Library of the World's Best Mystery and Detective Stories
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Narrated by:
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Scott Woodside
About this listen
In the six volumes of the Library of the World’s Best Mystery and Detective Stories, Julian Hawthorne presents us thrilling and mysterious short stories from all corners of the world. Some of the stories appeared in this 1907 collection for the first time translated into English, and many of them come from unexpected sources, such as the letters of Pliny the Younger, or a Tibetan manuscript. In the first volume, we find stories written by American authors.
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Editorial reviews
This audiobook is from the fourth volume of a six-volume collection of diverse mystery and detective stories from around the world, assembled by Julian Hawthorne. From a letter to Roman Senator L. Licinius Sura written by Pliny the Younger in the 1st Century CE describing his experiences with the supernatural to tales from all over Europe throughout the early 20th-century that touch on tragic irony, horrific torture, Faustian deals and mystery, this audiobook has many rare gems. Most notable is Voltaire’s "The Babylonian", considered by some to be the primogenitor of the detective genre. Scott Woodside performs the collection lending this audio the air of a radio drama with his deep driving voice.
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The proof is in the narrator!
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By: Victor Hugo
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- By: Orson Welles
- Narrated by: Orson Welles
- Length: 59 mins
- Original Recording
-
Overall
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Performance
-
Story
Starring Orson Welles, Anges Moorehead, and Ray Collins, The Count of Monte Cristo is a tale of revenge and retribution. Edmond Dantès, a young, energetic sailor, is falsely accused of treason on his wedding day and incarcerated in the forbidding Château d'If. His escape and ultimate revenge on those who wronged him makes this one of the most thrilling stories in French literature, as compelling now as when it was first published in 1846.
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Excellent
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- By: Victor Hugo
- Narrated by: David Case
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- Abridged
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Overall
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Performance
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TOO Abridged, Read Only if You Won't Read More
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Overall
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Performance
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Young nobleman d’Artagnan has arrived in Paris intent on joining the guardians of King Louis XIII. He befriends the regiment’s most formidable musketeers, Athos, Porthos, and Aramis, and together they unite in their commitment to uphold justice. Soon, a royal indiscretion thrusts them into an audacious escapade of courtly intrigue, thwarted romance, and daring rescue. But it’s the Machiavellian schemes of a powerful enemy and the wicked seductions of an ingenious female spy that will be their greatest challenges.
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terrible narrator. every comma is a 3 second pause
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By: Alexandre Dumas, and others
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- By: Alexandre Dumas
- Narrated by: B.J. Harrison
- Length: 52 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Trust. Betrayal. Revenge. The Count of Monte Cristo is the quintessential masterpiece of Alexandre Dumas. In Edmond Dantes we find an early materialization of the modern superhero. He is a dashing young sailor imprisoned unjustly for treason. While in prison he meets a holy man who imparts to him all his wisdom. The "abbe" also divulges the profound secret of a hidden treasure. Dantes realizes that with such immense wealth, one could wreak a hateful vengeance on one's enemies.
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The proof is in the narrator!
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By: Alexandre Dumas
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- By: Henri Beyle Stendhal
- Narrated by: Edoardo Ballerini
- Length: 19 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
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In the coming-of-age story, we follow a young Italian nobleman, Fabrizio Valserra, Marchesino del Dongo, on many adventures, including his experiences at the Battle of Waterloo, and romantic intrigues.
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Amazing novel finally available on audio!
- By Grant on 03-23-14
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The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde and Other Tales of Terror
- By: Robert Louis Stevenson
- Narrated by: Michael Kitchen
- Length: 5 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
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This dark psychological fantasy is more than a moral tale. It is also a product of its time, drawing on contemporary theories of class, evolution and criminality, and the secret lives behind Victorian propriety, to create a unique form of urban Gothic.
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The Dark Human Heart
- By Jefferson on 01-30-11
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Candide (AudioGO Edition)
- By: Voltaire
- Narrated by: Jack Davenport
- Length: 3 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
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When first published in 1759, Candide became an instant best seller and is now regarded as one of the key texts of the Enlightenment. Voltaire’s preoccupations with evil and with various kinds of human folly and intolerance found a perfect vehicle in this philosophical tale. A master storyteller, he combined often wildly entertaining action with profoundly serious sense, parodying the traditional chivalric and oriental tales with which his public was more familiar.
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Guaranteed to keep you smiling if not LOL
- By Robert on 08-09-12
By: Voltaire
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The Scarlet Pimpernel
- By: Baroness Orczy
- Narrated by: Flo Gibson
- Length: 8 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
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The mysterious Scarlet Pimpernel's daring rescues of French nobility from the threat of the guillotine and the evil Chauvelin's efforts to track him down are all part of the intrigue in this swashbuckling adventure.
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nostalgic
- By theamazingcatherine on 07-29-18
By: Baroness Orczy
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The Sorrows of Young Werther
- By: Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
- Narrated by: Leighton Pugh
- Length: 4 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
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Werther, a sensitive young artist, finds himself in Wahlheim, a quiet, attractive village in Germany where he seeks solace from the turmoils of love. It is a young spring, and he hopes that arcadian solitude will prove a genial balm to his mind. But his romantic tendency rules otherwise, and he falls in love with Charlotte - Lotte - even though he knows she is affianced to another.
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Great performance for a classical story.
- By Brandon Shaw on 09-15-17
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The Diary of a Madman and Other Stories
- By: Nikolai Gogol
- Narrated by: Nicholas Boulton
- Length: 17 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
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The Diary of a Madman and Other Stories is a bizarre and colorful collection containing the finest short stories by the iconic Russian writer Nikolai Gogol. From the witty and Kafkaesque "The Nose", where a civil servant wakes up one day to find his nose missing, to the moving and evocative "The Overcoat", about a reclusive man whose only ambition is to replace his old, threadbare coat, Gogol gives us a unique take on the absurd.
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Brilliant writer, fantastic narration, plus TOC
- By Reader on 04-01-22
By: Nikolai Gogol
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A Christmas Carol
- By: Charles Dickens
- Narrated by: Benjamin May
- Length: 3 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
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The timeless tale of Ebenezer Scrooge and his adventures on Christmas Eve continue to teach an important lesson, even to this day. Author Charles Dickens introduces us to the main character by painting him in a negative light, a selfish and miserly old man who will barely pay enough money to keep his office heated. When Scrooge returns home after work, the ghost of his former business partner, Jacob Marley, visits him and tells him that because of the wrongdoing he had done during his life, he has been condemned to walk in his ghost years shackled....
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not a great version
- By hettar7 on 12-26-22
By: Charles Dickens
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A Hero of Our Time
- By: Mikhail Lermontov
- Narrated by: Clive Chafer
- Length: 6 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
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In A Hero of Our Time, Grigory Pechorin is a bored, self-centered, and cynical young army officer who believes in nothing. With impunity he toys with the love of women and the goodwill of men. He is brave, determined, and willful, but his wasted energy and potential ultimately result in tragedy.
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Genius Presentation of Ywtsaxt fas
- By Brad Isaak on 11-06-16
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The Story of My Life, Volume 1
- By: Giacomo Casanova
- Narrated by: Peter Wickham
- Length: 47 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
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The Story of My Life is the explosive and exhilarating autobiography by the infamous libertine Giacomo Casanova. Intense and scandalous, Casanova's extraordinary adventures take the listener on an incredible voyage across 18th-century Europe - from France to Russia, Poland to Spain and Turkey to Germany, with Venice at their heart. He falls madly in love, has wild flings and delirious orgies, and encounters some of the most brilliant figures of his time, including Catherine the Great, Louis XV and Benjamin Franklin. He holds a verbal dual with Voltaire and finds himself hauled before the court multiple times.
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Extraordinarily interesting
- By Ed Pegg Jr on 10-19-19
By: Giacomo Casanova
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The Oscar Wilde Collection
- By: Oscar Wilde
- Narrated by: James Marsters, Jacqueline Bisset, Alfred Molina, and others
- Length: 8 hrs and 22 mins
- Original Recording
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Four classic comedies from one of the wittiest playwrights in Western literature: Lady Windermere's Fan, A Woman of No Importance, An Ideal Husband, and The Importance of Being Earnest, all featuring star-studded casts with the likes of Jacqueline Bisset, Miriam Margolyes, James Marsters, Alfred Molina, Roger Rees, Yeardley Smith, Eric Stoltz, and many more. This audio also includes a chilling dramatization of Wilde's sole novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray.
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Good Collection
- By Anniebligh on 03-31-12
By: Oscar Wilde
What listeners say about Library of the World's Best Mystery and Detective Stories
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- PearlGirl
- 01-21-13
Reader should have learned French.
Is there anything you would change about this book?
The first few stories were written by French authors. Unfortunately the reader had not learned French and he mispronounced such simple words as "monsieur" which he pronounced as "moan-sewer." As a lifelong mystery reader, some of these stories were predictable. So, I look for how the story is told. They were so-so overall.
Who would you have cast as narrator instead of Scott Woodside?
Anyone who knew how to speak French.
Was Library of the World's Best Mystery and Detective Stories worth the listening time?
Not really.
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10 people found this helpful
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- Sooo many books...
- 04-05-21
Unfortunately very poor narration
The narration is odd and poor, completely unnatural, with odd pauses, and poor pronunciation. Disappointing.
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- HIYBRID
- 06-06-15
When did Zoroaster become Zoo Roaster.. Mon Sewer.
OK so the content was OK.. historical tales, many of which were not just detective tales but OK from a historical standpoint... and that part was good... but I had to wade through the gut wrenching mispronunciations of the storytellers narrator. Really Mon Sewer, and Zoo Roaster .. it just make the entire effort seem flawed...
If you are getting paid to read this stuff in English... then we expect you to read it in adult English not pedantic English.... really a bummer
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5 people found this helpful
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Overall
- Country wife
- 11-04-17
Library of the world's best mystery and detective stories
This was the slowest most boring book I have listened to in a long time. The title could not have been more misleading.
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- Amazon Customer
- 11-17-17
Not So Interesting Mystery Stories
The stories never captured my interest. I look for the unexpected and stories that keep me reading. When the stories are good I have a hard time putting the book down.
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1 person found this helpful
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- The Whole Truth
- 04-26-15
Can you ignore mispronunciations ?
Would you try another book from Julian Hawthorne (editor) and/or Scott Woodside?
I don't know how the process of recording a book is done but if there is supposed to be an audio editor they did a very poor job. Scott Woodside has a pleasant, easily-understood voice but the glaring mispronunciations are disconcerting. Because I like short stories I was able to forgive the errors. Shouldn't someone be noticing these errors or previewing possible difficulties before the recording is made ? Not every narrator might be familiar, for example, with a "brazier" and would (understandably) pronounce it "brassiere", and "sow" ( rhyming with "now") is a perfectly reasonable mispronunciation of "sou."
How could the performance have been better?
As I mentioned, someone needs to preview and go over possible pronunciation problems before the recording session. I do not fault the narrator for this omission.
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1 person found this helpful
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- J. Hertel
- 02-27-22
did not finish
these are classic stories and would have been interesting to listen to but for the narrator who seemed hesitant and red the text like a child
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- Lee Ann Horner
- 05-17-21
It’s as if the narrator has no idea what he’s reading
Forget the terrible prononciation of the foreign text, Scott can’t even read basic English words. Poor quality and very distracting performance and overall not worth the time.
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- Amazon Customer
- 02-16-22
Narration too distracting!
Couldn't finish this book due to the narrator's bizarre style of reading. It sounds like someone asked a computer to read this out loud.
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- LS
- 02-07-14
Not Actually Mysteries
Any additional comments?
None of the stories I listened to were mysteries or detective stories. I only listened to a few and then gave up so there may have been some hidden gems that I missed.
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2 people found this helpful