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Narrated by:
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Anna Massey
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By:
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Anita Brookner
About this listen
When Anna Durrant is reported missing, her friends seem unconcerned at her disappearance. After all, her life has been one of concealment.
For years Anna submitted to the protective dependence of her mother, and even after Amy Durrant’s death she simply conformed to the expectations of others.
Increasingly, Anna feels herself trapped by these expectations. Only by drawing on extraordinary strength and determination can Anna break away and enjoy her freedom, finally taking charge of her own destiny.
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Miss Dean's Dilemma
- By Jerri C on 05-02-18
By: D. E. Stevenson
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Thus Bad Begins
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- By: Javier Marias, Margaret Jull Costa
- Narrated by: Robert Fass
- Length: 16 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
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Madrid, 1980. Juan de Vere, nearly finished with his university degree, takes a job as personal assistant to Eduardo Muriel, an eccentric, once-successful film director. Urbane, discreet, irreproachable, Muriel is an irresistible idol to the young man. But Muriel's voluptuous wife, Beatriz, inhabits their home like an unwanted ghost, and on the periphery of their lives is Dr. Jorge Van Vechten, a family friend implicated in unsavory rumors that Muriel now asks Juan to investigate.
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Fascinating plot, superb performance, psychological depth
- By Doctor George on 12-05-16
By: Javier Marias, and others
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Mrs. Tim of the Regiment
- By: D. E. Stevenson
- Narrated by: Christine Rendel
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- Unabridged
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Vivacious, young Hester Christie tries to run her home like clockwork, as would befit the wife of British Army officer, Tim Christie. However hard Mrs Tim strives for seamless living amidst the other army wives, she is always moving flat-out to remember groceries, rule lively children, side-step village gossip and placate her husband with bacon, eggs, toast and marmalade. Left alone for months at a time whilst her husband is with his regiment, Mrs Tim resolves to keep a diary of events large and small in her family life.
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Life as a military wife
- By Jerri C on 03-09-13
By: D. E. Stevenson
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High Rising
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- Narrated by: Jilly Bond
- Length: 7 hrs and 8 mins
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Successful lady novelist Laura Morland and her boisterous young son, Tony, set off to spend Christmas at her country home in the sleepy surrounds of High Rising. But Laura's wealthy friend and neighbor, George Knox, has taken on a scheming secretary whose designs on marriage to her employer threaten the delicate social fabric of the village.
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Beginning of a journey
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Now, Voyager
- Femmes Fatales
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- Narrated by: Coleen Marlo
- Length: 7 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
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Boston blueblood Charlotte Vale has led an unhappy, sheltered life. Lonely, dowdy, repressed, and pushing 40, Charlotte finds salvation at a sanitarium, where she undergoes an emotional and physical transformation. After her extreme makeover, the new Charlotte tests her mettle by embarking on a cruise and finds herself in a torrid love affair with a married man which ends at the conclusion of the voyage. But only then can the real journey begin, as Charlotte is forced to navigate a new life for herself.
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The Inspiration for The Movie Classic
- By Susie on 12-17-12
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The House of Mirth
- By: Edith Wharton
- Narrated by: Eleanor Bron
- Length: 12 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
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Beautiful, sophisticated and endlessly ambitious Lily Bart endeavours to climb the social ladder of New York's elite by securing a good match and living beyond her means. Now nearing 30 years of age and having rejected several proposals, forever in the hope of finding someone better, her future prospects are threatened. A damning commentary of 20th-century social order, Edith Wharton's tale established her as one of the greatest British novelists of the 1900s.
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Like Henry James but more accessible
- By Merlin on 08-19-12
By: Edith Wharton
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Wives and Daughters
- By: Elizabeth Gaskell
- Narrated by: Nadia May
- Length: 25 hrs and 39 mins
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Set in English society before the 1832 Reform Bill, Wives and Daughters centers on the story of youthful Molly Gibson, brought up from childhood by her father. When he remarries, a new stepsister enters Molly's quiet life, the loveable, but worldly and troubling, Cynthia. The narrative traces the development of the two girls into womanhood within the gossiping and watchful society of Hollingford.
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It's not about the ending!
- By Sandra on 07-25-05
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Excellent Women
- By: Barbara Pym
- Narrated by: Jayne Entwistle
- Length: 8 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
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Mildred Lathbury is a clergyman's daughter and a mild-mannered spinster in 1950s England. She is one of those excellent women - the smart, supportive, repressed women whom men take for granted. As Mildred gets embroiled in the lives of her new neighbors - anthropologist Helena Napier; Helen's handsome, dashing husband, Rocky; and Julian Malory, the vicar next door - the novel presents a series of snapshots of human life as actually, and pluckily, lived.
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Still Waters Run Deep
- By Sara on 04-13-16
By: Barbara Pym
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Staying On
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- Narrated by: Paul Shelley
- Length: 9 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
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Tusker and Lily Smalley stayed on in India. Given the chance to return ‘home’ when Tusker, once a Colonel in the British Army, retired, they chose instead to remain in the small hill town of Pankot, with its eccentric inhabitants and archaic rituals left over from the days of the Empire. Only the tyranny of their imposing landlady threatens to upset the quiet rhythm of their days.
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A Pleasant Meander
- By Ian C Robertson on 09-22-14
By: Paul Scott
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What listeners say about Fraud
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Montcalm
- 02-08-18
Great prose style
Fraud is the first novel by Brookner that I have listen to, and I am so looking forward to many more. She is one of the greatest prose stylists. Every sentence is a delight – wonderfully nuanced, perfect rhythm, perfect pitch, perfect diction and phrasing. And each paragraph carries a world of insight into the lives of her characters – their vanities, their loneliness, their meanness, their generosity.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Mitzi
- 02-18-21
Overall Great
Great novel but slightly unsatisfactory at the end.
The reader, Anna Massey, is phenomenal and I hope to buy more books read by her.
"Fraud" is a far better book than "Falling Slowly," but much like the latter also "Fraud" fails to provide a clear sense of why the characters are who they are and do what they do (not to mention, "where will they end up" with the selves they have created for themselves).
It is a pleasant listen but not memorable literature.
Nonetheless, I'd recommend it.
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1 person found this helpful
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- See Joyce
- 07-19-15
Entertaining and crafty/sly techniques, excellent
The characters are 3dimensional. Depicts English culture, also theme about getting old, care taking, and different relationships between people Begins w mystery & despite domestic settings the story remains suspenseful.
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3 people found this helpful
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- K.N.R.
- 08-15-17
Where is She Now?
[rating = A-]
A wonder of poetic prose and gentle thought. Anita Brookner takes aim at frauds and those who pretend. One should always be themselves for everyone else is already taken! Anna lives alone, used to take care of her mother, and she is also used to being meek and subjective. She is pure, in a literal sense and she feels restless. Aunt Vera, who is not really Anna's aunt is patient with her, but finds her odd, for she is not married and she is so tiresome. Mr. Halliday is the doctor who filters through the pages, sometimes reminiscing and at others, he is checking-up on some patient, one or the other. The reader gets the background through short passages put sparingly, but that is not to say that one does not understand them. They are moments when the I felt happy and joyous at the simple life and daily routine with which these characters live. Albeit the story is slow, it is interesting to try to figure out the eventual ending, which is very rueful and gives a feeling of waywardness. Very abrupt, but if the story were to continue, well, it might have been just too boring and not that excitable mocking tone that kept you reading. Superbly and avidly written with a cautious mind, a hand with a firm grasp on the pen.
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2 people found this helpful
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- David P
- 09-15-15
Top Shelf Brookner
It's hard to describe the appeal of Anita Brookner's novels. They're all similar in tone. They have similar themes, characters, and pacing. They tend to be heavy on exposition and the fine dissection of tiny moments. They focus on people with lonely and often uneventful, disappointed lives. And yet, I find them riveting. I especially enjoy listening to them. Brookner's sentences are perfectly balanced, gently ironic, and wryly amusing. Every moment sheds light and insight into some corner of the human psyche. They're small novels about tiny worlds that have a big impact,
This one is outstanding. A cast of icy, unhappy people whose minor errors and small disappointments are somehow important.
Anna Massey could read a microbiology textbook and make it entertaining. I love her terse, clipped voice, which is somehow perfect for these characters. It's a brilliant performance.
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11 people found this helpful
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- Tim Parker
- 05-06-24
Engaging Story
Not what I had anticipated. An interesting story about how people politely deceive each other and themselves. The plot is simple, and there are only a few characters. The writing is beautiful, each word is selected with care.
Anna Massey is a brilliant voice actress and brings depth and character to the simple story.
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