The True History of the Elephant Man
The Definitive Account of the Tragic and Extraordinary Life of Joseph Carey Merrick
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Narrated by:
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Steve West
About this listen
Due to horrible physical deformities, he spent much of his life as a fairground freak. He was hounded, persecuted, and starving, until his fortune changed and he was rescued, housed, and fed by the distinguished surgeon, Frederick Treves. The subject of several books, a Broadway hit, and a film, Joseph Merrick has become part of popular mythology. Here, in this fully revised edition containing much fresh information, are the true and un-romanticized facts of his life.
©2010 Skyhorse Publishing, Inc. (P)2012 Audible, Inc.Listeners also enjoyed...
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The Resurrection of the Romanovs
- Anastasia, Anna Anderson, and the World's Greatest Royal Mystery
- By: Greg King, Penny Wilson
- Narrated by: Peter Kenny
- Length: 13 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
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The Resurrection of the Romanovs draws on a wealth of new information from previously unpublished materials and unexplored sources to probe the most enduring Romanov mystery of all: the fate of the Tsar's youngest daughter, Anastasia, whose remains were not buried with those of her family, and her identification with Anna Anderson, the woman who claimed to be the missing Grand Duchess.
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Soap opera on caffeine!
- By B Hart on 05-03-18
By: Greg King, and others
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Thunderstruck
- By: Erik Larson
- Narrated by: Bob Balaban
- Length: 11 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
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In Thunderstruck, Erik Larson tells the interwoven stories of two men: Hawley Crippen, a very unlikely murderer, and Guglielmo Marconi, the obsessive creator of a seemingly supernatural means of communication. Their lives intersect during one of the greatest criminal chases of all time.
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Reader cannot read
- By Bob on 12-08-07
By: Erik Larson
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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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The Lives They Left Behind
- Suitcases from a State Hospital Attic
- By: Peter Stastny, Darby Penney
- Narrated by: Alex Paul
- Length: 8 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
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More than four hundred abandoned suitcases filled with patients’ belongings were found when Willard Psychiatric Center closed in 1995 after 125 years of operation. They are skillfully examined here and compared to the written record to create a moving—and devastating—group portrait of twentieth-century American psychiatric care.
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Not really the book I expected
- By B. Shaff on 11-09-17
By: Peter Stastny, and others
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The Apparitionists
- A Tale of Phantoms, Fraud, Photography, and the Man Who Captured Lincoln's Ghost
- By: Peter Manseau
- Narrated by: Jefferson Mays
- Length: 9 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
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In the early days of photography, in the death-strewn wake of the Civil War, one man seized America's imagination. A "spirit photographer", William Mumler took portrait photographs that featured the ghostly presence of a lost loved one alongside the living subject. Mumler was a sensation. Peter Manseau brilliantly captures a nation wracked with grief and hungry for proof of the existence of ghosts and for contact with their dead husbands and sons. It took a circus-like trial of Mumler on fraud charges to expose a fault line of doubt and manipulation.
By: Peter Manseau
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Alice Behind Wonderland
- By: Simon Winchester
- Narrated by: Simon Winchester
- Length: 2 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
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On a summer's day in 1858, in a garden behind Christ Church College in Oxford, Charles Dodgson, a lecturer in mathematics, photographed six-year-old Alice Liddell, the daughter of the college dean, with a Thomas Ottewill Registered Double Folding camera, recently purchased in London. Simon Winchester deftly uses the resulting image - as unsettling as it is famous, and the subject of bottomless speculation - as the vehicle for a brief excursion behind the lens, a focal point on the origins of a classic work of English literature.
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Not Long Enough
- By thefrogman on 06-18-12
By: Simon Winchester
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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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The Italian Secretary
- By: Caleb Carr
- Narrated by: Simon Prebble
- Length: 6 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
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The best-selling author of the Alienist series returns with a chilling elaboration on the Sherlock Holmes canon, as the famed detective investigates a pair of gruesome murders, which cast an otherworldly shadow as far as Queen Victoria herself.
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A True Delight for the Holmes Enthusiast
- By Sagar on 06-03-05
By: Caleb Carr
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Effie
- The Passionate Lives of Effie Gray, John Ruskin and John Everett Millais
- By: Suzanne Fagence Cooper
- Narrated by: Sophie Ward
- Length: 12 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
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Effie Gray, a beautiful and intelligent young socialite, rattled the foundations of England's Victorian age. Married at 19 to John Ruskin, the leading art critic of the time, she found herself trapped in a loveless, union after Ruskin rejected her on their wedding night. She met John Everett Millais, Ruskin's protege, and fell passionately in love with him. Suzanne Fagence Cooper has gained exclusive access to Effie's previously unseen letters and diaries to tell the complete story of this scandalous love triangle.
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Fascinating Story--Victoriana
- By Cariola on 06-29-12
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Eva Peron
- By: Nicholas Fraser, Marysa Navarro
- Narrated by: Wanda McCaddon
- Length: 9 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
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The story begins in a dusty village lost in the Argentine pampas, where a girl, born out of wedlock, scrambles her way to the capital city by the time she is 15. It ends with the embalmed corpse of Eva Perõn being hidden away by nervous politicians for fear that if the working people of Argentina knew where it was buried, it would inspire them to revolution.
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Well written and researched, and very interesting.
- By Dolce Momento on 10-19-24
By: Nicholas Fraser, and others
What listeners say about The True History of the Elephant Man
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Carolyn
- 02-05-15
Amazing man!
I've always wanted to know the real story of John Merrick...this was very informative and told the listener every detail of John's life...I felt so sorry for him having to live like that because he was so misunderstood. He was a smart man and had many wonderful qualities...its a shame that his outward appearance was the deciding factor to some people as to whether Mr.Merrick was someone of substance...he truly was extraordinary in a unique and wonderful way...you won't be disappointed!!
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3 people found this helpful
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- Christine Ciana Calabrese
- 12-23-21
So detailed! So moving!!
Faith in humanity restored!
It was a little slow going in the beginning because it is SO detailed, but I’m so glad I listened!! I was moved to tears several times listening to how influential people stepped up to show this man a kindness he had never before known!
Excellent narration. Highly recommend.
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- C Cheng
- 03-23-24
Humanity in all its awful complexity
Eloquent. Comprehensive. Balanced. Referenced. Performed expertly. Reminds me of The Knife Man by Wendy Moore—both such well-written works of history, but more than that, empathic accountings of humans from our past. I finished both books with a sense of deep reverence for doctors who went before me, who lived and worked in conditions I can barely imagine, doing their best intellectually, professionally, and personally. Many thanks to the authors and to Steve West, whose reading draws a listener into the true story with anticipation and respect. I could not put this one down, finished in just a few sessions.
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- Tyscott40
- 10-20-20
Intriguing, heartbreaking and inspiring.
Well read and very informative. It makes you feel true compassion for the struggles of Joseph's life.
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- KAT M K
- 07-05-16
Sorry, couldn't finish
I found this to be just too dry to continue listening to, and too convoluted with so many characters and relatives to try and keep straight. I gave it 3 stars because it seems to be well researched.
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- Amazon Customer
- 04-06-15
Sad yet inspiring
We all know the "story" or have seen the film but what an insight! This book gave the listener various ways of experiencing the "elephant man's" feelings and surroundings!! Great journey then when you thought the story ended there were more things to find out!! Just because Joseph Merrick died obviously doesn't mean the end! His survivors have their say!!
The narrator was a joy to listen to throughout!
Enjoy
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2 people found this helpful
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- tru britty
- 03-28-18
Starts slowly but really pays off
I had a hard time getting into this book, even though I was interested in the subject and I had just seen the David Lynch film.
But the story really picked up, for me, around (audio) chapter 7, when the Elephant Man, Joseph (sometimes called John) Merrick hires himself out to the freak shows of 19th-century London. That's when he meets the doctor who will be so important to the last years of his life--though neither knows it at the time.
This is a grim story. It's one of those stories about the cruelty and indifference suffered by a man crippled by physical abnormalities in a world with few safety nets. However, Merrick never relinquishes his humanity and his capacity for enjoyment in the simple things. This is captured beautifully in the Lynch film.
The grimness is alleviated in the second half of the book when Merrick finds a home in the London Hospital, under the care of Frederick Treves. Merrick even enjoys some fame and the friendship of elegant persons. This period is livelier and more poignant because it was better documented. In fact, Treves later wrote his reminiscences in an article, which is included at the end of the audiobook.
Other Audible titles you might want to check out:
The Knife Man: The Extraordinary Life and Times of John Hunter, Father of Modern Surgery by Wendy Moore -
This book's story begins some few decades before Merrick's own but also explores early medical history. John Hunter was a pioneer surgeon who would go to great and sometimes dubious lengths to acquire human and animal specimens. He even stalked a dying freak show tall man, Charles Byrne, because he wanted to dissect his body. Hunter was an inspiration for Mary Shelley's Dr. Frankenstein.
Spectacle: The Astonishing Life of Ota Benga by Pamela Newkirk -
Ota Benga was a Congolese pygmy who ended up becoming a caged attraction at the New York Zoological Gardens.
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Overall
- Superwhiff
- 12-24-19
Hard to read
This book is written n a colloquial style with many spelling irregularities. Not worth the time to middle through.
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