-
The Girls of Slender Means
- Narrated by: Wanda McCaddon
- Length: 3 hrs and 19 mins
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 $9.89
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
Publisher's summary
"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.
Listeners also enjoyed...
-
The Haunting of Hill House
- By: Shirley Jackson
- Narrated by: Bernadette Dunne
- Length: 7 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Four seekers have come to the ugly, abandoned old mansion: Dr. Montague, an occult scholar looking for solid evidence of the psychic phenomenon called haunting; Theodora, his lovely and lighthearted assistant; Eleanor, a lonely, homeless girl well acquainted with poltergeists; and Luke, the adventurous future heir of Hill House.
-
-
Well written horror tale
- By C K White on 02-11-14
By: Shirley Jackson
-
Água Viva (New Directions Books)
- By: Clarice Lispector
- Narrated by: Elizabeth Liang
- Length: 3 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A meditation on the nature of life and time, Água Viva (1973) shows Lispector discovering a new means of writing about herself, more deeply transforming her individual experience into a universal poetry. In a body of work as emotionally powerful, formally innovative, and philosophically profound as Clarice Lispector’s, Água Viva stands out as a particular triumph.
-
-
Occasionally sublime, frequently not her best
- By Robert Lynch on 01-20-23
-
Persuasion
- By: Jane Austen
- Narrated by: Juliet Stevenson
- Length: 8 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Anne Elliot has grieved for seven years over the loss of her first love, Captain Frederick Wentworth. But events conspire to unravel the knots of deceit and misunderstanding in this beguiling and gently comic story of love and fidelity.
-
-
Juliet Stevenson is Simply Amazing
- By Em on 04-15-12
By: Jane Austen
-
Excellent Women
- By: Barbara Pym
- Narrated by: Jayne Entwistle
- Length: 8 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Mildred Lathbury is a clergyman's daughter and a mild-mannered spinster in 1950s England. She is one of those excellent women - the smart, supportive, repressed women whom men take for granted. As Mildred gets embroiled in the lives of her new neighbors - anthropologist Helena Napier; Helen's handsome, dashing husband, Rocky; and Julian Malory, the vicar next door - the novel presents a series of snapshots of human life as actually, and pluckily, lived.
-
-
Still Waters Run Deep
- By Sara on 04-13-16
By: Barbara Pym
-
The Mandelbaum Gate
- By: Muriel Spark
- Narrated by: Frederick Davidson
- Length: 12 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Mandelbaum Gate divides the conflict-torn realm of Jerusalem, separating Israel from Jordan. Barbara Vaughn, a stubborn young English woman and half-Jewish Catholic convert, insists upon crossing the divide in order to rendezvous with her fiancé, in spite of the very real danger. Her quest sets off a series of bizarre situations and adventures, set against the backdrop of the Eichmann trial of 1961.
-
-
Graham Greene meets PG Wodehouse...
- By connie on 10-26-09
By: Muriel Spark
-
A Far Cry from Kensington
- By: Muriel Spark
- Narrated by: Pamela Garelick
- Length: 6 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Mrs. Hawkins, the majestic narrator of A Far Cry from Kensington, takes us well in hand and leads us back to her threadbare years in postwar London. There, as a fat and much admired young war widow, she spent her days working for a mad, near-bankrupt publisher (“of very good books”) and her nights dispensing advice at her small South Kensington rooming house. At work and at home Mrs. Hawkins soon uncovered evil: shady literary doings and a deadly enemy; anonymous letters, blackmail, and suicide.
-
-
Truth Teller In The Midst Of Posers & The Clueless
- By Sara on 10-03-15
By: Muriel Spark
-
The Haunting of Hill House
- By: Shirley Jackson
- Narrated by: Bernadette Dunne
- Length: 7 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Four seekers have come to the ugly, abandoned old mansion: Dr. Montague, an occult scholar looking for solid evidence of the psychic phenomenon called haunting; Theodora, his lovely and lighthearted assistant; Eleanor, a lonely, homeless girl well acquainted with poltergeists; and Luke, the adventurous future heir of Hill House.
-
-
Well written horror tale
- By C K White on 02-11-14
By: Shirley Jackson
-
Água Viva (New Directions Books)
- By: Clarice Lispector
- Narrated by: Elizabeth Liang
- Length: 3 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A meditation on the nature of life and time, Água Viva (1973) shows Lispector discovering a new means of writing about herself, more deeply transforming her individual experience into a universal poetry. In a body of work as emotionally powerful, formally innovative, and philosophically profound as Clarice Lispector’s, Água Viva stands out as a particular triumph.
-
-
Occasionally sublime, frequently not her best
- By Robert Lynch on 01-20-23
-
Persuasion
- By: Jane Austen
- Narrated by: Juliet Stevenson
- Length: 8 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Anne Elliot has grieved for seven years over the loss of her first love, Captain Frederick Wentworth. But events conspire to unravel the knots of deceit and misunderstanding in this beguiling and gently comic story of love and fidelity.
-
-
Juliet Stevenson is Simply Amazing
- By Em on 04-15-12
By: Jane Austen
-
Excellent Women
- By: Barbara Pym
- Narrated by: Jayne Entwistle
- Length: 8 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Mildred Lathbury is a clergyman's daughter and a mild-mannered spinster in 1950s England. She is one of those excellent women - the smart, supportive, repressed women whom men take for granted. As Mildred gets embroiled in the lives of her new neighbors - anthropologist Helena Napier; Helen's handsome, dashing husband, Rocky; and Julian Malory, the vicar next door - the novel presents a series of snapshots of human life as actually, and pluckily, lived.
-
-
Still Waters Run Deep
- By Sara on 04-13-16
By: Barbara Pym
-
The Mandelbaum Gate
- By: Muriel Spark
- Narrated by: Frederick Davidson
- Length: 12 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Mandelbaum Gate divides the conflict-torn realm of Jerusalem, separating Israel from Jordan. Barbara Vaughn, a stubborn young English woman and half-Jewish Catholic convert, insists upon crossing the divide in order to rendezvous with her fiancé, in spite of the very real danger. Her quest sets off a series of bizarre situations and adventures, set against the backdrop of the Eichmann trial of 1961.
-
-
Graham Greene meets PG Wodehouse...
- By connie on 10-26-09
By: Muriel Spark
-
A Far Cry from Kensington
- By: Muriel Spark
- Narrated by: Pamela Garelick
- Length: 6 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Mrs. Hawkins, the majestic narrator of A Far Cry from Kensington, takes us well in hand and leads us back to her threadbare years in postwar London. There, as a fat and much admired young war widow, she spent her days working for a mad, near-bankrupt publisher (“of very good books”) and her nights dispensing advice at her small South Kensington rooming house. At work and at home Mrs. Hawkins soon uncovered evil: shady literary doings and a deadly enemy; anonymous letters, blackmail, and suicide.
-
-
Truth Teller In The Midst Of Posers & The Clueless
- By Sara on 10-03-15
By: Muriel Spark
-
The End of the Affair
- By: Graham Greene
- Narrated by: Colin Firth
- Length: 6 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Graham Greene’s evocative analysis of the love of self, the love of another, and the love of God is an English classic that has been translated for the stage, the screen, and even the opera house. Academy Award-winning actor Colin Firth (The King’s Speech, A Single Man) turns in an authentic and stirring performance for this distinguished audio release.
-
-
Colin Firth Kills It
- By Em on 05-09-12
By: Graham Greene
-
Loitering with Intent
- By: Muriel Spark
- Narrated by: Nadia May
- Length: 4 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
"How wonderful to be an artist and a woman in the twentieth century," Fleur Talbot rejoices. Loitering about London in 1949, with intent to gather material for her writing, Fleur finds a job "on the grubby edge of the literary world", as secretary to the odd Autobiographical Association. Are they a group of mad egomaniacs, hilariously writing their memoirs in advance, or poor fools ensnared by a blackmailer? Rich material, in any case.
-
-
As Good As Pym--Maybe Better!
- By Cariola on 10-27-11
By: Muriel Spark
-
Generations
- A Memoir
- By: Lucille Clifton
- Narrated by: Sidney Clifton
- Length: 1 hr and 7 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Buffalo. A father's funeral. Memory. And Lucille Clifton merges her formidable weapons of poetry with the power of her prose, giving us a memoir of stark and profound beauty. Her story focuses on the lives of Caroline, "born among the Dahomey people in 1822", who walked North from New Orleans to Virginia in 1830 when she was eight years old; Lucy, the first Black woman to be hanged in Virginia; and Gene, born with a withered arm, the son of a Yankee carpetbagger and the author's grandmother.
-
-
Ms. Clifton’s clear and powerful voice.
- By A W A on 06-01-24
By: Lucille Clifton
-
Brideshead Revisited
- By: Evelyn Waugh
- Narrated by: Jeremy Irons
- Length: 11 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Evelyn Waugh's most celebrated work is a memory drama about the intense entanglement of the narrator, Charles Ryder, with a great Anglo-Catholic family. Written during World War II, the story mourns the passing of the aristocratic world Waugh knew in his youth and vividly recalls the sensuous pleasures denied him by wartime austerities; in so doing it also provides a profound study of the conflict between the demands of religion and the desires of the flesh.
-
-
Extraordinary
- By Vieux Carré Blonde on 12-12-12
By: Evelyn Waugh
-
The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie
- By: Muriel Spark
- Narrated by: Wanda McCaddon
- Length: 3 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the classic work that launched a play, a movie, and a song, Muriel Spark tells the darkly intriguing story of an eccentric Edinburgh teacher and the intense relationship she develops with six of her students. The scandalously outspoken Miss Brodie makes big waves in the conservative Scottish school, preaching the value of art, passion, and daring.
-
-
creme de la creme
- By Kathleen on 01-04-08
By: Muriel Spark
-
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (AmazonClassics Edition)
- By: James Joyce
- Narrated by: Alan Smyth
- Length: 11 hrs
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Stephen Dedalus is an Irish Catholic son in a pious Dublin family when he chooses to shed the constraints of religion, abandon his social and familial obligations, and escape the limits of his country to cultivate his life as a writer. In his autobiographical debut novel, James Joyce mirrors his own emotional and intellectual coming-of-age - from sexual awakening and upheavals of faith to fleeting epiphanies - in exploring the influences that help to shape an artistic identity.
By: James Joyce
-
Amulet
- By: Roberto Bolaño, Chris Andrews - translator
- Narrated by: Adriana Sananes
- Length: 4 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A tour de force, Amulet is a highly charged first-person, semi-hallucinatory novel that embodies in one woman's voice the melancholy and violent recent history of Latin America. Amulet is a monologue, like Bolaño's acclaimed debut in English, By Night in Chile. The speaker is Auxilio Lacouture, a Uruguayan woman who moved to Mexico in the 1960s, becoming the "Mother of Mexican Poetry", hanging out with the young poets in the cafés and bars of the University.
-
-
Read The Savage Detectives first
- By Alicia Grega on 12-05-13
By: Roberto Bolaño, and others
-
The Sellout
- A Novel
- By: Paul Beatty
- Narrated by: Prentice Onayemi
- Length: 9 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A biting satire about a young man's isolated upbringing and the race trial that sends him to the Supreme Court, Paul Beatty's The Sellout showcases a comic genius at the top of his game. It challenges the sacred tenets of the United States Constitution, urban life, the civil rights movement, the father-son relationship, and the holy grail of racial equality: the black Chinese restaurant.
-
-
Appreciated it, but didn't like it
- By Eugenia on 04-14-16
By: Paul Beatty
-
To the Lighthouse
- By: Virginia Woolf
- Narrated by: Nicole Kidman
- Length: 6 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
To the Lighthouse is Virginia Woolf’s arresting analysis of domestic family life, centering on the Ramseys and their visits to the Isle of Skye in Scotland in the early 1900s. Nicole Kidman (Moulin Rouge, Eyes Wide Shut), who won an Oscar for her portrayal of Woolf in the film adaptation of Michael Cunningham’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel
The Hours, brings the impressionistic prose of this classic to vibrant life.
-
-
A book that will challenge you to think.
- By Kelly on 04-23-17
By: Virginia Woolf
-
Pnin
- By: Vladimir Nabokov
- Narrated by: Stefan Rudnicki
- Length: 5 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
One of the best-loved of Nabokov's novels, Pnin features his funniest and most heart-rending character. Professor Timofey Pnin is a haplessly disoriented Russian emigre precariously employed on an American college campus in the 1950s. Pnin struggles to maintain his dignity through a series of comic and sad misunderstandings, all the while falling victim both to subtle academic conspiracies and to the manipulations of a deliberately unreliable narrator.
-
-
Why not leave their private sorrows to people?
- By Darwin8u on 01-13-20
By: Vladimir Nabokov
-
Lolita
- By: Vladimir Nabokov
- Narrated by: Jeremy Irons
- Length: 11 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Awe and exhilaration—along with heartbreak and mordant wit—abound in Lolita, which tells the story of the aging Humbert Humbert's obsession for the nymphet Dolores Haze. Lolita is also the story of a hypercivilized European colliding with the cheerful barbarism of postwar America.
-
-
An Absolutely Gorgeous Audible Experience
- By Jim on 10-26-05
By: Vladimir Nabokov
-
The Choir
- By: Joanna Trollope
- Narrated by: Wanda McCaddon
- Length: 8 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the gentle world of one of England’s beautiful old cathedral towns, crisis looms: Funds are short, and the cathedral is in need of major repair. One faction of the community argues that the obvious solution is to abolish the expensive, and nowadays rather irrelevant, boys’ choir. But of course, there are those who disagree: the choir school’s headmaster, a conscientious scholar somewhat out of his depth with his elusive, poetical wife; the cathedral organist and choirmaster, brilliant, wayward, and in love with the lead chorister’s married mother; the former lead chorister, now twenty-three and directionless....
-
-
A Favoirite
- By Therese Van Arsdale on 09-06-21
By: Joanna Trollope
Critic reviews
Related to this topic
-
The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie
- By: Muriel Spark
- Narrated by: Wanda McCaddon
- Length: 3 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the classic work that launched a play, a movie, and a song, Muriel Spark tells the darkly intriguing story of an eccentric Edinburgh teacher and the intense relationship she develops with six of her students. The scandalously outspoken Miss Brodie makes big waves in the conservative Scottish school, preaching the value of art, passion, and daring.
-
-
creme de la creme
- By Kathleen on 01-04-08
By: Muriel Spark
-
Now, Voyager
- Femmes Fatales
- By: Olive Higgins Prouty
- Narrated by: Coleen Marlo
- Length: 7 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Boston blueblood Charlotte Vale has led an unhappy, sheltered life. Lonely, dowdy, repressed, and pushing 40, Charlotte finds salvation at a sanitarium, where she undergoes an emotional and physical transformation. After her extreme makeover, the new Charlotte tests her mettle by embarking on a cruise and finds herself in a torrid love affair with a married man which ends at the conclusion of the voyage. But only then can the real journey begin, as Charlotte is forced to navigate a new life for herself.
-
-
The Inspiration for The Movie Classic
- By Susie on 12-17-12
-
Staying On
- By: Paul Scott
- Narrated by: Paul Shelley
- Length: 9 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Tusker and Lily Smalley stayed on in India. Given the chance to return ‘home’ when Tusker, once a Colonel in the British Army, retired, they chose instead to remain in the small hill town of Pankot, with its eccentric inhabitants and archaic rituals left over from the days of the Empire. Only the tyranny of their imposing landlady threatens to upset the quiet rhythm of their days.
-
-
A Pleasant Meander
- By Ian C Robertson on 09-22-14
By: Paul Scott
-
Anna of the Five Towns
- By: Arnold Bennett
- Narrated by: Peter Joyce
- Length: 9 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Set in stifled, industrial Staffordshire in the late 19th century, against a strong evangelical background, Anna of the Five Towns tells of the courting of hard businessman Ephraim Tellright's daughter by prosperous and accomplished Henry Mynors. As her father's fortune grows, so does Anna understanding. She realises her legacy and responsibility for the possible ruination of her father's tenants, Titus Price and his son, Willie, who also loves her.
By: Arnold Bennett
-
Mrs. Dalloway
- By: Virginia Woolf
- Narrated by: Juliet Stevenson
- Length: 7 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
It is a June day in London in 1923, and the lovely Clarissa Dalloway is having a party. Whom will she see? Her friend Peter, back from India, who has never really stopped loving her? What about Sally, with whom Clarissa had her life’s happiest moment? Meanwhile, the shell-shocked Septimus Smith is struggling with his life on the same London day.
-
-
One Tough Read Perfectly Delivered
- By Chris on 06-11-12
By: Virginia Woolf
-
Cold Comfort Farm
- Penguin Classics
- By: Stella Gibbons
- Narrated by: Pearl Mackie
- Length: 8 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When sensible, sophisticated Flora Poste is orphaned at 19, she decides her only choice is to descend upon relatives in deepest Sussex. At the aptly named Cold Comfort Farm, she meets the doomed Starkadders: cousin Judith, heaving with remorse for unspoken wickedness; Amos, preaching fire and damnation; their sons, lustful Seth and despairing Reuben; child of nature Elfine; and crazed old Aunt Ada Doom, who has kept to her bedroom for the last 20 years. But Flora loves nothing better than to organise other people.
-
-
Very, very amusing, a go to if one needs cheering
- By Laura G. Marcantoni on 11-05-20
By: Stella Gibbons
-
The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie
- By: Muriel Spark
- Narrated by: Wanda McCaddon
- Length: 3 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the classic work that launched a play, a movie, and a song, Muriel Spark tells the darkly intriguing story of an eccentric Edinburgh teacher and the intense relationship she develops with six of her students. The scandalously outspoken Miss Brodie makes big waves in the conservative Scottish school, preaching the value of art, passion, and daring.
-
-
creme de la creme
- By Kathleen on 01-04-08
By: Muriel Spark
-
Now, Voyager
- Femmes Fatales
- By: Olive Higgins Prouty
- Narrated by: Coleen Marlo
- Length: 7 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Boston blueblood Charlotte Vale has led an unhappy, sheltered life. Lonely, dowdy, repressed, and pushing 40, Charlotte finds salvation at a sanitarium, where she undergoes an emotional and physical transformation. After her extreme makeover, the new Charlotte tests her mettle by embarking on a cruise and finds herself in a torrid love affair with a married man which ends at the conclusion of the voyage. But only then can the real journey begin, as Charlotte is forced to navigate a new life for herself.
-
-
The Inspiration for The Movie Classic
- By Susie on 12-17-12
-
Staying On
- By: Paul Scott
- Narrated by: Paul Shelley
- Length: 9 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Tusker and Lily Smalley stayed on in India. Given the chance to return ‘home’ when Tusker, once a Colonel in the British Army, retired, they chose instead to remain in the small hill town of Pankot, with its eccentric inhabitants and archaic rituals left over from the days of the Empire. Only the tyranny of their imposing landlady threatens to upset the quiet rhythm of their days.
-
-
A Pleasant Meander
- By Ian C Robertson on 09-22-14
By: Paul Scott
-
Anna of the Five Towns
- By: Arnold Bennett
- Narrated by: Peter Joyce
- Length: 9 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Set in stifled, industrial Staffordshire in the late 19th century, against a strong evangelical background, Anna of the Five Towns tells of the courting of hard businessman Ephraim Tellright's daughter by prosperous and accomplished Henry Mynors. As her father's fortune grows, so does Anna understanding. She realises her legacy and responsibility for the possible ruination of her father's tenants, Titus Price and his son, Willie, who also loves her.
By: Arnold Bennett
-
Mrs. Dalloway
- By: Virginia Woolf
- Narrated by: Juliet Stevenson
- Length: 7 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
It is a June day in London in 1923, and the lovely Clarissa Dalloway is having a party. Whom will she see? Her friend Peter, back from India, who has never really stopped loving her? What about Sally, with whom Clarissa had her life’s happiest moment? Meanwhile, the shell-shocked Septimus Smith is struggling with his life on the same London day.
-
-
One Tough Read Perfectly Delivered
- By Chris on 06-11-12
By: Virginia Woolf
-
Cold Comfort Farm
- Penguin Classics
- By: Stella Gibbons
- Narrated by: Pearl Mackie
- Length: 8 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When sensible, sophisticated Flora Poste is orphaned at 19, she decides her only choice is to descend upon relatives in deepest Sussex. At the aptly named Cold Comfort Farm, she meets the doomed Starkadders: cousin Judith, heaving with remorse for unspoken wickedness; Amos, preaching fire and damnation; their sons, lustful Seth and despairing Reuben; child of nature Elfine; and crazed old Aunt Ada Doom, who has kept to her bedroom for the last 20 years. But Flora loves nothing better than to organise other people.
-
-
Very, very amusing, a go to if one needs cheering
- By Laura G. Marcantoni on 11-05-20
By: Stella Gibbons
-
Mrs. Tim of the Regiment
- By: D. E. Stevenson
- Narrated by: Christine Rendel
- Length: 13 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Vivacious, young Hester Christie tries to run her home like clockwork, as would befit the wife of British Army officer, Tim Christie. However hard Mrs Tim strives for seamless living amidst the other army wives, she is always moving flat-out to remember groceries, rule lively children, side-step village gossip and placate her husband with bacon, eggs, toast and marmalade. Left alone for months at a time whilst her husband is with his regiment, Mrs Tim resolves to keep a diary of events large and small in her family life.
-
-
Life as a military wife
- By Jerri C on 03-09-13
By: D. E. Stevenson
-
Decline and Fall
- By: Evelyn Waugh
- Narrated by: Michael Maloney
- Length: 5 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Sent down from Oxford after a wild, drunken party, Paul Pennyfeather is oddly surprised to find himself qualifying for the position of schoolmaster at a boys' private school in Wales. His colleagues are an assortment of misfits, rascals and fools, including Prendy (plagued by doubts) and Captain Grimes, who is always in the soup (or just plain drunk). Then Sports Day arrives, and with it the delectable Margot Beste-Chetwynde, floating on a scented breeze.
-
-
Black Humor, Satire, and the Absurd
- By Gypsi on 06-09-18
By: Evelyn Waugh
-
The Enchanted April
- By: Elizabeth von Arnim
- Narrated by: Nadia May
- Length: 8 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This is a journey of both escape and discovery for four exquisitely different women, a month of bliss and privacy for four weary souls. Their refuge on the Italian Riviera provides the perfect backdrop for a story about the search for spiritual harmony within and without.
-
-
Excellent book, excellent narrator
- By Amazon Customer on 02-26-05
-
The Real Life of Sebastian Knight
- By: Vladimir Nabokov
- Narrated by: Luke Daniels
- Length: 6 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Real Life of Sebastian Knight, the first novel Nabokov wrote in English, is a tantalizing literary mystery in which a writer’s half brother searches to unravel the enigma of the life of the famous author of Albinos in Black, The Back of the Moon, and Doubtful Asphodel. A characteristically cunning play on identity and deception, the novel concludes “ I am Sebastian, or Sebastian is I, or perhaps we both are someone whom neither of us knows.”
-
-
A dry run at big, complex themes
- By Darwin8u on 12-08-13
By: Vladimir Nabokov
-
Amsterdam
- By: Ian McEwan
- Narrated by: Steven Crossley
- Length: 4 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The best-selling author of Atonement and Enduring Love, Ian McEwan is known as one of contemporary fiction’s most acclaimed writers. This Booker Prize-winning novel by McEwan finds two men connecting at the funeral of their ex-lover. Distressed by how she was slowly destroyed by an illness, the two make a pact to save each other from enduring such a fate.
-
-
Make something, and die.
- By Darwin8u on 02-07-17
By: Ian McEwan
-
Grey Mask
- Miss Silver, Book 1
- By: Patricia Wentworth
- Narrated by: Diana Bishop
- Length: 7 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
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.
-
-
The shaky first of a long, strong series
- By Phebe on 07-21-15
-
High Rising
- A Virago Modern Classic
- By: Angela Thirkell, Alexander McCall Smith - introduction
- Narrated by: Jilly Bond
- Length: 7 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
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.
-
-
Beginning of a journey
- By Jerri C on 11-04-16
By: Angela Thirkell, and others
-
South Riding
- By: Winifred Holtby
- Narrated by: Carole Boyd
- Length: 19 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
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).
-
-
Worth Revisiting
- By Ilana on 11-04-12
By: Winifred Holtby
-
Put Out More Flags
- By: Evelyn Waugh
- Narrated by: Michael Maloney
- Length: 5 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
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.
-
-
Wickedly Funny
- By Chelz on 07-25-19
By: Evelyn Waugh
-
Cold Hand in Mine
- By: Robert Aickman
- Narrated by: Reece Shearsmith
- Length: 8 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
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.
-
-
Aickman is unique
- By Stark on 08-19-23
By: Robert Aickman
-
The Bookshop
- By: Penelope Fitzgerald, Stephanie Racine, David Nicholls - introduction
- Narrated by: Eve Karpf, David Nicholls
- Length: 4 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
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.
-
-
On my to read list for a long time
- By theenglishmajor on 02-23-18
By: Penelope Fitzgerald, and others
-
Celia's House
- By: D. E. Stevenson
- Narrated by: Lesley Mackie
- Length: 9 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
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.
-
-
Boarder area of Scotland
- By Jerri C on 03-14-11
By: D. E. Stevenson
People who viewed this also viewed...
-
Memento Mori
- By: Muriel Spark
- Narrated by: Nadia May
- Length: 6 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
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.
-
-
More Spark, Please!
- By Cariola on 10-27-11
By: Muriel Spark
-
The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie
- By: Muriel Spark
- Narrated by: Wanda McCaddon
- Length: 3 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the classic work that launched a play, a movie, and a song, Muriel Spark tells the darkly intriguing story of an eccentric Edinburgh teacher and the intense relationship she develops with six of her students. The scandalously outspoken Miss Brodie makes big waves in the conservative Scottish school, preaching the value of art, passion, and daring.
-
-
creme de la creme
- By Kathleen on 01-04-08
By: Muriel Spark
-
Loitering with Intent
- By: Muriel Spark
- Narrated by: Nadia May
- Length: 4 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
"How wonderful to be an artist and a woman in the twentieth century," Fleur Talbot rejoices. Loitering about London in 1949, with intent to gather material for her writing, Fleur finds a job "on the grubby edge of the literary world", as secretary to the odd Autobiographical Association. Are they a group of mad egomaniacs, hilariously writing their memoirs in advance, or poor fools ensnared by a blackmailer? Rich material, in any case.
-
-
As Good As Pym--Maybe Better!
- By Cariola on 10-27-11
By: Muriel Spark
-
The Mandelbaum Gate
- By: Muriel Spark
- Narrated by: Frederick Davidson
- Length: 12 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Mandelbaum Gate divides the conflict-torn realm of Jerusalem, separating Israel from Jordan. Barbara Vaughn, a stubborn young English woman and half-Jewish Catholic convert, insists upon crossing the divide in order to rendezvous with her fiancé, in spite of the very real danger. Her quest sets off a series of bizarre situations and adventures, set against the backdrop of the Eichmann trial of 1961.
-
-
Graham Greene meets PG Wodehouse...
- By connie on 10-26-09
By: Muriel Spark
-
A Far Cry from Kensington
- By: Muriel Spark
- Narrated by: Pamela Garelick
- Length: 6 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Mrs. Hawkins, the majestic narrator of A Far Cry from Kensington, takes us well in hand and leads us back to her threadbare years in postwar London. There, as a fat and much admired young war widow, she spent her days working for a mad, near-bankrupt publisher (“of very good books”) and her nights dispensing advice at her small South Kensington rooming house. At work and at home Mrs. Hawkins soon uncovered evil: shady literary doings and a deadly enemy; anonymous letters, blackmail, and suicide.
-
-
Truth Teller In The Midst Of Posers & The Clueless
- By Sara on 10-03-15
By: Muriel Spark
-
The Bachelors
- By: Muriel Spark
- Narrated by: Nadia May
- Length: 6 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
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.
-
-
philosophical black comedy
- By connie on 04-22-09
By: Muriel Spark
-
Memento Mori
- By: Muriel Spark
- Narrated by: Nadia May
- Length: 6 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
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.
-
-
More Spark, Please!
- By Cariola on 10-27-11
By: Muriel Spark
-
The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie
- By: Muriel Spark
- Narrated by: Wanda McCaddon
- Length: 3 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the classic work that launched a play, a movie, and a song, Muriel Spark tells the darkly intriguing story of an eccentric Edinburgh teacher and the intense relationship she develops with six of her students. The scandalously outspoken Miss Brodie makes big waves in the conservative Scottish school, preaching the value of art, passion, and daring.
-
-
creme de la creme
- By Kathleen on 01-04-08
By: Muriel Spark
-
Loitering with Intent
- By: Muriel Spark
- Narrated by: Nadia May
- Length: 4 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
"How wonderful to be an artist and a woman in the twentieth century," Fleur Talbot rejoices. Loitering about London in 1949, with intent to gather material for her writing, Fleur finds a job "on the grubby edge of the literary world", as secretary to the odd Autobiographical Association. Are they a group of mad egomaniacs, hilariously writing their memoirs in advance, or poor fools ensnared by a blackmailer? Rich material, in any case.
-
-
As Good As Pym--Maybe Better!
- By Cariola on 10-27-11
By: Muriel Spark
-
The Mandelbaum Gate
- By: Muriel Spark
- Narrated by: Frederick Davidson
- Length: 12 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Mandelbaum Gate divides the conflict-torn realm of Jerusalem, separating Israel from Jordan. Barbara Vaughn, a stubborn young English woman and half-Jewish Catholic convert, insists upon crossing the divide in order to rendezvous with her fiancé, in spite of the very real danger. Her quest sets off a series of bizarre situations and adventures, set against the backdrop of the Eichmann trial of 1961.
-
-
Graham Greene meets PG Wodehouse...
- By connie on 10-26-09
By: Muriel Spark
-
A Far Cry from Kensington
- By: Muriel Spark
- Narrated by: Pamela Garelick
- Length: 6 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Mrs. Hawkins, the majestic narrator of A Far Cry from Kensington, takes us well in hand and leads us back to her threadbare years in postwar London. There, as a fat and much admired young war widow, she spent her days working for a mad, near-bankrupt publisher (“of very good books”) and her nights dispensing advice at her small South Kensington rooming house. At work and at home Mrs. Hawkins soon uncovered evil: shady literary doings and a deadly enemy; anonymous letters, blackmail, and suicide.
-
-
Truth Teller In The Midst Of Posers & The Clueless
- By Sara on 10-03-15
By: Muriel Spark
-
The Bachelors
- By: Muriel Spark
- Narrated by: Nadia May
- Length: 6 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
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.
-
-
philosophical black comedy
- By connie on 04-22-09
By: Muriel Spark
What listeners say about The Girls of Slender Means
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
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.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
4 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- 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.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
2 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- 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.’
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- 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.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- 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.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- 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.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
2 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Azureblue
- 04-11-20
Sublime
Perfect narration. And Spark? Chilly and comforting at the same time. A mistress of chance.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- 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!
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
4 people found this helpful