The Mercury Visions of Louis Daguerre
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Narrated by:
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Stephen Hoye
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By:
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Dominic Smith
About this listen
Paris in 1847 was a city of Bohemian excess and social unrest. Into this strange and beguiling world, Louis Daguerre sets off to capture his doomsday images, with the help of the womanizing poet Baudelaire and a beautiful prostitute named Pigeon, in this moving story of ruined love, fame unraveling, and a prodigious mind coming undone.
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This exquisite, resonant novel by PEN/Faulkner winner James Salter is a brilliant portrait of a marriage by a contemporary American master. It is the story of Nedra and Viri, whose favored life is centered around dinners, ingenious games with their children, enviable friends, and near-perfect days passed skating on a frozen river or sunning on the beach.
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Unfathomable Font of Blue: Life's Serial Goodbyes
- By W Perry Hall on 04-18-19
By: James Salter
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The Essex Serpent
- A Novel
- By: Sarah Perry
- Narrated by: Juanita McMahon
- Length: 14 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
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When Cora Seaborne's brilliant, domineering husband dies, she steps into her new life as a widow with as much relief as sadness: her marriage was not a happy one. Wed at 19, this woman of exceptional intelligence and curiosity was ill-suited for the role of society wife. Seeking refuge in fresh air and open space in the wake of the funeral, Cora leaves London for a visit to coastal Essex, accompanied by her inquisitive and obsessive 11-year old son, Francis, and the boy's nanny, Martha.
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Unbearable Narrator
- By ACB on 06-08-17
By: Sarah Perry
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Freud's Mistress
- By: Karen Mack, Jennifer Kaufman
- Narrated by: Suzanne Toren
- Length: 10 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
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In this sweeping tale of love, loyalty, and betrayal - between a husband and a wife, between sisters - fact and fiction seamlessly blend together, creating a compelling portrait of an unforgettable woman and her struggle to reconcile her love for her sister with her obsessive desire for her sister's husband, the mythic father of psychoanalysis.
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What a Super Ego
- By Mel on 07-12-13
By: Karen Mack, and others
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The Blind Assassin
- By: Margaret Atwood
- Narrated by: Margot Dionne
- Length: 18 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
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For the past twenty-five years, Margaret Atwood has written works of striking originality and imagination. In The Blind Assassin, she stretches the limits of her accomplishments as never before, creating a novel that is entertaining and profoundly serious. The novel opens with these simple, resonant words: "Ten days after the war ended, my sister drove a car off the bridge." They are spoken by Iris, whose terse account of her sister Laura's death in 1945 is followed by an inquest report proclaiming the death accidental.
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Good book, TERRIBLE audio!
- By Whitney on 04-27-09
By: Margaret Atwood
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Jack Maggs
- By: Peter Carey
- Narrated by: Steven Crossley
- Length: 13 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
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With scars on his back and silver in his pocket, the huge figure of Jack Maggs strides across the rich landscape of 19th century London. As this enigmatic man moves through its streets and houses, his single-minded quest to find his son will engender love, deceit, and vengeance in the lives around him.
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Jack Maggs
- By Kathleen on 04-04-05
By: Peter Carey
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Jerusalem Maiden
- By: Talia Carner
- Narrated by: Lise Bruneau
- Length: 12 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
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In the waning days of the Ottoman Empire, a young Orthodox Jewish woman in the holy city of Jerusalem is expected to marry and produce many sons to help hasten the Messiah's arrival. While the feisty Esther Kaminsky understands her obligations, her artistic talent inspires her to secretly explore worlds outside her religion, to dream of studying in Paris - and to believe that God has a special destiny for her. When tragedy strikes her family, Esther views it as a warning from an angry God....
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No dreaming, No painting, No thinking . . .
- By Debbie on 04-18-15
By: Talia Carner
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The Stories of Vladimir Nabokov
- By: Vladimir Nabokov
- Narrated by: Arthur Morey
- Length: 31 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
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From Vladimir Nabokov, the writer who shocked and delighted the world with his novels Lolita, Pale Fire, and Ada, or Ardor, comes a magnificent collection of stories. Written between the 1920s and the 1950s, these 68 tales — 14 of which have been translated into English for the first time - display all the shades of Nabokov’s imagination.
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A Kaleidoscope of Nabokov Bábochkas
- By Darwin8u on 01-11-15
By: Vladimir Nabokov
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The Passion of Artemisia
- By: Susan Vreeland
- Narrated by: Gigi Bermingham
- Length: 9 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
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Set against the glorious backdrops of Rome, Florence, and Genoa, and Naples, peopled with historical characters and filled with the details of the life of a 17th-century painter, The Passion of Artemisia is the story of Gentileschi's struggle to find love, forgiveness, and wholeness through her art.
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Disappointing
- By Kay on 05-21-03
By: Susan Vreeland
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Silver Wattle
- By: Belinda Alexandra
- Narrated by: Caroline Lee
- Length: 16 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
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In fear for their lives after the sudden death of their mother, Adéla and Klára must flee Prague to find refuge with their uncle in Australia. Later, Adéla becomes a film director at a time when the local industry is starting to feel the competition from Hollywood. But even while success is imminent, the issues of family and an impossible love are never far away.
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Groan, Snore and Wince!
- By OrangeWisteria on 02-12-12
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The Forgotten Room
- By: Karen White, Beatriz Williams, Lauren Willig
- Narrated by: Morgan Hallett, Susan Bennett
- Length: 13 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
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It's 1945: When the critically wounded Captain Cooper Ravenal is brought to a private hospital on Manhattan's Upper East Side, young Dr. Kate Schuyler is drawn into a complex mystery that connects three generations of women in her family to a single extraordinary room in a Gilded Age mansion. Who is the woman in Captain Ravenel's portrait miniature who looks so much like Kate? And why is she wearing the ruby pendant handed down to Kate by her mother?
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The same story 3 times over...
- By Amazon Customer on 03-30-16
By: Karen White, and others
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The Painter's Apprentice
- Venetian Artisans
- By: Laura Morelli
- Narrated by: Anna Butterworth
- Length: 11 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
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Venice, 1510. Maria Bartolini wants nothing more than to carry on her father's legacy as a master gilder. Instead, her father has sent her away from the only home she's ever known to train as an apprentice to Master Trevisan, a renowned painter. Maria arranges to leave the painter's workshop to return to her family workshop and to a secret lover waiting for her back home. But the encroaching Black Death foils her plans.... When the painter's servants uncover the real reason why Maria has been sent away to train with Master Trevisan, they threaten to reveal a secret.
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Decent book if you can overlook a few quirks
- By Laurie S on 01-27-19
By: Laura Morelli
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Steampunk! An Anthology of Fantastically Rich and Strange Stories
- By: Kelly Link - editor, Gavin J. Grant - editor
- Narrated by: Sarah Coomes, Nico Evers-Swindell, Shannon McManus, and others
- Length: 12 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
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Imagine an alternate universe where romance and technology reign. Where tinkerers and dreamers craft and recraft a world of automatons, ornate clockworks, calculating machines, and other marvels that. Where scientists and schoolgirls, fair folk and Romans, intergalactic bandits, and intrepid orphans - decked out in corsets, clockwerk suits, and tall black boots - solve dastardly crimes, escape from monstrous predicaments, consult oracles, and hover over volcanoes in steam-powered airships.
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MMMM, Orca Bacon
- By Jim "The Impatient" on 09-14-13
By: Kelly Link - editor, and others
What listeners say about The Mercury Visions of Louis Daguerre
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Betania
- 07-20-17
beautifully written bittersweet story
beautifully written bittersweet story, the prose is lovely, the images and the vocabulary, and interesting historical detail as well
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- wjgcz
- 12-20-07
Interesting
I downloaded this book because I am interested in photography and wanted to know more about Louis Daguerre. Although the book is a work of fiction, it still was very interesting and informative regarding Daguerre's development of the first camera and photographic images. The love story of his life-long obsession with his childhood maid was a little far-fetched, but it kept me hooked until the end. I liked his relationship with Pigeon and the fact that he was a father figure to her, rather than a love interest.
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2 people found this helpful
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- Michael Jordan
- 01-31-19
Spellbinding
This book held my complete attention through this magical fascinating adventure. I didn’t want it to end.
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- John 'n Austin
- 03-25-18
Gorgeous writing
The writing in The Mercury Visions of Louis Daguerre is simply gorgeous. Smith is a master at using the English language. As a backdrop to the story of Daguerre is an achingly sad but rich love story. I loved the book.
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Overall
- Deborah
- 01-31-08
Dud
Well, I know why this one was on sale. It wasn't horrible, just ho-hum. It read like hundreds of other fictional bios of 19th century French artists.
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2 people found this helpful