-
The Christmas Banquet
- Narrated by: Mike Vendetti
- Length: 1 hr
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 $8.55
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
Publisher's summary
The Christmas Banquet mentioned in the title is an annual feast, funded by an old misanthrope, in which the 10 most miserable people who can be found are gathered together for the holiday. Each year the guests chosen are different, but Gervaise Hastings, a man unafflicted by any obvious misfortune, is included year after year.
Listeners also enjoyed...
-
The Scarlet Letter
- By: Nathaniel Hawthorne
- Narrated by: Kate Petrie
- Length: 6 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
One of the most important novels in classic literature, Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter tackles the subject of adultery, with the notorious Hester Prynne at the forefront of the scandal in the Massachusetts Bay Colony. In the beginning of the novel, Hester is serving time in prison for having a child out of wedlock and is forced to wear a scarlet A on her clothing at all times, so she cannot run from her sin no matter where she goes.
-
-
missing the introductory???
- By Savannah on 05-20-20
-
The House of the Seven Gables
- By: Nathaniel Hawthorne
- Narrated by: Anthony Heald
- Length: 11 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In a sleepy little New England village stands a dark, weather-beaten, many-gabled house. This brooding mansion is haunted by a centuries-old curse that casts the shadow of ancestral sin upon the last four members of the distinctive Pyncheon family of Salem.
-
-
A Classic Thriller
- By E. Pearson on 12-03-10
-
Frankenstein
- By: Mary Shelley
- Narrated by: Dan Stevens
- Length: 8 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Narrator Dan Stevens ( Downton Abbey) presents an uncanny performance of Mary Shelley's timeless gothic novel, an epic battle between man and monster at its greatest literary pitch. In trying to create life, the young student Victor Frankenstein unleashes forces beyond his control, setting into motion a long and tragic chain of events that brings Victor to the very brink of madness. How he tries to destroy his creation, as it destroys everything Victor loves, is a powerful story of love, friendship, scientific hubris, and horror.
-
-
ARE WE ALWAYS TO BE UNHAPPY?
- By Jim "The Impatient" on 01-28-16
By: Mary Shelley
-
Letters from a Stoic
- Penguin Classics
- By: Seneca, Robin Campbell
- Narrated by: Julian Glover
- Length: 7 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Seeing self-possession as the key to an existence lived 'in accordance with nature', the Stoic philosophy called for the restraint of animal instincts and the importance of upright ethical ideals and virtuous living. Seneca's writings are a profound, powerfully moving and inspiring declaration of the dignity of the individual mind.
-
-
Returned - Not "Unabridged"
- By Michael Augustus Ennis on 12-03-21
By: Seneca, and others
-
Edgar Allan Poe - The Complete Short Stories
- By: Edgar Allan Poe
- Narrated by: Bob Thomley
- Length: 16 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
All of Edgar Allan Poe’s great short stories in one 16-hour collection.
-
-
NEVERMORE
- By Jim "The Impatient" on 11-23-15
By: Edgar Allan Poe
-
The Greatest Minds and Ideas of All Time
- By: Will Durant
- Narrated by: John Little
- Length: 3 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Best-selling historian and philosopher Will Durant devoted his entire life to studying the most significant eras, individuals, and achievements of human history. Here is a summation of Durant's work, as he presents the best of world history. Filled with Durant's renowned wit, knowledge, and unique ability to explain events in simple and exciting terms, it is a concise liberal arts education.
-
-
Puzzled
- By James on 04-06-04
By: Will Durant
-
The Scarlet Letter
- By: Nathaniel Hawthorne
- Narrated by: Kate Petrie
- Length: 6 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
One of the most important novels in classic literature, Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter tackles the subject of adultery, with the notorious Hester Prynne at the forefront of the scandal in the Massachusetts Bay Colony. In the beginning of the novel, Hester is serving time in prison for having a child out of wedlock and is forced to wear a scarlet A on her clothing at all times, so she cannot run from her sin no matter where she goes.
-
-
missing the introductory???
- By Savannah on 05-20-20
-
The House of the Seven Gables
- By: Nathaniel Hawthorne
- Narrated by: Anthony Heald
- Length: 11 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In a sleepy little New England village stands a dark, weather-beaten, many-gabled house. This brooding mansion is haunted by a centuries-old curse that casts the shadow of ancestral sin upon the last four members of the distinctive Pyncheon family of Salem.
-
-
A Classic Thriller
- By E. Pearson on 12-03-10
-
Frankenstein
- By: Mary Shelley
- Narrated by: Dan Stevens
- Length: 8 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Narrator Dan Stevens ( Downton Abbey) presents an uncanny performance of Mary Shelley's timeless gothic novel, an epic battle between man and monster at its greatest literary pitch. In trying to create life, the young student Victor Frankenstein unleashes forces beyond his control, setting into motion a long and tragic chain of events that brings Victor to the very brink of madness. How he tries to destroy his creation, as it destroys everything Victor loves, is a powerful story of love, friendship, scientific hubris, and horror.
-
-
ARE WE ALWAYS TO BE UNHAPPY?
- By Jim "The Impatient" on 01-28-16
By: Mary Shelley
-
Letters from a Stoic
- Penguin Classics
- By: Seneca, Robin Campbell
- Narrated by: Julian Glover
- Length: 7 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Seeing self-possession as the key to an existence lived 'in accordance with nature', the Stoic philosophy called for the restraint of animal instincts and the importance of upright ethical ideals and virtuous living. Seneca's writings are a profound, powerfully moving and inspiring declaration of the dignity of the individual mind.
-
-
Returned - Not "Unabridged"
- By Michael Augustus Ennis on 12-03-21
By: Seneca, and others
-
Edgar Allan Poe - The Complete Short Stories
- By: Edgar Allan Poe
- Narrated by: Bob Thomley
- Length: 16 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
All of Edgar Allan Poe’s great short stories in one 16-hour collection.
-
-
NEVERMORE
- By Jim "The Impatient" on 11-23-15
By: Edgar Allan Poe
-
The Greatest Minds and Ideas of All Time
- By: Will Durant
- Narrated by: John Little
- Length: 3 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Best-selling historian and philosopher Will Durant devoted his entire life to studying the most significant eras, individuals, and achievements of human history. Here is a summation of Durant's work, as he presents the best of world history. Filled with Durant's renowned wit, knowledge, and unique ability to explain events in simple and exciting terms, it is a concise liberal arts education.
-
-
Puzzled
- By James on 04-06-04
By: Will Durant
-
Self Reliance
- By: Ralph Waldo Emerson
- Narrated by: Alana Munro
- Length: 1 hr and 20 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The most thorough statement of one of Emerson's recurrent themes, the need for each individual to avoid conformity and false consistency, and follow his or her own instincts and ideas. It is the source of one of Emerson's most famous quotations, "A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds." This essay is a considered a watershed moment in which transcendentalism became a major cultural movement. An American classic.
-
-
Don't buy this
- By Leah L on 07-31-16
-
The Renaissance
- Studies in Art and Poetry
- By: Walter Pater
- Narrated by: Wanda McCaddon
- Length: 6 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Published to great acclaim in 1873, Walter Pater’s compendium of idiosyncratic, impressionistic essays on the Renaissance gained him a reputation as a daring modern philosopher. Oscar Wilde called it the “holy writ of beauty.” It was Pater’s cry of “art for art’s sake” that became the manifesto for the aesthetic movement. He believed that art should be sensual and that beauty should rank as the highest ideal. Marked by elegant fluency, Pater’s essays discuss Botticelli, Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, and other artists who, for him, embodied the spirit of the Renaissance.
-
-
Wanda McCaddon and Pater = 😍
- By Tyler on 02-01-21
By: Walter Pater
-
The Divine Magnet
- Herman Melville's Letters to Nathaniel Hawthorne
- By: Herman Melville
- Narrated by: Jim Meskimen
- Length: 1 hr and 13 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
If you don't know Melville's letters to Hawthorne, you don't know Melville. These letters are full of passion, humor, doubt, and spiritual yearning, and offer an intimate view of Melville's personality. Lyrical and effusive, they are literary works in themselves. This correspondence has been out of print for decades, and even when it was in print it appeared in scholarly volumes of Melville's complete correspondence, aimed at the academy.
-
-
im happy I purchased it
- By Dibs on 07-23-20
By: Herman Melville
-
The History of Rasselas, Prince of Abissinia
- By: Samuel Johnson
- Narrated by: Steven Crossley
- Length: 4 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Rasselas and his companions escape the pleasures of the "happy valley" in order to make their "choice of life". By witnessing the misfortunes and miseries of others they come to understand the nature of happiness and value it more highly. Their travels and enquiries raise important practical and philosophical questions concerning many aspects of the human condition, including the business of a poet, the stability of reason, the immortality of the soul, and how to find contentment.
-
-
1759 classic
- By Kindle Customer on 01-29-23
By: Samuel Johnson
-
Fear and Trembling
- By: Søren Kierkegaard
- Narrated by: Mark Meadows
- Length: 4 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From the perspective of an unbeliever, Fear and Trembling explores the paradox of faith, the nature of Christianity, and the complexity of human emotion. Kierkegaard examines the biblical story of Abraham, who was instructed to sacrifice his son Isaac, and forces us to consider Abraham's state of mind. What drove Abraham, and what made him carry out such an absurd and extreme request from God? Kierkegaard argues that Abraham's agreement to sacrifice Isaac, and his suspension of reason, elevated him to the highest level of faith.
-
-
Great book and Formidable Narration
- By MFC on 03-06-20
-
The Gay Science (The Joyful Wisdom)
- By: Friedrich Nietzsche
- Narrated by: Michael Lunts
- Length: 10 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Gay Science (The Joyful Wisdom) is one of Nietzsche's greatest books. His wonderfully fertile mind roams over mankind, his thoughts, his emotions, his behaviour and his weaknesses with remarkable clarity, with insight - but also with humour!In this work are 383 separate paragraphs, some short, some long, but all singular observations - the epitome of his famous aphoristic style. 'Morality is the herd instinct in the individual.'
-
-
I am now a full-fledged fan of Nietzsche
- By RS on 02-24-18
-
Measure for Measure
- By: William Shakespeare
- Narrated by: Royal Shakespeare Company
- Length: 2 hrs and 27 mins
- Original Recording
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A performance of the tragi-comedy by the Royal Shakespeare Company. When a young woman is offered the choice of saving a man's life at the price of her own chastity, what should she do? The political and moral corruption of Vienna has driven Duke Vincentio into hiding while his deputy governor, Angelo, is left to revive the old discipline of civic authority. Angelo's first act is to imprison Claudio, a young nobleman who has gotten his betrothed, Juliet, with child.
-
-
Highly recommended
- By Todd on 10-16-08
-
The Roman Way
- By: Edith Hamilton
- Narrated by: Nadia May
- Length: 6 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Edith Hamilton shows us Rome through the eyes of the Romans. Plautus and Terence, Cicero and Caesar, Catullus, Horace, Virgil, and Augustus come to life in their ambitions, their work, their loves and hates. In them we see reflected a picture of Roman life very different from that fixed in our minds through schoolroom days, and far livelier.
-
-
Not so bad
- By steve on 04-25-11
By: Edith Hamilton
-
Henry Miller on Writing
- By: Henry Miller
- Narrated by: Ian Patrick Mendes
- Length: 8 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Some of the most rewarding pages in Henry Miller's books concern his self-education as a writer. He tells, as few great writers ever have, how he set his goals, how he discovered the excitement of using words, how the books he read influenced him, and how he learned to draw on his own experience.
-
-
Reader does not speak French
- By Wingfoot CwR on 07-18-22
By: Henry Miller
-
Frankenstein
- The Modern Prometheus
- By: Mary Shelley
- Narrated by: Mark Nelson
- Length: 8 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
During the rainy summer of 1816, the "Year Without a Summer", the world was locked in a long cold volcanic winter caused by the eruption of Mount Tambora in 1815. Mary Shelley, aged 18, and her lover (and later husband) Percy Bysshe Shelley, visited Lord Byron at the Villa Diodati by Lake Geneva in Switzerland. The weather was consistently too cold and dreary that summer to enjoy the outdoor holiday activities they had planned, so the group retired indoors until dawn.
-
-
A must read/listen
- By R. Daly on 11-13-23
By: Mary Shelley
-
The Monk
- By: Matthew Lewis
- Narrated by: Nigel Carrington
- Length: 15 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Monk is a violent tale of ambition, murder, and incest. The great struggle between maintaining monastic vows and fulfilling personal ambitions leads the monk Ambrosio, into temptation and the breaking of his vows, then to sexual obsession and rape, and finally to murder in order to conceal his guilt. Written when Matthew Lewis was only 19, The Monk was criticised when first published in 1796 for its lewdness and impiety, but this criticism only added to its popularity.
-
-
An Overwritten, Oddly Compelling Gothic Father
- By Jefferson on 01-01-17
By: Matthew Lewis
-
The Death of Ivan Ilych
- By: Leo Tolstoy
- Narrated by: Soren Filipski
- Length: 2 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In his perceptive and moving depiction of Ivan Ilych, a worldly careerist facing his own mortality in the midst of a self-absorbed family and indifferent colleagues, Tolstoy provides one of literature's greatest and most memorable reflections on the meaning of the good life and on life as preparation for death.
-
-
Great experience
- By Amazon Customer on 08-03-16
By: Leo Tolstoy
Related to this topic
-
The Scarlet Letter
- By: Nathaniel Hawthorne
- Narrated by: Kate Petrie
- Length: 6 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
One of the most important novels in classic literature, Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter tackles the subject of adultery, with the notorious Hester Prynne at the forefront of the scandal in the Massachusetts Bay Colony. In the beginning of the novel, Hester is serving time in prison for having a child out of wedlock and is forced to wear a scarlet A on her clothing at all times, so she cannot run from her sin no matter where she goes.
-
-
missing the introductory???
- By Savannah on 05-20-20
-
Essays by Ralph Waldo Emerson
- By: Ralph Waldo Emerson
- Narrated by: Jeff Riggenbach
- Length: 14 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Here in one volume are both the Essays: First Series and Essays: Second Series from one of the most influential philosophers in American history. Although Ralph Waldo Emerson, perhaps America’s most famous philosopher, did not wish to be referred to as a transcendentalist, he is nevertheless considered the founder of this major movement of nineteenth-century American thought. Emerson was influenced by a liberal religious training; theological study; personal contact with the Romanticists Coleridge, Carlyle, and Wordsworth; and a strong indigenous sense of individualism and self-reliance.
-
-
Riggenbach's Essays, Not Emerson's
- By Jake Behm on 12-01-15
-
Self Reliance
- By: Ralph Waldo Emerson
- Narrated by: Alana Munro
- Length: 1 hr and 20 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The most thorough statement of one of Emerson's recurrent themes, the need for each individual to avoid conformity and false consistency, and follow his or her own instincts and ideas. It is the source of one of Emerson's most famous quotations, "A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds." This essay is a considered a watershed moment in which transcendentalism became a major cultural movement. An American classic.
-
-
Don't buy this
- By Leah L on 07-31-16
-
The Coming Race
- By: Edward Bulwer Lytton
- Narrated by: William Hope
- Length: 6 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Edward Bulwer-Lytton's book is ostensibly a work of Science Fiction. It deals with an underground race of advanced beings, masters of Vril energy - a strange power that can both heal and destroy - who intend to leave their subterranean existence and conquer the world. But the book has been seen by many as a barely concealed account of Hidden Wisdom, a theory that has attracted many strange bed-fellows, including the French author Louis Jacolliot, the Polish explorer Ferdinand Ossendowsky, and Adolf Hitler.
-
-
dated - worked to get through it
- By Cat Lover who doesn't work out on 10-10-19
-
The Birthmark
- By: Nathaniel Hawthorne
- Narrated by: Walter Covell
- Length: 42 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Hawthorne approached the Romantic notion of the ability of science to destroy art (or beauty) in the form of fictive "horror stories" of biological research out of control. This story is the best of that group. A devoted scientist marries a beautiful woman with a single physical flaw: a birthmark on her face. Aylmer becomes obsessed with the imperfection and his attempts to remove it via his scientific skills, thus rendering his bride perfect.
-
-
Bland uninspired
- By Holcomb on 10-02-12
-
The Greek Way
- By: Edith Hamilton
- Narrated by: Nadia May
- Length: 8 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Based on a thorough study of Greek life and civilization, of Greek literature, philosophy, and art, The Greek Way interprets their meaning and brings a realization of the refuge and strength the past can be to us in the troubled present. Miss Hamilton's book must take its place with the few interpretative volumes which are permanently rooted and profoundly alive in our literature.
-
-
...Not as Good as The Echo of Greece
- By The Masked Reviewer on 11-04-16
By: Edith Hamilton
-
The Scarlet Letter
- By: Nathaniel Hawthorne
- Narrated by: Kate Petrie
- Length: 6 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
One of the most important novels in classic literature, Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter tackles the subject of adultery, with the notorious Hester Prynne at the forefront of the scandal in the Massachusetts Bay Colony. In the beginning of the novel, Hester is serving time in prison for having a child out of wedlock and is forced to wear a scarlet A on her clothing at all times, so she cannot run from her sin no matter where she goes.
-
-
missing the introductory???
- By Savannah on 05-20-20
-
Essays by Ralph Waldo Emerson
- By: Ralph Waldo Emerson
- Narrated by: Jeff Riggenbach
- Length: 14 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Here in one volume are both the Essays: First Series and Essays: Second Series from one of the most influential philosophers in American history. Although Ralph Waldo Emerson, perhaps America’s most famous philosopher, did not wish to be referred to as a transcendentalist, he is nevertheless considered the founder of this major movement of nineteenth-century American thought. Emerson was influenced by a liberal religious training; theological study; personal contact with the Romanticists Coleridge, Carlyle, and Wordsworth; and a strong indigenous sense of individualism and self-reliance.
-
-
Riggenbach's Essays, Not Emerson's
- By Jake Behm on 12-01-15
-
Self Reliance
- By: Ralph Waldo Emerson
- Narrated by: Alana Munro
- Length: 1 hr and 20 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The most thorough statement of one of Emerson's recurrent themes, the need for each individual to avoid conformity and false consistency, and follow his or her own instincts and ideas. It is the source of one of Emerson's most famous quotations, "A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds." This essay is a considered a watershed moment in which transcendentalism became a major cultural movement. An American classic.
-
-
Don't buy this
- By Leah L on 07-31-16
-
The Coming Race
- By: Edward Bulwer Lytton
- Narrated by: William Hope
- Length: 6 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Edward Bulwer-Lytton's book is ostensibly a work of Science Fiction. It deals with an underground race of advanced beings, masters of Vril energy - a strange power that can both heal and destroy - who intend to leave their subterranean existence and conquer the world. But the book has been seen by many as a barely concealed account of Hidden Wisdom, a theory that has attracted many strange bed-fellows, including the French author Louis Jacolliot, the Polish explorer Ferdinand Ossendowsky, and Adolf Hitler.
-
-
dated - worked to get through it
- By Cat Lover who doesn't work out on 10-10-19
-
The Birthmark
- By: Nathaniel Hawthorne
- Narrated by: Walter Covell
- Length: 42 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Hawthorne approached the Romantic notion of the ability of science to destroy art (or beauty) in the form of fictive "horror stories" of biological research out of control. This story is the best of that group. A devoted scientist marries a beautiful woman with a single physical flaw: a birthmark on her face. Aylmer becomes obsessed with the imperfection and his attempts to remove it via his scientific skills, thus rendering his bride perfect.
-
-
Bland uninspired
- By Holcomb on 10-02-12
-
The Greek Way
- By: Edith Hamilton
- Narrated by: Nadia May
- Length: 8 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Based on a thorough study of Greek life and civilization, of Greek literature, philosophy, and art, The Greek Way interprets their meaning and brings a realization of the refuge and strength the past can be to us in the troubled present. Miss Hamilton's book must take its place with the few interpretative volumes which are permanently rooted and profoundly alive in our literature.
-
-
...Not as Good as The Echo of Greece
- By The Masked Reviewer on 11-04-16
By: Edith Hamilton
-
The Last Man
- By: Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley
- Narrated by: Matt Bates, Anna Bentinck
- Length: 19 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Last Man is Mary Shelley's apocalyptic fantasy of the end of human civilisation. Set in the late 21st century, the novel unfolds a sombre and pessimistic vision of mankind confronting inevitable destruction. Interwoven with her futuristic theme, Mary Shelley incorporates idealised portraits of Shelley and Byron, yet rejects Romanticism and its faith in art and nature.
-
-
A great book, with a great story.
- By Stephen P. Suelzle on 10-01-16
-
Edgar Allan Poe - The Complete Works Collection
- By: Edgar Allan Poe
- Narrated by: Philippe Duquenoy
- Length: 48 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Edgar Allan Poe was one of the most prolific authors of his time, eventually gaining recognition for his tales of horror and his uncanny ability to paint a macabre picture with words. The Complete Works Collection of Edgar Allan Poe contains over 150 stories and poems, separated into individual chapters, including all of Poe's most notorious works such as The Raven, Annabel Lee, A Dream Within a Dream, Lenore, The Tell-Tale Heart, and many more.
-
-
Would recommend to anyone!!!
- By Gail Blackwell on 03-14-18
By: Edgar Allan Poe
-
The Bondwoman's Narrative
- By: Hannah Crafts, edited by Henry Louis Gates Jr.
- Narrated by: Anna Deavere Smith
- Length: 7 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
An unprecedented historical and literary event, this tale written in the 1850s is the only known novel by a female African American slave, and quite possibly the first novel written by a black woman anywhere. A work recently uncovered by renowned scholar and professor Henry Louis Gates, Jr., it is a stirring tale of "passing" and the adventures of a young slave as she makes her way to freedom.
-
-
Poor reading of an important book
- By Hilary on 11-15-04
By: Hannah Crafts, and others
-
Letters to a Young Poet
- By: Rainer Maria Rilke, Stephen Mitchell - translator
- Narrated by: Stephen Mitchell
- Length: 1 hr and 18 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Ranier Maria Rilke challenges you, "...to live everything. Live the questions now. Perhaps then, someday far in the future, you will gradually, without even noticing it, live your way into the answers." Rilke's ability to combine the sensual and the spiritual into an inspired vision of the art of living is brought to vivid life in his letters. Through his eyes, the everyday difficulties of love, sex, solitude, sadness, and doubt are seen as the archetypal elements of the drama called life.
-
-
Priceless Recordings of Intense Feeling
- By David on 10-08-04
By: Rainer Maria Rilke, and others
-
Frankenstein
- By: Mary Shelley
- Narrated by: Dan Stevens
- Length: 8 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Narrator Dan Stevens ( Downton Abbey) presents an uncanny performance of Mary Shelley's timeless gothic novel, an epic battle between man and monster at its greatest literary pitch. In trying to create life, the young student Victor Frankenstein unleashes forces beyond his control, setting into motion a long and tragic chain of events that brings Victor to the very brink of madness. How he tries to destroy his creation, as it destroys everything Victor loves, is a powerful story of love, friendship, scientific hubris, and horror.
-
-
ARE WE ALWAYS TO BE UNHAPPY?
- By Jim "The Impatient" on 01-28-16
By: Mary Shelley
-
Edgar Allan Poe - The Complete Short Stories
- By: Edgar Allan Poe
- Narrated by: Bob Thomley
- Length: 16 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
All of Edgar Allan Poe’s great short stories in one 16-hour collection.
-
-
NEVERMORE
- By Jim "The Impatient" on 11-23-15
By: Edgar Allan Poe
-
Fear and Trembling
- By: Søren Kierkegaard
- Narrated by: Mark Meadows
- Length: 4 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From the perspective of an unbeliever, Fear and Trembling explores the paradox of faith, the nature of Christianity, and the complexity of human emotion. Kierkegaard examines the biblical story of Abraham, who was instructed to sacrifice his son Isaac, and forces us to consider Abraham's state of mind. What drove Abraham, and what made him carry out such an absurd and extreme request from God? Kierkegaard argues that Abraham's agreement to sacrifice Isaac, and his suspension of reason, elevated him to the highest level of faith.
-
-
Great book and Formidable Narration
- By MFC on 03-06-20
-
De Profundis
- By: Oscar Wilde
- Narrated by: David McCallion
- Length: 1 hr and 41 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
At its heart, De Profundis is a love letter and is better known as the De Profundis papers. Written in 1897, while Oscar Wilde was imprisoned in Reading Gaol, De Profundis would become one of his best-known works. The papers include Wilde's account of living a lavish lifestyle and his relationship with Lord Alfred Douglas, both of which he credited for his eventual downfall and imprisonment. The second half of the papers is Wilde's account of prison life and his spiritual awakening.
-
-
This Work Really Is Wilde Going Off...
- By James E. Lytle on 05-16-21
By: Oscar Wilde
-
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
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
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.
-
-
The Dark Human Heart
- By Jefferson on 01-30-11
-
The History of Rasselas, Prince of Abissinia
- By: Samuel Johnson
- Narrated by: Steven Crossley
- Length: 4 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Rasselas and his companions escape the pleasures of the "happy valley" in order to make their "choice of life". By witnessing the misfortunes and miseries of others they come to understand the nature of happiness and value it more highly. Their travels and enquiries raise important practical and philosophical questions concerning many aspects of the human condition, including the business of a poet, the stability of reason, the immortality of the soul, and how to find contentment.
-
-
1759 classic
- By Kindle Customer on 01-29-23
By: Samuel Johnson
-
The Gay Science (The Joyful Wisdom)
- By: Friedrich Nietzsche
- Narrated by: Michael Lunts
- Length: 10 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Gay Science (The Joyful Wisdom) is one of Nietzsche's greatest books. His wonderfully fertile mind roams over mankind, his thoughts, his emotions, his behaviour and his weaknesses with remarkable clarity, with insight - but also with humour!In this work are 383 separate paragraphs, some short, some long, but all singular observations - the epitome of his famous aphoristic style. 'Morality is the herd instinct in the individual.'
-
-
I am now a full-fledged fan of Nietzsche
- By RS on 02-24-18
-
Frankenstein
- The Modern Prometheus
- By: Mary Shelley
- Narrated by: Mark Nelson
- Length: 8 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
During the rainy summer of 1816, the "Year Without a Summer", the world was locked in a long cold volcanic winter caused by the eruption of Mount Tambora in 1815. Mary Shelley, aged 18, and her lover (and later husband) Percy Bysshe Shelley, visited Lord Byron at the Villa Diodati by Lake Geneva in Switzerland. The weather was consistently too cold and dreary that summer to enjoy the outdoor holiday activities they had planned, so the group retired indoors until dawn.
-
-
A must read/listen
- By R. Daly on 11-13-23
By: Mary Shelley