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The Speckled Monster
- A Historical Tale of Battling Smallpox
- Narrated by: Michael Prichard
- Length: 19 hrs and 39 mins
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The Speckled Monster is both a hair-raising tale of courage in the face of the deadliest disease that has ever struck mankind, and a gripping account of the birth of modern immunology. Jennifer Lee Carrell's dramatic story follows two parents who, after barely surviving the agony of smallpox themselves, flouted 18th century European medical tradition by borrowing folk knowledge from African slaves and Eastern women in frantic bids to protect their children. Their heroic struggles gave rise to immunology, as well as the vaccinations that remain our only hope should the disease be unleashed again. Carrell transports readers back to the early 18th century to tell the tales of Lady Mary Wortley Montagu and Dr. Zabdiel Boylston: two iconoclastic figures who helped save London and Boston from this scourge.
Critic reviews
"Highly engrossing...Carrell tells the gripping story with ardor and skill." (Smithsonian)
"Written in a compelling, almost novelistic voice, Carrell details two eighteenth-century figures who struggled valiantly against smallpox. The disease becomes a character in the book, claiming the poor, the rich, and the royal without distinction." (USA Today)
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High expectations
- By Ryan M. Kelley on 04-08-14
By: Dave Duncan
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Instruments of Darkness
- A Novel
- By: Imogen Robertson
- Narrated by: Wanda McCaddon
- Length: 11 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
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In the year 1780, Harriet Westerman, the willful mistress of a country manor in Sussex, finds a dead man on her grounds with a ring bearing the crest of Thornleigh Hall in his pocket. Not one to be bound by convention or to shy away from adventure, she recruits a reclusive local anatomist named Gabriel Crowther to help her find the murderer, and historical suspense's newest investigative duo is born.
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Not The Best, But Not Too Bad...
- By MJ on 01-13-13
By: Imogen Robertson
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Blindspot
- By a Gentleman in Exile and a Lady in Disguise
- By: Jane Kamensky, Jill Lepore
- Narrated by: John Lee, Cassandra Campbell
- Length: 18 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
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Set in boisterous, rebellious Boston on the eve of the American Revolution, Blindspot ingeniously weaves together the fictional stories of Stewart Jameson, a Scottish portrait painter and notorious libertine, and Fanny Easton, a fallen woman from one of Boston's most powerful families who disguises herself as a boy to become Jameson's defiant and seductive apprentice. Together with an African-born doctor, they investigate the death of the famous revolutionary leader Samuel Bradstreet.
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Disappointing
- By Cariola on 03-06-09
By: Jane Kamensky, and others
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Push Not the River
- By: James Conroyd Martin
- Narrated by: Dawn Harvey
- Length: 19 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
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Push Not the River is the rich story of Poland in the late 1700's - a time of heartache and turmoil as the country's once peaceful people are torn apart by neighboring countries and divided loyalties. It is then, at the young and vulnerable age of seventeen, that Lady Anna Maria Berezowska loses both of her parents and must leave the only home she has ever known.
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Save your time; buy something else.
- By AMS on 10-22-15
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Reign of Madness
- By: Lynn Cullen
- Narrated by: Susan Lyons
- Length: 13 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
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Juana of Castile, third child of the Spanish monarchs Isabel and Fernando, grows up with no hope of inheriting her parents' crowns, but as a princess knows her duty: to further her family's ambitions through marriage. Yet stories of courtly love, and of her parents' own legendary romance, surround her. When she weds the Duke of Burgundy, a young man so beautiful that he is known as Philippe the Handsome, she dares to hope that she might have both love and crowns.
By: Lynn Cullen
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The School of Mirrors
- A Novel
- By: Eva Stachniak
- Narrated by: Ell Potter
- Length: 16 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
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During the reign of Louis XV, impoverished but lovely teenage girls from all over France are sent to a discreet villa in the town of Versailles. Overseen by the King’s favorite mistress, Madame de Pompadour, they will be trained as potential courtesans for the King. When the time is right, each girl is smuggled into the palace of Versailles, with its legendary Hall of Mirrors.
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Fascinating but pedophilia nonetheless.
- By Barbara W. on 05-10-22
By: Eva Stachniak
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The Agincourt Bride
- By: Joanna Hickson
- Narrated by: Catherine Harvey
- Length: 16 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
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When her own first child is tragically still-born, the young Mette is pressed into service as a wet-nurse at the court of the mad king, Charles VI of France. Her young charge is the princess, Catherine de Valois, caught up in the turbulence and chaos of life at court. Mette and the child forge a bond, one that transcends Mette’s lowly position. But as Catherine approaches womanhood, her unique position seals her fate as a pawn between two powerful dynasties.
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Disappointing
- By Michelle on 02-16-13
By: Joanna Hickson
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Shaman's Crossing, Book One of the Soldier Son Trilogy
- By: Robin Hobb
- Narrated by: John Keating
- Length: 24 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
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Hugo and Nebula Award finalist Robin Hobb crafts intricate fantasy tales featuring larger-than-life characters and exotic landscapes. Nevare Burvelle survives the King’s Cavalla Academy—where nepotism and corruption reign—to become a soldier in the Gernian king’s army. As he and his fellow soldiers are thrust onto the front lines of the king’s brutal territorial expansion campaign, they struggle against the Plainspeople—forest-dwellers who possess a powerful magic long dismissed by the Gernians.
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Sometimes Magic Isn't A Good Thing
- By Therese M. Woolley on 10-18-13
By: Robin Hobb
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The Fire Rose
- By: Mercedes Lackey
- Narrated by: Kate Black-Regan
- Length: 13 hrs
- Unabridged
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Accepting employment as a governess after hard times hit her family, medieval scholar Rosalind Hawkins is surprised when she learns that her mysterious employer has no children and only wants her to read to him through a speaking tube.
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Great story, poorly presented
- By Che on 02-26-10
By: Mercedes Lackey
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The Innocent Mage
- By: Karen Miller
- Narrated by: Kirby Heyborne
- Length: 20 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
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"The Innocent Mage is come, and we stand at the beginning of the end of everything." Being a fisherman like his father isn't a bad life, but it's not the one that Asher wants. Despite his humble roots, Asher has grand dreams. And they call him to Dorana, home of princes, beggars, and the warrior mages who have protected the kingdom for generations. Little does Asher know, however, that his arrival in the city is being closely watched by members of the Circle, people dedicated to preserving an ancient magic.
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Heroic Fantasy well written
- By Bruce on 03-29-12
By: Karen Miller
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The Last Queen
- A Novel of Juana La Loca
- By: C. W. Gortner
- Narrated by: Marguerite Gavin
- Length: 13 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
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One of history's most enigmatic women tells the haunting, passionate story of her tumultuous life. Juana of Castile is just thirteen when she witnesses the fall of Moorish Granada and the uniting of the fractured kingdoms of Spain under her warrior parents, Isabel and Fernando. Intelligent, beautiful, and proud of her heritage, Juana rebels when she is chosen as a bride for the Hapsburg heir.
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A NEUROTIC BIT OF PULP FICTION
- By The Louligan on 11-19-09
By: C. W. Gortner
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Green Darkness
- By: Anya Seton
- Narrated by: Heather Wilds
- Length: 23 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
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The marriage of the Englishman Richard Marsdon and his young American wife, Celia, slowly turns tragic as Richard withdraws into himself and Celia suffers a debilitating emotional breakdown. A wise mystic realizes that Celia can escape her past only by reliving it. She journeys back four hundred years to her former life as the servant girl Celia de Bohun during the reign of Edward VI - and to her doomed love affair with the chaplain Stephen Marsdon.
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A different narrator would have made all the difference.
- By J on 06-04-15
By: Anya Seton
What listeners say about The Speckled Monster
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Tegan A Beechey
- 07-08-18
Inevitability Meets Innovation
This book offers a phenomenal glimpse to an era long before Jenner introduced vaccination with cowpox. Set in a period where smallpox was viewed as the inevitable cost of life in a city or the will of God, two people step forward and dare to question the rarity of smallpox in other parts of the world. Inoculation and the controversy surrounding it creates transfixing tension, while the ongoing ebb and flow of an epidemic in America and an endemic scourge in Britain builds urgency. A must read or epidemiologists, bioethicists, fans of historical dramatization, and anyone interested in this ancient enemy of humankind.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Got-a-clue!
- 05-30-20
Fascinating
This is a great study in mankind. I was fascinated how the author explained the various factions and power plays weaved themselves into a social fabric affected by the pox, or speckled monster.
Were some of the descriptions gross and hard to stomach? Yes. However i believe that was necessary to help the modern reader understand something that no longer affects our daily lives. This disease was awful and devastating, not only for the individual, but for society at large. The author does a fabulous job of bringing the reader into that world.
As a historical fiction story much research went onto the lives of the power players on both sides of the Atlantic. I was left fascinated by life in the late 1600 and early 1700.
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- stephen
- 11-08-15
Heroic story about an absolutely terrible disease
Any additional comments?
I listened to this book because I was surprised to hear Rand Paul mentioned it in one of the presidential debates. I enjoyed it and found myself drawn in by the author's portrayal of the main historical characters. If it's hard to imagine what a monstrous killer small pox was, just google some photographs of it. The debt we all owe to the pioneers of the practice of inoculation cannot be overstated. Zabdiel Boylston reminded me of George Washington in terms of his courage and modesty. And I am glad the letters of Lady Mary Wortley Montagu still exist and look forward to reading them in current published volumes. What author Carrell does particularly well is to bring to life the hysteria that these first Western forays into vaccination stirred up. It was human nature to fear the unknown then just as it is today.
As with many historical audiobooks, The Speckled Monster can be difficult to follow at times as it jumps from one set of characters to another, from one country to the next, and between different people who share the same first name. I wish the breaks between chapters were made obvious so I could mentally shift without having to play catch-up.
If like me you're fascinated by the 1600s-1700s then you'll enjoy this historical narrative about a hugely important turning point for Western Civilization and the world.
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2 people found this helpful
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- Lydia C. Rockwell
- 02-01-23
An excellent story of science and courage
This is a wonderful look into the emotional side of the courage it took for smallpox to be overcome. The disease was so terrible that people were paralyzed with fear and the effort it took to overcome that fear and turn to rational science is extraordinary. The book also credits the often forgotten original inoculators: the women of Africa. Fascinating and thought provoking. It left me glad for the knowledge and fearful of a disease that the world has ‘vanquished’ … hopefully forever.
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- Herbert
- 10-11-15
Fascibating story, a little bit long
Great story with historical accuracy. It's the kind of book that needs to be heard more then once, and with each subsequent hearing it gets better. Sometimes it's s little slow though. Overall however, a very good read.
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1 person found this helpful
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- S Heath
- 02-07-24
Small pox
The writer presented the history of mankind concurring small pox in both UK and America in such a way that I felt I was there too.
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- Book reader
- 06-10-14
Wish it was another 19 hours long!
Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?
Yes. The story brings home what a horrible disease smallpox was and the dangers faced by those who wanted to prevent the disease with inoculation. But it reads like a thriller -- you can't wait to find out what happened to this person or how that situation was resolved.
What was one of the most memorable moments of The Speckled Monster?
The entire story of Zabdeal Boylston was entrancing. I had never heard of him, although I grew up near Boston. He comes alive in this book, not as a colonist, not as a historical character, but as a family man and conscientious doctor who has to fight on multiple fronts to do what he believes is right.
Which scene was your favorite?
No one scene sticks out. But I had never realized, as someone who received a routine vaccination as a baby, what a miracle it was that I was safe from what had been a common and devastating scourge. The descriptions of how people actually suffered and died from smallpox changes an abstract idea into a horrible, painful reality for so many generations of people.
Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?
Zabdeal Boylston's family's experience with the pox was absolutely wrenching.
Any additional comments?
I don't remember when I have enjoyed listening to a book so much. And the fact that, after 19 odd hours, I was disappointed to have it end -- well, I'm seriously considering going back to the beginning and listening again!
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6 people found this helpful
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- eve
- 01-11-18
Novel of small pox
This is a well written novel who’s main star is smallpox but there was a lot of extra story that I wasn’t particularly interested in, since I was mainly after the history of smallpox.
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- Frances Compere
- 10-04-17
Very Dry
I couldn't get into it. The book was to dense to listen to. Might be better if you read a physical copy but it was like listening to white noise.
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