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The Matisse Stories
- Narrated by: Virginia Leishman
- Length: 3 hrs and 2 mins
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Publisher's Summary
A.S. Byatt’s books shimmer with all the hues of her critically acclaimed talent and imagination. In The Matisse Stories, this Booker Prize-winning author offers three elegant tales that explore the subtle interplays between mind and eye, heart and hand. In the first, Medusa’s Ankles, a fashionable woman watches her life take on darker, more ominous shades in the mirror of a beauty salon. In the next, Art Work, an eccentric housekeeper’s alarming eye for color leaves its mark on her employers’ lives. Each of these stories, including the last, "The Chinese Lobster", is like a finely crafted jewel.
Rich imagery and effortless narratives make The Matisse Stories an unforgettable listening experience. The characters are sketched with a sureness that confirms A.S. Byatt’s artistry. And through the nuances of Virginia Leishman’s eloquent narration, the listener is brought into a rare world of heightened sensibilities and perceptions.
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Story
The Hours is the story of three women: Clarissa Vaughan, Laura Brown, and Virginia Woolf. By the end of the novel, the stories intertwine in remarkable ways, and finally come together in an act of subtle and haunting grace.
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Very literary, intentionally slight plot
- By Steve on 12-02-03
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The Killing Doll
- By: Ruth Rendell
- Narrated by: Ric Jerrom
- Length: 7 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
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Performance
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Story
No one would have described Manningtree Grove as fashionable. Few would have found it especially interesting. But it was not an unpleasant place to live: the old railway line lay in a valley, and the gardens looked onto it. It was the kind of place where nothing ever happened. Yet it was here that Peter Yearman first sold his soul to the devil....
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Suspenseful, unexpected, brilliant
- By Linda C on 12-14-21
By: Ruth Rendell
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Melmoth
- A Novel
- By: Sarah Perry
- Narrated by: Jan Cramer
- Length: 10 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
For centuries, the mysterious dark-robed figure has roamed the globe, searching for those whose complicity and cowardice have fed into the rapids of history’s darkest waters - and now it is heading in our direction.It has been years since Helen Franklin left England. In Prague, working as a translator, she has found a home of sorts - or, at least, refuge. That changes when her friend Karel discovers a mysterious letter in the library, a strange confession and a curious warning that speaks of Melmoth the Witness, a dark legend found in obscure fairy tales and antique village lore.
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very good. intense
- By Nick Thomson on 11-25-18
By: Sarah Perry
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That Summer
- By: Lauren Willig
- Narrated by: Nicola Barber
- Length: 12 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
When Julia Conley hears that she has inherited a house outside London from an unknown great-aunt, she assumes it’s a joke. She hasn't been back to England since the car crash that killed her mother when she was six, an event she remembers only in her nightmares. But when she arrives at Herne Hill to sort through the house - with the help of her cousin Natasha and sexy antiques dealer Nicholas - bits of memory start coming back.
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disappointed
- By laura on 08-17-16
By: Lauren Willig
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Bruno's Dream
- By: Iris Murdoch
- Narrated by: Simon Prebble
- Length: 10 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Bruno, dying, obsessed with spiders and preoccupied with death and reconciliation, lies at the center of an intricate spider's web of relationships and passions: Bruno's estranged and grieving son Miles; Danby, Bruno's widowed son-in-law, consoling himself with the Adelaide the maid, one of Murdoch's finest comic creations; creepy Nigel the nurse and his besotted twin Will, fighter of duels. The flooding Thames brings about the climax, and all are left changed by love and forgiveness before the old man's death.
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got lost
- By serine on 02-02-16
By: Iris Murdoch
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Revenge
- Eleven Dark Tales
- By: Yoko Ogawa
- Narrated by: Kaleo Griffith, Johanna Parker
- Length: 4 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
An aspiring writer moves into a new apartment and discovers that her landlady has murdered her husband. Elsewhere, an accomplished surgeon is approached by a cabaret singer, whose beautiful appearance belies the grotesque condition of her heart. And while the surgeon's jealous lover vows to kill him, a violent envy also stirs in the soul of a lonely craftsman. Desire meets with impulse and erupts, attracting the attention of the surgeon's neighbor - who is drawn to a decaying residence that is now home to instruments of human torture.
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Maybe, more Gray then Dark?
- By Jim "The Impatient" on 10-28-14
By: Yoko Ogawa
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Georgia
- A Novel of Georgia O'Keeffe
- By: Dawn Tripp
- Narrated by: Ann Marie Lee
- Length: 12 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Story
Georgia O'Keeffe, her love affair with photographer Alfred Stieglitz, and her quest to become an independent artist come vividly to life in this sensual and exquisitely written novel, a dazzling departure into historical fiction by the acclaimed novelist Dawn Tripp.
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Disappointing - trashy romance novel
- By Patricia on 06-30-16
By: Dawn Tripp
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Clara and Mr. Tiffany
- A Novel
- By: Susan Vreeland
- Narrated by: Kimberly Farr
- Length: 15 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
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Story
It’s 1893, and at the Chicago World’s Fair, Louis Comfort Tiffany makes his debut with a luminous exhibition of innovative stained-glass windows, which he hopes will honor his family business and earn him a place on the international artistic stage. But behind the scenes in his New York studio is the freethinking Clara Driscoll. Publicly unrecognized by Tiffany, Clara conceives of and designs nearly all of the iconic leaded-glass lamps for which he is long remembered.
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The real Clara Driscoll deserves better.
- By Bonny on 10-25-11
By: Susan Vreeland