A Mother
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A Mother
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Narrated by:
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Jim Norton
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By:
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James Joyce
About this listen
This is a story from the Dubliners, Volume 2 collection.
In the second half of Joyce's collection of stories about the citizens of Dublin at the turn of the century, the young author deals with themes of adulthood - of loss, parenthood, politics, religion, and - as in the earlier stories - of disappointment. Rich in humor and musical allusion, they contain (in "A Painful Case," for example, and "The Dead"), some of Joyce's most powerful and moving prose. Holding none of the difficulties of Joyce's most powerful and moving prose. Holding none of the difficulties of Joyce's later novels, such as Ulysses, Dubliners is, in its way, just as radical. These stories introduce us to the city which fed Joyce's entire creative output, and to many of the characters who made it such a well of literary inspiration.
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James Joyce was a keen observer of people, and listeners will find that the characters in this short story from Dubliners very recognizable and human. Mrs. Kearney is assisting the Eire Abu Society organize a series of musical performances featuring local musicians, including her pianist daughter, Kathleen. However, Mrs. Kearney is severely tested by the lackadaisical attitude of the other Society members, which results in the cancellation of one of the shows. Narrator Jim Norton's eloquent performance has a restrained passion that highlights the simmering tensions that eventually erupt into conflict. Norton makes the difficult Mrs. Kearney sympathetic, coupling her indignation with self-righteous sincerity.
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-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 80
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 73
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 73
Frederic Moreau is a law student returning home to Normandy from Paris when he first notices Mme Arnoux, a slender, dark woman several years older than himself. It is the beginning of an infatuation that will last a lifetime. He befriends her husband, an influential businessman, and their paths cross and re-cross over the years. Through financial upheaval, political turmoil, and countless affairs, Mme Arnoux remains the constant, unattainable love of Moreau’s life.
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4 out of 5 stars
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When Crimes of Passion Were All the Fashion
- By W Perry Hall on 03-12-17
By: Gustave Flaubert
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The Custom of the Country
- By: Edith Wharton
- Narrated by: Barbara Caruso
- Length: 15 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 377
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 336
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 331
Edith Wharton stands among the finest writers of early 20th-century America. In The Custom of the Country, Wharton’s scathing social commentary is on full display through the beautiful and manipulative Undine Spragg. When Undine convinces her nouveau riche parents to move to New York, she quickly injects herself into high society. But even a well-to-do husband isn’t enough for Undine, whose overwhelming lust for wealth proves to be her undoing.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Cannot recommend a better narrator!
- By Esther on 07-29-12
By: Edith Wharton
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The Bostonians
- By: Henry James
- Narrated by: Xe Sands
- Length: 17 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 65
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 57
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Story4 out of 5 stars 56
From Boston's social underworld emerges Verena Tarrant, a girl with extraordinary oratorical gifts, which she deploys in tawdry meeting-houses on behalf of "the sisterhood of women." She acquires two admirers of a very different stamp: Olive Chancellor, devotee of radical causes and marked out for tragedy; and Basil Ransom, a veteran of the Civil War who holds rigid views concerning society and women's place therein. Is the lovely, lighthearted Verena made for public movements or private passions?
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5 out of 5 stars
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Fantastic reading!
- By FranceyO on 07-15-11
By: Henry James
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Nicholas Nickleby
- By: Charles Dickens
- Narrated by: Simon Vance
- Length: 31 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 2,063
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 1,687
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 1,684
The most gorgeously theatrical of all Dickens's novels, Nicholas Nickleby follows the delightful adventures of a hearty young hero in 19th-century England. Nicholas, a gentleman's son fallen upon hard times, must set out to make his way in the world. His journey is accompanied by some of the most swaggering scoundrels and unforgettable eccentrics in Dickens's pantheon.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Amazing
- By Terie on 07-12-07
By: Charles Dickens
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The Titan
- By: Theodore Dreiser
- Narrated by: Stuart Langton
- Length: 19 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 66
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 53
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 52
The Titan is the second volume in what the author called his "trilogy of desire," featuring the character of Frank Cowperwood, a powerful, irresistibly compelling man driven by his own need for power, beautiful women, and social prestige.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Not for the faint of heart, but addicting!
- By P. Evans on 09-16-18
By: Theodore Dreiser
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The Forsyte Chronicles, Vol. 1: The Forsyte Saga
- By: John Galsworthy
- Narrated by: David Timson
- Length: 38 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 25
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 18
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 18
John Galsworthy's magnificent trilogy of power and passion chronicles the wealthy Forsyte family. As the disintegrating values of the Victorian era progress to World War I and the political uncertainty of the 1930s, the family's material and emotional struggles are set within the dwindling status of the affluent middle-classes.
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3 out of 5 stars
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Tiring
- By marsha nunley on 04-29-21
By: John Galsworthy
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On the Origin of Species
- By: Charles Darwin
- Narrated by: Richard Dawkins
- Length: 5 hrs and 53 mins
- Abridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 1,393
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 1,115
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 1,098
Richard Dawkins, author of The God Delusion and a life-long committed Darwinist, abridges and reads this special audio version of Charles Darwin's famous book. A literally world-changing book, Darwin put forward the anti-religious and scientific idea that humans in fact evolved over millions of generations from animals, starting with fish, all the way up through the ranks to apes, then to our current form.
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5 out of 5 stars
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A Perfect Abridgement
- By M on 05-28-09
By: Charles Darwin
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Dombey and Son
- By: Charles Dickens
- Narrated by: Frederick Davidson
- Length: 36 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 123
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 68
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 66
In this carefully crafted novel, Dickens reveals the complexity of London society in the enterprising 1840s as he takes the listener into the business firm and home of one of its most representative patriarchs, Paul Dombey.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Perfect pair
- By Philip on 03-25-08
By: Charles Dickens
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Le Pere Goriot
- By: Honoré de Balzac
- Narrated by: Paul Hecht
- Length: 10 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 188
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 143
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Story4 out of 5 stars 139
At the shabby boarding house in the rue Neuve-Sainte-Geneviève, petty Madame Vauquer and her tenants wonder at the plight of the aging resident Goriot. Once a well-heeled merchant, Goriot was, at first, afforded special treatment from the Madame. But now something is clearly amiss in his financial affairs, and his increasingly tawdry appearance makes him a subject of ridicule in the household.
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5 out of 5 stars
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balzac rocks
- By beatrice on 03-12-10
By: Honoré de Balzac
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Death in Venice
- By: Thomas Mann
- Narrated by: Peter Batchelor
- Length: 3 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 212
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 183
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Story4 out of 5 stars 185
A stunningly beautiful youth and the city of Venice set the stage for Thomas Mann’s introspective examination of erotic love and philosophical wisdom.
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4 out of 5 stars
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A problem with the narration
- By Erez on 03-19-12
By: Thomas Mann
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Tender Is the Night
- By: F. Scott Fitzgerald
- Narrated by: Therese Plummer
- Length: 12 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 1,064
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 943
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Story4 out of 5 stars 936
Set on the French Riviera in the late 1920s, Tender Is the Night is the tragic romance of the young actress Rosemary Hoyt and the stylish American couple Dick and Nicole Diver. A brilliant young psychiatrist at the time of his marriage, Dick is both husband and doctor to Nicole, whose wealth goads him into a lifestyle not his own, and whose growing strength highlights Dick's harrowing demise. A profound study of the romantic concept of character - lyrical, expansive, and hauntingly evocative.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Subtle yet grand
- By jb on 10-12-15
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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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Overall4 out of 5 stars 348
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 284
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Story4 out of 5 stars 278
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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2 out of 5 stars
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would prefer unabridged naration
- By Tamshine on 07-07-11
By: Vikram Seth
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My Autobiography
- By: Charles Chaplin, David Robinson - introduction
- Narrated by: Steve John Shepherd
- Length: 19 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 73
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 62
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 62
Take an unforgettable journey with the man George Bernard Shaw called "the only genius to come out of the movie industry" as he moves from his impoverished South London childhood to the heights of Hollywood wealth and fame; from the McCarthy-era investigations to his founding of United Artists to his "reverse migration" back to Europe.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Finally Chaplin’s auto is available!
- By Ryan Baumbach on 04-28-22
By: Charles Chaplin, and others
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The Age of Innocence
- By: Edith Wharton
- Narrated by: David Horovitch
- Length: 12 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 2,286
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 2,023
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 2,017
Countess Ellen Olenska, separated from her European husband, returns to old New York society. She bears with her an independence and an awareness of life which stirs the educated sensitivity of the charming Newland Archer, engaged to be married to her cousin, May Welland. Though he accepts the society's standards and rules he is acutely aware of their limitations. He knows May will assure him a conventional future but Ellen, scandalously separated from her husband, forces Archer to question his values and beliefs.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Narrated to Perfection
- By Ilana on 09-18-12
By: Edith Wharton