Beloved

By: Toni Morrison

Narrated by: Toni Morrison

PULITZER PRIZE WINNER • NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • A spellbinding novel that transforms history into a story as powerful as Exodus and as intimate as a lullaby. With a new afterword by the author.

This "brutally powerful, mesmerizing story” (People) is an unflinchingly look into the abyss of slavery, from the acclaimed Nobel Prize winner.

Sethe was born a slave and escaped to Ohio, but eighteen years later she is still not free. Sethe has too many memories of Sweet Home, the beautiful farm where so many hideous things happened. And Sethe’s new home is haunted by the ghost of her baby, who died nameless and whose tombstone is engraved with a single word: Beloved.

“A masterwork.... Wonderful.... I can’t imagine American literature without it.” —John Leonard, Los Angeles Times

©1987 Toni Morrison (P)1998 Random House, Inc.

Critic reviews

“A masterwork. . . . Wonderful. . . . I can’t imagine American literature without it.” —John Leonard, Los Angeles Times

“A triumph.” —Margaret Atwood, The New York Times Book Review

“Toni Morrison’s finest work. . . . [It] sets her apart [and] displays her prodigious talent.” —Chicago Sun-Times

Difficult to follow

This was difficult for me to follow as Ms. Morrison’s voice was monotone. I feel that I missed the storyline with Beloved’s presence. I did have great appreciation for how slavery impacted the mindset of the black community. The difficulty assimilating into a free society and the fact that they were still prisoners in their community and their own mind. It really was thought provoking.

Perfect voice for a great novel

It's sad to read the philistine criticisms in the reviews of Morrison's reading voice. Toni Morrison's voice is literally the perfect one for this extraordinary novel. Not just because she is the author, but because her poignant, world-weary expressiveness is the exact voice needed for this story. She avoids all histrionics and absurd vocal tricks, simply telling the story she was born to tell with a profound clarity and simplicity. All other readers sound inadequate after her.

wow

read by the author, lending it all the beautify, authentisity​, and delight you could desire from a narrator. the story is as deep and wide as an human could barely, and at some places more so. Toni Morrison has earned every acalade she has gotten and some.

Sad tell of a mothers love

Aside from a few pieces omitted from the movie Ophra did a great job of bringing this story to life on the big screen. Its such a sad story of what a mother would do for her children.

In the author’s own voice

Dark, dark is the story of Beloved, her mother, Sethe, and their family, acquaintances, haunted, hooked, and rebuked. Based on a true story, I don’t need to say that Toni Morrison’s reinterpretation of facts as a story about time, pain, mental illness, slavery, and death is as bewitchingly captivating as it is masterfully written. We all know that. My favorite aspect of this recording is that it’s from the author herself, her voice illuminating long-held inquiries and added a distinctly raw, Southern sensibility to the way I took in the story. I’m so grateful to have had her voice guide me along in this twisted journey. Thank you.

Simply breath taking

Such beauty resides in the words of this novel. It is truly a story that feels timeless. One section feels so much like Faulkner I'm certain that cannot be coincidental.

Still, the ending of the story kind of fizzles instead of packing a narrative punch. The prose is still arresting, it's just the resolution seems a bit anticlimactic.

Song of Solomon is the better novel between the two.

Beautiful and deeply sad

The legendary author does not need a review from me, but I will heap praise on her anyway. Authors reading their won books does not always work. Here, it could be read by no other. Now her beautiful, sad, important story is preserved forever in her own voice.

Awestruck.

I have read this book many times, but listening to it the way the author intends it is a FEAST. I really don't have words to describe my awe at the writing. The prose. The story. The history. The symbolism. The realism. The genius. LOVE LOVE LOVE!!!

Beautifully told....

A
A beautifully written book rendered even more beautiful being read by the author .

Amazing read aloud by Toni Morrison

Once upon a time there was pain and grief and hope and beauty. . . All these experiences are heightened when the author leans forward and whispers this tale in our ear.

This American novel grows more powerful with the years. I listened to it in 2020 with an expanded awareness. Open your heart and let it speak to YOU.