09-13
By: Cory MacLauchlin
-
Manifesto
- On Never Giving Up
- By: Bernardine Evaristo
- Narrated by: Bernardine Evaristo
- Length: 6 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 29
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 22
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 21
From the best-selling and Booker Prize-winning author of Girl, Woman, Other, Bernardine Evaristo’s memoir of her own life and writing, and her manifesto on unstoppability, creativity, and activism.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Glorious performance and inspiring story
- By Maggi Morehouse on 01-25-22
-
Bookworm
- A Memoir of Childhood Reading
- By: Lucy Mangan
- Narrated by: Lucy Mangan
- Length: 7 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 32
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 30
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 30
When Lucy Mangan was little, stories were everything. They opened up new worlds and cast light on all the complexities she encountered in this one. She was whisked away to Narnia and Kirrin Island and Wonderland. She ventured down rabbit holes and womble burrows into midnight gardens and chocolate factories. She wandered the countryside with Milly-Molly-Mandy and played by the tracks with the Railway Children.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
I love this!
- By M. Ashby on 03-12-20
By: Lucy Mangan
-
Philosopher of the Heart
- The Restless Life of Søren Kierkegaard
- By: Clare Carlisle
- Narrated by: Simon Vance
- Length: 10 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 68
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 60
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 59
Søren Kierkegaard is one of the most passionate and challenging of all modern philosophers, and is often regarded as the founder of existentialism. Over about a decade in the 1840s and 1850s, writings poured from his pen pursuing the question of existence - how to be a human being in the world? - while exploring the possibilities of Christianity and confronting the failures of its institutional manifestation around him.
-
3 out of 5 stars
-
Fatally flawed
- By Citizen M on 02-26-23
By: Clare Carlisle
-
A Life Observed
- A Spiritual Biography of C.S. Lewis
- By: Devin Brown
- Narrated by: Jon Gauger
- Length: 7 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 65
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 58
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 58
A Life Observed tells the inspiring story of Lewis' spiritual journey from cynical atheist to joyous Christian. Drawing on Lewis' autobiographical works, books by those who knew him personally, and his apologetic and fictional writing, this spiritual biography brings the beloved author’s story to life while shedding light on his best-known works.
-
2 out of 5 stars
-
A beautifully written remembrance
- By Rob on 02-06-18
By: Devin Brown
-
Prince Albert
- The Man Who Saved the Monarchy
- By: A. N. Wilson
- Narrated by: Gareth Armstrong
- Length: 13 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 33
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 32
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 31
Drawn from the Royal archives, including Prince Albert’s voluminous correspondence, this brilliant and ambitious book offers fascinating never-before-known details about the man and his time. A superb match of biographer and subject, Prince Albert, at last, gives this important historical figure the reverence and recognition that is long overdue.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Well Worth Reading
- By Mark Harrington on 06-01-22
By: A. N. Wilson
-
C. S. Lewis - A Life
- Eccentric Genius, Reluctant Prophet
- By: Alister E. McGrath
- Narrated by: Robin Sachs
- Length: 13 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 403
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 370
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 363
In honor of the 50th anniversary of C. S. Lewis' death, celebrated Oxford don Dr. Alister McGrath presents us with a compelling and definitive portrait of the life of C. S. Lewis, the author of the well-known Narnia series. For more than half a century, C. S. Lewis’ Narnia series has captured the imaginations of millions. In C. S. Lewis - A Life, Dr. Alister McGrath recounts the unlikely path of this Oxford don, who spent his days teaching English literature to the brightest students in the world and his spare time writing.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Awakening my curiosity and desire to read more!
- By Pearl Glacier on 03-13-13
-
Philip Roth
- The Biography
- By: Blake Bailey
- Narrated by: George Guidall
- Length: 31 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 33
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 26
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 26
"I don't want you to rehabilitate me," Philip Roth said to his only authorized biographer, Blake Bailey. "Just make me interesting." Granted complete independence and access, Bailey spent almost 10 years poring over Roth's personal archive, interviewing his friends, lovers, and colleagues, and listening to Roth's own breathtakingly candid confessions. Tracing Roth's path from realism to farce to metafiction to the tragic masterpieces of the American Trilogy, Bailey explores Roth's engagement with nearly every aspect of postwar American culture.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
moved
- By Michael on 08-18-21
By: Blake Bailey
-
Mad, Bad, Dangerous to Know
- By: Colm Toibin
- Narrated by: Colm Toibin
- Length: 6 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 42
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 35
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 35
Elegant, profound, and riveting, Mad, Bad, Dangerous to Know illuminates not only the complex relationships between three of the greatest writers in the English language and their fathers, but also illustrates the surprising ways these men surface in their work. Through these stories of fathers and sons, Tóibín recounts the resistance to English cultural domination, the birth of modern Irish cultural identity, and the extraordinary contributions of these complex and masterful authors.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
Eminently re-readable
- By Ellen-A on 01-02-19
By: Colm Toibin
-
The Republic of Imagination
- America in Three Books
- By: Azar Nafisi
- Narrated by: Mozhan Marnò
- Length: 10 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 54
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 48
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 48
Blending memoir and polemic with close readings of her favorite novels, she describes the unexpected journey that led her to become an American citizen after first dreaming of America as a young girl in Tehran and coming to know the country through its fiction. She urges us to rediscover the America of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz and Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and challenges us to be truer to the words and spirit of the Founding Fathers, who understood that their democratic experiment would never thrive or survive unless they could foster a democratic imagination.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Love
- By Rebecca on 05-29-16
By: Azar Nafisi
-
Parfit
- A Philosopher and His Mission to Save Morality
- By: David Edmonds
- Narrated by: Zeb Soanes
- Length: 13 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 34
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 32
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 32
Derek Parfit (1942–2017) is the most famous philosopher most people have never heard of. Widely regarded as one of the greatest moral thinkers of the past hundred years, Parfit was anything but a public intellectual. Yet his ideas have shaped the way philosophers think about things that affect us all: equality, altruism, what we owe to future generations, and even what it means to be a person. In Parfit, David Edmonds presents the first biography of an intriguing, obsessive, and eccentric genius.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Loved it
- By Anna Karenina on 07-05-23
By: David Edmonds