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The Custom of the Country
- Narrated by: Laurel Lefkow
- Length: 15 hrs and 58 mins
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Publisher's summary
Single-minded and spoilt, Undine Spragg arrives in New York determined to procure for herself a social status to match her family’s wealth. Ambition, greed and an arresting beauty soon secure her path to marriage...and also to divorce.
The Custom of the Country (1913) is a sophisticated commentary on both—touching on the implications for a woman of ending a marriage at a time when the author herself was navigating that very situation. As the splendidly mismatched Undine and Ralph travel to Europe, Wharton contrasts the pecuniary motivation of the nouveau riche in America with European ideals of tradition, and through her array of characters and subtle insights into society, she delivers a novel every bit as immersive and entertaining as The Age of Innocence.
PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
As Wodehouse himself once noted, "Blandings has impostors like other houses have mice." On this particular occasion, there are two imposters, both intent on a dangerous enterprise. Lord Emsworth's secretary, the Efficient Baxter, is on the alert and determined to discover what is afoot - despite the distractions caused by the Honorable Freddie Threepwood's hapless affair of the heart.
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Not terrible - but not a must-have, either
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Dombey and Son
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Performance
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Dombey and Son is vintage Dickens and explores the classic themes of betrayal, cruelty and deceit. Dombey's dysfunctional relationships are painted against a backdrop of social unrest in industrialized London, which is populated by a host of fascinating and memorable secondary characters. The complete and unabridged novel is brought spectacularly to life by veteran reader David Timson.
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Utterly incredible!
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Bel Ami
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Performance
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Guy de Maupassant is revered for his naturalistic fiction, which brilliantly captures flesh-and-blood characters as it evokes the most telling details of everyday life. Considered one of the finest French novels ever written, Bel Ami follows journalist Georges Duroy and his increasing stature among the Paris elite. With an immense thirst for power, Georges is not above an almost gleeful use of wealthy mistresses to achieve his ends.
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Bel Ami or how to socially climb in 1885 Paris
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Piccadilly Jim
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
It takes a lot of effort for Jimmy Crocker to become Piccadilly Jim – nights on the town roistering, headlines in the gossip columns, a string of broken hearts and breaches of promise. Eventually he becomes rather good at it and manages to go to pieces with his eyes open. But no sooner has Jimmy cut a wild swathe through fashionable London than his terrifying Aunt Nesta decides he must mend his ways. He then falls in love with the girl he has hurt most of all, and after that things get complicated. In a dizzying plot, impersonations pile on impersonations....
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Delightful P.G.Wodehouse plot & J.Cecil narration
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Frederic Moreau is a law student returning home to Normandy from Paris when he first notices Mme Arnoux, a slender, dark woman several years older than himself. It is the beginning of an infatuation that will last a lifetime. He befriends her husband, an influential businessman, and their paths cross and re-cross over the years. Through financial upheaval, political turmoil, and countless affairs, Mme Arnoux remains the constant, unattainable love of Moreau’s life.
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When Crimes of Passion Were All the Fashion
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At the shabby boarding house in the rue Neuve-Sainte-Geneviève, petty Madame Vauquer and her tenants wonder at the plight of the aging resident Goriot. Once a well-heeled merchant, Goriot was, at first, afforded special treatment from the Madame. But now something is clearly amiss in his financial affairs, and his increasingly tawdry appearance makes him a subject of ridicule in the household.
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balzac rocks
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Young Prince Mishkin is that rare thing - a "completely beautiful human being". He is honest, humble, generous, and selfless, but unfortunately these traits mean he is often mistaken for an idiot. Upon his return to St. Petersburg, after being away at a Swiss sanatorium for the treatment of epilepsy, Prince Mishkin is taken under the wing of the wife of General Yepanchin, who arranges for him to live with the family of her money-obsessed friend Ganya.
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wow.
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What listeners say about The Custom of the Country
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall
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Performance
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- Callerins
- 05-19-23
Quite Good
If you read the reviews over the many versions on audible, you'll see the main complaints are A) the narrator is weak, or B) Undine is a terrible and narcissistic person, and so they hate the book as a result and give it a poor review. While it's true that the narrator here is a poor choice, and yes, the main character is a selfish and vain creature I still really liked the story. I don't know if Scarlett O'Hara's personality was loosely based on Undine or not, but wow, I kept coming back to the idea.
The ending was of the book was *perfect*, and quite funny in a way because I just wasn't expecting it. Undine Spragg will live out her days ...trading up~
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
- J. Johnson
- 02-01-23
Characters come to wonderfully frustrating life
Edith Wharton is the queen of 'careful what you wish for'. Money, status and beauty are the carrots dangled in front of all of us, and Wharton is the sensible aunt who warns you before it's too late. Her main character, Undine, is named after a hairdo to give you an idea of how shallow she is. Wharton shakes her head at this girl from beginning to end, and we can't help thinking of what else her name sounds like. She is the undoing of everyone around her, from parents to spouses to offspring. What makes Undine so infuriating is her occasional insights into her behavior, how she gets a glimmer of her destructive power, only to stuff it down and sacrifice all to her merciless ego.
The support characters are fabulously drawn, their trauma at Undine's hand leaving deformities that some don't recover from. The lessons are clear, the reality of the Gilded/Edwardian Age leaving a taste of blood in your mouth. Wharton douses our romantic dreams of high society as only an insider could. I'm as mad at Undine, and sad for her victims as if they were real, which is the mark of brilliant writing. Wharton tells us what we need to hear, and will absolutely refuse to indulge us. Yet her brilliance is in sitting next to us and saying 'can you believe these people?'
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Overall
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Performance
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- Richard G. Pinkham
- 12-24-22
Very disappointing
A narcissist keeps getting what she wants and she does not get punished for it to much of an extent.
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