
The Velvet Hours
Failed to add items
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
Buy for $19.74
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
-
Narrated by:
-
Tavia Gilbert
-
Kate Reading
-
By:
-
Alyson Richman
About this listen
As Paris teeters on the edge of the German occupation, a young Frenchwoman closes the door to her late grandmother's treasure-filled apartment, unsure if she'll ever return.
An elusive courtesan, Marthe de Florian had cultivated a life of art and beauty, casting out all recollections of her impoverished childhood in the dark alleys of Montmartre. With Europe on the brink of war, she shares her story with her granddaughter, Solange Beaugiron, using her prized possessions to reveal her innermost secrets. Most striking of all are a beautiful string of pearls and a magnificent portrait of Marthe painted by the Italian artist Giovanni Boldini. As Marthe's tale unfolds, like velvet itself, stitched with its own shadow and light, it helps to guide Solange on her own path.
Inspired by the true account of an abandoned Parisian apartment, Alyson Richman brings to life Solange, the young woman forced to leave her fabled grandmother's legacy behind to save all that she loves.
©2016 Alyson Richman (P)2016 Blackstone Audio, Inc.Listeners also enjoyed...
-
The Secret of Clouds
- By: Alyson Richman
- Narrated by: Jennifer Lim, Alyson Richman
- Length: 9 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Katya, a rising ballerina, and Sasha, a graduate student, are young and in love when an unexpected tragedy befalls their native Kiev. Years later, after the couple has safely emigrated to America the consequences of this incident cause their son, Yuri, to be born with a rare health condition that isolates him from other children. Maggie, a passionate and dedicated teacher agrees to tutor Yuri at his home, even though she is haunted by her own painful childhood memories.
-
-
poignant
- By Tajuana Bradley on 06-01-22
By: Alyson Richman
-
The Lost Wife
- A Novel
- By: Alyson Richman
- Narrated by: George Guidall, Suzanne Toren
- Length: 10 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In pre-war Prague, the dreams of two young lovers are shattered when they are separated by the Nazi invasion. Then, decades later, thousands of miles away in New York, there's an inescapable glance of recognition between two strangers. Providence is giving Lenka and Josef one more chance. From the glamorous ease of life in Prague before the Occupation, to the horrors of Nazi Europe, The Lost Wife explores the power of first love, the resilience of the human spirit, and the strength of memory.
-
-
Love, Strength & Survival
- By Sara on 01-27-14
By: Alyson Richman
-
The Garden of Letters
- By: Alyson Richman
- Narrated by: Elizabeth Sastre, Alyson Richman
- Length: 11 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Portofino, Italy, 1943. A young woman steps off a boat in a scenic coastal village. Although she knows how to disappear in a crowd, Elodie is too terrified to slip by the German officers while carrying her poorly forged identity papers. She is frozen until a man she's never met before claims to know her. In desperate need of shelter, Elodie follows him back to his home on the cliffs of Portofino.
-
-
My thoughts
- By Lelia on 01-05-15
By: Alyson Richman
-
Lady Tan's Circle of Women
- By: Lisa See
- Narrated by: Jennifer Lim, Justin Chien
- Length: 13 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
According to Confucius, “an educated woman is a worthless woman,” but Tan Yunxian—born into an elite family, yet haunted by death, separations, and loneliness—is being raised by her grandparents to be of use. Her grandmother is one of only a handful of female doctors in China, and she teaches Yunxian the pillars of Chinese medicine, the Four Examinations—looking, listening, touching, and asking—something a man can never do with a female patient.
-
-
Another Beautiful Novel from Lisa See!
- By TuxedoedCorgi95 on 06-06-23
By: Lisa See
-
When the Nightingale Sings
- By: Suzanne Kelman
- Narrated by: Tamsin Kennard
- Length: 12 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When an impossibly shy young woman named Judy Morgan finishes her studies in Physics at Cambridge University, it is with dreams of changing the world for the better. Meanwhile, a beautiful, young Jewish woman decides to flee her beloved Austria, changing her name to Hedy Lamarr, and risking everything to get to America, as far away from the Nazi threat as possible.
-
-
A Sour Note
- By Cubbug on 03-06-22
By: Suzanne Kelman
-
Love in a Time of War
- The Three Fry Sisters, Book 1
- By: Adrienne Chinn
- Narrated by: Ruth Sillers
- Length: 13 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In 1913, in a quiet corner of London, the three Fry sisters are coming of age, dreaming of all the possibilities the bright future offers. But when war erupts, their innocence is shattered and a new era of uncertainty begins.
By: Adrienne Chinn
-
The Secret of Clouds
- By: Alyson Richman
- Narrated by: Jennifer Lim, Alyson Richman
- Length: 9 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Katya, a rising ballerina, and Sasha, a graduate student, are young and in love when an unexpected tragedy befalls their native Kiev. Years later, after the couple has safely emigrated to America the consequences of this incident cause their son, Yuri, to be born with a rare health condition that isolates him from other children. Maggie, a passionate and dedicated teacher agrees to tutor Yuri at his home, even though she is haunted by her own painful childhood memories.
-
-
poignant
- By Tajuana Bradley on 06-01-22
By: Alyson Richman
-
The Lost Wife
- A Novel
- By: Alyson Richman
- Narrated by: George Guidall, Suzanne Toren
- Length: 10 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In pre-war Prague, the dreams of two young lovers are shattered when they are separated by the Nazi invasion. Then, decades later, thousands of miles away in New York, there's an inescapable glance of recognition between two strangers. Providence is giving Lenka and Josef one more chance. From the glamorous ease of life in Prague before the Occupation, to the horrors of Nazi Europe, The Lost Wife explores the power of first love, the resilience of the human spirit, and the strength of memory.
-
-
Love, Strength & Survival
- By Sara on 01-27-14
By: Alyson Richman
-
The Garden of Letters
- By: Alyson Richman
- Narrated by: Elizabeth Sastre, Alyson Richman
- Length: 11 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Portofino, Italy, 1943. A young woman steps off a boat in a scenic coastal village. Although she knows how to disappear in a crowd, Elodie is too terrified to slip by the German officers while carrying her poorly forged identity papers. She is frozen until a man she's never met before claims to know her. In desperate need of shelter, Elodie follows him back to his home on the cliffs of Portofino.
-
-
My thoughts
- By Lelia on 01-05-15
By: Alyson Richman
-
Lady Tan's Circle of Women
- By: Lisa See
- Narrated by: Jennifer Lim, Justin Chien
- Length: 13 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
According to Confucius, “an educated woman is a worthless woman,” but Tan Yunxian—born into an elite family, yet haunted by death, separations, and loneliness—is being raised by her grandparents to be of use. Her grandmother is one of only a handful of female doctors in China, and she teaches Yunxian the pillars of Chinese medicine, the Four Examinations—looking, listening, touching, and asking—something a man can never do with a female patient.
-
-
Another Beautiful Novel from Lisa See!
- By TuxedoedCorgi95 on 06-06-23
By: Lisa See
-
When the Nightingale Sings
- By: Suzanne Kelman
- Narrated by: Tamsin Kennard
- Length: 12 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When an impossibly shy young woman named Judy Morgan finishes her studies in Physics at Cambridge University, it is with dreams of changing the world for the better. Meanwhile, a beautiful, young Jewish woman decides to flee her beloved Austria, changing her name to Hedy Lamarr, and risking everything to get to America, as far away from the Nazi threat as possible.
-
-
A Sour Note
- By Cubbug on 03-06-22
By: Suzanne Kelman
-
Love in a Time of War
- The Three Fry Sisters, Book 1
- By: Adrienne Chinn
- Narrated by: Ruth Sillers
- Length: 13 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In 1913, in a quiet corner of London, the three Fry sisters are coming of age, dreaming of all the possibilities the bright future offers. But when war erupts, their innocence is shattered and a new era of uncertainty begins.
By: Adrienne Chinn
-
The Secret Keeper
- By: Kate Morton
- Narrated by: Caroline Lee
- Length: 19 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
England, 1959: Laurel Nicolson is 16 years old, dreaming alone in her childhood tree house during a family celebration at their home, Green Acres Farm. She spies a stranger coming up the long road to the farm and then observes her mother, Dorothy, speaking to him. And then she witnesses a crime.
-
-
Kate Morton (and Caroline Lee) does it again!
- By Maria on 10-20-12
By: Kate Morton
-
The Beautiful American
- By: Jeanne Mackin
- Narrated by: Kate Reading
- Length: 11 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
As recovery from World War II begins, expatriate American NoraTours travels from her home in southern France to London in search of her missing 16-year-old daughter. There she unexpectedly meets up with an oldacquaintance, famous model-turned-photographer Lee Miller. Neither has emergedfrom the war unscathed. Nora is racked with the fear that her efforts tosurvive under the Vichy regime may have cost her daughter's life. Lee suffersfrom what she witnessed as a war correspondent photographing the liberation of the Nazi concentration camps.
-
-
Simply wonderful
- By nursebettyknitting on 07-10-14
By: Jeanne Mackin
-
The Daughter's Tale
- A Novel
- By: Armando Lucas Correa
- Narrated by: Cassandra Campbell
- Length: 9 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
BERLIN, 1939. The dreams that Amanda Sternberg and her husband, Julius, had for their daughters are shattered when the Nazis descend on Berlin, burning down their beloved family bookshop and sending Julius to a concentration camp. Desperate to save her children, Amanda flees toward the south of France, where the widow of an old friend of her husband’s has agreed to take her in. Along the way, a refugee ship headed for Cuba offers another chance at escape and there, at the dock, Amanda is forced to make an impossible choice that will haunt her for the rest of her life.
-
-
Beautiful and heartbreaking
- By INGRID on 07-06-19
-
At Summer's End
- By: Courtney Ellis
- Narrated by: Leonora Haig
- Length: 12 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Alberta Preston accepts the commission of a lifetime when she receives an invitation from the earl of Wakeford to spend a summer painting at his lordship's country home, Castle Braemore. Bertie imagines her residence at the prodigious estate will finally enable her to embark on a professional career and prove her worth as an artist, regardless of her gender. Upon her arrival, however, Bertie finds the opulent Braemore and its inhabitants diminished by the Great War.
-
-
Wonderful!
- By KMS on 06-17-22
By: Courtney Ellis
-
The Orchard Girls
- By: Nikola Scott
- Narrated by: Sofia Zervudachi
- Length: 18 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
London, 2004. Frankie didn't always have it easy. Growing up motherless, she was raised by her grandmother, who loved her - and betrayed her. For years, the rift between them seemed irreparable. But when their paths suddenly cross again, Frankie is shocked to realise that her grandmother is slowly losing control of her memory. There is a darkness in her past that won't stay buried - secrets going back to wartime that may have a devastating effect on Frankie's own life.
-
-
Better than a sleeping pill
- By AmazonCustomer Barb Perkins on 04-26-22
By: Nikola Scott
-
The Forgotten Room
- By: Karen White, Beatriz Williams, Lauren Willig
- Narrated by: Morgan Hallett, Susan Bennett
- Length: 13 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
It's 1945: When the critically wounded Captain Cooper Ravenal is brought to a private hospital on Manhattan's Upper East Side, young Dr. Kate Schuyler is drawn into a complex mystery that connects three generations of women in her family to a single extraordinary room in a Gilded Age mansion. Who is the woman in Captain Ravenel's portrait miniature who looks so much like Kate? And why is she wearing the ruby pendant handed down to Kate by her mother?
-
-
The same story 3 times over...
- By Amazon Customer on 03-30-16
By: Karen White, and others
-
The Fuhrer's Orphans
- By: David Laws
- Narrated by: David Bendena
- Length: 12 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In an overgrown industrial area of wartime Munich, 27 children hide from the Gestapo, scared and hungry. Their parents have been sent to concentration camps, and they have nowhere to go. Teacher Claudia Kellner discovers the group when she first takes in two homeless victims, risking her own safety by giving them shelter. Meanwhile, Commando Peter Chesham, a spy working for the British, succeeds in entering Third Reich territory. But his top-secret mission is threatened when he discovers the hiding place of the orphans.
-
-
Ending lacked
- By Amazon Customer on 08-15-22
By: David Laws
-
Light on Snow
- By: Anita Shreve
- Narrated by: Alyson Silverman
- Length: 6 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Snowshoeing over crusted snow in the woods near their home, 12-year-old Nicky Dillon and her father come upon something shocking. There, in the pristine winter scene, an abandoned baby wails, its survival made possible only by the coincidence of their having chosen this path for their late afternoon outing.
-
-
This narrator was perfect.
- By Emmy on 02-16-05
By: Anita Shreve
-
The Perfume Collector
- A Novel
- By: Kathleen Tessaro
- Narrated by: Heather Wilds
- Length: 12 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
London, 1955: Grace Monroe is a fortunate young woman. Despite her sheltered upbringing in Oxford, her recent marriage has thrust her into the heart of London's most refined and ambitious social circles. Then one evening a letter arrives from France that will change everything. Grace has received an inheritance. There's only one problem: she has never heard of her benefactor, the mysterious Eva d'Orsey. Told by invoking the three distinctive perfumes she inspired, Eva d'Orsey's story weaves through the decades, from 1920s New York to Monte Carlo, Paris, and London.
-
-
Unbearable Narration
- By D McKay on 08-05-15
By: Kathleen Tessaro
-
Daughters of Paris
- By: Elisabeth Hobbes
- Narrated by: Stephanie Beattie
- Length: 12 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Paris 1930s. Childhood companions Fleur and Colette make a vow, under the trailing ivy of their secret garden, that they will be secret sisters forever. But as they grow up, the promises of childhood are put to the ultimate test. For Colette is the daughter of the house, and her life is all jazz clubs, silk dresses and chilled champagne, while Fleur is the orphan niece of the housekeeper and doesn’t feel like she belongs anywhere. Years later, in 1939, life as they know it will never be the same.
-
-
I had to start twice; a satisfying listen.
- By Bob L. on 11-20-22
By: Elisabeth Hobbes
-
City of Girls
- A Novel
- By: Elizabeth Gilbert
- Narrated by: Blair Brown
- Length: 15 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Beloved author Elizabeth Gilbert returns to fiction with a unique love story set in the New York City theater world during the 1940s. Told from the perspective of an older woman as she looks back on her youth with both pleasure and regret (but mostly pleasure), City of Girls explores themes of female sexuality and promiscuity, as well as the idiosyncrasies of true love. In 1940, nineteen-year-old Vivian Morris has just been kicked out of Vassar College, owing to her lackluster freshman-year performance.
-
-
A strong story
- By Anita Kristensen on 06-08-19
-
All the Light We Cannot See
- A Novel
- By: Anthony Doerr
- Narrated by: Zach Appelman
- Length: 16 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Marie-Laure lives with her father in Paris near the Museum of Natural History, where he works as the master of its thousands of locks. When she is six, Marie-Laure goes blind and her father builds a perfect miniature of their neighborhood so she can memorize it by touch and navigate her way home. When she is 12, the Nazis occupy Paris and father and daughter flee to the walled citadel of Saint-Malo, where Marie-Laure’s reclusive great-uncle lives in a tall house by the sea. With them they carry what might be the museum’s most valuable and dangerous jewel.
-
-
Afraid to Write a "Less-Than-Positive" Review
- By Elizabeth on 08-06-14
By: Anthony Doerr
Critic reviews
"Two remarkable performances grace this romance inspired by true events. Tavia Gilbert and Kate Reading shine as Solange and her grandmother, Marthe.... As Marthe, Reading is simply stunning. Her voices, her accents, and her emotions are utterly credible. The vivid painting of Marthe, the men in her life, a string of priceless pearls, a world on the edge of collapse, and the growing tenderness between two women makes this an audiobook listeners won’t want to miss." (AudioFile)
Wow
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Time capsule in Paris
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Great Story
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
When the book moves forward, it was very good. I enjoyed the relationship between the grandmother and granddaughter. The story became very compelling, and I looked forward to listening.
I look forward to trying another book by Alyson Richman.
The Velvet Hours
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Completely enchanted and mesmerized by this talented author.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Ehhhhh
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Beautifully woven stoy
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
UGH...
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Excellent Story
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Wonderfully moving
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.