Praxis
A Novel
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
Prime members: New to Audible?Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Praxis
Buy for $24.95
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
-
Narrated by:
-
Cat Gould
-
By:
-
Fay Weldon
About this listen
Raised by a mad mother and a half-mad sister, abandoned by her father, Praxis Duveen is a master of the art of survival. Her life, indeed, has been full: two marriages, unsuccessful; a brief but profitable career as a prostitute; a little dabbling in incest; a mercy killing; and an inadvertent reign as both apostle and victim of the women's movement.
Buffeted and battered by life, Praxis has survived with energy and humor intact. Her struggles with men and women, with mother and marriages, and most particularly, with herself, become, in Weldon's deft hands, a witty and trenchant commentary on what women want - and what they can actually get.
©1978 Fay Weldon (P)2013 Audible, Inc.Listeners also enjoyed...
-
The Fat Woman's Joke
- A Novel
- By: Fay Weldon
- Narrated by: Gemma Dawson
- Length: 5 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 7
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 7
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 7
Esther Wells goes on a diet and the scales fall from her eyes. Depriving themselves of fatty foods, both husband and wife have new perspectives on each other, and the process is one of slow destruction of their marriage. Esther tells in flashback, from the depths of her basement apartment in Earls Court, the history of her marital disaster - in between her consumption of chocolate cake, tinned fruit, sweet sherry and a host of other high-calorie goodies.
By: Fay Weldon
-
The Life and Loves of a She-Devil
- By: Fay Weldon
- Narrated by: Gemma Dawson
- Length: 8 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 74
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 63
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 64
In New York Magazine, Rhoda Koenig calls The Life and Loves of a She-Devil, "...a novel of blazingly hot revenge, one that amply illustrates the saying about heaven having no rage like love turned to hate, nor hell a fury like a woman scorned."
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Sweet, brutal, and over the top revenge!!
- By Wayne on 04-10-17
By: Fay Weldon
-
Bittersweet
- By: Colleen McCullough
- Narrated by: Cat Gould
- Length: 16 hrs
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 173
-
Performance4 out of 5 stars 156
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 154
Together they decide to enroll in a training program for nurses - a new option for women of their time who have previously been largely limited to the role of wives, and preferably mothers. As the Latimer sisters become immersed in hospital life and the demands of their training, they meet people and encounter challenges that spark new maturity and independence.
-
3 out of 5 stars
-
1920s Australia
- By Jean on 09-04-14
-
Lily and the Octopus
- By: Steven Rowley
- Narrated by: Michael Urie
- Length: 8 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 2,341
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 2,147
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 2,146
When you listen to Lily and the Octopus, you will be taken on an unforgettable ride. The magic of this novel is in the listening, and we don't want to spoil it by giving away too many details. We can tell you that this is a story about that special someone: the one you trust, the one you can't live without. For Ted Flask, that someone special is his aging companion, Lily, who happens to be a dog.
-
3 out of 5 stars
-
OMG WHY!!???!??? last hour redeemed the first 7
- By Amazon Fan on 03-21-18
By: Steven Rowley
-
The Painted Veil
- By: W. Somerset Maugham
- Narrated by: Sophie Ward
- Length: 7 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 426
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 317
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 321
This is the story of Kitty Fane, the adulterous wife of a bacteriologist stationed in Hong Kong. When her husband discovers her deception, he exacts a terrible vengeance: Kitty must accompany him to the heart of a cholera epidemic in China.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Amazing story
- By RtooDtoo on 02-28-10
-
A Widow for One Year
- A Novel
- By: John Irving
- Narrated by: George Guidall
- Length: 24 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 793
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 579
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 576
Ruth Cole is a complex, often self-contradictory character — a "difficult" woman. Her story is told in three parts, each focusing on a crucial time in her life. When we first meet her, Ruth is only four. The second window into Ruth's life opens when she is an unmarried woman whose personal life is not nearly as successful as her literary career. The novel closes in the autumn of 1995, when Ruth is a 41-year-old widow and mother — and about to fall in love for the first time.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
More than a door in the floor
- By Grace on 05-24-09
By: John Irving
-
The Fat Woman's Joke
- A Novel
- By: Fay Weldon
- Narrated by: Gemma Dawson
- Length: 5 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 7
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 7
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 7
Esther Wells goes on a diet and the scales fall from her eyes. Depriving themselves of fatty foods, both husband and wife have new perspectives on each other, and the process is one of slow destruction of their marriage. Esther tells in flashback, from the depths of her basement apartment in Earls Court, the history of her marital disaster - in between her consumption of chocolate cake, tinned fruit, sweet sherry and a host of other high-calorie goodies.
By: Fay Weldon
-
The Life and Loves of a She-Devil
- By: Fay Weldon
- Narrated by: Gemma Dawson
- Length: 8 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 74
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 63
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 64
In New York Magazine, Rhoda Koenig calls The Life and Loves of a She-Devil, "...a novel of blazingly hot revenge, one that amply illustrates the saying about heaven having no rage like love turned to hate, nor hell a fury like a woman scorned."
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Sweet, brutal, and over the top revenge!!
- By Wayne on 04-10-17
By: Fay Weldon
-
Bittersweet
- By: Colleen McCullough
- Narrated by: Cat Gould
- Length: 16 hrs
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 173
-
Performance4 out of 5 stars 156
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 154
Together they decide to enroll in a training program for nurses - a new option for women of their time who have previously been largely limited to the role of wives, and preferably mothers. As the Latimer sisters become immersed in hospital life and the demands of their training, they meet people and encounter challenges that spark new maturity and independence.
-
3 out of 5 stars
-
1920s Australia
- By Jean on 09-04-14
-
Lily and the Octopus
- By: Steven Rowley
- Narrated by: Michael Urie
- Length: 8 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 2,341
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 2,147
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 2,146
When you listen to Lily and the Octopus, you will be taken on an unforgettable ride. The magic of this novel is in the listening, and we don't want to spoil it by giving away too many details. We can tell you that this is a story about that special someone: the one you trust, the one you can't live without. For Ted Flask, that someone special is his aging companion, Lily, who happens to be a dog.
-
3 out of 5 stars
-
OMG WHY!!???!??? last hour redeemed the first 7
- By Amazon Fan on 03-21-18
By: Steven Rowley
-
The Painted Veil
- By: W. Somerset Maugham
- Narrated by: Sophie Ward
- Length: 7 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 426
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 317
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 321
This is the story of Kitty Fane, the adulterous wife of a bacteriologist stationed in Hong Kong. When her husband discovers her deception, he exacts a terrible vengeance: Kitty must accompany him to the heart of a cholera epidemic in China.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Amazing story
- By RtooDtoo on 02-28-10
-
A Widow for One Year
- A Novel
- By: John Irving
- Narrated by: George Guidall
- Length: 24 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 793
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 579
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 576
Ruth Cole is a complex, often self-contradictory character — a "difficult" woman. Her story is told in three parts, each focusing on a crucial time in her life. When we first meet her, Ruth is only four. The second window into Ruth's life opens when she is an unmarried woman whose personal life is not nearly as successful as her literary career. The novel closes in the autumn of 1995, when Ruth is a 41-year-old widow and mother — and about to fall in love for the first time.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
More than a door in the floor
- By Grace on 05-24-09
By: John Irving
-
The Scapegoat
- By: Daphne du Maurier
- Narrated by: Paul Shelley
- Length: 13 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 511
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 442
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 439
By chance, John and Jean - one English, the other French - meet in a provincial railway station. Their resemblance to each other is uncanny, and they spend the next few hours talking and drinking - until at last John falls into a drunken stupor. It's to be his last carefree moment, for when he wakes, Jean has stolen his identity and disappeared. So the Englishman steps into the Frenchman's shoes, and faces a variety of perplexing roles.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
A Fascinating Character-Driven Journey
- By Ilana on 03-16-15
-
Unbeaten
- The Story of My Brutal Childhood
- By: Kim Woodburn
- Narrated by: Kim Woodburn
- Length: 2 hrs and 3 mins
- Abridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 31
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 24
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 24
For Kim Woodburn, finding fame in her 60s in the smash-hit television series How Clean is Your House? with fellow dust-buster Aggie Mackenzie is like living a fairytale. Often, however, she has simply wished that she had never been born, for Kim has overcome horrific emotional and physical abuse, both at the hands of her alcoholic mother and her philandering, abusive father.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Wonderful
- By Christine Cannon on 07-12-15
By: Kim Woodburn
-
Faith Fox
- By: Jane Gardam
- Narrated by: Piers Gibbon
- Length: 10 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 37
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 32
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 32
Faith Fox has led a life full of heartbreak and abandonment, lacking in simplicity and love - and she's not even one week old. She has suffered the unexpected and inexplicable loss of her mother in childbirth; her father, an overworked doctor grown callous with stress, has neither the ability nor the interest to take on the difficult task of raising his child alone; her grandmother, Thomasina, has decided to abscond to Egypt with a retired general rather than acknowledge and accept the loss of her daughter, whom she loved so distressingly well.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Another Jane Gardam treat!
- By Carole A. Myers on 06-01-23
By: Jane Gardam
-
Three Daughters
- A Novel
- By: Consuelo Saah Baehr
- Narrated by: Karen Peakes
- Length: 23 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 2,364
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 2,113
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 2,120
Born in rural Palestine, just before the dawn of the 20th century, Miriam adores her father and is certain his love will protect her, but she soon finds that tradition overrides love. Uprooted by war, Miriam enters a world where the old constraints slip away with thrilling and disastrous results. Miriam's rebellious daughter, Nadia, is thrilled with the opportunity for a modern life that her elite education provides. But when she falls in love with an outsider, the clan reins her back with a shocking finality.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Thrilling
- By valerie on 12-18-14
-
The Chimney Sweeper’s Boy
- By: Barbara Vine
- Narrated by: Jenny Sterlin
- Length: 15 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 104
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 95
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 92
When literary celebrity Gerald Candless suddenly dies, the beautiful façade he has carefully created begins to crumble. Behind the vision of the happy family on the English seashore lie Candless’ inexplicable cruelty toward his wife, his manic devotion to his daughters, and the mysterious sources of his fiction. To assuage her grief, his loving daughter Sarah begins a memoir project. But it soon becomes an obsessive search for identity. As Sarah digs into her father’s secret past, the startling logic of his puzzling behavior is revealed.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
One of my Top 20 books
- By lyl on 01-01-13
By: Barbara Vine
-
A Dark-Adapted Eye
- By: Barbara Vine
- Narrated by: Harriet Walter
- Length: 11 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 286
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 256
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 257
Like most families, they had their secrets...and they hid them under a genteelly respectable veneer. No onlooker would guess that prim Vera Hillyard and her beautiful, adored younger sister, Eden, were locked in a dark and bitter combat over one of those secrets. England in the '50s was not kind to women who erred, so they had to use every means necessary to keep the truth hidden behind closed doors - even murder.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Even better in audio form
- By Jennifer on 08-20-11
By: Barbara Vine
-
The Light Years
- Cazalet Chronicle, Volume 1
- By: Elizabeth Jane Howard
- Narrated by: Jill Balcon
- Length: 16 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 254
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 215
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 217
The tangled lives of three generations evoke a vanished world in this, the first volume of the Cazalet Chronicle. Home Place, Sussex, 1937. The English family at home.... For two unforgettable summers they gathered together, safe from the advancing storm clouds of war. In the heart of the Sussex countryside these were still sunlit days of childish games, lavish family meals and picnics on the beach.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
The Age of Innocence
- By Ilana on 01-25-14
-
To Throw Away Unopened
- By: Viv Albertine
- Narrated by: Jasmine Blackborow
- Length: 9 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 30
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 25
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 24
Every memoir is a battle between reality and invention - but in her follow up to Clothes, Clothes, Clothes. Music, Music, Music. Boys, Boys, Boys., Viv Albertine has reinvented the genre with her unflinching honesty. To Throw Away Unopened is a fearless dissection of one woman's obsession with the truth - the truth about family, power and her identity as a rebel and outsider. It is a gaping wound of a book, both an exercise in bloodletting and psychological archaeology, excavating what lies beneath: the fear, the loneliness, the anger.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Excellent
- By Anora Sutherland McGaha on 11-07-20
By: Viv Albertine
-
A Closed Eye
- By: Anita Brookner
- Narrated by: Prunella Scales
- Length: 8 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 46
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 36
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 36
Born to elegant but frivolous parents, Harriet grows up ignored and unguided, and retains a curious innocence that neither her marriage to Freddie Lytton, nor her friendship with the beautiful Tessa can dispel. Freddie is far older than she is - a companion rather than a lover - and slightly disapproving of Tessa and her irresponsible, attractive husband, Jack. Yet all four are bound together: by their backgrounds, their children, by Harriet’s unspoken feelings for Jack and by the tragedy that lies in wait for all of them.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
The Late Great Ms. Brookner
- By David P on 05-15-16
By: Anita Brookner
-
The Heroes' Welcome
- A Novel
- By: Louisa Young
- Narrated by: Dan Stevens
- Length: 8 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 111
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 102
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 102
Only 23, former soldier Riley Purefoy and his bride, Nadine Waveney, have their whole lives ahead of them. But Riley's injuries from the war have created awkward tensions between the couple, scars that threaten to shatter their marriage before it has truly begun.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
A great sequel to My Dear I wanted to tell you
- By Judy on 04-30-15
By: Louisa Young
-
What Was Rescued
- By: Jane Bailey
- Narrated by: Napoleon Ryan, Heather Wilds
- Length: 11 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 72
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 57
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 57
In the autumn of 1940, four children meet on a train. Behind them is London, under heavy aerial attack; ahead of them is a ship bound for the safe shores of Canada. Arthur has promised his mother not to let his little brother, Philip, out of his sight. Pippa and Dora are on their own: polar opposites, brought together by the adventure of a lifetime. But disaster strikes mid-Atlantic, and in the chaos one of the children makes a choice that will determine the course of their lives forever.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
fantastic!
- By Lillian T. on 10-04-18
By: Jane Bailey
-
Smut: Two Unseemly Stories: The Greening of Mrs Donaldson & The Shielding of Mrs Forbes
- By: Alan Bennett
- Narrated by: Alan Bennett
- Length: 3 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 72
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 63
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 60
Two unexpected tales written and read by the best-selling author of The Uncommon Reader, Untold Stories and The History Boys."The Greening of Mrs Donaldson" - Mrs Donaldson is a conventional middle-class woman beached on the shores of widowhood after a marriage that had been much like many others: happy to begin with, then satisfactory and finally dull. But when she decides to take in two lodgers, her mundane life becomes much more stimulating…
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
A fun British story about unmentionable subjects!
- By Anonymous User on 11-05-12
By: Alan Bennett
Related to this topic
-
The Life and Loves of a She-Devil
- By: Fay Weldon
- Narrated by: Gemma Dawson
- Length: 8 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 74
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 63
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 64
In New York Magazine, Rhoda Koenig calls The Life and Loves of a She-Devil, "...a novel of blazingly hot revenge, one that amply illustrates the saying about heaven having no rage like love turned to hate, nor hell a fury like a woman scorned."
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Sweet, brutal, and over the top revenge!!
- By Wayne on 04-10-17
By: Fay Weldon
-
The Town House
- By: Norah Lofts
- Narrated by: Juliet Prague, Martyn Read
- Length: 17 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 72
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 65
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 67
"It was in the first week of October in the year 1391 that I first came face to face with the man who owned me… the man whose lightest word was to us, his villeins, weightier than the King’s law or the edicts of our Holy Father…” So began the story of Martin Reed - a serf whose resentment of the automatic rule of his feudal lord finally flared into open defiance.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Another winner by Norah Lofts
- By Bird Lady 147 on 10-03-17
By: Norah Lofts
-
A Closed Eye
- By: Anita Brookner
- Narrated by: Prunella Scales
- Length: 8 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 46
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 36
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 36
Born to elegant but frivolous parents, Harriet grows up ignored and unguided, and retains a curious innocence that neither her marriage to Freddie Lytton, nor her friendship with the beautiful Tessa can dispel. Freddie is far older than she is - a companion rather than a lover - and slightly disapproving of Tessa and her irresponsible, attractive husband, Jack. Yet all four are bound together: by their backgrounds, their children, by Harriet’s unspoken feelings for Jack and by the tragedy that lies in wait for all of them.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
The Late Great Ms. Brookner
- By David P on 05-15-16
By: Anita Brookner
-
Smut: Two Unseemly Stories: The Greening of Mrs Donaldson & The Shielding of Mrs Forbes
- By: Alan Bennett
- Narrated by: Alan Bennett
- Length: 3 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 72
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 63
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 60
Two unexpected tales written and read by the best-selling author of The Uncommon Reader, Untold Stories and The History Boys."The Greening of Mrs Donaldson" - Mrs Donaldson is a conventional middle-class woman beached on the shores of widowhood after a marriage that had been much like many others: happy to begin with, then satisfactory and finally dull. But when she decides to take in two lodgers, her mundane life becomes much more stimulating…
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
A fun British story about unmentionable subjects!
- By Anonymous User on 11-05-12
By: Alan Bennett
-
Fraud
- By: Anita Brookner
- Narrated by: Anna Massey
- Length: 7 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 74
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 59
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 58
When Anna Durrant is reported missing her friends seem unconcerned at her disappearance. After all, her life has been one of concealment. For years Anna submitted to the protective dependence of her mother, and even after Amy Durrant’s death she simply conformed to the expectations of others. Increasingly, Anna feels herself trapped by these expectations.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Top Shelf Brookner
- By David P on 09-15-15
By: Anita Brookner
-
Late in the Day
- A Novel
- By: Tessa Hadley
- Narrated by: Abigail Thaw
- Length: 7 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 185
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 168
-
Story3.5 out of 5 stars 168
Alexandr and Christine and Zachary and Lydia have been friends since they first met in their 20s. Thirty years later, Alex and Christine are spending a leisurely summer’s evening at home when they receive a call from a distraught Lydia: She is at the hospital. Zach is dead. In the wake of this profound loss, the three friends find themselves unmoored; all agree that Zach, with his generous, grounded spirit, was the irreplaceable one they couldn’t afford to lose. Inconsolable, Lydia moves in with Alex and Christine. The loss warps their relationships.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
It's all in the performance
- By RueRue on 02-08-19
By: Tessa Hadley
-
The Life and Loves of a She-Devil
- By: Fay Weldon
- Narrated by: Gemma Dawson
- Length: 8 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 74
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 63
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 64
In New York Magazine, Rhoda Koenig calls The Life and Loves of a She-Devil, "...a novel of blazingly hot revenge, one that amply illustrates the saying about heaven having no rage like love turned to hate, nor hell a fury like a woman scorned."
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Sweet, brutal, and over the top revenge!!
- By Wayne on 04-10-17
By: Fay Weldon
-
The Town House
- By: Norah Lofts
- Narrated by: Juliet Prague, Martyn Read
- Length: 17 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 72
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 65
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 67
"It was in the first week of October in the year 1391 that I first came face to face with the man who owned me… the man whose lightest word was to us, his villeins, weightier than the King’s law or the edicts of our Holy Father…” So began the story of Martin Reed - a serf whose resentment of the automatic rule of his feudal lord finally flared into open defiance.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Another winner by Norah Lofts
- By Bird Lady 147 on 10-03-17
By: Norah Lofts
-
A Closed Eye
- By: Anita Brookner
- Narrated by: Prunella Scales
- Length: 8 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 46
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 36
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 36
Born to elegant but frivolous parents, Harriet grows up ignored and unguided, and retains a curious innocence that neither her marriage to Freddie Lytton, nor her friendship with the beautiful Tessa can dispel. Freddie is far older than she is - a companion rather than a lover - and slightly disapproving of Tessa and her irresponsible, attractive husband, Jack. Yet all four are bound together: by their backgrounds, their children, by Harriet’s unspoken feelings for Jack and by the tragedy that lies in wait for all of them.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
The Late Great Ms. Brookner
- By David P on 05-15-16
By: Anita Brookner
-
Smut: Two Unseemly Stories: The Greening of Mrs Donaldson & The Shielding of Mrs Forbes
- By: Alan Bennett
- Narrated by: Alan Bennett
- Length: 3 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 72
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 63
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 60
Two unexpected tales written and read by the best-selling author of The Uncommon Reader, Untold Stories and The History Boys."The Greening of Mrs Donaldson" - Mrs Donaldson is a conventional middle-class woman beached on the shores of widowhood after a marriage that had been much like many others: happy to begin with, then satisfactory and finally dull. But when she decides to take in two lodgers, her mundane life becomes much more stimulating…
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
A fun British story about unmentionable subjects!
- By Anonymous User on 11-05-12
By: Alan Bennett
-
Fraud
- By: Anita Brookner
- Narrated by: Anna Massey
- Length: 7 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 74
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 59
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 58
When Anna Durrant is reported missing her friends seem unconcerned at her disappearance. After all, her life has been one of concealment. For years Anna submitted to the protective dependence of her mother, and even after Amy Durrant’s death she simply conformed to the expectations of others. Increasingly, Anna feels herself trapped by these expectations.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Top Shelf Brookner
- By David P on 09-15-15
By: Anita Brookner
-
Late in the Day
- A Novel
- By: Tessa Hadley
- Narrated by: Abigail Thaw
- Length: 7 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 185
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 168
-
Story3.5 out of 5 stars 168
Alexandr and Christine and Zachary and Lydia have been friends since they first met in their 20s. Thirty years later, Alex and Christine are spending a leisurely summer’s evening at home when they receive a call from a distraught Lydia: She is at the hospital. Zach is dead. In the wake of this profound loss, the three friends find themselves unmoored; all agree that Zach, with his generous, grounded spirit, was the irreplaceable one they couldn’t afford to lose. Inconsolable, Lydia moves in with Alex and Christine. The loss warps their relationships.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
It's all in the performance
- By RueRue on 02-08-19
By: Tessa Hadley
-
Staying On
- By: Paul Scott
- Narrated by: Paul Shelley
- Length: 9 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 90
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 76
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 75
Tusker and Lily Smalley stayed on in India. Given the chance to return ‘home’ when Tusker, once a Colonel in the British Army, retired, they chose instead to remain in the small hill town of Pankot, with its eccentric inhabitants and archaic rituals left over from the days of the Empire. Only the tyranny of their imposing landlady threatens to upset the quiet rhythm of their days.
-
3 out of 5 stars
-
A Pleasant Meander
- By Ian C Robertson on 09-22-14
By: Paul Scott
-
A Change of Climate
- A Novel
- By: Hilary Mantel
- Narrated by: Sandra Duncan
- Length: 12 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 93
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 79
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 77
Ralph and Anna Eldred are an exemplary couple, devoting themselves to doing good. 30 years ago as missionaries in Africa, the worst that could happen did. Shattered by their encounter with inexplicable evil, they returned to England, never to speak of it again. But when Ralph falls into an affair, Anna finds no forgiveness in her heart, and 30 years of repressed rage and grief explode, destroying not only a marriage but also their love, their faith, and everything they thought they were.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Beautifully written
- By Patricia S. on 10-11-15
By: Hilary Mantel
-
The Brimstone Wedding
- By: Barbara Vine
- Narrated by: Juliet Stevenson
- Length: 12 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 160
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 125
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 125
Unlike the other residents of Middleton Hall, Stella is elegant, smart and in control. Only Jenny, her care assistant, knows that she harbours a painful secret, and only she can prevent Stella from carrying it to the grave. As the women talk, Jenny pieces together the answers to many questions that arise: Why has she kept possession of a house that her family don’t know about? What happened there that holds the key to a distant tragedy?
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
Amazing reader elevates book to a higher level
- By Doggy Bird on 10-04-14
By: Barbara Vine
-
The Fifth Child
- By: Doris Lessing
- Narrated by: Sue Pitkin
- Length: 5 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 190
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 160
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 160
Harriet and David Lovatt, parents of four children, have created an idyll of domestic bliss in defiance of the social trends of late 1960s England. While around them crime and unrest surge, the Lovatts are certain that their old-fashioned contentment can protect them from the world outside - until the birth of their fifth baby. Gruesomely goblin-like in appearance, insatiably hungry, abnormally strong and violent, Ben has nothing innocent or infant-like about him.
-
3 out of 5 stars
-
60's, English Family Drama
- By Jim "The Impatient" on 05-26-17
By: Doris Lessing
-
Of Human Bondage
- By: W. Somerset Maugham
- Narrated by: Charlton Griffin
- Length: 28 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 418
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 375
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 371
Of Human Bondage is one of the greatest novels of modern times, and it is certainly Maugham's greatest achievement. It was published in 1914, when Maugham was at the height of his creative powers. The story concerns Philip Carey, afflicted at birth with a club foot, and his passionate search for truth in a cruel world. We follow his growth to manhood, his educational progress, his first loves, and the wrenching tragedies and disappointments that life has in store for him. In some of the finest prose of the 20th century, Maugham has presented us with the timeless story of one man's search for the meaning of life.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Greatly Unsettling
- By Michael on 10-04-14
-
Shadow of a Century
- By: Jean Grainger
- Narrated by: Alana Kerr Collins
- Length: 11 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 263
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 230
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 227
Mary Doyle arrives in Dublin in 1913, doomed, she fears, to a life of domestic service. Instead, however, she finds herself deeply affected by the social and political turmoil of a fledgling nation struggling for independence. Suddenly, all that was once inevitable is no longer a certainty as she is embroiled in the very heart of the Easter Rising.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Loved this book!
- By Amazon Customer on 11-14-20
By: Jean Grainger
-
Maeve's Times
- In Her Own Words
- By: Maeve Binchy
- Narrated by: Kate Binchy
- Length: 11 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 99
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 87
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 87
From the royal wedding to boring airplane companions, Samuel Beckett to Margaret Thatcher, "senior moments" to life as a waitress, Maeve's Times gives us wonderful insight into a changing Ireland as it celebrates the work of one of our best-loved writers in all its diversity - revealing her characteristic directness, laugh-out-loud humor, and unswerving gaze into the true heart of a matter.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
A GLIMPSE THROUGH MAEVE'S LOOKING GLASS
- By jstrfic on 08-08-17
By: Maeve Binchy
-
My Real Children
- By: Jo Walton
- Narrated by: Alison Larkin
- Length: 9 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 128
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 110
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 112
It's 2015, and Patricia Cowan is very old. "Confused today," read the notes clipped to the end of her bed. She forgets things she should know - what year it is, major events in the lives of her children. But she remembers things that don't seem possible. She remembers marrying Mark and having four children. And she remembers not marrying Mark and raising three children with Bee instead.
-
3 out of 5 stars
-
A strange take on an otherwise simple story.
- By Lauren on 01-08-15
By: Jo Walton
-
South Riding
- By: Winifred Holtby
- Narrated by: Carole Boyd
- Length: 19 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 68
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 55
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 55
In this rich and memorable evocation of the fictional South Riding of Yorkshire are the lives, loves and sorrows of the central characters. There is Sarah Burton, fiery young headmistress; Robert Carne of Maythorpe Hall, a councillor tormented by his own disastrous marriage; Jo Astell, a socialist fighting poverty and his own illness; and Mrs Beddows, the first woman Alderman of the district (like Winifred's own mother).
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
Worth Revisiting
- By Ilana on 11-04-12
By: Winifred Holtby
-
Lights Out Liverpool
- By: Maureen Lee
- Narrated by: Maggie Ollerenshaw
- Length: 13 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 45
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 38
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 38
As Britain stands alone against a monstrous enemy, the inhabitants of Pearl Street face hardship and heartbreak with courage and humour. The war touches each of them in a different way: for Annie Poulson, a widow, it means never-ending worry when her twin boys are called up and sent to France; Sheila Reilly's husband, Cal, faces the terror of U-Boat attacks; Eileen Costello is liberated from a bitter, loveless marriage when her husband is sent to Egypt.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Wonderful
- By Tansy Adderley on 10-03-18
By: Maureen Lee
-
The Marriage Bureau
- The True Story of How Two Matchmakers Arranged Love in Wartime London
- By: Penrose Halson
- Narrated by: Jane Copland
- Length: 7 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 34
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 31
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 31
In the spring of 1939, with the Second World War looming, two determined 24-year-olds, Heather Jenner and Mary Oliver, decided to open a marriage bureau. They found a tiny office on London's Bond Street and set about the delicate business of matchmaking. Drawing on the bureau's extensive archives, Penrose Halson - who many years later found herself the proprietor of the bureau - tells their story and the stories of their clients.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Splendid!
- By Nadia on 06-27-20
By: Penrose Halson
-
The Postcard
- By: Leah Fleming
- Narrated by: Elaine Claxton
- Length: 13 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 172
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 156
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 160
2002, Australia. When Melissa discovers a postcard addressed to 'Desmond' among her recently deceased father's effects, she is determined to discover this person's identity and his relationship to her father. She soon embarks on a journey that will take her across oceans and into the past...
-
3 out of 5 stars
-
Meh
- By Summer Layne on 03-06-15
By: Leah Fleming