Babbitt
Failed to add items
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Buy for $17.90
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
-
Narrated by:
-
Grover Gardner
-
By:
-
Sinclair Lewis
About this listen
On the surface, everything is all right with Babbitt’s world of the solid, successful businessman. But in reality, George F. Babbitt is a lonely, middle-aged man. He doesn’t understand his family, has an unsuccessful attempt at an affair, and is almost financially ruined when he dares to voice sympathy for some striking workers. Babbitt finds that his only safety lies deep in the fold of those who play it safe. He is a man who has added a new word to our language: a “Babbitt,” meaning someone who conforms unthinkingly, a sheep.
Public Domain (P)2011 Blackstone Audio, Inc.Listeners also enjoyed...
-
Arrowsmith
- By: Sinclair Lewis
- Narrated by: John McDonough
- Length: 20 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Martin Arrowsmith is fascinated by science and medicine. As a boy, he immerses himself in Gray’s Anatomy. In medical school, he soaks up knowledge from his mentor, a renowned bacteriologist. But soon he is urged to focus on politics and promotions rather than his research. Even as Martin progresses from doctor to public health official and noted pathologist, he still yearns to devote his time to pure science.
-
-
Still Relevant
- By Forrest on 02-26-12
By: Sinclair Lewis
-
Main Street (Annotated): 100th Anniversary Edition
- By: Sinclair Lewis
- Narrated by: Kitty Hendrix
- Length: 19 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A biting satire that countered the American myth of wholesome small-town life with a depiction of narrow-minded provincialism, it was to some degree based on Lewis's own experience of growing on Sauk Centre, Minnesota. Set in mid-1910s, it depicts the struggles of Carol Kennicott, a city girl, as she tries to adapt to small town life, having left her librarian job and St. Paul, Minnesota to marry Dr. Will Kennicott of Gopher Prairie. Dismayed by the town’s drabness and the conforming, petty inhabitants, Carol optimistically sets out to improve the town.
-
-
What Are Your Assumptions About Yourself & Others
- By Benny Fife on 02-06-20
By: Sinclair Lewis
-
Elmer Gantry
- By: Sinclair Lewis
- Narrated by: Anthony Heald
- Length: 15 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A greedy, philandering Baptist minister, Elmer Gantry turns to evangelism and becomes the leader of a large Methodist congregation. Often exposed as a fraud, he is never fully discredited. Elmer Gantry is considered a landmark American novel and one of the most penetrating studies of hypocrisy in modern literature. It portrays the evangelistic activity that was common in 1920s America as well as attitudes toward it.
-
-
Halleluja, Brother Lewis!
- By Erez on 12-09-08
By: Sinclair Lewis
-
It Can't Happen Here
- By: Sinclair Lewis
- Narrated by: Grover Gardner
- Length: 14 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Doremus Jessup, a newspaper editor, is dismayed to find that many of the people he knows support presidential candidate Berzelius Windrip. The suspiciously fascist Windrip is offering to save the nation from sex, crime, welfare cheats, and a liberal press. But after Windrip wins the election, dissent soon becomes dangerous for Jessup. Windrip forcibly gains control of Congress and the Supreme Court and, with the aid of his personal paramilitary storm troopers, turns the United States into a totalitarian state.
-
-
The Rise of American Authoritarianism
- By David S. Mathew on 11-21-16
By: Sinclair Lewis
-
Dodsworth
- By: Sinclair Lewis
- Narrated by: Grover Gardner
- Length: 13 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Meet Sam Dodsworth, an amiable 50-year-old millionaire and "American Captain of Industry, believing in the Republican Party, high tariffs, and, so long as they did not annoy him personally, in Prohibition and the Episcopal Church". Dodsworth runs an auto manufacturing firm, but his beautiful wife, Fran, obsessed with the notion that she is growing old, persuades him to sell his interest in the company and take her to Europe.
-
-
A Very Good Novel About 1920s America and Europe
- By Frank Donnelly on 08-17-20
By: Sinclair Lewis
-
Main Street
- By: Sinclair Lewis
- Narrated by: Lloyd James
- Length: 18 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This famous satire of life on Main Street, Gopher Prairie, mirrors with devastating honesty life on Main Streets from Albany to San Diego.
-
-
Lost on me
- By Ray on 03-23-13
By: Sinclair Lewis
-
Arrowsmith
- By: Sinclair Lewis
- Narrated by: John McDonough
- Length: 20 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Martin Arrowsmith is fascinated by science and medicine. As a boy, he immerses himself in Gray’s Anatomy. In medical school, he soaks up knowledge from his mentor, a renowned bacteriologist. But soon he is urged to focus on politics and promotions rather than his research. Even as Martin progresses from doctor to public health official and noted pathologist, he still yearns to devote his time to pure science.
-
-
Still Relevant
- By Forrest on 02-26-12
By: Sinclair Lewis
-
Main Street (Annotated): 100th Anniversary Edition
- By: Sinclair Lewis
- Narrated by: Kitty Hendrix
- Length: 19 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A biting satire that countered the American myth of wholesome small-town life with a depiction of narrow-minded provincialism, it was to some degree based on Lewis's own experience of growing on Sauk Centre, Minnesota. Set in mid-1910s, it depicts the struggles of Carol Kennicott, a city girl, as she tries to adapt to small town life, having left her librarian job and St. Paul, Minnesota to marry Dr. Will Kennicott of Gopher Prairie. Dismayed by the town’s drabness and the conforming, petty inhabitants, Carol optimistically sets out to improve the town.
-
-
What Are Your Assumptions About Yourself & Others
- By Benny Fife on 02-06-20
By: Sinclair Lewis
-
Elmer Gantry
- By: Sinclair Lewis
- Narrated by: Anthony Heald
- Length: 15 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A greedy, philandering Baptist minister, Elmer Gantry turns to evangelism and becomes the leader of a large Methodist congregation. Often exposed as a fraud, he is never fully discredited. Elmer Gantry is considered a landmark American novel and one of the most penetrating studies of hypocrisy in modern literature. It portrays the evangelistic activity that was common in 1920s America as well as attitudes toward it.
-
-
Halleluja, Brother Lewis!
- By Erez on 12-09-08
By: Sinclair Lewis
-
It Can't Happen Here
- By: Sinclair Lewis
- Narrated by: Grover Gardner
- Length: 14 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Doremus Jessup, a newspaper editor, is dismayed to find that many of the people he knows support presidential candidate Berzelius Windrip. The suspiciously fascist Windrip is offering to save the nation from sex, crime, welfare cheats, and a liberal press. But after Windrip wins the election, dissent soon becomes dangerous for Jessup. Windrip forcibly gains control of Congress and the Supreme Court and, with the aid of his personal paramilitary storm troopers, turns the United States into a totalitarian state.
-
-
The Rise of American Authoritarianism
- By David S. Mathew on 11-21-16
By: Sinclair Lewis
-
Dodsworth
- By: Sinclair Lewis
- Narrated by: Grover Gardner
- Length: 13 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Meet Sam Dodsworth, an amiable 50-year-old millionaire and "American Captain of Industry, believing in the Republican Party, high tariffs, and, so long as they did not annoy him personally, in Prohibition and the Episcopal Church". Dodsworth runs an auto manufacturing firm, but his beautiful wife, Fran, obsessed with the notion that she is growing old, persuades him to sell his interest in the company and take her to Europe.
-
-
A Very Good Novel About 1920s America and Europe
- By Frank Donnelly on 08-17-20
By: Sinclair Lewis
-
Main Street
- By: Sinclair Lewis
- Narrated by: Lloyd James
- Length: 18 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This famous satire of life on Main Street, Gopher Prairie, mirrors with devastating honesty life on Main Streets from Albany to San Diego.
-
-
Lost on me
- By Ray on 03-23-13
By: Sinclair Lewis
-
Babbitt (Dramatized)
- By: Sinclair Lewis
- Narrated by: Ed Asner, Ed Begley Jr., Ted Danson, and others
- Length: 12 hrs and 29 mins
- Abridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This epic of the booming 20's captures the relentless culture of American business. A classic novel about conformity in small town America - celebrated for its comic tone, statire, and vivid dialogue. L.A. Theatre Works, then a fledgling radio theatre company, completed Babbitt in 1989. This production was so well received that L.A. Theatre Works has since become the world's premiere radio theatre company.
-
-
American satire
- By Hal on 01-13-09
By: Sinclair Lewis
-
The End of the Affair
- By: Graham Greene
- Narrated by: Colin Firth
- Length: 6 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Graham Greene’s evocative analysis of the love of self, the love of another, and the love of God is an English classic that has been translated for the stage, the screen, and even the opera house. Academy Award-winning actor Colin Firth (The King’s Speech, A Single Man) turns in an authentic and stirring performance for this distinguished audio release.
-
-
Colin Firth Kills It
- By Em on 05-09-12
By: Graham Greene
-
The Winter of Our Discontent
- By: John Steinbeck
- Narrated by: David Aaron Baker
- Length: 10 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The final novel of one of America’s most beloved writers - a tale of degeneration, corruption, and spiritual crisis. A Penguin Classic In awarding John Steinbeck the 1962 Nobel Prize in Literature, the Nobel committee stated that with The Winter of Our Discontent, he had “resumed his position as an independent expounder of the truth, with an unbiased instinct for what is genuinely American". Ethan Allen Hawley, the protagonist of Steinbeck’s last novel, works as a clerk in a grocery store that his family once owned.
-
-
Memorable characters, great narration, POOR AUDIO
- By Sam D. on 05-18-16
By: John Steinbeck
-
The Martian Chronicles
- By: Ray Bradbury
- Narrated by: Mark Boyett
- Length: 7 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Bradbury's Mars is a place of hope, dreams, and metaphor - of crystal pillars and fossil seas - where a fine dust settles on the great, empty cities of a silently destroyed civilization. It is here the invaders have come to despoil and commercialize, to grow and to learn - first a trickle, then a torrent, rushing from a world with no future toward a promise of tomorrow. The Earthman conquers Mars...and then is conquered by it, lulled by dangerous lies of comfort and familiarity, and enchanted by the lingering glamour of an ancient, mysterious native race.
-
-
The Original. Great Stories, Great Narrator.
- By Troy on 04-05-16
By: Ray Bradbury
-
Waterloo
- The History of Four Days, Three Armies, and Three Battles
- By: Bernard Cornwell
- Narrated by: Bernard Cornwell, Dugald Bruce Lockhart
- Length: 8 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From the New York Times best-selling author comes the definitive history of one of the greatest battles ever fought - a riveting nonfiction chronicle published to commemorate the two-hundredth anniversary of Napoleon's last stand.
-
-
Not a close run thing!
- By carl801 on 05-13-15
By: Bernard Cornwell
-
The Unbearable Lightness of Being
- A Novel
- By: Milan Kundera, Michael Henry Heim - translator
- Narrated by: Richmond Hoxie
- Length: 9 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A young woman is in love with a successful surgeon, a man torn between his love for her and his incorrigible womanizing. His mistress, a free-spirited artist, lives her life as a series of betrayals—while her other lover, earnest, faithful, and good, stands to lose everything because of his noble qualities. In a world where lives are shaped by irrevocable choices and fortuitous events, and everything occurs but once, existence seems to lose its substance, its weight. Hence we feel “the unbearable lightness of being."
-
-
Love, Politics, and Strange Bedfellows
- By Mel on 07-01-12
By: Milan Kundera, and others
-
Oil!
- By: Upton Sinclair
- Narrated by: Grover Gardner
- Length: 19 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
As he did so masterfully in The Jungle, Pulitzer Prize-winning author Upton Sinclair interweaves social criticism with human tragedy to create an unforgettable portrait of Southern California's early oil industry. Enraged by the oil scandals of the Harding administration in the 1920s, Sinclair tells a gripping tale of avarice, corruption, and class warfare, featuring a cavalcade of characters, including senators, oil magnates, Hollywood film starlets, and a crusading evangelist.
-
-
an outstanding book
- By Gregory on 05-18-08
By: Upton Sinclair
-
Botticelli's Secret
- The Lost Drawings and the Rediscovery of the Renaissance
- By: Joseph Luzzi
- Narrated by: Keith Szarabajka
- Length: 6 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Some 500 years ago, Sandro Botticelli, a painter of humble origin, created work of unearthly beauty. An intimate associate of Florence’s unofficial rulers, the Medici, he was commissioned by a member of their family to execute a near-impossible project: to illustrate all 100 cantos of The Divine Comedy by the city’s greatest poet, Dante Alighieri. A powerful encounter between poet and artist, sacred and secular, earthly and evanescent, these drawings produced a wealth of stunning images but were never finished.
-
-
Great story
- By Chris M on 12-09-22
By: Joseph Luzzi
-
The Path to Power
- The Years of Lyndon Johnson
- By: Robert A. Caro
- Narrated by: Grover Gardner
- Length: 40 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This is the story of the rise to national power of a desperately poor young man from the Texas Hill Country. The Path to Power reveals in extraordinary detail the genesis of the almost superhuman drive, energy, and ambition that set LBJ apart. It follows him from the Hill Country to New Deal Washington, from his boyhood through the years of the Depression to his debut as Congressman, his heartbreaking defeat in his first race for the Senate, and his attainment, nonetheless, at age 31, of the national power for which he hungered.
-
-
The Best of all Biographies
- By David C. Daggett on 12-14-13
By: Robert A. Caro
-
The Adventures of Augie March
- By: Saul Bellow
- Narrated by: Tom Parker
- Length: 22 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Augie is a poor but exuberant boy growing up in Chicago during the Depression. While his friends all settle into chosen professions, Augie demands a special destiny. He tests out a wild succession of occupations, proudly rejecting each as too limiting - until he tangles with the glamorous perfectionist Thea.
-
-
THAT part of the Universe visible from Chicago!
- By Darwin8u on 05-09-12
By: Saul Bellow
-
All the King's Men
- By: Robert Penn Warren
- Narrated by: Michael Emerson
- Length: 20 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The fictionalized account of Louisiana's colorful and notorious governor, Huey Pierce Long, All the King's Men follows the startling rise and fall of Willie Stark, a country lawyer in the Deep South of the 1930s. Beset by political enemies, Stark seeks aid from his right-hand man Jack Burden, who will bear witness to the cataclysmic unfolding of this very American tragedy.
-
-
Beautifully presented
- By Cheimon on 10-12-08
-
The Caine Mutiny
- By: Herman Wouk
- Narrated by: Kevin Pariseau
- Length: 26 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Having inspired a classic film and Broadway play, The Caine Mutiny is Herman Wouk's boldly dramatic, brilliantly entertaining novel of life—and mutiny—on a Navy warship in the Pacific theater. It was immediately embraced upon its original publication as one of the first serious works of American fiction to grapple with the moral complexities and the human consequences of the Second World War. In the intervening half century, this gripping story has become a perennial favorite, selling millions throughout the world, and claiming the Pulitzer Prize for fiction.
-
-
Even Better than the Movie
- By James on 06-20-12
By: Herman Wouk
Critic reviews
Related to this topic
-
Babbitt
- By: Sinclair Lewis
- Narrated by: David Colacci
- Length: 13 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In this sardonic portrait of the up-and-coming middle class during the prosperous 1920s, Sinclair Lewis perfectly captures the sound, the feel, and the attitudes of the generation that created the cult of consumerism. With a sharp eye for detail and keen powers of observation, Lewis tracks successful realtor George Babbitt's daily struggles to rise to the top of his profession while maintaining his reputation as an upstanding family man.
-
-
Makes You Think
- By E. Pearson on 02-21-13
By: Sinclair Lewis
-
Main Street
- By: Sinclair Lewis
- Narrated by: Brian Emerson
- Length: 16 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The lonely predicament of Carol Kennicott, caught between her desires for social reform and individual happiness, reflects the position in which America's turn-of-the-century "emancipated woman" found herself.
-
-
Time for a classic
- By Maureen on 10-21-09
By: Sinclair Lewis
-
The 42nd Parallel
- By: John Dos Passos
- Narrated by: David Drummond
- Length: 13 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This first entry in John Dos Passos's celebrated U.S.A. trilogy paints a grand picture of the United States at the dawn of the twentieth century.
-
-
Powerful document of an all-too-familiar past
- By Ryan on 06-01-13
By: John Dos Passos
-
Marjorie Morningstar
- By: Herman Wouk
- Narrated by: Gabra Zackman
- Length: 28 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Marjorie Morningstar is a love story. It presents one of the greatest characters in modern fiction: Marjorie, the pretty 17-year-old who left the respectability of New York's Central Park West to join the theater, live in the teeming streets of Greenwich Village, and seek love in the arms of a brilliant, enigmatic writer.
-
-
Great story with really cheesy narration
- By James on 05-05-12
By: Herman Wouk
-
Mildred Pierce
- By: James M. Cain
- Narrated by: Christine Williams
- Length: 10 hrs
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Mildred Pierce had gorgeous legs, a way with a skillet, and a bone-deep core of toughness and determination. She used those attributes to survive a divorce in 1940s America with two children and to claw her way out of poverty, becoming a successful businesswoman. But Mildred also had two weaknesses: a yen for shiftless men and an unreasoning devotion to her monstrous daughter.
-
-
Mildred -- you pierce my heart
- By P. Giorgio on 03-11-11
By: James M. Cain
-
Around the World with Auntie Mame
- By: Patrick Dennis
- Narrated by: Christopher Lane
- Length: 10 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Encore, Encore! The brilliant sequel to the smash bestseller Auntie Mame is back and the reviews are in....
-
-
A classic!
- By Miss Right on 03-22-22
By: Patrick Dennis
-
Babbitt
- By: Sinclair Lewis
- Narrated by: David Colacci
- Length: 13 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In this sardonic portrait of the up-and-coming middle class during the prosperous 1920s, Sinclair Lewis perfectly captures the sound, the feel, and the attitudes of the generation that created the cult of consumerism. With a sharp eye for detail and keen powers of observation, Lewis tracks successful realtor George Babbitt's daily struggles to rise to the top of his profession while maintaining his reputation as an upstanding family man.
-
-
Makes You Think
- By E. Pearson on 02-21-13
By: Sinclair Lewis
-
Main Street
- By: Sinclair Lewis
- Narrated by: Brian Emerson
- Length: 16 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The lonely predicament of Carol Kennicott, caught between her desires for social reform and individual happiness, reflects the position in which America's turn-of-the-century "emancipated woman" found herself.
-
-
Time for a classic
- By Maureen on 10-21-09
By: Sinclair Lewis
-
The 42nd Parallel
- By: John Dos Passos
- Narrated by: David Drummond
- Length: 13 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This first entry in John Dos Passos's celebrated U.S.A. trilogy paints a grand picture of the United States at the dawn of the twentieth century.
-
-
Powerful document of an all-too-familiar past
- By Ryan on 06-01-13
By: John Dos Passos
-
Marjorie Morningstar
- By: Herman Wouk
- Narrated by: Gabra Zackman
- Length: 28 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Marjorie Morningstar is a love story. It presents one of the greatest characters in modern fiction: Marjorie, the pretty 17-year-old who left the respectability of New York's Central Park West to join the theater, live in the teeming streets of Greenwich Village, and seek love in the arms of a brilliant, enigmatic writer.
-
-
Great story with really cheesy narration
- By James on 05-05-12
By: Herman Wouk
-
Mildred Pierce
- By: James M. Cain
- Narrated by: Christine Williams
- Length: 10 hrs
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Mildred Pierce had gorgeous legs, a way with a skillet, and a bone-deep core of toughness and determination. She used those attributes to survive a divorce in 1940s America with two children and to claw her way out of poverty, becoming a successful businesswoman. But Mildred also had two weaknesses: a yen for shiftless men and an unreasoning devotion to her monstrous daughter.
-
-
Mildred -- you pierce my heart
- By P. Giorgio on 03-11-11
By: James M. Cain
-
Around the World with Auntie Mame
- By: Patrick Dennis
- Narrated by: Christopher Lane
- Length: 10 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Encore, Encore! The brilliant sequel to the smash bestseller Auntie Mame is back and the reviews are in....
-
-
A classic!
- By Miss Right on 03-22-22
By: Patrick Dennis
-
Welcome to the Monkey House
- By: Kurt Vonnegut
- Narrated by: David Strathairn, Maria Tucci, Bill Irwin, and others
- Length: 11 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Welcome to the Monkey House is a collection of Kurt Vonnegut's shorter works. Originally printed in publications as diverse as The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction and The Atlantic Monthly, what these superb stories share is Vonnegut's audacious sense of humor and extraordinary range of creative vision.
-
-
Classic Vonnegut
- By Michael Carrato on 08-17-06
By: Kurt Vonnegut
-
Player Piano
- By: Kurt Vonnegut
- Narrated by: Christian Rummel
- Length: 11 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Kurt Vonnegut's first novel spins the chilling tale of engineer Paul Proteus, who must find a way to live in a world dominated by a supercomputer and run completely by machines. Paul's rebellion is vintage Vonnegut – wildly funny, deadly serious, and terrifyingly close to reality.
-
-
A Genuine 5-Stars
- By R.A. on 06-07-19
By: Kurt Vonnegut
-
Appointment in Samarra
- Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition
- By: John O'Hara, Charles McGrath - introduction
- Narrated by: Christian Camargo
- Length: 6 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In December 1930, just before Christmas, the Gibbsville, Pennsylvania, social circuit is electrified with parties and dances. At the center of the social elite stand Julian and Caroline English. But in one rash moment born inside a highball glass, Julian breaks with polite society and begins a rapid descent toward self-destruction.
-
-
Quite good, but not a classic
- By Michael on 04-25-15
By: John O'Hara, and others
-
The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz
- By: Mordecai Richler
- Narrated by: David Julian Hirsh
- Length: 10 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Duddy - the third generation of a Jewish immigrant family in Montreal - is combative, amoral, scheming, a liar, and totally hilarious. From his street days tormenting teachers at the Jewish academy to his time hustling four jobs at once in a grand plan to "be somebody", Duddy learns about living - and the lesson is an outrageous roller-coaster ride through the human comedy.
-
-
OK but a bit disappointing; weak narration
- By Merlin on 05-12-17
By: Mordecai Richler
-
Peyton Place
- By: Grace Metalious
- Narrated by: Tim O'Connor
- Length: 16 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In 1956, when this novel was first published, communities all over New England snapped up copies to see if they were the town portrayed in the book. Peyton Place is the story of a repressive New England town known for its high standards of public morality, and the steamy sexual activities that take place behind its bedroom doors.
-
-
Best book I've read to date!
- By Crusader on 11-07-11
By: Grace Metalious
-
Go Set a Watchman
- A Novel
- By: Harper Lee
- Narrated by: Reese Witherspoon
- Length: 6 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
An historic literary event: the publication of a newly discovered novel, the earliest known work from Harper Lee, the beloved, best-selling author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning classic To Kill a Mockingbird. Originally written in the mid-1950s, Go Set a Watchman was the novel Harper Lee first submitted to her publishers before To Kill a Mockingbird. Assumed to have been lost, the manuscript was discovered in late 2014.
-
-
To Kill A Mockingbird vs Go Set A Watchman
- By Sara on 07-15-15
By: Harper Lee
-
Miss Lonelyhearts
- By: Nathanael West
- Narrated by: L. J. Ganser, Kevin Pariseau
- Length: 2 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Miss Lonelyhearts is an unnamed male newspaper columnist writing an advice column, which is viewed by the newspaper as a joke. As "Miss Lonelyhearts" reads letters from desperate New Yorkers, he feels terribly burdened and falls into a cycle of deep depression, accompanied by heavy drinking and occasional barfights. The novel is essentially a black comedy and is characterized by an extremely dark but clever sense of humor and irony.
-
-
Charged with Meaning, and Far Leftist Leaning
- By W Perry Hall on 01-27-16
By: Nathanael West
-
The Turmoil
- By: Booth Tarkington
- Narrated by: Harry Shaw
- Length: 9 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Bigger, newer, faster. Demolish and rebuild, then demolish and rebuild again. Smoke, soot, and noise are the badges of prosperity, and growth is for growth's sake.
-
-
Fast and heartwarming
- By dfjord on 08-06-24
By: Booth Tarkington
-
The P.G. Wodehouse Collection
- By: P. G. Wodehouse
- Narrated by: B. J. Harrison
- Length: 15 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This title includes not only the entire audiobook of Right Ho, Jeeves, but also all of the P.G. Wodehouse titles in the current Classic Tales library. It also includes a Jeeves short story only available in the collection: "Extricating Young Gussie". The complete running time is over 15 hours. All titles have been remastered, and have never sounded better!
-
-
Don't buy this version of the wonderful Wodehouse stories
- By K Bell on 11-05-16
By: P. G. Wodehouse
-
The Great Gatsby
- By: F. Scott Fitzgerald
- Narrated by: Tim Robbins
- Length: 5 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Set against a backdrop of jazz music, bootlegging, and lavish parties, The Great Gatsby is the story of Midwesterner Nick Carraway’s curious introduction to the decadent world of his mysterious, wealthy neighbor Jay Gatsby, whose thirst for riches is matched only by his tragic obsession with the beautiful Daisy Buchanan. This dangerously propulsive tale of glitz and glamour continues to be relevant as listeners long for escapist novels—a chance to flee into Gatsby’s famed mansion and lose oneself in the rush of opulence.
-
-
Alive and Wild! I finished it same day.
- By Brea DeMarquee on 08-27-21
-
Children Playing Before a Statue of Hercules (Unabridged Selections)
- By: Edited by David Sedaris
- Narrated by: David Sedaris, Mary-Louise Parker, Cherry Jones
- Length: 2 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Children Playing Before a Statue of Hercules is a collection of short stories, some classic, others impending, selected and introduced by David Sedaris.
-
-
Great stories but only 5 of 17 are included
- By Terri Kirk on 07-13-12
-
Humboldt's Gift
- By: Saul Bellow
- Narrated by: Christopher Hurt
- Length: 18 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
For years, they were the best of friends: the grand, erratic Humboldt and the ambitious young Charlie. But now Humboldt has died a failure, and Charlie's success-ridden life has taken various turns for the worse. Then Humboldt acts from the grave to change Charlie's life: he has left Charlie something in his will.
-
-
Great Book, Great Reader
- By Scott on 05-10-08
By: Saul Bellow
People who viewed this also viewed...
-
It Can't Happen Here
- By: Sinclair Lewis
- Narrated by: Grover Gardner
- Length: 14 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Doremus Jessup, a newspaper editor, is dismayed to find that many of the people he knows support presidential candidate Berzelius Windrip. The suspiciously fascist Windrip is offering to save the nation from sex, crime, welfare cheats, and a liberal press. But after Windrip wins the election, dissent soon becomes dangerous for Jessup. Windrip forcibly gains control of Congress and the Supreme Court and, with the aid of his personal paramilitary storm troopers, turns the United States into a totalitarian state.
-
-
The Rise of American Authoritarianism
- By David S. Mathew on 11-21-16
By: Sinclair Lewis
-
Babbitt
- By: Sinclair Lewis
- Narrated by: Flo Gibson
- Length: 11 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This classic satirical novel portrays Babbitt as a materialistic, hypocritical, and self-important middle-aged realtor. His brief romantic encounter and an attempt at liberalism are curbed by fear of criticism, forcing him to conform to the wills of his fellow citizens and club members.
By: Sinclair Lewis
-
Main Street
- By: Sinclair Lewis
- Narrated by: Lloyd James
- Length: 18 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This famous satire of life on Main Street, Gopher Prairie, mirrors with devastating honesty life on Main Streets from Albany to San Diego.
-
-
Lost on me
- By Ray on 03-23-13
By: Sinclair Lewis
-
Main Street (Annotated): 100th Anniversary Edition
- By: Sinclair Lewis
- Narrated by: Kitty Hendrix
- Length: 19 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A biting satire that countered the American myth of wholesome small-town life with a depiction of narrow-minded provincialism, it was to some degree based on Lewis's own experience of growing on Sauk Centre, Minnesota. Set in mid-1910s, it depicts the struggles of Carol Kennicott, a city girl, as she tries to adapt to small town life, having left her librarian job and St. Paul, Minnesota to marry Dr. Will Kennicott of Gopher Prairie. Dismayed by the town’s drabness and the conforming, petty inhabitants, Carol optimistically sets out to improve the town.
-
-
What Are Your Assumptions About Yourself & Others
- By Benny Fife on 02-06-20
By: Sinclair Lewis
-
Arrowsmith
- By: Sinclair Lewis
- Narrated by: John McDonough
- Length: 20 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Martin Arrowsmith is fascinated by science and medicine. As a boy, he immerses himself in Gray’s Anatomy. In medical school, he soaks up knowledge from his mentor, a renowned bacteriologist. But soon he is urged to focus on politics and promotions rather than his research. Even as Martin progresses from doctor to public health official and noted pathologist, he still yearns to devote his time to pure science.
-
-
Still Relevant
- By Forrest on 02-26-12
By: Sinclair Lewis
-
Babbitt
- By: Sinclair Lewis
- Narrated by: George Guidall
- Length: 14 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
With his breathtaking social insight and his graceful sentences, Sinclair Lewis—a Pulitzer and Nobel Prize winner—stands out as one of the most important American writers of the 20th century. At turns lyrically soul-searching and scathing in its honesty, Babbitt captures the essence of the 1920s while remaining a timeless piece of literature. Babbitt, the ultimate conformist and social climber, seeks power in his community and self-esteem from others. Outwardly, he is the ultimate “big booster,” and he toes the company line with “zip and zowie.”
-
-
An outstanding story and performance
- By AZAZ on 10-18-24
By: Sinclair Lewis
-
It Can't Happen Here
- By: Sinclair Lewis
- Narrated by: Grover Gardner
- Length: 14 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Doremus Jessup, a newspaper editor, is dismayed to find that many of the people he knows support presidential candidate Berzelius Windrip. The suspiciously fascist Windrip is offering to save the nation from sex, crime, welfare cheats, and a liberal press. But after Windrip wins the election, dissent soon becomes dangerous for Jessup. Windrip forcibly gains control of Congress and the Supreme Court and, with the aid of his personal paramilitary storm troopers, turns the United States into a totalitarian state.
-
-
The Rise of American Authoritarianism
- By David S. Mathew on 11-21-16
By: Sinclair Lewis
-
Babbitt
- By: Sinclair Lewis
- Narrated by: Flo Gibson
- Length: 11 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This classic satirical novel portrays Babbitt as a materialistic, hypocritical, and self-important middle-aged realtor. His brief romantic encounter and an attempt at liberalism are curbed by fear of criticism, forcing him to conform to the wills of his fellow citizens and club members.
By: Sinclair Lewis
-
Main Street
- By: Sinclair Lewis
- Narrated by: Lloyd James
- Length: 18 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This famous satire of life on Main Street, Gopher Prairie, mirrors with devastating honesty life on Main Streets from Albany to San Diego.
-
-
Lost on me
- By Ray on 03-23-13
By: Sinclair Lewis
-
Main Street (Annotated): 100th Anniversary Edition
- By: Sinclair Lewis
- Narrated by: Kitty Hendrix
- Length: 19 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A biting satire that countered the American myth of wholesome small-town life with a depiction of narrow-minded provincialism, it was to some degree based on Lewis's own experience of growing on Sauk Centre, Minnesota. Set in mid-1910s, it depicts the struggles of Carol Kennicott, a city girl, as she tries to adapt to small town life, having left her librarian job and St. Paul, Minnesota to marry Dr. Will Kennicott of Gopher Prairie. Dismayed by the town’s drabness and the conforming, petty inhabitants, Carol optimistically sets out to improve the town.
-
-
What Are Your Assumptions About Yourself & Others
- By Benny Fife on 02-06-20
By: Sinclair Lewis
-
Arrowsmith
- By: Sinclair Lewis
- Narrated by: John McDonough
- Length: 20 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Martin Arrowsmith is fascinated by science and medicine. As a boy, he immerses himself in Gray’s Anatomy. In medical school, he soaks up knowledge from his mentor, a renowned bacteriologist. But soon he is urged to focus on politics and promotions rather than his research. Even as Martin progresses from doctor to public health official and noted pathologist, he still yearns to devote his time to pure science.
-
-
Still Relevant
- By Forrest on 02-26-12
By: Sinclair Lewis
-
Babbitt
- By: Sinclair Lewis
- Narrated by: George Guidall
- Length: 14 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
With his breathtaking social insight and his graceful sentences, Sinclair Lewis—a Pulitzer and Nobel Prize winner—stands out as one of the most important American writers of the 20th century. At turns lyrically soul-searching and scathing in its honesty, Babbitt captures the essence of the 1920s while remaining a timeless piece of literature. Babbitt, the ultimate conformist and social climber, seeks power in his community and self-esteem from others. Outwardly, he is the ultimate “big booster,” and he toes the company line with “zip and zowie.”
-
-
An outstanding story and performance
- By AZAZ on 10-18-24
By: Sinclair Lewis
-
Dodsworth
- By: Sinclair Lewis
- Narrated by: Grover Gardner
- Length: 13 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Meet Sam Dodsworth, an amiable 50-year-old millionaire and "American Captain of Industry, believing in the Republican Party, high tariffs, and, so long as they did not annoy him personally, in Prohibition and the Episcopal Church". Dodsworth runs an auto manufacturing firm, but his beautiful wife, Fran, obsessed with the notion that she is growing old, persuades him to sell his interest in the company and take her to Europe.
-
-
A Very Good Novel About 1920s America and Europe
- By Frank Donnelly on 08-17-20
By: Sinclair Lewis
-
Babbitt
- By: Sinclair Lewis
- Narrated by: David Colacci
- Length: 13 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In this sardonic portrait of the up-and-coming middle class during the prosperous 1920s, Sinclair Lewis perfectly captures the sound, the feel, and the attitudes of the generation that created the cult of consumerism. With a sharp eye for detail and keen powers of observation, Lewis tracks successful realtor George Babbitt's daily struggles to rise to the top of his profession while maintaining his reputation as an upstanding family man.
-
-
Makes You Think
- By E. Pearson on 02-21-13
By: Sinclair Lewis
-
Elmer Gantry
- By: Sinclair Lewis
- Narrated by: Anthony Heald
- Length: 15 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A greedy, philandering Baptist minister, Elmer Gantry turns to evangelism and becomes the leader of a large Methodist congregation. Often exposed as a fraud, he is never fully discredited. Elmer Gantry is considered a landmark American novel and one of the most penetrating studies of hypocrisy in modern literature. It portrays the evangelistic activity that was common in 1920s America as well as attitudes toward it.
-
-
Halleluja, Brother Lewis!
- By Erez on 12-09-08
By: Sinclair Lewis
-
Autobiography of Mark Twain, Volume 1
- The Complete and Authoritative Edition
- By: Mark Twain
- Narrated by: Grover Gardner
- Length: 24 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The year 2010 marks the 100th anniversary of Twain’s death. In celebration of this important milestone, here, for the first time, is Mark Twain’s uncensored autobiography, in its entirety, exactly as he left it. This major literary event offers the first of three volumes and presents Mark Twain’s authentic and unsuppressed voice, brimming with humor, ideas, and opinions, and speaking clearly from the grave, as he intended.
-
-
Not what I was expecting...
- By SHolland10 on 01-30-11
By: Mark Twain
-
Babbitt
- By: Sinclair Lewis
- Narrated by: Deaver Brown
- Length: 13 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
An early 20th Century tale about a booster & businessman who followed the standard program, deviated, and wished his son well in going his own way.
By: Sinclair Lewis
-
The Jungle
- By: Upton Sinclair
- Narrated by: Grover Gardner
- Length: 13 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Jungle is the story of Jurgis Rudkus, a Slavic immigrant who marries frail Ona Lukoszaite and seeks security and happiness as a workman in the Chicago stockyards. Once there, he is abused by foremen, his meager savings are filched by real estate sharks, and at every turn he is plagued by the misfortunes arising from poverty, poor working conditions, and disease. Finally, in accordance with Sinclair’s own creed, Rudkus turns to socialism as a way out.
-
-
Public Domain Version
- By Tim on 03-16-14
By: Upton Sinclair
What listeners say about Babbitt
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Marie-Elizabeth Finamore
- 02-09-16
surprised!
I'd heard Babbitt referred to as a negative stereotype of a man... but the man, and hisstruggles, are just as relevant today as in the 1920s. human nature well described, mid-life crisis, ... enjoyed it very much.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Ken
- 02-24-16
Started Great
This book was so interesting to me for the first chapters that I immediately checked out Sinclair Lewis' other books. I listened excitedly to the beginning 6 hrs in one sitting. However, it began to drag after that.
For me, when George began acting so negatively toward his wife and seeking an affair with another woman this book took a drastic turn. I kept the book on my phone but I only listened to it between many other books I listened to. After completing another book, if I did not have enough time to "get into" a new book I would fill the rest of my night with Babbit.
It isva shame that all of the other reviewers can so highly praise a book that has a character that seeks to cheat on his wife. It is a sick part of society that obviously all too many relate to.
There are tow reasons I finished this book: (1) I purchased it, (2) the narrator, Grover Gardner, is mesmerizing to listen to. He is the perfect narrator for this book. He has a friendly voice with just a touch of a negative attitude sounding voice.
There are enough redeeming qyalities to merit a rating of a bit over 3.5 (rounded up to 4 because of Gardner's performance).
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Joe Kraus
- 04-09-16
Jonathan Franzen, circa 1922
Any additional comments?
For a lot of the time I read this, I found myself thinking of Jonathan Franzen. Is it possible he is the 21st century’s answer to Lewis?
That’s not an insult, even if we have mostly forgotten Lewis and what he meant to American literature. He was, after all, the first U.S. author to win a Nobel Prize in literature, and he created a vocabulary for talking about American culture that lasted until I was a kid in the 1970s. People were still describing someone as an “Elmer Gantry” and, yes, as a “Babbitt.” Each was effective shorthand for describing someone warped by the excesses of American culture, someone who, unknowingly infected by the sorts of desires Theodore Dreiser most famously drew, sets out to infect others with the same ones.
If Franzen isn’t drawing characters as memorable in their essentials as Gantry or Babbitt, he is showing people who are similarly complicit in the same system that plagues them. If Lewis’s characters got casually drunk in the middle of Prohibition, Franzen’s get casually stoned today. If Lewis’s were bewildered by what the dawn of the automobile and telephone age meant for the way we live in it, Franzen’s do the same for the effects of the internet and the 24-hour news cycle.
All of that seems relevant because I can’t quite decide how highly I regard Franzen. At the worst he is just what Lewis was: arguably the foremost chronicler of American dissatisfaction of his age. And yet, that said, Lewis was far from a hack. He made Naturalism relevant at the dawn of the Modern moment. We forget how impressive he was because his work comes out just a few years before Hemingway, Fitzgerald, and Faulkner rewrite the boundaries of what’s possible in the novel.
There are some impressive technical moves here. For one thing, there really is no plot. It’s episodic, showing us a succession of portraits of George Babbitt, a man with pretensions to individuality who finds he can’t function unless he’s reassured that he’s doing just what everyone else is doing. That’s experimental; it’s pushing the limits of what we think fiction is.
For another, there’s a capacity for mockery that lingers almost 90 years later. To the degree we remember Lewis today, we have him cast as middlebrow, as someone people read if they couldn’t quite handle the cutting edge of Gertrude Stein or Virginia Woolf. That may be true, but there’s also a Modernist bias: we tend to admire novels that excavate the self over those that plumb the nature of the overall city. I share that bias; I like novels rooted in character, especially if the exploration of character takes place from odd angles.
I’ll criticize Babbitt and Elmer Gantry because, in the end, Lewis has no affection for his characters; he holds himself above them, thinks of the “real writer” as exempt from what he sees. And that’s what brings me back to Franzen. There are some today who rank him alongside Foster Wallace and Lethem, just as there were some who saw Lewis as the equal of Dos Passos or Fitzgerald.
So, bottom line, Lewis still has some relevance today for his method and his real if not-so-subtle insight, but he’s also interesting for what he suggests about the literary politics of then and now. Yeah, this drags in spots (but The Corrections doesn’t?). Still, it’s worth a look on its own terms and for its echoes today.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
22 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- J. Chadwick
- 08-08-20
great voixing
a classic. must read (listen). especially relevant today given the current situation. check it out!
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- E
- 08-27-15
Surprisingly enjoyable!
I didn't think this book would keep my attention but the writing was outstanding and the ending was meaningful.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
2 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Andorboth
- 07-11-19
brilliant satire
The greatest satire of the 1920s - such a brilliant diagnosis of American capitalism. Grover Gardner's reading is also wonderful.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Avinash
- 07-08-18
Thank you Grover Gardner
Grover's rendition of Sinclair Lewis' classic is bang on. He makes George Babbitt relatable and human.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Cheryl Chiarello
- 08-17-22
Took me to my grandparents' time...
It's a very well-written story that, for me, never morphed out of the novel that it is-- a story of a man who lived during a particular time and place in America with certain values and morals. Babbitt lived these values and morals with all his thoughts and capabilities.
Everything I looked up about this book before reading starts off with "It's a satire..." on [conformist, materialistic, anti-intellectual way of life.] Even so, who knows who would have been just like George Babbitt in 1922, also seeking to preserve and defend what was important to him and his family and neighbors.
I appreciated being trapped in the mind of George Babbitt for while. I didn't love George but I did root for him to do the right thing. This book took place during the time when my grandparents were young 25-30 year-olds. Neither of them were Babbitts, nor did they live in a city like Zenith, but the values were the same and I think they're still the same now.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Kevin
- 09-09-15
When was this written???
What a wonderful read! Despite being written almost a century ago, Sinclair has captured the essence of the American human condition, with humor and clever writing, that holds up so very well in the 21st century!
You will enjoy spending time w/ good ole George and might recognize a bunch of folks you already know!
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
5 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Leslie Houchen
- 06-03-18
Sadly, could be written today
Always love Grover Gardner as narrator. Good book. History repeats itself. Kind of sad really.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
1 person found this helpful