Figures in Silk
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Narrated by:
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Katherine Kellgren
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By:
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Vanora Bennett
About this listen
The year is 1471. Edward IV, who won the throne with the help of his brother, Richard, Duke of Gloucester, is restoring law and order after years of war. Under Edward IV, life in England begins to improve. Business is booming once more and the printing and silk industries prosper in London.
When silk merchant John Lambert marries off his two beautiful daughters, their fortunes are forever changed. Elder daughter Jane Shore begins a notorious liaison with the king while industrious and clever Isabel finds herself married into the house of Claver, a wealthy silk dynasty. Fate delivers Isabel a challenge when her new husband is killed and she is forced into apprenticeship to her mother-in-law, Alice Claver.
It is from Alice Claver that Isabel learns to love silk and the exotic and passionate fabrics from Italy, Persia, Spain, Tunisia, and beyond. Isabel learns to make her way in this new world of silk - to find friends and enemies - and she strikes an alliance with her sister's lover, King Edward IV, that will bring the secrets of silk-making to London.
As Isabel grows in power and her plan for a silk industry run by Englishwomen is set into motion, the political landscape shifts in dangerous ways. One sister will fall as the other rises and choices must be made that will change their lives forever.
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Editorial reviews
King Richard III, Henry Tudor, Elizabeth of York, an industry transformed by the printing press and improved trade between the nations, and bloodshed: We are in 15th-century England, during that period known as "The War of the Roses". British author Vanora Bennett penned this hefty historical novel, performed in a fun variety of British dialects by Katherine Kellgren.
Bennett makes the interesting choice of showing this world through the point of view of Isabel Lambert, a 14-year-old merchant’s daughter who is married and widowed early on her way to becoming a craftswoman in silk. Unlike, say, the plays of Shakespeare, Figures of Silk gives the listener a glimpse into the life of the merchant class in this important and fascinating period.
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Reign of Madness
- By: Lynn Cullen
- Narrated by: Susan Lyons
- Length: 13 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
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Juana of Castile, third child of the Spanish monarchs Isabel and Fernando, grows up with no hope of inheriting her parents' crowns, but as a princess knows her duty: to further her family's ambitions through marriage. Yet stories of courtly love, and of her parents' own legendary romance, surround her. When she weds the Duke of Burgundy, a young man so beautiful that he is known as Philippe the Handsome, she dares to hope that she might have both love and crowns.
By: Lynn Cullen
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While Beauty Slept
- By: Elizabeth Blackwell
- Narrated by: Wanda McCaddon
- Length: 12 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
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I am not the sort of person about whom stories are told.And so begins Elise Dalriss's story. When she hears her great-granddaughter recount a minstrel's tale about a beautiful princess asleep in a tower, it pushes open a door to the past, a door Elise has long kept locked. For Elise was the companion to the real princess who slumbered-and she is the only one left who knows what actually happened so many years ago. Her story unveils a labyrinth where secrets connect to an inconceivable evil. As only Elise understands all too well, the truth is no fairy tale...
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EVIL THOUGHTS TAKE STRENGTH IN THE DARK,
- By Jim "The Impatient" on 02-08-15
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The Serpent Garden
- By: Judith Merkle Riley
- Narrated by: Alison Larkin
- Length: 18 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
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Susanna Dallet is the daughter of a Flemish painter and wife to a philandering husband, living in the court of Henry VIII. When her husband is murdered, Susanna is suddenly left with a household to provide for and nothing to her name. Her days of anonymity are over when Susanna finds that guild rules preventing women from working do not apply at the king’s court, and she manages to secure a position as a miniature-portrait painter. Before long, she has not only made a name for herself, she is close to those who surround Princess Mary. But even in this lofty company, Susanna is not safe....
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DON'T FALL FOR THE PRINT VERSION AMAZON REVIEWS
- By The Louligan on 03-06-14
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The Memoirs of Mary, Queen of Scots
- By: Carolly Erickson
- Narrated by: Rebekah Germain
- Length: 9 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
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Born Queen of Scotland, married as a young girl to the invalid young King of France, Mary took the reins of the unruly kingdom of Scotland as a young widow and fought to keep her throne. A second marriage to her handsome but dissolute cousin Lord Darnley ended in murder and scandal, while a third marriage to the dashing, commanding Lord Bothwell, the love of her life, gave her joy but widened the scandal and surrounded her with enduring ill repute.
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Fiction being the key word
- By Bonnie-Ann B on 09-25-09
By: Carolly Erickson
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Isabella: Braveheart of France
- By: Colin Falconer
- Narrated by: Anne Johnstonbrown
- Length: 7 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
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12-year-old Isabella, a French princess marries the King of England - only to discover he has a terrible secret. Ten long years later she is in utter despair - does she submit to a lifetime of solitude and a spiritual death - or seize her destiny and take the throne of England for herself? Isabella is just twelve years old when she marries Edward II of England. For the young princess it is love at first sight - but Edward has a terrible secret that threatens to tear their marriage - and England apart.
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A Bizarre "Reader's Digest" Version of History...
- By Sara on 01-06-15
By: Colin Falconer
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Knight of Desire: All The King's Men Series, Book 1
- By: Margaret Mallory
- Narrated by: Derek Perkins
- Length: 9 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
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His surcoat still bloody from battle, William FitzAlan comes to claim the strategic borderlands granted to him by the king. One last prize awaits him at the castle gates: the lovely Lady Catherine Rayburn. Catherine risked everything to spy for the crown. Her reward? Her lands are declared forfeit and she is given this choice: marry FitzAlan or be taken to the Tower. Catherine agrees to give her handsome new husband her body, but she's keeping secrets, and dare not give him her heart.
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Stong Heroine.
- By 🌸DARA on 12-07-13
By: Margaret Mallory
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A Shadow in Summer
- Long Price Quartet, Book 1
- By: Daniel Abraham
- Narrated by: Neil Shah
- Length: 14 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
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The powerful city-state of Saraykeht is a bastion of peace and culture, a major center of commerce and trade. Its economy depends on the power of the captive spirit Seedless, an and at bound to the poet-sorcerer Heshai for life. Enter the Galts, an empire committed to laying waste to all lands with their ferocious army. Saraykeht has always been too strong for the Galts to attack, but now they see an opportunity.
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REALLY Hard to Rate!
- By Trip Williams on 04-27-15
By: Daniel Abraham
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The Winthrop Woman
- By: Anya Seton
- Narrated by: Corrie James
- Length: 27 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
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In 1631 Elizabeth Winthrop, newly widowed with an infant daughter, set sail for the New World. Against a background of rigidity and conformity she dared to befriend Anne Hutchinson at the moment of her banishment from the Massachusetts Bay Colony; dared to challenge a determined army captain bent on the massacre of her friends, the Siwanoy Indians; and, above all, dared to love a man as her heart and her whole being commanded.
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Historical Fiction that Aged Very Well
- By Lulu on 11-26-14
By: Anya Seton
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Swordspoint
- A Melodrama of Manners
- By: Ellen Kushner
- Narrated by: Ellen Kushner, Dion Graham, Katherine Kellgren, and others
- Length: 10 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
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On the treacherous streets of Riverside, a man lives and dies by the sword. Even the nobles on the Hill turn to duels to settle their disputes. Within this elite, dangerous world, Richard St. Vier is the undisputed master, as skilled as he is ruthless--until a death by the sword is met with outrage instead of awe, and the city discovers that the line between hero and villain can be altered in the blink of an eye.
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Ellen Kushner Owes me 30$
- By Daryl on 12-04-11
By: Ellen Kushner
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All the Ever Afters
- The Untold Story of Cinderella’s Stepmother
- By: Danielle Teller
- Narrated by: Jane Copland
- Length: 10 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
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In the vein of Wicked, The Woodcutter, and Boy, Snow, Bird, a luminous re-imagining of a classic tale, told from the perspective of Agnes, Cinderella’s "evil" stepmother. We all know the story of Cinderella. Or do we? As rumors about the cruel upbringing of beautiful newlywed Princess Cinderella roil the kingdom, her stepmother, Agnes, who knows all too well about hardship, privately records the true story...
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Not what I was expecting...
- By IonyWinter on 07-15-19
By: Danielle Teller
What listeners say about Figures in Silk
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Sherill
- 08-21-15
Gossip
This story began with promise but it descended into rumor and gossip about Richard III.
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- Ellenaeddy
- 10-21-12
So Sew Good!
This is a marvelous tale. It's the Bad King Richard, and the middle classes. And most interesting, the middle class people who sold and imported silk. Fascinating and very well done.
Highly recommended!
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1 person found this helpful
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- L'abeille_alors
- 11-05-19
Narrator style was not enjoyable to me
The story was okay, but I could not get used to the narrator's style. It seemed as if every chance she got, she would read fast and loud, and it came across to me like yelling. There was too much of that. I had to return it.
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Overall
- Lynn Emery
- 07-10-10
Great Summer Read!
This book was so interesting and the best narrated book I've listened to. Didn't want to put it down until the end. I highly recommend this book! it sticks close to historical facts and the story is very well written.
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3 people found this helpful
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- nursebettyknitting
- 04-27-13
Awful narrator
Would you try another book from Vanora Bennett and/or Katherine Kellgren?
I did not want to rate this story, but Audible does not allow to proceed with review unless all categories are rated. The story might be good, but I just could not keep listening to the narrator's whiny voice. She is just not that good with male voices, and her performance sounds artificial.
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- FierceMild
- 05-28-19
Disappointed
This story started out strongly rooted in guilds and trade but tapered off into an unsympathetic and tawdry love affair. I am sorry to say that the book commuted the unforgivable sin of being a bore.
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