The Two: A Biography of the Original Siamese Twins
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Narrated by:
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Michael Adashefski
About this listen
They came into the world as one - inseparably tied together at their chests - yet they were two. They were born on May 11, 1811, on a bamboo mat in a small houseboat afloat on the river in the village of Meklong, located 60 miles west of Bangkok, the capital of Siam. They became world celebrities, American citizens, married two native-born Southern sisters, and between them fathered 21 children, while acquiring respectable status as landowners, famers, slave owners, and pillars of their local community.
"They" were the famous, the first, the original Siamese Twins, Chang and Eng, and their story is told in this fascinating and remarkable book in such detail, with such enormous insight and warmth, and with such a superb sense of drama, that one understands, for the first time, just how bizarre, heroic, tragic, and human their lives in fact were.
Linked by Nature, Chang and Eng were fated to spend their lives joined by a thick, fleshy ligament resembling an arm, five to six inches long and eight inches in circumference, that connected them at the base of their chests. Yet they could swim, perform gymnastic feats and lead "normal" lives. Together they built their own house, opened a store, became wealthy gentlemen farmers, skilled horse breakers and, when necessary, defended themselves with their fists.
The most fascinating part of the story is, of course, their physical link to each other; for as Chang and Eng grew older, each dreamed of a separate life, despite the obvious risks that an operation would entail, and each feared that the death of one would cause the death of the other. Nor were their natures altogether harmonious, for each was a highly individual person: Eng, quiet, contemplative, and even-tempered; Chang, hot-tempered, quarrelsome and, as he grew older, inclined to bouts of heavy drinking. Chang's insistence on going to his own house in midwinter (the brothers arranged to alternate three days in one's house and three days in the other's) eventually led to exactly the death both had feared, for Eng died, perhaps out of fright and shock, an hour after Chang's life ended.
The Two is a biography of two remarkable lives, astonishing in its extraordinary descriptions of the brothers' triumph over their handicap and fascinating in its exploration of just how the Siamese Twins lived, spent their childhood, adjusted to fame, fought against being exploited by showmen, promoters and well-wishers, loved (and made love) and searched in vain for the surgical miracle that could separate them. It is a startling, original, and moving book.
©2011 Amy Wallace (P)2011 David N. WilsonListeners also enjoyed...
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Ladies of Liberty
- By Sesenta-tres on 05-08-08
By: Cokie Roberts
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Twilight at Monticello
- The Final Years of Thomas Jefferson
- By: Alan Pell Crawford
- Narrated by: James Boles
- Length: 11 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
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Much has been written about Thomas Jefferson, with good reason: His life was a great American drama, one of the greatest, played out in compelling acts. He was the architect of our democracy, a visionary chief executive who expanded this nation's physical boundaries to unimagined lengths.
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After Leaving Office
- By Roy on 09-23-10
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Mark Twain: Man in White
- The Grand Adventure of His Final Years
- By: Michael Shelden
- Narrated by: Andrew Garman
- Length: 17 hrs
- Unabridged
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Pulitzer Prize finalist Michael Shelden illuminates Mark Twain’s twilight years in this brilliant account of the legendary author’s life. Drawing heavily on Twain’s own letters and journals, Mark Twain: Man in White recounts both Twain’s private family experiences and his larger-than-life public image.
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Fantastic book
- By Tad Davis on 08-23-10
By: Michael Shelden
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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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Hawaii's Story by Hawaii's Queen
- By: Lili‘uokalani
- Narrated by: Emily Woo Zeller
- Length: 9 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
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In 1893, Liliuokalani, the Queen of Hawaii, was deposed and five years later her nation became an incorporated territory of the United States. Published shortly after these momentous events, her book Hawaii's Story by Hawaii's Queen is an incredibly personal history of the islands that she was born to rule. Liliuokalani covers from her birth in 1838 through the reigns of her forebears to her own turbulent time as Queen of the Hawaiian Islands.
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Learn to pronounce Hawaiian words before narrating
- By ArchJoanne on 11-15-19
By: Lili‘uokalani
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Twelve Years a Slave
- By: Solomon Northup
- Narrated by: Louis Gossett Jr.
- Length: 7 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
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In this riveting landmark autobiography, which reads like a novel, Academy Award and Emmy winner Louis Gossett, Jr., masterfully transports us to 1840s New York; Washington, D.C.; and Louisiana to experience the kidnapping and 12 years of bondage of Solomon Northup, a free man of color. Twelve Years a Slave, published in 1853, was an immediate bombshell in the national debate over slavery leading up to the Civil War.
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I've waited for this a long time
- By Book Reader on 04-04-13
By: Solomon Northup
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The Modern Scholar
- The Life and Times of Benjamin Franklin
- By: Professor H.W. Brands
- Narrated by: H.W. Brands
- Length: 7 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
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This course examines the life of Benjamin Franklin and his influence on both American and world history. He remains the model of the American thinker - a man who was interested in nearly everything, and who pursued those interests with an admirable and contagious passion. To study Franklin's life is to learn not only the history of a single man, but to understand some of the most monumental changes in all of human history.
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Love it
- By Holly on 02-20-16
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Victoria & Abdul (Movie Tie-in)
- The True Story of the Queen's Closest Confidant
- By: Shrabani Basu
- Narrated by: Elizabeth Jasicki
- Length: 11 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
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History’s most unlikely friendship - this is the astonishing story of Queen Victoria and her dearest companion, the young Indian Munshi Abdul Karim. In the twilight years of her reign, after the devastating deaths of her two great loves - Prince Albert and John Brown - Queen Victoria meets tall and handsome Abdul Karim, a humble servant from Agra waiting tables at her Golden Jubilee. The two form an unlikely bond and within a year Abdul becomes a powerful figure at court, the Queen’s teacher, her counsel on Urdu and Indian affairs, and a friend close to her heart.
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Honestly, can’t finish yet.
- By Cassie on 12-30-17
By: Shrabani Basu
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Jack London
- An American Life
- By: Earle Labor
- Narrated by: Michael Prichard
- Length: 16 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
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Jack London was born a working class, fatherless Californian in 1876. In his youth, he was a boundlessly energetic adventurer on the bustling West Coast - an oyster pirate, a hobo, a sailor, and a prospector by turns. He spent his brief life rapidly accumulating the experiences that would inform his acclaimed best-selling books The Call of the Wild, White Fang, and The Sea-Wolf.
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Glad I chose this
- By SherryH on 04-14-19
By: Earle Labor
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Lost Kingdom
- Hawaii's Last Queen, the Sugar Kings, and America's First Imperial Adventure
- By: Julia Flynn Siler
- Narrated by: Joyce Bean
- Length: 10 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
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A thriving monarchy had ruled over Hawaii for generations. Taro fields and fish ponds had long sustained native Hawaiians but sugar plantations had been gradually subsuming them. This fractured, vulnerable Hawaii was the country that Queen Lili‘uokalani, or Lili‘u, inherited when she came to power at the end of the nineteenth century.
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Fascinating story, sparsely told
- By Great Tutu Kona on 01-17-12
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My Thoughts Be Bloody
- The Bitter Rivalry Between Edwin and John Wilkes Booth
- By: Nora Titone, Doris Kearns Goodwin - introduction/notes
- Narrated by: John B. Lloyd
- Length: 19 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
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My Thoughts Be Bloody, a sweeping family saga, revives an extraordinary figure whose name has been missing, until now, from the story of President Lincoln's death. Edwin Booth, John Wilkes's older brother by four years, was in his day the biggest star of the American stage. Without an account of Edwin Booth, author Nora Titone argues, the real story of Lincoln's assassin has never been told.
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Wonderful!
- By Tad Davis on 11-30-10
By: Nora Titone, and others
What listeners say about The Two: A Biography of the Original Siamese Twins
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Deedra
- 05-24-20
The Two
A very interesting and informative book.It tells the history of other twins that lived,but non were so spectaculor as these men.Michael Adashefski gave a fine performance in sideshow barker style.I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.'
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- Montzalee Wittmann
- 01-08-21
A very personable look at their lives!
The Two: A Biography of the Original Siamese Twins
By: Irving Wallace, Amy Wallace
Narrated by: Michael Adashefski
This is a book I received free from Audioboom and the review is voluntary. I suppose a great deal of people are fascinated with these two people even today, I know I am. They were attached yet lived a long productive life but that's about the extent of my knowledge. This book really filled in lots of gaps. It follows the twins from birth until after death. Their travels, what they learned on their trips, how they made a living, their wives, their in-laws, how they survived living with a large household of children and two wives (two houses and rules!), things about their children, and more.
It also went into how they died, what happened and when. What happened to the body and more.
It also told about each twins personality as they were growing up, how it changed. What they could do even attached to each other that astonished others.
I found this a very personable look into their lives and not a book of facts about them. I came away from this feeling glad I had a glimpse into their lives, even if it was only through a window of the past. I felt I knew them a little. They weren't just a freek show oddity but a pair of intelligent, loving, family men that contributed to their community and handled a difficult lifelong situation far better than I could ever dream of.
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