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Great Expectations
- Narrated by: Simon Vance
- Length: 17 hrs and 51 mins
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The holidays are upon us, and this year Audible is very happy to present to our members one of Charles Dickens’ most popular Christmas stories, The Cricket on the Hearth. This holiday classic (original subtitle: “A Fairy Tale of Home”) tells the innocent, picturesque, and charming story of a poor family and their would-be guardian angel; in short, a delightful vision of Victorian Christmas. As always, a great story calls for a great voice, so we’ve brought in legendary actor and record-breaking Audie and Grammy award-winning narrator Jim Dale ( The Night Circus). Happy holidays and happy listening!
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Last Paragraph Missing?
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A Dickens short written specifically for Christmas, "The Cricket on the Hearth" beautifully combines Dickens' masterful critique of social ills with a typically captivating narrative. In the Peerybingle family house, a cricket constantly chips, and acts as their guardian angel. Then, one day, a mysterious, elderly stranger takes lodge with the family. Complete and unabridged, this is a must-buy for Christmas, and will bring to your family the festive cheer and seasonal warmth only Dickens could provide.
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Verbal mistakes but lovely none the less.
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One of the 20th century's enduring works, One Hundred Years of Solitude is a widely beloved and acclaimed novel known throughout the world and the ultimate achievement in a Nobel Prize-winning career. The novel tells the story of the rise and fall of the mythical town of Macondo through the history of the Buendía family. Rich and brilliant, it is a chronicle of life, death, and the tragicomedy of humankind. In the beautiful, ridiculous, and tawdry story of the Buendía family, one sees all of humanity, just as in the history, myths, growth, and decay of Macondo, one sees all of Latin America.
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What in the heck happened?????
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Publisher's summary
Audie Award, Classic, 2009
Considered by many to be Charles Dickens's finest novel, Great Expectations traces the growth of the book's narrator, the orphan Philip Pirrip (Pip), from a boy of shallow dreams to a man with depth of character.
From its famous dramatic opening on the bleak Kentish marshes, the story abounds with some of Dickens's most memorable characters. Among them are the kindly blacksmith Joe Gargery, the mysterious convict Abel Magwitch, the eccentric Miss Havisham and her beautiful ward Estella, Pip's good-hearted roommate Herbert Pocket, and the pompous Pumblechook.
As Pip unravels the truth behind his own "great expectations" in his quest to become a gentleman, the mysteries of the past and the convolutions of fate through a series of thrilling adventures serve to steer him toward maturity and his most important discovery of all - the truth about himself.
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One of the greatest mystery thrillers ever written, Wilkie Collins's The Woman in White was a phenomenal best seller in the 1860s, achieving even greater success than works by Charles Dickens. Full of surprise, intrigue, and suspense, this vastly entertaining novel continues to enthrall audiences today.
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Gripping novel, excellent production
- By David on 01-18-11
By: Wilkie Collins
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Resurrection
- By: Leo Tolstoy
- Narrated by: Alastair Cameron
- Length: 16 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
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In Tolstoy's final novel, a privileged nobleman by the name of Dmitri Nekhlyudov seeks to make amends for a bad deed he committed in the past. In the process, he discovers that he has been living in a world far removed from the reality of the average person.
By: Leo Tolstoy
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Felix Holt, The Radical
- By: George Eliot
- Narrated by: Nadia May
- Length: 17 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
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Relinquishing thoughts of a materially rewarding life, the respectably educated Felix Holt returns to his native village in North Loamshire and becomes an artisan. He is a forceful young man of honor, integrity, and idealism, burning to participate in political life so that he may improve the lot of his fellow artisans.
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four and a half stars
- By connie on 01-02-08
By: George Eliot
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Silas Marner
- By: George Eliot
- Narrated by: Andrew Sachs
- Length: 6 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
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For 15 years the weaver Silas Marner has plied his loom near the village of Raveloe, alone and unjustly in exile, cut off from faith and human love, he cares only for his hoard of golden guineas. But two events occur that will change his life forever; his gold disappears and a golden-haired baby girl appears. But where did she come from and who really stole the gold? This moving tale sees Silas eventually redeemed and restored to life by the unlikely means of his love for the orphan child Eppie.
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amazing
- By Ramon on 06-04-12
By: George Eliot
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Lady Audley's Secret
- By: Mary Elizabeth Braddon
- Narrated by: Juliet Stevenson
- Length: 5 hrs and 12 mins
- Abridged
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A fast-paced Victorian thriller that will delight audiences today as it did 100 years ago, Lady Audley's Secret has subterfuge, kidnapping, jealousy, and fraud, all thrown into the mix and shaken up for good measure.
A mystery which keeps a listener guessing until the last moments, this production is a must-listen for anyone who enjoys playing detective.
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Narrator creates the listen
- By connie on 02-06-12
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The Short Stories of Anton Chekhov, Volume 1
- By: Anton Chekhov
- Narrated by: Charlton Griffin
- Length: 3 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
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Anton Pavlovich Chekhov, (1860-1904), was born in Russia at Taganrog on the Sea of Azov. His name has become synonymous with a certain literary style much admired and widely copied since his death. Typically, a Chekhov story is a "mood", a state of mind, usually with regard to relations between one person and another. Under the influence of the constant, infinitesimal, and unforeseen pinpricks of life, there occurs a gradual transformation of that state of mind.
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A Box of Chocolates
- By Darlene on 02-08-05
By: Anton Chekhov
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it's the singer not the song*
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Based in part on Dickens's own life, it is the story of a young man's journey from an unhappy and impoverished childhood to the discovery of his vocation as a successful novelist. Among its gloriously vivid cast of characters, he e.ncounters his tyrannical stepfather, Mr. Murdstone; his formidable aunt, Betsey Trotwood; the eternally humble yet treacherous Uriah Heep; the frivolous, enchanting Dora; and one of literature's great comic creations, the magnificently impecunious Mr. Micawber.
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"I am born."
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loved it much more than expected!
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it's the singer not the song*
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A PERFECT narration of an English classic!
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A very interesting book
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Vance is Wonderful!
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Little Dorrit
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Gripping
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A Christmas Carol is a novella by English author Charles Dickens first published by Chapman and Hall and first released on 19 December 1843. The story tells of sour and stingy Ebenezer Scrooge's ideological, ethical, and emotional transformation after the supernatural visitations of Jacob Marley and the Ghosts of Christmases Past, Present, and Yet to Come.
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One of the best
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Simon Prebble is a gift from God
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Provoking an unprecedented outpouring of public grief when it was first published, it follows the story of Little Nell and her feckless grandfather. Forced to leave their magical shop of curiosities in London, they are pursued across the English countryside by the grotesquely evil dwarf Quilp. They escape - but at what cost?
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Outstanding Narration
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Our Mutual Friend
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This definitive performance of Our Mutual Friend - Dickens' final completed novel - features expert narration by Meera Syal and an exclusive introduction. Full of both satire and social analysis, Our Mutual Friend looks at what could happen in Victorian England when a fortune passes to a working-class couple.
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Spectacular Performance
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What listeners say about Great Expectations
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Suzan
- 03-06-19
Moving narration of a wonderful tale
I was so engaged by Simon Vance’s narration, that the minute I I finished this Audible, I began again immediately!
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- jrreynol
- 04-07-15
Great time of reading
I didn't remember much of this from high school; however, I thoroughly enjoyed it. The narration was fantastic and the change of voice for each character made it very easy to follow the story line.
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- D. Hile
- 10-06-12
Different times but common problems
If you are a Simon Vance narration fan this book won't disappoint. He does a great job and brings an old tail to life. The book is a tail of rags to riches and the morrel and social issues that are encountered along the way. It is an interesting exploration of the trials of friendship and loyalty. I'm sure that I'll return to this book on rainy weekends.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Todd Ward
- 03-20-22
Classic
Simon Did an excellent job. of course Dickens will present the classic. The story is timeless and brings the bitter sweet remembrances of Youthful truth, to this old man's heart.
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- Julio
- 08-06-18
Great narration and easy to listen to.
I chose this book based on all the high recommendations. It wasn't bad. The narrator was great, and the story was easy to follow. The author is famous for a reason. The storytelling paints a vivid picture and the drama is captivating.
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- Ilana
- 10-22-11
A Jolly Good Yarn!
In this great classic of English literature, our boy Pip tells the tale of how he came to have "Great Expectations" from what appears to be a series of most unlikely circumstances. One late afternoon on Christmas eve, as he is visiting the graves of his mother, father and five little brothers, a dangerous escaped convict appears on the scene and bullies our boy into promising he'll come back the next morning to bring 'wittles'—or food to eat—and a file so he can free himself of his leg irons, on the threat that if Pip doesn't do as he's told, an associate, much crueller than he will stalk him down and get at his heart and liver. Scared out of his wits, Pip complies by stealing food from his sister "Mrs Joe"'s pantry. The convict is satisfied with the offerings and lets him go, though Pip is weighed down by a heavy conscience. Not very long after in chapter seven, Pip is summoned to Miss Havisham's, a rich and eccentric old recluse, to play with her niece Estella who is close to Pip's age, a haughty girl, though very pretty. The old lady encourages her charge to become a heartbreaker and even as the girl mocks Pip, calling him "a common, labouring boy" and making fun of his lack of refinement and general appearance "He calls the knaves Jacks, this boy! And what coarse hands he has! And what thick boots!" the old woman prods Pip repeatedly to find out what he thinks of Estella. Pip can't help himself from falling hopelessly in love with her and from that moment on, becomes more disdainful than ever of his unrefined background and of Joe in particular, a blacksmith to whom Pip is fated to be indentured as an apprentice.
By chapter eighteen, Pip is in the fourth year of his apprenticeship to Joe when they are both approached at the local pub by Mr Jaggers, a lawyer who tells Joe he has an offer to make which will greatly benefit the boy, and asks the blacksmith if he is willing to release Pip of his indenture for "the communication I have got to make is, that he has Great Expectations. I am instructed to communicate to him, that he will come into a handsome property. Further, that it is the desire of the present possessor of that property, that he be immediately removed from his present sphere of life and from this place, and be brought up as a gentleman,—in a word, as a young fellow of great expectations." The only condition being that he must always keep his name, Pip, and that his benefactor's name is to remain a secret until that person chooses to reveal it. Once he has been properly outfitted with new clothes, Pip then moves to London and is taught how to behave like a gentleman. Throughout, even as Pip gains a whole new circle of friends and acquaintances, misbehaves and accumulates enormous debt which even his steady large income can't cover, Estella is never far from our boy's mind. He assumes his benefactor to be Miss Havisham and that she has in mind to mould him into an acceptable husband for the love of his life. But as we are only at chapter 34 at that point (out of 59) and that Dickens wouldn't be Dickens if his stories were anything less than epic sagas, and that his fiction, in imitation of life thrives on many twists of fate, it's fair to assume that things are unlikely to turn out as Pip's—or the reader’s—imagination would have it.
I can't help myself from making a bad play on the title, so I'll go ahead and say that I had Great Expectations about this novel, and that as these things go, I was not wholly satisfied on that count. Although Pip goes through inevitable transformations as he grows up, for the better part of the novel he is a proud boy who thinks himself better than most, and certainly than the people he has been brought up with. One of his greatest offences to my mind is the shame and abhorrence in which he holds Joe once he has come in contact with Miss Havisham and Estella. Joe is one of my favourite characters in the story; he's a good man of great simplicity with a big heart, and is probably one of Pip's most dedicated friends, yet Pip feels ashamed of him and neglects him completely over the years even though he knows better. I thought his supposed great love for Estella was puerile, acceptable when he is a child and is more or less manipulated into it, but the fact that he then uses his unrequited love for her as a reason to remake himself in an image he thinks she will approve of, when he knows her own character is wanting, was truly sad and pathetic to me. Because most of Dickens' novels were first published in serialized form (probably one chapter at a time) the author had good reason to keep the story going for as long as was decently possible. Even though I kept this firmly in mind, there were many times while I listened to this audiobook version (very well narrated by Simon Vance) that I grew impatient with the lengths and detours through which Dickens takes us. But there were also moments when I was completely taken with Dickens' great skill as a storyteller and his fine observation of human nature, which are always accompanied by a fine and subtle irony and humour.
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9 people found this helpful
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- Frank Logue
- 10-19-14
One of the greatest audio books
Would you consider the audio edition of Great Expectations to be better than the print version?
Simon Vance brings out the story with his own pitch perfect reading. Vance and Dickens were made for each other as proved by this recording of perhaps Dickens greatest work.
What did you like best about this story?
I enjoyed this tale of the orphaned Pip more than is seemly. While he is bewitched by first his great unattainable love in Estella when he comes within the embittered circle of the unforgettable Miss Havisham's influence, He is next entranced by both his Great Expectations and the money they bring. But The story is great not as our heroes expectations are raised, but as they are lowered from the ethereal to the very real. This Mister Dickens should write more and Mister Vance should read his work!
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- THE Aunt Sharon
- 05-03-18
A True Classic
Really enjoyed this book and the narrator. I'm not sure how I ever missed reading this. Dickens knows how to tell a story that encompasses every human feeling, and shows the everlasting worth of God's forgiveness.
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- Fredonna Walker
- 08-04-20
Heart-breakingly romantic
The narration is solid. The story took my breath away. It’s slow at first, but keep listening. Now I know the meaning of the phrase “it hurts like the Dickens.”
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- David D.
- 03-16-22
The real version
Yes, it takes 14 to 17 hours. Don't bother with the 1 hr version.
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