The Girls of Slender Means
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Narrated by:
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Wanda McCaddon
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By:
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Muriel Spark
About this listen
"Long ago in 1945 all the nice people in England were poor, allowing for exceptions."
Thus begins Muriel Spark's tragic and rapier-witted portrait of a London ladies' hostel just emerging from the shadow of World War II. Like the May of Teck Club building itself - "three times window shattered since 1940 but never directly hit" - its lady inhabitants do their best to act as if the world were back to normal, practicing elocution and jostling over suitors and a single Schiaparelli gown.
But the novel's harrowing ending reveals that the girls' giddy literary and amorous peregrinations are hiding some tragically painful war wounds.
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- By Darwin8u on 02-07-17
By: Ian McEwan
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Grey Mask
- Miss Silver, Book 1
- By: Patricia Wentworth
- Narrated by: Diana Bishop
- Length: 7 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
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The first of the classic mysteries featuring governess-turned-detective Miss Silver, who investigates a deadly conspiratorial ring. Charles Moray has come home to England to collect his inheritance. After four years wandering the jungles of India and South America, the hardy young man returns to the manor of his birth, where generations of Morays have lived and died. Strangely, he finds the house unlocked, and sees a light on in one of its abandoned rooms. Eavesdropping, he learns of a conspiracy to commit a fearsome crime.
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The shaky first of a long, strong series
- By Phebe on 07-21-15
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High Rising
- A Virago Modern Classic
- By: Angela Thirkell, Alexander McCall Smith - introduction
- Narrated by: Jilly Bond
- Length: 7 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
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Successful lady novelist Laura Morland and her boisterous young son, Tony, set off to spend Christmas at her country home in the sleepy surrounds of High Rising. But Laura's wealthy friend and neighbor, George Knox, has taken on a scheming secretary whose designs on marriage to her employer threaten the delicate social fabric of the village.
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Beginning of a journey
- By Jerri C on 11-04-16
By: Angela Thirkell, and others
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South Riding
- By: Winifred Holtby
- Narrated by: Carole Boyd
- Length: 19 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
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In this rich and memorable evocation of the fictional South Riding of Yorkshire are the lives, loves and sorrows of the central characters. There is Sarah Burton, fiery young headmistress; Robert Carne of Maythorpe Hall, a councillor tormented by his own disastrous marriage; Jo Astell, a socialist fighting poverty and his own illness; and Mrs Beddows, the first woman Alderman of the district (like Winifred's own mother).
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Worth Revisiting
- By Ilana on 11-04-12
By: Winifred Holtby
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Put Out More Flags
- By: Evelyn Waugh
- Narrated by: Michael Maloney
- Length: 5 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
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Upper-class scoundrel Basil Seal, mad, bad, and dangerous to know, creates havoc wherever he goes, much to the despair of the three women in his life - his sister, his mother, and his mistress. When Neville Chamberlain declares war on Germany, it seems the perfect opportunity for more action and adventure. So Basil follows the call to arms and sets forth to enjoy his finest hour - as a war hero. Basil's instincts for self-preservation come to the fore as he insinuates himself into the Ministry of Information and a little-known section of Military Security.
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Wickedly Funny
- By Chelz on 07-25-19
By: Evelyn Waugh
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Cold Hand in Mine
- By: Robert Aickman
- Narrated by: Reece Shearsmith
- Length: 8 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
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Cold Hand in Mine stands as one of Aickman's best collections and contains eight stories that show off his powers as a 'strange story' writer to the full. The listener is introduced to a variety of characters, from a man who spends the night in a Hospice to a German aristocrat and a woman who sees an image of her own soul. There is also a nod to the conventional vampire story ("Pages from a Young Girl's Journal") but all the stories remain unconventional and inconclusive, which perhaps makes them all the more startling and intriguing.
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Aickman is unique
- By Stark on 08-19-23
By: Robert Aickman
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The Bookshop
- By: Penelope Fitzgerald, Stephanie Racine, David Nicholls - introduction
- Narrated by: Eve Karpf, David Nicholls
- Length: 4 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
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In a small East Anglian town, Florence Green decides, against polite but ruthless local opposition, to open a bookshop. Hardborough becomes a battleground. Florence has tried to change the way things have always been done, and as a result she has to take on not only the people who have made themselves important but natural and even supernatural forces, too. Her fate will strike a chord with anyone who knows that life has treated them with less than justice.
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On my to read list for a long time
- By theenglishmajor on 02-23-18
By: Penelope Fitzgerald, and others
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Celia's House
- By: D. E. Stevenson
- Narrated by: Lesley Mackie
- Length: 9 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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In name and by birth, Celia was a Dunne. She had inherited the beautiful old family home by the Rydd Water – but was she bound to live her life by the principles of her predecessors? Was there some hidden restraint that compelled her to heed the past? Celia’s house is a moving and poignant story of the struggle between old and young: the older generation anxious to preserve the values they have helped create while their children are determined at all costs to make lives of their own.
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Boarder area of Scotland
- By Jerri C on 03-14-11
By: D. E. Stevenson
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Graham Greene meets PG Wodehouse...
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Muriel Spark's blackly comic masterwork begins with a voice on the telephone warning, "Remember, you must die." The recipient of the grim message is elderly Dame Lettie Colston, but soon 10 of Lettie's oldest friends also become targets of Death's anonymous herald. A bizarre investigation lays bare an intricate network of deception and disloyalty that binds together the vulnerable group of aging eccentrics.
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First found contentedly chatting in their London clubs and shopping at Fortnum's, the cozy bachelors are not set to stay cozy for long. Soon enough, the men are variously tormented - defrauded, stolen from, blackmailed, or pressed to attend horrid séances - and then plunged, all together, into the nastiest of lawsuits. At the center of that suit hovers pale, blank Patrick Seton, the medium.
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philosophical black comedy
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More Spark, Please!
- By Cariola on 10-27-11
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philosophical black comedy
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What listeners say about The Girls of Slender Means
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall
- David
- 05-28-11
Funny, moving, brilliant
Somehow, "The Girls of Slender Means" manages to be simultaneously: an often hilariously funny social satire (particularly of the publishing business); an amazingly realistic account of the deprivations of post-war England; and a deeply moving character study of the conflict between innocence and soulless evil. In some ways it's a "Prime of Miss Jean Brodie" with twenty-somethings instead of younger girls, and it's a good bet that if you have read and enjoyed that book you'll like this one. Nadia May is as always a fine interpreter of Muriel Spark, with fine pacing and a deft hand at conveying Spark's dry irony.
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4 people found this helpful
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- FrancoFile
- 07-29-21
A Spark in the Dark
Muriel Spark lends her dry, wry voice to this peculiar group portrait of a generation scrambling to make sense of the aftermath of war. Funny until it's tragic, and then funny again, and often both at once.
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2 people found this helpful
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- JBB32
- 09-08-22
Optimistic Narration
Fascinating story of a different world and a different time, long before Women’s lib and gender equality. Yet these ‘impoverished’ posh girls lived their lives to the full with great spirit and good humor. The narrator of this absorbing tale speaks the way one imagines the girls themselves would speak. The only problem is that moments of great tragedy or even irony are relayed in the same optimistic Blue Peter voice as the rest of the narrative, giving one a sense of disorientation. But don’t let this put you off; it’s a great ‘read.’
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- RueRue
- 02-09-21
Subtle humor
I did enjoy the subtle, British humor in this short novel, but the narrative was quite choppy, and the narration seemed to have pauses that interrupted the flow.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Sherrie Brownell
- 04-11-24
Narrator and weave of storyline
Loved this narrator English and great diction and vivacity. I also enjoyed the way the story moved around in timeline…a wonderful job capturing the Womens hostel with all its girls during war time. Clever.
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- Rosalind Britton
- 08-25-21
Perfect for Nostalgia
This book reflects a period in Britain when I was born. mM mother lived in Queen Alexandra's House, which I am almost sure is the model for the May of Teck Club. A perfect piece of reading for a specific moment in time.
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2 people found this helpful
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- Azureblue
- 04-11-20
Sublime
Perfect narration. And Spark? Chilly and comforting at the same time. A mistress of chance.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Consolation
- 03-24-20
please please try again
I love this book; I think it would make a smashing movie. The imagery is breathtaking, the dialogue perfectly tuned.
Only imagine if this book had had the right reader: the amazing reverberating Welsh voice of the parson's daughter, the avidity of the journalist, and all the rest; coming to life as they did in Ms. Spark's imagination.
Wanda McCaddon is not up to it.
Her thin, undifferentiated voice expressed none of the hope, passion, and tragedy of the story.
Her intonations should be reserved for the static, the domestic, and the placid in literature.
Please, Audible, try this one again!
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4 people found this helpful