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A Great Improvisation
- Franklin, France, and the Birth of America
- Narrated by: Susan Denaker
- Length: 21 hrs and 54 mins
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Publisher's summary
In this dazzling work of history, a Pulitzer Prize-winning author follows Benjamin Franklin to France for the crowning achievement of his career.
"In December of 1776 a small boat delivered an old man to France." So begins an enthralling narrative account of how Benjamin Franklin - 70 years old, without any diplomatic training, and possessed of the most rudimentary French - convinced France, an absolute monarchy, to underwrite America's experiment in democracy.
When Franklin stepped onto French soil, he well understood he was embarking on the greatest gamble of his career. By virtue of fame, charisma, and ingenuity, Franklin outmaneuvered British spies, French informers, and hostile colleagues; engineered the Franco-American alliance of l778; and helped to negotiate the peace of l783. The eight-year French mission stands not only as Franklin's most vital service to his country but as the most revealing of the man.
In A Great Improvisation, Stacy Schiff draws from new and little-known sources to illuminate the least-explored part of Franklin's life. Here is an unfamiliar, unforgettable chapter of the Revolution, a rousing tale of American infighting, and the treacherous backroom dealings at Versailles that would propel George Washington from near decimation at Valley Forge to victory at Yorktown. From this audiobook emerges a particularly human and yet fiercely determined Founding Father, as well as a profound sense of how fragile, improvisational, and international was our country's bid for independence.
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Unlikely Allies is the story of three remarkable historical figures. Silas Deane was a Connecticut merchant and delegate to the Continental Congress as the American colonies struggled to break with England. Caron de Beaumarchais was a successful playwright who wrote The Barber of Seville and The Marriage of Figaro.
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Love it
- By jenney on 05-17-11
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John Quincy Adams
- A Public Life, A Private Life
- By: Paul C. Nagel
- Narrated by: Jeff Riggenbach
- Length: 18 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
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A United States minister, senator, president, and congressman in turn, John Quincy Adams was one of the most prevalent and dedicated Americans in history. Drawing from Adams' 70-year diary, author Paul Nagel probes deeply into the psyche of this cantankerous, misanthropic, erudite, hardworking son of a former president whose remarkable career spanned so many offices.
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Disappointing
- By Michael Bellesiles on 02-24-11
By: Paul C. Nagel
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Benjamin Franklin: An American Life
- By: Walter Isaacson
- Narrated by: Nelson Runger
- Length: 24 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
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Benjamin Franklin is the founding father who winks at us - an ambitious urban entrepreneur who rose up the social ladder, from leather-aproned shopkeeper to dining with kings. In best-selling author Walter Isaacson's vivid and witty full-scale biography, we discover why Franklin turns to us from history's stage with eyes that twinkle from behind his new-fangled spectacles. In Benjamin Franklin, Isaacson shows how Franklin defines both his own time and ours. The most interesting thing that Franklin invented, and continually reinvented, was himself.
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Good book, not crazy about the narrator
- By Cathi on 07-20-13
By: Walter Isaacson
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For Liberty and Glory
- Washington, Lafayette, and Their Revolutions
- By: James R. Gaines
- Narrated by: Norman Dietz
- Length: 21 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
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On April 18, 1775, a riot over the price of flour broke out in the French city of Dijon. That night, across the Atlantic, Paul Revere mounted the fastest horse he could find and kicked it into a gallop. So began what have been called the "sister revolutions" of France and America. In a single, thrilling narrative, this audiobook tells the story of those revolutions and shows just how deeply intertwined they actually were.
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Excellent presentation
- By Hal on 08-20-12
By: James R. Gaines
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Prince of Pleasure
- The Prince of Wales and the Making of the Regency
- By: Saul David
- Narrated by: Sam Devereaux
- Length: 16 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
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Described by the Duke of Wellington as "the most extraordinary compound of talent, wit, buffoonery, obstinacy and good feeling that I ever saw in one character in my life", George Augustus Frederick, Prince of Wales, later George IV, was a highly controversial figure. He courted both Whigs and Tories in his attempts to establish the Regency during the "madness" of his father, George III.
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George IV in all his "glory"!
- By TemperPolk on 08-25-16
By: Saul David
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Alexander Hamilton
- By: Ron Chernow
- Narrated by: Scott Brick
- Length: 35 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
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Historians have long told the story of America’s birth as the triumph of Jefferson’s democratic ideals over the aristocratic intentions of Hamilton. Chernow presents an entirely different man, whose legendary ambitions were motivated not merely by self-interest but by passionate patriotism and a stubborn will to build the foundations of American prosperity and power.
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An Outstanding & Riveting Book!
- By Kevin on 03-04-05
By: Ron Chernow
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Queen Anne
- The Politics of Passion
- By: Anne Somerset
- Narrated by: Hannah Curtis
- Length: 28 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
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Queen Anne ascended the thrones of England, Scotland, and Ireland in 1702. By the end of her comparatively short 12-year reign, Britain had emerged as a great power. But while the queen's military was performing dazzling exploits on the continent, her own attention rested on a more intimate conflict: the female friendship on which her happiness had for decades depended and which became, for her, a source of utter torment.
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Spoilt by a poorly edited, inadequate narration
- By Lesley on 04-01-17
By: Anne Somerset
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First Family
- Abigail & John Adams
- By: Joseph J. Ellis
- Narrated by: Kimberly Farr
- Length: 11 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
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The Pulitzer Prize-winning, best-selling author of Founding Brothers and His Excellency brings America’s preeminent first couple to life in a moving and illuminating narrative that sweeps through the American Revolution and the republic’s tenuous early years. John and Abigail Adams left an indelible and remarkably preserved portrait of their lives together in their personal correspondence: Both Adamses were prolific letter writers (although John conceded that Abigail was clearly the more gifted of the two), and over the years they exchanged more than 12,000 letters.
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"Real History"
- By leslie on 11-15-10
By: Joseph J. Ellis
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John Adams: A Life
- By: John Ferling
- Narrated by: Bob Souer
- Length: 20 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
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In John Adams: A Life, Ferling offers a compelling portrait of one of the giants of the Revolutionary era. Drawing on extensive research, Ferling depicts a reluctant revolutionary, a leader who was deeply troubled by the warfare that he helped to make, and a fiercely independent statesman. Bringing to life an exciting time, an age in which Adams played an important political and intellectual role. this book is a singular biography of the man who succeeded George Washington in the presidency and shepherded the fragile new nation through the most dangerous of times.
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Excellent story, the narration ruined it for me
- By Benjamin on 04-09-19
By: John Ferling
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The Intimate Lives of the Founding Fathers
- By: Thomas Fleming
- Narrated by: Arthur Morey
- Length: 17 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
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With his usual storytelling flair and unparalleled research, Tom Fleming offers a compelling, intimate look at the founders—George Washington, Ben Franklin, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, Alexander Hamilton, and James Madison—and the women who played essential roles in their lives.
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Interesting, but unbalanced, angle
- By Devon on 07-03-14
By: Thomas Fleming
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War of Two
- Alexander Hamilton, Aaron Burr, and the Duel That Stunned the Nation
- By: John Sedgwick
- Narrated by: P. J. Ochlan
- Length: 17 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
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A provocative and penetrating investigation into the rivalry between Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr, whose infamous duel left the founding father dead and turned a sitting vice president into a fugitive. In the summer of 1804, two of America's most eminent statesmen squared off, pistols raised, on a bluff along the Hudson River. That two such men would risk not only their lives but the stability of the young country they helped forge is almost beyond comprehension. Yet we know that it happened.
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Provocative
- By Jean on 11-25-15
By: John Sedgwick
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Benjamin Franklin is the founding father who winks at us - an ambitious urban entrepreneur who rose up the social ladder, from leather-aproned shopkeeper to dining with kings. In best-selling author Walter Isaacson's vivid and witty full-scale biography, we discover why Franklin turns to us from history's stage with eyes that twinkle from behind his new-fangled spectacles. In Benjamin Franklin, Isaacson shows how Franklin defines both his own time and ours. The most interesting thing that Franklin invented, and continually reinvented, was himself.
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Good book, not crazy about the narrator
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The Ideological Origins of the American Revolution
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To the original text of what has become a classic of American historical literature, Bernard Bailyn adds a substantial essay, "Fulfillment", as a postscript. Here he discusses the intense nationwide debate on the ratification of the Constitution, stressing the continuities between that struggle over the foundations of the national government and the original principles of the Revolution.
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Bernard Bailyn is a genius!
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Masterful!
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Thomas Jefferson asserted that if there was any leader of the Revolution, “Samuel Adams was the man.” With high-minded ideals and bare-knuckle tactics, Adams led what could be called the greatest campaign of civil resistance in American history. Stacy Schiff returns Adams to his seat of glory, introducing us to the shrewd and eloquent man who supplied the moral backbone of the American Revolution, bringing her masterful skills to Adams’s improbable life, illuminating his transformation from aimless son of a well-off family to tireless, beguiling radical who mobilized the colonies.
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Véra
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Hailed by critics as "monumental" ( Boston Globe) and "utterly romantic" ( New York magazine), Véra, the story of Mrs. Vladimir Nabokov, brings to shimmering life one of the greatest literary love stories of our time. Vladimir Nabokov, author of Lolita, Pale Fire, and Speak, Memory, wrote his books first for himself and secondly for his wife.
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Good book, not crazy about the narrator
- By Cathi on 07-20-13
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The Ideological Origins of the American Revolution
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Really annoying narration
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Central to America's idea of itself is the character of Benjamin Franklin. We all know him, or think we do: In recent works and in our inherited conventional wisdom, he remains fixed in place as a genial polymath and self-improver who was so very American that he is known by us all as the first American.
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I have good news and bad news
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By Winston Churchill's own admission, victory in the Second World War would have been "impossible without her". Until now, however, the only existing biography of Churchill's wife, Clementine, was written by her daughter. Sonia Purnell finally gives Clementine her due with a deeply researched account that tells her life story, revealing how she was instrumental in softening FDR's initial dislike of her husband and paving the way for Britain's close relationship with America.
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Exasperating At Times But Very Good--
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A Great Improvisation
- Franklin, France, and the Birth of America
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"In December 1776, a small boat delivered an old man to France." So begins a dazzling narrative account of Benjamin Franklin's French mission, the most exacting, and momentous, eight years of his life.
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Why abridged history
- By D. Court on 05-06-05
By: Stacy Schiff
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The Modern Scholar
- The Life and Times of Benjamin Franklin
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This course examines the life of Benjamin Franklin and his influence on both American and world history. He remains the model of the American thinker - a man who was interested in nearly everything, and who pursued those interests with an admirable and contagious passion. To study Franklin's life is to learn not only the history of a single man, but to understand some of the most monumental changes in all of human history.
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Love it
- By Holly on 02-20-16
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Lafayette
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In this gripping biography, acclaimed author Harlow Giles Unger paints an intimate portrait of the heroic young French soldier who, at 19, renounced a life of luxury in Paris and Versailles to fight and bleed for liberty - at Brandywine, Valley Forge, and Yorktown. A major general in the Continental army, he quickly earned the love of his troops, his fellow commanders, and his commander in chief, George Washington, who called him his "adopted son".
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WE GET IT! HE'S A "KNIGHT"
- By Anonymous User on 01-13-22
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John Adams
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McCullough's John Adams has the sweep and vitality of a great novel. This is history on a grand scale, an audiobook about politics, war, and social issues, but also about human nature, love, religious faith, virtue, ambition, friendship, and betrayal, and the far-reaching consequences of noble ideas. Above all, it is an enthralling, often surprising story of one of the most important and fascinating Americans who ever lived.
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An outstanding biography
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The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin
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Left unfinished at the time of his death, The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin has endured as one of the most well-known and influential autobiographies ever written. From his early years in Boston and Philadelphia to the publication of his Poor Richard's Almanac to the American Revolution and beyond, Franklin's autobiography is a fascinating, personal exploration into the life of America's most interesting founding father.
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Egregious omission of important passage.
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Americans are more familiar with his signature than with the man himself. In this spirited account of John Hancock's life, Brooke Barbier depicts a patriot of fascinating contradictions—a child of enormous privilege who would nevertheless become a voice of the common folk; a pillar of society uncomfortable with radicalism who yet was crucial to independence. Orphaned young, Hancock was raised by his merchant uncle, whose business and vast wealth he inherited—including household slaves, whom Hancock later freed. By his early thirties, he was one of New England's most prominent politicians.
By: Brooke Barbier
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When President Theodore Roosevelt welcomed the country’s most visible Black man, Booker T. Washington, into his circle of counselors in 1901, the two confronted a shocking and violent wave of racist outrage. In the previous decade, Jim Crow laws had legalized discrimination in the South, eroding social and economic gains for former slaves. Lynching was on the rise, and Black Americans faced new barriers to voting. Slavery had been abolished, but if newly freed citizens were condemned to lives as share croppers, how much improvement would their lives really see?
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The Brownsville incident
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American Midnight
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From legendary historian Adam Hochschild, a groundbreaking reassessment of the overlooked but startlingly resonant period between World War I and the Roaring Twenties, when the foundations of American democracy were threated by war, pandemic, and violence fueled by battles over race, immigration, and the rights of labor
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Disturbing yet Reassuring
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Reconstruction (Updated Edition)
- America's Unfinished Revolution, 1863-1877
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Reconstruction chronicles the way in which Americans—black and white—responded to the unprecedented changes unleashed by the war and the end of slavery. It addresses the ways in which the emancipated slaves' quest for economic autonomy and equal citizenship shaped the political agenda of Reconstruction; the remodeling of Southern society and the place of planters, merchants, and small farmers within it; the evolution of racial attitudes and patterns of race relations; and the emergence of a national state possessing vastly expanded authority and committed.
By: Eric Foner
What listeners say about A Great Improvisation
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Amazon Customer
- 05-01-24
no stated chapter breaks
Clarity of enunciation, but repeated lines. When the narrator corrects a line, many times the previous line with error is not edited out of the audio, which makes for an odd, deja vu listening experience. Next, there are no breaks. Chapters flow continuously. Would be better to announce "chapter 25" than to omit. Would be even better had the author taken time to title the chapters or sections. Perhaps she has done so, but the Audible format omits them. Poor.
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- Amazon Customer
- 03-06-24
Benjamin Franklin’s character was very well drawn.
Hard to discern the years with few mentions, and the offices of the various Frenchmen. An excellent revelation of Franklin’s French role in the American war of independence.
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- Vic
- 02-12-23
Great with one editing request
There are many places where the narrator repeats a sentence twice. It would be easy to edit this. Otherwise, a great book and presentation!
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1 person found this helpful
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- J.Ransom
- 06-21-24
Incredible story that is forgotten far more than it should be. Excellent writing and performance.
Incredible story that is forgotten far more than it should be. Excellent writing and performance.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Jose Antonio Gonzalez
- 11-01-18
Exquisite book
Great book written with a perfect use of language and impressive composition. It’s not just a biography but a work of art. I enjoyed the performance and content with profound admiration to the author.
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3 people found this helpful
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- DLR
- 04-29-24
Not Bad
If you listened to this title you understand this review. If you listened to this title you understand this review.
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1 person found this helpful
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- SamanthaG
- 08-04-16
Enticing Title...Convoluted Story
This book wasn’t for you, but who do you think might enjoy it more?
I'm not sure. I found the prose to be overly pretentious. There was much use of "big" words, e.g., disingenuous, duplicitous, etc. Not that I or anyone who would be attracted to this book would not know them, but unnecessary and less direct than simpler language.
If you’ve listened to books by Stacy Schiff before, how does this one compare?
I loved Cleopatra, a Life, and felt that it gave me great insight into the times in which she lived, and, more importantly, insight into the connections between characters (Plutarch, Augustus, etc.) whose names were familiar to me.
Would you be willing to try another one of Susan Denaker’s performances?
Yes
Any additional comments?
I was disappointed that the book seemed so pretentious and that it was disjointed due to the fact that it jumped forward and backward in time and was difficult to know "when" we were in the narrative.
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2 people found this helpful
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- joshua miller
- 09-24-24
Good narration and writing, poor editing
I bought this bought having watched the Apple TV series Franklin. The writing style is great as is the performance but the editing is poor, or perhaps they forgot to edit altogether? Several lines are repeated as others have stated and the “Chapter” markers do not match up in any way to the actual chapter breaks - for example the announced Chapter 5 is somewhere around Audible Chapter 20. Made for a difficult listen and I did not finish it.
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- Lifelong Learner
- 01-08-23
I wanted to enjoy this
Sam Adams was awesome. I expected this to be similar. I had to stop after five hours. The narrator has a beautiful voice but the combination of the exceedingly detailed gossip rather than important and interesting information about Franklin made this unlistenable for 21 hours. The combination of the pomposity and depth of the minutiae with the overzealous French pronunciation by the narrator made me feel like I was being lectured to for an offense of lack of education as a barbarian. Very niche. This is one I’ll have to read rather than listen to while traveling. Probably going to have to skip past some pages to get through it.
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
- Tim
- 06-01-12
Where was the editor?
What disappointed you about A Great Improvisation?
If the book were less than half as long, it might have been interesting.
It is filled with so many verbose descriptions of the bickering between the many people involved as well as far too much mundane detail. In the end the fascinating moments are drowned out by it all.
What three words best describe Susan Denaker’s performance?
Adequate.
You didn’t love this book... but did it have any redeeming qualities?
I'm sure there was a good tale buried in there somewhere.
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1 person found this helpful