A Curable Romantic
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A Curable Romantic
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Narrated by:
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Jeff Woodman
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By:
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Joseph Skibell
About this listen
As far as romance goes, Dr. Jakob Sammelsohn is fairly incurable. Twice married, once divorced, once widowed - all by the tender age of 12 - he finally flees his small village and his pious, vengeful father. A lovelorn Candide, young Dr. Sammelsohn wanders optimistically through history - pursued by the amorous ghost of his dead wife.
Arriving in Vienna in 1890, a chance encounter with Sigmund Freud leads our hero into the arms of Emma Eckstein, one of Freud’s most famous patients. Later he romances the beautiful and wealthy Loe Bernfeld, who carries him into the world of Esperanto and the universal-language movement. Finally, Dr. Sammelsohn finds himself in the Warsaw Ghetto in 1940, only to become a pawn in a battle over the path to heaven.
A Curable Romantic is a novel of personal and historical exile that could spring only from the literary imagination of a virtuoso. Often fantastical yet always grounded in tradition and history, it is that rare literary feat - a truly incomparable tale, ingenuously laid, peopled with characters who live on in the memory.
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Editorial reviews
A Curable Romantic by Joseph Skibell introduces us to Jakob Sammelsohn, a lovesick oculist in turn-of-the century Vienna who chases romance and his own moral compass through friendships with three historic figures: Sigmund Freud, the founder of modern psychoanalysis; L.L. Zamenhoff, the idealist founder of the Esperanto language movement; and Rabbi Kalonymus Kalman Shapira, who led the Jews of the Warsaw ghetto in prayer and died with them in the camps. But it is Sammelsohn’s ongoing relationship with Ita, the disabled wife he was compelled to marry but left behind in the shtetl, that propels his journey and thrusts him into a world he thought he’d also abandoned: that of Jewish mysticism, with its conspiring angels and dybukks, those haunting and haunted souls of the dead that sometimes possess the living.
The first-person narrative is remarkably performed by Jeff Woodman, who finds detailed nuances of inflection and pacing to bring each of the novel’s vast range of characters man or woman; sophisticate or rube; human or supernatural to life. His imperious Dr. Freud, befuddled Dr. Zamenhoff, haughtily passionate Frau Bernfeld, and Ita, in her many shocking incarnations, are just a few of his convincing portrayals. Most of all, Woodman captures Sammelsohn’s painful and humorous propensity to over-think and vacillate, a la Woody Allen, especially about women (thus explaining why it takes him until his third marriage to lose his innocence).
As Sammelsohn’s journey takes him through several sub-cultures of Jewish life in Europe from before the first World War until the apex of the second he finds he is searching for a larger love, perhaps one of his own people. Skibell’s bright, soulful, imaginative storytelling is complemented by Woodman’s skills, and together they make listening to A Curable Romantic truly enriching. Elly Schull Meeks
Critic reviews
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-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 1,032
Set against the colorful tumult of events that gave rise to our fledgling nation, this novel of romance and adventure introduces Phillipe Charboneau. The illegitimate son of an English nobleman, Phillipe flees Europe and, as Philip Kent, joins the men who set our course for freedom. The Bastard is the first volume in the Kent Family Chronicles, a series of novels that details one family's journey in the early years of the American nation.
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5 out of 5 stars
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An Amazing Tale
- By will on 11-06-13
By: John Jakes
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Buddenbrooks
- The Decline of a Family
- By: Thomas Mann
- Narrated by: David Rintoul
- Length: 26 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 680
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 613
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 611
First published in 1900, when Thomas Mann was 25, Buddenbrooks is a minutely imagined chronicle of four generations of a North German mercantile family - a work so true to life that it scandalized the author’s former neighbours in his native Lübeck.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Where Have You Been All My Life, Thomas Mann?
- By Virginia Waldron on 03-30-17
By: Thomas Mann
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Mortal Mischief
- By: Frank Tallis
- Narrated by: Richard Burnip
- Length: 13 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 102
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 81
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 81
Vienna, 1902: A beautiful medium has been found shot dead, and Dr Max Liebermann, a young disciple of Sigmund Freud, is called upon to help his friend Detective Inspector Oskar Rheinhardt investigate her death. The room containing the body has been locked from the inside, and a cryptic note suggests a malevolent supernatural power is at work. Using the new science of psychoanalysis, Liebermann probes the minds of the suspects in an attempt to unravel this bewildering crime.
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2 out of 5 stars
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Ho-hum Victorian mystery
- By Nancy E Day on 09-17-12
By: Frank Tallis
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Beguiling the Beauty
- By: Sherry Thomas
- Narrated by: Jenny Sterlin
- Length: 8 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 462
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 423
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 425
When the Duke of Lexington meets the mysterious Baroness von Seidlitz-Hardenberg on a transatlantic liner, he is fascinated. She’s exactly what he’s been searching for - a beautiful woman who interests and entices him. He falls hard and fast - and soon proposes marriage. And then she disappears without a trace.… For in reality, the "baroness" is Venetia Easterbrook - a proper young widow who had her own vengeful reasons for instigating an affair with the duke. But the plan has backfired. Venetia has fallen in love with the man she despised - and there’s no telling what might happen when she is finally unmasked….
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5 out of 5 stars
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Worth multiple listens
- By anonymous on 09-10-19
By: Sherry Thomas
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Oscar Wilde and a Death of No Importance
- By: Gyles Brandreth
- Narrated by: Bill Wallis
- Length: 10 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 237
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 215
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 213
London, 1889. Oscar Wilde, celebrated poet, wit, playwright, and raconteur is the literary sensation of his age. All Europe lies at his feet. Yet when he chances across the naked corpse of sixteen-year-old Billy Wood, posed by candlelight in a dark stifling attic room, he cannot ignore the brutal murder. With the help of fellow author Arthur Conan Doyle he sets out to solve the crime - but it is Wilde's unparalleled access to all degrees of late Victorian life, from society drawing rooms to the underclass, that will prove the decisive factor in their investigation....
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3 out of 5 stars
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needs glue
- By connie on 11-13-11
By: Gyles Brandreth
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His at Night
- By: Sherry Thomas
- Narrated by: Kate Reading
- Length: 11 hrs
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 630
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 574
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 574
Lord Vere is used to baiting irresistible traps. As a secret agent for the government, he's tracked down some of the most devious criminals in London, all the while maintaining his cover as one of society's most harmless - and idiotic - bachelors. But nothing can prepare him for the scandal of being ensnared by Elissande. Forced into a marriage of convenience, Elissande and Vere are each about to discover that they're not the only ones with a hidden agenda.
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5 out of 5 stars
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The title is SO random!!
- By 🌿🌸Susynne🌸🌿 on 05-04-15
By: Sherry Thomas
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The Bastard
- The Kent Family Chronicles, Book 1
- By: John Jakes
- Narrated by: Marc Vietor
- Length: 19 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 1,169
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 1,035
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 1,032
Set against the colorful tumult of events that gave rise to our fledgling nation, this novel of romance and adventure introduces Phillipe Charboneau. The illegitimate son of an English nobleman, Phillipe flees Europe and, as Philip Kent, joins the men who set our course for freedom. The Bastard is the first volume in the Kent Family Chronicles, a series of novels that details one family's journey in the early years of the American nation.
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5 out of 5 stars
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An Amazing Tale
- By will on 11-06-13
By: John Jakes
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The Patriots
- A Novel
- By: Sana Krasikov
- Narrated by: Suzanne Toren, George Guidall
- Length: 22 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 87
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 81
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Story4 out of 5 stars 78
Florence Fein grows up in Brooklyn in the 1930s, in a family that is gaining a foothold in the middle class. At City College she becomes engaged politically with the left-leaning student groups, and eventually, in the midst of the Depression, she takes a job with a trade organization that has a position for her in Moscow. There, she falls in love with another expatriate American and has a son. Soon after, Florence is sent to a work camp and her son to an orphanage.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Point of View of characters, past and present collide
- By Angela Adams on 01-29-19
By: Sana Krasikov
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The Twelfth Enchantment
- By: David Liss
- Narrated by: Susan Duerden
- Length: 14 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall3.5 out of 5 stars 119
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 107
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Story4 out of 5 stars 107
Lucy Derrick is a young woman of good breeding and poor finances. After the death of her beloved father, she is forced to maintain a shabby dignity as the unwanted boarder of her tyrannical uncle, fending off marriage to a local mill owner. But just as she is on the cusp of accepting a life of misery, events take a stunning turn when a handsome stranger - the poet and notorious rake Lord Byron - arrives at her house, stricken by what seems to be a curse, and with a cryptic message for Lucy. Suddenly her unfortunate circumstances are transformed in ways at once astonishing and seemingly impossible.
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3 out of 5 stars
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A Little Better than Just OK
- By Cariola on 02-10-12
By: David Liss
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The Pale Blue Eye
- By: Louis Bayard
- Narrated by: Charles Leggett
- Length: 15 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 457
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 402
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 401
When the body of a suicide victim disappears at West Point Military Academy in 1831, only to be discovered hours later missing its heart, the Academy calls on retired detective Gus Landor to investigate. Landor is something of a legend among his peers, noted for an uncanny, Holmesian ability to read people. When Edgar Allan Poe, a new cadet, comes forth with his own cryptic conclusion—that the man Landor is looking for is a poet—Landor is intrigued and enlists Poe as his assistant.
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3 out of 5 stars
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Could not get through it
- By Amazon Customer on 10-25-15
By: Louis Bayard
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Cover Her Face
- By: P. D. James
- Narrated by: Penelope Dellaporta
- Length: 9 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 809
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 693
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Story4 out of 5 stars 685
Headstrong and beautiful, the young housemaid Sally Jupp is put rudely in her place, strangled in her bed behind a bolted door. Coolly brilliant policeman Adam Dalgliesh of Scotland Yard must find her killer among a houseful of suspects, most of whom had very good reason to wish her ill. Cover Her Face is P. D. James' electric debut novel, an ingeniously plotted mystery that immediately placed her among the masters of suspense.
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3 out of 5 stars
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OK but...
- By NoelleJ on 11-14-14
By: P. D. James
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Shades of Milk and Honey
- By: Mary Robinette Kowal
- Narrated by: Mary Robinette Kowal
- Length: 7 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 1,047
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 938
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Story4 out of 5 stars 938
The fantasy novel you’ve always wished Jane Austen had written. When Jane realizes that one of Melody’s suitors is set on taking advantage of her sister for the sake of her dowry, she pushes her skills to the limit of what her body can withstand in order to set things right—and, in the process, accidentally wanders into a love story of her own.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Great if you love speculative fiction and Austen
- By Womble on 05-07-12
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Push Not the River
- By: James Conroyd Martin
- Narrated by: Dawn Harvey
- Length: 19 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 200
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Performance3.5 out of 5 stars 171
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Story4 out of 5 stars 174
Push Not the River is the rich story of Poland in the late 1700's - a time of heartache and turmoil as the country's once peaceful people are torn apart by neighboring countries and divided loyalties. It is then, at the young and vulnerable age of seventeen, that Lady Anna Maria Berezowska loses both of her parents and must leave the only home she has ever known.
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2 out of 5 stars
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Save your time; buy something else.
- By AMS on 10-22-15
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Born of Persuasion
- Price of Privilege, Book 1
- By: Jessica Dotta
- Narrated by: Amanda McKnight
- Length: 13 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 71
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 66
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Story4 out of 5 stars 67
The year is 1838, and seventeen-year-old Julia Elliston's position has never been more fragile. Orphaned and unmarried in a time when women are legal property of their fathers, husbands, and guardians, she finds herself at the mercy of an anonymous guardian who plans to establish her as a servant in far-off Scotland. With two months to devise a better plan, Julia's first choice - to marry her childhood sweetheart - is denied. Then, a titled dowager offers to introduce Julia into society, opening a realm of possibilities.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Debut Book in Series
- By Carrie Fancett Pagels on 10-31-13
By: Jessica Dotta
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The Taker
- By: Alma Katsu
- Narrated by: Laurel Lefkow
- Length: 14 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 471
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 427
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Story4 out of 5 stars 427
On the midnight shift at a hospital in rural Maine, Dr. Luke Findley is expecting another quiet evening of frostbite and the occasional domestic dispute. But the minute Lanore McIlvrae—Lanny—walks into his ER, she changes his life forever. A mysterious woman with a past and plenty of dark secrets, Lanny is unlike anyone Luke has ever met. He is inexplicably drawn to her...despite the fact that she is a murder suspect with a police escort.
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1 out of 5 stars
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Too dark for my taste
- By Margaret on 05-04-14
By: Alma Katsu
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Crime and Punishment
- By: Fyodor Dostoyevsky
- Narrated by: Constantine Gregory
- Length: 22 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 2,065
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 1,872
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 1,870
A century after it first appeared, Crime and Punishment remains one of the most gripping psychological thrillers. A poverty-stricken young man, seeing his family making sacrifices for him, is faced with an opportunity to solve his financial problems with one simple but horrifying act: the murder of a pawnbroker. She is, he feels, just a parasite on society. But does the end justify the means? Rodion Romanovitch Raskolnikov makes his decision and then has to live with it.
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5 out of 5 stars
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A masterpiece
- By Timothy on 02-20-16
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Golden Earrings
- By: Belinda Alexandra
- Narrated by: Caroline Lee
- Length: 20 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 533
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 487
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 483
Catalina, grand-daughter of Spanish refugees, is a disciplined student with the School of the Paris Opera Ballet. Little gets inthe way of her career until the visit of an otherworldly being, who leaves her a mysterious pair of golden earrings. Given a quest, Catalina realises she must explore her own Spanish heritage and makes the connection between the visitor and ‘La Rusa’, a young Andalusian flamenco star. La Rusa died in exile in Paris in 1952, her death ruled as suicide. But as Catalina begins to discover, there were those in the community, who had good reason for wanting La Rusa dead.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Fabulous story
- By Paddington on 10-19-12
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Instruments of Darkness
- A Novel
- By: Imogen Robertson
- Narrated by: Wanda McCaddon
- Length: 11 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 173
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 140
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Story4 out of 5 stars 141
In the year 1780, Harriet Westerman, the willful mistress of a country manor in Sussex, finds a dead man on her grounds with a ring bearing the crest of Thornleigh Hall in his pocket. Not one to be bound by convention or to shy away from adventure, she recruits a reclusive local anatomist named Gabriel Crowther to help her find the murderer, and historical suspense's newest investigative duo is born.
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3 out of 5 stars
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Not The Best, But Not Too Bad...
- By MJ on 01-13-13
By: Imogen Robertson
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A Place of Greater Safety
- By: Hilary Mantel
- Narrated by: Jonathan Keeble
- Length: 33 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 281
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 245
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 244
It is 1789, and three young provincials have come to Paris to make their way. Georges-Jacques Danton, an ambitious young lawyer, is energetic, pragmatic, debt-ridden - and hugely but erotically ugly. Maximilien Robespierre, also a lawyer, is slight, diligent, and terrified of violence. His dearest friend, Camille Desmoulins, is a conspirator and pamphleteer of genius. A charming gadfly, erratic and untrustworthy, bisexual and beautiful, Camille is obsessed by one woman and engaged to marry another, her daughter.
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1 out of 5 stars
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Disaster
- By Frank Dudley Berry Jr. on 08-01-13
By: Hilary Mantel