The Mystified Magistrate
And Other Tales
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The Mystified Magistrate
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Narrated by:
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Ken Kliban
About this listen
The great virtue of this volume is that it reveals a lighter, comic side of Sade. He was a man obsessed, like many great writers, and his obsessions are still present here: his hatred of all things pretentious, his loathing of a corrupt judicial system, his damning of hypocrisy and false piety. One of the great anarchists of all time, he was nevertheless far from mad (as many pretended) and these works of fiction shed another light on this most feverish of minds. But however heavy the subject, The Mystified Magistrate is infused with a light touch; it is revealing but never offensive.
©2000, 2011, 2012 Richard Seaver (P)2012 Audible, Inc.Listeners also enjoyed...
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Editorial reviews
The Marquis de Sade, from whom we get the term "sadism", uses his pen to jab at people from his real life in these short, witty tales. The magistrate of the titular work, for example, is almost certainly based on the magistrate who passed a death sentence on Sade, executing an effigy in his place.
The Marquis’ usual themes of hypocrisy, deviancy, absurdity, and humor are present and Ken Kilban is able, in his performance, to treat the stories' humor with seriousness and their seriousness with humor.
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-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 1,481
When first published in 1759, Candide became an instant best seller and is now regarded as one of the key texts of the Enlightenment. Voltaire’s preoccupations with evil and with various kinds of human folly and intolerance found a perfect vehicle in this philosophical tale. A master storyteller, he combined often wildly entertaining action with profoundly serious sense, parodying the traditional chivalric and oriental tales with which his public was more familiar.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Guaranteed to keep you smiling if not LOL
- By Robert on 08-09-12
By: Voltaire
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The Lady in the Tower
- By: Jean Plaidy
- Narrated by: Anne Flosnik
- Length: 16 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 121
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 66
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 67
One of history's most complex and alluring women, Anne Boleyn was irresistible to kings and commoners alike. Daughter of an ambitious country lord, Anne was sent to France to marry well and raise the family's fortunes. She soon surpassed even their greatest expectations when King Henry VIII swore he would put aside his loyal queen to make Anne his wife.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Lady in the tower. I loved it.
- By Carole on 03-02-09
By: Jean Plaidy
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The Idiot [Blackstone]
- By: Fyodor Dostoevsky
- Narrated by: Robert Whitfield
- Length: 22 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 1,094
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 812
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Story4 out of 5 stars 820
Prince Myshkin, is thrust into the heart of a society more concerned with wealth, power, and sexual conquest than the ideals of Christianity. Myshkin soon finds himself at the center of a violent love triangle in which a notorious woman and a beautiful young girl become rivals for his affections. Extortion, scandal, and murder follow, testing the wreckage left by human misery to find "man in man."
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5 out of 5 stars
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Intense and painfully sad
- By Tad on 04-27-12
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The Count of Monte Cristo (Dramatized)
- By: Orson Welles
- Narrated by: Orson Welles
- Length: 59 mins
- Original Recording
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 55
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 43
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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.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Excellent
- By Stefanie on 05-19-14
By: Orson Welles
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The Iron King
- The Accursed Kings, Book 1
- By: Maurice Druon
- Narrated by: Peter Joyce
- Length: 11 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 671
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 616
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 615
From the publishers that brought you A Game of Thrones comes the series that inspired George R.R. Martin’s epic work. France became a great nation under Philip the Fair - but it was a greatness achieved at the expense of her people, for his was a reign characterised by violence, the scandalous adulteries of his daughters-in-law, and the triumph of royal authority.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Historical Goodie
- By Syd Young on 08-03-13
By: Maurice Druon
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The Betrothed
- A Novel
- By: Alessandro Manzoni, Michael F. Moore - translator, Jhumpa Lahiri - afterword
- Narrated by: Ari Fliakos, Susan Vinciotti Bonito
- Length: 22 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 52
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 43
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 42
The Betrothed is a cornerstone of Italian culture, language, and literature. Published in its final form in 1842, The Betrothed has inspired generations of Italian readers and writers. Giuseppe Verdi composed his majestic Requiem Mass in honor of Manzoni. Italo Calvino called the novel “a classic that has never ceased shaping reality in Italy” while Umberto Eco praised its author as a “most subtle critic and analyst of languages.”
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1 out of 5 stars
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How to ruin a masterpiece
- By McMurrab on 10-31-22
By: Alessandro Manzoni, and others
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Can You Forgive Her?
- By: Anthony Trollope
- Narrated by: David Shaw-Parker
- Length: 33 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 66
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 58
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 58
Young, attractive and wealthy, Alice Vavasor is a woman in the prime of her life. And yet one question torments her: "What should a woman do with her life?" Torn between the kind but dull Mr. Grey and her dangerous and exciting cousin George, she is prone to constant indecision and uncertainty, much to the detriment of Mr. Grey. Can You Forgive Her? is a crisp and engaging novel, brimming with romance, humor, and pathos. It is the first of six in Trollope's celebrated Palliser series.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Great narrator!
- By A. Dionysia on 01-24-18
By: Anthony Trollope
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The Betrothed
- By: Alessandro Manzoni
- Narrated by: Nicholas Boulton
- Length: 24 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 209
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 181
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 181
After the jealous tyrant Don Rodrigo foils their wedding, young Lombardian peasants Lucia and Lorenzo must separate and flee for their safety. Their difficult path to matrimony takes place against the turbulent backdrop of the Thirty Years War, where lawlessness and exploitation are at their height. Lucia takes refuge in a convent, where she is later abducted and taken on a nightmarish journey to a sinister castle, while Lorenzo goes to Milan, where he witnesses famine, riots, and plague - all evoked through meticulous description and with stunning immediacy.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Fantastic reading of a great work of literature
- By Pia Crosby on 03-25-19
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The Warden
- By: Anthony Trollope
- Narrated by: Flo Gibson
- Length: 7 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall5 out of 5 stars 1
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 1
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Story4 out of 5 stars 1
A kindly warden is accused of misusing church funds. This amusing book examines the making and breaking of reputations.
By: Anthony Trollope
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Father Goriot
- By: Honoré de Balzac
- Narrated by: Bill Homewood
- Length: 12 hrs
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 72
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 61
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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....
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5 out of 5 stars
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Astounding performance
- By Laurence Grey on 04-05-21
By: Honoré de Balzac
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The Count of Monte Cristo [Classic Tales Edition]
- By: Alexandre Dumas
- Narrated by: B.J. Harrison
- Length: 52 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall5 out of 5 stars 673
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 623
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Story5 out of 5 stars 621
Trust. Betrayal. Revenge. The Count of Monte Cristo is the quintessential masterpiece of Alexandre Dumas. In Edmond Dantes we find an early materialization of the modern superhero. He is a dashing young sailor imprisoned unjustly for treason. While in prison he meets a holy man who imparts to him all his wisdom. The "abbe" also divulges the profound secret of a hidden treasure. Dantes realizes that with such immense wealth, one could wreak a hateful vengeance on one's enemies.
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5 out of 5 stars
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The proof is in the narrator!
- By J. Fraas on 12-21-15
By: Alexandre Dumas
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Swann's Way
- By: Marcel Proust
- Narrated by: Simon Vance
- Length: 17 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 72
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 57
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Story4 out of 5 stars 58
Swann's Way is the first novel of Marcel Proust's seven-volume magnum opus In Search of Lost Time. After elaborate reminiscences about his childhood with relatives in rural Combray and in urban Paris, Proust's narrator recalls a story regarding Charles Swann, a major figure in his Combray childhood....
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1 out of 5 stars
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Not the newer, far better translation
- By Samuel Murray on 05-02-11
By: Marcel Proust
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The Confessions
- By: Jean-Jacques Rousseau
- Narrated by: Frederick Davidson
- Length: 30 hrs
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 57
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 49
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Story4 out of 5 stars 47
Dr. Johnson may have been correct in saying that “Rousseau was a very bad man,” but none can argue that his ideas are among the most influential in all of world history. It was Rousseau, the father of the romantic movement, who was responsible for introducing at least two modern day thoughts that pervade academia. The Confessions is Rousseau’s landmark autobiography. Both brilliant and flawed, it is nonetheless beautifully written and remains one of the most moving human documents in all of literature.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Extraordinary in its ordinariness...
- By Varni-Maree on 08-28-12
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Le Pere Goriot
- By: Honoré de Balzac
- Narrated by: David McCallion
- Length: 9 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 71
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 61
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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.
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5 out of 5 stars
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A minor masterpiece
- By Jack Rock on 03-04-18
By: Honoré de Balzac