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Narrated by:
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Ralph Cosham
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By:
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Andrew Miller
About this listen
By 1785, deep in the heart of Paris, the city's oldest cemetery is overflowing, tainting the very breath of those who live nearby. Into their midst comes Jean-Baptiste Baratte, a young, provincial engineer charged by the king with demolishing it. At first Baratte sees this as a chance to clear the burden of history, a fitting task for a modern man of reason. But before long, he begins to suspect that the destruction of the cemetery might be a prelude to his own.
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Steampunk! An Anthology of Fantastically Rich and Strange Stories
- By: Kelly Link - editor, Gavin J. Grant - editor
- Narrated by: Sarah Coomes, Nico Evers-Swindell, Shannon McManus, and others
- Length: 12 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
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Imagine an alternate universe where romance and technology reign. Where tinkerers and dreamers craft and recraft a world of automatons, ornate clockworks, calculating machines, and other marvels that. Where scientists and schoolgirls, fair folk and Romans, intergalactic bandits, and intrepid orphans - decked out in corsets, clockwerk suits, and tall black boots - solve dastardly crimes, escape from monstrous predicaments, consult oracles, and hover over volcanoes in steam-powered airships.
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MMMM, Orca Bacon
- By Jim "The Impatient" on 09-14-13
By: Kelly Link - editor, and others
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Instruments of Darkness
- A Novel
- By: Imogen Robertson
- Narrated by: Wanda McCaddon
- Length: 11 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
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In the year 1780, Harriet Westerman, the willful mistress of a country manor in Sussex, finds a dead man on her grounds with a ring bearing the crest of Thornleigh Hall in his pocket. Not one to be bound by convention or to shy away from adventure, she recruits a reclusive local anatomist named Gabriel Crowther to help her find the murderer, and historical suspense's newest investigative duo is born.
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Not The Best, But Not Too Bad...
- By MJ on 01-13-13
By: Imogen Robertson
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Hide Me Among the Graves
- By: Tim Powers
- Narrated by: Fiona Hardingham
- Length: 17 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
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Winter 1862, London. Adelaide McKee, a former prostitute, arrives on the doorstep of veterinarian John Crawford, a man she met once seven years earlier. Their brief meeting produced a child who, until now, had been presumed dead. McKee has learned that the girl lives - but that her life and soul are in mortal peril from a vampiric ghost. But this is no ordinary spirit; the bloodthirsty wraith is none other than John Polidori, the onetime physician to the mad, bad, and dangerous Romantic poet Lord Byron.
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One More Mortal Sin
- By Dave on 01-31-14
By: Tim Powers
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The Book of Magic
- By: Gardner Dozois - editor, Scott Lynch, Elizabeth Bear, and others
- Narrated by: Karissa Vacker, Sile Bermingham, Maxwell Caulfield, and others
- Length: 24 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
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Hot on the heels of Gardner Dozois's acclaimed anthology The Book of Swords comes this companion volume devoted to magic. How could it be otherwise? For every Frodo, there is a Gandalf... and a Saruman. For every Dorothy, a Glinda... and a Wicked Witch of the West. What would Harry Potter be without Albus Dumbledore... and Severus Snape? Figures of wisdom and power, possessing arcane, often forbidden knowledge, wizards and sorcerers are shaped - or misshaped - by the potent magic they seek to wield.
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some stinkers mostly good
- By M.T. on 12-11-18
By: Gardner Dozois - editor, and others
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Those Who Hunt the Night
- A James Asher Novel, Book 1
- By: Barbara Hambly
- Narrated by: Gildart Jackson
- Length: 11 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
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Once a spy for Queen Victoria, James Asher has fought for Britain on every continent, using his quick wits to protect the Empire at all costs. After years of grueling service, he marries and retires to a simple academic’s life at Oxford. But his peace is shattered one night with the arrival of a Spanish vampire named Don Simon. Don Simon can disappear into fog, move faster than the eye can see, and immobilize Asher - and his young bride - with a wave of his hand. Asher is at his mercy, and has no choice but to give his help.
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Creepy, historical vampire fun!
- By bluestatereader on 03-11-14
By: Barbara Hambly
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Madame Bovary
- By: Gustave Flaubert
- Narrated by: Davina Porter
- Length: 13 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
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Emma Bovary is not content to be the mere dutiful wife of a French country doctor. She yearns for excitement and a sense of romance that pulls at her so strongly she is powerless to resist, even though pursuing her dreams will exact a terrible price. Learn why Gustave Flaubert's compelling heroine has enchanted and puzzled readers for centuries.
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Now Here's a Story
- By P. Giorgio on 09-06-03
By: Gustave Flaubert
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Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister
- By: Gregory Maguire
- Narrated by: Jenny Sterlin
- Length: 12 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
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Gregory Maguire proves himself to be “one of contemporary fiction’s most assured myth-makers” (Kirkus Reviews) with Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister, his ingenious and provocative retelling of the timeless Cinderella fairy tale. Perhaps best known for his dark and breathtaking Oz series The Wicked Years—including the novel Wicked, which inspired the Tony Award-winning Broadway musical—Maguire is a master at upending the ordinary to help us see the familiar in a brilliant new light.
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A Very Human Story!
- By SamiJo McQuiston on 05-02-18
By: Gregory Maguire
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The Pale Blue Eye
- By: Louis Bayard
- Narrated by: Charles Leggett
- Length: 15 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
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When the body of a suicide victim disappears at West Point Military Academy in 1831, only to be discovered hours later missing its heart, the Academy calls on retired detective Gus Landor to investigate. Landor is something of a legend among his peers, noted for an uncanny, Holmesian ability to read people. When Edgar Allan Poe, a new cadet, comes forth with his own cryptic conclusion—that the man Landor is looking for is a poet—Landor is intrigued and enlists Poe as his assistant.
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Could not get through it
- By Amazon Customer on 10-25-15
By: Louis Bayard
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Cold Magic
- By: Kate Elliott
- Narrated by: Charlotte Parry
- Length: 17 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
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The Industrial Revolution has begun, factories are springing up across the country, and new technologies are transforming the cities. But the old ways do not die easy. Cat and Bee are part of this revolution. Young women at college, learning of the science that will shape their future and ignorant of the magics that rule their families. But all of that will change when the Cold Mages come for Cat. New dangers lurk around every corner and hidden threats menace her every move. If blood can't be trusted, who can you trust?
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Absolutely Brilliant Fantasy!
- By bluestatereader on 08-14-13
By: Kate Elliott
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What Angels Fear
- Sebastian St. Cyr, Book 1
- By: C. S. Harris
- Narrated by: Davina Porter
- Length: 11 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
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It's 1811, and the threat of revolution haunts the upper classes of King George III's England. Then a beautiful young woman is found savagely murdered on the altar steps of an ancient church near Westminster Abbey. A dueling pistol found at the scene and the damning testimony of a witness both point to one man - Sebastian St. Cyr, Viscount Devlin, a brilliant young nobleman shattered by his experience in the Napoleonic Wars.
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An Addictive Series
- By Bibliophile1963 on 10-17-16
By: C. S. Harris
What listeners say about Pure
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- JJLarson
- 06-17-18
Pure
This book was beautifully written and very descriptive, but also very depressing. I’m not sure how this is part of the romance package.
Jean-Baptiste Baratte, an engineer arrives in Paris in 1785, taking on the job of emptying the cemetery of Les Innocent. The stench is overpowering and is poisoning the air, food, and water.
Jean-Baptiste thinks he is going to bring new life to the city. He starts off pretty well, but soon realizes most people are not happy with him or the work he intends to do.
I didn’t enjoy this book very much. I realize it was based on an important part of history, but just didn’t expect a story labeled as being part of the romance package to be so depressing.
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- Jonathan
- 12-06-13
Listened to in a single day! Once I got going!
One would think that any novel you start and finish in a single day would prove to be one that you would reccomend to others, and one would be quite correct in thinking so!
This novel, once I got into the characters and situations was simply not one I could bear to wait to finish... What would seem, at first, a somewhat macabre novel, proves in the end to expose more kindness and sympathy despite the death around its characters than I could have first anticipated...
As someone with an interest in historical novels, it is also an interesting take on 'pre-revolutionary' France, and is remarkably insightful should I ever get the priveledge to actually visit Paris, and its catacombs...
Not without sadness and tragety, it yet contains a tenderness which is uncovered that seems the more real and miraculous in spite of itsself...
Overall, an excelent read! Romantic in its way, fascinating, and compassionate, it is an excelent break from the sappy traditional victorian anxt, while keeping that historic and period correct edge!
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5 people found this helpful
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- Elliot
- 03-14-21
A slice of life in pre-revolutionary Paris
Andrew Miller is a masterful story teller and writes superb dialogue that feels completely authentic and contemporary with the era in which he is writing.
Ralph Cosham was the perfect reader. Titian, erudite, great French pronunciation, and droll.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Anonymous User
- 07-15-18
Good Historical Novel
I always enjoy anything to do with the 18th century. This book gave excellent detail about all aspects of life in Paris at that time. I t was definately dark in nature, but fitting to the subject matter. I was sad at the end, but the ending was symbollic and well done.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Cynthia
- 06-23-13
Cimetière des Innocents
The Catacombs of Paris, near Montparnasse, are a tourist attraction. l'Ossuaire Municipal, a section of the Catacombs, contains the bones of more than 6,000,000 people disinterred from Paris' cemeteries, starting with the Cemetery of the Innocents in 1786. I've been through the ossuary, and was both fascinated by the careful, respectful arrangement; and horrified - it was if bones of all the Jews killed by the Nazis were in one place.
I never once thought of the people that closed the cemeteries and removed the bones to the Catacombs. Andrew Miller's "Pure" (2011) is the fictional account of a provincial engineer, Jean-Baptiste Baratte, commissioned by the Court of Louis XVI, to design and oversee the removal of 6 centuries of bodies. Les Innocents was dangerously overused and the corpses were polluting the neighborhood air and Paris' drinking water.
Baratte lets a room from a family whose home overlooks the cemetery. He becomes both a loved and hated part of the community. The descriptions of 18th century life, fashions, work, and death are fascinating. The story and the plot are compelling.
The novel is written in the present tense, and I was not comfortable with that. After thinking it over, I realized that that is because "Pure" is a historical novel. Present tense works for me in sci-fi/dystopian writing, such as Suzanne Collins "Hunger Games" trilogy (2008-2010). The use of present tense in "Pure" seemed to me to be an artificial way of making Miller's historical imaginings more credible.
Ralph Cosham's narration was a little distracting. I know enough French to realize his French pronunciation is flawless, but the English was narrated with a French accent. That's another technique I don't particularly like. I don't need to be reminded "Pure" is set in France. I like the approach taken by Peter Francis James narrating Chinua Achebe's "Things Fall Apart" (1959). When James narrates the names and parts in Ibo, he pronounces them in Ibo; but he does not use an Ibo accent to narrate English.
[My apologies to those who adore the present tense wholeheartedly, and if you found this review helpful, please let me know by pressing the helpful button.]
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19 people found this helpful
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- Carol
- 02-16-14
Engrossing, entertaining, but weird
I am really glad I listened to this book. At first, I thought the author wrote it strictly from his head. But in the epilogue, I discovered it was a fictionalized real event. That made it even more meaningful to me. So, it is historical fiction (late 18th century), a love story, a bit of mystery. The main character, John-Baptiste, an engineer, was given the job of demolishing a very old cemetery in Paris. He designed the process and supervised the project. While Parisians weren't very happy about what happened to their families who were buried there, I couldn't help but think about the contrast with the kind of conflict a similar project caused in my city. Watching John-Baptiste grow and change made me feel quite close to him. Other characters weren't developed as much as his.
Supernatural eeriness was not part of this story. However, the weirdness of digging up thousands of bodies, (often no coffins or very flimsy ones) was enough.
This was a good story, a bit on the weird side, that was satisfying and provided a good look at 18th century Paris.
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9 people found this helpful
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- marsha
- 08-27-12
This book is exquisite
Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?
I enjoyed this book for many reasons. It is beautifully written,a good story, and a vivid description of Paris at the time. I liked the people who inhabit the book, they are good and decent people.
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9 people found this helpful
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- Marie Ann Bailey
- 07-15-17
Pure entertainment
Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?
Indeed, any friend who enjoys some mystery and history mixed together will enjoy this novel.
What did you like best about this story?
The narrator is one of my favorites (Ralph Cosham, RIP). I think I would enjoy any novel read by him. The story itself is intriguing. A young at the cusp of the French Revolution has an opportunity to make a name for himself by ridding a old cemetery of its dead, many of which are already seeping in the water and air systems of the small town nearby. His project is not simple, of course, and he is young and headstrong. Nothing that happens to him is anything I would immediately expect.
Have you listened to any of Ralph Cosham’s other performances before? How does this one compare?
Yes, I've listened all of Mr. Cosham's narrations for the Louise Penny Inspector Gamache series. He became Inspector Gamache for me. I miss him terribly.
Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?
Yes, that would have been a pleasure, to have had a whole day in which to listen.
Any additional comments?
I highly recommend this novel. Both the story and the narrator made it a wonderful experience.
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1 person found this helpful
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- T Cyr
- 07-08-13
Could not get into it!
What disappointed you about Pure?
The reader seems to lack enthusiasm in reading and does not seem very interested in the story he is trying to relate. Same tone with same rhythm. Very uninteresting story. Gave it a 2 hour try and could not get into it.
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3 people found this helpful