
A Wilder Shore
The Romantic Odyssey of Fanny and Robert Louis Stevenson
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Narrated by:
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Jeanette Illidge
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By:
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Camille Peri
About this listen
ONE OF THE ATLANTIC'S 10 BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR
A NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW EDITORS' CHOICE PICK AND 2024 NOTABLE BOOK
AN NPR FAVORITE READ OF 2024
“Peri’s joint biography is a thrilling, haunting yarn of the sort that the Scottish writer Robert Louis Stevenson himself became famous for—and couldn’t have written without his wife.” —The Atlantic
The extraordinary story of the creative and romantic partnership between Robert Louis Stevenson and his wife and muse, Fanny Van de Grift
He was an ambitious but drifting writer from a prominent Scottish family. She was a tough Nevada silver miner’s wife, with children, when they met. Who could have predicted that Fanny Van de Grift and Robert Louis Stevenson would go on to create one of history’s great literary marriages?
From their first encounter in France in 1876, Fanny and Louis’s partnership transcended societal expectations to become a literary union that was progressive, eccentric, and tempestuous, but always animated by a profound mutual respect. Seeking creative freedom, inspiration, and better health for Louis, who battled chronic illness, they embarked on a whirlwind journey around the world, from the bohemian enclaves of Europe to the shores of Samoa, where they lived and joined the native islanders’ fight for independence from imperialist powers. Amid the currents of their stormy yet deeply loving relationship, Fanny wrote colorful accounts of her life, contributed to Louis’s work and kept him alive to pen classic novels such as Treasure Island, Kidnapped, and The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde that would go on to resonate with generations of readers.
A portrait of two extraordinary people and a testament to the power of love to foster the human spirit, A Wilder Shore unfolds with all the richness and complexity of a timeless epic, capturing the resilience, courage, and devotion that sparked some of our most celebrated and enduring literary masterpieces.
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Critic reviews
“Engrossing . . . Fanny’s writing has received scant attention from previous Stevenson biographers but Peri, co-editor of the essay collection Mothers Who Think, accords it respect.”—The New York Times Book Review
“[Peri's] richly researched and vivid double portrait makes a convincing case that Fanny pulled off a rare feat, enabling Louis’s genius to mature while releasing his boyish energies . . . I am grateful to Peri for telling the story of their marriage, in all its complexity, with sympathy and spirit.”—Phyllis Rose, The Atlantic
“[A book] to lift your spirits . . . [Fanny's] support allowed Stevenson to write without distraction, and their circumvention of Victorian norms allowed for a marriage where love flourished.”—Washington Post
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- By: Alizah Holstein
- Narrated by: Alizah Holstein
- Length: 12 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
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From the time she first felt called to its gates as a high school student fascinated by Dante and Italian thanks to a life-changing teacher, Rome has been a fixed star around which Alizah Holstein’s life has rotated—despite the fact that she bears no Italian heritage, and has never lived there long enough to call it home. In this kaleidoscopic yet intimate memoir, her shifting relationship to a vibrant city layered with human history becomes a lens on why we look to the past, on the mysteries of affinity and desire, and on what it means to grow up.
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The long road to finding your calling
- By Cath on 12-15-24
By: Alizah Holstein
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Walk Through Walls
- A Memoir
- By: Marina Abramovic
- Narrated by: Marina Abramovic
- Length: 14 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
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In 2010 more than 750,000 people stood in line at Marina Abramović's MoMA retrospective for the chance to sit across from her and communicate with her nonverbally in an unprecedented durational performance that lasted more than 700 hours. This celebration of nearly 50 years of groundbreaking performance art demonstrated once again that Marina Abramović is truly a force of nature.
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Fascinating read
- By V. Ledovsky on 11-20-16
By: Marina Abramovic
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My Broken Language
- A Memoir
- By: Quiara Alegría Hudes
- Narrated by: Quiara Alegría Hudes
- Length: 10 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
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Quiara Alegría Hudes was the sharp-eyed girl on the stairs while her family danced their defiance in a tight North Philly kitchen. She was awed by her mother and aunts and cousins, but haunted by the unspoken, untold stories of the barrio — even as she tried to find her own voice in the sea of language around her, written and spoken, English and Spanish, bodies and books, Western art and sacred altars.
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A voice that needed to be heard
- By Juan C. Velandia on 04-08-21
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The Color of Everything
- A Journey to Quiet the Chaos Within
- By: Cory Richards
- Narrated by: Cory Richards
- Length: 11 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
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The Color of Everything is a thrilling tale of risk and adventure, written by a man who has done it all: he’s stood at the top of the world, climbed imposing mountain faces alone in the dark and become the only American to summit an 8,000-meter peak in winter. But it is also the story of a tumultuous life--a stirring, lyrical memoir that captures the profound musings of a brilliant and unquiet mind grappling with the meaning of success, the cost of fame, addiction, and whether it is possible to outrun your demons.
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Best book in this genre since Into Thin Air
- By E. Vaughan on 12-04-24
By: Cory Richards
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Nothing's Bad Luck
- The Lives of Warren Zevon
- By: C. M. Kushins
- Narrated by: Fleet Cooper
- Length: 16 hrs
- Unabridged
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As is the case with so many musicians, the life of Warren Zevon was blessed with talent and opportunity yet also beset by tragedy and setbacks. Raised mostly by his mother with an occasional cameo from his gangster father, Warren had an affinity and talent for music at an early age. After an impromptu performance in the right place at the right time, a record deal landed on the lap of a teenager who was eager to set out on his own and make a name for himself. But of course, where fame is concerned, things are never quite so simple.
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Great Content ......but
- By Art Lover on 06-26-19
By: C. M. Kushins
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Good Things Out of Nazareth
- The Uncollected Letters of Flannery O'Connor and Friends
- By: Flannery O'Connor, Ben Alexander
- Narrated by: John H. Mayer, Dorothy Dillingham Blue, full cast
- Length: 14 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
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A literary treasure of over 100 unpublished letters from National Book Award-winning author Flannery O'Connor and her circle of extraordinary friends. Flannery O’Connor is a master of 20th-century American fiction, joining, since her untimely death in 1964, the likes of Hawthorne, Hemingway, and Faulkner. Those familiar with her work know that her powerful ethical vision was rooted in a quiet, devout faith and informed all she wrote and did.
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this narrator's faux southern accent is abominable
- By Tnarg Yrat on 11-10-19
By: Flannery O'Connor, and others
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It Starts with One
- The Legend and Legacy of Linkin Park
- By: Jason Lipshutz
- Narrated by: Jason Lipshutz, James Fouhey, Helen Laser
- Length: 11 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Story
Linkin Park is one of the 21st Century’s biggest, and most important, rock bands. All it takes is one quick glance at the numbers—11 Top 40 hits on the Hot 100 and six No. 1 albums on the Billboard 200, over a dozen massive tours, 27 major award wins, 100+ million records sold worldwide, over 30 million monthly Spotify listeners—to realize that when it comes to the metrics of music consumption and fandom, there’s no bigger group in recent memory. And yet, despite their enduring legacy within rock, there’s never been a full, comprehensive biography of Linkin Park—until now.
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Enjoyed hearing Linkin Parks Story
- By Daniel Pappalardo on 10-03-24
By: Jason Lipshutz
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Overtime
- Jim Harbaugh and the Michigan Wolverines at the Crossroads of College Football
- By: John U. Bacon
- Narrated by: Johnny Heller
- Length: 11 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
For the past year, John U. Bacon has received unprecedented access to Jim Harbaugh’s University of Michigan football team: coaches, players, and staffers, in closed-door meetings, locker rooms, meals, and classes. Overtime captures this storied program at the crossroads, as the sport’s winningest team battles to reclaim its former glory. But what if the price of success today comes at the cost of your soul? Do you pay it, or compete without compromising?
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Good story.... but
- By Amazon Customer on 10-07-19
By: John U. Bacon
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Alice
- Alice Roosevelt Longworth, from White House Princess to Washington Power Broker
- By: Stacy A. Cordery
- Narrated by: Alex Picard
- Length: 19 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
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From the moment Teddy Roosevelt's outrageous and charming teenage daughter strode into the White House—carrying a snake and dangling a cigarette—the outspoken Alice began to put her imprint on the whole of the twentieth-century political scene. Her barbed tongue was as infamous as her scandalous personal life, but whenever she talked, powerful people listened, and she reigned for eight decades as the social doyenne in a town where socializing was state business.
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Interesting but sometimes infuriating
- By Info Seeker on 05-16-23
By: Stacy A. Cordery
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Soil
- The Story of a Black Mother's Garden
- By: Camille T. Dungy
- Narrated by: Camille T. Dungy
- Length: 10 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
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In Soil: The Story of a Black Mother’s Garden poet and scholar Camille T. Dungy recounts the seven-year odyssey to diversify her garden in the predominantly white community of Fort Collins, Colorado. When she moved there in 2013, with her husband and daughter, the community held strict restrictions about what residents could and could not plant in their gardens.
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Like medicine...
- By Broderek on 06-17-23
By: Camille T. Dungy
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I Just Keep Talking
- A Life in Essays
- By: Nell Irvin Painter
- Narrated by: Nell Irvin Painter
- Length: 17 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
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From the New York Times bestselling author of The History of White People and Old in Art School, a finalist for the NBCC Award, comes a comprehensive new collection of essays spanning art, politics, and the legacy of racism that shapes American history as we know it. These essays resist easy answers in favor of complexity, the inescapable sense of our country’s potential thwarted by its failures. This collection will surely solidify Painter’s place among the finest critics and writers of the last half century.
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Author reader
- By K D S on 07-11-24
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Kingmaker
- Pamela Harriman's Astonishing Life of Power, Seduction, and Intrigue
- By: Sonia Purnell
- Narrated by: Louise Brealey
- Length: 16 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
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When Pamela Churchill Harriman died in 1997, the obituaries that followed were predictably scathing–and many were downright sexist. Written off as a mere courtesan and social climber, her true legacy was overshadowed by a glamorous social life and her infamous erotic adventures. Much of what she did behind the scenes–on both sides of the Atlantic–remained invisible and secret. That is, until now: with a wealth of fresh research, interviews and newly discovered sources, Sonia Purnell unveils for the first time the full, spectacular story of how she left an indelible mark on the world today.
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Pamela reigns! But.....
- By Lucy Johnson on 11-30-24
By: Sonia Purnell
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Lab Girl
- A Memoir
- By: Hope Jahren
- Narrated by: Hope Jahren
- Length: 11 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
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Acclaimed scientist Hope Jahren has built three laboratories in which she's studied trees, flowers, seeds, and soil. Her first book might have been a revelatory treatise on plant life. Lab Girl is that, but it is also so much more. Because in it, Jahren also shares with us her inspiring life story, in prose that takes your breath away.
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A paradigm-shifting perspective on plant life
- By Elizabeth on 05-20-16
By: Hope Jahren
Fascinating story; annoying narration
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Rocks in the Road
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Annoying reader
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Interesting book, annoying reader.
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if you are looking for an enjoyable read that leaves you finding reflections of your life in their afair, then this is your choice.
wild wilder
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I think the narrator does pretty well with the various accents she adopts to distinguish characters but at times her narration was a little flat. This did not detract from the story in any way.
Bottom line: stellar life stories, swashbuckling accents, more Fanny please!
A True Love Story And Wild Adventure
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Fascinating life of Louis and Fannie
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Fairly interesting
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I’m unsure which Stevenson I love more
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