The Pioneers
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Narrated by:
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Jim Killavey
About this listen
This is the fourth in Cooper's series of five books known as the Leatherstocking Tales, which were arranged according to the chronology of their hero, Natty Bumpo.
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Story
In a remote corner of early Victorian England, where traditional practices remain untouched by time, Bathsheba Everdene stands out as a beacon of female independence and self-reliance. However, when confronted with three suitors, among them the dashing Sergeant Troy, she shows a reckless capriciousness that threatens the stability of the whole community. Published in 1874, and an immediate best seller, Far From the Madding Crowd established Thomas Hardy as one of Britain's foremost novelists.
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A Masterpiece of Culture and Eloquence
- By Andrew on 07-07-14
By: Thomas Hardy
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The Return of the Native
- By: Thomas Hardy
- Narrated by: Nicholas Rowe
- Length: 13 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
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In the remote wildness of Egdon Heath, the crossed love affairs and marriages of a small group of people are played out against the background of nature’s beauty and indifference to mankind. Through a series of vivid incidents and encounters, The Return of the Native moves in a relentless drive towards tragedy, as the plans and dreams of the lovers miscarry, defeated by chance, or destiny or self-deception. In their unhappy stories, Hardy gives us a powerful dramatization of his bleak philosophy, his belief in man’s helplessness before the malevolence of the universe.
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Thomas Hardy
- By Jeff Lacy on 05-06-17
By: Thomas Hardy
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The Jewel of Seven Stars
- By: Bram Stoker
- Narrated by: Simon Vance
- Length: 8 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
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The warning was inscribed on the entrance of the hidden tomb, forgotten for millennia in the sands of mystic Egypt. Then the archaeologists and grave robbers came in search of the fabled Jewel of Seven Stars, which they found clutched in the hand of the mummy. Few heeded the ancient warning, until all who came in contact with the Jewel began to die in a mysterious and violent way, with the marks of a strangler around their neck.
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Mother of all Mummy-Stories
- By Dorothea on 03-15-08
By: Bram Stoker
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The Best Ghost Stories Ever Told
- Best Stories Ever Told
- By: Stephen Brennan - editor
- Narrated by: J. M. Badger, Imelda Pot
- Length: 24 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
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A big, brilliant, spooky collection of classic and contemporary ghost stories that will make you hesitate before turning off that light.
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A very mixed review
- By Michael Mayer on 08-05-15
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The Travel and Adventures of Little Baron Trump
- By: Ingersoll Lockwood
- Narrated by: Gildart Jackson
- Length: 10 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
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Ingersoll Lockwood invented the fictional character Baron Trump in 1890 for a two-part sci-fi/fantasy series about a privileged German heir who undertakes a sequence of fantastic voyages. The style of the Baron Trump series - a mix of fantasy and young-reader-oriented science fiction - anticipated and may have influenced L. Frank Baum's Oz series. The Travel and Adventures of Little Baron Trump describes Baron's trip around the world with his little dog, meeting new races like the Wind Eaters, Man Hoppers, and Melodious Sneezers.
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A lot of fun, and a sensitive study of a boy and his dog
- By ReadToLive on 03-04-20
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Dombey and Son
- By: Charles Dickens
- Narrated by: Frederick Davidson
- Length: 36 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
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In this carefully crafted novel, Dickens reveals the complexity of London society in the enterprising 1840s as he takes the listener into the business firm and home of one of its most representative patriarchs, Paul Dombey.
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Perfect pair
- By Philip on 03-25-08
By: Charles Dickens
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Les Miserables
- By: Victor Hugo
- Narrated by: David Case
- Length: 12 hrs and 25 mins
- Abridged
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Les Misérables emphasizes the three major predicaments of the 19th century, each symbolized by a major character: Jean Valjean represents the degradation of man in the proletariat, Fantine represents the subjection of women through hunger, and Cosette represents the atrophy of the child by darkness.
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TOO Abridged, Read Only if You Won't Read More
- By Syd Young on 02-03-14
By: Victor Hugo
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Sacred Hunger
- By: Barry Unsworth
- Narrated by: David Rintoul
- Length: 22 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
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In this Booker Prize-winning work, Barry Unsworth follows the failing fortunes of William Kemp, a merchant pinning his last chance to a slave ship; his son, who needs a fortune because he is in love with an upper-class woman; and his nephew, who sails on the ship as its doctor because he has lost all he has loved. The voyage meets its demise when disease spreads among the slaves and the captain's drastic response provokes a mutiny.
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Wise, Perceptive, Heart-breaking
- By S. Coldsmith on 04-16-16
By: Barry Unsworth
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Nostromo
- By: Joseph Conrad
- Narrated by: Frank Muller
- Length: 16 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
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One of the great adventure novels of our language creates a most engaging central character, Nostromo. A picturesque man of action and popular hero, Nostromo lives to be "well-spoken of" by the citizens of Costaguana, the mythical South American banana republic where the story takes place. Around this figure, Conrad spins a story of revolution, politics, and racial conflict as complex as Nostromo, the man whose greatest enemy is himself.
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Wow!
- By Amazon Customer on 07-11-03
By: Joseph Conrad
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Billy Budd
- By: Herman Melville
- Narrated by: Peter Joyce
- Length: 3 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
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On one level...Melville’s tale is an historical adventure telling the story of life aboard ship shortly after the mutiny at Spithead in 1797. Billy is taken from a homeward bound merchantman to serve on the ‘Seventy Four’ HMS Indomitable. He falls foul of Claggart, the ‘Master at Arms’, and the final confrontation results in death. Billy becomes an unwilling martyr - what passes for justice must be implemented because of the rebellious climate of the time.
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Well done, a pleasure to listen to!
- By Kindle Customer on 10-17-18
By: Herman Melville
What listeners say about The Pioneers
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Debbiedoperiwinkle
- 11-04-23
Wonderful 4th part of the story of Nathaniel Bumppo!
The narrator is a New Englander so it made it more authentic to me. The picture painted of the “progress” and settling of our nation was quite moving from several points of view. I feel sad that the fields around me have been supplanted with houses. I can’t imagine the sadness of watching all the trees cut down to begin settling a place as that to which Natty Bumppo was witness.
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- K. Doerr
- 11-25-19
Old fashioned but still relevant, edition is poor
I'm listening through all the leather-stocking tales, which are not only good stories, but little time capsule glancing back to a vanished American culture. Cooper's sensibilities are surprisingly modern, more modern in some ways than Samuel Clemens', who was born later, but raised in a southern (border) state.
This book is especially interesting because it gives a sympathetic but contemporary glimpse at the conflict between American 'Pioneers' and the indigenous people and genuine frontiersmen whose land they settled. These books are in some ways the first 'western' novels, but they do not have any of the simple-minded racism of the movie westerns Hollywood churned out in the 1950s. In the context of our time, the book will be considered racist, of course. Taken in the context of its own time, the book is progressive.
Though it takes place after 'the last of the Mohicans' this was published earlier. But it is more politically relevant today than that more famous work. The Pioneers was published seven years before the ethnic cleansing of Jackson's genocidal "Trail of Tears," and it reminds us that, even 190 years ago, the 'nativist' and 'manifest destiny' movements were objected to by many Americans (Cooper's books were popular at the time). The book is also a poignant warning and reminder that the difference between right and wrong can be over-ridden by corrupt interest combined with jingoism.
It also seems to me that Oliver Wendell Holmes 'Breakfast Table' books, written 30+ years later, owe something to the first few chapters of this novel. At any rate, the conversations among the 'Pioneers' seem authentic, and to have the same 'culture of conversation' that existed then, but has died away now. A time when Americans could disagree without name calling - definitely worth remembering.
Killavey has a clear voice and his words are always easy to catch and understand. His female falsetto is problematic, but that's not unusual in a male reader. But his pronunciation is more problematic (I blame this on the editor, more than the narrator). I'm guessing he is from the UK, based on the way he pronounced 'slough' (to rhyme with bough, rather than through - the way an American would pronounce it, and the way the characters in the book would have pronounced it). But why a Brit would be brought in to read Fenimore Cooper is beyond my guess. And how a Brit could think that the interjection 'och' (which is Scottish, after all) should be pronounced to rhyme with 'botch' is a mystery (and an annoyance) to me. These are just two examples of many mistakes. Any American listener will catch several more errors.
The editing is problematic in other ways, too. The transitions between chapters is non-existent. Between the last word of one chapter, the statement of the title of the next chapter, and the first word of the next chapter, there is no time-space at all. The chapter titles were clearly added afterwards, but they were added badly. Indeed, the last words of at least one chapter were simply chopped off. I suspect Mr. Killavey's voice, probably more sonorous in real life, was 'sped up' by the editors, too.
In sum, I heartily recommend the book, but not this audio edition.
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3 people found this helpful
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- alan
- 06-20-09
Painfully bad reading of a 1790's country tale
An interesting account of social rituals and the invasions of government into rural life in the 1790's, nearly ruined by the worst reader who has ever massacred a book. Does he pause after every four words hallucinating nonexistent commas, or is he short-winded? Does he accent the wrong words in every sentence because he is reading the text for the first time? The mispronounciations are the least of his sins. This would be a charming comedy of up-country manners, frontier politics, and Revolution-era diction, but the tour is made painful by the halting, spavined nag we are forced to ride. The book is worth the time if you're interested in American history or the old age of Natty and Chingatchcook - but find a version read by anybody else.
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6 people found this helpful
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- Ted
- 01-15-13
Very good not as good as Deerslayer
Where does The Pioneers rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?
Medium it is not as good as the previous books
Would you be willing to try another book from James Fenimore Cooper? Why or why not?
Yes
Have you listened to any of Jim Killavey’s other performances before? How does this one compare?
Yes very good
If you were to make a film of this book, what would be the tag line be?
After the wilderness
Any additional comments?
Good book finishes his other stories that were great.
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4 people found this helpful
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- Barbara Nash
- 10-17-20
A glimpse of the past
I found it fascinating to read historical fiction from someone who lived close to those times. There's a colorful cast of well-drawn characters, and though it didn't have a lot of action until the last third of the story, it was informative and thought-provoking. The wonderful ending made me so glad I stayed with it.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Jill
- 09-01-19
time for a remake
The narrator is killing me. He enunciates well but he is just reading in a singsong manner with no sense that he's paying attention to what he's saying. I don't think I can make it through because of his voice. I've read the book before so it's not the writing style that is offputting. It's the poor reading style.
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- Louise M
- 02-16-08
Excellent and Insightful
This book has has many strange twists and turns and is both historical, in the broad sense of historical fiction, and an adventure story. It is written, as were most books back then in a rather rambling and wordy style. This was, after all, way before radio and TV and people liked their entertainment to last. Some readers of today, however, may not have the patience for a work like this. I like to do a little research on the classics I get and found an encyclopedia article that said the book "may be considered one of the first ecological novels in the United States." ( from Wikipedia.org ) That statement intrigued me but turned out to be quite true. There are many discussions in it about conservation and the use of natural resources. Amazing insight
for its time! The narrator was pretty good but made what I thought were a few pronunciation errors. However I checked them out and they were ok - alternatives pronunciations in a couple of cases, but acceptable.
Five Stars
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17 people found this helpful
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- Amazon Customer
- 11-13-19
Great Story...Performance was not so Great
You really have listen carefully to this version of the Pioneers. The production seems to have the performance set one notch below Alvin and Chipmunks. It what seems a race to the finish, the performance seems to not take a breath!
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1 person found this helpful
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- Max
- 01-06-17
Poor recording
I very much enjoyed the novel. I was very irritated by the lack of any space between the chapters. Often the new chapter would cut off the last part of the final sentence from the previous chapter. Other than that, I enjoyed part 4 in the Leatherstocking series.
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1 person found this helpful
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- L. Taylor
- 03-10-15
Terrible reader.
Would you say that listening to this book was time well-spent? Why or why not?
One of the worst readers I have heard on audible. Monotone with a stilted and unnatural rhythm. He does not pay any attention to punctuation and instead pauses at a cadence that according to a syllable count. It is like he is trudging through the paragraphs like a soldier on a long march.
It is awful and makes it difficult to follow. "Unbearable" and "tedious" are the best words to describe it.
Would you be willing to try another one of Jim Killavey’s performances?
Absolutely not. I wish there was a feature to "hide" all books read by this author. Never again. I am forturnate it was a low cost book. But given how terrible the reader is I am not surprised the book goes for a pittance.
Any additional comments?
Implement a "hide" feature according to readers. This way we can avoid mistakenly buying books from terrible readers more than once.
It could also be a valuable metric audible could use in cooperation with publishers to eliminate terrible readers.
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