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Summer
- Narrated by: Grace Conlin
- Length: 5 hrs and 33 mins
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Publisher's summary
Praised for its realism and candor by such writers as Joseph Conrad and Henry James and compared to Flaubert's Madame Bovary, Summer was one of Wharton's personal favorites of all her novels and remains as fresh and relevant today as when it was first written.
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The Divine Ms. Porter delivers as always
- By peachnmario on 03-17-15
By: Charlotte Brontë
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The Fortnight in September
- By: R.C. Sherriff
- Narrated by: Jilly Bond
- Length: 9 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
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Meet the Stevens family as they prepare to embark on their yearly holiday to the coast of England. Mr. and Mrs. Stevens first made the trip to Bognor Regis on their honeymoon, and the tradition has continued ever since. They stay in the same guesthouse and follow the same carefully honed schedule - now accompanied by their three children, 20-year-old Mary, 17-year-old Dick, and little brother Ernie.
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life-affirming and magical
- By Victoria on 11-23-21
By: R.C. Sherriff
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Sons and Lovers
- By: D. H. Lawrence
- Narrated by: Simon Vance
- Length: 16 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
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Sons and Lovers, D. H. Lawrence's first major novel, was also the first in the English language to explore ordinary working-class life from the inside. No writer before or since has written so well about the intimacies enforced by a tightly knit mining community and by a family where feelings are never hidden for long. When the marriage between Walter Morel and his sensitive, high-minded wife begins to break down, the bitterness of their frustration seeps into their children's lives.
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Momma's Boy (The Dangers of Overbearing Parenting)
- By W Perry Hall on 02-01-14
By: D. H. Lawrence
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Death in Venice
- By: Thomas Mann
- Narrated by: Peter Batchelor
- Length: 3 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
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A stunningly beautiful youth and the city of Venice set the stage for Thomas Mann’s introspective examination of erotic love and philosophical wisdom.
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A problem with the narration
- By Erez on 03-19-12
By: Thomas Mann
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The Parisian
- By: Isabella Hammad
- Narrated by: Fiona Button
- Length: 20 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
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A masterful debut novel by Plimpton Prize winner Isabella Hammad, The Parisian illuminates a pivotal period of Palestinian history through the journey and romances of one young man, from his studies in France during World War I to his return to Palestine at the dawn of its battle for independence.
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Overly ambitious
- By Placeholder on 06-16-19
By: Isabella Hammad
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Tess of the D'urbervilles
- By: Thomas Hardy
- Narrated by: Jennifer Dixon
- Length: 17 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
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Tess of the d'Urbervilles is the 19th century novel lately thought to be one of the inspirations of E .L.James' Fifty Shades of Grey. It depicts the life of an impressionable, naive, somewhat educated young woman who yearns to be free to live her own life, but finds herself constricted by the bonds of the sexual, religious and socially hypocritical customs that have surrounded her from birth.
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Jenny Dixon
- By Amazon Customer on 08-09-15
By: Thomas Hardy
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Ethan Frome
- By: Edith Wharton
- Narrated by: Scott Brick
- Length: 3 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
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Ethan Frome, a poor, downtrodden New England farmer, is trapped in a loveless marriage to his invalid wife, Zeena.When Zeena's young cousin Mattie arrives to help care for her, Ethan is immediately taken by Mattie's warm, vivacious personality. They fall desperately in love as he realizes how much is missing from his life and marriage.
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Slow is smooth and smooth is Fast until it isn't
- By Darwin8u on 05-29-13
By: Edith Wharton
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The Great Gatsby
- By: F. Scott Fitzgerald
- Narrated by: Tanner Buchanan
- Length: 5 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
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Hailed as one of the Great American Novels, The Great Gatsby delves into the dark corners of the Jazz Age to tell a tragic tale of obsession, love, and the gritty underbelly of the American dream. Through the eyes of unassuming narrator Nick Carraway, the story follows the enigmatic Jay Gatsby as he chases the object of his hopeless desire, the beautiful Daisy Buchanan.
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The great American novel!
- By Karen Creeden on 11-12-22
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Far from the Madding Crowd
- By: Thomas Hardy
- Narrated by: David McCallion
- Length: 13 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
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Far from the Madding Crowd, which first appeared in Cornhill Magazine in monthly installments back in the late 19th century, features the love life of the young Bathsheba Everdene who is as poor as she is beautiful. Fortunately, Bathsheba's uncle leaves her his farm, which she goes to manage in the small town of Weatherbury. Before she leaves, however, she has an interesting encounter with a young farmer, Gabriel Oak, for whom she does a tremendous favor ,and he becomes indebted to her....
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Loved this delightful listening experience !!!
- By Robin Wardle on 07-15-16
By: Thomas Hardy
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The Beautiful and Damned
- By: F. Scott Fitzgerald
- Narrated by: William Dufris
- Length: 13 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
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Published in 1922, Fitzgerald's second novel chronicles the relationship of Anthony Patch, Harvard-educated, aspiring aesthete, and his beautiful wife, Gloria, as they await to inherit his grandfather's fortune. A devastating satire of the nouveaux rich and New York's nightlife, of reckless ambition and squandered talent, it is also a shattering portrait of a marriage fueled by alcohol and wasted by wealth. The Beautiful and Damned, Fitzgerald wrote to Zelda in 1930, "was all true."
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i loved it
- By Emily on 01-20-05
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The Rainbow
- By: D. H. Lawrence
- Narrated by: Maureen O'Brien
- Length: 20 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
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Set in the rural midlands of England, The Rainbow revolves around three generations of Brangwens, a family deeply involved with the land and noted for their strength and vigour. When Tom Brangwen marries a Polish widow, Lydia Lensky, and adopts her daughter Anna as his own, he is unprepared for the conflict and passion that erupts between them. Their stories continue in Women in Love.
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Death and Rebirth, the Old and New.
- By Geoff Maddison on 08-09-12
By: D. H. Lawrence
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Beautiful, sophisticated and endlessly ambitious Lily Bart endeavours to climb the social ladder of New York's elite by securing a good match and living beyond her means. Now nearing 30 years of age and having rejected several proposals, forever in the hope of finding someone better, her future prospects are threatened. A damning commentary of 20th-century social order, Edith Wharton's tale established her as one of the greatest British novelists of the 1900s.
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Like Henry James but more accessible
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Narrated to Perfection
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Edith Wharton stands among the finest writers of early 20th-century America. In The Custom of the Country, Wharton’s scathing social commentary is on full display through the beautiful and manipulative Undine Spragg. When Undine convinces her nouveau riche parents to move to New York, she quickly injects herself into high society. But even a well-to-do husband isn’t enough for Undine, whose overwhelming lust for wealth proves to be her undoing.
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Cannot recommend a better narrator!
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Nick Lansing and Susy Branch are young, attractive but impoverished New Yorkers. They are in love and decide to marry, but realise their chances of happiness are slim without the wealth and society that their more privileged friends take for granted. Nick and Susy agree to separate when either encounters a more eligible proposition.
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Great love story
- By Margaret on 02-03-23
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Summer
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Rescued from a poverty-stricken mountain life, Charity Royall lives as ward to Lawyer Royall in the small New England town of North Dormer. However, Charity is bored by her job at the local library and feels thwarted by the order that governs her society–until a young man named Lucius Harney plucks her from the drabness of North Dormer life.
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Twilight Sleep
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Whether it is sex, drugs, or infatuation with the occult, Mrs. Manford and her extended family of socialites are determined to escape the pain, boredom, and emptiness of life through whatever form of “twilight sleep” they can devise or procure. Far ahead of its time, this Wharton classic employed modernist techniques such as an ever changing narration among the novel’s characters and a close examination of the characters’ self-identities and relationships with one another to tell a tale rich with irony and wit about the upper crust’s own undoing.
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Wharton all the way through
- By L. Locker on 11-05-23
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The House of Mirth
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Beautiful, sophisticated and endlessly ambitious Lily Bart endeavours to climb the social ladder of New York's elite by securing a good match and living beyond her means. Now nearing 30 years of age and having rejected several proposals, forever in the hope of finding someone better, her future prospects are threatened. A damning commentary of 20th-century social order, Edith Wharton's tale established her as one of the greatest British novelists of the 1900s.
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Like Henry James but more accessible
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Countess Ellen Olenska, separated from her European husband, returns to old New York society. She bears with her an independence and an awareness of life which stirs the educated sensitivity of the charming Newland Archer, engaged to be married to her cousin, May Welland. Though he accepts the society's standards and rules he is acutely aware of their limitations. He knows May will assure him a conventional future but Ellen, scandalously separated from her husband, forces Archer to question his values and beliefs.
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Narrated to Perfection
- By Ilana on 09-18-12
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The Custom of the Country
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Edith Wharton stands among the finest writers of early 20th-century America. In The Custom of the Country, Wharton’s scathing social commentary is on full display through the beautiful and manipulative Undine Spragg. When Undine convinces her nouveau riche parents to move to New York, she quickly injects herself into high society. But even a well-to-do husband isn’t enough for Undine, whose overwhelming lust for wealth proves to be her undoing.
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Cannot recommend a better narrator!
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Nick Lansing and Susy Branch are young, attractive but impoverished New Yorkers. They are in love and decide to marry, but realise their chances of happiness are slim without the wealth and society that their more privileged friends take for granted. Nick and Susy agree to separate when either encounters a more eligible proposition.
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Great love story
- By Margaret on 02-03-23
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Summer
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Rescued from a poverty-stricken mountain life, Charity Royall lives as ward to Lawyer Royall in the small New England town of North Dormer. However, Charity is bored by her job at the local library and feels thwarted by the order that governs her society–until a young man named Lucius Harney plucks her from the drabness of North Dormer life.
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Twilight Sleep
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Whether it is sex, drugs, or infatuation with the occult, Mrs. Manford and her extended family of socialites are determined to escape the pain, boredom, and emptiness of life through whatever form of “twilight sleep” they can devise or procure. Far ahead of its time, this Wharton classic employed modernist techniques such as an ever changing narration among the novel’s characters and a close examination of the characters’ self-identities and relationships with one another to tell a tale rich with irony and wit about the upper crust’s own undoing.
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Wharton all the way through
- By L. Locker on 11-05-23
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Old New York
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Spanning four decades in the mid-19th century, the interconnected novellas of Old New York lay out in vivid detail the complex and inscrutable codes, customs, and taboos of New York society in classic Wharton style.
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narration
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Ethan Frome (AmazonClassics Edition)
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In the dead gray cold of Starkfield, Massachusetts, farmer Ethan Frome is struggling to scrape out a living. His duties are to his wife, Zeena - an ungrateful, soul-sick hypochondriac as frigid as the New England winter. When Zeena’s cousin Mattie arrives to help with the farm, the ethereal, gentle-natured beauty brings a light and a fugitive affection into Ethan’s life. Yet for Ethan and Mattie, daring to be happy - and together - will have its consequences.
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COVID cabin fever entertainment
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The Way We Live Now
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In this world of bribes, vendettas, and swindling, in which heiresses are gambled and won, Trollope's characters embody all the vices: Lady Carbury is 'false from head to foot'; her son Felix has 'the instincts of a horse, not approaching the higher sympathies of a dog'; and Melmotte - the colossal figure who dominates the book - is a 'horrid, big, rich scoundrel...a bloated swindler...a vile city ruffian'. But as vile as he is, he is considered one of Trollope's greatest creations.
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Finally!
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Ghosts: Edith Wharton's Gothic Tales
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Story
Beneath the brilliance that was behind The Age of Innocence and Ethan Frome was a dark side. A dark side which produced magnificent tales of the unseen influences in our lives, such as "Mr. Jones", "The Eyes", "Kerfol", "The Ladie's Maid's Bell", and "The Looking Glass".
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Ghastly Shadows of the Feminine Condition
- By Diane on 10-16-12
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The Reef
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Story
A challenge to the moral climate of the day, The Reef follows the fancies of George Darrow, a young diplomat en route from London to France, intent on proposing to the widowed Anna Leath. Unsettled by Anna's reticence, Darrow drifts into an affair with Sophy Viner, a charmingly naive and impecunious young woman whose relations with Darrow and Anna's family threaten his prospects for success.
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Wharton's Best?
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By: Edith Wharton
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The House of Mirth
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Single woman of 29, Lily Bart is Edith Wharton's quintessential trapped heroine. Orphaned following the death of her parents, Lily understands that she must use her beauty, grace, and charm to attain the social position she longs for, but she is caught between her desire for wealth and a strong moral conscience, which sabotages every opportunity she encounters.
By: Edith Wharton
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Summer
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- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Eighteen-year-old Charity Royall is bored with life in the small town of North Dormer. She is a librarian and ward of North Dormer’s premier citizen, Lawyer Royall. While working at the library, Charity meets visiting architect Lucius Harney. Mr. Royall, who once tried to force his way into Charity’s bedroom after his wife’s death, and later asked her to marry him, notices their growing closeness. He tries to put a stop to it by telling Harney he can no longer accommodate him in his house.
By: Edith Wharton
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Summer
- By: Edith Wharton
- Narrated by: Margaret Melosh
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- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Charity Royal is bored with her life in the small town of North Dormer. She was born to poor parents from "up the Mountain" who gave her up to the town's learned person, Lawyer Royall, but she still dreams of an even better and more exciting life outside of the town. She secures a job at North Dormer's library, a job that she is neglectful of, in an attempt to save up money so she could eventually leave the town and Mr. Royall's care.
By: Edith Wharton
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Summer
- By: Edith Wharton
- Narrated by: Elizabeth Klett
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- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Wharton's 1917 novella "Summer", like her more famous work "Ethan Frome", is set in a very small rural New England town. Charity Royall longs to escape the claustrophobic confines of North Dormer and the inappropriate advances of her guardian Mr. Royall, who adopted her as a child from the nearby Mountain community. Hope arrives in the form of city boy Lucius Harney, who has come to research the architecture of the region; but will his presence in Charity's life mean her salvation or her undoing?
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Buyer beware!!
- By Elizabeth Klett on 04-04-17
By: Edith Wharton
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Ethan Frome
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- Narrated by: Adam Sims
- Length: 3 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Set deep in the remote countryside of Massachusetts, New England, in a world of small-town prejudice, pettiness and rural poverty, the story of Ethan Frome explores the crippling marriage of a young man to an older woman and his love for her vibrant young cousin, Mattie, who lives as a dependent in the Frome household. His feelings lead to a day of explosive emotions with tragic consequences.
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Really enjoyed the narration
- By Kurt Dreibholz on 11-11-23
By: Edith Wharton
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The Custom of the Country
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- Unabridged
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Overall
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Story
From New York to Europe, the apartments of the nouveau riche to ancient French estates, Edith Wharton tells the story of Undine Spragg, a girl from a Midwestern town with unquenchable social aspirations. Though Undine is narcissistic, pampered, and incredibly selfish, she is a beguiling heroine whose marital initiation into New York high society from its trade-wealthy fringes is only the beginning of her relentless ambitions.
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Perfection
- By Curious Artist Librarian on 04-15-12
By: Edith Wharton
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The Professor
- By: Charlotte Brontë
- Narrated by: James Wilby
- Length: 9 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Story
The Professor is Charlotte Brontë's first novel albeit the last to have been published. Edited and distributed by Arthur Bell Nicholls, two years after Brontë's death, it is based on her experiences of living as a language student in Brussels. The Professor follows the career and love affairs of William Crimsworth, a reserved but compassionate aristocrat who has been ostracised by his family and left penniless.
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Beautiful
- By ilene on 12-26-16
By: Charlotte Brontë
What listeners say about Summer
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall
- lilyglint
- 08-23-04
Excellent first audible purchase!
Grace Conlin is a great reader. At first I thought she was going to be too fast, but her pacing is excellent. She sweeps you right into the story. And this is a concise Wharton tale. Similar tragic tones to her other books. However, some lovely descriptions of New England countryside in the summer. A sad contrast to her heroine. I'm not done yet, about half way, but I find myself looking for excuses to pop in the headphones and listen.
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13 people found this helpful
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- Debra Garfinkle
- 04-08-15
My favorite Wharton book so far
This is the third book of hers I've read. It's the least depressing, which is a good thing in my opinion. E. Wharton wrote beautiful prose and also knew how to tell a fast-paced story. My book club had a very lively discussion about class, gender, marriage, nature, and other interesting issues raised by this book.
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5 people found this helpful
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- Reckoning
- 10-05-20
Beguiling and Devastating
The Gilded Age indeed—gilded women in gilded cages. There is always a long suffering man who swoops down to rescue the wayward maiden. She is wayward in mind if not in body; intellectually if not in her determination to live as her authentic self. The wayward man slips embarrassedly but relievedly away without sanction.
The lover is this Wharton gem is beguiling. I was half seduced by him myself. Wharton’s descriptions of her wayward protagonist’s experiences are veiled but unmistakably erotic: The protagonist presses her body into the warm grass as she lolls on round hills, gazing into a shimmering blue sky. As she flowers in her lovers arms, Wharton lavishly describes the blooms of summer. There are many glimmering moon rises and piercing dawns; the
bulk of a mountain looming over the town are rolled out again and again lest the reader miss the point
But I don’t mind it because Wharton’s prose is a delight.
The story is devastating. Nothing has changed since this book was published in 1916. Women still have price tags dangling from them —the appraisals of men. The terms of value have changed; and the gilded cages much more disguised. But they serve the same devastating purpose.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Amazon Customer
- 06-21-22
Good, Quick, Read
good quick read...bummer of an ending though. Highly recommend if you're a fan of Edith Wharton, or novels from this era.
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Overall
- NYCamper
- 06-16-08
The negative reviews frightened me
but I found the story enchanting, enthralling and somewhat ominously predictable. My first Edith Wharton but I believe I'll try another.
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7 people found this helpful
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- Nancy
- 10-12-21
An Edith Wharton novel that is not sad
For Edith Wharton Summer has as a happy ending. I tried to imagine where the story took place. A small but rugged mountain range in New Hampshire , I reckoned. Charity’s lover sure was a swine. The historical and sociological details that are an integral part of the story were really interesting.
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- pat larose
- 06-16-23
The moral of the story
It is very difficult to judge the story set against 2023 sensibilities. Certainly, this book is beautifully written. And I’m not going to give away the ending. Suffice to say thank god women have a lot more choices than they used to.
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Overall
- Barbara
- 04-23-10
Required "Summer" reading
Grace Conlin's initial rapid delivery of Edith Wharton's sensitive penetration of the Summer of adolescent dreams collapsing into the Fall of the realities of adult choices is worth the investment of the listener's patience. Once Conlin settles into her natural rhythm, she crafts a gem that should become the centerpiece of the setting of required summer reading for every high school girl--and her mother.
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3 people found this helpful
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- A. B.
- 05-15-23
Unsatisfying end
I like Edith Wharton and I was pleased to find a lesser known novel of hers to listen to.
The story is okay, and the main character is interesting, even though she is frustrating and kind of unlikeable at times.
My biggest complaint about this novel is the end. It’s as if Wharton got tired of writing and didn’t know how to finish her novel. Be warned, this novel has an insanely unsatisfying ending.
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1 person found this helpful
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- SmilinTraveler
- 05-28-21
Interesting story
I love these period novels. This one was a bit slow. But, I was unsure of the end until the last syllable
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