Jude the Obscure
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Jude the Obscure
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Narrated by:
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Frederick Davidson
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By:
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Thomas Hardy
About this listen
His last and most controversial novel, Jude the Obscure provoked such widespread and bitter attacks that Hardy claimed it caused him to stop writing novels. The primary causes of the uproar involved Hardy’s frank treatment of sexual themes and his unconventional portrayal of the pillars of Victorian society: the British university system, marriage, and religion. Today, many consider this to be Hardy’s finest work.
The story involves the tragic relationship between Jude Fawley, a village stonemason who is thwarted in his aspirations to the ministry, and Sue Bridehead, a freethinking cousin who is shunned by society for her social and sexual rebellion. Concerned with the annihilation of innocence, Jude the Obscure is powerful in its portrayal of suffering, rich in its evocation of nature, and tragic in its vision of life.
Thomas Hardy (1840–1928), English poet and novelist, was born on the Egdon Heath in Dorset. He studied in Dorchester and apprenticed to an architect before leaving for London, where he began to write. Unable to find a public for his poetry, which idealized the rural life, he turned to the novel and met with success as well as controversy. The strong public reaction against some of his darker themes turned Hardy back to writing verse. Today, several of his novels are considered tragic masterpieces.
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-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 46
A masterful blend of Gothic drama and romance, Wilkie Collins' mystery novel is an exploration of illegitimacy and inheritance. Set in Cornwall, the plot foreshadows The Woman in White with its themes of doubtful identity and deception and involves a broad array of characters. The "secret" of the book's title is the true parentage of the book's heroine, Rosamond Treverton, which has been written down and kept in an unused room at Porthgenna Tower. This is where, 20 years later, much of the novel's action is set.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Only complaint is I wish it were longer
- By alisammeredith on 03-15-22
By: Wilkie Collins
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The Mill on the Floss
- By: George Eliot
- Narrated by: Laura Paton
- Length: 20 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 357
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 325
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 325
Maggie Tulliver has two lovers: Philip Wakem, son of her father’s enemy, and Stephen Guest, already promised to her cousin. But the love she wants most in the world is that of her brother Tom. Maggie’s struggle against her passionate and sensual nature leads her to a deeper understanding and to eventual tragedy
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5 out of 5 stars
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Great compassion
- By nina lalumia on 12-26-16
By: George Eliot
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Armadale
- By: Wilkie Collins
- Narrated by: Nicholas Boulton, Rachel Atkins, David Rintoul, and others
- Length: 30 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 100
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 94
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 94
Wilkie Collins' follow-up to The Woman in White and No Name is an innovative take on mistaken identity, the nature of evil, and the dark underbelly of Victorian England. The story concerns two distant cousins, both named Allan Armadale, and the impact of a family tragedy, which makes one of them a target of the murderous Lydia Gwilt, a vicious and malevolent charmer determined to get her hands on the Armadale fortune. Will the real Allan Armadale be revealed, and will he survive the plot against his life?
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5 out of 5 stars
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Listen again & again to unravel layers of mystery
- By Proud Parents of Furry Kids on 10-28-20
By: Wilkie Collins
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Father
- By: Elizabeth Von Arnim
- Narrated by: Penelope Freeman
- Length: 12 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 32
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 27
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 27
Since her mother's death, Jennifer has devoted years of her life to her father, managing the family home. After the sudden announcement that he has taken a new wife, Jennifer, at 33, seizes the opportunity to lead an independent life. Quickly she secures the lease of Rose Cottage and turns her attention to her own interests. While Jennifer is desperate to experience life on her own terms within her reduced financial means, her neighbour, Alice, is pre-occupied with ensuring her position as head of her brother's household is never challenged.
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1 out of 5 stars
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Worse Audio Book I Have Ever Heard
- By Phyllis Woodford on 11-05-21
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Maurice
- By: E. M. Forster
- Narrated by: Peter Firth
- Length: 6 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 1,160
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 992
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 995
'Ah for darkness...not the darkness of a house which coops up a man among furniture, but the darkness where he can be free!' Maurice Hall knows he must choose between living life in the shadows or denying himself a chance at love and fulfilment. Aware of his attraction to the same sex, in a time where it was considered unlawful and immoral to have homosexual desires, Maurice must decide whether to battle or submit to a prejudiced 20th-century English society.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Finally!!! It's past time!
- By Christopher P. on 11-18-10
By: E. M. Forster
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Shirley
- By: Charlotte Brontë
- Narrated by: Anna Bentinck
- Length: 25 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 443
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 373
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 371
Set in the industrialising England of the Napoleonic wars, a period of bad harvests, Luddite riots, and economic unrest, Shirley is the story of two contrasting heroines and the men they love. One is the shy Caroline Helstone, trapped in the oppressive atmosphere of a Yorkshire rectory, whose life represents the plight of single women in the 19th century. The other is the vivacious Shirley Keeldar, who inherits a local estate and whose wealth liberates her from convention.
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5 out of 5 stars
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"As Romantic As Monday Morning"
- By Joseph R on 09-15-09
By: Charlotte Brontë
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On the Origin of Species
- By: Charles Darwin
- Narrated by: Richard Dawkins
- Length: 5 hrs and 53 mins
- Abridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 1,392
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 1,114
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 1,097
Richard Dawkins, author of The God Delusion and a life-long committed Darwinist, abridges and reads this special audio version of Charles Darwin's famous book. A literally world-changing book, Darwin put forward the anti-religious and scientific idea that humans in fact evolved over millions of generations from animals, starting with fish, all the way up through the ranks to apes, then to our current form.
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5 out of 5 stars
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A Perfect Abridgement
- By M on 05-28-09
By: Charles Darwin
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Where Angels Fear to Tread
- Penguin English Library
- By: E. M. Forster
- Narrated by: Stephen Fry
- Length: 2 hrs and 51 mins
- Abridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 62
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 56
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Story4 out of 5 stars 56
E. M. Forster's first novel is a witty comedy of manners that is tinged with tragedy. It tells the story of Lilia Herriton, who proves to be an embarrassment to her late husband's family as, in the small Tuscan town of Monteriano, she begins a relationship with a much younger Italian man - classless, uncouth, and highly unsuitable. A subtle attack on Edwardian values and a humanely sympathetic portrayal of the clash of two cultures, Where Angels Fear to Tread is also a profound exploration of character and virtue.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Stephen Fry + E.M. Forster = Audio Kismet
- By Megasaurus on 08-20-12
By: E. M. Forster
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My Lady Ludlow
- By: Elizabeth Gaskell
- Narrated by: Susannah York
- Length: 7 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 64
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 59
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 59
Lady Ludlow's appalling snobbery, prejudice and bred-in-the-bone conviction as to the superiority of the English aristocracy and their feudal way of life are deliciously tested, and found wanting, in this gently radical tale of the collapse of a social system. Elizabeth Gaskell's My Lady Ludlow is a brilliant picture of the shift in power in a rural northern village, from the velvety feudal Ludlows to the glitter of the new money rattling through the system courtesy of the brazen baker from Birmingham.
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5 out of 5 stars
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A treat
- By Tad Davis on 03-04-20
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Night and Day
- By: Virginia Woolf
- Narrated by: Juliet Stevenson
- Length: 18 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 121
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 109
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 107
Written before she began her experiments in the writing of fiction, Virginia Woolf's second novel, Night and Day, is a story about a group of young people trying to discover what it means to fall in love. It asks all the big questions: What does it mean to fall in love? Does marriage grant happiness? What is happiness? Night and Day is a conventional novel; however, it maps out for us the world of Virginia Woolf in its wondrous prose: For her it was the beginning, leading on to a prolonged engagement with her search for the means to express the "inner life".
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4 out of 5 stars
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"After all, what is love?"
- By Eman Abd Allah on 12-13-16
By: Virginia Woolf
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North and South
- By: Elizabeth Gaskell
- Narrated by: Juliet Stevenson
- Length: 18 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 7,398
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 6,585
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 6,589
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....
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5 out of 5 stars
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Delightful
- By Sally on 01-04-10
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Adam Bede
- By: George Eliot
- Narrated by: Jill Tanner
- Length: 23 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 47
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 42
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 43
Adam Bede (1859), George Eliot's first full-length novel, marked the emergence of an artist to rank with Scott and Dickens. Set in the English Midlands of farmers and village craftsmen at the turn of the 18th century, the book relates a story of seduction issuing in "the inward suffering which is the worst form of Nemesis". But it is also a rich and pioneering record - drawing on intimate knowledge and affectionate memory - of a rural world that we have lost.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Very good book
- By Terri Tinkham on 03-11-19
By: George Eliot
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The Rise of Silas Lapham
- By: William Dean Howells
- Narrated by: Grover Gardner
- Length: 12 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 52
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 51
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Story4 out of 5 stars 50
Howells’ best-known work and a subtle classic of its time, The Rise of Silas Lapham is an elegant tale of Boston society and manners. After garnering a fortune in the paint business, Silas Lapham moves his family from their Vermont farm to the city of Boston in order to improve his social position. The consequences of this endeavor are both humorous and tragic as the greedy Silas brings his company to the brink of bankruptcy.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Important for the Era
- By Brent on 03-19-23
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The Age of Innocence
- By: Edith Wharton
- Narrated by: David Horovitch
- Length: 12 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 2,295
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 2,030
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 2,024
Countess Ellen Olenska, separated from her European husband, returns to old New York society. She bears with her an independence and an awareness of life which stirs the educated sensitivity of the charming Newland Archer, engaged to be married to her cousin, May Welland. Though he accepts the society's standards and rules he is acutely aware of their limitations. He knows May will assure him a conventional future but Ellen, scandalously separated from her husband, forces Archer to question his values and beliefs.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Narrated to Perfection
- By Ilana on 09-18-12
By: Edith Wharton