How to Behave Badly in Elizabethan England
A Guide for Knaves, Fools, Harlots, Cuckolds, Drunkards, Liars, Thieves, and Braggarts
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Narrated by:
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Jennifer M. Dixon
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By:
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Ruth Goodman
About this listen
Every age and social strata has its bad eggs, rule-breakers, and nose-thumbers. As acclaimed popular historian and author of How to Be a Victorian Ruth Goodman reveals in her madcap chronicle, Elizabethan England was particularly rank with troublemakers, from snooty needlers who took aim with a cutting "thee" to lowbrow drunkards with revolting table manners. Goodman draws on advice manuals, court cases, and sermons to offer this colorfully crude portrait of offenses most foul.
Mischievous listeners will delight in learning how to time your impressions for the biggest laugh, why quoting Shakespeare was poor form, and why curses hurled at women were almost always about sex (and why we shouldn't be surprised). Bringing her signature "exhilarating and contagious" enthusiasm (Boston Globe), this is a celebration of one of history's naughtiest periods, when derision was an art form.
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How to Be a Tudor
- A Dawn-to-Dusk Guide to Tudor Life
- By: Ruth Goodman
- Narrated by: Heather Wilds
- Length: 10 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
On the heels of her triumphant How to Be a Victorian, Ruth Goodman travels even further back in English history to the era closest to her heart, the dramatic period from the crowning of Henry VII to the death of Elizabeth I. Drawing on her own adventures living in re-created Tudor conditions, Goodman serves as our intrepid guide to 16th-century living. Proceeding from daybreak to bedtime, this charming, illustrative work celebrates the ordinary lives of those who labored through the era.
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Excellent book!
- By Kathi on 02-18-16
By: Ruth Goodman
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In the Dojo
- A Guide to the Rituals and Etiquette of the Japanese Martial Arts
- By: Dave Lowry
- Narrated by: Brian Nishii
- Length: 6 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Story
Beginning students in Japanese martial arts, such as karate, judo, aikido, iaido, kyudo, and kendo, learn that when they are in the dojo (the practice space), they must don their practice garb with ritual precision, address their teacher and senior students in a specific way, and follow certain unwritten but deeply held codes of behavior. But very soon they begin to wonder about the meaning behind the traditions, gear, and relationships in the dojo.
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Great to learn about the dojo and behavior inside.
- By Patrice Lamarche on 09-10-16
By: Dave Lowry
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Sudden Death
- By: Álvaro Enrigue
- Narrated by: Robert Fass
- Length: 6 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Sudden Death begins with a brutal tennis match that could decide the fate of the world. The bawdy Italian painter Caravaggio and the loutish Spanish poet Quevedo battle it out before a crowd that includes Galileo, Mary Magdalene, and a generation of popes who would throw Europe into the flames. In England, Thomas Cromwell and Henry VIII behead Anne Boleyn, and her crafty executioner transforms her legendary locks into the most sought-after tennis balls of the time.
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So erudite, so many good images and juxtapositions
- By Alnia Perpoz on 08-17-19
By: Álvaro Enrigue
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Death in the Afternoon
- By: Ernest Hemingway
- Narrated by: Boyd Gaines
- Length: 9 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
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Still considered one of the best books ever written about bullfighting, Death in the Afternoon reflects Hemingway's belief that bullfighting was more than mere sport. Here he describes and explains the technical aspects of this dangerous ritual, and "the emotional and spiritual intensity and pure classic beauty that can be produced by a man, an animal, and a piece of scarlet serge draped on a stick."
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No previous interest in bullfighting required
- By Gary on 01-07-13
By: Ernest Hemingway
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Born to Kvetch
- Yiddish Language and Culture in All of Its Moods
- By: Michael Wex
- Narrated by: Michael Wex
- Length: 10 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
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As the main spoken language of the Jews for more than a thousand years, Yiddish has had plenty to lament, plenty to conceal. Its phrases and expressions paint a comprehensive picture of the mind-set that enabled the Jews of Europe to survive persecution: they never stopped kvetching about God, gentiles, children, and everything else.
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Fascinating, but...
- By Christopher B. on 04-05-16
By: Michael Wex
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Red
- A History of the Redhead
- By: Jacky Colliss Harvey
- Narrated by: Jacky Colliss Harvey
- Length: 6 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
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Red is a brilliantly told, captivating history of red hair throughout the ages. An audiobook that breaks new ground, dispels myths, and reinforces the special nature of being a redhead, with a look at multiple disciplines, including science, religion, politics, feminism and sexuality, literature, and art. With an obsessive fascination that is as contagious as it is compelling, author Jacky Colliss Harvey (herself a redhead) begins her exploration of red hair in prehistory and traces the redhead gene as it made its way out of Africa with the early human diaspora.
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Pushing Past Stereotypes
- By Troy on 06-09-15
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The Club
- Johnson, Boswell, and the Friends Who Shaped an Age
- By: Leo Damrosch
- Narrated by: Simon Vance
- Length: 15 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
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In 1763, the painter Joshua Reynolds proposed to his friend Samuel Johnson that they invite a few friends to join them every Friday at the Turk's Head Tavern in London to dine, drink, and talk until midnight. Eventually, the group came to include among its members Edmund Burke, Adam Smith, Edward Gibbon, and James Boswell. It was known simply as "the Club". In this captivating audiobook, Leo Damrosch brings alive a brilliant, competitive, and eccentric cast of characters.
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Wonderful survey
- By Tad Davis on 05-10-19
By: Leo Damrosch
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Captain Alatriste
- By: Arturo Pérez-Reverte
- Narrated by: Scott Brick, Margaret Sayers Peden
- Length: 6 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Captain Alatriste is the story of a fictional 17th-century Spanish soldier who, after being wounded in battle during the Thirty Years' War, is forced to retire from the army. Now he lives the comparatively tame, though hardly quiet, life of a swordsman-for-hire in Madrid. Approached with an offer of work, Alatriste is told to go with another hired blade to an unfamiliar part of the city at midnight and wait.
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Good story...reader could be better.
- By Adina R. Montgomery on 07-26-05
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Caravaggio
- A Life Sacred and Profane
- By: Andrew Graham-Dixon
- Narrated by: Edoardo Ballerini
- Length: 18 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
In the tradition of John Richardson's Picasso, a commanding new biography of the Italian master's tumultuous life and mysterious death. For four hundred years Caravaggio's (1571-1610) staggering artistic achievements have thrilled viewers, yet his volatile personal trajectory - the murder of Ranuccio Tomasini, the doubt surrounding Caravaggio's sexuality, the chain of events that began with his imprisonment on Malta and ended with his premature death - has long confounded historians.
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Interesting life
- By Jean on 08-28-13
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I Can Read You Like a Book
- By: Gregory Hartley, Maryann Karinch
- Narrated by: Gregory Hartley, Maryann Karinch
- Length: 3 hrs and 6 mins
- Abridged
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Story
I Can Read You Like A Book features a system for scanning and interpreting anyone's body language, enabling you to figure out what they are really saying or feeling.
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Fabulous in every way!
- By Minny on 07-11-21
By: Gregory Hartley, and others
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Heroes
- From Alexander the Great and Julius Caesar to Churchill and de Gaulle
- By: Paul Johnson
- Narrated by: James Adams
- Length: 11 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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In this enlightening and entertaining work, Johnson presents heroism through examples in history. From Alexander to Joan of Arc and George Washington to Marilyn Monroe, here are men and women from every age and corner of the world who have inspired and transformed their cultures and the world itself.
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Interesting, but deeply flawed
- By Kennet on 12-27-07
By: Paul Johnson
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Before We Were Trans
- A New History of Gender
- By: Dr. Kit Heyam Ph.D
- Narrated by: Dr. Kit Heyam Ph.D
- Length: 8 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Before We Were Trans illuminates the stories of people across the globe, from antiquity to the present, whose experiences of gender have defied binary categories. Blending historical analysis with sharp cultural criticism, trans historian and activist Kit Heyam offers a new, radically inclusive trans history, chronicling expressions of trans experience that are often overlooked, like gender-nonconforming fashion and wartime stage performance. Heyam looks to the past to uncover new horizons for possible trans futures.
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The history we need right now
- By Daniel Hebert on 04-11-23
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Hagakure
- The Secret Wisdom of the Samurai
- By: Yamamoto Tsunetomo, Alexander Bennett - translator
- Narrated by: Tim Campbell
- Length: 7 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
The comprehensive and accurate edition of the Hagakure is a must-have for serious martial artists or fans of samurai and the Bushido code.
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awesome book on samurai history.
- By Christian Knight on 10-02-20
By: Yamamoto Tsunetomo, and others
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How to Be a Tudor
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Overall
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On the heels of her triumphant How to Be a Victorian, Ruth Goodman travels even further back in English history to the era closest to her heart, the dramatic period from the crowning of Henry VII to the death of Elizabeth I. Drawing on her own adventures living in re-created Tudor conditions, Goodman serves as our intrepid guide to 16th-century living. Proceeding from daybreak to bedtime, this charming, illustrative work celebrates the ordinary lives of those who labored through the era.
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Excellent book!
- By Kathi on 02-18-16
By: Ruth Goodman
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The Domestic Revolution
- How the Introduction of Coal into Victorian Homes Changed Everything
- By: Ruth Goodman
- Narrated by: Jennifer M. Dixon
- Length: 11 hrs and 17 mins
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No single invention epitomizes the Victorian era more than the black cast-iron range. Aware that the 21st-century has reduced it to a quaint relic, Ruth Goodman was determined to prove that the hot coal stove provided so much more than morning tea: It might even have kick-started the Industrial Revolution. Wielding the wit and passion seen in How to Be a Victorian, Goodman traces the tectonic shift from wood to coal in the mid-16th century - from sooty trials and errors during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I to the totally smog-clouded reign of Queen Victoria.
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Zombie Apocalypse
- By PeachPecan on 12-25-20
By: Ruth Goodman
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Chaucer's People
- Everyday Lives in Medieval England
- By: Liza Picard
- Narrated by: Jennifer M. Dixon
- Length: 12 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Chaucer wrote about everyday people outside the walls of the English court-men and women who spent days at the pedal of a loom, or maintaining the ledgers of an estate, or on the high seas. In Chaucer's People, Liza Picard transforms The Canterbury Tales into a masterful guide for a gloriously detailed tour of medieval England, from the mills and farms of a manor house to the lending houses and Inns of Court in London. In Chaucer's People, we meet, again, the motley crew of pilgrims on the road to Canterbury.
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A delight
- By Tad Davis on 05-10-19
By: Liza Picard
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The Time Traveler's Guide to Regency Britain
- By: Ian Mortimer
- Narrated by: Ian Mortimer
- Length: 17 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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In the latest volume of his celebrated series of Time Traveler's Guides, Ian Mortimer turns to what is arguably the most-loved period in British history—the Regency, or Georgian England. A time of exuberance, thrills, frills, and unchecked bad behavior, it was perhaps the last age of true freedom before the arrival of the stifling world of Victorian morality. At the same time, it was a period of transition. Conveying the sights, sounds, and smells of the Regency period, this is history at its most exciting—the past not as something to be studied, but as lived experience.
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SKIP THIS BOOK
- By Lady Aristotle on 09-05-22
By: Ian Mortimer
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If Walls Could Talk
- An Intimate History of the Home
- By: Lucy Worsley
- Narrated by: Anne Flosnik
- Length: 9 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
-
Story
Why did the flushing toilet take two centuries to catch on? Why did medieval people sleep sitting up? When were the two "dirty centuries?" Why did gas lighting cause Victorian ladies to faint? Why, for centuries, did rich people fear fruit?In her brilliantly and creatively researched book, Lucy Worsley takes us through the bedroom, bathroom, living room, and kitchen.
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Compelling.
- By Kirsten on 06-05-12
By: Lucy Worsley
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The Devil in the Shape of a Woman
- Witchcraft in Colonial New England
- By: Carol F. Karlsen
- Narrated by: Jo Anna Perrin
- Length: 9 hrs and 10 mins
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Author Carol F. Karlsen reveals the social construction of witchcraft in 17th-century New England and illuminates the larger contours of gender relations in that society and attempts to answer the question why some women were vulnerable to accusations of witchcraft and possession.
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Vital scholarship beautifully narrated.
- By Audrey on 10-13-19
By: Carol F. Karlsen
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How to Be a Tudor
- A Dawn-to-Dusk Guide to Tudor Life
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- Narrated by: Heather Wilds
- Length: 10 hrs and 22 mins
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Overall
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Performance
-
Story
On the heels of her triumphant How to Be a Victorian, Ruth Goodman travels even further back in English history to the era closest to her heart, the dramatic period from the crowning of Henry VII to the death of Elizabeth I. Drawing on her own adventures living in re-created Tudor conditions, Goodman serves as our intrepid guide to 16th-century living. Proceeding from daybreak to bedtime, this charming, illustrative work celebrates the ordinary lives of those who labored through the era.
-
-
Excellent book!
- By Kathi on 02-18-16
By: Ruth Goodman
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The Domestic Revolution
- How the Introduction of Coal into Victorian Homes Changed Everything
- By: Ruth Goodman
- Narrated by: Jennifer M. Dixon
- Length: 11 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
No single invention epitomizes the Victorian era more than the black cast-iron range. Aware that the 21st-century has reduced it to a quaint relic, Ruth Goodman was determined to prove that the hot coal stove provided so much more than morning tea: It might even have kick-started the Industrial Revolution. Wielding the wit and passion seen in How to Be a Victorian, Goodman traces the tectonic shift from wood to coal in the mid-16th century - from sooty trials and errors during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I to the totally smog-clouded reign of Queen Victoria.
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Zombie Apocalypse
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By: Ruth Goodman
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Chaucer's People
- Everyday Lives in Medieval England
- By: Liza Picard
- Narrated by: Jennifer M. Dixon
- Length: 12 hrs and 46 mins
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Overall
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Performance
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Chaucer wrote about everyday people outside the walls of the English court-men and women who spent days at the pedal of a loom, or maintaining the ledgers of an estate, or on the high seas. In Chaucer's People, Liza Picard transforms The Canterbury Tales into a masterful guide for a gloriously detailed tour of medieval England, from the mills and farms of a manor house to the lending houses and Inns of Court in London. In Chaucer's People, we meet, again, the motley crew of pilgrims on the road to Canterbury.
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A delight
- By Tad Davis on 05-10-19
By: Liza Picard
-
The Time Traveler's Guide to Regency Britain
- By: Ian Mortimer
- Narrated by: Ian Mortimer
- Length: 17 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
In the latest volume of his celebrated series of Time Traveler's Guides, Ian Mortimer turns to what is arguably the most-loved period in British history—the Regency, or Georgian England. A time of exuberance, thrills, frills, and unchecked bad behavior, it was perhaps the last age of true freedom before the arrival of the stifling world of Victorian morality. At the same time, it was a period of transition. Conveying the sights, sounds, and smells of the Regency period, this is history at its most exciting—the past not as something to be studied, but as lived experience.
-
-
SKIP THIS BOOK
- By Lady Aristotle on 09-05-22
By: Ian Mortimer
-
If Walls Could Talk
- An Intimate History of the Home
- By: Lucy Worsley
- Narrated by: Anne Flosnik
- Length: 9 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Why did the flushing toilet take two centuries to catch on? Why did medieval people sleep sitting up? When were the two "dirty centuries?" Why did gas lighting cause Victorian ladies to faint? Why, for centuries, did rich people fear fruit?In her brilliantly and creatively researched book, Lucy Worsley takes us through the bedroom, bathroom, living room, and kitchen.
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Compelling.
- By Kirsten on 06-05-12
By: Lucy Worsley
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The Devil in the Shape of a Woman
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Author Carol F. Karlsen reveals the social construction of witchcraft in 17th-century New England and illuminates the larger contours of gender relations in that society and attempts to answer the question why some women were vulnerable to accusations of witchcraft and possession.
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Vital scholarship beautifully narrated.
- By Audrey on 10-13-19
By: Carol F. Karlsen
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Life in a Medieval Village
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Life in a Medieval Village, by respected historians Joseph and Frances Gies, paints a lively, convincing portrait of rural people at work and at play in the Middle Ages. Focusing on the village of Elton, in the English East Midlands, the Gieses detail the agricultural advances that made communal living possible, explain what domestic life was like for serf and lord alike, and describe the central role of the church in maintaining social harmony.
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A step back in time
- By Diana on 10-02-19
By: Frances Gies, and others
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The Victorian City
- Everyday Life in Dickens' London
- By: Judith Flanders
- Narrated by: Corrie James
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Judith Flanders, one of Britain's foremost social historians, explores the world portrayed so vividly in Dickens' novels, showing life on the streets of London in colorful, fascinating detail. From the moment Charles Dickens, the century's best-loved English novelist and London's greatest observer, arrived in the city in 1822, he obsessively walked its streets, recording its pleasures, curiosities, and cruelties.
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UNFORTUNATLY DISAPPOINTED, IS NOT INTERESTING
- By Count B on 02-04-18
By: Judith Flanders
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24 Hours in Ancient Rome: A Day in the Life of the People Who Lived There
- 24 Hours in Ancient History Series, Book 1
- By: Philip Matyszak
- Narrated by: Michael Page
- Length: 6 hrs and 36 mins
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
In this entertaining and enlightening guide, best-selling historian Philip Matyszak introduces us to the people who lived and worked there. In each hour of the day we meet a new character - from emperor to slave girl, gladiator to astrologer, medicine woman to water-clock maker - and discover the fascinating details of their daily lives.
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Took me back to Latin class and the origin of word
- By tony harris on 05-19-20
By: Philip Matyszak
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Everyday Life in Medieval London
- From the Anglo-Saxons to the Tudors
- By: Toni Mount
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- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Our capital city has always been a thriving and colorful place, full of diverse and determined individuals developing trade and finance, exchanging gossip and doing business. Abandoned by the Romans, rebuilt by the Saxons, occupied by the Vikings and reconstructed by the Normans, London would become the largest trade and financial center, dominating the world in later centuries. London has always been a brilliant, vibrant, and eclectic place.
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Interesting
- By Faycal Ikhouane on 01-16-24
By: Toni Mount
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24 Hours in Ancient Athens
- A Day in the Life of the People Who Lived There
- By: Philip Matyszak
- Narrated by: Gareth Richards
- Length: 6 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
During the course of a day we meet twenty-four Athenians from all strata of society—from the slave-girl to the councilman, the vase painter to the naval commander, the housewife to the hoplite—and get to know what the real Athens was like by spending an hour in their company. We encounter a different one of these characters every chapter, with each chapter forming an hour in the life of the ancient city.
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Maybe the narrator for 24 hours in Rome spoiled me
- By Dan R. on 04-06-23
By: Philip Matyszak
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Life in a Medieval City
- By: Frances Gies, Joseph Gies
- Narrated by: Anne Flosnik
- Length: 6 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Life in a Medieval City is the classic account of the year 1250 in the city of Troyes, in modern-day France. Acclaimed historians Frances and Joseph Gies focus on a high point of medieval civilization - before war and the Black Death ravaged Europe - providing a fascinating window into the sophistication of a period we too often dismiss as backward. Urban life in the Middle Ages revolved around the home, often a mixed-use dwelling for burghers with a store or workshop on the ground floor and living quarters upstairs.
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Troyes, an old town but a new city
- By Darwin8u on 04-02-18
By: Frances Gies, and others
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24 Hours in Ancient China
- A Day in the Life of the People Who Lived There
- By: Yijie Zhuang
- Narrated by: Kathleen Li
- Length: 7 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Spend twenty-four hours with the ancient Chinese. Travel back to AD 17, during the fourth year of the reign of Wang Mang of the Han dynasty, a vibrant and innovative era full of conflicts and contradictions. But as different as the Han culture might have been to other great ancient civilizations, the inhabitants of ancient China faced the same problems as people have for time immemorial: earning enough money, coping with workplace dramas, and keeping your home in order.
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Great reading and relatable subject
- By Tremaine hope on 06-20-24
By: Yijie Zhuang
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The Taste of Empire
- How Britain's Quest for Food Shaped the Modern World
- By: Lizzie Collingham
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
In The Taste of Empire, acclaimed historian Lizzie Collingham tells the story of how the British Empire's quest for food shaped the modern world. Told through 20 meals over the course of 450 years, from the Far East to the New World, Collingham explains how Africans taught Americans how to grow rice, how the East India Company turned opium into tea, and how Americans became the best-fed people in the world.
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Overall really interesting and informative
- By Amazon Customer on 01-01-21
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Four Princes
- Henry VIII, Francis I, Charles V, Suleiman the Magnificent and the Obsessions that Forged Modern Europe
- By: John Julius Norwich
- Narrated by: Julian Elfer
- Length: 7 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
John Julius Norwich - whom the Wall Street Journal called "the very model of a popular historian" - has crafted a big, bold tapestry of the early 16th century, when Europe and the Middle East were overshadowed by a quartet of legendary rulers, all born within a 10-year period. Against the vibrant background of the Renaissance, these four men laid the foundations for modern Europe and the Middle East, as they collectively impacted the culture, religion, and politics of their respective domains.
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For the most part, very informative.
- By Paula on 02-05-18
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The Art of the English Murder
- From Jack the Ripper and Sherlock Holmes to Agatha Christie and Alfred Hitchcock
- By: Lucy Worsley
- Narrated by: Anne Flosnik
- Length: 7 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
In The Art of the English Murder, Lucy Worsley explores this phenomenon in forensic detail, revisiting notorious crimes like the Ratcliff Highway Murders, which caused a nationwide panic in the early 19th century, and the case of Frederick and Maria Manning, the suburban couple who were hanged after killing Maria's lover and burying him under their kitchen floor. Our fascination with crimes like these became a form of national entertainment, inspiring novels and plays, prose and paintings, poetry and true-crime journalism.
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Should Come With a Spoiler Alert
- By Jessica on 04-15-16
By: Lucy Worsley
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A Year in the Life of Ancient Egypt
- By: Dr Donald P. Ryan
- Narrated by: Philip Bretherton
- Length: 6 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Spend a year in the company of the ancient Egyptians, during the twenty-sixth and final year of the reign of Amenhotep II (c.1400 BC), which saw a royal transition bringing Thutmose IV to the throne of Upper and Lower Egypt. Following the Egyptian calendar year, which was divided into three seasons (inundation, sowing and harvest), we will meet a farmer and his family, an embalmer, an artisan, a royal physician, a priest and even a royal wife as they live their lives in Thebes and Memphis during the eighteenth dynasty of the New Kingdom in this year in ancient Egyptian history.
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Nice but only scratches the surface...
- By Lukasz Wsciubiak on 06-15-24
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The Middle Ages
- By: Morris Bishop
- Narrated by: Michael Page
- Length: 11 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Story
In this indispensable volume, one of America's ranking scholars combines a life's work of research and teaching with the art of lively narration. Both authoritative and beautifully told, The Middle Ages is the full story of the thousand years between the fall of Rome and the Renaissance - a time that saw the rise of kings and emperors, the flowering of knighthood, the development of Europe, the increasing power of the Catholic Church, and the advent of the middle class.
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"It's All left to the imagination."
- By Dave Miller on 09-22-17
By: Morris Bishop
What listeners say about How to Behave Badly in Elizabethan England
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Trulee
- 01-30-20
Good to know
As a genealogist, I really enjoyed learning more about this time period. Some parts had me laughing out loud. The author is an incredible researcher. I can't even fathom how many hours she devoted to this wide array of human behavior. I really appreciate it. Thank you!
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- Keri S
- 12-02-19
Perfectly explains weird Behaviors we cling to
This book goes into a lot of detail on how behaviors published hundreds of years ago still have an impact on how we act today. It's a great read for well-read history-loving feminists too.
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1 person found this helpful
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- JustDuck
- 10-26-22
Lots of fun
Once again, another enjoyable book by Ruth Goodman. The perfect resource if you're going to jump in the T.A.R.D.I.S. for a visit to the 16th Century. (Although, I'd suggest doing the OPPOSITE of this list.) I find it fascinating how much, and yet how little society has changed in 600 in years. From appearance, to manners, to what you can and cannot say to your neighbors, this book is a comprehensive look at the culture of Elizabethan England.
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- Melissa Newell Wootton
- 03-21-24
What an interesting cultural experience!
I really enjoyed listening to this as I was driving. I was able to learn a lot, as well as revisit some things that I already knew. In a new context. Definitely worth reading!
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- Missee
- 08-26-19
A bit redundant and slow..
I enjoyed this book, there were a lot of points that were repeated throughout and parts of it dragged but it was fun enough. Nothing in it was shocking or surprising. but it went in depth into some behaviors and the feelings about them that kept the book interesting.
The narration was good, I have no complaints.
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7 people found this helpful
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- Paul H
- 06-14-20
Not Quite What I Anticipated
I was hoping for more on the details of how people behaved in Elizabethan England, and less editorializing, particularly towards the end of the book. Still it was enjoyable.
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- Patricia
- 12-30-23
Ruth
Once again Ruth has excelled as an educator and entertainer. This provides some really great insight into what has formed our thinking
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- William
- 03-01-24
Just fun to read
There are lots of books about how to act properly in different situations. At least in my generation, I remember often hearing about Emily Post’s book of manners, though I never actually saw a copy and later found that it was actually titled “Etiquette: the Blue Book of Social Usage.” Well, Ruth Goodman has written a book that is sort of the opposite, although you’d need to go back in time a few hundred years to find out (though there is still a lot that would probably still be considered to be, at least a bit out of place if not completely insulting). Yes, instead of going the normal route and writing about proper behavior during the Elizabethan Era, she has chosen to write about how to behave badly. And there is a lot that is quite interesting.
Actually, the book’s title, “How to Behave Badly in Elizabethan England,” is just a little bit misleading since it covers the period from 1550-1660, which extends on beyond into the reign of the Stuarts. She covers a broad range subjects. There is a review of clothing and what it represented. There is a discussion of their attitudes toward sexual relations in all its forms and how the rules were applied as well as how their attitudes affected law, insults, and family. And certainly there is much about insults and other subjects related to language including slang and swearing which leads to a discussion of gestures as well (and no, the common rude or insulting gesture at that time was not the middle finger). And when I think of manners, I especially think of mealtime, which she discusses in detail. Of course, any discussion of bad behavior must include those relating to our bodies, including farting, burping, spitting and what to do when you’ve just got to go in a day when there were no public toilets nor indoor plumbing.
It is interesting to note that she does not just discuss bad manners from the perspective of the elite but has extensively researched various sources (even death records listing what possessions are left behind after one has passed on) to discover what was important to the average person. She notes that even the poor who had very little to leave to their descendents often listed items related to cleanliness such as napkins.
There are parts that are quite funny and some that is a bit surprising. She even discusses different ways of walking and how bowing developed over the century.
This is not a book that will change your life. You probably won’t learn anything that you really need to know or that will be useful to you except in a trivia quiz. But it is fun and that is part of what reading is for.
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- Marsha L. Woerner
- 08-24-19
So that's where it all came from…
(As posted in GoodReads)
What a fun and enlightening book! At 1st I thought it was primarily to demonstrate the differences between current society and norms, and those of years ago – and it is. But as such, it emphasizes the beginnings of current, oh I don't know, sexism and distastes that we still experience in the 21st-century.
She (the author) starts by pointing out that language and insults from the 16th and 17th centuries were not just highly amusing, but they were highly offensive at the time. Over the hundreds of years, said insults are less insulting, and it's possible to go with the humor. And it's nice to see that sexism per se from those days as lessened over the years even though it is still prevalent.
And the beliefs that men are allowed to be violent have a basis. It's not just the case that men are ALLOWED to be violent, but that used to be part of the definition of a well educated and well brought up man!
And our current beliefs about weaponry initiated back when all men of fighting age were expected to have swords. We are working on moving society to the 21st-century, including sexism, strained beliefs about men versus women; about homosexuals versus heterosexuals; about individual beliefs versus religious beliefs; about needs for self-defense versus desire to wipe out everyone who is not WE;...
I don't often give a book 5 stars, but this book deserves it for the opening of the mind and the need to assess and change our current society!
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29 people found this helpful
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- Amazon Customer
- 09-04-19
Great Book! Maybe not Audiobook
This was a fascinating book that was obviously very well researched and produced. It’s only failing is that for much of the book refers to gestures, and I mentally could not follow along with the intricacies in audiobook format. I may buy the physical book to understand- but the content itself is great!
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