
Strange Yesterday
Failed to add items
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed

Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Buy for $24.95
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
-
Narrated by:
-
Christopher Kipiniak
-
By:
-
Howard Fast
About this listen
Five generations of Preswicks, living, loving, fighting, laughing, and dying in a surge of limitless power that paralleled the course of America. A full tale of a family that grew with America, of an Aristocracy that gained everything but reason to live. Two women bore John Preswick two children - one the daughter of a southern innkeeper, who nursed a broken Revolutionary soldier back to health, the other a girl in New York, who waited seven years for her lover to return from the war. From these children grew the two branches of the Preswick family, a strange tangle of incestuous love and restless longing, that stretches over one hundred and fifty years, to the World War and the South of today, living in the glory of its past.
All America walks past in Strange Yesterday. Old New York, shaking loose from the British occupation, privateers snapping at Britain's rule of the sea, preying free as pirates, men losing their bodies and souls in a mad dash for California and gold, men piling up fortunes in fantastic booms and ventures, men off to fight a war in France, returning lost and broken. Here is an original, thrilling tale of the love of a brother for his sister, of men for gold and death. It is a pageant, simply and powerfully told.
©1934 Howard Melvin Fast (P)2013 Audible, Inc.Listeners also enjoyed...
-
Speaks the Nightbird
- By: Robert R. McCammon
- Narrated by: Edoardo Ballerini
- Length: 30 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Carolinas, 1699: The citizens of Fount Royal believe a witch has cursed their town with inexplicable tragedies -- and they demand that beautiful widow Rachel Howarth be tried and executed for witchcraft. Presiding over the trial is traveling magistrate Issac Woodward, aided by his astute young clerk, Matthew Corbett. Believing in Rachel's innocence, Matthew will soon confront the true evil at work in Fount Royal....
-
-
Dark, Twisted Period Piece with GREAT Characters!
- By aaron on 06-05-12
-
The Deceivers
- By: John Masters
- Narrated by: Patrick Tull
- Length: 11 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Around a low-burning fire in a jungle clearing, a small group of late travelers huddles: a merchant, a Sikh with his son, a farmer. Silently, two men, flanking one of the travelers, crouch forward. A dirty cloth flashes momentarily and jerks around the traveler’s neck. One of the men tugs the cloth, the other forces the traveler’s head over to one side. Thuggee death has struck; Kali is assuaged.
-
-
Jack Aubrey Meets Richard Sharpe
- By John on 10-26-19
By: John Masters
-
Washington Black
- A Novel
- By: Esi Edugyan
- Narrated by: Dion Graham
- Length: 12 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Eleven-year-old George Washington Black—or Wash—a field slave on a Barbados sugar plantation, is initially terrified when he is chosen as the manservant of his master’s brother. To his surprise, however, the eccentric Christopher Wilde turns out to be a naturalist, explorer, inventor, and abolitionist. Soon Wash is initiated into a world where a flying machine can carry a man across the sky, where even a boy born in chains may embrace a life of dignity and meaning, and where two people, separated by an impossible divide, can begin to see each other as human.
-
-
Now what do I do?
- By Mary L. Doyle on 10-04-18
By: Esi Edugyan
-
The Bastard
- The Kent Family Chronicles, Book 1
- By: John Jakes
- Narrated by: Marc Vietor
- Length: 19 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Set against the colorful tumult of events that gave rise to our fledgling nation, this novel of romance and adventure introduces Phillipe Charboneau. The illegitimate son of an English nobleman, Phillipe flees Europe and, as Philip Kent, joins the men who set our course for freedom. The Bastard is the first volume in the Kent Family Chronicles, a series of novels that details one family's journey in the early years of the American nation.
-
-
An Amazing Tale
- By will on 11-06-13
By: John Jakes
-
The Narrow Corner
- By: W. Somerset Maugham
- Narrated by: David Thorpe
- Length: 8 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
On his way home from a remote Pacific island, Dr Saunders travels with two strangers: the treacherous Captain Nichols, and Fred, a handsome Australian with a shadowy past. Driven to shelter from a storm on the island of Banda, the trio meets good-natured Erik Christessen and his fiancée, the cool and beautiful Louise. A tense, exotic tale of love, jealousy, murder and suicide, which evolved from a passage in Maugham's earlier masterpiece, The Moon and Sixpence.
-
-
Stunningly Great
- By SouthwestDude on 09-08-19
-
Pirates!
- By: Celia Rees
- Narrated by: Jennifer Wiltsie
- Length: 8 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
It is the dawn of the 18th century, when girls stay home and sew while men sail the high seas finding adventure, danger, and gold. But two unusually adventurous girls (a rich merchant's daughter, Nancy Kington, and her former plantation slave, Minerva Sharpe) take to the high seas from Jamaica on a ship the crew renames Deliverance.
-
-
a Romance, not a romance
- By Chandra on 07-17-04
By: Celia Rees
-
Speaks the Nightbird
- By: Robert R. McCammon
- Narrated by: Edoardo Ballerini
- Length: 30 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Carolinas, 1699: The citizens of Fount Royal believe a witch has cursed their town with inexplicable tragedies -- and they demand that beautiful widow Rachel Howarth be tried and executed for witchcraft. Presiding over the trial is traveling magistrate Issac Woodward, aided by his astute young clerk, Matthew Corbett. Believing in Rachel's innocence, Matthew will soon confront the true evil at work in Fount Royal....
-
-
Dark, Twisted Period Piece with GREAT Characters!
- By aaron on 06-05-12
-
The Deceivers
- By: John Masters
- Narrated by: Patrick Tull
- Length: 11 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Around a low-burning fire in a jungle clearing, a small group of late travelers huddles: a merchant, a Sikh with his son, a farmer. Silently, two men, flanking one of the travelers, crouch forward. A dirty cloth flashes momentarily and jerks around the traveler’s neck. One of the men tugs the cloth, the other forces the traveler’s head over to one side. Thuggee death has struck; Kali is assuaged.
-
-
Jack Aubrey Meets Richard Sharpe
- By John on 10-26-19
By: John Masters
-
Washington Black
- A Novel
- By: Esi Edugyan
- Narrated by: Dion Graham
- Length: 12 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Eleven-year-old George Washington Black—or Wash—a field slave on a Barbados sugar plantation, is initially terrified when he is chosen as the manservant of his master’s brother. To his surprise, however, the eccentric Christopher Wilde turns out to be a naturalist, explorer, inventor, and abolitionist. Soon Wash is initiated into a world where a flying machine can carry a man across the sky, where even a boy born in chains may embrace a life of dignity and meaning, and where two people, separated by an impossible divide, can begin to see each other as human.
-
-
Now what do I do?
- By Mary L. Doyle on 10-04-18
By: Esi Edugyan
-
The Bastard
- The Kent Family Chronicles, Book 1
- By: John Jakes
- Narrated by: Marc Vietor
- Length: 19 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Set against the colorful tumult of events that gave rise to our fledgling nation, this novel of romance and adventure introduces Phillipe Charboneau. The illegitimate son of an English nobleman, Phillipe flees Europe and, as Philip Kent, joins the men who set our course for freedom. The Bastard is the first volume in the Kent Family Chronicles, a series of novels that details one family's journey in the early years of the American nation.
-
-
An Amazing Tale
- By will on 11-06-13
By: John Jakes
-
The Narrow Corner
- By: W. Somerset Maugham
- Narrated by: David Thorpe
- Length: 8 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
On his way home from a remote Pacific island, Dr Saunders travels with two strangers: the treacherous Captain Nichols, and Fred, a handsome Australian with a shadowy past. Driven to shelter from a storm on the island of Banda, the trio meets good-natured Erik Christessen and his fiancée, the cool and beautiful Louise. A tense, exotic tale of love, jealousy, murder and suicide, which evolved from a passage in Maugham's earlier masterpiece, The Moon and Sixpence.
-
-
Stunningly Great
- By SouthwestDude on 09-08-19
-
Pirates!
- By: Celia Rees
- Narrated by: Jennifer Wiltsie
- Length: 8 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
It is the dawn of the 18th century, when girls stay home and sew while men sail the high seas finding adventure, danger, and gold. But two unusually adventurous girls (a rich merchant's daughter, Nancy Kington, and her former plantation slave, Minerva Sharpe) take to the high seas from Jamaica on a ship the crew renames Deliverance.
-
-
a Romance, not a romance
- By Chandra on 07-17-04
By: Celia Rees
-
Frenchman's Creek
- By: Daphne du Maurier
- Narrated by: John Castle
- Length: 8 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Eventually Dona lands in remote Navron, looking for peace of mind in its solitary woods and hidden creeks. She finds the passion her spirit craves in the love of a daring French pirate who is being hunted by all of Cornwall. Together, they embark upon a quest rife with danger and glory, one which bestows upon Dona the ultimate choice: sacrifice her lover to certain death or risk her own life to save him
-
-
Very sexy without the details
- By Edwillmom on 05-05-18
-
South Sea Tales
- By: Jack London
- Narrated by: Lloyd James
- Length: 6 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Most readers are familiar with Jack London's stories of the frozen northland, such as White Fang and To Light a Fire, but many critics feel he should be equally acknowledged for his fascinating stories of the South Pacific. Here is another remote corner of the world, a background for his magnificently colorful and entertaining Tales of the South Pacific.
-
-
Exceptional Storytelling
- By Andre on 12-06-18
By: Jack London
-
The Hidden Heart
- Victorian Hearts, Book 1
- By: Laura Kinsale
- Narrated by: Nicholas Boulton
- Length: 11 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When her naturalist father dies on the upper reaches of the Amazon, Lady Tess Collier sets out to fulfill his last wish: return to England and marry. Desperate and broke, privateer Gryphon Meridon takes on an assignment he'd much rather refuse - shepherding a beautiful, eccentric young lady through London's ballrooms.
-
-
Flawed Characters Making a Glorious Mess!
- By Amazon Customer on 09-29-15
By: Laura Kinsale
-
Sacred Hunger
- By: Barry Unsworth
- Narrated by: David Rintoul
- Length: 22 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In this Booker Prize-winning work, Barry Unsworth follows the failing fortunes of William Kemp, a merchant pinning his last chance to a slave ship; his son, who needs a fortune because he is in love with an upper-class woman; and his nephew, who sails on the ship as its doctor because he has lost all he has loved. The voyage meets its demise when disease spreads among the slaves and the captain's drastic response provokes a mutiny.
-
-
Wise, Perceptive, Heart-breaking
- By S. Coldsmith on 04-16-16
By: Barry Unsworth
-
Sea of Poppies
- Ibis Trilogy, Book 1
- By: Amitav Ghosh
- Narrated by: Phil Gigante
- Length: 18 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
At the heart of this vibrant saga is an immense ship, the Ibis. Its destiny is a tumultuous voyage across the Indian Ocean, its purpose to fight China's vicious 19th-century Opium Wars. As for the crew, they are a motley array of sailors and stowaways, coolies and convicts.
-
-
ignorance may be bliss
- By Evelyn M Kloepper on 07-27-09
By: Amitav Ghosh
-
The Sea Wolf
- By: Jack London
- Narrated by: Will Patton
- Length: 6 hrs and 7 mins
- Abridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Jack London worshiped strong and virtuous heroes, and his stories give great weight to the inevitable triumph of good over evil. His telling of the adventures of Humphrey van Weydon in The Sea Wolf is in keeping with this theme of moral man. His powerful and gripping saga of van Weydon's capture by a seal-hunting ship and the ensuing tangles with its dreaded captain, Wolf Larsen, makes this a classic American tale of peril and victory.
-
-
I won the lottery!
- By Bill on 08-11-17
By: Jack London
-
The Slave Dancer
- By: Paula Fox
- Narrated by: Peter MacNicol
- Length: 3 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Jessie Bollier often played his fife to earn a few pennies down by the New Orleans docks. One afternoon a sailor asked him to pipe a tune, and that evening Jessie was kidnapped and dumped aboard The Moonlight, a slave ship, where a hateful duty awaited him. He was to play music so the slaves could "dance" to keep their muscles strong, their bodies profitable. Jessie was sickened by the thought of taking part in the business of trading rum and tobacco for blacks and then selling the ones who survived the frightful sea voyage from Africa.
-
-
A black time in history
- By Amazon Customer on 05-30-17
By: Paula Fox
-
The Secret River
- By: Kate Grenville
- Narrated by: Paul Blackwell
- Length: 10 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In 1806 William Thornhill, a man of quick temper and deep feelings, is transported from the slums of London to New South Wales for the term of his natural life. With his wife, Sal, and their children he arrives in a harsh land he cannot understand. But the colony can turn a convict into a free man. Eight years later Thornhill sails up the Hawkesbury to claim 100 acres for himself. Aboriginal people already live on that river. And other recent arrivals - Thomas Blackwood, Smasher Sullivan, and Mrs Herring - are finding their own ways to respond to them.
-
-
Powerful yet heartbreaking. An absolute must for every Australian
- By henhao on 03-01-16
By: Kate Grenville
-
Cup of Gold
- A Life of Sir Henry Morgan, Buccaneer, with Occasional Reference to History
- By: John Steinbeck, Susan F. Beegel - introduction
- Narrated by: Ronan Vibert
- Length: 8 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From the mid-1650s through the 1660s, Henry Morgan, a pirate and outlaw of legendary viciousness, ruled the Spanish Main. He ravaged the coasts of Cuba and America, striking terror wherever he went. Morgan was obsessive. He had two driving ambitions: to possess the beautiful woman called La Santa Roja and to conquer Panama, the "cup of gold".
-
-
Not your usual Steinbeck novel
- By Andrew on 06-03-15
By: John Steinbeck, and others
-
Ahab's Wife
- The Star-Gazer
- By: Sena Jeter Naslund
- Narrated by: Maryann Plunkett
- Length: 6 hrs and 15 mins
- Abridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Captain Ahab was neither my first husband nor my last. This is destined to be remembered as one of the most-recognized first sentences in literature - along with "Call me Ishmael." And Una Spenser, the transcendent hero at the center of Ahab's Wife may well become every bit as memorable as Ahab. Inspired by a brief passage in Moby Dick, Sena Jeter Naslund has created an entirely new universe - an epic-scale, enthralling, and compelling saga, spanning a full, rich, eventful, and dramatic life. In the "soprano voice" whose absence critics lamented in Moby Dick - the strong, intelligent voice of a woman whose life is dominated by the sea - Naslund tells many stories.
-
-
Not
- By Anne on 03-03-06
-
The Mark of the Beast
- By: Rudyard Kipling
- Narrated by: B.J. Harrison
- Length: 33 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When a carousing Englishman disgraces the consecrated effigy of Hanuman, a leprous "Silver Man" marks him with a hideous curse. The ensuing night brings new terrors to the house of the doomed man.
-
-
Must listen again
- By uffdasuzanne on 10-06-17
By: Rudyard Kipling
-
The Trembling of a Leaf
- By: W. Somerset Maugham
- Narrated by: Frederick Davidson
- Length: 7 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When noted English writer William Somerset Maugham set off for the South Seas to regain his health, he gathered the materials and wrote the stories represented here. These are among Maugham's best, and the best stories ever written about the exotic South Seas.
-
-
The Trembling of a Leaf
- By David Share on 11-22-09
Editorial reviews
From the start of this ambitious story, narrator Christopher Kipiniak creates a sense of foreboding that hints at the upheavals to follow. Revolutionary War soldier John Preswick falls in love with the innkeeper's daughter who nurses him back to health even as his wife waits for him in New York. The two women bear John children, and Kipiniak vividly describes the lives of five generations of Preswicks as they are swept along the trajectory of American history. Kipiniak gives their stories the feel of a grand epic, and listeners will be fascinated by the depiction of important events such as the Civil War and the Gold Rush through the experiences of an American family.