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The Ragged-Trousered Philanthropists
- Narrated by: George Galloway
- Length: 26 hrs and 40 mins
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Publisher's Summary
The Ragged-Trousered Philanthropists chronicles the tale of Frank Owen, a traveling socialist visionary making his way from town to town in the name of the socialist revolution. When spring arrives, Frank Owen decides to settle in the quiet town of Mugsborough, and joins a group of workmen who are painting the home of a wealthy neighborhood resident. Owen is quickly befriended by two fellow workmen: Bodgit and Scarpy. Scarpy is thin and nearly emaciated. When the men break for lunch Scarpy never has much to eat; only a bit of bread, or a biscuit and tea. Owen inquires as to why he's so thin and undernourished. Bodgit explains that his pay has been severely cut, and he barely has enough to feed his wife and three growing children at home.
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What listeners say about The Ragged-Trousered Philanthropists
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

- Brass Neck
- 04-30-19
A prescient reminder of what was and may be again
A well delivered telling of the classic story. Galloway honest in his interpretation. A good version not without a couple of recording blips but believable and delivered with honesty and a passion obviously derived from a love of the subject matter.
3 people found this helpful
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Overall
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Performance
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Story

- Jutta K.
- 03-23-19
Narrator unbearable
This is not a book but a narrator review. Mr Galloway clearly has no experience or training in this field and it showed. I was unable to listen to this audio book as Mr Galloway’s volume would go from one extreme (shouting) to the other (whispering and mumbling), often without apparent reason. I found my hand permanently shooting to the volume dial, however this was not very practical during driving. I found the experience of listening to Mr Galloway’s narration incredibly infuriating.
3 people found this helpful
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Overall
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Performance
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Story

- Oliver Hobson
- 01-18-19
The production of this book is terrible.
A great story which many in today's society should listen to. Completely let down by Galloway's reading and a disastrous production.
3 people found this helpful
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Performance
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Story

- Amazon Customer
- 07-26-21
Dire Narration
George Galloway's performance is laugh out loud bad - really. Listen to a sample for a chuckle and then find a version read by somebody who has an understanding and appreciation of the brilliant text.
2 people found this helpful
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Performance
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Story

- Surgat
- 03-06-21
Dreadful
Absolutely terrible narration. I gave up.
p.s. Like the narrator, I am Scottish. It's not the accent that's the problem.
2 people found this helpful
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Performance
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- Mr J M Timmis
- 04-22-19
Great story but terrible editing and a bad narrator
The story is wonderful and pulls you in despite the terrible narration and rubbish editing (what appears to have been corrections are left in alongside the original narration) .
2 people found this helpful
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- Sam Short
- 07-01-19
Highly recommended reading
Despite a few recording errors which are to be expected from the age it is a fantastic read. Humerous, emotional and entertaining, as well as thought provoking and educational. Even more than a century on there are innumerable parrallels that can still be drawn, especially in our current political climate.
1 person found this helpful
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Overall

- Andy
- 03-28-19
Read with conviction
I found George read this with conviction his passion for this work is well noticed I have the naxo copy on another tablet but for strong socialist comment and the fire of this novel I can go with George all the way I hope he does another work say love on the dole by Walter Greenwood
1 person found this helpful
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Performance
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- RikidikiD
- 03-11-19
A triumph of political and social 'noire'.
What a superb rendering of the 'state of man' let alone the state of the nation or the world.
Truly a masterpiece of ingenuity and a brilliant and lucid depiction of the struggles and (self inflicted) ignorance of the working man.
I think this book should be on the reading list of every 1st year university student.
1 person found this helpful
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Performance
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- Benjamin Plant
- 12-26-22
The most depressing thing since 1984
A very sad and miserable tale. Times were very hard and people were cruel. I listen to books to escape the misery of existence and this did not help 1 bit. The narrator is excellent. I am not saying I like his views but he has a great accent and reads very well indeed. If you want something as harrowing ash Schindlers list then this book is for you.
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Performance

- Janet Catesby
- 08-24-19
History repeats itself over and over
This story, even though it was written many years ago, is as relevant today as it was back then. notably the huge difference between the rich and the poor, the poor's incapacity to comprehend that they are being used for the benefit of the wealthy, the wealthy's cunning and clever manipulation of this ignorance for their own benefit. A very sad but beautifully constructed work that evetyone should tead.
1 person found this helpful
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The Gate of Angels
- By: Penelope Fitzgerald
- Narrated by: Nadia May
- Length: 5 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
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It is 1912, and at Cambridge University the modern age is knocking at the gate. In lecture halls and laboratories, the model of a universe governed by the Mind of God is at last giving way to something wholly rational, a universe governed by the Laws of Physics. To Fred Fairly, a junior fellow at the College of St. Angelicus, this comes as a great comfort. Science, he is certain, will soon explain everything.
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quiet brilliance
- By Will on 04-18-06
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The Mayor of Casterbridge
- By: Thomas Hardy
- Narrated by: Tony Britton
- Length: 13 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
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This audiobook is about the rise and fall of Michael Henchard. While out-of-work he gets drunk at a fair and impulsively sells his wife and baby for five guineas to a sailor. Eighteen years later he is reunited with his wife and daughter, who discover that he has gained wealth and respect and is now the most prominent man in Casterbridge. Though he attempts to make amends he is no less impulsive and once again loses everything due to bad luck and his violent, selfish and vengeful nature.
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Tangled Webs
- By Joseph R on 12-22-09
By: Thomas Hardy
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The Diary of a Nobody
- By: George Grossmith
- Narrated by: Geoffrey Palmer
- Length: 4 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
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Written as the diary of someone who would not normally merit a memoir but considers that he should have one written about him anyway, The Diary of a Nobody chronicles in agonizing but very funny detail everyday life in the lower middle class suburbs of Victorian England and the attempts of a social climber to better himself. It was published in 1892. First published in the satirical magazine Punch as a serial between 1888 and 1889, with illustrations by the author’s brother, Weedon.
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Outstanding performance
- By pandajama on 01-11-20
By: George Grossmith
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Jude The Obscure
- By: Thomas Hardy
- Narrated by: Stephen Thorne
- Length: 15 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
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This is the story of a young country workman obsessed by his ambition to become an Oxford student, interwoven with his fraught relationships with two women.
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Staggering
- By Tad Davis on 02-16-10
By: Thomas Hardy
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Of Human Bondage
- By: W. Somerset Maugham
- Narrated by: Charlton Griffin
- Length: 28 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
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Of Human Bondage is one of the greatest novels of modern times, and it is certainly Maugham's greatest achievement. It was published in 1914, when Maugham was at the height of his creative powers. The story concerns Philip Carey, afflicted at birth with a club foot, and his passionate search for truth in a cruel world. We follow his growth to manhood, his educational progress, his first loves, and the wrenching tragedies and disappointments that life has in store for him. In some of the finest prose of the 20th century, Maugham has presented us with the timeless story of one man's search for the meaning of life.
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Greatly Unsettling
- By Michael on 10-04-14
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Decline and Fall
- By: Evelyn Waugh
- Narrated by: Michael Maloney
- Length: 5 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
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Sent down from Oxford after a wild, drunken party, Paul Pennyfeather is oddly surprised to find himself qualifying for the position of schoolmaster at a boys' private school in Wales. His colleagues are an assortment of misfits, rascals and fools, including Prendy (plagued by doubts) and Captain Grimes, who is always in the soup (or just plain drunk). Then Sports Day arrives, and with it the delectable Margot Beste-Chetwynde, floating on a scented breeze.
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Black Humor, Satire, and the Absurd
- By Gypsi on 06-09-18
By: Evelyn Waugh
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Down and Out in Paris and London
- By: George Orwell
- Narrated by: Frederick Davidson
- Length: 6 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
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Orwell's own experiences inspire this semi-autobiographical novel about a man living in Paris in the early 1930s without a penny. The narrator's poverty brings him into contact with strange incidents and characters, which he manages to chronicle with great sensitivity and graphic power. The latter half of the book takes the English narrator to his home city, London, where the world of poverty is different in externals only.
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The King of Boldness, Clearness, and Audacity
- By Darwin8u on 05-21-12
By: George Orwell
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Anna of the Five Towns
- By: Arnold Bennett
- Narrated by: Peter Joyce
- Length: 9 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
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Set in stifled, industrial Staffordshire in the late 19th century, against a strong evangelical background, Anna of the Five Towns tells of the courting of hard businessman Ephraim Tellright's daughter by prosperous and accomplished Henry Mynors. As her father's fortune grows, so does Anna understanding. She realises her legacy and responsibility for the possible ruination of her father's tenants, Titus Price and his son, Willie, who also loves her.
By: Arnold Bennett
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King Coal
- A Novel
- By: Upton Sinclair
- Narrated by: Grover Gardner
- Length: 12 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
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Based on the 1914 and 1915 Colorado coal strikes, King Coal describes the abhorrent conditions faced by workers in the western United States' coal mining industry during the 1910s. The story follows Hal Warner, a rich man looking to get a better view of the lives of commoners. It is a tale of struggle, threats, and violence, of hardened men and the advocacy for workers' rights. In this business, the road to unionization is a rocky one.
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A little preachy
- By Enzo G. on 08-02-18
By: Upton Sinclair