Empire Audiobook By Donald L. Barlett, James B. Steele cover art

Empire

The Life, Legend, and Madness of Howard Hughes

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Empire

By: Donald L. Barlett, James B. Steele
Narrated by: Christopher Hurt
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Howard Hughes lived one of the greatest, most heroic, misunderstood, mysterious, bizarre, and tragic lives in American history. In this brilliantly documented biography, the mythology that surrounded that life is disentangled from the truth.

Hughes had always been different. Certainly his riches set him apart, but he was also tough. Orphaned and a millionaire at 18, Hughes repudiated his relatives, seized control of the Hughes Tool Company, the linchpin of his fortune, and went on to become a flamboyant movie producer, holder of many world aviation records, principal owner of Trans World Airlines, a critically important defense contractor, Hollywood's most pursued and elusive bachelor, and partner of the United States government.

This is an epic biography of an epic figure who bestrode the world like a colossus yet could not master himself.

©1979 Donald L. Barlett and James B. Steele (P)1994 Blackstone Audio, Inc. Actors Americas Entertainment & Celebrities United States Celebrity Inspiring American History

Critic reviews

"Of all the books written about Howard Hughes, Empire is easily the best...." (New York Times Book Review)

"A remarkable job of investigative reporting....cracks Hughes's public persona as it disentangles the psychodrama of his private doings." (Publishers Weekly)

"[The] most responsible and authoritative biography of Hughes to date." (Newsweek)
Intriguing Adventure • Captivating Biography • Excellent Narration • Masterful Presentation • Educational Content
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A very complicated and astounding story masterfully presented. Would highly recommend it if you are interested in Howard Hughes.

Very well done. Greatly enjoyed it

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I enjoyed the Hughes biography, the narration is good, though there were some noticeable spots where words were recorded and inserted instead of rerecording the sentence or paragraph. I learned a lot about Hughes' life, though the book did run a little long.

Great insight into Hughes life

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I personally wanted to hear more about his flying days. That part seemed short compared to the length of this book. Overall I learned everything about Howard Hughes.

A bit long... very detailed

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Would you say that listening to this book was time well-spent? Why or why not?

My books are during 1 hour ride to & from work, 5 days per week for 10 hours. This book had some dry spells, but overall I found it educational.

What was the most interesting aspect of this story? The least interesting?

I think the pinnacle is the 'Spruce Goose', but there are so many different things he did, it's difficult to peg any one.
Least interesting was the in depth reading of the multiple hand written instructions for every aspect of his mad, mad solitude.

What didn’t you like about Christopher Hurt’s performance?

For the documentary present, it was well read. Par for documentary, some dry spots, but not taking away overall.

Could you see Empire being made into a movie or a TV series? Who should the stars be?

There are already movies. Most recent being "The Aviator"

Any additional comments?

A very long book, I appreciated its additional information even if it did get boring at times. I have long fascinated in HRH, mainly for his aviation interests. I learned much about the many other things he obsessed over. In the end I realized he swung onto the scene due to his parents untimely demise, and without proper direction, became a spoiled, self indulged brat. That said, he and those working for him did make great strides in the science of aviation.

EVERYTHING you Ever wanted to know about HRH

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This book's structure and production of the audio book are not great. But the subject is truly interesting, so it kept me engaged despite the distractions of the way it's recorded.

Interesting Man - OK Book

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Any additional comments?

The book goes on for 30-40 minutes detailing correspondence between Howard's mother and his summer camp leader when Howard was around 7 or 8. "Please make certain Howard has plenty of thick socks for summer activites", "I assure you madame, Howard will have an ample number of socks for the summer", etc., etc. 30 to 40 minutes of this? Seriously? This could have been abridged.

Too Much Detail on Trivial Matters

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The years of the young Hughes are well known. But the tedium of his later years are less enjoyable. The author takes great pains to display all details, even to the point of giving mini biographies of each lawyer in the Hughes inheritance law battles. Less detail there would have helped the presentation. But the first 2/3 of the book were quite enjoyable.

The man was more interesting than the details

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Its a good book. A lot of lawyer stuff. Lots of facts. For me it was a hard read. But if like me you've heard about Howard Hughs all your life and were not sure where he got all his money. If you are curious. Then this book is for you. I won't read it again because his life didn't have a happy ending.

NO HAPPY ENDING HERE.

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There are at least 100 instances of "Summa" harshly inserted by rough editing into the second half of the book in place of "Hughes" or "Hughes Tool (Company)". Ironically, they aren't even correctly used in many instances as this book jumps back and forth through time at least a half-dozen times. It seems like they just decided to replace each and every instance after the point that told the story of the change of the name of the Hughes Tool Company to Summa.

Beyond that, the story really suffers from the time jumps. This story should have been told from start to finish, not broken into separate subjects and telling the story of each of these subjects from start to finish. At the time of the 4th or 5th subject change with its corresponding jump back in time, I started to feel like this book was never going to end and that the most interesting parts were never going to be touched on again.

Starts interesting, ends with jarring editing

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begining was good but about half way it just ended up repeating it's self . yah he was mentality troubled. yah the aides neglected him , the doctor drugged him but at least 5 hours of that could be truncated. painful to listen to

just to long and to much detail

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