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The Wife of Bath
- A Biography
- Narrated by: Marion Turner
- Length: 8 hrs and 20 mins
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Publisher's summary
From the award-winning biographer of Chaucer, the story of his most popular and scandalous character, from the Middle Ages to #MeToo
Ever since her triumphant debut in Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, the Wife of Bath, arguably the first ordinary and recognisably real woman in English literature, has obsessed readers—from Shakespeare to James Joyce, Voltaire to Pasolini, Dryden to Zadie Smith. Few literary characters have led such colourful lives or matched her influence or capacity for reinvention in poetry, drama, fiction, and film. In The Wife of Bath, Marion Turner tells the fascinating story of where Chaucer’s favourite character came from, how she related to real medieval women, and where her many travels have taken her since the fourteenth century, from Falstaff and Molly Bloom to #MeToo and Black Lives Matter.
A sexually active and funny working woman, the Wife of Bath, also known as Alison, talks explicitly about sexual pleasure. She is also a victim of domestic abuse who tells a story of rape and redemption. Formed from misogynist sources, she plays with stereotypes. Turner sets Alison’s fictional story alongside the lives of real medieval women—from a maid who travelled around Europe, abandoned her employer, and forged a new career in Rome to a duchess who married her fourth husband, a teenager, when she was sixty-five. Turner also tells the incredible story of Alison’s postmedieval life, from seventeenth-century ballads and Polish communist pop art to her reclamation by postcolonial Black British womenwriters.
Entertaining and enlightening, funny and provocative, The Wife of Bath is a one-of-a-kind history of a literary and feminist icon who continues to capture the imagination of readers.
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The Glorious Cause: The American Revolution: 1763-1789
- By: Robert Middlekauff
- Narrated by: Robert Fass
- Length: 26 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
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The first book to appear in the illustrious Oxford History of the United States, this critically-acclaimed volume - a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize - offers an unsurpassed history of the Revolutionary War and the birth of the American republic.
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Strong History Rich With Behind The Scenes Details
- By John on 10-06-11
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The Canterbury Tales
- A New Unabridged Translation by Burton Raffel
- By: Geoffrey Chaucer
- Narrated by: uncredited
- Length: 22 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
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Lively, absorbing, often outrageously funny, Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales is a work of genius, an undisputed classic that has held a special appeal for each generation of readers. The Tales gathers 29 of literature's most enduring (and endearing) characters in a vivid group portrait that captures the full spectrum of medieval society, from the exalted Knight to the humble Plowman. This unabridged work is based on the new translation.
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Lack of coherant "chapters"
- By Jensophie on 02-24-10
By: Geoffrey Chaucer
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A New World Begins
- The History of the French Revolution
- By: Jeremy D. Popkin
- Narrated by: Pete Cross, Jeremy D. Popkin
- Length: 21 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
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The principles of the French Revolution remain the only possible basis for a just society - even if, after more than 200 years, they are more contested than ever before. In A New World Begins, Jeremy D. Popkin offers a riveting account of the revolution that puts the listener in the thick of the debates and the violence that led to the overthrow of the monarchy and the establishment of a new society.
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Narration
- By Kindle Customer on 04-26-22
By: Jeremy D. Popkin
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The Invention of Prehistory
- Empire, Violence, and Our Obsession with Human Origins
- By: Stefanos Geroulanos
- Narrated by: Elizabeth Wiley
- Length: 14 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
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Books about the origins of humanity dominate bestseller lists, while national newspapers present breathless accounts of new archaeological findings and speculate about what those findings tell us about our earliest ancestors. We are obsessed with prehistory—and, in this respect, our current era is no different from any other in the last three hundred years. In this coruscating work, acclaimed historian Stefanos Geroulanos demonstrates how claims about the earliest humans not only shaped Western intellectual culture, but gave rise to our modern world.
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Too much judgement
- By Historic Philosopher on 04-23-24
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The Rigor of Angels
- Borges, Heisenberg, Kant, and the Ultimate Nature of Reality
- By: William Egginton
- Narrated by: David Glass
- Length: 10 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
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Argentine poet Jorge Luis Borges was madly in love when his life was shattered by painful heartbreak. But the breakdown that followed illuminated an incontrovertible truth—that love is necessarily imbued with loss, that the one doesn’t exist without the other. German physicist Werner Heisenberg was fighting with the scientific establishment on the meaning of the quantum realm’s absurdity when he had his own epiphany—that there is no such thing as a complete, perfect description of reality.
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The most ridiculous narration
- By Anonymous User on 03-07-24
By: William Egginton
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1177 B.C. (Revised and Updated)
- The Year Civilization Collapsed
- By: Eric H. Cline
- Narrated by: Eric H. Cline
- Length: 10 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
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This audiobook narrated by acclaimed archaeologist and best-selling author Eric Cline offers a breathtaking account of how the collapse of an ancient civilized world ushered in the first Dark Ages.
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Look past the one-star reviews: this is an enlightening and engaging read.
- By Alonzo Nightjar on 03-07-22
By: Eric H. Cline
What listeners say about The Wife of Bath
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Emily Austin
- 01-21-24
Outstanding
This title really, really hit the spot for me. I have been a lifelong reader of Chaucer, even taking a class in graduate school on him many years ago. This was the deep dive into Allison that I never knew I needed. I enjoyed listening to the author’s performance; she was very engaging and did not distract from the content.
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- S. Cremona
- 03-06-23
A fascinating Chaucer fictional character
The Wife of Bath” was a fascinating journey of a Chaucer fictional character that has traveled thru time from the 14th century thru to the 21st century as if she was a real person. The research, analysis, comparisons and examples presented by the author are exceptional in their presentation and of how this fictional character, “Alison” appears in literature and multiple countries. The book exhibits the author’s extensive research and presentation of the material but too many words were devoted the explicit description of promiscuity and detracted from the author’s scholarly work. Experienced as an Audio Book
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- Amazon Customer
- 03-27-24
Tracing the role and character of the Wife of Bath through history and literature, in a wide variety of British eras and genres.
The author lends the necessary emotion and conviction to the narrative, but makes it challenging for an American listener. The book takes us through many different Alisons over the centuries, in literature and history, exploring society’s attitudes to a free and uninhibited woman. Occasionally more than necessary. Interesting, nevertheless.
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- Marlene Woods
- 05-12-23
Author Narration is the Best
Thank you Ms. Turner for the education and encouragement to learn more and be more like Allison of Bath.
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- Karen
- 10-30-23
Wonderful!
I so enjoyed listening to this book. I loved the way Turner put the wife of Bath into her historical context, examined how she has been edited and mutated by various authors through the centuries, and how her true voice is finally being heard again through her literary descendants. Well written, well read. Keep them coming, Marion Turner!
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- Lars Pendicott
- 01-29-23
Enthusiasm for the substance exudes in every line
This is a highly informative, literary and entertaining review of the life and times of the medieval non-lady. It is rare that such a hidden subject is brought to life for the modern reader. Along with Super Infinite - these are the best two literary gems in recent years.
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- Lucky
- 02-26-23
Brilliant, but..
This book was compelling but would have been SO much better with a professional reader. What a shame.
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- librarian
- 03-05-23
Bravo
Well done! I enjoy when authors read their work and I can hear the care they have for their subject.
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- Jedediah Parish
- 05-02-23
Interesting
An engaging look at a fascinating character. Well researched and well written. The End.
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