These Fevered Days
Ten Pivotal Moments in the Making of Emily Dickinson
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Narrated by:
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Martha Ackmann
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By:
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Martha Ackmann
About this listen
An engaging, intimate portrait of Emily Dickinson, one of America's greatest and most-mythologized poets, that sheds new light on her groundbreaking poetry.
On August 3, 1845, young Emily Dickinson declared, "All things are ready" - and with this resolute statement, her life as a poet began. Despite spending her days almost entirely "at home" (the occupation listed on her death certificate), Dickinson's interior world was extraordinary. She loved passionately, was ambivalent toward publication, embraced seclusion, and created 1,789 poems that she tucked into a dresser drawer.
In These Fevered Days, Martha Ackmann unravels the mysteries of Dickinson's life through 10 decisive episodes that distill her evolution as a poet. Ackmann follows Dickinson through her religious crisis while a student at Mount Holyoke, her startling decision to ask a famous editor for advice, her anguished letters to an unidentified "Master", her exhilarating frenzy of composition, and her terror in confronting possible blindness. Together, these 10 days provide new insights into Dickinson's wildly original poetry and render a concise and vivid portrait of American literature's most enigmatic figure.
©2020 Martha Ackmann (P)2020 Recorded BooksListeners also enjoyed...
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- Length: 11 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
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Clever and ambitious, Emma Jung yearned to study the natural sciences at the University of Zurich. But the strict rules of proper Swiss society at the beginning of the 20th century dictated that a woman of Emma's stature - one of the richest heiresses in Switzerland - travel to Paris to "finish" her education, to prepare for marriage to a suitable man. Engaged to the son of one of her father's wealthy business colleagues, Emma's conventional and predictable life was upended when she met Carl Jung.
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Carl plays center stage
- By Sparrowhawk on 12-23-16
By: Catrine Clay
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Reading My Father
- A Memoir
- By: Alexandra Styron
- Narrated by: Alexandra Styron
- Length: 10 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
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Alexandra Styron's parents—the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Sophie’s Choice and his political activist wife, Rose—were, for half a century, leading players on the world’s cultural stage. Alexandra was raised under both the halo of her father’s brilliance and the long shadow of his troubled mind. Reading My Father portrays the epic sweep of an American artist’s life. It is also a tale of filial love, beautifully written with humor, compassion, and grace.
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William Styron Ranks...
- By Douglas on 12-22-13
By: Alexandra Styron
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Philip Roth
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- By: Blake Bailey
- Narrated by: George Guidall
- Length: 31 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
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"I don't want you to rehabilitate me," Philip Roth said to his only authorized biographer, Blake Bailey. "Just make me interesting." Granted complete independence and access, Bailey spent almost 10 years poring over Roth's personal archive, interviewing his friends, lovers, and colleagues, and listening to Roth's own breathtakingly candid confessions. Tracing Roth's path from realism to farce to metafiction to the tragic masterpieces of the American Trilogy, Bailey explores Roth's engagement with nearly every aspect of postwar American culture.
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moved
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By: Blake Bailey
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Letters
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- Narrated by: Ralph Cosham
- Length: 37 mins
- Unabridged
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This volume of short essays and other pieces by C. S. Lewis is part of a larger collection, C. S. Lewis: Essay Collection and Other Short Pieces. In addition to his many books, letters, and poems, C. S. Lewis wrote a great number of essays and shorter pieces on various subjects. He wrote extensively on Christian theology and the defense of faith but also on ethical issues and the nature of literature and storytelling. Within this audiobook is a treasure trove of Lewis' reflections on diverse topics.
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Just Lewis
- By William on 02-07-21
By: C. S. Lewis
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The Birthmark
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Hawthorne approached the Romantic notion of the ability of science to destroy art (or beauty) in the form of fictive "horror stories" of biological research out of control. This story is the best of that group. A devoted scientist marries a beautiful woman with a single physical flaw: a birthmark on her face. Aylmer becomes obsessed with the imperfection and his attempts to remove it via his scientific skills, thus rendering his bride perfect.
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Bland uninspired
- By Holcomb on 10-02-12
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Melville in Love
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Herman Melville's epic novel, Moby-Dick, was a spectacular failure when it was published in 1851, effectively ending its author's rise to literary fame. Because he was neglected by academics for so long, and because he made little effort to preserve his legacy, we know very little about Melville, and even less about what he called his "wicked book". Scholars still puzzle over what drove Melville to invent Captain Ahab's mad pursuit of the great white whale.
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intriguing
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Ted Hughes
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Ted Hughes, poet laureate, was one of the greatest writers of the 20th century. With an equal gift for poetry and prose, and with a soul as capacious as any poet in history, he was also a prolific children's writer and has been hailed as the greatest English letter writer since John Keats. His magnetic personality and insatiable appetite for friendship, love, and life also attracted more scandal than any poet since Lord Byron.
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Phenomenal thanks to narrator!
- By equinox14 on 06-26-16
By: Jonathan Bate
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I Am Dynamite!
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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
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The Prince and the Pauper
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- Narrated by: Steve West
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- Unabridged
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They look alike, but they live in very different worlds. Tom Canty, impoverished and abused by his father, is fascinated with royalty. Edward Tudor, heir to the throne of England, is kind and generous but wants to run free and play in the river - just once. How insubstantial their differences truly are becomes clear when a chance encounter leads to an exchange of clothing - and roles. The pauper finds himself caught up in the pomp and folly of the royal court, and the prince wanders horror-stricken through the lower strata of English society.
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Wonderful author, terrific narrator, splendid book
- By Rahni on 10-01-17
By: Mark Twain
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Mark Twain
- A Life
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- Narrated by: Ron Powers
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Mark Twain founded the American voice. His works are a living national treasury: taught, quoted, and reprinted more than those of any writer except Shakespeare. His awestruck contemporaries saw him as the representative figure of his times, and his influence has deeply flavored the 20th and 21st centuries.
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Buy the Book
- By W.Denis on 10-22-05
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J.R.R. Tolkien
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- Narrated by: Simon Vance
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J.R.R. Tolkien's creations, imagination, and characters captured the attention of millions of readers. But who was the man who dreamt up the intricate languages and perfectly crafted world of Middle-earth? Tolkien had a difficult life, for many years: orphaned and poor, his guardian forbade him to communicate with the woman he had fallen in love with, and he went through the horrors of the First World War. An intensely private and brilliant scholar, he spent over 50 years working on the languages, history, peoples, and geography of Middle-earth,
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Very insightful
- By Luke B. on 10-27-20
By: Colin Duriez
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What listeners say about These Fevered Days
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Christopher Benson
- 12-30-20
A biography that breathes
When Emily Dickinson submitted some of her poems to the editor Thomas Wentworth Higginson, she asked: “Should you think it breathed?” Martha Ackmann’s biography, written with a lifetime of studied and tender attention to Dickinson’s verse, makes the poet come alive; she breaths again as Ackmann narrates her life in ten days. Although Dickinson remains “that rare and strange creature,” in the words of Higginson at her funeral service, she is more down-to-earth, sensitive, and admirable after reading Ackmann’s accomplished biography.
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- kallen M
- 01-03-22
Good overview
It was a nice overview of Emily’s life, but I felt that the book left me wanting for more. We know Dickinson was mysterious, and the writer acknowledges that. While we will never really know Emily’s true motivation for seclusion, the book didn’t really explore Emily’s relationship to Sue Gilbert as important to her writing. It acknowledges Sue, but I feel many scholars are afraid to explore Emily’s sexuality. There’s enough evidence in her lifetime of her love expressed to Sue, and in many occasions of her using male pronouns to refer to herself. As much as writers want to avoid this part of Dickinson’s life, I would have liked to see the writer at least acknowledge this important part of Emily’s life.
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- J. Wachter
- 11-11-21
Great Insight Into America's Great Femaile Poet
I didn't expect to like this and I didn't expect to find it insightful but there isn't much out there about Emily Dickenson, so I gave this one a whirl. At first, the performance seemed dull, but, I kept listening, thinking at least this accournt is factually tough and accurate. No lame speculating. It did not take long though before Martha Ackmann hooked me. Then, everything about this tightly focused biography became enjoyable. How rare and wonderful--just like the poet herself!
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- Aranesan
- 09-17-24
Vignettes of a Mysterious Life
In this interesting approach, the author paints a story of Emily Dickinson’s life via vignettes of a moment in her life and the surrounding events that gave it power.
In it the reclusive poet, becomes even more mysterious and at the same time rich in imagery. Much like her works.
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- Sara B.
- 08-05-20
Captivating But Too Much Information
THESE FEVERED DAYS is a well-thought-out delivery about Emily Dickinson’s life and work. It is satisfying that the author dug deep to answer questions about Emily Dickinson that I want to know. I struggled to stay focused on the reading material, because there’s a bit of information overload. The author packed extraneous information that was distracting into the text. I read most chapters twice, in an effort to absorb and focus on the book’s objective of highlighting ten important days in Dickinson’s life. The author, who is the narrator, has a clear and distinct voice that works well for presenting examples of Dickinson’s writing, including parts of letters and some choice verses.
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2 people found this helpful