Amazing Architects & Artists
A2-B1 (Collins Amazing People ELT Readers)
Failed to add items
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Buy for $10.15
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
-
Narrated by:
-
Collins
About this listen
The inspiring stories of 5 people who changed history.
Contents:
Leonardo da Vinci who painted the Mona Lisa
Christopher Wren who rebuilt London
Antoni Gaudí who built the Sagrada Familia in Barcelona
Pablo Picasso, the famous Spanish painter
Frida Kahlo, the famous Mexican female artist
BRITISH ENGLISH
Word count: 10,172
Headword count: 941
PLUS: visit www.collinselt.com/readers for videos, teacher resources and self-study materials.
This book is Level 2 in the Collins ELT Readers series.
Level 2 is equivalent to CEF level A2-B1.
About the Amazing People series:
A unique opportunity for learners of English to read about the exceptional lives and incredible abilities of some of the most insightful people the world has seen.
Each book contains six short stories, told by the characters themselves, as if in their own words. The stories explain the most significant parts of each character’s life, giving an insight into how they came to be such an important historic figure.
After each story, a timeline presents the most major events in their life in a clear and succinct fashion. The timeline is ideal for checking comprehension or as a basis for project work or further research.
Created in association with The Amazing People Club.
About Collins ELT Readers:
Collins ELT Readers are divided into four levels:
Level 1 – elementary (A2)
Level 2 – pre-intermediate (A2–B1)
Level 3 – intermediate (B1)
Level 4 – upper intermediate (B2)
Each level is carefully graded to ensure that the learner both enjoys and benefits from their reading experience.
Listeners also enjoyed...
-
The Greater Journey
- Americans in Paris
- By: David McCullough
- Narrated by: Edward Herrmann
- Length: 16 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Greater Journey is the enthralling, inspiring—and until now, untold—story of the adventurous American artists, writers, doctors, politicians, architects, and others of high aspiration who set off for Paris in the years between 1830 and 1900, ambitious to excel in their work.
-
-
McCullough takes it to the next level
- By gregory m loyd on 07-12-11
By: David McCullough
-
Conversations with Frank Gehry
- By: Barbara Isenberg
- Narrated by: Stefan Rudnicki, Marsha Mason, Barbara Isenberg
- Length: 7 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
An unprecedented, intimate portrait of Frank Gehry, one of the world's most influential architects. Drawing on the most candid, revealing, and entertaining conversations she has had with Gehry over the last 20 years, Barbara Isenberg provides new and fascinating insights into the man and his work. Gehry's subjects range from his childhood - when he first built cities with wooden blocks on the floor of his grandmother's kitchen - to his relationships with clients and his definition of a "great" client.
-
-
I love architecture
- By Dallin Evans on 02-20-16
By: Barbara Isenberg
-
The American Spirit
- Who We Are and What We Stand For
- By: David McCullough
- Narrated by: David McCullough
- Length: 4 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Over the course of his distinguished career, David McCullough has spoken before Congress, colleges and universities, historical societies, and other esteemed institutions. Now, at a time of self-reflection in America following a bitter election campaign that has left the country divided, McCullough has collected some of his most important speeches in a brief volume designed to identify important principles and characteristics that are particularly American.
-
-
Our New "OLD MAN ELOQUENT" Rides Again
- By Ray on 04-21-17
By: David McCullough
-
Bygone Badass Broads
- 52 Forgotten Women Who Changed the World
- By: Mackenzi Lee
- Narrated by: Lucy James
- Length: 4 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Based on Mackenzi Lee's popular weekly Twitter series of the same name, Bygone Badass Broads features 52 remarkable and forgotten trailblazing women from all over the world. With tales of heroism and cunning, in-depth bios and witty storytelling, Bygone Badass Broads gives new life to these historic female pioneers. Starting in the fifth century BC and continuing to the present, the book takes a closer look at bold and inspiring women who dared to step outside the traditional gender roles of their time.
-
-
Awesome history, heavy-handed political agenda
- By Charlie on 07-08-18
By: Mackenzi Lee
-
Jackie Kennedy: A Captivating Guide to the Life of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis
- By: Captivating History
- Narrated by: Duke Holm
- Length: 1 hr and 32 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Without a doubt, the name Jacqueline Kennedy draws multiple thoughts to mind. She is, perhaps, most well-known for her service as the first lady of the United States when her husband, John F. Kennedy, took office as the president, and for her role in restoring the White House. While she made major impacts on the White House, Jackie was much more than her title of first lady.
-
-
Loved this book. Love the Kennedys
- By Leroy on 09-29-17
-
P.T. Barnum: A Captivating Guide to the American Showman Who Founded What Became the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus
- By: Captivating History
- Narrated by: Duke Holm
- Length: 1 hr and 55 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
He wasn’t always the Great Showman. In fact, Phineas Taylor Barnum grew up in relative poverty with only his wits to help him along. When his father died, the 15-year-old boy entered the working world as a shopkeeper’s assistant. In leaps and bounds, he worked his way from assistant to shop owner, lottery office owner, and, eventually, entertainment promoter. The bulk of his career was focused on his beloved American Museum, where thousands of ticket holders flocked every day to look at the human oddities, stuffed animals, live whale, and American memorabilia.
-
-
greatest. show
- By Amazon Customer nutbutter on 09-23-18
-
The Greater Journey
- Americans in Paris
- By: David McCullough
- Narrated by: Edward Herrmann
- Length: 16 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Greater Journey is the enthralling, inspiring—and until now, untold—story of the adventurous American artists, writers, doctors, politicians, architects, and others of high aspiration who set off for Paris in the years between 1830 and 1900, ambitious to excel in their work.
-
-
McCullough takes it to the next level
- By gregory m loyd on 07-12-11
By: David McCullough
-
Conversations with Frank Gehry
- By: Barbara Isenberg
- Narrated by: Stefan Rudnicki, Marsha Mason, Barbara Isenberg
- Length: 7 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
An unprecedented, intimate portrait of Frank Gehry, one of the world's most influential architects. Drawing on the most candid, revealing, and entertaining conversations she has had with Gehry over the last 20 years, Barbara Isenberg provides new and fascinating insights into the man and his work. Gehry's subjects range from his childhood - when he first built cities with wooden blocks on the floor of his grandmother's kitchen - to his relationships with clients and his definition of a "great" client.
-
-
I love architecture
- By Dallin Evans on 02-20-16
By: Barbara Isenberg
-
The American Spirit
- Who We Are and What We Stand For
- By: David McCullough
- Narrated by: David McCullough
- Length: 4 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Over the course of his distinguished career, David McCullough has spoken before Congress, colleges and universities, historical societies, and other esteemed institutions. Now, at a time of self-reflection in America following a bitter election campaign that has left the country divided, McCullough has collected some of his most important speeches in a brief volume designed to identify important principles and characteristics that are particularly American.
-
-
Our New "OLD MAN ELOQUENT" Rides Again
- By Ray on 04-21-17
By: David McCullough
-
Bygone Badass Broads
- 52 Forgotten Women Who Changed the World
- By: Mackenzi Lee
- Narrated by: Lucy James
- Length: 4 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Based on Mackenzi Lee's popular weekly Twitter series of the same name, Bygone Badass Broads features 52 remarkable and forgotten trailblazing women from all over the world. With tales of heroism and cunning, in-depth bios and witty storytelling, Bygone Badass Broads gives new life to these historic female pioneers. Starting in the fifth century BC and continuing to the present, the book takes a closer look at bold and inspiring women who dared to step outside the traditional gender roles of their time.
-
-
Awesome history, heavy-handed political agenda
- By Charlie on 07-08-18
By: Mackenzi Lee
-
Jackie Kennedy: A Captivating Guide to the Life of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis
- By: Captivating History
- Narrated by: Duke Holm
- Length: 1 hr and 32 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Without a doubt, the name Jacqueline Kennedy draws multiple thoughts to mind. She is, perhaps, most well-known for her service as the first lady of the United States when her husband, John F. Kennedy, took office as the president, and for her role in restoring the White House. While she made major impacts on the White House, Jackie was much more than her title of first lady.
-
-
Loved this book. Love the Kennedys
- By Leroy on 09-29-17
-
P.T. Barnum: A Captivating Guide to the American Showman Who Founded What Became the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus
- By: Captivating History
- Narrated by: Duke Holm
- Length: 1 hr and 55 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
He wasn’t always the Great Showman. In fact, Phineas Taylor Barnum grew up in relative poverty with only his wits to help him along. When his father died, the 15-year-old boy entered the working world as a shopkeeper’s assistant. In leaps and bounds, he worked his way from assistant to shop owner, lottery office owner, and, eventually, entertainment promoter. The bulk of his career was focused on his beloved American Museum, where thousands of ticket holders flocked every day to look at the human oddities, stuffed animals, live whale, and American memorabilia.
-
-
greatest. show
- By Amazon Customer nutbutter on 09-23-18
-
Who Was Marie Curie?
- Who Was...?
- By: Megan Stine
- Narrated by: Sarah Scott
- Length: 1 hr and 5 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Born in Warsaw, Poland, on November 7, 1867, Marie Curie was forbidden to attend the male-only University of Warsaw, so she enrolled at the Sorbonne in Paris to study physics and mathematics. There she met a professor named Pierre Curie, and the two soon married, forming one of the most famous scientific partnerships in history. Together, they discovered two elements and won a Nobel Prize in 1903. (Later, Marie won another Nobel award for chemistry in 1911.)
-
-
wonderful series for children and tweens
- By EmilyK on 07-21-17
By: Megan Stine
-
Amsterdam
- A History of the World's Most Liberal City
- By: Russell Shorto
- Narrated by: Russell Shorto
- Length: 11 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In this effortlessly erudite account, Russell Shorto traces the idiosyncratic evolution of Amsterdam, showing how such disparate elements as herring anatomy, naked Anabaptists parading through the streets, and an intimate gathering in a 16th-century wine-tasting room had a profound effect on Dutch - and world - history. Weaving in his own experiences of his adopted home, Shorto provides an ever-surprising, intellectually engaging story of Amsterdam from its golden age to the present.
-
-
Worth Reading - Highly Recommended
- By Whit B on 05-12-14
By: Russell Shorto
-
Ninth Street Women
- Lee Krasner, Elaine de Kooning, Grace Hartigan, Joan Mitchell, and Helen Frankenthaler: Five Painters and the Movement That Changed Modern Art
- By: Mary Gabriel
- Narrated by: Lisa Stathoplos
- Length: 40 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Five women revolutionize the modern art world in postwar America in this "gratifying, generous, and lush" true story from a National Book Award and Pulitzer Prize finalist (Jennifer Szalai, New York Times). Set amid the most turbulent social and political period of modern times, Ninth Street Women is the impassioned, wild, sometimes tragic, always exhilarating chronicle of five women who dared to enter the male-dominated world of 20th-century abstract painting - not as muses but as artists.
-
-
Painful pronunciation issues!
- By Curious Artist Librarian on 05-20-19
By: Mary Gabriel
-
A Century of Wisdom
- Lessons from the Life of Alice Herz-Sommer, the World's Oldest Living Holocaust Survivor
- By: Caroline Stoessinger, Vaclav Havel - foreword
- Narrated by: Linda Korn
- Length: 6 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Before her death at 110, the pianist Alice Herz-Sommer was an eyewitness to the entire last century and the first decade of this one. She had seen it all, surviving the Theresienstadt concentration camp, attending the trial of Adolf Eichmann in Jerusalem, and along the way coming into contact with some of the most fascinating historical figures of our time. As a child in Prague, she spent weekends and holidays in the company of Franz Kafka (whom she knew as “Uncle Franz”), and Gustav Mahler, Sigmund Freud, and Rainer Maria Rilke were friendly with her mother.
-
-
Inspiring
- By Janet on 01-17-20
By: Caroline Stoessinger, and others
-
The Baroness
- The Search for Nica, the Rebellious Rothschild
- By: Hannah Rothschild
- Narrated by: Hannah Rothschild
- Length: 9 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Beautiful, romantic, and spirited, Pannonica, known as Nica, named after her father’s favorite moth, was born in 1913 to extraordinary, eccentric privilege and a storied history. As a debutante, she was taught to fly by a saxophonist and introduced to jazz by her brother Victor; she married Baron Jules de Koenigswarter, settled in a château in France and had five children. In the early 1950s Nica heard "’Round Midnight" by the jazz pianist and composer Thelonious Monk and, as if under a powerful spell, abandoned her marriage and moved to New York to find him....
-
-
A great book that is an awesome read!
- By John A. on 10-11-21
-
Portrait of an Artist
- A Biography of Georgia O’Keeffe
- By: Laurie Lisle
- Narrated by: Grace Conlin
- Length: 13 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Georgia O'Keeffe, one of the most original painters America has ever produced, left behind a remarkable legacy when she died at the age of 98. Her vivid visual vocabulary, sensuous flowers, bleached bones against red sky and earth, had a stunning, profound, and lasting influence on American art in this century.
-
-
Superb biography and reader
- By Tony on 04-15-07
By: Laurie Lisle
-
Thinking Small
- The Long, Strange Trip of the Volkswagon Beetle
- By: Andrea Hiott
- Narrated by: Suzanne Toren
- Length: 15 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Sometimes achieving big things requires the ability to think small. This simple concept was the driving force that propelled the Volkswagen Beetle to become an avatar of American-style freedom, a household brand, and a global icon. The VW Bug inspired the ad men of Madison Avenue, beguiled Woodstock Nation, and has recently been re-imagined for the hipster generation. And while today it is surely one of the most recognizable cars in the world, few of us know the compelling details of this car’s story.
-
-
book is a history lesson
- By Michael miller on 10-02-12
By: Andrea Hiott
-
Gabriel Garcia Marquez: A Life
- By: Gerald Martin
- Narrated by: Sean Crisden
- Length: 22 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In his novels and short stories, Gabriel García Márquez has transformed the particulars of his own life and the lives of his fellow Colombians into wondrous fiction. While telling the story of the sloppily dressed, skinny young man who rose from obscurity as a provincial journalist to international fame as the progenitor of a new literature, Gerald Martin also considers the tensions in García Márquez's life between celebrity and the personal quest for literary quality, between politics and writing, and between the seductions of power, solitude, and love.
-
-
Great content, somewhat disappointing narrator.
- By Paola Herrington on 01-08-13
By: Gerald Martin
-
A Singular Woman
- The Untold Story of Barack Obama's Mother
- By: Janny Scott
- Narrated by: January LaVoy
- Length: 10 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Barack Obama has written extensively about his father, but little is known about Stanley Ann Dunham, the fiercely independent woman who raised him, the person he credits for, as he says, "what is best in me." Here is the missing piece of the story.
-
-
What a Woman!
- By darswords on 10-11-11
By: Janny Scott
-
Edith Wharton
- By: Hermione Lee
- Narrated by: Kate Reading
- Length: 8 hrs and 38 mins
- Abridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
With profound empathy and insight, Hermione Lee brilliantly interweaves Wharton's life with the evolution of her writing, the full scope of which shows her to be far more daring than her stereotype as lapidarian chronicler of the Gilded Age. In its revelation of both the woman and the writer, Edith Wharton is a landmark biography.
-
-
Gardens Over Great Novels
- By Aaron Elliott on 04-26-07
By: Hermione Lee
-
Broad Strokes
- 15 Women Who Made Art and Made History (in That Order)
- By: Bridget Quinn
- Narrated by: Tavia Gilbert
- Length: 5 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Historically, major women artists have been excluded from the mainstream art canon. Aligned with the resurgence of feminism in pop culture, Broad Strokes offers an entertaining corrective to that omission. Art historian Bridget Quinn delves into the lives and careers of 15 brilliant female artists in this smart, feisty, educational, and enjoyable book.
-
-
Unbelievably Trying
- By Lorraine on 09-15-20
By: Bridget Quinn
-
Manifesto
- On Never Giving Up
- By: Bernardine Evaristo
- Narrated by: Bernardine Evaristo
- Length: 6 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From the best-selling and Booker Prize-winning author of Girl, Woman, Other, Bernardine Evaristo’s memoir of her own life and writing, and her manifesto on unstoppability, creativity, and activism.
-
-
Glorious performance and inspiring story
- By Maggi Morehouse on 01-25-22