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My Lady Ludlow
- Narrated by: Susannah York
- Length: 7 hrs and 55 mins
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Publisher's summary
Lady Ludlow's appalling snobbery, prejudice and bred-in-the-bone conviction as to the superiority of the English aristocracy and their feudal way of life are deliciously tested, and found wanting, in this gently radical tale of the collapse of a social system.
Elizabeth Gaskell's My Lady Ludlow is a brilliant picture of the shift in power in a rural northern village, from the velvety feudal Ludlows to the glitter of the new money rattling through the system courtesy of the brazen baker from Birmingham.
The interruption of scenes from the French Revolution adds a crackling of horror to this quintessentially British of downfalls. One of the extraordinary things about My Lady Ludlow as a book is that in spite of the creation of a monster of hidebound arrogance and pretension, Gaskell cannot help but produce a character that you end up rooting for right up to the wide grin induced by the final twist in the plot.
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- Unabridged
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Self-made American millionaire Christopher Newman arrives in Paris brimming with hope and optimism, excited to experience the culture and, hopefully, find the perfect woman to become his wife. After a chance encounter with American expatriate friends, his attention is drawn to Madame de Cintré, 25-year-old widowed daughter of the late Marquis de Bellegarde. Having fallen on hard times, the centuries-old aristocratic family permits Newman's courtship to proceed; however, they later persuade the widow to break off her engagement to the nouveau-riche businessman.
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excellent reading
- By Andorboth on 12-03-22
By: Henry James
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Shirley
- By: Charlotte Brontë
- Narrated by: Anna Bentinck
- Length: 25 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
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Set in the industrialising England of the Napoleonic wars, a period of bad harvests, Luddite riots, and economic unrest, Shirley is the story of two contrasting heroines and the men they love. One is the shy Caroline Helstone, trapped in the oppressive atmosphere of a Yorkshire rectory, whose life represents the plight of single women in the 19th century. The other is the vivacious Shirley Keeldar, who inherits a local estate and whose wealth liberates her from convention.
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"As Romantic As Monday Morning"
- By Joseph R on 09-15-09
By: Charlotte Brontë
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Le Pere Goriot
- By: Honoré de Balzac
- Narrated by: Paul Hecht
- Length: 10 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
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At the shabby boarding house in the rue Neuve-Sainte-Geneviève, petty Madame Vauquer and her tenants wonder at the plight of the aging resident Goriot. Once a well-heeled merchant, Goriot was, at first, afforded special treatment from the Madame. But now something is clearly amiss in his financial affairs, and his increasingly tawdry appearance makes him a subject of ridicule in the household.
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balzac rocks
- By beatrice on 03-12-10
By: Honoré de Balzac
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Anna Karenina
- By: Leo Tolstoy
- Narrated by: Maggie Gyllenhaal
- Length: 35 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
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Leo Tolstoy's classic story of doomed love is one of the most admired novels in world literature. Generations of readers have been enthralled by his magnificent heroine, the unhappily married Anna Karenina, and her tragic affair with dashing Count Vronsky.
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Need to Disclose and Highlight Name of Translator
- By Charles B on 08-27-18
By: Leo Tolstoy
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Lady Susan, The Watsons, and Sanditon
- By: Jane Austen
- Narrated by: Norma West
- Length: 6 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
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Previously unpublished in unabridged audio, these three works (one novel unpublished in her lifetime and two unfinished fragments) reveal Jane Austen's development as a great artist.
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For the Austen Addict
- By Joseph R on 09-09-09
By: Jane Austen
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Ruth
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- Length: 16 hrs and 50 mins
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The orphaned heroine Ruth, apprenticed to a dressmaker, is seduced by wealthy Henry Bellingham who is captivated by her simplicity and beauty. Their affair causes her to lose her home and job to which he offers her shelter, only to cruelly abandon her soon after. She is offered a chance of a new life though shamed in the eyes of society by her illegitimate son. When Henry reappears offering marriage she must choose between social acceptance and her own pride.
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A vivid and affectionate portrait of the residents of an English country town in the mid-19th century, Cranford describes a community dominated by its independent and refined women, relating the adventures of Miss Matty and Miss Deborah, two middle-aged spinster sisters striving to live with dignity in reduced circumstances. Through a series of satirical vignettes, Gaskell sympathetically portrays changing small town customs and values in mid-Victorian England....
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Quietly, subtly sweet and heartwarming
- By T. on 03-26-12
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Cousin Phillis
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Cousin Phillis – a miniature masterpiece – is set in the 1840s, when the coming of the railway was changing the face of England, and quiet rural communities, coming into contact with the outside world, were changed forever. The story focuses on the effect these changes have on a naïve country girl, Phillis, as she encounters love, with all its pains and pleasures, for the first time.
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Delicate Story
- By Mama C on 01-08-11
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Cranford
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Elizabeth Gaskell's comic portrait of early Victorian life in a country town describes with poignant wit the uneventful lives of its lady-like inhabitants, offering an ironic commentary on the separate spheres and diverse experiences of men and women. As the external world necessarily impinges even on Cranford, the unlikely juxtapositions of old and new brought about by the pace of change are also explored.
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Brilliantly read
- By Hazel on 01-23-09
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Mary Barton
- A Tale of Manchester Life
- By: Elizabeth Gaskell
- Narrated by: Juliet Stevenson
- Length: 16 hrs and 17 mins
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When her father assassinates Henry Carson, his employer's son and Mary's admirer, suspicion falls on Mary's second admirer, Jem, a fellow worker. Mary has to prove her lover's innocence without incriminating her own father.
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Mrs. Gaskell was so far ahead of her time
- By Pat on 08-20-13
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North and South
- By: Elizabeth Gaskell
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Overall
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Written at the request of Charles Dickens, North and South is a book about rebellion that poses fundamental questions about the nature of social authority and obedience. Gaskell expertly blends individual feeling with social concern and her heroine, Margaret Hale, is one of the most original creations of Victorian literature. When Margaret Hale's father leaves the Church in a crisis of conscience she is forced to leave her comfortable home in the tranquil countryside of Hampshire....
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Delightful
- By Sally on 01-04-10
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Ruth
- By: Elizabeth Gaskell
- Narrated by: Eve Matheson
- Length: 16 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
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Performance
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Story
The orphaned heroine Ruth, apprenticed to a dressmaker, is seduced by wealthy Henry Bellingham who is captivated by her simplicity and beauty. Their affair causes her to lose her home and job to which he offers her shelter, only to cruelly abandon her soon after. She is offered a chance of a new life though shamed in the eyes of society by her illegitimate son. When Henry reappears offering marriage she must choose between social acceptance and her own pride.
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Fallen Woman Finds Redemption
- By Susan on 12-06-12
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Cranford
- By: Elizabeth Gaskell
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- Length: 6 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
A vivid and affectionate portrait of the residents of an English country town in the mid-19th century, Cranford describes a community dominated by its independent and refined women, relating the adventures of Miss Matty and Miss Deborah, two middle-aged spinster sisters striving to live with dignity in reduced circumstances. Through a series of satirical vignettes, Gaskell sympathetically portrays changing small town customs and values in mid-Victorian England....
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Quietly, subtly sweet and heartwarming
- By T. on 03-26-12
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Cousin Phillis
- By: Elizabeth Gaskell
- Narrated by: Joe Marsh
- Length: 3 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
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Performance
-
Story
Cousin Phillis – a miniature masterpiece – is set in the 1840s, when the coming of the railway was changing the face of England, and quiet rural communities, coming into contact with the outside world, were changed forever. The story focuses on the effect these changes have on a naïve country girl, Phillis, as she encounters love, with all its pains and pleasures, for the first time.
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Delicate Story
- By Mama C on 01-08-11
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Cranford
- By: Elizabeth Gaskell
- Narrated by: Nadia May
- Length: 6 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Elizabeth Gaskell's comic portrait of early Victorian life in a country town describes with poignant wit the uneventful lives of its lady-like inhabitants, offering an ironic commentary on the separate spheres and diverse experiences of men and women. As the external world necessarily impinges even on Cranford, the unlikely juxtapositions of old and new brought about by the pace of change are also explored.
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Brilliantly read
- By Hazel on 01-23-09
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Mary Barton
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- Narrated by: Juliet Stevenson
- Length: 16 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
-
Story
When her father assassinates Henry Carson, his employer's son and Mary's admirer, suspicion falls on Mary's second admirer, Jem, a fellow worker. Mary has to prove her lover's innocence without incriminating her own father.
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Mrs. Gaskell was so far ahead of her time
- By Pat on 08-20-13
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North and South
- By: Elizabeth Gaskell
- Narrated by: Juliet Stevenson
- Length: 18 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Written at the request of Charles Dickens, North and South is a book about rebellion that poses fundamental questions about the nature of social authority and obedience. Gaskell expertly blends individual feeling with social concern and her heroine, Margaret Hale, is one of the most original creations of Victorian literature. When Margaret Hale's father leaves the Church in a crisis of conscience she is forced to leave her comfortable home in the tranquil countryside of Hampshire....
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Delightful
- By Sally on 01-04-10
What listeners say about My Lady Ludlow
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Nate
- 10-01-22
My Lady Ludlpw a wonderful book
Susanna York
Has done an impeccable job of reading this wonderful story and Elizabeth Gaskell is shown to great advantage through this reading thank you so much.
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- Lana T
- 08-22-24
Excellent narrator
Charming, touching story about times changing. Manners and elegance will never go out of style, though.
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- Bruce
- 06-21-22
Connoisseurs listen twice
I listened twice, because the first time I enjoyed the flow of language, but the second time I gained appreciation for the plot. North and South and Wives and Daughters felt more intense and compelling. If My Lady Ludlow had been my first Gaskell read, I might have struggled a bit, needing (as we today do) intense drama to keep our attention.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Anne B.
- 03-03-23
It doesn’t get better
Perfect understand and interpretation of the characters and relationships. Incredible voice. Found myself looking forward to long drives just so I could listen. Elizabeth Gaskell’s writing style is so beautiful and so personal. An escape from all the negative noise in our world and a reminder that small acts of kindness can change life’s course.
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- Fontaine Ralston
- 01-19-19
So beautiful
So many winsome characters and such a sweet story. I cried when it ended. More Elizabeth Gaskell, please!
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3 people found this helpful
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- Tad Davis
- 03-04-20
A treat
If, like me, you were charmed by the BBC/PBS series “Cranford,” you probably already know that the series was a mosaic that wove together storylines from more than one novel by Elizabeth Gaskell. The main one, naturally enough, is Cranford, and if you want to go the audiobook route, you have a large selection to choose from there. Other parts of the series drew on the novels My Lady Ludlow and Mr Harrison’s Confessions, and the choice is more limited there: only one version of each. I haven't tried the Harrison novel yet, but I can vouch for this one: it's a treat.
Susannah York gives a delightful reading of this largely episodic tale of a baron’s widow trying to cope with economic and social change. Lady Ludlow takes a dim view of educating the peasants: once they learn to read, she says, they'll be clamoring for the “rights of man” rather than their duties, and then the English will have the French Revolution on their hands. Yet she has a kinder side, and her face lights up, the narrator tells us, whenever she hears of a compassionate deed. The narrator is a young relation who lives with the Lady, and about whom we know little except that she has a chronic illness that has left her partly disabled.
The initial tone of the novel is laid back, and it comes as a surprise to find, dropped into the middle of it, a tragic novella narrated by Lady Ludlow. It turns out her reference to the French Revolution was more than a figure of speech. A refugee from that upheaval, a young man named Clément, lived with Lord and Lady Ludlow for a brief time. But he decided to go back to rescue his cousin Virginie, with whom he had fallen in love. He unknowingly crossed a rich citizen who had also fallen in love with Virginie — with the kind of love that would rather see her dead than be with another man. Denounced by this would-be lover, the young man and Virginie were both captured and both died on the scaffold together.
There are other tragedies. The Ludlows' own son, a proud naval officer, perished at sea in the Napoleonic wars. (In fact all of the Ludlow children die, including the last remaining heir to the title and estate.) There is some overlap with Jane Austen in terms of period and subject, but Gaskell’s tone is darker and the shadows more prevalent. A local parson upsets the equanimity of the community by preaching against slavery: he won't take sugar in his tea because it's a product of slavery. Lady Ludlow, decent as she is on the whole, doesn't like new ideas, and is especially offended by the existence of illegitimate children. (Given her negative attitude toward universal education, illegitimate children, and poachers, it should come as no surprise, this being a novel with SOME plot development, that she helps build a school for the poor, supports a young girl who is probably illegitimate, and employs a former poacher as her gamekeeper.)
Gaskell herself was a contemporary of Charles Dickens, but it would be hard to imagine a writer more different in tone. Where Dickens’ humor veers between farce and angry satire, Gaskell’s is soft and humane. The novel operates as a character study rather than a plot-driven narrative: it flows gently; it reminds me more of the workaday realism of Anthony Trollope than the sharply drawn melodrama of Dickens.
This is the only audiobook narrated by Susannah York on Audible (apart from a couple of plays). She does it like she was born to the job, and it's a delight.
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10 people found this helpful