Ideal
The Novel and the Play
Failed to add items
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Buy for $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:
-
Christopher Lane
-
Robin Field
-
By:
-
Ayn Rand
About this listen
Author Ayn Rand's novel Ideal, available for the first time ever - a landmark event for fans of the groundbreaking philosopher.
Originally conceived as a novel but then transformed into a play by Ayn Rand, Ideal is the story of beautiful but tormented actress Kay Gonda. Accused of murder, she is on the run and turns for help to six fans who have written letters to her, each telling her that she represents their ideal - a respectable family man, a far-left activist, a cynical artist, an evangelist, a playboy, and a lost soul. Each reacts to her plight in his own way, providing a glimpse into their secret selves and their true values. In the end their responses to her pleas give Kay the answers she has been seeking.
Ideal was written in 1934 as a novel, but Ayn Rand thought the theme of the piece would be better realized as a play and put the novel aside. Now both versions of Ideal are available for the first time ever to the millions of Ayn Rand fans around the world, giving them a unique opportunity to explore the creative process of Rand as she wrote first a book then a play and the differences between the two.
©1934 Ayn Rand (P)2015 Blackstone Audio, Inc.Listeners also enjoyed...
-
The Virtue of Selfishness
- By: Ayn Rand
- Narrated by: C. M. Hernert
- Length: 6 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Ayn Rand here sets forth the moral principles of Objectivism, the philosophy that holds human life - the life proper to a rational being - as the standard of moral values and regards altruism as incompatible with human nature, with the creative requirement of survival, and with a free society.
-
-
Beyond brilliant
- By R. Aiken on 10-29-03
By: Ayn Rand
-
We the Living
- By: Ayn Rand
- Narrated by: Mary Woods
- Length: 18 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
We the Living portrays the impact of the Russian Revolution on three people who demand the right to live their own lives. At its center is a girl whose passionate love is her fortress against the cruelty and oppression of a totalitarian state. Rand said of this book: "It is as near to an autobiography as I will ever write."
-
-
Emotionally intense, historically authentic
- By Geoffrey on 08-14-08
By: Ayn Rand
-
Capitalism
- The Unknown Ideal
- By: Ayn Rand
- Narrated by: Anna Fields
- Length: 14 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The foundations of capitalism are being battered by a flood of altruism, which is the cause of the modern world's collapse. This was the view of Ayn Rand, a view so radically opposed to prevailing attitudes that it constituted a major philosophic revolution. In this series of essays, she presented her stand on the persecution of big business, the causes of war, the default of conservatism, and the evils of altruism.
-
-
Ashame this is not taught in our
- By Karen on 08-18-07
By: Ayn Rand
-
For the New Intellectual
- By: Ayn Rand
- Narrated by: Anna Fields
- Length: 7 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This is Ayn Rand's challenge to the prevalent philosophical doctrines of our time and the "atmosphere of guilt, of panic, of despair, of boredom, and of all-pervasive evasion" that they create. One of the most controversial figures on the intellectual scene, Ayn Rand was the proponent of a moral philosophy, an ethic of rational self-interest, that stands in sharp opposition to the ethics of altruism and self-sacrifice.
-
-
Rehashed narrative and bad ideas.
- By Avid reader on 08-11-05
By: Ayn Rand
-
The Early Ayn Rand
- A Selection from Her Unpublished Fiction (Revised Edition)
- By: Ayn Rand
- Narrated by: Bernadette Dunne
- Length: 19 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This remarkable, newly revised collection of Ayn Rand's early fiction ranges from beginner's exercises to excerpts from early versions of We the Living and The Fountainhead. Arranged chronologically, from 1926 through 1940, these works allow readers to follow the extraordinary trajectory of Rand's literary and intellectual growth, from a 21-year-old Russian immigrant struggling to master English to the brilliant prose stylist and sophisticated philosopher she was to become in her mature work.
-
-
Want more Rand? Here it is.
- By John on 12-03-11
By: Ayn Rand
-
Philosophy
- Who Needs It
- By: Ayn Rand
- Narrated by: Lloyd James
- Length: 10 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Who needs philosophy? Ayn Rand's answer: Everyone. This collection of essays was the last work planned by Ayn Rand before her death in 1982. In it, she summarizes her view of philosophy and deals with a broad spectrum of topics. According to Ayn Rand, the choice we make is not whether to have a philosophy, but which one to have: a rational, conscious, and therefore practical one, or a contradictory, unidentified, and ultimately lethal one.
-
-
Deep and provocative
- By Sierra Bravo on 05-21-09
By: Ayn Rand
-
The Virtue of Selfishness
- By: Ayn Rand
- Narrated by: C. M. Hernert
- Length: 6 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Ayn Rand here sets forth the moral principles of Objectivism, the philosophy that holds human life - the life proper to a rational being - as the standard of moral values and regards altruism as incompatible with human nature, with the creative requirement of survival, and with a free society.
-
-
Beyond brilliant
- By R. Aiken on 10-29-03
By: Ayn Rand
-
We the Living
- By: Ayn Rand
- Narrated by: Mary Woods
- Length: 18 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
We the Living portrays the impact of the Russian Revolution on three people who demand the right to live their own lives. At its center is a girl whose passionate love is her fortress against the cruelty and oppression of a totalitarian state. Rand said of this book: "It is as near to an autobiography as I will ever write."
-
-
Emotionally intense, historically authentic
- By Geoffrey on 08-14-08
By: Ayn Rand
-
Capitalism
- The Unknown Ideal
- By: Ayn Rand
- Narrated by: Anna Fields
- Length: 14 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The foundations of capitalism are being battered by a flood of altruism, which is the cause of the modern world's collapse. This was the view of Ayn Rand, a view so radically opposed to prevailing attitudes that it constituted a major philosophic revolution. In this series of essays, she presented her stand on the persecution of big business, the causes of war, the default of conservatism, and the evils of altruism.
-
-
Ashame this is not taught in our
- By Karen on 08-18-07
By: Ayn Rand
-
For the New Intellectual
- By: Ayn Rand
- Narrated by: Anna Fields
- Length: 7 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This is Ayn Rand's challenge to the prevalent philosophical doctrines of our time and the "atmosphere of guilt, of panic, of despair, of boredom, and of all-pervasive evasion" that they create. One of the most controversial figures on the intellectual scene, Ayn Rand was the proponent of a moral philosophy, an ethic of rational self-interest, that stands in sharp opposition to the ethics of altruism and self-sacrifice.
-
-
Rehashed narrative and bad ideas.
- By Avid reader on 08-11-05
By: Ayn Rand
-
The Early Ayn Rand
- A Selection from Her Unpublished Fiction (Revised Edition)
- By: Ayn Rand
- Narrated by: Bernadette Dunne
- Length: 19 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This remarkable, newly revised collection of Ayn Rand's early fiction ranges from beginner's exercises to excerpts from early versions of We the Living and The Fountainhead. Arranged chronologically, from 1926 through 1940, these works allow readers to follow the extraordinary trajectory of Rand's literary and intellectual growth, from a 21-year-old Russian immigrant struggling to master English to the brilliant prose stylist and sophisticated philosopher she was to become in her mature work.
-
-
Want more Rand? Here it is.
- By John on 12-03-11
By: Ayn Rand
-
Philosophy
- Who Needs It
- By: Ayn Rand
- Narrated by: Lloyd James
- Length: 10 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Who needs philosophy? Ayn Rand's answer: Everyone. This collection of essays was the last work planned by Ayn Rand before her death in 1982. In it, she summarizes her view of philosophy and deals with a broad spectrum of topics. According to Ayn Rand, the choice we make is not whether to have a philosophy, but which one to have: a rational, conscious, and therefore practical one, or a contradictory, unidentified, and ultimately lethal one.
-
-
Deep and provocative
- By Sierra Bravo on 05-21-09
By: Ayn Rand
-
Anthem
- By: Ayn Rand
- Narrated by: B. J. Harrison
- Length: 2 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
“It is a sin to write this. It is a sin to think words no others think and to put them down upon a paper no others are to see. It is base and evil.” Deep issues of conscience are explored in Ayn Rand’s dystopian tale of a man who dares to fight against a system that invades his very mind and identity.
-
-
Triumphant! A beautiful molding of the mind.
- By Kari on 02-17-16
By: Ayn Rand
-
Return of the Primitive
- The Anti-Industrial Revolution
- By: Ayn Rand, Peter Schwartz
- Narrated by: Bernadette Dunne
- Length: 13 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the 1960s and early '70s, the most prominent, vocal cultural movement was the New Left: a movement that condemned America and everything it stood for: individualism, material wealth, science, technology, capitalism.
-
-
Extreemly relevant to our current climate
- By Mica on 01-18-10
By: Ayn Rand, and others
-
The Romantic Manifesto
- A Philosophy of Literature
- By: Ayn Rand
- Narrated by: Bernadette Dunne
- Length: 7 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In this beautifully written and brilliantly reasoned collection of essays, Ayn Rand throws new light on the nature of art and its purpose in human life. Once again, she demonstrates her bold originality and her refusal to let conventional ideas define her sense of the truth. Rand eloquently asserts that one cannot create art without infusing it with one's own value judgments and personal philosophy - even an attempt to withhold moral overtones only results in a deterministic or naturalistic message.
-
-
Essential AYN
- By Mica on 07-15-08
By: Ayn Rand
-
Three Plays
- Night of January 16, Ideal, and Think Twice
- By: Ayn Rand
- Narrated by: Robin Field
- Length: 8 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Published together for the first time are three of Ayn Rand's compelling stage plays. The courtroom drama Night of January 16th, a 1935 Broadway success famous for leaving the verdict to the audience, is presented here in its definitive, final revised text - a superb dramatization of Rand's vision of human strengths and weaknesses.
-
-
Loved it! Truly compelling, imaginative and intelligent storytelling. A feast for the senses and the imagination!Ayn Rand shines
- By Miguel Cruz on 03-30-19
By: Ayn Rand
-
The Fountainhead
- By: Ayn Rand
- Narrated by: Christopher Hurt
- Length: 32 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
One of the 20th century's most challenging novels of ideas, The Fountainhead champions the cause of individualism through the story of a gifted young architect who defies the tyranny of conventional public opinion. The struggle for personal integrity in a world that values conformity above creativity is powerfully illustrated through three characters: Howard Roarke, a genius; Gail Wynand, a newspaper mogul and self-made millionaire; and Dominique Francon, a devastating beauty.
-
-
The Fountainhead
- By Zachary on 06-04-10
By: Ayn Rand
-
Atlas Shrugged
- By: Ayn Rand
- Narrated by: Scott Brick
- Length: 62 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In a scrap heap within an abandoned factory, the greatest invention in history lies dormant and unused. By what fatal error of judgment has its value gone unrecognized, its brilliant inventor punished rather than rewarded for his efforts? In defense of those greatest of human qualities that have made civilization possible, one man sets out to show what would happen to the world if all the heroes of innovation and industry went on strike.
-
-
Hurt version decidedly superior
- By Mica on 03-24-09
By: Ayn Rand
-
Ayn Rand Answers
- The Best of Her Q & A
- By: Ayn Rand
- Narrated by: Bernadette Dunne
- Length: 10 hrs
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
After the publication of Atlas Shrugged in 1957, Ayn Rand occasionally lectured in order to bring her philosophy of Objectivism to a wider audience and apply it to current cultural and political issues. These taped lectures and the question-and-answer sessions that followed added not only an eloquent new dimension to Ayn Rand's ideas and beliefs, but a fresh and spontaneous insight into Ayn Rand herself.
-
-
It sounds like Ayn Rand
- By Anonymous User on 06-09-18
By: Ayn Rand
-
The Voice of Reason
- Essays in Objectivist Thought
- By: Ayn Rand, Leonard Peikoff
- Narrated by: Bernadette Dunne
- Length: 15 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the years between her first public lecture in 1961 and her last in 1981, Ayn Rand spoke and wrote about topics as different as education, medicine, Vietnam, and the death of Marilyn Monroe. In The Voice of Reason, these pieces are gathered together in book form for the first time. Written in the last decades of Rand's life, they reflect a life lived on principle, a probing mind, and a passionate intensity. With them are five essays by Leonard Peikoff, Rand's longtime associate and literary executor.
-
-
Explains Everything Of Today
- By L. Nicholson on 11-20-15
By: Ayn Rand, and others
-
The Art of Fiction
- By: Ayn Rand
- Narrated by: Marguerite Gavin
- Length: 6 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Ayn Rand discusses how a writer combines abstract ideas with concrete action and description to achieve a unity of theme, plot, characterization, and style, the four essential elements of fiction. Here, too, are Rand's illuminating analyses of passages from famous writers, rewrites of scenes from her own works, and fascinating rules for building dramatic plots and characters with depth.
-
-
Get Stein on Writing
- By Lois on 12-04-09
By: Ayn Rand
-
Pet Sematary
- By: Stephen King
- Narrated by: Michael C. Hall
- Length: 15 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When Dr. Louis Creed takes a new job and moves his family to the idyllic, rural town of Ludlow, Maine, this new beginning seems too good to be true. Yet despite Ludlow's tranquility, there's an undercurrent of danger that lingers...like the graveyard in the woods near the Creeds' home, where generations of children have buried their beloved pets.
-
-
THIS is what Audible was made for!
- By Nate_D on 04-03-18
By: Stephen King
-
The Gulag Archipelago, Volume 1
- An Experiment in Literary Investigation
- By: Aleksandr I. Solzhenitsyn
- Narrated by: Frederick Davidson
- Length: 25 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Volume 1 of the gripping epic masterpiece, Solzhenitsyn's chilling report of his arrest and interrogation, which exposed to the world the vast bureaucracy of secret police that haunted Soviet society. Features a new foreword by Anne Applebaum.
-
-
Should be required reading in US schools
- By Richard on 01-01-21
-
The Gay Science (The Joyful Wisdom)
- By: Friedrich Nietzsche
- Narrated by: Michael Lunts
- Length: 10 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Gay Science (The Joyful Wisdom) is one of Nietzsche's greatest books. His wonderfully fertile mind roams over mankind, his thoughts, his emotions, his behaviour and his weaknesses with remarkable clarity, with insight - but also with humour!In this work are 383 separate paragraphs, some short, some long, but all singular observations - the epitome of his famous aphoristic style. 'Morality is the herd instinct in the individual.'
-
-
I am now a full-fledged fan of Nietzsche
- By RS on 02-24-18
Related to this topic
-
The Early Ayn Rand
- A Selection from Her Unpublished Fiction (Revised Edition)
- By: Ayn Rand
- Narrated by: Bernadette Dunne
- Length: 19 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This remarkable, newly revised collection of Ayn Rand's early fiction ranges from beginner's exercises to excerpts from early versions of We the Living and The Fountainhead. Arranged chronologically, from 1926 through 1940, these works allow readers to follow the extraordinary trajectory of Rand's literary and intellectual growth, from a 21-year-old Russian immigrant struggling to master English to the brilliant prose stylist and sophisticated philosopher she was to become in her mature work.
-
-
Want more Rand? Here it is.
- By John on 12-03-11
By: Ayn Rand
-
We the Living
- By: Ayn Rand
- Narrated by: Mary Woods
- Length: 18 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
We the Living portrays the impact of the Russian Revolution on three people who demand the right to live their own lives. At its center is a girl whose passionate love is her fortress against the cruelty and oppression of a totalitarian state. Rand said of this book: "It is as near to an autobiography as I will ever write."
-
-
Emotionally intense, historically authentic
- By Geoffrey on 08-14-08
By: Ayn Rand
-
Perchance to Dream
- Selected Stories
- By: Charles Beaumont
- Narrated by: J. Paul Boehmer, Gabrielle de Cuir, Harlan Ellison, and others
- Length: 12 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The profoundly original and wildly entertaining short stories of a legendary Twilight Zone writer. It is only natural that Charles Beaumont would make a name for himself crafting scripts for The Twilight Zone - for his was an imagination so limitless it must have emerged from some other dimension. Perchance to Dream contains a selection of Beaumont's finest stories, including five that he later adapted for Twilight Zone episodes.
-
-
Contents
- By Ralph Freaster on 06-22-16
By: Charles Beaumont
-
Midnight Cowboy
- By: James Leo Herlihy
- Narrated by: Michael Urie
- Length: 7 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Midnight Cowboy is considered by many to be one of the best American novels published since World War II. The main story centers around Joe Buck, a naive but eager and ambitious young Texan, who decides to leave his dead-end job in search of a grand and glamorous life he believes he will find in New York City. But the city turns out to be a much more difficult place to negotiate than Joe could ever have imagined. He soon finds himself and his dreams compromised. Buck's fall from innocence and his relationship with the crippled street hustler Ratso Rizzo form the novel's emotional nucleus.
-
-
Superb
- By Macala Shon on 01-26-21
-
Welcome to the Monkey House
- By: Kurt Vonnegut
- Narrated by: David Strathairn, Maria Tucci, Bill Irwin, and others
- Length: 11 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Welcome to the Monkey House is a collection of Kurt Vonnegut's shorter works. Originally printed in publications as diverse as The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction and The Atlantic Monthly, what these superb stories share is Vonnegut's audacious sense of humor and extraordinary range of creative vision.
-
-
Classic Vonnegut
- By Michael Carrato on 08-17-06
By: Kurt Vonnegut
-
Miss Lonelyhearts
- By: Nathanael West
- Narrated by: L. J. Ganser, Kevin Pariseau
- Length: 2 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Miss Lonelyhearts is an unnamed male newspaper columnist writing an advice column, which is viewed by the newspaper as a joke. As "Miss Lonelyhearts" reads letters from desperate New Yorkers, he feels terribly burdened and falls into a cycle of deep depression, accompanied by heavy drinking and occasional barfights. The novel is essentially a black comedy and is characterized by an extremely dark but clever sense of humor and irony.
-
-
Charged with Meaning, and Far Leftist Leaning
- By W Perry Hall on 01-27-16
By: Nathanael West
-
The Early Ayn Rand
- A Selection from Her Unpublished Fiction (Revised Edition)
- By: Ayn Rand
- Narrated by: Bernadette Dunne
- Length: 19 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This remarkable, newly revised collection of Ayn Rand's early fiction ranges from beginner's exercises to excerpts from early versions of We the Living and The Fountainhead. Arranged chronologically, from 1926 through 1940, these works allow readers to follow the extraordinary trajectory of Rand's literary and intellectual growth, from a 21-year-old Russian immigrant struggling to master English to the brilliant prose stylist and sophisticated philosopher she was to become in her mature work.
-
-
Want more Rand? Here it is.
- By John on 12-03-11
By: Ayn Rand
-
We the Living
- By: Ayn Rand
- Narrated by: Mary Woods
- Length: 18 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
We the Living portrays the impact of the Russian Revolution on three people who demand the right to live their own lives. At its center is a girl whose passionate love is her fortress against the cruelty and oppression of a totalitarian state. Rand said of this book: "It is as near to an autobiography as I will ever write."
-
-
Emotionally intense, historically authentic
- By Geoffrey on 08-14-08
By: Ayn Rand
-
Perchance to Dream
- Selected Stories
- By: Charles Beaumont
- Narrated by: J. Paul Boehmer, Gabrielle de Cuir, Harlan Ellison, and others
- Length: 12 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The profoundly original and wildly entertaining short stories of a legendary Twilight Zone writer. It is only natural that Charles Beaumont would make a name for himself crafting scripts for The Twilight Zone - for his was an imagination so limitless it must have emerged from some other dimension. Perchance to Dream contains a selection of Beaumont's finest stories, including five that he later adapted for Twilight Zone episodes.
-
-
Contents
- By Ralph Freaster on 06-22-16
By: Charles Beaumont
-
Midnight Cowboy
- By: James Leo Herlihy
- Narrated by: Michael Urie
- Length: 7 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Midnight Cowboy is considered by many to be one of the best American novels published since World War II. The main story centers around Joe Buck, a naive but eager and ambitious young Texan, who decides to leave his dead-end job in search of a grand and glamorous life he believes he will find in New York City. But the city turns out to be a much more difficult place to negotiate than Joe could ever have imagined. He soon finds himself and his dreams compromised. Buck's fall from innocence and his relationship with the crippled street hustler Ratso Rizzo form the novel's emotional nucleus.
-
-
Superb
- By Macala Shon on 01-26-21
-
Welcome to the Monkey House
- By: Kurt Vonnegut
- Narrated by: David Strathairn, Maria Tucci, Bill Irwin, and others
- Length: 11 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Welcome to the Monkey House is a collection of Kurt Vonnegut's shorter works. Originally printed in publications as diverse as The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction and The Atlantic Monthly, what these superb stories share is Vonnegut's audacious sense of humor and extraordinary range of creative vision.
-
-
Classic Vonnegut
- By Michael Carrato on 08-17-06
By: Kurt Vonnegut
-
Miss Lonelyhearts
- By: Nathanael West
- Narrated by: L. J. Ganser, Kevin Pariseau
- Length: 2 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Miss Lonelyhearts is an unnamed male newspaper columnist writing an advice column, which is viewed by the newspaper as a joke. As "Miss Lonelyhearts" reads letters from desperate New Yorkers, he feels terribly burdened and falls into a cycle of deep depression, accompanied by heavy drinking and occasional barfights. The novel is essentially a black comedy and is characterized by an extremely dark but clever sense of humor and irony.
-
-
Charged with Meaning, and Far Leftist Leaning
- By W Perry Hall on 01-27-16
By: Nathanael West
-
A Stone for Danny Fisher
- By: Harold Robbins
- Narrated by: Charles Leggett
- Length: 15 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Born into a family of modest means and respectability, Danny Fisher was gradually driven downward into the world of crime, racketeering and poverty. His bitterness, his homesickness over the loss of the house in Brooklyn that was given to him for his eighth birthday, and his feud with his harsh father, pulled him one way; his natural decency and his love for a sweet Italian girl, Nellie Petito, pulled him another.
-
-
My teenage read.
- By A. Mitchell on 11-11-11
By: Harold Robbins
-
Going to Meet the Man
- By: James Baldwin
- Narrated by: Dion Graham
- Length: 7 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
"There's no way not to suffer. But you try all kinds of ways to keep from drowning in it." The men and women in these eight short fictions grasp this truth on an elemental level, and their stories, as told by James Baldwin, detail the ingenious and often desperate ways in which they try to keep their heads above water.
-
-
Punch in the gut
- By Rebecca on 05-08-17
By: James Baldwin
-
The Street
- By: Ann Petry, Tayari Jones - introduction
- Narrated by: Danielle Deadwyler
- Length: 13 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The classic urban tale of a young Black woman's struggle to raise her son alone amid the violence, poverty, and racial dissonance of 1940s Harlem.
-
-
The ending
- By KASH on 11-04-24
By: Ann Petry, and others
-
Koko
- Blue Rose Trilogy, Book 1
- By: Peter Straub
- Narrated by: Patrick Lawlor
- Length: 22 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
KOKO. Only four men knew what it meant. Now they must stop it. They are Vietnam vets — a doctor, a lawyer, a working stiff, and a writer. Very different from each other, they are nonetheless linked by a shared history and a single shattering secret. Now, they have been reunited and are about to embark on a quest that will take them from Washington, D.C., to the graveyards and fleshpots of the Far East to the human jungle of New York.
-
-
7 hours in and I am done
- By bionichands on 01-26-12
By: Peter Straub
-
Cop Hater
- 87th Precinct Series, Book 1
- By: Ed McBain
- Narrated by: Dick Hill
- Length: 6 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When a sniper begins gunning down cops from the 87th Precinct in cold blood, it’s up to Detective Steve Carella to solve the case. With three cops already dead, Carella delves into the city’s underworld to search for the killer.
-
-
Dang, it's about time for the 87th Precinct
- By Eric J. Toll on 05-17-14
By: Ed McBain
-
Peyton Place
- By: Grace Metalious
- Narrated by: Tim O'Connor
- Length: 16 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In 1956, when this novel was first published, communities all over New England snapped up copies to see if they were the town portrayed in the book. Peyton Place is the story of a repressive New England town known for its high standards of public morality, and the steamy sexual activities that take place behind its bedroom doors.
-
-
Best book I've read to date!
- By Crusader on 11-07-11
By: Grace Metalious
-
The Lost Weekend
- By: Charles Jackson
- Narrated by: Donald Corren
- Length: 9 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
It is 1936, and on the East Side of Manhattan, a would-be writer named Don Birnam decides to have a drink. And then another, and then another, until he's in the midst of what becomes a five-day binge. A classic tale of one man's struggle with alcoholism, this revolutionary novel remains Charles Jackson's best-known book - a daring autobiographical work that paved the way for contemporary addiction literature.
-
-
What a terrific audiobook!
- By Bill on 11-10-14
By: Charles Jackson
-
The Great Gatsby
- By: F. Scott Fitzgerald
- Narrated by: Tim Robbins
- Length: 5 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Set against a backdrop of jazz music, bootlegging, and lavish parties, The Great Gatsby is the story of Midwesterner Nick Carraway’s curious introduction to the decadent world of his mysterious, wealthy neighbor Jay Gatsby, whose thirst for riches is matched only by his tragic obsession with the beautiful Daisy Buchanan. This dangerously propulsive tale of glitz and glamour continues to be relevant as listeners long for escapist novels—a chance to flee into Gatsby’s famed mansion and lose oneself in the rush of opulence.
-
-
Alive and Wild! I finished it same day.
- By Brea DeMarquee on 08-27-21
-
Herzog
- By: Saul Bellow
- Narrated by: Malcolm Hillgartner
- Length: 15 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Winner of the National Book Award when it was first published in 1964, Herzog traces five days in the life of a failed academic whose wife has recently left him for his best friend. Through the device of letter writing, Herzog movingly portrays both the internal life of its eponymous hero and the complexity of modern consciousness.
-
-
Grows Within You
- By Chris Reich on 08-06-11
By: Saul Bellow
-
Another Country
- By: James Baldwin
- Narrated by: Dion Graham
- Length: 16 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Set in Greenwich Village, Harlem, and France, Another Country tells the story of the suicide of jazz-musician Rufus Scott and the friends who search for an understanding of his life and death, discovering uncomfortable truths about themselves along the way. Another Country is a work that is as powerful today as it was 40 years ago - and expertly narrated by Dion Graham.
-
-
Powerful and sad
- By Kenneth on 04-10-09
By: James Baldwin
-
Player Piano
- By: Kurt Vonnegut
- Narrated by: Christian Rummel
- Length: 11 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Kurt Vonnegut's first novel spins the chilling tale of engineer Paul Proteus, who must find a way to live in a world dominated by a supercomputer and run completely by machines. Paul's rebellion is vintage Vonnegut – wildly funny, deadly serious, and terrifyingly close to reality.
-
-
A Genuine 5-Stars
- By R.A. on 06-07-19
By: Kurt Vonnegut
-
The Eighth Commandment
- By: Lawrence Sanders
- Narrated by: Rebecca Gibel
- Length: 12 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When the Damaretion, the prized Greek coin from Archibald Havistock's collection, disappears and appraiser Mary Lou "Dunk" Bateson comes under suspicion, Bateson, a cop, and an insurance investigator set out to solve the crime.
-
-
It was a nice listen
- By John on 10-01-12
By: Lawrence Sanders
What listeners say about Ideal
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Deacon Blues
- 06-03-21
story was good but the second half was pointless
the story of Ideal was actually pretty good I enjoyed it but the second half of this audiobook was simply the reading of the script for the play it wasn't even an audio play it was sort of pointless to listen to it
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Anthony
- 07-07-15
Budding Rand
What made the experience of listening to Ideal the most enjoyable?
Both the preface to the novel and the preface to the play added much to the listen. It gave a psychological framework that gave greater insight into the work and the writing process. I also really enjoyed the being able to see the edits. The anecdote regarding what sparked the idea for the story also added to the listen.
Any additional comments?
Worth it. I couldn't give it five stars as it is incomplete in a sense. As a fan of her work this did not disappoint.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
6 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- J. Smith
- 08-20-15
Not Rands Best, but still a cut above the rest.
If u like rand, worth a listen- great performances by the readers- good theme, great style- but left a bit wanting for something deeper- like her other novels:)
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
2 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Ken Campfield
- 05-11-21
Great short listen
loved this story. it is obviously an early work but to Ayn Rand lovers it shows her unique writing style.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Shawn T. Wilson
- 01-09-23
Genius!
It’s Rand….. of course it’s genius! We desperately need Ayn Rand in today’s world. She tried her best to warn us. And despite all her writing and all her lectures. It seems the world is determined to destroy itself. I hear you, Ms Rand!
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- tonia Blount
- 10-25-20
forward turned me off
they spent 20 minutes talking about Ayan Rand . make an excuse is about this is her first novel and what her mentality in writing it was. totally turn me off I didn't finish it I didn't get after the first chapter the forward ruined it for me
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
3 people found this helpful