Coming up for Air
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
Prime members: New to Audible?Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Coming up for Air
Buy for $15.56
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
-
Narrated by:
-
Richard Brown
-
By:
-
George Orwell
About this listen
George Bowling, an insurance salesman, hits middle age and feels impelled to “come up for air” from his life of quiet desperation. With seventeen pounds he has won at a race, he steals a vacation from his wife and family and pays a visit to Lower Binfield, the village where he grew up, to fish for carp in a pool he remembers from thirty years before. But the pool is gone, Lower Binfield has changed beyond recognition, and the principal event of Bowling’s holiday is an accidental bombing by the RAF.
Bowling’s everyman life provides a sort of cavalcade of England from 1893 to 1938. Written when the clouds of World War II were already gathering, this story of Bowling’s journey into his own and his country’s past is told with humor, warmth, and nostalgia that will surprise and delight George Orwell’s many readers.
George Orwell (1903–1950), the pen name of Eric Arthur Blair, was an English novelist, essayist, and critic. He was born in India and educated at Eton. After service with the Indian Imperial Police in Burma, he returned to Europe to earn his living by writing and became notable for his simplicity of style and his journalistic or documentary approach to fiction.
©1950 The Estate of the Late Sonia Brownell Orwell (P)1991 Blackstone Audio, Inc.Listeners also enjoyed...
-
A Clergyman's Daughter
- By: George Orwell
- Narrated by: Richard Brown
- Length: 10 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 156
-
Performance4 out of 5 stars 140
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 140
Dorothy Hare, the dutiful daughter of a rector in Suffolk, spends her days performing good works and cultivating good thoughts, pricking her arm with a pin when a bad thought arises. She does her best to reconcile her father’s fanciful view of his position in the world with such realities as the butcher’s bill. But even Dorothy’s strength has its limits, and one night, as she works feverishly on costumes for the church-school play, she blacks out. When she comes to, she finds herself on a London street, clad in a sleazy dress and unaware of her identity.
-
3 out of 5 stars
-
Bottom-Shelf Orwell, but still G-D Orwell
- By Darwin8u on 08-11-19
By: George Orwell
-
Burmese Days
- A Novel
- By: George Orwell
- Narrated by: Frederick Davidson
- Length: 10 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 329
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 283
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 279
Colonial politics in Kyauktada, India, in the 1920s, come to a head when the European Club, previously for whites only, is ordered to elect one token native member. The deeply racist members do their best to manipulate the situation, resulting in the loss not only of reputations but of lives. Amid this cynical setting, timber merchant James Flory, a Brit with a genuine appreciation for the native people and culture, stands as a bridge between the warring factions. But he has trouble acting on his feelings, and the significance of his vote, both social and political, weighs on him.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
A Sad, Fierce and Ambitious Colonial Novel
- By Darwin8u on 11-08-12
By: George Orwell
-
Essays
- By: George Orwell
- Narrated by: Alex Hyde-White
- Length: 25 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 136
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 106
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 104
With great originality and wit, Orwell unfolds his views on subjects ranging from a revaluation of Charles Dickens to the nature of Socialism, from a comic yet profound discussion of naughty seaside postcards to a spirited defense of English cooking. Displaying an almost unrivalled mastery of English plain prose, Orwell’s essays created a unique literary manner from the process of thinking aloud and continue to challenge, move, and entertain.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Great Content; Would benefit from chapter names
- By Laimis on 08-15-20
By: George Orwell
-
Down and Out in Paris and London
- By: George Orwell
- Narrated by: Frederick Davidson
- Length: 6 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 1,042
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 923
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 918
Orwell's own experiences inspire this semi-autobiographical novel about a man living in Paris in the early 1930s without a penny. The narrator's poverty brings him into contact with strange incidents and characters, which he manages to chronicle with great sensitivity and graphic power. The latter half of the book takes the English narrator to his home city, London, where the world of poverty is different in externals only.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
The King of Boldness, Clearness, and Audacity
- By Darwin8u on 05-21-12
By: George Orwell
-
The Road to Wigan Pier
- By: George Orwell
- Narrated by: Frederick Davidson
- Length: 7 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 1,677
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 1,421
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 1,414
When Orwell went to England in the 30's to find out how industrial workers lived, he not only observed but shared in their experiences. He stayed in cramped, dreary lodgings and subsisted on the scant, cheerless diet of the poor. He went down into the coal mines and walked crouching, as the miners did, through a one- to three-mile passage too low to stand up in. He watched the back-breaking, dangerous labor of men whose net pay then averaged $575 a year.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Frederick Davidson's a Great Reader
- By Debali on 01-11-09
By: George Orwell
-
Animal Farm
- By: George Orwell
- Narrated by: Ralph Cosham
- Length: 3 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 42,014
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 36,068
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 36,000
George Orwell's classic satire of the Russian Revolution is an intimate part of our contemporary culture, quoted so often that we tend to forget who wrote the original words! This must-read is also a must-listen!
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
If you hate spoilers, save the intro for last.
- By Dusty on 02-18-11
By: George Orwell
-
A Clergyman's Daughter
- By: George Orwell
- Narrated by: Richard Brown
- Length: 10 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 156
-
Performance4 out of 5 stars 140
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 140
Dorothy Hare, the dutiful daughter of a rector in Suffolk, spends her days performing good works and cultivating good thoughts, pricking her arm with a pin when a bad thought arises. She does her best to reconcile her father’s fanciful view of his position in the world with such realities as the butcher’s bill. But even Dorothy’s strength has its limits, and one night, as she works feverishly on costumes for the church-school play, she blacks out. When she comes to, she finds herself on a London street, clad in a sleazy dress and unaware of her identity.
-
3 out of 5 stars
-
Bottom-Shelf Orwell, but still G-D Orwell
- By Darwin8u on 08-11-19
By: George Orwell
-
Burmese Days
- A Novel
- By: George Orwell
- Narrated by: Frederick Davidson
- Length: 10 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 329
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 283
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 279
Colonial politics in Kyauktada, India, in the 1920s, come to a head when the European Club, previously for whites only, is ordered to elect one token native member. The deeply racist members do their best to manipulate the situation, resulting in the loss not only of reputations but of lives. Amid this cynical setting, timber merchant James Flory, a Brit with a genuine appreciation for the native people and culture, stands as a bridge between the warring factions. But he has trouble acting on his feelings, and the significance of his vote, both social and political, weighs on him.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
A Sad, Fierce and Ambitious Colonial Novel
- By Darwin8u on 11-08-12
By: George Orwell
-
Essays
- By: George Orwell
- Narrated by: Alex Hyde-White
- Length: 25 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 136
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 106
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 104
With great originality and wit, Orwell unfolds his views on subjects ranging from a revaluation of Charles Dickens to the nature of Socialism, from a comic yet profound discussion of naughty seaside postcards to a spirited defense of English cooking. Displaying an almost unrivalled mastery of English plain prose, Orwell’s essays created a unique literary manner from the process of thinking aloud and continue to challenge, move, and entertain.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Great Content; Would benefit from chapter names
- By Laimis on 08-15-20
By: George Orwell
-
Down and Out in Paris and London
- By: George Orwell
- Narrated by: Frederick Davidson
- Length: 6 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 1,042
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 923
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 918
Orwell's own experiences inspire this semi-autobiographical novel about a man living in Paris in the early 1930s without a penny. The narrator's poverty brings him into contact with strange incidents and characters, which he manages to chronicle with great sensitivity and graphic power. The latter half of the book takes the English narrator to his home city, London, where the world of poverty is different in externals only.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
The King of Boldness, Clearness, and Audacity
- By Darwin8u on 05-21-12
By: George Orwell
-
The Road to Wigan Pier
- By: George Orwell
- Narrated by: Frederick Davidson
- Length: 7 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 1,677
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 1,421
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 1,414
When Orwell went to England in the 30's to find out how industrial workers lived, he not only observed but shared in their experiences. He stayed in cramped, dreary lodgings and subsisted on the scant, cheerless diet of the poor. He went down into the coal mines and walked crouching, as the miners did, through a one- to three-mile passage too low to stand up in. He watched the back-breaking, dangerous labor of men whose net pay then averaged $575 a year.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Frederick Davidson's a Great Reader
- By Debali on 01-11-09
By: George Orwell
-
Animal Farm
- By: George Orwell
- Narrated by: Ralph Cosham
- Length: 3 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 42,014
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 36,068
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 36,000
George Orwell's classic satire of the Russian Revolution is an intimate part of our contemporary culture, quoted so often that we tend to forget who wrote the original words! This must-read is also a must-listen!
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
If you hate spoilers, save the intro for last.
- By Dusty on 02-18-11
By: George Orwell
-
Keep the Aspidistra Flying
- By: George Orwell
- Narrated by: Richard E. Grant
- Length: 9 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 219
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 196
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 192
Gordon Comstock loathes dull, middle-class respectability and worship of money. He gives up a 'good job' in advertising to work part-time in a bookshop, giving him more time to write. But he slides instead into a self-induced poverty that destroys his creativity and his spirit. Only Rosemary, ever-faithful Rosemary, has the strength to challenge his commitment to his chosen way of life.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Gordon's Grey World is Colored with Grant
- By Timothy on 09-25-11
By: George Orwell
-
The Magic Mountain
- By: Thomas Mann
- Narrated by: David Rintoul
- Length: 37 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 1,005
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 873
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 867
Hans Castorp is, on the face of it, an ordinary man in his early 20s, on course to start a career in ship engineering in his home town of Hamburg, when he decides to travel to the Berghof Santatorium in Davos. The year is 1912 and an oblivious world is on the brink of war. Castorp’s friend Joachim Ziemssen is taking the cure and a three-week visit seems a perfect break before work begins. But when Castorp arrives he is surprised to find an established community of patients, and little by little, he gets drawn into the closeted life and the individual personalities of the residents.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
A Magical Journey
- By Paul on 08-20-20
By: Thomas Mann
-
Isaac's Storm
- A Man, a Time, and the Deadliest Hurricane in History
- By: Erik Larson
- Narrated by: Richard Davidson
- Length: 8 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 1,205
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 1,039
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 1,032
At the dawn of the 20th century, a great confidence suffused America. Isaac Cline was one of the era's new men, a scientist who believed he knew all there was to know about the motion of clouds and the behavior of storms. The idea that a hurricane could damage the city of Galveston, Texas, where he was based, was to him preposterous, "an absurd delusion." It was 1900, a year when America felt bigger and stronger than ever before. Nothing in nature could hobble the gleaming city of Galveston, then a magical place that seemed destined to become the New York of the Gulf.
-
1 out of 5 stars
-
Two versions on Audible
- By stephiemav42 on 03-10-21
By: Erik Larson
-
Bill O'Reilly's Legends and Lies: The Patriots
- By: Bill O'Reilly, David Fisher
- Narrated by: Holter Graham, Bill O'Reilly
- Length: 9 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 2,700
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 2,372
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 2,365
The must-have companion to Bill O'Reilly's historical docudrama Legends and Lies: The Patriots, an exciting and eye-opening look at the Revolutionary War through the lives of its leaders. The American Revolution was neither inevitable nor a unanimous cause. It pitted neighbors against each other as loyalists and colonial rebels faced off for their lives and futures. These were the times that tried men's souls: No one was on stable ground, and few could be trusted.
-
1 out of 5 stars
-
Couldn't stop listening!
- By Erin on 08-05-16
By: Bill O'Reilly, and others
-
Diamonds, Gold, and War
- The British, the Boers, and the Making of South Africa
- By: Martin Meredith
- Narrated by: Matthew Waterson
- Length: 19 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 241
-
Performance4 out of 5 stars 203
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 203
Southern Africa was once regarded as a worthless jumble of British colonies, Boer republics, and African chiefdoms, a troublesome region of little interest to the outside world. But then prospectors chanced upon the world’s richest deposits of diamonds and gold, setting off a titanic struggle between the British and the Boers for control of the land. The result was the costliest, bloodiest, and most humiliating war that Britain had waged in nearly a century, and the devastation of the Boer republics.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Engrossing story on the evolution of the modern SA
- By Cary on 05-23-14
By: Martin Meredith
-
The Winds of War
- By: Herman Wouk
- Narrated by: Kevin Pariseau
- Length: 45 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 8,700
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 7,710
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 7,695
Herman Wouk's sweeping epic of World War II stands as the crowning achievement of one of America's most celebrated storytellers. Like no other books about the war, Wouk's spellbinding narrative captures the tide of global events - and all the drama, romance, heroism, and tragedy of World War II - as it immerses us in the lives of a single American family drawn into the very center of the war's maelstrom.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
A Masterpiece
- By Robert on 05-24-13
By: Herman Wouk
-
In the Garden of Beasts
- Love, Terror, and an American Family in Hitler's Berlin
- By: Erik Larson
- Narrated by: Stephen Hoye
- Length: 12 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 9,043
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 7,643
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 7,630
The time is 1933, the place, Berlin, when William E. Dodd becomes America’s first ambassador to Hitler’s Germany in a year that proved to be a turning point in history. A mild-mannered professor from Chicago, Dodd brings along his wife, son, and flamboyant daughter, Martha. At first Martha is entranced by the parties and pomp, and the handsome young men of the Third Reich with their infectious enthusiasm for restoring Germany to a position of world prominence. Enamored of the “New Germany,” she has one affair after another....
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
I loved it ... and hated it ... simultaneously
- By History on 11-21-11
By: Erik Larson
-
A Prayer for Owen Meany
- By: John Irving
- Narrated by: Joe Barrett
- Length: 27 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 10,774
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 8,961
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 8,949
Of all of John Irving's books, this is the one that lends itself best to audio. In print, Owen Meany's dialogue is set in capital letters; for this production, Irving himself selected Joe Barrett to deliver Meany's difficult voice as intended. In the summer of 1953, two 11-year-old boys – best friends – are playing in a Little League baseball game in Gravesend, New Hampshire. One of the boys hits a foul ball that kills the other boy's mother. The boy who hits the ball doesn't believe in accidents; Owen Meany believes he is God's instrument. What happens to Owen after that 1953 foul ball is extraordinary and terrifying.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Outstanding
- By Alan on 03-28-11
By: John Irving
-
Invisible Man
- A Novel
- By: Ralph Ellison
- Narrated by: Joe Morton
- Length: 18 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 8,957
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 7,984
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 7,979
Ralph Elllison's Invisible Man is a monumental novel, one that can well be called an epic of modern American Negro life. It is a strange story, in which many extraordinary things happen, some of them shocking and brutal, some of them pitiful and touching—yet always with elements of comedy and irony and burlesque that appear in unexpected places. It is a book that has a great deal to say and which is destined to have a great deal said about it.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
How Did This Escape Me?
- By E. Pearson on 11-23-11
By: Ralph Ellison
-
Travels with Charley in Search of America
- By: John Steinbeck
- Narrated by: Gary Sinise
- Length: 7 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 5,535
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 4,854
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 4,853
In September 1960, John Steinbeck and his poodle, Charley, embarked on a journey across America, from small towns to growing cities to glorious wilderness oases. Travels with Charley is animated by Steinbeck’s attention to the specific details of the natural world and his sense of how the lives of people are intimately connected to the rhythms of nature—to weather, geography, the cycles of the seasons. His keen ear for the transactions among people is evident, too, as he records the interests and obsessions that preoccupy the Americans he encounters along the way.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
Gary Sinise is fantastic!
- By C. Wilson on 01-11-17
By: John Steinbeck
-
All the King's Men
- By: Robert Penn Warren
- Narrated by: Michael Emerson
- Length: 20 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 2,584
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 2,008
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 1,996
The fictionalized account of Louisiana's colorful and notorious governor, Huey Pierce Long, All the King's Men follows the startling rise and fall of Willie Stark, a country lawyer in the Deep South of the 1930s. Beset by political enemies, Stark seeks aid from his right-hand man Jack Burden, who will bear witness to the cataclysmic unfolding of this very American tragedy.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Beautifully presented
- By Cheimon on 10-12-08
-
On Blueberry Hill
- By: Sebastian Barry
- Narrated by: Niall Buggy, David Ganly
- Length: 1 hr and 38 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 548
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 507
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 504
Best friends and worst enemies, Christy and PJ are destined to spend their lives together over the next 20 years in prison. Reflecting on the events and experiences that led them to the present day, this slow-burning tale explores hope, acceptance and forbidden love. Directed by Jim Culleton with music by Denis Clohessy, On Blueberry Hill is a powerful exploration of freedom, friendship and forgiveness. With outstanding performances from Irish Times Theatre Award and Olivier Award winner, Niall Buggy (Christy) and West End and Broadway star David Ganly (PJ).
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Crime and Punishment set in Ireland
- By Amazon Customer on 11-25-20
By: Sebastian Barry
Critic reviews
Related to this topic
-
A Clergyman's Daughter
- By: George Orwell
- Narrated by: Richard Brown
- Length: 10 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 156
-
Performance4 out of 5 stars 140
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 140
Dorothy Hare, the dutiful daughter of a rector in Suffolk, spends her days performing good works and cultivating good thoughts, pricking her arm with a pin when a bad thought arises. She does her best to reconcile her father’s fanciful view of his position in the world with such realities as the butcher’s bill. But even Dorothy’s strength has its limits, and one night, as she works feverishly on costumes for the church-school play, she blacks out. When she comes to, she finds herself on a London street, clad in a sleazy dress and unaware of her identity.
-
3 out of 5 stars
-
Bottom-Shelf Orwell, but still G-D Orwell
- By Darwin8u on 08-11-19
By: George Orwell
-
The Book of Ebenezer le Page
- By: G. B. Edwards
- Narrated by: Roy Dotrice
- Length: 21 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 247
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 225
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 223
Ebenezer Le Page, cantankerous, opinionated and charming, is one of the most compelling literary creations of the late 20th century. Eighty years old, Ebenezer has lived his whole life on the Channel Island of Guernsey, a stony speck of a place caught between England and France yet a world away from either. Ebenezer himself is fiercely independent, but as he reaches the end of his life he is determined to tell his own story and the story of those he has known.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
I miss Ebenezer
- By Mel on 01-15-18
By: G. B. Edwards
-
The Town House
- By: Norah Lofts
- Narrated by: Juliet Prague, Martyn Read
- Length: 17 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 72
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 65
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 67
"It was in the first week of October in the year 1391 that I first came face to face with the man who owned me… the man whose lightest word was to us, his villeins, weightier than the King’s law or the edicts of our Holy Father…” So began the story of Martin Reed - a serf whose resentment of the automatic rule of his feudal lord finally flared into open defiance.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Another winner by Norah Lofts
- By Bird Lady 147 on 10-03-17
By: Norah Lofts
-
Keep the Aspidistra Flying
- By: George Orwell
- Narrated by: Richard E. Grant
- Length: 9 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 219
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 196
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 192
Gordon Comstock loathes dull, middle-class respectability and worship of money. He gives up a 'good job' in advertising to work part-time in a bookshop, giving him more time to write. But he slides instead into a self-induced poverty that destroys his creativity and his spirit. Only Rosemary, ever-faithful Rosemary, has the strength to challenge his commitment to his chosen way of life.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Gordon's Grey World is Colored with Grant
- By Timothy on 09-25-11
By: George Orwell
-
Pearl in a Cage
- By: Joy Dettman
- Narrated by: Deidre Rubenstein
- Length: 20 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 38
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 30
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 30
On a balmy midsummer's evening in 1923, a young woman - foreign, dishevelled and heavily pregnant - is found unconscious just off the railway tracks in the tiny logging community of Woody Creek. The town midwife, Gertrude Foote, is roused from her bed when the woman is brought to her door. Try as she might, Gertrude is unable to save her, but the baby lives.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
Pearl in a Cage
- By Verita on 06-16-17
By: Joy Dettman
-
Small Things Like These
- By: Claire Keegan
- Narrated by: Aidan Kelly
- Length: 1 hr and 57 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 1,765
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 1,603
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 1,601
It is 1985 in a small Irish town. During the weeks leading up to Christmas, Bill Furlong, a coal merchant and family man, faces into his busiest season. Early one morning, while delivering an order to the local convent, Bill makes a discovery that forces him to confront both his past and the complicit silences of a town controlled by the church.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
Charming and Inspiring
- By David P on 09-05-22
By: Claire Keegan
-
A Clergyman's Daughter
- By: George Orwell
- Narrated by: Richard Brown
- Length: 10 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 156
-
Performance4 out of 5 stars 140
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 140
Dorothy Hare, the dutiful daughter of a rector in Suffolk, spends her days performing good works and cultivating good thoughts, pricking her arm with a pin when a bad thought arises. She does her best to reconcile her father’s fanciful view of his position in the world with such realities as the butcher’s bill. But even Dorothy’s strength has its limits, and one night, as she works feverishly on costumes for the church-school play, she blacks out. When she comes to, she finds herself on a London street, clad in a sleazy dress and unaware of her identity.
-
3 out of 5 stars
-
Bottom-Shelf Orwell, but still G-D Orwell
- By Darwin8u on 08-11-19
By: George Orwell
-
The Book of Ebenezer le Page
- By: G. B. Edwards
- Narrated by: Roy Dotrice
- Length: 21 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 247
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 225
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 223
Ebenezer Le Page, cantankerous, opinionated and charming, is one of the most compelling literary creations of the late 20th century. Eighty years old, Ebenezer has lived his whole life on the Channel Island of Guernsey, a stony speck of a place caught between England and France yet a world away from either. Ebenezer himself is fiercely independent, but as he reaches the end of his life he is determined to tell his own story and the story of those he has known.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
I miss Ebenezer
- By Mel on 01-15-18
By: G. B. Edwards
-
The Town House
- By: Norah Lofts
- Narrated by: Juliet Prague, Martyn Read
- Length: 17 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 72
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 65
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 67
"It was in the first week of October in the year 1391 that I first came face to face with the man who owned me… the man whose lightest word was to us, his villeins, weightier than the King’s law or the edicts of our Holy Father…” So began the story of Martin Reed - a serf whose resentment of the automatic rule of his feudal lord finally flared into open defiance.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Another winner by Norah Lofts
- By Bird Lady 147 on 10-03-17
By: Norah Lofts
-
Keep the Aspidistra Flying
- By: George Orwell
- Narrated by: Richard E. Grant
- Length: 9 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 219
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 196
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 192
Gordon Comstock loathes dull, middle-class respectability and worship of money. He gives up a 'good job' in advertising to work part-time in a bookshop, giving him more time to write. But he slides instead into a self-induced poverty that destroys his creativity and his spirit. Only Rosemary, ever-faithful Rosemary, has the strength to challenge his commitment to his chosen way of life.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Gordon's Grey World is Colored with Grant
- By Timothy on 09-25-11
By: George Orwell
-
Pearl in a Cage
- By: Joy Dettman
- Narrated by: Deidre Rubenstein
- Length: 20 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 38
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 30
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 30
On a balmy midsummer's evening in 1923, a young woman - foreign, dishevelled and heavily pregnant - is found unconscious just off the railway tracks in the tiny logging community of Woody Creek. The town midwife, Gertrude Foote, is roused from her bed when the woman is brought to her door. Try as she might, Gertrude is unable to save her, but the baby lives.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
Pearl in a Cage
- By Verita on 06-16-17
By: Joy Dettman
-
Small Things Like These
- By: Claire Keegan
- Narrated by: Aidan Kelly
- Length: 1 hr and 57 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 1,765
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 1,603
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 1,601
It is 1985 in a small Irish town. During the weeks leading up to Christmas, Bill Furlong, a coal merchant and family man, faces into his busiest season. Early one morning, while delivering an order to the local convent, Bill makes a discovery that forces him to confront both his past and the complicit silences of a town controlled by the church.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
Charming and Inspiring
- By David P on 09-05-22
By: Claire Keegan
-
One of Ours
- By: Willa Cather
- Narrated by: Kristen Underwood
- Length: 13 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 129
-
Performance4 out of 5 stars 95
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 94
Claude Wheeler resembles the youngest son of an American fairy tale. His fortune is ready-made for him, but he refuses to settle for it. Alienated from his crass father and pious mother, all but rejected by a wife who reserves her ardor for missionary work, and dissatisfied with farming, Claude is an idealist without an ideal to cling to. It is only when his country enters the First World War that Claude finds what he has been searching for all his life.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
Cather's writing is impeccable
- By Kelly on 12-20-19
By: Willa Cather
-
The Short Stories, Volume I
- By: Ernest Hemingway
- Narrated by: Stacy Keach
- Length: 5 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 625
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 412
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 412
This definitive audio collection, read by Stacy Keach, traces the development and maturation of Hemingway's distinct and revolutionary storytelling style - from the plain bald language of his first story to his mastery of seamless prose that contained a spare, eloquent pathos, as well as a sense of expansive solitude. These stories showcase the singular talent of a master, the most important American writer of the 20th century.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
Papa wouldn't have like this recording.
- By Jerry`` on 03-16-04
By: Ernest Hemingway
-
A Change of Climate
- A Novel
- By: Hilary Mantel
- Narrated by: Sandra Duncan
- Length: 12 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 93
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 79
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 77
Ralph and Anna Eldred are an exemplary couple, devoting themselves to doing good. 30 years ago as missionaries in Africa, the worst that could happen did. Shattered by their encounter with inexplicable evil, they returned to England, never to speak of it again. But when Ralph falls into an affair, Anna finds no forgiveness in her heart, and 30 years of repressed rage and grief explode, destroying not only a marriage but also their love, their faith, and everything they thought they were.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Beautifully written
- By Patricia S. on 10-11-15
By: Hilary Mantel
-
Bless This House
- By: Norah Lofts
- Narrated by: Michael Tudor Barnes, Nicolette McKenzie
- Length: 15 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 54
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 30
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 30
The house was built in the Old Queen's time: built for an Elizabethan pirate who was knighted for the plunder he brought home. It survived many eras, many reigns: it saw the passing of Cromwell and the Civil War. It became rich with an Indian Nabob and poor with a 20th century innkeeper. It saw wars, and lovers, and death. Children were born there, both heirs and bastards. It had ghosts and legends and a history that grew stranger with every generation.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Bless This House - my take
- By Kalona1982 on 04-05-09
By: Norah Lofts
-
Annie Dunne
- By: Sebastian Barry
- Narrated by: Caroline Lennon
- Length: 7 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 19
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 15
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 15
It is 1959 in Wicklow, Ireland, and Annie and her cousin Sarah are living and working together to keep Sarah’s small farm running. Suddenly, Annie’s young niece and nephew are left in their care. Unprepared for the chaos that two children inevitably bring, but nervously excited nonetheless, Annie finds the interruption of her normal life and her last chance at happiness complicated further by the attention being paid to Sarah by a local man with his eye on the farm.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Splendid
- By Shady on 06-21-23
By: Sebastian Barry
-
A Handful of Dust
- By: Evelyn Waugh
- Narrated by: Andrew Sachs
- Length: 6 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 294
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 258
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 259
Evelyn Waugh's 1934 novel is a bitingly funny vision of aristocratic decadence in England between the wars. It tells the story of Tony Last, who, to the irritation of his wife, is inordinately obsessed with his Victorian Gothic country house and life. When Lady Brenda Last embarks on an affair with the worthless John Beaver out of boredom with her husband, she sets in motion a sequence of tragicomic disasters that reveal Waugh at his most scathing.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
Slow Start then Subtle
- By Michael on 05-16-15
By: Evelyn Waugh
-
The Story of the Treasure Seekers
- By: E. Nesbit
- Narrated by: Simon Prebble
- Length: 5 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 172
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 146
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 148
All six Bastable children - Dora, Oswald, Dicky, Alice, Noel and Horace Octavius - are ambitious adventurers, digging detectives and intrepid treasure seekers by nature. Unfortunately, the Bastable family is currently facing an uncertain financial future. When father takes ill, and his business partners abandon him, the six children team up in an effort to restore their family’s wealth. Although they devise some ingenious escapades, their efforts usually end up unprofitable but fun - and sometimes their digging gets downright dangerous.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Fun and Engaging Book
- By KF on 06-28-17
By: E. Nesbit
-
The Canal Bridge
- A Novel of Ireland, Love, and the First World War
- By: Tom Phelan
- Narrated by: Paul Nugent
- Length: 8 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 41
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 40
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 40
In 1913, before there is a rumor of war in Europe, Matthias Wrenn and Con Hatchel, lifelong friends from Ballyrannel in the Irish midlands, decide to see the world at the expense of the king of England and join the British army. A year later, while en route to India, their troop ship is recalled and they soon find themselves in the European slaughterhouse that was World War I.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Beautiful, disturbing and unforgettable
- By Kathy on 05-25-16
By: Tom Phelan
-
All for Nothing
- By: Walter Kempowski, Anthea Bell - translator, Jenny Erpenbeck - introduction
- Narrated by: Grover Gardner
- Length: 11 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 55
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 43
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 41
In East Prussia, January 1945, the German forces are in retreat, and the Red Army is approaching. The von Globig family's manor house, the Georgenhof, is falling into disrepair. Auntie runs the estate as best she can since Eberhard von Globig, a special officer in the German army, went to war, leaving behind his beautiful but vague wife, Katharina, and her bookish 12-year-old son, Peter. As the road fills with Germans fleeing the occupied territories, the Georgenhof begins to receive strange visitors - a Nazi violinist, a dissident painter, a Baltic baron, even a Jewish refugee.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
All for Nothing
- By Lynn on 03-16-19
By: Walter Kempowski, and others
-
Letters from a Self-Made Merchant to His Son Being the Letters Written by John Graham
- Head of the House of Graham & Company, Pork-Packers in Chicago
- By: George Horace Lorimer
- Narrated by: Alan Taylor
- Length: 4 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 112
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 98
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 98
George Horace Lorimer is best known as the editor of The Saturday Evening Post, where he was credited with promoting and discovering authors like Jack London. Lorimer compiled his life advice into the fictional letters from John "Old Gorgon" Graham to his son Pierrepont. John Graham is a Chicago-based pork and finance baron. In the letters Pierrepont receives advice for his different stages of life. Old Gorgon's advice is packed throughout the book, easy to understand, and still rings true today.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Great but those were the times...
- By Harold on 08-20-18
-
Cannery Row
- By: John Steinbeck
- Narrated by: Jerry Farden
- Length: 5 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 3,458
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 2,977
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 2,960
Published in 1945, Cannery Row focuses on the acceptance of life as it is: both the exuberance of community and the loneliness of the individual. Drawing on his memories of the real inhabitants of Monterey, California, Steinbeck interweaves the stories of Doc, Henri, Mack and his boys, and the other characters in this world where only the fittest survive, to create a novel that is at once one of his most humorous and most poignant works.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Five stars with a Caveat
- By Bette on 04-23-12
By: John Steinbeck
-
Hannay: His 5 Adventures
- By: John Buchan
- Narrated by: Graham Scott
- Length: 49 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 19
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 16
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 16
In The Thirty-Nine Steps, Hannay struggles to thwart an assassination plot designed to hasten war between Britain and Germany. Later he is plucked from the trenches first, in Greenmantle, to frustrate a plot to ferment an uprising in the Islamic world; and then, in Mr. Standfast, to undertake a vital secret mission against a German spy ring operating among pacifist elements in England. After the war, his adventures continue in The Three Hostages; and then in The Island of Sheep, when an old oath to protect the son of a friend from his days in Africa draws him into new danger.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Values of a bygone era
- By Barbara on 03-16-24
By: John Buchan
People who viewed this also viewed...
-
A Clergyman's Daughter
- By: George Orwell
- Narrated by: Richard Brown
- Length: 10 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 156
-
Performance4 out of 5 stars 140
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 140
Dorothy Hare, the dutiful daughter of a rector in Suffolk, spends her days performing good works and cultivating good thoughts, pricking her arm with a pin when a bad thought arises. She does her best to reconcile her father’s fanciful view of his position in the world with such realities as the butcher’s bill. But even Dorothy’s strength has its limits, and one night, as she works feverishly on costumes for the church-school play, she blacks out. When she comes to, she finds herself on a London street, clad in a sleazy dress and unaware of her identity.
-
3 out of 5 stars
-
Bottom-Shelf Orwell, but still G-D Orwell
- By Darwin8u on 08-11-19
By: George Orwell
-
The Road to Wigan Pier
- By: George Orwell
- Narrated by: Frederick Davidson
- Length: 7 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 1,677
-