
The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie
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Narrated by:
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Wanda McCaddon
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By:
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Muriel Spark
About this listen
The scandalously outspoken Miss Brodie makes big waves in the conservative Scottish school, preaching the value of art, passion, and daring. While her bold values inspire an almost cult-like reverence in her young protégées, her politics, rivalries, and frank sensuality lead ultimately to her downfall.
Told from the unsympathetic perspective of one of Miss Brodie's students, the novel explores themes of innocence and betrayal and the tension between cold rationality and unchecked emotionalism.
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Overall
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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.
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Graham Greene meets PG Wodehouse...
- By connie on 10-26-09
By: Muriel Spark
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The Tin Drum
- A New Translation by Breon Mitchell
- By: Günter Grass
- Narrated by: Richard Powers
- Length: 25 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
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To mark the 50th anniversary of the original publication of this runaway best seller, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, along with Grass' publishers all over the world, offer a new translation of this classic novel. Breon Mitchell, acclaimed translator and scholar, has drawn from many sources. The result is a translation that is faithful to Grass' style and rhythm, restores omissions, and reflects more fully the complexity of the original work. After 50 years, The Tin Drum has, if anything, gained in power and relevance.
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It's a metaphor, right?
- By Barry on 08-11-12
By: Günter Grass
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The Ghost Writer
- The Nathan Zuckerman Series, Book 1
- By: Philip Roth
- Narrated by: Malcolm Hillgartner
- Length: 4 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
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The Ghost Writer introduces Nathan Zuckerman in the 1950s, a budding writer infatuated with the great books, discovering the contradictory claims of literature and experience while an overnight guest in the secluded New England farmhouse of his idol, E. I. Lonoff. At Lonoff's, Zuckerman meets Amy Bellette, a haunting young woman of indeterminate foreign background who turns out to be a former student of Lonoff's and who may also have been his mistress.
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Turning Sentences Around
- By Darwin8u on 01-28-17
By: Philip Roth
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The Moviegoer
- By: Walker Percy
- Narrated by: Christopher Hurt
- Length: 6 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
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A winner of the National Book Award, The Moviegoer established Walker Percy as an insightful and grimly humorous storyteller. It is the tale of Binx Bolling, a small-time stockbroker who lives quietly in suburban New Orleans, pursuing an interest in the movies, affairs with his secretaries, and living out his days. But soon he finds himself on a "search" for something more important, some spiritual truth to anchor him.
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Percy's Prose Dances with Grace, Charm and Style
- By Darwin8u on 10-11-12
By: Walker Percy
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The Death of the Heart
- By: Elizabeth Bowen
- Narrated by: Pearl Hewitt
- Length: 13 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
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In this piercing story of innocence betrayed set in the 30s, the orphaned Portia is stranded in the sophisticated and politely treacherous world of her wealthy half-brother's home in London. There she encounters the attractive, carefree cad Eddie. To him, Portia is at once child and woman, and her fears her gushing love. To her, Eddie is the only reason to be alive. But when Eddie follows Portia to a sea-side resort, the flash of a cigarette lighter in a darkened cinema illuminates a stunning romantic betrayal.
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Beautifully Crafted Story
- By LRWord on 02-27-23
By: Elizabeth Bowen
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The Rainbow
- By: D. H. Lawrence
- Narrated by: Maureen O'Brien
- Length: 20 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
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Set in the rural midlands of England, The Rainbow revolves around three generations of Brangwens, a family deeply involved with the land and noted for their strength and vigour. When Tom Brangwen marries a Polish widow, Lydia Lensky, and adopts her daughter Anna as his own, he is unprepared for the conflict and passion that erupts between them. Their stories continue in Women in Love.
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Death and Rebirth, the Old and New.
- By Geoff Maddison on 08-09-12
By: D. H. Lawrence
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Doctor Zhivago
- By: Boris Pasternak, Larissa Volokhonsky - translator, Richard Pevear - translator
- Narrated by: John Lee
- Length: 23 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
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In celebration of the 40th anniversary of its original publication, here is a new translation of the classic story of the life and loves of a poet/physician during the turmoil of the Russian Revolution. Taking his family from Moscow to what he hopes will be shelter in the Ural Mountains, Zhivago finds himself instead embroiled in the battle between the Whites and the Reds. Set against this backdrop of cruelty and strife is Zhivago’s love for the tender and beautiful Lara.
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Russian Philosophical Feast
- By Syd Young on 02-16-13
By: Boris Pasternak, and others
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The Moment of Lift
- How Empowering Women Changes the World
- By: Melinda French Gates
- Narrated by: Melinda French Gates
- Length: 8 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
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How can we summon a moment of lift for human beings - and especially for women? Because, when you lift up women, you lift up humanity. For the last 20 years, Melinda Gates has been on a mission to find solutions for people with the most urgent needs, wherever they live. Throughout this journey, one thing has become increasingly clear to her: If you want to lift society up, you need to stop keeping women down.
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Phenomenal Book, Absolute Gem
- By D. Sooley on 04-28-19
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The Golden Notebook
- By: Doris Lessing
- Narrated by: Juliet Stevenson
- Length: 27 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
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Author Anna Wulf attempts to overcome writer’s block by writing a comprehensive "golden notebook" that draws together the preoccupations of her life, each of which is examined in a different notebook. Anna’s struggle to unify the various strands of her life – emotional, political, and professional – amasses into a fascinating encyclopaedia of female experience in the ‘50s.
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Transcendent narration of a masterpiece.
- By @vmarinelli on 07-03-12
By: Doris Lessing
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Brideshead Revisited
- By: Evelyn Waugh
- Narrated by: Jeremy Irons
- Length: 11 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
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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.
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Extraordinary
- By Vieux Carré Blonde on 12-12-12
By: Evelyn Waugh
What listeners say about The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie
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- noah
- 03-09-24
A Strange Little Novel
Adherents of this work claim it to be a compelling detailing of the “spiritual education” of our younger generations. I found this not to be the case. Like so much of the rest of the canonical literatures this work has not aged well. Our current younger generations will find little to relate to while reading this novella.
Noah Balfour
02.06.24
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- Jacob Arnon
- 01-29-20
Nadia May made the story come alive.
The novella deals with students development. It also highlights the destructive nature of Political correctness. It's the perfect education novel for our times.
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3 people found this helpful
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- Vered
- 01-24-13
"There was a Miss Jean Brodie in her prime"
Any additional comments?
I highly recommend this short novel. It is a very well written story about innocent impression, that evokes sympathies that change as the 'girls' grow up.
I kept reminding myself that the book was published in the early 60's, but i'm not sure it required such reminders, being so much ahead of its time.
unlike the initial impression, i found in the book, much beyond the 'growing up' aspect.
It was especially touching, to recognize the author in 'Sandy', and realise that Spark was inspired by her own 'Miss Brodie in her prime'.
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2 people found this helpful
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- Amy
- 09-16-23
Gets better with every listen
Insightful and poignant portrayal of a childhood influenced by the creative depictions of Miss Brodie’s worldview in between the world wars. The layers of irony, humor and humanity are exposed with each listen. A Spark of brilliance.
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- EvelynMarie
- 10-30-23
A classic for good reason
The writing of the book really pulls you into participation in the allegory itself. And you don’t realize until it’s much too late. Incredibly written but be advised: not as lighthearted as it may seem at first.
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- Pam
- 01-27-23
how can you resist
being fascinated and appalled, horrified and empathetic towards Jean Brodie. She I a woman with too much energy,ambition, and intelligence to move like a sleepwalker through life within her social assignment, a shadowy passenger in history.
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- Andrew
- 10-25-23
Intriguing Book
This is an intriguing book. Sure to stir up memories of high-school drama and first discovering the deeper layers to adult life. Excellent narration.
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- John
- 03-11-21
The Prime of Muriel Spark (and Nadia May)
Muriel Spark tells this story all at once. A 10-year- old girl is introduced, described, and then we see her 28 years later, talking to her husband, or suddenly transported from the classroom to her birthday tea with a friend the week before. We're told who dies years before they do. We know the denouement well before the last sentence.
The technique may sound “experimental”, but the effect is far more enjoyable than some literary innovations the 20th century foisted on an unsuspecting public. With its scene shifts and leaps in time, the narrative can sound as fractured and scattershot as Miss Jean Brody’s teaching method—or her views on art, life and her “girls”. But the ultimate sense of well-rounded completeness is akin to that we derive from a good three-volume Victorian novel—minus several hundred pages. Nadia May reads this one as if the story was written for her.
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4 people found this helpful
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- Jules 57
- 02-04-23
engrossing short novel
Still haven't seen the Maggie Smith film, but the novel is fascinating In a wry way , which makes me want to see how it could have been adapted from the novel to capture the nuance. The performance was pitch-perfect.
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- Puddin Tame
- 09-30-19
Meh
This book is the exception that proves the rule that a book is better than the movie. Skip the book and go watch Maggie Smith as Miss Jean Brodie.
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1 person found this helpful