
The Mysteries of Udolpho
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Narrated by:
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Alison Larkin
About this listen
This was the most popular novel of Radcliffe's time; Radcliffe's portrayal of her heroine's inner life raised the Gothic romance to a new level. The atmosphere of fear and the gripping plot continue to thrill today.
This is the story of the orphaned Emily St Aubert, who finds herself separated from the man she loves and confined within the Castle of Udolpho by her aunt's new husband Montoni. Here she must cope with an unwanted suitor, Montoni's threats, and the wild imaginings and terrors which threaten to overwhelm her.
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Editorial reviews
Ann Radcliffe’s most popular novel, The Mysteries of Udolpho, with its titular enigmatic castle, vivid landscapes, supernatural portents, and brooding characters is considered by many to be the standard by which all Gothic novels are judged. When her father dies, Emily is forced to live at the castle of her aunt’s new husband, the malevolent Count Montoni. The drama unfolds as Emily is treated cruelly by Montoni and alarming events constantly trouble her. Alison Larkin performs the grotesque and the sumptuous elements of the audiobook with equal dexterity, excelling at the villainous men who inhabit the story. If you’re ready to escape into a romantic and chilling world, you won't want to stop listening to this classic tale.
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By: Horace Walpole
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Deadly Perfume
- By: Gordon Thomas
- Narrated by: Gary Dikeos
- Length: 16 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
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The fate of the free world is in the hands of David Morton as he tries to douse the terrorist flames sparked around the world by a madman terrorist demanding complete control of Middle Eastern oil fields and the total destruction of the Israeli state.
By: Gordon Thomas
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Melmoth the Wanderer
- By: Charles Maturin, Victor Sage
- Narrated by: Gerry O'Brien
- Length: 28 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
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Created by an Irish clergyman, Melmoth is one of the most fiendish characters in literature. In a satanic bargain, Melmoth exchanges his soul for immortality. The story of his tortured wanderings through the centuries is pieced together through those who have been implored by Melmoth to take over his pact with the devil. Influenced by the Gothic romances of the late 18th century, Maturin's diabolic tale raised the genre to a new and macabre pitch. Its many admirers include Poe, Balzac, Oscar Wilde and Baudelaire.
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Gothic classic
- By Bill on 09-21-23
By: Charles Maturin, and others
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Middlemarch
- By: George Eliot
- Narrated by: Kate Reading
- Length: 31 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
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Middlemarch is a recognized masterpiece that explores the complex social world of 19th century England. It is concerned with the lives of several ordinary people, albeit ones with high social standing. The novel explores the very fabric of Victorian society in the 1800s, showing how various human passions, heroism, egotism, love, and lust, interrelate within this society.
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Engrossing, non-stuffy entertainment!
- By Jennifer on 06-21-06
By: George Eliot
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The Portrait of a Lady
- By: Henry James
- Narrated by: Wanda McCaddon
- Length: 21 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
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When Isabel Archer, a young American woman with looks, wit, and imagination, arrives in Europe, she sees the world as "a place of brightness, of free expression, of irresistible action". She turns aside from suitors who offer her their wealth and devotion to follow her own path.
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Bleak and believable
- By Karen on 04-26-09
By: Henry James
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The Age of Innocence
- By: Edith Wharton
- Narrated by: Barbara Caruso
- Length: 11 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
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Newland Archer is a young lawyer, a member of New York’s high society, and engaged to be married to May Welland. Countess Ellen Olenska is May’s cousin, and wants a divorce from the Polish nobleman she married. Intelligent and beautiful, she comes back to New York where she tries to fit into the high society life she had before her marriage. Her family and former friends, however, are shocked by the idea of divorce within their social circle, and she finds herself snubbed by her own class. Ellen and Newland fall in love and must choose between passion and conventions.
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A Great comic/tragedy
- By David P on 12-09-15
By: Edith Wharton
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Adam Bede
- By: George Eliot
- Narrated by: Jill Tanner
- Length: 23 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
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Adam Bede (1859), George Eliot's first full-length novel, marked the emergence of an artist to rank with Scott and Dickens. Set in the English Midlands of farmers and village craftsmen at the turn of the 18th century, the book relates a story of seduction issuing in "the inward suffering which is the worst form of Nemesis". But it is also a rich and pioneering record - drawing on intimate knowledge and affectionate memory - of a rural world that we have lost.
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Very good book
- By Terri Tinkham on 03-11-19
By: George Eliot
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Tess of the d'Urbervilles
- By: Thomas Hardy
- Narrated by: Davina Porter
- Length: 17 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
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Tess Durbeyfield has become one of the most famous female protagonists in 19th-century British literature. Betrayed by the two men in her life - Alec D’Urberville, her seducer/rapist and father of her fated child; and Angel, her intellectual and pious husband - Tess takes justice, and her own destiny, into her delicate hands. In telling her desperate and passionate story, Hardy brings Tess to life with an extraordinary vividness that makes her live in the heart of the reader long after the novel is concluded.
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Davina Porter Does It Again!
- By misaki on 06-15-15
By: Thomas Hardy
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Villette
- By: Charlotte Brontë
- Narrated by: Davina Porter
- Length: 22 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
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Hailed as Charlotte Brontë’s “finest novel” by Virginia Woolf, Villette is the timeless semi-autobiographical tale of Lucy Snowe. Left with no family and no money, Lucy goes against her own timid nature and travels to the small city of Villette, France, where she becomes a school teacher in Madame Beck’s school for girls. During her stay, she falls in love—twice—and discovers an independent, inner strength rarely seen in women of her time.
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The Divine Ms. Porter delivers as always
- By peachnmario on 03-17-15
By: Charlotte Brontë
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The Turn of the Screw
- By: Henry James
- Narrated by: Emma Thompson, Richard Armitage - introduction
- Length: 4 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
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Academy Award, Golden Globe, and Emmy winner Emma Thompson lends her immense talent and experienced voice to Henry James' Gothic ghost tale, The Turn of the Screw. When a governess is hired to care for two children at a British country estate, she begins to sense an otherworldly presence around the grounds. Are they really ghosts she's seeing? Or is something far more sinister at work?
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Great, but Mightn't be the Best on Audible
- By Gillian on 03-16-16
By: Henry James
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Camilla
- A Picture of Youth
- By: Fanny Burney
- Narrated by: Lucy Scott
- Length: 37 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
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Among Jane Austen's favorite novels, and a key work in the rise of Romanticism, Camilla follows the story of three young women, from childhood to young adulthood, and their pursuit of matrimony. Kind but naive Camilla is in love with Edgar Mandlebert, a handsome and noble young man. Intelligent Eugenia, destined to inherit her uncle's great wealth, is plagued with misfortune as she is left disfigured by smallpox and has men court her for financial gain only. Meanwhile their cousin, beautiful but selfish Indiana, never finds a fortune for her good looks.
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Perfection!
- By Jen42 on 11-19-20
By: Fanny Burney
Delightful book!
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Any additional comments?
I have been waiting for this English classic to come out on audio for years. A brilliant performance by the narrator ranging from upper class English to serving maids, from lords to thieving brigands all rendered with exactness and enthusiasm that carries us through the narrative like a Harry Potter story. I'll have to reread my Jane Austen collection now that I can fully understand all her "Udolpho" references. One more benefit of this audio.Thank You, Audible
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lovely
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Excellent Narration
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While this novel is applauded as an early gothic, it is far too luxuriantly written to overlook the elegance and sheer beauty of its prose.
Excellent
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Wonderful Intriguing Mystery
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If you enjoy old, Gothic tales this is for you!
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I almost gave up on this book within the first 8 hours because so little happened. I'm glad I kept with it because MANY things happen later on! Also, be aware that the women in this book are not strong heroines. They are constantly fainting, weeping, and becoming ill because of mental stress. They need to be rescued and they're dependent on strong men to protect them. Again, it's a trip back in time, and I think it provides a lot of insight into the way people of the time thought. You probably don't want to be like any of the characters in this novel, but reading about their exploits is still fun! I personally loved the gothic settings and the looming horrors. There are evil relations, supernatural goings-on, brave and loyal servants, dangerous criminals lurking in the landscape, stalwart hereos, and everyone seems to have secrets! I even enjoyed the detailed descriptions of the scenery and the various plants growing around (Emily did study botany, after all). It takes about a full hour to wrap up all the loose ends at the end of the book. Some of it is a bit contrived, but I found it worth the journey!
Absolutely dated but still wonderful
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If you could sum up The Mysteries of Udolpho in three words, what would they be?
Love.Loss.
Surprise.
What was one of the most memorable moments of The Mysteries of Udolpho?
One of the most memorable moments was the heroine was reunited with her lover.What does Alison Larkin bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?
This book has sentences that seem to go on like arias in an opera. Only Alison Larkin could give the listener every subtle sense of meaning behind every word. Alison Larkin helped carry me along an experience that was like riding a great wave of powerful prose. I could only ride the wave because she gave me the support--through her clear evocation of every emotion and through every description--that we were moving towards an exciting shore.I have never heard a story with such deep descriptions of every mental, and emotional experience. Only Alison Larkin has the range of tone and wit and sympathetic and sometimes passionate delivery to have made such a story a great and moving work of art.
Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?
This book and Alison Larkin's brilliant interpretation of every line was much too grand an experience to try to absorb in one sitting.I decided early on to let this remarkable experience--like listening to the greatest symphony of life and loves--continue over time. I would listen to it in the evenings.
All day I would look forward to hearing Alison Larkin's melodic voice give powerful meaning to a story that seemed to have almost every possible emotion in it.
Any additional comments?
I am grateful that Alison Larkin narrated this story for us. Without her remarkably sensitive and powerful reading of this material it might not have come alive in such a dramatic way.Only Alison Larkin Could have Narrated This Story
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The Narrator
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