There Is Confusion (AmazonClassics Edition)
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Narrated by:
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Tovah Ott
About this listen
New York City, at the dawn of a new era...
Joanna Marshall is an aspiring singer obsessed with success, determined to overcome the racism and sexism that stand in her way. Her childhood friends Maggie Ellersley and Peter Bye confront similar barriers but with different goals in mind: Maggie is focused on finding love; Peter, on becoming a surgeon. But as their interests overlap and their ambitions collide, the course of Joanna and Maggie’s lives seems destined to change forever.
Written in response to the dominant stereotypes of the time, There Is Confusion paints a revelatory portrait of the lives, dreams, and resilience of the Black middle class in early twentieth-century America.
Revised edition: Previously published as There Is Confusion, this edition of There Is Confusion (AmazonClassics Edition) includes editorial revisions.
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Wonderful Story
- By Ann Marie Taylor on 07-04-20
By: Susan Howatch
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The Insulted and the Injured
- By: Fyodor Dostoyevsky
- Narrated by: Alastair Cameron
- Length: 13 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
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At its heart, The Insulted and the Injured is a story of human tragedy and suffering, but it is also a love story. Narrated by a fictitious young author, Vanya, this book tells the story of Natasha and her lover, Alyosha, who also happens to be the son of the cruel Prince Valkovsky.
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Excellent
- By Joel A. Griska on 07-26-17
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Tempest-tost
- The Salterton Trilogy, Book 1
- By: Robertson Davies
- Narrated by: Frederick Davidson
- Length: 9 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
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An amateur production of The Tempest provides a colorful backdrop for a hilarious look at unrequited love. Mathematics teacher Hector Mackilwraith, stirred and troubled by Shakespeare's play, falls in love with the beautiful Griselda Webster. When Griselda shows she has plans of her own, Hector despairs on the play's opening night.
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First of the first (and shows it)
- By Mary on 12-22-09
By: Robertson Davies
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Jenny
- By: Sigrid Undset
- Narrated by: K. G. Cross
- Length: 8 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
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Jenny is the story of Jenny Winge, a talented Norwegian painter who lives a free and independent life in Rome. Betraying her own ideals, she has an affair, resulting in a child out of wedlock, and decides to raise the child on her own. Undset gives a gripping portrayal of a woman struggling towards fulfillment and independence, who at the same time wrestles with mental problems. It is written with unflinching honesty, which makes her story as compelling today as it was nearly a century ago.
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Undset is an Astute Observer of Human Nature
- By Amazon Customer on 08-05-17
By: Sigrid Undset
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A Suitable Boy (Dramatised)
- By: Vikram Seth
- Narrated by: Ayesha Dharker, Mahabanoo Mody-Kotwal, full cast
- Length: 5 hrs and 44 mins
- Original Recording
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A Suitable Boy is Vikram Seth's epic love story set in India. Funny and tragic, with engaging, brilliantly observed characters, it is as close as you can get to Dickens for the twentieth century. The story unfolds through four middle class families: the Mehras, Kappoors, Khans, and Chatterjis. Lata Mehra, a university student, is under pressure from her mother to get married. But not to just anyone she happens to fall in love with.
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would prefer unabridged naration
- By Tamshine on 07-07-11
By: Vikram Seth
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Burr
- A Novel (Narratives of Empire, Book 1)
- By: Gore Vidal
- Narrated by: Grover Gardner
- Length: 21 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
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Here is an extraordinary portrait of one of the most complicated - and misunderstood - figures among the Founding Fathers. In 1804, while serving as vice president, Aaron Burr fought a duel with his political nemesis, Alexander Hamilton, and killed him. In 1807, he was arrested, tried, and acquitted of treason. In 1833, Burr is newly married, an aging statesman considered a monster by many. But he is determined to tell his own story, and he chooses to confide in a young New York City journalist. Burr is the first novel in Gore Vidal's Narratives of Empire series.
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Finally! Vidal's Great Take on the Life of Burr
- By John Norton on 06-12-19
By: Gore Vidal
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An Old-Fashioned Girl
- By: Louisa May Alcott
- Narrated by: Anne Hancock
- Length: 9 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
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Immediately following the success of Little Women, Louisa May Alcott sat down to write An-Old Fashioned Girl, expanding on the subject of rich versus poor that she explored in her first novel. It’s a story of a country mouse and a city mouse: 14-year-old Polly Milton travels to Boston for a stay with her friend Fanny Shaw. The wealthy Shaws’ way of life is foreign to Polly who tries to adapt but is quickly labeled “old-fashioned”. Fanny and her friends dress and behave as their elders do, flirting with boys and gossiping.
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Okay
- By selene on 07-15-18
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Anna Karenina
- By: Leo Tolstoy
- Narrated by: Maggie Gyllenhaal
- Length: 35 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
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Leo Tolstoy's classic story of doomed love is one of the most admired novels in world literature. Generations of readers have been enthralled by his magnificent heroine, the unhappily married Anna Karenina, and her tragic affair with dashing Count Vronsky.
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Need to Disclose and Highlight Name of Translator
- By Charles B on 08-27-18
By: Leo Tolstoy
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The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
- By: F. Scott Fitzgerald
- Narrated by: B. J. Harrison
- Length: 1 hr and 4 mins
- Unabridged
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Benjamin Button was literally born an old man. He lived a backwards life, for his body grew younger as the years passed him by. Come and listen to the original, unabridged story by F. Scott Fitzgerald which inspired the movie.
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LOL Funny
- By Jim "The Impatient" on 07-08-16
What listeners say about There Is Confusion (AmazonClassics Edition)
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- J. Johnson
- 06-15-23
Prescient and Validating Story
Abusers always make their victims feel as if freedom and safety is some strange request no one has ever made before. There Is Confusion proves that the need for both has been present for much longer than the 1960's. The book is set in the years before World War I, but since it was published in 1924, we are getting the story from someone who was there. We are introduced to the Marshall and Bye families, each with a legacy of ambitious and intentional ancestors along with those less inclined to make a great name for themselves.
Joanna Marshall is a young woman in turn-of-the-20th-century Harlem, the daughter of a successful businessman who encourages her dreams of becoming a dancer. She meets Peter Bye, an orphaned boy who shows promise as both a surgeon and a musician. Although Peter is an orphan and poor, he comes from 'excellent family', and his name gives him entre into the black society of West Philadelphia (and yes I sang the Fresh Prince theme every time they mentioned it lol). There were black Byes and white Byes, the white having owned the black before the Civil War. Fauset explores the two families' histories, and we feel the anger and resentment of rights and dreams thwarted by racism. Yet in spite of these injustices, we are treated to a great love story. Peter and Joanna have much growing up to do, and are allowed to make mistakes, fall on their faces, and learn their lessons as fleshed out human beings.
Another great character is Maggie Ellerslee, a girl who is befriended by the Marshall daughters until she gets ideas above 'her station'. She is deemed unworthy of the son of the house, but she's not about to fade into Tragic Mulatta territory.
There is enough in this book for two or even three books, and I wish Fauset had lengthened the story to a series. When we get to WWI, it is the best writing in the book. Unfortunately it came as a bit of whiplash, as if Fauset intended it for its own book.
We meet kind and cruel people of both races, because humans are human. Instead of showcasing the horrendous tragedies that took place at the time, Fauset focuses on the everyday predatory behavior black people were subjected to, from figuring out where they could safely eat or shop to Joanna being called the n-word when she shows up for auditions. The characters talk about striving in hopes of things improving in the future, and we see exactly what the world is deprived of when creative minds are suffocated by hate.
If you want to read a fully-developed story of finding oneself and overcoming cruelty while facing one's own flaws and learning from them, you will find it here. The narrator is lively, but not sure she was the best fit for this book. I put the speed at .9 because she read a bit too fast for what was happening.
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- all our stories
- 09-23-22
I wanted to like this book
But I’m sorry to say I had a hard time connecting with it on audiobooks. I found the narration to be disappointing. I want to try to read a paper copy and see if I can recover my interest.
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