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The Purple Pileus
- Narrated by: Ellis Freeman
- Length: 26 mins
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The Purple Pileus
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- Narrated by: Jonathan Davis
- Length: 5 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 288
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 266
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Story4 out of 5 stars 268
Just before Christmas in 1843, a debt-ridden and dispirited Charles Dickens wrote a small book he hoped would keep his creditors at bay. His publisher turned it down, so Dickens used what little money he had to put out A Christmas Carol himself. He worried it might be the end of his career as a novelist. The book immediately caused a sensation. And it breathed new life into a holiday that had fallen into disfavor, undermined by lingering Puritanism and the cold modernity of the Industrial Revolution.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Beautifully Told!
- By JodyB on 12-01-17
By: Les Standiford
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I Am a Cat
- By: Soseki Natsume, Aiko Ito - translator, Graeme Wilson - translator
- Narrated by: David Shih
- Length: 21 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 127
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 108
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Story4 out of 5 stars 108
Soseki Natsume's comic masterpiece, I Am a Cat, satirizes the foolishness of upper-middle class Japanese society during the Meiji era. With acerbic wit and sardonic perspective, it follows the whimsical adventures of a world-weary stray kitten who comments on the follies and foibles of the people around him. A classic of Japanese literature, I Am a Cat is one of Soseki's best-known novels. Considered by many as the greatest writer in modern Japanese history, Soseki's I Am a Cat is a classic novel sure to be enjoyed for years to come.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Great performance!
- By mz on 04-03-20
By: Soseki Natsume, and others
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High Rising
- A Virago Modern Classic
- By: Angela Thirkell, Alexander McCall Smith - introduction
- Narrated by: Jilly Bond
- Length: 7 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 207
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 180
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 180
Successful lady novelist Laura Morland and her boisterous young son, Tony, set off to spend Christmas at her country home in the sleepy surrounds of High Rising. But Laura's wealthy friend and neighbor, George Knox, has taken on a scheming secretary whose designs on marriage to her employer threaten the delicate social fabric of the village.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Beginning of a journey
- By Jerri C on 11-04-16
By: Angela Thirkell, and others
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The Pursuit of Love
- Radlett and Montdore Trilogy Series, Book 1
- By: Nancy Mitford
- Narrated by: Bessie Carter
- Length: 7 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 98
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 90
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 90
Mitford's most enduringly popular novel, The Pursuit of Love, is a classic comedy about growing up and falling in love among the privileged and eccentric. Mitford modeled her characters on her own famously unconventional family. We are introduced to the Radletts through the eyes of their cousin, Fanny, who stays with them at Alconleigh, their Gloucestershire estate. Uncle Matthew is the blustering patriarch; Aunt Sadie is the vague but doting mother; and the seven Radlett children, despite the delights of their unusual childhood, are recklessly eager to grow up.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Unlistenable
- By Michael on 10-17-21
By: Nancy Mitford
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The Forsyte Chronicles, Vol. 1: The Forsyte Saga
- By: John Galsworthy
- Narrated by: David Timson
- Length: 38 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 23
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 16
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 16
John Galsworthy's magnificent trilogy of power and passion chronicles the wealthy Forsyte family. As the disintegrating values of the Victorian era progress to World War I and the political uncertainty of the 1930s, the family's material and emotional struggles are set within the dwindling status of the affluent middle-classes.
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3 out of 5 stars
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Tiring
- By marsha nunley on 04-29-21
By: John Galsworthy
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Lark Rise
- By: Flora Thompson
- Narrated by: Karen Cass
- Length: 9 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 55
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 49
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 49
Lark Rise is Flora Thompson's childhood memories of a north Oxfordshire village, the people who lived and worked in it, and a way of life that has totally disappeared. The story is built around Laura and her brother Edmund, through whose eyes are seen 'old Sally', whose grandfather built the house she lived in before the enclosure of the heathland, children's games, the interaction of village and gentry, and the way in which the seasons governed life.
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5 out of 5 stars
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A glimpse...
- By Roses Revealing Reviews on 05-31-20
By: Flora Thompson
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Sanshiro
- Penguin Classics
- By: Natsume Soseki, Haruki Murakami, Jay Rubin
- Narrated by: Andrew Koji
- Length: 7 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 34
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 32
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 32
One of Soseki's most beloved works of fiction, the novel depicts the 23-year-old Sanshiro leaving the sleepy countryside for the first time in his life to experience the constantly moving 'real world' of Tokyo, its women and university. In the subtle tension between our appreciation of Soseki's lively humour and our awareness of Sanshiro's doomed innocence, the novel comes to life. Sanshiro is also penetrating social and cultural commentary.
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3 out of 5 stars
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This story had no point.
- By icelandicponies on 12-30-21
By: Natsume Soseki, and others
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The Overcoat
- By: Nikolai Gogol
- Narrated by: Michael Redgrave
- Length: 20 mins
- Original Recording
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 102
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 88
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Story4 out of 5 stars 89
Published in 1842, Nikolai Gogol’s The Overcoat recounts the sad tale of Akavy Akakievich Bashmachkin, played by Michael Redgrave.
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2 out of 5 stars
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Not An Audiobook
- By The Real Jeff Williams on 02-24-21
By: Nikolai Gogol
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The Valley of the Spiders
- By: H. G. Wells
- Narrated by: Matt Fogarty
- Length: 33 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall3.5 out of 5 stars 60
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Performance3.5 out of 5 stars 56
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Story3.5 out of 5 stars 56
A classic H. G. Wells short story about two men that wander into a valley of giant spiders.
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3 out of 5 stars
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Big Spiders
- By Jim "The Impatient" on 11-24-12
By: H. G. Wells
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Pale Horse, Pale Rider
- Three Short Novels
- By: Katherine Anne Porter
- Narrated by: Chelsea Stephens
- Length: 6 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 62
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 55
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Story4 out of 5 stars 54
The classic 1939 collection of three novellas by the Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award-winning author and journalist, including the famous title story set during the influenza epidemic of 1918.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Some of the most brilliant prose ever written
- By Anonymous User on 03-21-23
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Mrs. Dalloway
- By: Virginia Woolf
- Narrated by: Juliet Stevenson
- Length: 7 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 1,513
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 1,324
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Story4 out of 5 stars 1,312
It is a June day in London in 1923, and the lovely Clarissa Dalloway is having a party. Whom will she see? Her friend Peter, back from India, who has never really stopped loving her? What about Sally, with whom Clarissa had her life’s happiest moment? Meanwhile, the shell-shocked Septimus Smith is struggling with his life on the same London day.
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5 out of 5 stars
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One Tough Read Perfectly Delivered
- By Chris on 06-11-12
By: Virginia Woolf
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William - The Pirate
- By: Richmal Crompton
- Narrated by: Martin Jarvis
- Length: 6 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 36
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 30
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Story5 out of 5 stars 28
William Brown, the loveable rogue created by Richmal Crompton in the 1930s, is as well-received and enjoyed today as he was almost 80 years ago. Martin Jarvis has long been the voice of William, and brings a youthful sense of joy and a childlike excitement to the reading.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Best William Book
- By RNS on 12-24-13
By: Richmal Crompton
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Bel Ami
- By: Guy de Maupassant
- Narrated by: John McDonough
- Length: 14 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 170
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 147
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Story4 out of 5 stars 148
Guy de Maupassant is revered for his naturalistic fiction, which brilliantly captures flesh-and-blood characters as it evokes the most telling details of everyday life. Considered one of the finest French novels ever written, Bel Ami follows journalist Georges Duroy and his increasing stature among the Paris elite. With an immense thirst for power, Georges is not above an almost gleeful use of wealthy mistresses to achieve his ends.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Bel Ami or how to socially climb in 1885 Paris
- By Neil Chisholm on 12-03-13
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My Autobiography
- By: Charles Chaplin, David Robinson - introduction
- Narrated by: Steve John Shepherd
- Length: 19 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall5 out of 5 stars 56
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 47
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Story5 out of 5 stars 47
Take an unforgettable journey with the man George Bernard Shaw called "the only genius to come out of the movie industry" as he moves from his impoverished South London childhood to the heights of Hollywood wealth and fame; from the McCarthy-era investigations to his founding of United Artists to his "reverse migration" back to Europe.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Finally Chaplin’s auto is available!
- By Ryan Baumbach on 04-28-22
By: Charles Chaplin, and others
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Upstairs & Downstairs
- My Life In Service as a Lady's Maid
- By: Hilda Newman, Tim Tate
- Narrated by: Helen Lloyd
- Length: 6 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 843
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 772
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 765
The year was 1935: the twilight of the English aristocracy. It was a time of wealth and glamour; of lavish balls and evening gowns; of tiaras and a coronation. As personal maid to Lady Coventry, Hilda Newman had a unique insight into the leisured life of one of Britain's most noble families. In her fascinating memoir of life upstairs and down, Hilda takes us back to this period between the wars; a gilded era which would soon be dramatically changed by the Second World War.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Wonderful listen!!
- By J.T. on 09-25-19
By: Hilda Newman, and others