The Man in the Red Coat
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Narrated by:
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Saul Reichlin
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By:
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Julian Barnes
About this listen
From the Man Booker Prize-winning author of The Sense of an Ending - a rich, witty, revelatory tour of Belle Epoque Paris, via the remarkable life story of the pioneering surgeon, Samuel Pozzi.
In the summer of 1885, three Frenchmen arrived in London for a few days' intellectual shopping: a prince, a count, and a commoner with an Italian name. In time, each of these men would achieve a certain level of renown, but who were they then and what was the significance of their sojourn to England? Answering these questions, Julian Barnes unfurls the stories of their lives which play out against the backdrop of the Belle Epoque in Paris. Our guide through this world is Samuel Pozzi, the society doctor, free-thinker, and man of science with a famously complicated private life who was the subject of one of John Singer Sargent's greatest portraits. In this vivid tapestry of people (Henry James, Sarah Bernhardt, Oscar Wilde, Proust, James Whistler, among many others), place, and time, we see not merely an epoch of glamour and pleasure, but, surprisingly, one of violence, prejudice, and nativism - with more parallels to our own age than we might imagine.
The Man in the Red Coat is, at once, a fresh portrait of the Belle Epoque; an illuminating look at the longstanding exchange of ideas between Britain and France; and a life of a man who lived passionately in the moment but whose ideas and achievements were far ahead of his time.
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The theory that Shakespeare may not have written the works that bear his name is the most horrible, unspeakable subject in the history of English literature. Scholars admit that the Bard’s biography is a “black hole,” yet to publicly question the identity of the god of English literature is unacceptable, even (some say) “immoral.” In Shakespeare Was a Woman and Other Heresies, journalist and literary critic Elizabeth Winkler sets out to probe the origins of this literary taboo.
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Excellent!
- By Virgil Tracy on 06-03-23
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What Would Frida Do?
- A Guide to Living Boldly
- By: Arianna Davis
- Narrated by: Marisa Blake
- Length: 5 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
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Revered as much for her fierce spirit as she is for her art, Frida Kahlo stands today as a brazen symbol of daring creativity. She was a woman ahead of her time whose paintings have earned her generations of admirers around the globe. But perhaps her greatest work of art was her own life. What Would Frida Do? explores the feminist icon's signature style, outspoken politics, and boldness in love and art, even in the face of pain and heartbreak.
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I was excited
- By Edgar E Armendariz on 01-14-21
By: Arianna Davis
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Square Haunting
- Five Writers in London Between the Wars
- By: Francesca Wade
- Narrated by: Corrie James
- Length: 13 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
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Mecklenburgh Square has always been a radical address. Nestled in the heart of Bloomsbury, these townhouses have borne witness to the lives of some of the century's most revolutionary cultural figures - many of whom were extraordinary women. United by their desire to experiment with new ways of living - and, therefore, of being - these authors and thinkers were trailblazers in their commitment to creative independence.
By: Francesca Wade
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Heiresses
- The Lives of the Million Dollar Babies
- By: Laura Thompson
- Narrated by: Laura Thompson
- Length: 13 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
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Heiresses: Surely they are among the luckiest women on earth. Are they not to be envied, with their private jets and Chanel wardrobes and endless funds? Yet all too often those gilded lives have been beset with trauma and despair. Before the 20th century a wife’s inheritance was the property of her husband, making her vulnerable to kidnap, forced marriages, even confinement in an asylum. And in modern times, heiresses fell victim to fortune-hunters who squandered their millions.
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tough listen and tough to keep track
- By Amazon Customer on 03-29-23
By: Laura Thompson
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The Regency Years
- During Which Jane Austen Writes, Napoleon Fights, Byron Makes Love, and Britain Becomes Modern
- By: Robert Morrison
- Narrated by: Chris MacDonnell
- Length: 13 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
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The Victorians are often credited with ushering in our current era, yet the seeds of change were planted in the years before. The Regency (1811-1820) began when the profligate Prince of Wales - the future King George IV - replaced his insane father, George III, as Britain's ruler. Around the regent surged a society steeped in contrasts: evangelicalism and hedonism, elegance and brutality, exuberance and despair. The arts flourished at this time with a showcase of extraordinary writers and painters such as Jane Austen, Lord Byron, the Shelleys, John Constable, and J. M. W. Turner.
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What a time!
- By BK on 06-18-19
By: Robert Morrison
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Vanderbilt
- The Rise and Fall of an American Dynasty
- By: Anderson Cooper, Katherine Howe
- Narrated by: Anderson Cooper
- Length: 8 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
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New York Times best-selling author and journalist Anderson Cooper teams with New York Times best-selling historian and novelist Katherine Howe to chronicle the rise and fall of a legendary American dynasty - his mother’s family, the Vanderbilts.
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Interesting Approach to a Well Known History
- By HistoryNerd on 09-24-21
By: Anderson Cooper, and others
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Zelda Fitzgerald
- The Tragic, Meticulously Researched Biography of the Jazz Age's High Priestess
- By: Sally Cline
- Narrated by: Coleen Marlo
- Length: 17 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
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Zelda Fitzgerald was the mythical American Dream Girl of the Roaring Twenties who became, in the words of her husband, F. Scott Fitzgerald, "the first American flapper." Their romance transformed a symbol of glamour and spectacle of the Jazz Age. When Zelda cracked up, not long after the stock market crash of 1929, Scott remained loyal to her through a nightmare of later breakdowns and final madness.
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The Beautiful and the Bungled
- By Silverthorne on 12-08-17
By: Sally Cline
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The Sinner and the Saint
- Dostoevsky and the Gentleman Murderer Who Inspired a Masterpiece
- By: Kevin Birmingham
- Narrated by: Robert Petkoff
- Length: 15 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
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The Sinner and the Saint is the deeply researched and immersive tale of how Dostoevsky came to write this great murder story - and why it changed the world. As a young man, Dostoevsky was a celebrated writer, but his involvement with the radical politics of his day condemned him to a long Siberian exile. There, he spent years studying the criminals that were his companions. Upon his return to St. Petersburg in the 1860s, he fought his way through gambling addiction, debilitating debt, epilepsy, the deaths of those closest to him, and literary banishment.
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Best book about F.D.'s amazing journey
- By Amazon Customer on 01-23-22
By: Kevin Birmingham
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I Am Dynamite!
- A Life of Nietzsche
- By: Sue Prideaux
- Narrated by: Nicholas Guy Smith
- Length: 17 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
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Nietzsche wrote that all philosophy is autobiographical, and in this vividly compelling, myth-shattering biography, Sue Prideaux brings listeners into the world of this brilliant, eccentric, and deeply troubled man, illuminating the events and people that shaped his life and work. I Am Dynamite! is the essential biography for anyone seeking to understand history's most misunderstood philosopher.
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Fascinating; tragic
- By Cineaste21 on 12-30-18
By: Sue Prideaux
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One of the best, at this best
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Julian Barnes pens a kind of detective story, relating a cranky amateur scholar’s search for the truth about Gustave Flaubert and the obsession of this detective, whose life seems to oddly mirror those of Flaubert’s characters.
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Strange and quirky story
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Tony Webster and his clique first met Adrian Finn at school. Sex-hungry and book-hungry, they would navigate the girl-less sixth form together, trading in affectations, in-jokes, rumour, and wit. Maybe Adrian was a little more serious than the others, certainly more intelligent, but they all swore to stay friends for life. Now Tony is retired. He’s had a career and a single marriage, a calm divorce. He’s certainly never tried to hurt anybody. Memory, though, is imperfect. It can always throw up surprises, as a lawyer’s letter is about to prove.
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Disappointing
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We'd like to introduce you to Elizabeth Finch. We invite you to take her course in Culture and Civilisation. Her ideas are not to everyone's taste. But she will change the way you see the world. Elizabeth Finch was a teacher, a thinker, an inspiration—always rigorous, always thoughtful. With careful empathy, she guided her students to develop meaningful ideas and to discover their centers of seriousness. As a former student unpacks her notebooks and remembers her uniquely inquisitive mind, her passion for reason resonates through the years.
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Another masterpiece!
- By Davis Perkins on 08-23-22
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- By Darwin8u on 06-13-16
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One summer in the 60s, in a staid suburb south of London, Paul comes home from university, aged 19, and is urged by his mother to join the tennis club. In the mixed-doubles tournament he's partnered with Susan Macleod, a fine player who's 48, confident, ironic, and married, with two nearly adult daughters. She is also a warm companion, their bond immediate. And they soon, inevitably, are lovers. Clinging to each other as though their lives depend on it, they then set up house in London to escape his parents and the abusive Mr. Mcleod.
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One of the best, at this best
- By Joe Kraus on 01-15-20
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Flaubert's Parrot
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Julian Barnes pens a kind of detective story, relating a cranky amateur scholar’s search for the truth about Gustave Flaubert and the obsession of this detective, whose life seems to oddly mirror those of Flaubert’s characters.
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Strange and quirky story
- By Lela Ellsworth on 01-24-24
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Brilliant
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Tony Webster and his clique first met Adrian Finn at school. Sex-hungry and book-hungry, they would navigate the girl-less sixth form together, trading in affectations, in-jokes, rumour, and wit. Maybe Adrian was a little more serious than the others, certainly more intelligent, but they all swore to stay friends for life. Now Tony is retired. He’s had a career and a single marriage, a calm divorce. He’s certainly never tried to hurt anybody. Memory, though, is imperfect. It can always throw up surprises, as a lawyer’s letter is about to prove.
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Disappointing
- By Andrew Lim on 06-14-21
By: Julian Barnes
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Elizabeth Finch
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We'd like to introduce you to Elizabeth Finch. We invite you to take her course in Culture and Civilisation. Her ideas are not to everyone's taste. But she will change the way you see the world. Elizabeth Finch was a teacher, a thinker, an inspiration—always rigorous, always thoughtful. With careful empathy, she guided her students to develop meaningful ideas and to discover their centers of seriousness. As a former student unpacks her notebooks and remembers her uniquely inquisitive mind, her passion for reason resonates through the years.
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Another masterpiece!
- By Davis Perkins on 08-23-22
By: Julian Barnes
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Levels of Life
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'You put together two things that have not been put together before. And the world is changed...' Julian Barnes's new book is about ballooning, photography, love and grief; about putting two things, and two people, together, and about tearing them apart. One of the judges who awarded him the 2011 Man Booker Prize described him as 'an unparalleled magus of the heart'. This book confirms that opinion.
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Every love story is a potential grief story.
- By Darwin8u on 09-27-16
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Barnes’ appreciation extends from France’s vanishing peasantry to its hyperliterate pop singers, from the gleeful iconoclasm of nouvelle vague cinema to the orgy of drugs and suffering that is the Tour de France. Above all, Barnes is an unparalleled connoisseur of French writing and writers. Lively yet discriminating in its enthusiasm, seemingly infinite in its range of reference, and written in prose as stylish as haute couture, Something to Declare is an unadulterated joy.
By: Julian Barnes
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A History of the World in 10 1/2 Chapters
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This is one of the defining novels of English writer Julian Barnes. An entertaining melange of stories starting with a contemporary account of the launch of Noah's Ark takes us into unexpected areas of human foibles, activities, and tendencies.
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Not what I Expected
- By Mark on 02-20-08
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The War That Made America
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Apart from The Last of the Mohicans, most Americans know little of the French and Indian War, also known as the Seven Years' War, and yet it remains one of the most fascinating periods in our history. In January 2006, PBS will air The War That Made America, a four-part documentary about this epic conflict. Fred Anderson, the award-winning and critically acclaimed historian, has written the official tie-in to this exciting television event.
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A thorough and absorbing history
- By Michael on 03-15-10
By: Fred Anderson
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Dawn of the Belle Epoque
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A humiliating military defeat by Bismarck's Germany, a brutal siege, and a bloody uprising - Paris in 1871 was in shambles, and the question loomed, "Could this extraordinary city even survive?" Mary McAuliffe takes the listener back to these perilous years following the abrupt collapse of the Second Empire and France's uncertain venture into the Third Republic. By 1900, Paris had recovered, and the Belle Epoque was in full flower, but the decades between were difficult, marked by struggles.
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A massacre
- By BL on 10-02-22
By: Mary McAuliffe
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Why Read the Classics?
- By: Italo Calvino, Martin McLaughlin - translator
- Narrated by: Edoardo Ballerini
- Length: 9 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
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Italo Calvino was not only a prolific master of fiction, he was also an uncanny reader of literature, a keen critic of astonishing range. Why Read the Classics? is the most comprehensive collection of Calvino's literary criticism available in English, accounting for the enduring importance to our lives of crucial writers of the Western canon. Here - spanning more than two millennia, from antiquity to postmodernism - are 36 immediately relevant, accessible ruminations on the writers, poets, and scientists who meant most to Calvino at different stages of his life.
By: Italo Calvino, and others
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Oscar and Lucinda
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- Unabridged
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Oscar Hopkins is a high-strung preacher's kid with hydrophobia and noisy knees. Lucinda Leplastrier is a frizzy-haired heiress who impulsively buys a glass factory with the inheritance forced on her by a well-intentioned adviser. In the early parts of this lushly written audiobook, author Peter Carey renders the seminal turning points in his protagonists' childhoods as exquisite 19th-century set pieces.
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A book to wade in, submerge into.
- By Darwin8u on 10-25-15
By: Peter Carey
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The Lemon Table
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In a collection that is wise, funny, clever and moving, Julian Barnes has created characters whose passions and longings are made all the stronger by the knowledge that, for them, time is almost at an end.
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A Real Downer
- By Cariola on 07-03-12
By: Julian Barnes
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Talking It Over
- By: Julian Barnes
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Introducing Stuart, Gillian and Oliver. One by one they take their turn to speak straight out to the camera - and give their side of a contemporary love triangle. What begins as a comedy of misunderstanding slowly darkens and deepens into a compelling exploration of the quagmires of the heart.
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The Narrative Gimmick Works
- By Alan on 11-22-11
By: Julian Barnes
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Lessons
- By: Ian McEwan
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- Length: 17 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
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When the world is still counting the cost of the Second World War and the Iron Curtain has closed, eleven-year-old Roland Baines's life is turned upside down. 2,000 miles from his mother's protective love, stranded at an unusual boarding school, his vulnerability attracts piano teacher Miss Miriam Cornell, leaving scars as well as a memory of love that will never fade.
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Narrator Simon McBurney gets my 100% rating
- By Peggy M on 09-26-22
By: Ian McEwan
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The Wars of the Roses
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- Narrated by: John Curless
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- Unabridged
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The 15th century saw the longest and bloodiest series of civil wars in British history. The crown of England changed hands five times as two branches of the Plantagenet dynasty fought to the death for the right to rule. Now, celebrated historian Dan Jones describes how the longest reigning British royal family tore itself apart until it was finally replaced by the Tudors. Some of the greatest heroes and villains in history were thrown together in these turbulent times.
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No Need for a Score Card
- By Troy on 01-16-15
By: Dan Jones
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The Overstory
- By: Richard Powers
- Narrated by: Suzanne Toren
- Length: 22 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
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The Overstory unfolds in concentric rings of interlocking fable that range from antebellum New York to the late 20th-century Timber Wars of the Pacific Northwest and beyond. An air force loadmaster in the Vietnam War is shot out of the sky, then saved by falling into a banyan. An artist inherits 100 years of photographic portraits, all of the same doomed American chestnut. A hard-partying undergraduate in the late 1980s electrocutes herself, dies, and is sent back into life by creatures of air and light.
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eye opening
- By Michael Stansberry on 05-23-18
By: Richard Powers
What listeners say about The Man in the Red Coat
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Marguerite Gautier
- 03-06-20
Terrible reader. I couldn't continue.
While I always listen to a sample of potential audiobook purchases to see if the reader's voice itself is agreeable, nothing could have prepared me for what I heard today, when I started listening to my audiobook. Russell Bentley's mispronunciation of French was so egregiously horrible I had to stop listening, and I really wanted to listen to this book, as the subject is of great interest to me. For instance: "Arribo" for "À Rebours," "MaLOM" for "Mallarmé," and "Sadé" for "Sade." These are hardly obscure names when dealing with this subject matter; and those are just some of the worst. In addition, when reading translated excerpts from French writers, Mr Bentley has chosen a completely unnecessary French accent. I question the judgment of whoever hired him to read The Man in the Red Coat. I think a great disservice has been done to Julian Barnes and his subject; I'm exchanging this audiobook, and I'm going to read the book the "old-fashioned" way.
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9 people found this helpful
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- Andy Ward
- 11-05-23
Sublime
Beautifully told and beautifully narrated. Julian Barnes brings alive the world of belle epoque paris through the story of dr pozzi and his circle. Enough short detours to make the ride worthwhile
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1 person found this helpful
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- David
- 05-05-20
The Sense of an Era
Julian Barnes has written a kaleidoscopic survey of high society in the “Belle Epoque” of Paris in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. He focuses on Dr. Samuel Pozzi, a brilliant and innovative surgeon. Dr. Pozzi was also a philanderer, a lover of culture and a person-about-town. Pozzi was the man in the red coat, the subject of a full-length portrait by John Singer Sargent, a sensitive painting that caught Barnes’ eye and served as the inspiration for this history. But as Barnes studies the growing circle around Dr. Pozzi, figures as unlike as Henry James, Oscar Wilde, Marcel Proust, Sarah Bernhardt, Samuel Lister and even, briefly, PT Barnum fill out the portrait of an era.
Barnes writes in paisley prose, curving off into one colorful digression after another. He informs us about the uses of dueling, the nature of portrait painting, the sympathy of French courts for crimes of passion, the mysteries of conjugal love (Dr. and Mme. Pozzi had a deeply troubled marriage yet produced a late-in-life baby) and the difficulty of biography (ultimately, as Barnes repeatedly notes of the historic questions, “we cannot know.”) His style is erudite but amusing. My only hesitation is the obscurity of many of the prominent figures in the book, people whose names I did not recognize and whose lives did not especially interest me.
I found the narration excellent. Saul Reichlin spoke with bemused interest, and unlike other reviewers here, I had no problem with his French pronunciation. His reading increased my enjoyment of this likeable historic survey.
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2 people found this helpful
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- L. Ford Ballard, Jr.
- 03-19-20
Interesting but rambling story
It was interesting about these three protagonists, but rambled a lot about this and that in the belle époque. Just perfect for stilling at home during the covid-19 lock down.
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2 people found this helpful
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- Scott
- 02-21-21
History through a painting's subject
An engrossing niche history lesson told around the subject of the beautiful Sargent painting, the French physician Samuel Pozzi. This story touches on so many of the cultural, social, scientific, medical, and mechanical changes that were occuring during the late 19th and early 20th centuries, using Dr Pozzi as the point of intersection. Pozzi was, while quite famous in his primary field of gynochology, connected to and mostly friends with some of the most famous people of this era. Royalty, artists, authors, physicians, actors and politicians parade through this enlightening history. If you are a student of history, or enjoy a story where everything is ultimately connected, this is a wonderful book.
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- Akos Szilvasi
- 05-11-23
Superbly enjoyable book
I strongly disagree with the reviewer who disliked the narration. For me it was one of the best performance I ever heard.
Mr Barnes style is witty, elegant and personal. The book gave me an overview of the period which I knew in its fragments. All the people are household names but I never knew the connection between them.
I will look for other J B books.
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- greta shlafmitz
- 02-23-20
shocking mispronunciations, just shocking
how is it possible that this book is read by a man who has never learned a single word of french? every name, all quotes in french, all titles of french books are butchered! it's terrifying, ugly. is the author aware of this?
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16 people found this helpful
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- Jim McBride
- 10-31-20
Good pronunciation
This is an excellent book. But I would like to take issue with the reviewer who was outraged by the narrator’s pronunciation of the multitude of French terms. I speak French myself and can’t imagine a better rendition from an Englishman who pronounces it accurately without losing his own accent.
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3 people found this helpful
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- Reader in New Mexico
- 07-29-20
Will Recommend This Book to Friends
For years I lived in the Westwood section of Los Angeles, not a mile from the Armand Hammer Museum. From time to time I would take a walk to the museum to visit Dr. Pozzi at Home. I had no idea that the man was as remarkable if not more so than his absorbing portrait by Sargent. What a treat to have this biography now that I live almost a thousand miles from the museum and can't visit him whenever I have a free afternoon.
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- Karen
- 03-19-20
Julian Barnes should protest
I should have followed the advice of earlier reviewers and skipped this in audio, but I thought Julian Barnes’s writing would transcend poor reading. I was wrong. Sadly, this pompous and slow performance stifles any humor or irony. I had to stop listening after and hour and a quarter.
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