
Word Child
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Narrated by:
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Simon Prebble
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By:
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Iris Murdoch
About this listen
A brilliant but deeply flawed man struggles to earn absolution
Hilary Burde was a rising star in academia until a tragic accident plunged him and his mentor and rival, Gunnar Jopling, into two decades of depression and guilt. Hilary, unable to overcome his pain, abandoned his promising career for an unfulfilling job as a civil servant. But at age 41, Hilary crosses paths again with Gunnar - initiating a series of events that will change their lives forever.
Set against a richly drawn backdrop of post-war London, A Word Child is a gripping story of passion and the redemptive power of love.
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An artisanal book
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Rosie Waterman has one dream: to become a working actor. But lately, that hasn't been working out. When she loses her apartment and her job on the same day, she does what she always does--puts herself out there, ready to find the next big thing. But a trip home makes her realize that while she's been struggling to make this dream come true, all her friends have become real adults with careers and weddings and babies on the way. Rosie's been at this for years, and she has nothing to show for it. But how does she simply let go of her dream?
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Great performance, frustrating story
- By Amazon Customer on 07-06-25
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A Treachery of Swans
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Two hundred years ago, a slighted deity stole the magic from Auréal and vanished without a trace. But seventeen-year-old Odile has a plan. All her life, her father, a vengeful sorcerer, has raised her for one singular task: infiltrate the royal palace and steal the king’s crown, an artefact with enough power to restore magic. But to enter the palace, she must assume the identity of a noblewoman. She chooses Marie d’Odette: famed for her beauty, a rumored candidate for future queen…and Odile’s childhood-friend-turned-sworn-enemy.
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Drama, love, redemption, healing, and wonderful gayness
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Father Carel Fisher’s London rectory - like his faith - is a shell. The rectory remains hollowed and broken from bombs dropped in the Second World War, while his religious passion abandoned him long ago. As Carel becomes a shut-in, his brother Marcus sets out to save him before it’s too late. Rich and complex, The Time of the Angels is a powerful story of a man’s descent into madness, and the destruction he wreaks along the way
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Stranger than fiction
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- Length: 23 hrs and 9 mins
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Overall
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Performance
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When George McCaffrey’s car plunges into a canal with his wife still inside, nobody knows whether George is to blame. Nobody, that is, except an Anglican priest who happened to witness the whole thing. And when George’s former teacher, the charismatic philosopher Rozanov, returns to town, George’s life begins to spin wildly out of control.
-
-
A Trip Down a philosophical Lane
- By John on 03-11-13
By: Iris Murdoch
-
The Good Apprentice
- By: Iris Murdoch
- Narrated by: Christopher Cazenove
- Length: 20 hrs and 41 mins
- Abridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Stuart Cuno has decided to become good. Not believing in God, he invents his own methods, which include celibacy, chastity, and the abandonment of a promising academic career. Interfering friends and relations question his sincerity, his sanity, and his motives.
-
-
A Squabble of Smartypants
- By Geoff Maddison on 09-10-12
By: Iris Murdoch
-
Italian Girl
- By: Iris Murdoch
- Narrated by: Gildart Jackson
- Length: 5 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The funeral of Edward’s mother brings him home for the first time in years. Though his return rekindles his affection for his childhood home, it also triggers a resurgence of the family tensions that caused him to leave in the first place. As Edward becomes tangled in his family’s web of corrosive secrets, his homecoming tips a precariously balanced dynamic into sudden chaos. The Italian Girl is a compelling story of a man’s reunion with his estranged family, and of the tragedy that shocks them all into confronting their past.
-
-
An artisanal book
- By Dog Lady on 05-04-15
By: Iris Murdoch
-
Everything's Coming Up Rosie
- A Novel
- By: Courtney Walsh
- Narrated by: Jorjeana Marie
- Length: 11 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Rosie Waterman has one dream: to become a working actor. But lately, that hasn't been working out. When she loses her apartment and her job on the same day, she does what she always does--puts herself out there, ready to find the next big thing. But a trip home makes her realize that while she's been struggling to make this dream come true, all her friends have become real adults with careers and weddings and babies on the way. Rosie's been at this for years, and she has nothing to show for it. But how does she simply let go of her dream?
-
-
Great performance, frustrating story
- By Amazon Customer on 07-06-25
By: Courtney Walsh
-
A Treachery of Swans
- By: A. B. Poranek
- Narrated by: Amalia Vitale
- Length: 11 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Two hundred years ago, a slighted deity stole the magic from Auréal and vanished without a trace. But seventeen-year-old Odile has a plan. All her life, her father, a vengeful sorcerer, has raised her for one singular task: infiltrate the royal palace and steal the king’s crown, an artefact with enough power to restore magic. But to enter the palace, she must assume the identity of a noblewoman. She chooses Marie d’Odette: famed for her beauty, a rumored candidate for future queen…and Odile’s childhood-friend-turned-sworn-enemy.
-
-
Drama, love, redemption, healing, and wonderful gayness
- By Nana B on 07-03-25
By: A. B. Poranek
-
Time of the Angels
- By: Iris Murdoch
- Narrated by: Simon Prebble
- Length: 8 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Father Carel Fisher’s London rectory - like his faith - is a shell. The rectory remains hollowed and broken from bombs dropped in the Second World War, while his religious passion abandoned him long ago. As Carel becomes a shut-in, his brother Marcus sets out to save him before it’s too late. Rich and complex, The Time of the Angels is a powerful story of a man’s descent into madness, and the destruction he wreaks along the way
-
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Stranger than fiction
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By: Iris Murdoch
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Jackson's Dilemma
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Edward Lannion is to marry the lovely Marian Fox. But on the eve of the wedding, Marian's note leaves everyone in a tizzy and full of questions: Where is Marian? And who is Jackson? In this intricately plotted novel, a mysterious, charismatic English butler derails the marriage of his master, a young aristocrat, and his fiancé, sending them both off on strange, dark, and amusing paths.
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Exasperating
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Iris Murdoch: The Sea, the Sea, a Severed Head & Something Special
- A BBC Radio Collection
- By: Iris Murdoch
- Narrated by: Catherine Cusack, Full Cast, John Wood, and others
- Length: 5 hrs and 19 mins
- Original Recording
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Booker Prize-winning author Iris Murdoch is renowned for her sublime fiction, exploring themes such as art, passion, morality and human freedom. Included in this collection are adaptations of two of her finest novels and a reading of her only published short story, as well as an edition of Writers Revealed in which Murdoch discusses her ideas and beliefs.
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Feels very dated
- By Uriel Dana on 11-07-24
By: Iris Murdoch
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The Sea, the Sea
- By: Iris Murdoch, Mary Kinzie - introduction
- Narrated by: Simon Vance, Kimberly Farr
- Length: 21 hrs
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Charles Arrowby, leading light of England's theatrical set, retires from glittering London to an isolated home by the sea. He plans to write a memoir about his great love affair with Clement Makin, his mentor, both professionally and personally, and amuse himself with Lizzie, an actress he has strung along for many years.
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Murdoch Amazes
- By Sara on 08-30-17
By: Iris Murdoch, and others
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Monstrilio
- By: Gerardo Sámano Córdova
- Narrated by: Victoria Villarreal, Johnny Rey Diaz
- Length: 7 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Grieving mother Magos cuts out a piece of her deceased eleven-year-old son Santiago's lung. Acting on fierce maternal instinct and the dubious logic of an old folktale, she nurtures the lung until it gains sentience, growing into the carnivorous little Monstrilio she keeps hidden within the walls of her family's decaying Mexico City estate. Eventually, Monstrilio begins to resemble the Santiago he once was, but his innate impulses—though curbed by his biological and chosen family's communal care—threaten to destroy this fragile second chance at life.
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Not exactly what I expected….
- By kisa on 10-06-23
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The Sovereignty of Good
- By: Iris Murdoch
- Narrated by: Daisy-May Parsons
- Length: 4 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Iris Murdoch once observed: 'philosophy is often a matter of finding occasions on which to say the obvious'. What was obvious to Murdoch, and to all those who read her work, is that Good transcends everything—even God. Throughout her distinguished and prolific writing career, she explored questions of Good and Bad, myth and morality. The framework for Murdoch's questions—and her own conclusions—can be found here.
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THIS RECORDING IS A CRIME
- By Andrew M Flynn on 07-14-24
By: Iris Murdoch
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Bruno's Dream
- By: Iris Murdoch
- Narrated by: Simon Prebble
- Length: 10 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Bruno, dying, obsessed with spiders and preoccupied with death and reconciliation, lies at the center of an intricate spider's web of relationships and passions: Bruno's estranged and grieving son Miles; Danby, Bruno's widowed son-in-law, consoling himself with the Adelaide the maid, one of Murdoch's finest comic creations; creepy Nigel the nurse and his besotted twin Will, fighter of duels. The flooding Thames brings about the climax, and all are left changed by love and forgiveness before the old man's death.
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got lost
- By serine on 02-02-16
By: Iris Murdoch
superb
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Couldn't wait to listen again
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Iris Murdoch is Iris Murdoch
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A vortex
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Would you say that listening to this book was time well-spent? Why or why not?
I listened to all 14 hrs. of this audio book because of its glittering prose and insight into the complexities of humanhood, but mostly I hoped that something redeemable might surface in the central character. But alas, there was something so inherently "off" in Hilary Burde's very being that neither deprived childhood nor tragic accident could excuse the lens of cruel distain through which his relationships with others are filtered. His unbridled narcissism is that of the sociopath. He reels through his life in a toxic cloud of self-pity, poised to smash and destroy with clenched fists or poison tongue. This unattractive protagonist left me with a bad taste in my mouth at the first line but Murdoch is such an intuitive and gifted writer that I persevered in the withering hope of some sort of epiphany rising like a Phoenix in the final pages. Indeed there was a small glimmer of such but it was too little, too late. I no longer cared. Having spent 14 hours with a bully I was just glad it was over.What about Simon Prebble’s performance did you like?
I listen to a lot of audiobooks and Simon Prebble is one of the most gifted readers I have encountered. His performance kept me engaged long after I lost interest in the central character.Could you see Word Child being made into a movie or a TV series? Who should the stars be?
Gifted writing about an unredeemable soul
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Ugh!!!
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I typically don’t mind detestable main characters… I oftentimes will seek out stories where the central character is faced with general dislike from the readership. In the case of Hilary Burde, however, I am engulfed with such an overwhelming sense of pure, undiluted hatred and disgust that I’m not sure I am physically or emotionally able to see this story to its end. His behavior towards others is despicable, yet I could tolerate reading about it, mainly because I’m familiar with the author and the many shades with which she paints her characters, and the level of awareness in which she writes. Yet, when the details of Hilary’s Oxford tragedy were revealed, i was incensed at the minimal amount of attention given to the surviving victims of Hilary’s crimes. I understand that Hilary is psychotically selfish, so maybe he’s not particularly bothered enough to worried allow much or adequate headspace to Gunnar and his son… but I assume all those around him are not psychos in disguise, and fully understand that what took place was not just an unfortunate accident, but the direct results of a man who committed a large number of crimes (despite the “passions” involved, the scene leading up to the accident essentially describe a kidnapping, and barreling down a road at 100+ mph, ending in a wreckage which involved multiple vehicles and the death of a woman and her unborn child). In a logical world, he would have spent the rest of his days, or a few decades at the very least, in prison. For him to eventually conclude that his own presence in the world is not one which is much considered by Gunnar years later, especially following the later demise of his surviving son (I MEAN, HELLO, ARE WE REALLY NOT GOING TO DISCUSS THIS?) is either the clockwork of the utterly insane or just evidence of lazy writing. I feel like the son’s fate was thrown in the mix simply to add a brick to Hilary’s alleged suffering (ha.), and if that’s the case, if we’re not going to shed light where light is due, then please just leave it out of the story altogether.
Let us also consider “Biscuit” (ugh)… the fact that she turned out to be a plant is so illogical bc she was following Hilary from the very beginning, which means Gunnar clearly knew of Hilary’s place of employment long before Hilary was aware that Gunnar was in proximity… and which further muddies the waters on “Lady Kitty’s” motives in “helping” Gunnar move on with his life… it’s all so implausible! Implausible in a way which further tells me it’s just not a well thought out story, not that I’m expected to suspend belief of any kind. I expect so, so much more from Iris Murdoch.
Last note on Biscuit… grabbing her wrists and forcing her onto a train from which she slips out (ESCAPES) at the last minute… echoes the circumstances leading up to the Oxford “accident”, and I’m not entirely sure the author even intended this. Normally, with Murdoch, I would think it was intentional… my personal opinion is this just a badly written story which suspends all logic, and I’m fascinated by the positivity surrounding it.
Unforgivable Character & Circumstances
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