
Miss Benson's Beetle
A Novel
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Narrated by:
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Juliet Stevenson
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By:
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Rachel Joyce
About this listen
National best seller
“A beautifully written, extraordinary quest in which two ordinary, overlooked women embark on an unlikely scientific expedition to the South Seas.” (Helen Simonson, author of Major Pettigrew’s Last Stand)
From the best-selling author of The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry comes an uplifting, irresistible novel about two women on a life-changing adventure where they must risk everything, break all the rules, and discover their best selves - together.
She’s going too far to go it alone.
It is 1950. London is still reeling from World War II, and Margery Benson, a schoolteacher and spinster, is trying to get through life, surviving on scraps. One day, she reaches her breaking point, abandoning her job and small existence to set out on an expedition to the other side of the world in search of her childhood obsession: an insect that may or may not exist - the golden beetle of New Caledonia. When she advertises for an assistant to accompany her, the woman she ends up with is the last person she had in mind. Fun-loving Enid Pretty in her tight-fitting pink suit and pom-pom sandals seems to attract trouble wherever she goes. But together, these two British women find themselves drawn into a cross-ocean adventure that exceeds all expectations and delivers something neither of them expected to find: the transformative power of friendship.
Praise for Miss Benson's Beetle:
“A hilarious jaunt into the wilderness of women’s friendship and the triumph of outrageous dreams.” (Kirkus Reviews)
©2020 Rachel Joyce (P)2020 Random House AudioListeners also enjoyed...
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Don't listen to the negative reviews.
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Critic reviews
“[Miss Benson’s Beetle] feels larger than Joyce’s other books—more expansive, swashbuckling, a wild adventure. It is the best so far of her novels, and the most inspiring. . . . At the heart of the story is the slow, unlikely friendship that builds between the two women and how that friendship enables them both to grow stronger, more capable and more self-reliant. . . . There is resilience, there is redemption, and there is beauty—great beauty.”—Minneapolis Star Tribune
“I fell in love with the unlikely friendship between two wildly different women—their devotion to each other as they trek up and down mountains in someplace called New Caledonia is a hysterical delight. This novel made me realize how hungry I am for stories about women loving each other into being their best selves.”—Ann Napolitano, author of Dear Edward
“Miss Benson’s Beetle is a pure joyride. Sweet, witty, poignant, filled with intrigue and unlikely friendship, it’s a perfect escape. I loved it.”—Lisa Wingate, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Before We Were Yours and The Book of Lost Friends
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- By: Elizabeth Gaskell
- Narrated by: Juliet Stevenson
- Length: 16 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
When her father assassinates Henry Carson, his employer's son and Mary's admirer, suspicion falls on Mary's second admirer, Jem, a fellow worker. Mary has to prove her lover's innocence without incriminating her own father.
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Mrs. Gaskell was so far ahead of her time
- By Pat on 08-20-13
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The Jane Austen Society
- A Novel
- By: Natalie Jenner
- Narrated by: Richard Armitage
- Length: 9 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
One hundred and fifty years ago, Chawton was the final home of Jane Austen, one of England's finest novelists. Now, it's home to a few distant relatives and their diminishing estate. With the last bit of Austen's legacy threatened, a group of disparate individuals come together to preserve both Jane Austen's home and her legacy. These people - a laborer, a young widow, the local doctor, and a movie star, among others - could not be more different and yet they are united in their love for the works and words of Austen.
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Why so much bad language? Ruined a good book
- By Anonymous User on 08-12-20
By: Natalie Jenner
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The Road Home
- By: Rose Tremain
- Narrated by: Juliet Stevenson
- Length: 7 hrs and 55 mins
- Abridged
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Overall
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Story
Winner of the Orange Broadband Prize for Fiction 2008, The Road Home is the best-selling story of Lev, a middle-aged migrant from Eastern Europe, who moves to London in search of work after losing his wife and job. Lev's London is awash with money, celebrity and complacency. The world Tremain creates is both convincing and poignant.
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OK - nice narration - good characters
- By bea on 02-21-11
By: Rose Tremain
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Daniel Deronda
- By: George Eliot
- Narrated by: Juliet Stevenson
- Length: 36 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Meeting by chance at a gambling hall in Europe, the separate lives of Daniel Deronda and Gwendolen Harleth are immediately intertwined. Daniel, an Englishman of uncertain parentage, becomes Gwendolyn's redeemer as she finds herself drawn to his spiritual and altruistic nature after a loveless marriage. But Daniel's path was already set when he rescued a young Jewess from suicide.
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Give it a try!
- By Tucker LaPrade on 01-30-16
By: George Eliot
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Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris and Mrs. Harris Goes to New York
- The Adventures of Mrs. Harris
- By: Paul Gallico
- Narrated by: Juliet Stevenson
- Length: 10 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Mrs. Harris is a salt-of-the-earth London charlady who cheerfully cleans the houses of the rich. One day, when tidying Lady Dant's wardrobe, she comes across the most beautiful thing she has ever seen in her life—a Dior dress. In all the years of her drab and humble existence, she's never seen anything as magical as the dress before her and she's never wanted anything as much before. Determined to make her dream come true, Mrs. Harris scrimps, saves, and slaves away until one day, after three long, uncomplaining years, she finally has enough money to go to Paris.
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A story of its time
- By Ella Quent on 02-15-23
By: Paul Gallico
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The Signature of All Things
- A Novel
- By: Elizabeth Gilbert
- Narrated by: Juliet Stevenson
- Length: 21 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
In The Signature of All Things, Elizabeth Gilbert returns to fiction, inserting her inimitable voice into an enthralling story of love, adventure and discovery. Spanning much of the 18th and 19th centuries, the novel follows the fortunes of the extraordinary Whittaker family as led by the enterprising Henry Whittaker - a poor-born Englishman who makes a great fortune in the South American quinine trade, eventually becoming the richest man in Philadelphia.
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Don't miss this one
- By Molly-o on 12-27-13
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Meet Me in Monaco
- A Novel of Grace Kelly's Royal Wedding
- By: Hazel Gaynor, Heather Webb
- Narrated by: Nancy Peterson, Jeremy Arthur
- Length: 9 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Movie stars and paparazzi flock to Cannes for the glamorous film festival, but Grace Kelly, the biggest star of all, wants only to escape from the flashbulbs. When struggling perfumer Sophie Duval shelters Miss Kelly in her boutique, fending off a persistent British press photographer, James Henderson, a bond is forged between the two women and sets in motion a chain of events that stretches across 30 years of friendship, love, and tragedy.
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Pleasant but predictable
- By RueRue on 02-05-20
By: Hazel Gaynor, and others
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A Year at the French Farmhouse
- By: Gillian Harvey
- Narrated by: Lucy Scott
- Length: 10 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
After ten years of loyal service, Daisy Butterworth has been made redundant. Like any clever woman, she knows the cure to redundancy is a little too much wine and her best friend. Only the next morning, Daisy has more than a hangover...she has a whole new house—in France! Seeing this as an opportunity instead of a disaster, she’s excited about finally moving to France, just as she and her husband always dreamed of. However, Daisy is in for another surprise. Despite planning to move there for over 20 years, her husband never actually intended to go.
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Why?
- By Howard on 02-16-23
By: Gillian Harvey
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Major Pettigrew's Last Stand
- A Novel
- By: Helen Simonson
- Narrated by: Peter Altschuler
- Length: 13 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
You are about to travel to Edgecombe St. Mary, a small village in the English countryside filled with rolling hills, thatched cottages, and a cast of characters both hilariously original and as familiar as the members of your own family. Among them is Major Ernest Pettigrew (retired), the unlikely hero of Helen Simonson's wondrous debut. Wry, courtly, opinionated, and completely endearing, Major Pettigrew is one of the most indelible characters in contemporary fiction, and from the very first page of this remarkable novel he will steal your heart.
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Charming book with an excellent narrator
- By jc on 03-05-10
By: Helen Simonson
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Once Upon a River
- By: Diane Setterfield
- Narrated by: Juliet Stevenson
- Length: 16 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
A body always tells a story - but this child’s was a blank page. Rita reached for the lantern. She trained its light on the child’s face. "Who are you?" she murmured, but the face said as little as the rest of her. It was impossible to tell whether, in life, these blunt and unfinished features had borne the imprint of prettiness, timid watchfulness, or sly mischief. If there had once been curiosity or placidity or impatience here, life had not had time to etch it into permanence. Only a very short time ago, the body and soul of this little girl had still been securely attached.
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Enjoyed thoroughly... one minor glitch
- By Jen817 on 12-27-18
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Still Life
- A Novel
- By: Sarah Winman
- Narrated by: Sarah Winman
- Length: 14 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Tuscany, 1944: As Allied troops advance and bombs fall around deserted villages, a young English soldier, Ulysses Temper, finds himself in the wine cellar of a deserted villa. There, he has a chance encounter with Evelyn Skinner, a middle-aged art historian who has come to Italy to salvage paintings from the ruins and recall long-forgotten memories of her own youth. In each other, Ulysses and Evelyn find a kindred spirit amidst the rubble of war-torn Italy, and set off on a course of events that will shape Ulysses's life for the next four decades.
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Almost a DNF
- By Robert Bryant on 03-07-22
By: Sarah Winman
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The Mermaid and Mrs. Hancock
- A Novel
- By: Imogen Hermes Gowar
- Narrated by: Juliet Stevenson
- Length: 17 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
In 1780s London, a prosperous merchant finds his quiet life upended when he unexpectedly receives an unusual creature - and meets a most extraordinary woman - in this much-lauded, atmospheric debut that examines our capacity for wonder, obsession, and desire. One September evening in 1785, Jonah Hancock hears an urgent knocking on his front door near the docks of London. The captain of one of Jonah’s trading vessels is waiting eagerly on the front step, bearing shocking news. On a voyage to the Far East, he sold the Jonah’s ship for something rare and far more precious: a mermaid.
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Gave up
- By Isabella Piestrzynska on 10-27-18
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The Whalebone Theatre
- A Novel
- By: Joanna Quinn
- Narrated by: Olivia Vinall
- Length: 18 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
One blustery night in 1928, a whale washes up on the shores of the English Channel. By law, it belongs to the King, but twelve-year-old orphan Cristabel Seagrave has other plans. She and the rest of the household—her sister, Flossie; her brother, Digby, long-awaited heir to Chilcombe manor; Maudie Kitcat, kitchen maid; Taras, visiting artist—build a theatre from the beast’s skeletal rib cage. Within the Whalebone Theatre, Cristabel can escape her feckless stepparents and brisk governesses, and her imagination comes to life.
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Unbelievable Debut Novel!
- By NTexHiker on 10-13-22
By: Joanna Quinn
Terrific storytelling and performance
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Laughed out Loud, A Lot
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Spoiler alert
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Tremendous narration!
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Who Would Have Thought?
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Surprises
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This is my all time favorite!!
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Different and Enjoyable
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Wonderful book
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Jolly good fun!!
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