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The Sonnets of William Shakespeare
- Narrated by: Denis Daly
- Length: 2 hrs and 25 mins
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The Sonnets of William Shakespeare
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Publisher's summary
Many masters employed the form of the sonnet, including Petrarch, Spenser, Shakespeare, Keats, and Robert Bridges. However, the most celebrated, and oft quoted, examples are to be found in the collection by Shakespeare, first published in 1609. In the 154 poems, Shakespeare surveys and dissects the subject of love in all its guises, and its relationship with youth, age, illness, death, and memory. Had no other works by Shakespeare survived, this collection alone would have established his position among the greatest of English poets.
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Great Narrator makes this story work
- By cosmitron on 08-02-18
By: Euripides
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The Scarlet Plague [Classic Tales Edition]
- By: Jack London
- Narrated by: B.J. Harrison
- Length: 2 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 690
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 598
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 595
Twelve billionaires rule the United States, while those called freemen are forced to serve the rich. But that was 60 years ago, before the Scarlet Plague. In this post-apocalyptic novella, a ragged and tattered old man tells his progeny of what life was like before The Scarlet Plague appeared - and wiped out civilization as they knew it.
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5 out of 5 stars
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wonderful listen very relevant today!
- By Johnny on 12-02-17
By: Jack London
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Paradise Lost & Paradise Regained
- By: John Milton
- Narrated by: Charlton Griffin
- Length: 16 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 865
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 728
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 732
Paradise Lost, along with its companion piece, Paradise Regained, remain the most successful attempts at Greco-Roman style epic poetry in the English language. Remarkably enough, they were written near the end of John Milton's amazing life, a bold testimonial to his mental powers in old age. And, since he had gone completely blind in 1652, 15 years prior to Paradise Lost, he dictated it and all his other works to his daughter.
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5 out of 5 stars
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SELL YOUR SHIRT FOR THIS AUDIO BOOK!
- By thomas on 04-23-11
By: John Milton
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Faust
- By: Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
- Narrated by: David McCallion
- Length: 5 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 54
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 48
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 45
Faust by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, is a poem, translated by Bayard Taylor, which tells the beautiful and emotional story of a man who has seen and done it all. However, despite all of his learning and education, his life still feels empty and unaccomplished. He believes wholeheartedly that there is something else out there. Faust, having exhausted all other fields of study, turns to magic for fulfillment. He summons the devil and makes a pact - that if the devil can show him something rewarding and fulfilling, he will give the devil his soul.
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2 out of 5 stars
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Misleading
- By Grant Pajak on 03-29-17
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Lear
- The Great Image of Authority
- By: Harold Bloom
- Narrated by: Simon Vance
- Length: 3 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall5 out of 5 stars 24
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 23
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Story5 out of 5 stars 23
King Lear is perhaps the most poignant character in literature. The aged, abused monarch is at once the consummate figure of authority and the classic example of the fall from majesty. He is widely agreed to be William Shakespeare's most moving, tragic hero. Award-winning writer and beloved professor Harold Bloom writes about Lear with wisdom, joy, exuberance, and compassion. He also explores his own personal relationship to the character.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Bloom being Bloom
- By C. Yuen on 10-05-23
By: Harold Bloom
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The Consolation of Philosophy
- By: Anicius Manlius Severinus Boethius
- Narrated by: Peter Wickham
- Length: 4 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 40
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 37
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 37
Charged with treason under Theodoric the Great in sixth-century Rome, Boethius served one year's imprisonment, awaiting trial and eventual execution. During this time, he wrote The Consolation of Philosophy, which would go on to be one of the most popular philosophical works of all time, contributing much to medieval thought and influencing the likes of Dante and Chaucer, as well as Renaissance writers, such as Milton and Shakespeare.
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5 out of 5 stars
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The Bestseller for a 1000 Years
- By Ken on 02-05-22
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The Plays of Sophocles
- Oedipus the King, Oedipus at Colonus, and Antigone
- By: Sophocles
- Narrated by: David McCallion
- Length: 5 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 55
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 49
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 47
Sophocles was born at Colonus, near Athens in about 496 BC and is considered to be one of the premier playwrights of Greek tragedy. His stories may have been filled with strife, but Sophocles himself was prosperous and came from a good family. It is said that he was handsome, wealthy, and a highly respected citizen of Athens. During his life, he wrote over 120 plays and was instrumental in how plays would eventually be performed, including the addition of stage props.
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1 out of 5 stars
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Bad Dialogue
- By Zoe Olvera on 08-12-18
By: Sophocles
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Falstaff
- Give Me Life
- By: Harold Bloom
- Narrated by: Simon Vance
- Length: 3 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 37
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 33
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 34
Falstaff is both a comic and tragic central protagonist in Shakespeare's three Henry plays. He is companion to Prince Hal (the future Henry V), who loves him, goads him, teases him, indulges his vast appetites, and commits all sorts of mischief with him. Award-winning author and esteemed professor Harold Bloom examines Falstaff with the deepest compassion and sympathy and also with unerring wisdom. He uses the relationship between Falstaff and Hal to explore the devastation of severed bonds and the heartbreak of betrayal.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Falstaff brooks no rebuttal.
- By Darwin8u on 02-06-20
By: Harold Bloom
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The Divine Comedy
- By: Dante Alighieri, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow - translator
- Narrated by: Charlton Griffin
- Length: 17 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 576
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 439
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Story4 out of 5 stars 440
Dante's Divine Comedy is considered to be not only the most important epic poem in Italian literature, but also one of the greatest poems ever written. It consists of 100 cantos, and (after an introductory canto) they are divided into three sections. Each section is 33 cantos in length, and they describe how Dante and a guide travel through Inferno, Purgatorio, and Paradiso.
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3 out of 5 stars
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Not for listening.
- By Larry on 03-13-11
By: Dante Alighieri, and others
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Oedipus the King
- By: Sophocles
- Narrated by: full cast
- Length: 1 hr and 46 mins
- Original Recording
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 352
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 298
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 295
In Sophocles' tragedy, Oedipus discovers that he has been caught in his terrible destiny, unknowingly murdering his father and marrying his mother.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Superb
- By Mark on 11-24-09
By: Sophocles
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The Complete Collection of Emily Dickinson's Poems
- By: Emily Dickinson
- Narrated by: Elaine Sepani
- Length: 3 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 36
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 30
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 29
Emily Dickinson (1830-1886) was a reclusive poet whose only friendships were carried out in correspondence. Despite writing almost 1800 poems in her life, very few were published until after her death. Here, the poems are presented in chronological order in their original form, unaltered by editorial revision, in one volume. It offers a wide-angle view of Dickinson's poetic development, from the clunky rhyme schemes of her youth, through valentines she wrote in the early 1850s, to the gloomy, hell-obsessed writings of her last years.
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1 out of 5 stars
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It’s not Emily Dickinson’s Fault
- By Mary Beth Hammond on 04-04-21
By: Emily Dickinson
![La Vita Nuova [The New Life] Audiobook By Dante Alighieri cover art](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51+N56si4dL._SL320_.jpg)
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La Vita Nuova [The New Life]
- By: Dante Alighieri
- Narrated by: Jonathan Keeble
- Length: 2 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 24
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 21
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 21
Written in alternating prose and poetry, La Vita Nuova is a profound reflection on the nature of love, devoted to Dante's muse Beatrice. Following Beatrice's death in 1290, Dante became obsessed with the young Florentine woman, whom he only ever knew from a distance. He believed his love for her was a form of divine love and saw her as an image of salvation itself - a theme that is later explored in his masterpiece The Divine Comedy, where she guides him through heaven.
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5 out of 5 stars
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A must
- By Barnaby on 11-15-20
By: Dante Alighieri
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Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
- By: J. R. R. Tolkien
- Narrated by: Terry Jones
- Length: 4 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 714
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 602
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 600
A collection of three medieval English poems, translated by Tolkien for the modern-day reader and containing romance, tragedy, love, sex and honour.
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5 out of 5 stars
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An absolute delight!
- By Shannon Slee on 07-15-18
By: J. R. R. Tolkien
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Idylls of the King
- By: Alfred Tennyson
- Narrated by: Charlton Griffin
- Length: 12 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 199
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 130
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 130
The Arthurian legend of Camelot has been told many times, but never better than by Alfred Tennyson. Employing some of the most stirring and beautiful blank verse ever written, Tennyson crafted his version of the Knights of the Round Table over the course of nearly fifty years, completing it in 1885. Despite the length of time, Tennyson managed to maintain a high level of style and continuity throughout.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Beautiful poetry
- By Roger on 01-15-08
By: Alfred Tennyson
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The Decameron
- By: Giovanni Boccaccio
- Narrated by: Simon Russell Beale, Gunnar Cauthery, Alison Pettitt, and others
- Length: 28 hrs and 5 mins
- Original Recording
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 229
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 199
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 200
The Decameron is one of the greatest literary works of the Middle Ages. Ten young people have fled the terrible effects of the Black Death in Florence and, in an idyllic setting, tell a series of brilliant stories, by turns humorous, bawdy, tragic and provocative. This celebration of physical and sexual vitality is Boccaccio's answer to the sublime other-worldliness of Dante's Divine Comedy.
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3 out of 5 stars
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Not Up to the Usual Naxos Standard
- By John on 11-15-17
What listeners say about The Sonnets of William Shakespeare
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall1 out of 5 stars
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Story3 out of 5 stars
- John
- 10-03-20
narrator mumbles and drones. unlistenable.
quite simply the worse narration I've ever heard. He mumbles and drones throughout. Literally can't understand most of what he saying. The technician in the booth had to be playing solitaire.
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