-
Eugenie Grandet
- Narrated by: Peter Newcombe Joyce
- Length: 8 hrs and 40 mins
Failed to add items
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
Prime members: New to Audible?Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Eugenie Grandet
Buy for $19.17
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
Publisher's summary
Eugénie Grandet is Balzac's first great novel and one of the series Comédie Humaine.
At the beginning of the story the heroine lives an unfulfilled life in rural France, her nature crushed by a domineering and miserly father. Gallant cousin Charles arrives and acts as a catalyst on Eugénie's personality and emotions.
Will her love survive the strong self-opinion of the young man and the selfishness of her father or is Eugénie's reward destined to be in heaven?
Listeners also enjoyed...
-
Cousin Bette
- By: Honoré de Balzac
- Narrated by: Lucy Scott
- Length: 16 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 13
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 8
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 7
Lisbeth Fischer has lived in the shadow of her beautiful cousin Adeline for much of her life. Pampered while Lisbeth works in the fields, Adeline makes an enviable leap in status when Baron Hulot offers her his hand in marriage. Out of kindness, they bring Lisbeth to Paris, where she falls in love with the artist Wenceslas, her protege. However, when she is jilted for Adeline's daughter Hortense, her jealousy and rage exponentially intensify, and she resolves to bring the Hulot family to ruin, employing the cold seductress Valerie Marneffe as her vehicle for revenge.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
A Masterpiece!
- By Huntress of Erudition on 10-07-23
By: Honoré de Balzac
-
Sarrasine
- By: Honoré De Balzac
- Narrated by: John Lang
- Length: 1 hr and 39 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 10
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 10
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 10
"Sarrasine" (1830) is a novella by Honoré de Balzac, part of his Comédie Humaine. The stage is set around midnight during a ball, the narrator is sitting at a window. There is an unknown old man around the house, whom the family was oddly devoted to, and who frightened and intrigued the partygoers. When the man sits next to the narrator's guest, Beatrix Rochefide, she touches him, and the narrator rushes her out of the room. The narrator knows who the man is and says he will tell her his story the next evening.
By: Honoré De Balzac
-
Colonel Chabert
- By: Honoré de Balzac
- Narrated by: Bill Homewood
- Length: 2 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 9
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 7
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 7
In the brutal Prussian winter of 1807, Emperor Napoléon Bonaparte’s Grande Armée suffered massive losses to the Russians in the Battle of Eylau. Many thousands died. Young Colonel Chabert falls heroically, his actions having turned the tide of the battle, but he is buried anonymously on the battlefield in a mass grave. Incredibly, he is alive, but severely injured, and digs himself out. On his eventual return to Paris, he finds his wife, the beautiful and ambitious Rosine, now remarried, and his fortune gone.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Thought provoking tale by Balzac
- By Simon Brodie on 07-05-21
By: Honoré de Balzac
-
La Rabouilleuse
- The Black Sheep; The Two Brothers
- By: Honoré de Balzac
- Narrated by: Bill Homewood
- Length: 12 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars 21
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 19
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 19
Brothers Philippe and Joseph Bridau are completely unalike: Philippe, braggart and soldier, formerly aide-de-camp to Napoleon, is their mother Agathe's favorite; Joseph, a poor and aspiring artist, is raised in his brother's shadow. When Agathe is reduced to poverty and Philippe accrues gambling debts, the family join forces to focus their attentions on Agathe's brother, Jean-Jacques Rouget, heir to the family fortune. The struggle for his inheritance pits the family against Rouget's beautiful maid Flore ("La Rabouilleuse"), the apple of her master's eye, and her crafty lover.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Brutal poetic justice
- By Tad Davis on 06-23-20
By: Honoré de Balzac
-
Le Pere Goriot
- By: Honoré de Balzac
- Narrated by: Paul Hecht
- Length: 10 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 188
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 143
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 139
At the shabby boarding house in the rue Neuve-Sainte-Geneviève, petty Madame Vauquer and her tenants wonder at the plight of the aging resident Goriot. Once a well-heeled merchant, Goriot was, at first, afforded special treatment from the Madame. But now something is clearly amiss in his financial affairs, and his increasingly tawdry appearance makes him a subject of ridicule in the household.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
balzac rocks
- By beatrice on 03-12-10
By: Honoré de Balzac
-
The End of the Affair
- By: Graham Greene
- Narrated by: Colin Firth
- Length: 6 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 11,449
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 10,404
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 10,356
Graham Greene’s evocative analysis of the love of self, the love of another, and the love of God is an English classic that has been translated for the stage, the screen, and even the opera house. Academy Award-winning actor Colin Firth (The King’s Speech, A Single Man) turns in an authentic and stirring performance for this distinguished audio release.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Colin Firth Kills It
- By Em on 05-09-12
By: Graham Greene
-
Cousin Bette
- By: Honoré de Balzac
- Narrated by: Lucy Scott
- Length: 16 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 13
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 8
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 7
Lisbeth Fischer has lived in the shadow of her beautiful cousin Adeline for much of her life. Pampered while Lisbeth works in the fields, Adeline makes an enviable leap in status when Baron Hulot offers her his hand in marriage. Out of kindness, they bring Lisbeth to Paris, where she falls in love with the artist Wenceslas, her protege. However, when she is jilted for Adeline's daughter Hortense, her jealousy and rage exponentially intensify, and she resolves to bring the Hulot family to ruin, employing the cold seductress Valerie Marneffe as her vehicle for revenge.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
A Masterpiece!
- By Huntress of Erudition on 10-07-23
By: Honoré de Balzac
-
Sarrasine
- By: Honoré De Balzac
- Narrated by: John Lang
- Length: 1 hr and 39 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 10
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 10
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 10
"Sarrasine" (1830) is a novella by Honoré de Balzac, part of his Comédie Humaine. The stage is set around midnight during a ball, the narrator is sitting at a window. There is an unknown old man around the house, whom the family was oddly devoted to, and who frightened and intrigued the partygoers. When the man sits next to the narrator's guest, Beatrix Rochefide, she touches him, and the narrator rushes her out of the room. The narrator knows who the man is and says he will tell her his story the next evening.
By: Honoré De Balzac
-
Colonel Chabert
- By: Honoré de Balzac
- Narrated by: Bill Homewood
- Length: 2 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 9
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 7
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 7
In the brutal Prussian winter of 1807, Emperor Napoléon Bonaparte’s Grande Armée suffered massive losses to the Russians in the Battle of Eylau. Many thousands died. Young Colonel Chabert falls heroically, his actions having turned the tide of the battle, but he is buried anonymously on the battlefield in a mass grave. Incredibly, he is alive, but severely injured, and digs himself out. On his eventual return to Paris, he finds his wife, the beautiful and ambitious Rosine, now remarried, and his fortune gone.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Thought provoking tale by Balzac
- By Simon Brodie on 07-05-21
By: Honoré de Balzac
-
La Rabouilleuse
- The Black Sheep; The Two Brothers
- By: Honoré de Balzac
- Narrated by: Bill Homewood
- Length: 12 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars 21
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 19
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 19
Brothers Philippe and Joseph Bridau are completely unalike: Philippe, braggart and soldier, formerly aide-de-camp to Napoleon, is their mother Agathe's favorite; Joseph, a poor and aspiring artist, is raised in his brother's shadow. When Agathe is reduced to poverty and Philippe accrues gambling debts, the family join forces to focus their attentions on Agathe's brother, Jean-Jacques Rouget, heir to the family fortune. The struggle for his inheritance pits the family against Rouget's beautiful maid Flore ("La Rabouilleuse"), the apple of her master's eye, and her crafty lover.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Brutal poetic justice
- By Tad Davis on 06-23-20
By: Honoré de Balzac
-
Le Pere Goriot
- By: Honoré de Balzac
- Narrated by: Paul Hecht
- Length: 10 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 188
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 143
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 139
At the shabby boarding house in the rue Neuve-Sainte-Geneviève, petty Madame Vauquer and her tenants wonder at the plight of the aging resident Goriot. Once a well-heeled merchant, Goriot was, at first, afforded special treatment from the Madame. But now something is clearly amiss in his financial affairs, and his increasingly tawdry appearance makes him a subject of ridicule in the household.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
balzac rocks
- By beatrice on 03-12-10
By: Honoré de Balzac
-
The End of the Affair
- By: Graham Greene
- Narrated by: Colin Firth
- Length: 6 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 11,449
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 10,404
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 10,356
Graham Greene’s evocative analysis of the love of self, the love of another, and the love of God is an English classic that has been translated for the stage, the screen, and even the opera house. Academy Award-winning actor Colin Firth (The King’s Speech, A Single Man) turns in an authentic and stirring performance for this distinguished audio release.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Colin Firth Kills It
- By Em on 05-09-12
By: Graham Greene
-
Father Goriot
- By: Honoré de Balzac
- Narrated by: Bill Homewood
- Length: 12 hrs
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 71
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 61
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 59
Impoverished young aristocrat Eugene de Rastignac is determined to climb the social ladder and impress himself on Parisian high society. While staying at the Maison Vauquer, a boarding house in Paris's rue Neuve-Sainte-Genevieve, he encounters Jean-Joachim Goriot, a retired vermicelli maker who has spent his entire fortune supporting his two daughters. The boarders strike up a friendship and Goriot learns of Rastignac's feelings for his daughter Delphine. He begins to see Rastignac as the ideal son-in-law, and the perfect substitute for Delphine's domineering husband. But Rastignac has other opportunities too....
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Astounding performance
- By Laurence Grey on 04-05-21
By: Honoré de Balzac
-
The Trial
- By: Franz Kafka
- Narrated by: George Guidall
- Length: 8 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 790
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 590
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 595
If Max Brod had obeyed Franz Kafka's dying request, Kafka's unpublished manuscripts would have been burned, unread. Fortunately, Brod ignored his friend's wishes and published The Trial, which became the author's most famous work. Now Kafka's enigmatic novel regains its humor and stylistic elegance in a new translation based on the restored original manuscript.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
We are all the straw that breaks a camel's back
- By Dan Harlow on 10-14-13
By: Franz Kafka
-
Sentimental Education
- By: Gustave Flaubert
- Narrated by: Andrew Wincott
- Length: 20 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 22
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 20
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 20
Upon arriving home in Normandy, Frederick catches his first glimpse of Marie Arnoux, a mysterious and beautiful woman who leaves a lasting impression on him. Eventually they make each other's acquaintance and Marie becomes a symbol of unattainable perfection for Frederick, whose unrequited infatuation leaves him bouncing from one passion to another, falling in and out of love, money and society.
By: Gustave Flaubert
-
Mrs. Dalloway
- By: Virginia Woolf
- Narrated by: Juliet Stevenson
- Length: 7 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 1,547
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 1,349
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 1,337
It is a June day in London in 1923, and the lovely Clarissa Dalloway is having a party. Whom will she see? Her friend Peter, back from India, who has never really stopped loving her? What about Sally, with whom Clarissa had her life’s happiest moment? Meanwhile, the shell-shocked Septimus Smith is struggling with his life on the same London day.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
One Tough Read Perfectly Delivered
- By Chris on 06-11-12
By: Virginia Woolf
-
Jane Eyre
- By: Charlotte Brontë
- Narrated by: Thandiwe Newton
- Length: 19 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars 20,471
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 18,724
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 18,645
Following Jane from her childhood as an orphan in Northern England through her experience as a governess at Thornfield Hall, Charlotte Brontë's Gothic classic is an early exploration of women's independence in the mid-19th century and the pervasive societal challenges women had to endure. At Thornfield, Jane meets the complex and mysterious Mr. Rochester, with whom she shares a complicated relationship that ultimately forces her to reconcile the conflicting passions of romantic love and religious piety.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Perfect!!
- By Amazon Customer on 04-21-16
By: Charlotte Brontë
-
The Shooting Party
- By: Anton Chekhov
- Narrated by: Nicholas Boulton
- Length: 7 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 14
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 12
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 12
In Moscow an unknown author approaches a publisher (the narrator), asking him to read and publish his manuscript. The narrator agrees to read it before the author returns three months later. At the heart of the story in the manuscript is a love triangle and themes of corruption, concealed love, and fatal jealousy. When one of the central characters is discovered dead, the narrative becomes a murder-mystery as the search for the culprit begins.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
What intriguing skill at 24
- By Kathryn on 02-06-24
By: Anton Chekhov
-
Big Sur
- By: Jack Kerouac, Aram Saroyan - foreword
- Narrated by: Ethan Hawke
- Length: 6 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 224
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 186
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 186
In this 1962 novel, Kerouac's alter ego, Jack Duluoz, overwhelmed by success and excess, gravitates back and forth between wild binges in San Francisco and an isolated cabin on the California coast where he attempts to renew his spirit and clear his head of madness and alcohol. Only nature seems to restore him to a sense of balance. In the words of Allen Ginsberg, Big Sur "reveals consciousness in all its syntactic elaboration, detailing the luminous emptiness of his own paranoiac confusion".
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Astonishing Ethan Hawke Performance
- By L E Stewart on 11-10-20
By: Jack Kerouac, and others
-
Remembrance of Things Past
- Swann's Way
- By: Marcel Proust, Scott Moncrieff - translator
- Narrated by: John Rowe
- Length: 19 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 679
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 558
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 554
Swann's Way is Marcel Proust's literary masterpiece and the first part of the multivolume audiobook Remembrance of Things Past. In the opening volume, the narrator travels back in time to recall his childhood and to introduce the listener to Charles Swann, a wealthy friend of the family and celebrity in the Parisian social scene. He again travels back, this time to the youth of Charles Swann in the French town of Combray, to tell the story of the love affair that took place before his own birth.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
EXCELLENT!
- By Maggie on 08-18-10
By: Marcel Proust, and others
-
To the Lighthouse
- By: Virginia Woolf
- Narrated by: Nicole Kidman
- Length: 6 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 1,144
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 1,022
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 1,016
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
-
Steppenwolf
- By: Hermann Hesse
- Narrated by: Peter Weller
- Length: 7 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 1,577
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 1,270
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 1,269
Harry Haller is a sad and lonely figure, a reclusive intellectual for whom life holds no joy. He struggles to reconcile the wild primeval wolf and the rational man within himself without surrendering to the bourgeois values he despises. His life changes dramatically when he meets a woman who is his opposite, the carefree and elusive Hermine.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
Save this Hesse novel for your midlife crisis.
- By Darwin8u on 03-02-14
By: Hermann Hesse
-
Middlemarch
- By: George Eliot
- Narrated by: Juliet Stevenson
- Length: 35 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 5,140
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 4,660
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 4,623
Dorothea Brooke is an ardent idealist who represses her vivacity and intelligence for the cold, theological pedant Casaubon. One man understands her true nature: the artist Will Ladislaw. But how can love triumph against her sense of duty and Casaubon’s mean spirit? Meanwhile, in the little world of Middlemarch, the broader world is mirrored: the world of politics, social change, and reforms, as well as betrayal, greed, blackmail, ambition, and disappointment.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Best Audible book ever
- By Molly-o on 12-25-11
By: George Eliot
-
North and South
- By: Elizabeth Gaskell
- Narrated by: Juliet Stevenson
- Length: 18 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 7,366
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 6,555
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 6,559
Written at the request of Charles Dickens, North and South is a book about rebellion that poses fundamental questions about the nature of social authority and obedience. Gaskell expertly blends individual feeling with social concern and her heroine, Margaret Hale, is one of the most original creations of Victorian literature. When Margaret Hale's father leaves the Church in a crisis of conscience she is forced to leave her comfortable home in the tranquil countryside of Hampshire....
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Delightful
- By Sally on 01-04-10
Related to this topic
-
Le Pere Goriot
- By: Honoré de Balzac
- Narrated by: David McCallion
- Length: 9 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 71
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 61
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 57
Honoré de Balzac uses his classic style of detail to describe a most controversial setting in his novel Le Pere Goriot. The story takes place in Paris just after the fall of Napoleon in 1819. The story focuses on three characters, Rastignac, a student who wants to try and make it big in the capital, Vautrin, an interesting and funny character who is also quite mysterious, and the main character, Goriot, that carries a heavy burden that only a loving parent would endure.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
A minor masterpiece
- By Jack Rock on 03-04-18
By: Honoré de Balzac
-
Father Goriot
- By: Honoré de Balzac
- Narrated by: Bill Homewood
- Length: 12 hrs
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 71
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 61
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 59
Impoverished young aristocrat Eugene de Rastignac is determined to climb the social ladder and impress himself on Parisian high society. While staying at the Maison Vauquer, a boarding house in Paris's rue Neuve-Sainte-Genevieve, he encounters Jean-Joachim Goriot, a retired vermicelli maker who has spent his entire fortune supporting his two daughters. The boarders strike up a friendship and Goriot learns of Rastignac's feelings for his daughter Delphine. He begins to see Rastignac as the ideal son-in-law, and the perfect substitute for Delphine's domineering husband. But Rastignac has other opportunities too....
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Astounding performance
- By Laurence Grey on 04-05-21
By: Honoré de Balzac
-
Lady Audley's Secret
- By: Mary Elizabeth Braddon
- Narrated by: Juliet Stevenson
- Length: 5 hrs and 12 mins
- Abridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 104
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 85
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 86
A fast-paced Victorian thriller that will delight audiences today as it did 100 years ago, Lady Audley's Secret has subterfuge, kidnapping, jealousy, and fraud, all thrown into the mix and shaken up for good measure.
A mystery which keeps a listener guessing until the last moments, this production is a must-listen for anyone who enjoys playing detective.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
Narrator creates the listen
- By connie on 02-06-12
-
Middlemarch
- By: George Eliot
- Narrated by: Juliet Stevenson
- Length: 35 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 5,140
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 4,660
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 4,623
Dorothea Brooke is an ardent idealist who represses her vivacity and intelligence for the cold, theological pedant Casaubon. One man understands her true nature: the artist Will Ladislaw. But how can love triumph against her sense of duty and Casaubon’s mean spirit? Meanwhile, in the little world of Middlemarch, the broader world is mirrored: the world of politics, social change, and reforms, as well as betrayal, greed, blackmail, ambition, and disappointment.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Best Audible book ever
- By Molly-o on 12-25-11
By: George Eliot
-
Scenes of Clerical Life
- By: George Eliot
- Narrated by: Wanda McCaddon
- Length: 14 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 69
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 55
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 54
The Sad Fortunes of the Rev. Amos Barton, through vignettes of his life, portrays a character who is hard to like and easy to ridicule. Many people do ridicule as well as slander and despise him, until his suffering shocks them into fellowship and sympathy.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
The first work...from a very old soul
- By Theodoc on 04-07-21
By: George Eliot
-
Cranford
- By: Elizabeth Gaskell
- Narrated by: Prunella Scales
- Length: 6 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 580
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 474
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 472
A vivid and affectionate portrait of the residents of an English country town in the mid-19th century, Cranford describes a community dominated by its independent and refined women, relating the adventures of Miss Matty and Miss Deborah, two middle-aged spinster sisters striving to live with dignity in reduced circumstances. Through a series of satirical vignettes, Gaskell sympathetically portrays changing small town customs and values in mid-Victorian England....
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Quietly, subtly sweet and heartwarming
- By T. on 03-26-12
-
Le Pere Goriot
- By: Honoré de Balzac
- Narrated by: David McCallion
- Length: 9 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 71
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 61
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 57
Honoré de Balzac uses his classic style of detail to describe a most controversial setting in his novel Le Pere Goriot. The story takes place in Paris just after the fall of Napoleon in 1819. The story focuses on three characters, Rastignac, a student who wants to try and make it big in the capital, Vautrin, an interesting and funny character who is also quite mysterious, and the main character, Goriot, that carries a heavy burden that only a loving parent would endure.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
A minor masterpiece
- By Jack Rock on 03-04-18
By: Honoré de Balzac
-
Father Goriot
- By: Honoré de Balzac
- Narrated by: Bill Homewood
- Length: 12 hrs
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 71
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 61
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 59
Impoverished young aristocrat Eugene de Rastignac is determined to climb the social ladder and impress himself on Parisian high society. While staying at the Maison Vauquer, a boarding house in Paris's rue Neuve-Sainte-Genevieve, he encounters Jean-Joachim Goriot, a retired vermicelli maker who has spent his entire fortune supporting his two daughters. The boarders strike up a friendship and Goriot learns of Rastignac's feelings for his daughter Delphine. He begins to see Rastignac as the ideal son-in-law, and the perfect substitute for Delphine's domineering husband. But Rastignac has other opportunities too....
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Astounding performance
- By Laurence Grey on 04-05-21
By: Honoré de Balzac
-
Lady Audley's Secret
- By: Mary Elizabeth Braddon
- Narrated by: Juliet Stevenson
- Length: 5 hrs and 12 mins
- Abridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 104
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 85
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 86
A fast-paced Victorian thriller that will delight audiences today as it did 100 years ago, Lady Audley's Secret has subterfuge, kidnapping, jealousy, and fraud, all thrown into the mix and shaken up for good measure.
A mystery which keeps a listener guessing until the last moments, this production is a must-listen for anyone who enjoys playing detective.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
Narrator creates the listen
- By connie on 02-06-12
-
Middlemarch
- By: George Eliot
- Narrated by: Juliet Stevenson
- Length: 35 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 5,140
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 4,660
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 4,623
Dorothea Brooke is an ardent idealist who represses her vivacity and intelligence for the cold, theological pedant Casaubon. One man understands her true nature: the artist Will Ladislaw. But how can love triumph against her sense of duty and Casaubon’s mean spirit? Meanwhile, in the little world of Middlemarch, the broader world is mirrored: the world of politics, social change, and reforms, as well as betrayal, greed, blackmail, ambition, and disappointment.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Best Audible book ever
- By Molly-o on 12-25-11
By: George Eliot
-
Scenes of Clerical Life
- By: George Eliot
- Narrated by: Wanda McCaddon
- Length: 14 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 69
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 55
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 54
The Sad Fortunes of the Rev. Amos Barton, through vignettes of his life, portrays a character who is hard to like and easy to ridicule. Many people do ridicule as well as slander and despise him, until his suffering shocks them into fellowship and sympathy.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
The first work...from a very old soul
- By Theodoc on 04-07-21
By: George Eliot
-
Cranford
- By: Elizabeth Gaskell
- Narrated by: Prunella Scales
- Length: 6 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 580
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 474
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 472
A vivid and affectionate portrait of the residents of an English country town in the mid-19th century, Cranford describes a community dominated by its independent and refined women, relating the adventures of Miss Matty and Miss Deborah, two middle-aged spinster sisters striving to live with dignity in reduced circumstances. Through a series of satirical vignettes, Gaskell sympathetically portrays changing small town customs and values in mid-Victorian England....
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Quietly, subtly sweet and heartwarming
- By T. on 03-26-12
-
Jane Eyre
- By: Charlotte Brontë
- Narrated by: Thandiwe Newton
- Length: 19 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars 20,471
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 18,724
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 18,645
Following Jane from her childhood as an orphan in Northern England through her experience as a governess at Thornfield Hall, Charlotte Brontë's Gothic classic is an early exploration of women's independence in the mid-19th century and the pervasive societal challenges women had to endure. At Thornfield, Jane meets the complex and mysterious Mr. Rochester, with whom she shares a complicated relationship that ultimately forces her to reconcile the conflicting passions of romantic love and religious piety.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Perfect!!
- By Amazon Customer on 04-21-16
By: Charlotte Brontë
-
The Count of Monte Cristo (Dramatized)
- By: Orson Welles
- Narrated by: Orson Welles
- Length: 59 mins
- Original Recording
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 55
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 43
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 45
Starring Orson Welles, Anges Moorehead, and Ray Collins, The Count of Monte Cristo is a tale of revenge and retribution. Edmond Dantès, a young, energetic sailor, is falsely accused of treason on his wedding day and incarcerated in the forbidding Château d'If. His escape and ultimate revenge on those who wronged him makes this one of the most thrilling stories in French literature, as compelling now as when it was first published in 1846.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Excellent
- By Stefanie on 05-19-14
By: Orson Welles
-
Dombey and Son
- By: Charles Dickens
- Narrated by: Frederick Davidson
- Length: 36 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 123
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 68
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 66
In this carefully crafted novel, Dickens reveals the complexity of London society in the enterprising 1840s as he takes the listener into the business firm and home of one of its most representative patriarchs, Paul Dombey.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Perfect pair
- By Philip on 03-25-08
By: Charles Dickens
-
The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby
- By: Charles Dickens
- Narrated by: Simon Vance
- Length: 30 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 348
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 298
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 291
The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby is closely modelled on the 18h-century novels that Charles Dickens loved as a child, such as Robinson Crusoe, in which the fortunes of a hero shape the plot. The likeable young Nicholas, left penniless on the death of his father, sets off in search of better prospects.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
loved it much more than expected!
- By Blue Ridge Book Lover on 05-29-12
By: Charles Dickens
-
North and South
- By: Elizabeth Gaskell
- Narrated by: Juliet Stevenson
- Length: 18 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 7,366
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 6,555
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 6,559
Written at the request of Charles Dickens, North and South is a book about rebellion that poses fundamental questions about the nature of social authority and obedience. Gaskell expertly blends individual feeling with social concern and her heroine, Margaret Hale, is one of the most original creations of Victorian literature. When Margaret Hale's father leaves the Church in a crisis of conscience she is forced to leave her comfortable home in the tranquil countryside of Hampshire....
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Delightful
- By Sally on 01-04-10
-
Father Sergius & Other Short Stories
- By: Leo Tolstoy
- Narrated by: Simon Vance
- Length: 4 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 88
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 67
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 66
Tolstoy brings to these brief tales the same psychological depth and spiritual insight found in his larger works. In fact, his short stories are an excellent place to begin reading this great author. In them, you will find the same challenging themes of morality, forgiveness, redemption and more.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
Unusual and enjoyable
- By Tad Davis on 06-17-11
By: Leo Tolstoy
-
Oblomov
- By: Ivan Goncharov
- Narrated by: Leighton Pugh
- Length: 20 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars 84
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 75
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 75
A member of the landed gentry, with a seemingly guaranteed income from his estate in the country, Oblomov lives in Petersburg, uninterested in the business that provides his living and barely aware that the revenue is diminishing. Not that he leads a dissolute life of extravagance, balls and entertainment. Instead he is a dreamer, a sybarite, content above all to spend most of the day supine, in bed. The novel opens with Oblomov thus ensconced, attended only by his dirty, grumbling, indolent servant Zahar, who has looked after him since childhood, catering to his every need.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
funny and smart
- By Bennett Weiss on 07-29-20
By: Ivan Goncharov
-
The Posthumous Memoirs of Brás Cubas
- By: Joaquim Maria Machado de Assis
- Narrated by: Edoardo Camponeschi
- Length: 7 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 43
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 32
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 32
Joaquim Maria Machado de Assis (1839-1908) was the greatest writer ever to come from Brazil and one of the masters of nineteenth-century fiction. Susan Sontag calls him "the greatest writer ever produced in Latin America", surpassing even Borges. Harold Bloom says that Machado is "the supreme black literary artist to date". And Allen Ginsburg calls him "another Kafka". And The Posthumous Memoirs of Bras Cubas is his masterpiece, a dazzling, tragic, and profound novel that belongs next to the greatest works of his contemporaries Melville and Dostoevsky.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
A hidden masterpiece
- By C. Park on 08-09-18
-
Fathers and Sons
- By: Ivan Turgenev
- Narrated by: David Horovitch
- Length: 9 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 726
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 657
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 655
When Arkady Petrovich comes home from college, his father finds his eager, naive son changed almost beyond recognition, for the impressionable Arkady has fallen under the powerful influence of the friend he has brought with him. A self-proclaimed nihilist, the ardent young Bazarov shocks Arkady's father by criticising the landowning way of life and by his outspoken determination to sweep away the traditional values of contemporary Russian society.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
The greatest novel I'll ever read
- By Dan Harlow on 07-07-13
By: Ivan Turgenev
-
Jude The Obscure
- By: Thomas Hardy
- Narrated by: Stephen Thorne
- Length: 15 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 254
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 206
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 205
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.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Staggering
- By Tad Davis on 02-16-10
By: Thomas Hardy
-
The Red and the Black
- By: Stendhal
- Narrated by: Davina Porter
- Length: 20 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 354
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 268
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 264
So what would Al Gore choose if he had a book club? Gore named Stendhal's The Red and the Black, a 19th century classic chock full of adultery, betrayal, and moral vacuity, as his favorite book on a recent broadcast of Oprah. It's a bit shocking of a choice, given his wife and running mate's position on clean, wholesome literature. Listen and decide for yourself the merit of this presidential pick.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
Almost perfect
- By Erez on 05-29-08
By: Stendhal
-
Anna Karenina
- By: Leo Tolstoy
- Narrated by: David Horovitch
- Length: 38 hrs
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 2,998
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 2,564
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 2,552
Anna Karenina seems to have everything - beauty, wealth, popularity and an adored son. But she feels that her life is empty until the moment she encounters the impetuous officer Count Vronsky.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Beautiful story, amazing narration
- By Marcus Vorwaller on 08-02-08
By: Leo Tolstoy