Hard Times
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Hard Times
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Narrated by:
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Rob Goll
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By:
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Charles Dickens
About this listen
Hard Times is set in and around Coketown, a fictitious, Victorian mill town in the North of England. A town of red brick, machinery, and tall chimneys. A town blackened by soot, shrouded in mist, and choked by smoke. The working men and women of Coketown, referred to generally as "Hands" as if they were merely extensions of the machinery they operate, and not individuals with loves and likes, memories and inclinations, souls to weary and souls to hope.
Among the masters of Coketown are the boastful and blusterous Josiah Bounderby, mill owner and banker; and the founder of the Coketown school, Thomas Gradgrind, a man of rigid facts and calculations; Gradgrind's children, Louisa and Tom, are model examples of his educational system: replete with facts and useful knowledge, and without a taint of fancy.
Other characters include the highly connected Mrs. Sparsit; and the tender-hearted circus girl, Sissy Jupe, and the genial circus master, Sleary, whose entertainments provide relief from the monotony of Coketown life.
Hard Times is Charles Dickens' tenth and the shortest of his full-length novels. It was first published as a serial in the weekly publication, Household Words, between April and August 1854.
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Only complaint is I wish it were longer
- By alisammeredith on 03-15-22
By: Wilkie Collins
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Shirley
- By: Charlotte Brontë
- Narrated by: Anna Bentinck
- Length: 25 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 443
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 373
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 371
Set in the industrialising England of the Napoleonic wars, a period of bad harvests, Luddite riots, and economic unrest, Shirley is the story of two contrasting heroines and the men they love. One is the shy Caroline Helstone, trapped in the oppressive atmosphere of a Yorkshire rectory, whose life represents the plight of single women in the 19th century. The other is the vivacious Shirley Keeldar, who inherits a local estate and whose wealth liberates her from convention.
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5 out of 5 stars
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"As Romantic As Monday Morning"
- By Joseph R on 09-15-09
By: Charlotte Brontë
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Tess of the D'urbervilles
- By: Thomas Hardy
- Narrated by: Jennifer Dixon
- Length: 17 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 65
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 60
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 58
Tess of the d'Urbervilles is the 19th century novel lately thought to be one of the inspirations of E .L.James' Fifty Shades of Grey. It depicts the life of an impressionable, naive, somewhat educated young woman who yearns to be free to live her own life, but finds herself constricted by the bonds of the sexual, religious and socially hypocritical customs that have surrounded her from birth.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Jenny Dixon
- By Amazon Customer on 08-09-15
By: Thomas Hardy
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The American
- By: Henry James
- Narrated by: Adam Sims
- Length: 14 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 51
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 45
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 44
Self-made American millionaire Christopher Newman arrives in Paris brimming with hope and optimism, excited to experience the culture and, hopefully, find the perfect woman to become his wife. After a chance encounter with American expatriate friends, his attention is drawn to Madame de Cintré, 25-year-old widowed daughter of the late Marquis de Bellegarde. Having fallen on hard times, the centuries-old aristocratic family permits Newman's courtship to proceed; however, they later persuade the widow to break off her engagement to the nouveau-riche businessman.
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5 out of 5 stars
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excellent reading
- By Andorboth on 12-03-22
By: Henry James
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Where Angels Fear to Tread
- Penguin English Library
- By: E. M. Forster
- Narrated by: Stephen Fry
- Length: 2 hrs and 51 mins
- Abridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 62
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 56
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Story4 out of 5 stars 56
E. M. Forster's first novel is a witty comedy of manners that is tinged with tragedy. It tells the story of Lilia Herriton, who proves to be an embarrassment to her late husband's family as, in the small Tuscan town of Monteriano, she begins a relationship with a much younger Italian man - classless, uncouth, and highly unsuitable. A subtle attack on Edwardian values and a humanely sympathetic portrayal of the clash of two cultures, Where Angels Fear to Tread is also a profound exploration of character and virtue.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Stephen Fry + E.M. Forster = Audio Kismet
- By Megasaurus on 08-20-12
By: E. M. Forster
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North and South
- By: Elizabeth Gaskell
- Narrated by: Juliet Stevenson
- Length: 18 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 7,375
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 6,564
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 6,568
Written at the request of Charles Dickens, North and South is a book about rebellion that poses fundamental questions about the nature of social authority and obedience. Gaskell expertly blends individual feeling with social concern and her heroine, Margaret Hale, is one of the most original creations of Victorian literature. When Margaret Hale's father leaves the Church in a crisis of conscience she is forced to leave her comfortable home in the tranquil countryside of Hampshire....
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5 out of 5 stars
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Delightful
- By Sally on 01-04-10
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The Tenant of Wildfell Hall
- By: Anne Brontë
- Narrated by: Mary Sarah Agliotta
- Length: 13 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 538
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Performance3.5 out of 5 stars 478
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 473
Probably the most shocking of the Brontës' novels, this novel had an instant and phenomenal success and is widely considered to be one of the first sustained feminist novels. A mysterious widow, Mrs. Helen Graham, arrives at Wildfell Hall, a nearby old mansion. A source of curiosity for the small community, the reticent Helen and her young son Arthur are slowly drawn into the social circles of the village.
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2 out of 5 stars
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A good story ruined by the narrator
- By i. Ski on 04-17-14
By: Anne Brontë
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Far from the Madding Crowd
- By: Thomas Hardy
- Narrated by: David McCallion
- Length: 13 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 35
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 31
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 30
Far from the Madding Crowd, which first appeared in Cornhill Magazine in monthly installments back in the late 19th century, features the love life of the young Bathsheba Everdene who is as poor as she is beautiful. Fortunately, Bathsheba's uncle leaves her his farm, which she goes to manage in the small town of Weatherbury. Before she leaves, however, she has an interesting encounter with a young farmer, Gabriel Oak, for whom she does a tremendous favor ,and he becomes indebted to her....
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5 out of 5 stars
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Loved this delightful listening experience !!!
- By Robin Wardle on 07-15-16
By: Thomas Hardy
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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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Wuthering Heights
- An Audible Exclusive Performance
- By: Emily Brontë, Ann Dinsdale - introduction
- Narrated by: Joanne Froggatt, Rachel Atkins - introduction
- Length: 12 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 6,554
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 5,939
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 5,915
The unapologetic intensity with which Emily Brontë wrote this story ensures that it will forever be considered one of the greatest works of English literature. A passionate tale of a chaotic and often violent love, Wuthering Heights transcends your average romance and, with its Gothic undertones, takes the listener on a journey through one man's lustful hunt for revenge.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Almost Peerless
- By Brad Simkulet on 02-04-18
By: Emily Brontë, and others
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The Rise of Silas Lapham
- By: William Dean Howells
- Narrated by: Grover Gardner
- Length: 12 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 52
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 51
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Story4 out of 5 stars 50
Howells’ best-known work and a subtle classic of its time, The Rise of Silas Lapham is an elegant tale of Boston society and manners. After garnering a fortune in the paint business, Silas Lapham moves his family from their Vermont farm to the city of Boston in order to improve his social position. The consequences of this endeavor are both humorous and tragic as the greedy Silas brings his company to the brink of bankruptcy.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Important for the Era
- By Brent on 03-19-23
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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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My Lady Ludlow
- By: Elizabeth Gaskell
- Narrated by: Susannah York
- Length: 7 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 63
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 58
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 58
Lady Ludlow's appalling snobbery, prejudice and bred-in-the-bone conviction as to the superiority of the English aristocracy and their feudal way of life are deliciously tested, and found wanting, in this gently radical tale of the collapse of a social system. Elizabeth Gaskell's My Lady Ludlow is a brilliant picture of the shift in power in a rural northern village, from the velvety feudal Ludlows to the glitter of the new money rattling through the system courtesy of the brazen baker from Birmingham.
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5 out of 5 stars
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A treat
- By Tad Davis on 03-04-20
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An Old-Fashioned Girl
- By: Louisa May Alcott
- Narrated by: Anne Hancock
- Length: 9 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 125
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 107
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 107
Immediately following the success of Little Women, Louisa May Alcott sat down to write An-Old Fashioned Girl, expanding on the subject of rich versus poor that she explored in her first novel. It’s a story of a country mouse and a city mouse: 14-year-old Polly Milton travels to Boston for a stay with her friend Fanny Shaw. The wealthy Shaws’ way of life is foreign to Polly who tries to adapt but is quickly labeled “old-fashioned”. Fanny and her friends dress and behave as their elders do, flirting with boys and gossiping.
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3 out of 5 stars
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Okay
- By selene on 07-15-18
What listeners say about Hard Times
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Beth Anderson
- 06-18-20
Another great narrative by Dickens...
Wonderful tale and great narrating! Rob Goll was spot-on! I thoroughly enjoyed this book. I had to read it for a class, but I would recommend to anyone.
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