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The Virgin in the Garden
- Narrated by: Wanda McCaddon
- Length: 20 hrs and 10 mins
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The Virgin in the Garden
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In the far west of Cornwall lies the White Valley, which cuts deeply through bluebell woods down to the sea at White Cove. The valley has a long and bloody history, laced with folklore, and in it sits a house above the beach that has lain neglected since the war. It comes with a reputation and a strange atmosphere, which is why mother and daughter Magdalena and Mila manage to acquire it so cheaply in the fateful summer of 1954.
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2 out of 5 stars
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5 out of 5 stars
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Gorgeous!
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Publisher's summary
In 1953, at an isolated boys’ school in the Yorkshire moors, is a young teacher, Alexander Wedderburn, whose imagination had been captured by the Queen Elizabeth of Shakespeare and Spenser and who has written an historical verse play about her. Now, suddenly, his play has been taken up by a wealthy patron of the arts who envisions its production on the most magnificent scale, for it is to be the climax of a local festival honoring the new Queen Elizabeth.
The novel holds us in suspense as it carries us to the great event of the play itself - in its midsummer-night’s atmosphere of dream, of magic, of transforming revelry - that will alter forever the course of all the characters’ lives.
A. S. Byatt was educated at York and at Newham College, Cambridge. She taught at the Central School of Art and Design and was senior lecturer in English at University College, London, before becoming a full-time writer in 1983. She is a distinguished critic and reviewer as well as a novelist.
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- Length: 12 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 88
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 75
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Story4 out of 5 stars 73
Ralph and Anna Eldred are an exemplary couple, devoting themselves to doing good. 30 years ago as missionaries in Africa, the worst that could happen did. Shattered by their encounter with inexplicable evil, they returned to England, never to speak of it again. But when Ralph falls into an affair, Anna finds no forgiveness in her heart, and 30 years of repressed rage and grief explode, destroying not only a marriage but also their love, their faith, and everything they thought they were.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Beautifully written
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By: Hilary Mantel
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To the Lighthouse
- By: Virginia Woolf
- Narrated by: Nicole Kidman
- Length: 6 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 1,115
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 997
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 991
To the Lighthouse is Virginia Woolf’s arresting analysis of domestic family life, centering on the Ramseys and their visits to the Isle of Skye in Scotland in the early 1900s. Nicole Kidman (Moulin Rouge, Eyes Wide Shut), who won an Oscar for her portrayal of Woolf in the film adaptation of Michael Cunningham’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel
The Hours, brings the impressionistic prose of this classic to vibrant life.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
A book that will challenge you to think.
- By Kelly on 04-23-17
By: Virginia Woolf
-
The Essex Serpent
- A Novel
- By: Sarah Perry
- Narrated by: Juanita McMahon
- Length: 14 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 1,129
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 1,027
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 1,027
When Cora Seaborne's brilliant, domineering husband dies, she steps into her new life as a widow with as much relief as sadness: her marriage was not a happy one. Wed at 19, this woman of exceptional intelligence and curiosity was ill-suited for the role of society wife. Seeking refuge in fresh air and open space in the wake of the funeral, Cora leaves London for a visit to coastal Essex, accompanied by her inquisitive and obsessive 11-year old son, Francis, and the boy's nanny, Martha.
-
1 out of 5 stars
-
Unbearable Narrator
- By ACB on 06-08-17
By: Sarah Perry
-
The Muse
- A Novel
- By: Jessie Burton
- Narrated by: Bahni Turpin, Maria Elena Infantino
- Length: 13 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 391
-
Performance4 out of 5 stars 361
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 356
England, 1967. Odelle Bastien is a Caribbean émigré trying to make her way in London. When she starts working at the prestigious Skelton Institute of Art, she discovers a painting rumored to be the work of Isaac Robles, a young artist of immense talent and vision whose mysterious death has confounded the art world for decades. The excitement over the painting is matched by the intrigue around the conflicting stories of its discovery.
-
3 out of 5 stars
-
Mixed narration
- By Amy Fleury on 08-05-16
By: Jessie Burton
-
Wicked
- The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West
- By: Gregory Maguire
- Narrated by: John McDonough
- Length: 19 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 9,514
-
Performance4 out of 5 stars 6,647
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 6,686
Heralded as an instant classic of fantasy literature, Maguire has written a wonderfully imaginative retelling of The Wizard of Oz told from the Wicked Witch's point of view. More than just a fairy tale for adults, Wicked is a meditation on the nature of good and evil.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
It's not easy being green
- By PangaeaReads on 07-30-08
By: Gregory Maguire
-
Late in the Day
- A Novel
- By: Tessa Hadley
- Narrated by: Abigail Thaw
- Length: 7 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 182
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 167
-
Story3.5 out of 5 stars 167
Alexandr and Christine and Zachary and Lydia have been friends since they first met in their 20s. Thirty years later, Alex and Christine are spending a leisurely summer’s evening at home when they receive a call from a distraught Lydia: She is at the hospital. Zach is dead. In the wake of this profound loss, the three friends find themselves unmoored; all agree that Zach, with his generous, grounded spirit, was the irreplaceable one they couldn’t afford to lose. Inconsolable, Lydia moves in with Alex and Christine. The loss warps their relationships.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
It's all in the performance
- By RueRue on 02-08-19
By: Tessa Hadley
-
Mr. Fox
- A Novel
- By: Helen Oyeyemi
- Narrated by: Carol Boyd
- Length: 8 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall3.5 out of 5 stars 102
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 89
-
Story3.5 out of 5 stars 91
Fairy-tale romances end with a wedding and the fairy tales don't get complicated. In this book, celebrated writer Mr. Fox can't stop himself from killing off the heroines of his novels, and neither can his wife, Daphne. It's not until Mary, his muse, comes to life and transforms him from author into subject that his story begins to unfold differently....
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2 out of 5 stars
-
A Great Novel, just Poor for Audio
- By James A. Dittes on 08-13-16
By: Helen Oyeyemi
-
East of the Sun
- By: Julia Gregson
- Narrated by: Tania Rodrigues
- Length: 19 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 157
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 108
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 109
Autumn 1928. Three young women are on their way to India, each with a new life in mind. Rose, a beautiful but naive bride-to-be, is anxious about leaving her family and marrying a man she hardly knows. Victoria, her bridesmaid couldn't be happier to get away from her overbearing mother, and is determined to find herself a husband. And Viva, their inexperienced chaperone, is in search of the India of her childhood, ghosts from the past and freedom.
-
1 out of 5 stars
-
Indian history takes a back seat to 3 young women
- By Richard on 05-24-16
By: Julia Gregson
-
South Riding
- By: Winifred Holtby
- Narrated by: Carole Boyd
- Length: 19 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 65
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 52
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 52
In this rich and memorable evocation of the fictional South Riding of Yorkshire are the lives, loves and sorrows of the central characters. There is Sarah Burton, fiery young headmistress; Robert Carne of Maythorpe Hall, a councillor tormented by his own disastrous marriage; Jo Astell, a socialist fighting poverty and his own illness; and Mrs Beddows, the first woman Alderman of the district (like Winifred's own mother).
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
Worth Revisiting
- By Ilana on 11-04-12
By: Winifred Holtby
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My Dear I Wanted to Tell You
- A Novel
- By: Louisa Young
- Narrated by: Dan Stevens
- Length: 10 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 236
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 223
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 220
The lives of two very different couples - an officer and his aristocratic wife, and a young soldier and his childhood sweetheart - are irrevocably intertwined and forever changed in this stunning World War I epic of love and war. Moving among Ypres, London, and Paris, this emotionally rich and evocative novel is both a powerful exploration of the lasting effects of war on those who fight - and those who don't - and a poignant testament to the enduring power of love.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Just read it!! Or rather, listen!
- By Annie M. on 08-31-14
By: Louisa Young
-
Fludd
- A Novel
- By: Hilary Mantel
- Narrated by: Gordon Griffin
- Length: 6 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 86
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 75
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 75
One dark and stormy night in 1956, a stranger named Fludd mysteriously turns up in the dismal village of Fetherhoughton. He is the curate sent by the bishop to assist Father Angwin - or is he? In the most unlikely of places, a superstitious town that understands little of romance or sentimentality, where bad blood between neighbors is ancient and impenetrable, miracles begin to bloom. Fludd becomes lover, gravedigger, and savior, transforming his dull office into a golden regency of decision, unashamed sensation, and unprecedented action.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
Small, tight irreverant novel that wryly inverts
- By Darwin8u on 07-21-13
By: Hilary Mantel
-
Ada, or Ardor
- A Family Chronicle
- By: Vladimir Nabokov
- Narrated by: Arthur Morey
- Length: 20 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 160
-
Performance4 out of 5 stars 139
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 140
Published two weeks after Vladimir Nabokov’s seventieth birthday, Ada, or Ardor is one of his greatest masterpieces, the glorious culmination of his career as a novelist. It tells a love story troubled by incest, but it is also at once a fairy tale, epic, philosophical treatise on the nature of time, parody of the history of the novel, and erotic catalogue. Ada, or Ardor is no less than the supreme work of an imagination at white heat. This is the first American edition to include the extensive and ingeniously sardonic appendix by the author, written under the anagrammatic pseudonym Vivian Darkbloom.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Incest, a game the Whole Family Can Play
- By Darwin8u on 08-12-13
By: Vladimir Nabokov
-
The Unseen
- A Novel
- By: Katherine Webb
- Narrated by: Clare Wille
- Length: 15 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 48
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 46
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 44
A vicar with a passion for nature, the Reverend Albert Canning leads a happy existence with his naive wife, Hester, in their sleepy Berkshire village in the year 1911. But as the English summer dawns, the Cannings' lives are forever changed by two new arrivals: Cat, their new maid, a disaffected, free-spirited young woman sent down from London after entanglements with the law; and Robin Durrant, a leading expert in the occult, enticed by tales of elemental beings in the water meadows nearby.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Great book!
- By Dana on 09-03-12
By: Katherine Webb
-
Named of the Dragon
- By: Susanna Kearsley
- Narrated by: Katherine Kellgren
- Length: 9 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 788
-
Performance4 out of 5 stars 720
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 712
The charm of spending the Christmas holidays in South Wales, with its crumbling castles and ancient myths, seems the perfect distraction from the nightmares that have plagued literary agent Lyn Ravenshaw since the loss of her baby five years ago. Instead she meets an emotionally fragile young widow who's convinced that Lyn's recurring dreams have drawn her to Castle Farm for an important purpose - and she's running out of time.
-
2 out of 5 stars
-
Not Kearsley's best
- By Sindy on 06-27-16
By: Susanna Kearsley
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What listeners say about The Virgin in the Garden
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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Performance1 out of 5 stars
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Story1 out of 5 stars
- Patricia D.
- 04-15-18
Not worth a credit or buying
What could have made this a 4 or 5-star listening experience for you?
Cannot remember having such a hard time getting into a book. Could not even finish
What was most disappointing about A. S. Byatt’s story?
story line hard to follow - if there was one.
You didn’t love this book... but did it have any redeeming qualities?
Couldn't find anything to keep me reading
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