The Forest
A Fable of America in the 1830s
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Narrated by:
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Clarke Peters
About this listen
This audiobook narrated by Clarke Peters shares a vivid historical imagining of the lives of individuals—from painters, poets, and politicians to enslaved people, artisans, and travelers—in the early United States
Set amid the glimmering lakes and disappearing forests of the early United States, The Forest imagines how a wide variety of Americans experienced their lives. Part truth, part fiction, featuring both real and invented characters, the book follows painters, poets, enslaved people, farmers, and artisans living and working in a world still made largely of wood. Some of the historical characters—such as Thomas Cole, Margaret Fuller, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Fanny Kemble, Edgar Allan Poe, and Nat Turner—are well-known, while others are not. But all are creators of private and grand designs.
The Forest unfolds in brief stories. Each episode reveals an intricate lost world. Characters cross paths or go their own ways, each striving for something different but together forming a pattern of life. For Alexander Nemerov, the forest is a description of American society, the dense and discontinuous woods of nation, the foliating thoughts of different people, each with their separate shade and sun. Through vivid descriptions of the people, sights, smells, and sounds of Jacksonian America, The Forest brings American history to life on a human scale.
Published in association with the Center for Advanced Study in the Visual Arts, National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC
©2023 Alexander Nemerov (P)2023 Princeton University PressListeners also enjoyed...
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Critic reviews
“The Forest is a series of richly imagined, gemlike tales that capture the worlds of nineteenth-century Americans. Born of tactile sensations and inspired by nature, this is literature as a kind of cultural history. Nemerov has forged a new genre of writing, prompting us all to think about the hidden fictions within our own efforts to reconstruct the past. Reading this extraordinary book made me love the nineteenth century anew.”—Angela L. Miller, coauthor of American Encounters: Art, History, and Cultural Identity
“Nemerov is the consummate poet of the past, steering history writing in a new direction through the power of his language. His images come from art history, popular culture, and history, but many are borne aloft only through the visual suggestiveness of his descriptions. A bold and successful experiment in American studies.”—Michael Ann Holly, author of The Melancholy Art
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Story
Jacob's Room was the first of Virginia Woolf's novels to be published by the Hogarth Press, founded with her husband, Leonard Woolf, in their home at Hogarth House in Richmond in 1917. It is an episodic tale that attempts to evoke the inner life of Jacob Flanders and his social milieu during the first decade-and-a-half of the 20th century.
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A good listen
- By Cecilie Malling on 03-21-05
By: Virginia Woolf
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The Innocents Abroad
- Or, The New Pilgrim’s Progress
- By: Mark Twain
- Narrated by: Grover Gardner
- Length: 18 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
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In June 1867, Mark Twain set out for Europe and the Holy Land on the paddle steamer Quaker City. His enduring, no-nonsense guide for the first-time traveler also served as an antidote to the insufferably romantic travel books of the period.
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Twain's Hidden Gem
- By Cynthia Franks on 05-08-12
By: Mark Twain
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Death Comes to the Village
- Kurland St. Mary Mystery Series, Book 1
- By: Catherine Lloyd
- Narrated by: Susannah Tyrrell
- Length: 9 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
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Major Robert Kurland has returned to the quiet vistas of Kurland St. Mary to recuperate from the horrors of Waterloo. However injured his body may be, his mind is as active as ever. Too active, perhaps. When he glimpses a shadowy figure from his bedroom window struggling with a heavy load, the tranquil façade of the village begins to loom sinister....
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Starts slowly, gets better
- By TabithaD on 02-16-24
By: Catherine Lloyd
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Classic Tales Of Horror
- By: Ambrose Bierce, Bram Stoker, Charles Dickens, and others
- Narrated by: Michael Fenton Stevens, Sarah Douglas, Ben Onwukwe, and others
- Length: 9 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
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Classic Tales Of Horror offers up fifteen slices of powerful story-telling from the world's great mystery & classic horror authors. From Henry James and Ambrose Bierce to Bram Stoker and Charles Dickens. Read by John Waite (BBC Radio 4), Sarah Douglas (Superman I & II), Michael Fenton-Stevens (Spitting Image, KYTV, Hitch-Hiker's Guide) and Ben Onwukwe (London's Burning, Othello).
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loved how they were read but...
- By Anthony Rebol on 08-15-16
By: Ambrose Bierce, and others
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Leaves of Grass
- The Original 1855 Edition
- By: Walt Whitman, American Renaissance Books
- Narrated by: Sam Torode
- Length: 4 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
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When Walt Whitman self-published "Leaves of Grass" in 1855, he rocked the literary world and forever changed the course of poetry. In subsequent editions, Whitman continued to revise and expand his poems - but none matched the raw power and immediacy of the first edition. This volume presents the 1855 "Leaves of Grass" in its entirety, unchanged, along with Ralph Waldo Emerson's famous letter to Whitman.
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A brilliant classic
- By M.Biblioswine on 12-02-18
By: Walt Whitman, and others
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The Art of Travel
- By: Alain de Botton
- Narrated by: Nicholas Bell
- Length: 5 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
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Aside from love, few actvities seem to promise us as much happiness as going traveling: taking off for somewhere else, somewhere far from home, a place with more interesting weather, customs, and landscapes. But although we are inundated with advice on where to travel, few people seem to talk about why we should go and how we can become more fulfilled by doing so.
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Dull, suggestions for better alternatives
- By J. Natael on 08-07-13
By: Alain de Botton
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Leaves of Grass
- 1855 Edition
- By: Walt Whitman
- Narrated by: Edoardo Ballerini
- Length: 4 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
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In 1855, Walt Whitman published, at his own expense, the first edition of Leaves of Grass, a visionary volume of 12 poems. Showing the influence of a uniquely American form of mysticism known as Transcendentalism, the writing is distinguished by an explosively innovative free-verse style and previously unmentionable subject matter. Exalting nature, celebrating the human body, and praising the senses and sexual love, this monumental work, now a classic of American poetry, was condemned as immoral upon publication.
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password “primaeval”
- By Chas Carner on 05-28-20
By: Walt Whitman
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Desert Notebooks
- A Road Map for the End of Time
- By: Ben Ehrenreich
- Narrated by: David Bendena
- Length: 11 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
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Layering climate science, mythologies, nature writing, and personal experiences, Desert Notebooks offers a vital and necessary chronicle of our past and our present - perfect for fans of Robert Macfarlane and Elizabeth Rush - that’s unflinching, urgent, and yet timeless and profound.
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Not about the desert, Not about Joshua Tree
- By Steve on 07-12-20
By: Ben Ehrenreich
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Orange World and Other Stories
- By: Karen Russell
- Narrated by: full cast
- Length: 8 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
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Karen Russell’s comedic genius and mesmerizing talent for creating outlandish predicaments that uncannily mirror our inner in lives is on full display in these eight exuberant, arrestingly vivid, unforgettable stories. In “Bog Girl”, a revelatory story about first love, a young man falls in love with a 2,000-year-old girl that he’s extracted from a mass of peat in a Northern European bog. In “The Prospectors”, two opportunistic young women fleeing the depression strike out for new territory, and find themselves fighting for their lives. Plus much more.
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Wild Ride
- By Georgia on 02-07-20
By: Karen Russell
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Phantastes
- A Faerie Romance for Men and Women
- By: George MacDonald
- Narrated by: Rebecca K. Reynolds
- Length: 7 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
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The classic fantasy that influenced C. S. Lewis and Tolkien, considered one of George MacDonald's most important works, is the story of the young man, Anodos, and his adventures in fairyland which ultimately reveal the human condition. "I write, not for children," wrote George MacDonald, "but for the child-like, whether they be of five, or 50, or 75." All-at-once written with an innocent whimsy and soulful yearning, the heart of Anodos' journey through fairyland reveals a spiritual quest that requires a surrender of the self.
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Finally
- By Aaron Elrod on 04-12-21
By: George MacDonald
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A Most Remarkable Creature
- The Hidden Life and Epic Journey of the World's Smartest Birds of Prey
- By: Jonathan Meiburg
- Narrated by: Jonathan Meiburg
- Length: 9 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
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An enthralling account of a modern voyage of discovery as we meet the clever, social birds of prey called caracaras, which puzzled Darwin, fascinate modern-day falconers, and carry secrets of our planet's deep past in their family history.
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I don't leave reviews often, but . . .
- By Steven L Peck on 06-24-21
By: Jonathan Meiburg
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Set the Stars Alight
- By: Amanda Dykes
- Narrated by: Shiromi Arserio
- Length: 12 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
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Lucy Clairmont's family treasured the magic of the past, and her childhood fascination with stories of the high seas led her to become a marine archaeologist. But when tragedy strikes, it's Dashel, an American forensic astronomer, and his knowledge of the stars that may help her unearth the truth behind the puzzle she's discovered in her family home.
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Sweet but lacking
- By Justin K Flora on 08-16-20
By: Amanda Dykes
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The Fairy Tales of Herman Hesse
- By: Hermann Hesse, Jack Zipes - translator
- Narrated by: Donovan
- Length: 2 hrs and 53 mins
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Step into a world of visions, philosophy, and passion in which dreamers, seekers, princesses, and wandering poets dwell. The 6 wonderful, romantic tales in this collection are reminiscent of ancient Oriental and German fairy tales. The selections, "The Poet," "The Flute Dream," "The Dwarf," "Faldum," "Ziegler," and "Dream of the Gods" were hand-picked by the narrator, legendary folk and rock musician Donovan.
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The reading is quiet and heavenly
- By Atalante Lemuria on 11-12-20
By: Hermann Hesse, and others
What listeners say about The Forest
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Nathaniel Sterling
- 04-02-23
Disappointing
This book is a series of vignettes about characters in mid-19th century America, very loosely tied together by the theme of trees. The vignettes are interesting, and well-written, but the book doesn't cohere as a narrative or develop its theme. The audiobook is not helped by the editorial decision to treat the material poetically, so it is read in a declamatory style, with drawn-out diction and falling intonations, that doesn't really work.
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- Secutor
- 03-23-23
Not suited to audio?
Reviews and an author interview made this sound so intriguing. Alas, with its scattered nonlinear narrative I just can’t follow it in this format.
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- Constant Reader
- 09-04-24
Somewhat choppy
The book is a portfolio of short vignettes set in the USA between about 1820 - 1840 plus or minus. It's an odd selection of stories, they don't seem to lead anywhere other than to give a picture of the mindset of the people living in that place and time. No real heavy emphasis on the politics of the day other than a few brief touches on slavery, and even fewer touches white man/ red man relations. Almost nothing on the industrial revolution, gender politics, US relations with Europe or Asia, the waves of immigration, the westward expansion (well, okay, he does touch on Andrew Jackson but not on why he's so important and so polarizing). All these themes are key to understanding this period of history. I applaud the concept behind the book, but was ultimately dissatisfied with its execution. I guess I was looking for a strategy behind the story selection, but couldn't find it.
There are some memorable stories here. The story I can't forget is the mob lynching and roasting of a man who didn't help slave hunters grab a passing runaway slave. The author says some of his stories are fictional, but won't say which ones. I must say that I resent the mixing of fact with fiction unless the author tells us somewhere what is actually true. The idea that you could be hung and burned alive for a crime you weren't even aware you were committing,
when just an hour previously you were peaceably going about your business just like any other day, is horrifying and unforgettable. If the story isn't true, then it's unforgivable to besmirch a peaceable people with the accusation of such a heinous crime.
The narrator has a rich, expressive voice that is a pleasure to hear. My one suggestion for improvement would be to find a way to better indicate when the storyline were changing. The author frequently jumps from one tale to the next, and it becomes very confusing to understand when one stopped and the next one started. Maybe longer pauses between stories to indicate a transition is occurring? I often had to stop and rewind to figure out the last story ended, and how the next story began. This is a narrator's issue, and the editor's issue, to solve.
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