
Garbo
Her Life, Her Films
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Narrated by:
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Maria Tucci
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By:
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Robert Gottlieb
About this listen
Award-winning master critic Robert Gottlieb takes a singular and multifaceted look at the life of silver screen legend Greta Garbo and the culture that worshiped her.
“Wherever you look in the period between 1925 and 1941,” Robert Gottlieb writes in Garbo, “Greta Garbo is in people’s minds, hearts, and dreams.” Strikingly glamorous and famously inscrutable, she managed, in 16 short years, to infiltrate America’s subconscious; her decision to suddenly end her film career at the age of 36 only made her more irresistible. Garbo appeared in only 24 movies, yet her impact on the world - and that indescribable, transcendent presence she possessed - was rivaled only by Marilyn Monroe. She was a phenomenon, a Sphinx, a myth, but also a Swedish peasant girl, uneducated, naïve, and always on her guard.
In Garbo, acclaimed critic and editor Robert Gottlieb attempts to capture the ever-elusive essence of Garbo through the eyes of others: In addition to a vivid and thorough retelling of her life, Gottlieb combs through glimpses of Garbo in literature, music, private letters, and, of course, films, in order to better understand her. Discovering her within Ernest Hemingway’s For Whom the Bell Tolls and in the letters of Marianne Moore, and following her from her early movies with MGM to her career-defining, Academy Award-nominated role in Camille to her world-stopping decision to leave the limelight, Gottlieb crafts a biography of unprecedented intimacy and scope in the hopes of capturing the woman that only the camera knew.
©2021 Robert Gottlieb (P)2021 Random House AudioListeners also enjoyed...
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Performance
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Craig Ferguson has defied the odds his entire life. He has failed when he should have succeeded and succeeded when he should have failed. The fact that he is neither dead nor in a locked facility (at the time of printing) is something of a miracle in itself. In Craig’s candid and revealing memoir, listeners will get a look into the mind and recollections of the unique and twisted Scottish American who became a national hero for pioneering the world’s first TV robot skeleton sidekick and reviving two dudes in a horse suit dancing as a form of entertainment.
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Other drivers think I'm nuts...
- By LA Rider on 05-15-19
By: Craig Ferguson
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Empress of the Nile
- The Daredevil Archaeologist Who Saved Egypt's Ancient Temples from Destruction
- By: Lynne Olson
- Narrated by: Lisa Flanagan
- Length: 13 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
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In the 1960s, the world’s attention was focused on a nail-biting race against time: the international campaign to save a dozen ancient Egyptian temples from drowning in the floodwaters of the gigantic new Aswan High Dam. But the coverage of this unprecedented rescue effort completely overlooked the daring French archaeologist who made it all happen. Without the intervention of Christiane Desroches-Noblecourt, the temples—including the Temple of Dendur, now at New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art—would currently be at the bottom of a vast reservoir.
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Interesting but annoying
- By evan k pinto on 03-27-24
By: Lynne Olson
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The Lonely Life
- An Autobiography
- By: Bette Davis
- Narrated by: Suzanne Toren
- Length: 13 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
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The Lonely Life details the first 50-plus years of Davis' life - her Yankee childhood, her rise to stardom in Hollywood, the birth of her beloved children, and the uncompromising choices she made along the way to succeed. The book was updated with new material in the 1980s, bringing the story up to the end of Davis' life - all the heartbreak, all the drama, and all the love she experienced at every stage of her extraordinary life.
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Bette really liked herself...
- By Anonymous User on 01-14-19
By: Bette Davis
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The House of Rothschild, Volume 1
- Money's Prophets: 1798-1848
- By: Niall Ferguson
- Narrated by: Alexander Adams
- Length: 28 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
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In his rich and nuanced portrait of the remarkable, elusive Rothschild family, Niall Ferguson uncovers the secrets behind the family's phenomenal economic success. He reveals for the first time the details of the family's vast political network, which gave it access to and influence over many of the greatest statesmen of the age. And he tells a family saga, tracing the importance of unity and the profound role of Judaism in the lives of a dynasty that rose from the confines of the Frankfurt ghetto and later used its influence to assist oppressed Jews throughout Europe.
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Fascinating
- By Jean on 06-26-19
By: Niall Ferguson
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The Wreckage of My Presence
- Essays
- By: Casey Wilson
- Narrated by: Casey Wilson
- Length: 6 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
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Casey Wilson has a lot on her mind and she isn’t afraid to share. In this dazzling collection, each essay skillfully constructed and brimming with emotion, she shares her thoughts on the joys and vagaries of modern-day womanhood and motherhood, introduces the not-quite-typical family that made her who she is, and persuasively argues that lowbrow pop culture is the perfect lens through which to examine human nature.
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Would have been 5 stars without the political commentary
- By Leslie Francis on 05-14-21
By: Casey Wilson
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Swell
- A Sailing Surfer's Voyage of Awakening
- By: Liz Clark
- Narrated by: Liz Clark
- Length: 12 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
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Captain Liz Clark spent her youth dreaming of traveling the world by sailboat and surfing remote waves. When she was 22, she met a mentor who helped turn her desire into reality. Embarking on an adventure that most only fantasize about, she set sail from Santa Barbara, California, as captain of her 40-foot sailboat, Swell, headed south in search of surf, self, and the wonder and learning that lies beyond the unbroken horizon.
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such a disapointment
- By Mikel marchant on 01-21-20
By: Liz Clark
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Scenes from My Life
- A Memoir
- By: Michael K. Williams, Jon Sternfeld
- Narrated by: Dion Graham
- Length: 6 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
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When Michael K. Williams died on September 6, 2021, he left behind a career as one of the most electrifying actors of his generation. From his star turn as Omar Little in The Wire to Chalky White in Boardwalk Empire to Emmy-nominated roles in HBO’s The Night Of and Lovecraft Country, Williams inhabited a slew of indelible roles that he portrayed with a rawness and vulnerability that leapt off the screen.
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Absolutely incredible
- By corydonovan on 08-29-22
By: Michael K. Williams, and others
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The House of Gucci
- A True Story of Murder, Madness, Glamour, and Greed
- By: Sara Gay Forden
- Narrated by: Fajer Al-Kaisi, Sara Gay Forden
- Length: 16 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
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On the morning of March 27, 1995, four quick shots cracked through Milan’s elegant streets. Maurizio Gucci, heir to the fabulous fashion dynasty, had been ambushed, slain on the steps to his office by an unknown gunman. Two years later, Milan’s chief of police entered the sumptuous palazzo of Maurizio’s ex-wife, Patrizia Reggiani - nicknamed “the Black Widow” by the press - and arrested her for the murder. Did Patrizia kill her ex-husband because his spending was wildly out of control? Or is it possible Patrizia didn’t do it at all?
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Just read the cliff notes or wait for the movie.
- By Sunny White on 04-10-21
By: Sara Gay Forden
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The Club
- Johnson, Boswell, and the Friends Who Shaped an Age
- By: Leo Damrosch
- Narrated by: Simon Vance
- Length: 15 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
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In 1763, the painter Joshua Reynolds proposed to his friend Samuel Johnson that they invite a few friends to join them every Friday at the Turk's Head Tavern in London to dine, drink, and talk until midnight. Eventually, the group came to include among its members Edmund Burke, Adam Smith, Edward Gibbon, and James Boswell. It was known simply as "the Club". In this captivating audiobook, Leo Damrosch brings alive a brilliant, competitive, and eccentric cast of characters.
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Wonderful survey
- By Tad Davis on 05-10-19
By: Leo Damrosch
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Woke Up This Morning
- The Definitive Oral History of The Sopranos
- By: Michael Imperioli, Steve Schirripa
- Narrated by: Michael Imperioli, Steve Schirripa, full cast
- Length: 13 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
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Who made the phone call that got HBO to launch The Sopranos? What’s the significance of all those eggs? And, what the hell ever happened to the Russian? Michael Imperioli, Steve Schirripa, and the entire cast and crew of The Sopranos have all the answers - and they’re revealing where all the bodies are buried.
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Really frustrating if you’ve listened to the podcast
- By ereviewer on 11-04-21
By: Michael Imperioli, and others
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Inheritance
- A Memoir of Genealogy, Paternity, and Love
- By: Dani Shapiro
- Narrated by: Dani Shapiro
- Length: 6 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
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Inheritance is an audiobook about secrets - secrets within families, kept out of shame or self-protectiveness; secrets we keep from one another in the name of love. It is the story of a woman's urgent quest to unlock the story of her own identity, a story that has been scrupulously hidden from her for more than 50 years, years she had spent writing brilliantly, and compulsively, on themes of identity and family history.
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Author makes too much out of too little...
- By River Holmes-miller on 01-16-19
By: Dani Shapiro
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The Rural Diaries
- Love, Livestock, and Big Life Lessons Down on Mischief Farm
- By: Hilarie Burton
- Narrated by: Hilarie Burton
- Length: 7 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
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The beloved actress and star of One Tree Hill, White Collar, and Lethal Weapon, Hilarie Burton, tells the inspiring story of leaving Hollywood for a radically different kind of life in upstate New York with her husband Jeffrey Dean Morgan - a celebration of community, family, and the value of hard work in small town America.
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Enjoyed Her Story
- By julie on 05-11-20
By: Hilarie Burton
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Professional Troublemaker
- The Fear-Fighter Manual
- By: Luvvie Ajayi Jones
- Narrated by: Luvvie Ajayi Jones
- Length: 8 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
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Luvvie Ajayi Jones is known for her trademark wit, warmth, and perpetual truth-telling. But even she's been challenged by the enemy of progress known as fear. She was once afraid to call herself a writer, and nearly skipped out on doing a TED talk that changed her life because of imposter syndrome. As she shares in Professional Troublemaker, she's not alone.
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I’m missing something
- By Cheval Violet on 04-22-21
Gottlieb wrote Garbo with the same precise detail balanced for breadth and depth as one would expect from an historian. Were I to ask Gottlieb, “Why Garbo?”, I’d be surprised if the subject emerged from lifelong fandom; but rather, I suspect Gottlieb is a man in-the-know who believed he could make a contribution in all the places where predecessors have lacked. Although there is an excellent Garbo biography, such as by Barry P., most have an agenda or extracted information through unethical means like Sven B. that makes it impossible for me to read.
That Gottlieb keeps an appropriate emotional distance from Garbo to maintain objectivity is evident time and again. No emotional apologetics for Garbo or baseless nonsense about her being part of Old Hollywood’s “sewing circle.” The sine qua non of a biography I immediately dismiss as complete garbage is one that indulges persistent and baseless rumors about the subject’s sexuality.
When a tome cites Mercedes de Acosta or Cecil Beaton’s Diaries as “proof” of sexual fluidity, I know the author is either not well-researched, being salacious for the sake of being salacious, or pandering to get buyers. Excuse me, I meant readers. Because the only proof those memoirs offer is that Mercedes and Cecil were shamelessly obsessed with Garbo. I really appreciated Gottlieb had the integrity to present the facts and not speculate as to that which we will never know.
The book closes with a smattering of fantastic Garbo for all time. I hope this book becomes the foundational work in the Garbo canon. If you are looking for a Garbo biography written with academic integrity, you will not be disappointed in Gottlieb’s very fine work.
Academic integrity/research and no pandering!
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I LOVED Maria Tucci’s narration!
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Fascinating listen
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I was wrong. Highly recommend!
You don't know everything about Garbo!
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Very good and very not good
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Well, it’s Garbo
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Narrator
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Very disappointing
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Turns out that people referred to her as a peasant girl and she did little to grow or expand herself beyond that perception. She was cold, unfriendly, and uninterested in other people. The book focuses heavily on her movies. Complains considerably about her leading men. (So which man in Hollywood would have been worthy of Garbo at the time? If none of the one's she acted against were?) The book talks endlessly about her beauty.
Towards the end when the book moved on to stories about Garbo. I was interested and hopeful once more that I might at least conclude the book with some kinder and softer impressions of Garbo. After a bit the stories turned back into the usual where Garbo is cold, uninterested, and has no emotional attachments to other humans. She didn't give to charity, didn't like fashion, and had no pets that the book focused on, didn't like people, and just wanted to be private.
I had hoped the book would give me a new appreciation of Garbo’s films but rather it left me struggling to not outright dislike Garbo as a person.
Garbo: Just a pretty face.
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