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The $30,000 Bequest
- Narrated by: Steve Kelly
- Length: 1 hr and 12 mins
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The $30,000 Bequest
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Very few people know that Mark Twain wrote a major work on Joan of Arc. Still fewer know that he considered it not only his most important, but also his best work. He spent 12 years in research and many months in France doing archival work, and then made several attempts until he felt he finally had the story he wanted to tell.
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Fabulous Performance AND Read
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This dark story, set in medieval Austria, hinges on unearthly and hidden mental powers. It also gives an insight to the author's psyche during his final days.
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2 out of 5 stars
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What Is Man?
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What Is Man? appears in the form of a Socratic dialogue between a romantic young idealist and an elderly cynic, who debate issues of mankind, such as whether man is free to act or is more of a machine, whether personal merit is meaningless given how the environment shapes us, and whether man truly has impulses other than to pursue pleasure and avoid pain.
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Here you will find the complete novels of Mark Twain: 1. The Adventures of Tom Sawyer Starts at Chapter 1, 2. The Prince and the Pauper Starts at Chapter 37, 3. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn Starts at Chapter 70, 4. A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court Starts at Chapter 113, 5. The American Claimant Starts at Chapter 158, 6. Tom Sawyer Abroad Starts at Chapter 184, 7. Pudd'nhead Wilson Starts at Chapter 197, 8. Tom Sawyer, Detective Starts at Chapter 219, 9. A Horse's Tale Starts at Chapter 230, 10. The Mysterious Stranger Starts at Chapter 245.
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3 out of 5 stars
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The Gilded Age
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- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 59
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First published in 1873, The Gilded Age is both a biting satire and a revealing portrait of post-Civil War America - an age of corruption when crooked land speculators, ruthless bankers, and dishonest politicians voraciously took advantage of the nation's peacetime optimism. With his characteristic wit and perception, Mark Twain and his collaborator, Charles Dudley Warner, attack the greed, lust, and naiveté of their own time in a work that endures as a valuable social document and one of America's most important satirical novels.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Great Story, but Audio Quality Not Always Good
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- By: Mark Twain
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- Length: 15 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 643
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 483
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Very few people know that Mark Twain wrote a major work on Joan of Arc. Still fewer know that he considered it not only his most important, but also his best work. He spent 12 years in research and many months in France doing archival work, and then made several attempts until he felt he finally had the story he wanted to tell.
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5 out of 5 stars
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2 out of 5 stars
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Bad text, humdrum narration
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4 out of 5 stars
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The Mysterious Stranger
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 76
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Considered one of Twain's most important short works, The Mysterious Stranger tells the story of the devil coming to a medieval village in the persona of a beautiful, lovable, yet exasperatingly amoral young man. Befriending a small group of boys, Satan exhibits strange charm, compassion, and indifference as the tale comes to a surprising comclusion.
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1 out of 5 stars
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Very Poor Narration
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The Prince and the Pauper
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- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 154
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 130
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 130
They look alike, but they live in very different worlds. Tom Canty, impoverished and abused by his father, is fascinated with royalty. Edward Tudor, heir to the throne of England, is kind and generous but wants to run free and play in the river - just once. How insubstantial their differences truly are becomes clear when a chance encounter leads to an exchange of clothing - and roles. The pauper finds himself caught up in the pomp and folly of the royal court, and the prince wanders horror-stricken through the lower strata of English society.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Wonderful author, terrific narrator, splendid book
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The Innocents Abroad
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- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 49
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 47
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 47
In June 1867, Mark Twain set sail for Europe and the Holy Land. Twain recorded this adventurous trip and later turned it into The Innocents Abroad. This book became so popular overseas that it would propel him into an international star. The Innocents Abroad is Twain’s account of his thoughts of the Old World, including Paris, Venice, Pompeii, Jerusalem, Nazareth, and Bethlehem, as well as many other noteworthy cities. His disbelief and wonder are told with humor that endeared Twain to American audiences.
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1 out of 5 stars
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Big Mistake
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4 out of 5 stars
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Great but incomplete
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Letters from the Earth
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- Unabridged
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 148
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Story4 out of 5 stars 147
Here we see Twain on a somewhat personal level. Penniless and having just lost his wife and one of his children, Twain turns to writing about God, Christianity, and the many curious natures of man. This collection was so controversial that his daughter prohibited its publication until 52 years after his death.
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5 out of 5 stars
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A must read for thinking people
- By Charles on 11-28-11
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Pudd'nhead Wilson
- A Tale by Mark Twain
- By: Mark Twain
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- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 502
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 409
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 410
Pudd'nhead Wilson, like many other Mark Twain books, was read aloud by the author to his wife and daughters, chapter by chapter, as it was being written.
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5 out of 5 stars
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great reader, great tale
- By Rose on 10-28-07
By: Mark Twain
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The Man That Corrupted Hadleyburg and Other Stories
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 15
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Performance3.5 out of 5 stars 7
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A town that prides itself on its honesty finds itself severely tested. One of the demons Mark Twain always set out to slay was the myth that the citizens of the American republic are inherently more virtuous than others. By the invention of an elaborate hoax, a kind of giant practical joke, Twain has his hero turn the town of Hadleyburg inside out and, in the process, teach the hypocrites who dwell there a lesson in humility and moral realism.
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3 out of 5 stars
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Good selection, uneven narration
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By: Mark Twain
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Jane Eyre
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- Unabridged
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Overall5 out of 5 stars 20,107
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 18,382
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Story5 out of 5 stars 18,302
Following Jane from her childhood as an orphan in Northern England through her experience as a governess at Thornfield Hall, Charlotte Brontë's Gothic classic is an early exploration of women's independence in the mid-19th century and the pervasive societal challenges women had to endure. At Thornfield, Jane meets the complex and mysterious Mr. Rochester, with whom she shares a complicated relationship that ultimately forces her to reconcile the conflicting passions of romantic love and religious piety.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Perfect!!
- By Amazon Customer on 04-21-16
By: Charlotte Brontë
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Little Women
- By: Louisa May Alcott
- Narrated by: Justine Eyre
- Length: 17 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 156
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 120
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 125
It is no secret that Alcott based Little Women on her own early life. While her father, the free-thinking reformer and abolitionist Bronson Alcott, hobnobbed with such eminent male authors as Emerson, Thoreau, and Hawthorne, Louisa supported herself and her sisters with "woman’s work."
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5 out of 5 stars
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Great Narration
- By Madelynn on 09-26-10
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Middlemarch
- By: George Eliot
- Narrated by: Juliet Stevenson
- Length: 35 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 5,097
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 4,624
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 4,587
Dorothea Brooke is an ardent idealist who represses her vivacity and intelligence for the cold, theological pedant Casaubon. One man understands her true nature: the artist Will Ladislaw. But how can love triumph against her sense of duty and Casaubon’s mean spirit? Meanwhile, in the little world of Middlemarch, the broader world is mirrored: the world of politics, social change, and reforms, as well as betrayal, greed, blackmail, ambition, and disappointment.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Best Audible book ever
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By: George Eliot
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North and South
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 7,244
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 6,442
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 6,446
Written at the request of Charles Dickens, North and South is a book about rebellion that poses fundamental questions about the nature of social authority and obedience. Gaskell expertly blends individual feeling with social concern and her heroine, Margaret Hale, is one of the most original creations of Victorian literature. When Margaret Hale's father leaves the Church in a crisis of conscience she is forced to leave her comfortable home in the tranquil countryside of Hampshire....
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5 out of 5 stars
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Delightful
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Don Quixote
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The most influential work of the entire Spanish literary canon and a founding work of modern Western literature, Don Quixote is also one of the greatest works ever written. Hugely entertaining but also moving at times, this episodic novel is built on the fantasy life of one Alonso Quixano, who lives with his niece and housekeeper in La Mancha. Quixano, obsessed by tales of knight errantry, renames himself ‘Don Quixote’ and with his faithful servant Sancho Panza, goes on a series of quests.
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4 out of 5 stars
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More than funny
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By: John Ormsby - translator, and others
Publisher's summary
A couple was promised a $30,000 inheritance from a rich relative on condition that it remains a secret. Through the years, they invest money, accumulating sizable assets, until they lose it all in a stock market crash. One day, they find out that the relative had died penniless, which means they yearned for an illusion their whole life long.
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2 out of 5 stars
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Bad text, humdrum narration
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4 out of 5 stars
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Werther, a sensitive young artist, finds himself in Wahlheim, a quiet, attractive village in Germany where he seeks solace from the turmoils of love. It is a young spring, and he hopes that arcadian solitude will prove a genial balm to his mind. But his romantic tendency rules otherwise, and he falls in love with Charlotte - Lotte - even though he knows she is affianced to another.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Great performance for a classical story.
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 115
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An unprecedented historical and literary event, this tale written in the 1850s is the only known novel by a female African American slave, and quite possibly the first novel written by a black woman anywhere. A work recently uncovered by renowned scholar and professor Henry Louis Gates, Jr., it is a stirring tale of "passing" and the adventures of a young slave as she makes her way to freedom.
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1 out of 5 stars
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Poor reading of an important book
- By Hilary on 11-15-04
By: Hannah Crafts, and others
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Ruth
- By: Elizabeth Gaskell
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 584
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 500
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The orphaned heroine Ruth, apprenticed to a dressmaker, is seduced by wealthy Henry Bellingham who is captivated by her simplicity and beauty. Their affair causes her to lose her home and job to which he offers her shelter, only to cruelly abandon her soon after. She is offered a chance of a new life though shamed in the eyes of society by her illegitimate son. When Henry reappears offering marriage she must choose between social acceptance and her own pride.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Fallen Woman Finds Redemption
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The Posthumous Memoirs of Brás Cubas
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- Narrated by: Edoardo Camponeschi
- Length: 7 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 43
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 32
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Joaquim Maria Machado de Assis (1839-1908) was the greatest writer ever to come from Brazil and one of the masters of nineteenth-century fiction. Susan Sontag calls him "the greatest writer ever produced in Latin America", surpassing even Borges. Harold Bloom says that Machado is "the supreme black literary artist to date". And Allen Ginsburg calls him "another Kafka". And The Posthumous Memoirs of Bras Cubas is his masterpiece, a dazzling, tragic, and profound novel that belongs next to the greatest works of his contemporaries Melville and Dostoevsky.
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5 out of 5 stars
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A hidden masterpiece
- By C. Park on 08-09-18
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The Mysterious Stranger and Other Stories
- By: Mark Twain
- Narrated by: Jonathan Kent
- Length: 7 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 54
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 36
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 36
This dark story, set in medieval Austria, hinges on unearthly and hidden mental powers. It also gives an insight to the author's psyche during his final days.
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2 out of 5 stars
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Bad text, humdrum narration
- By Tad Davis on 05-19-08
By: Mark Twain
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4 out of 5 stars
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Great but incomplete
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By: Mark Twain
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- Length: 4 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 150
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 129
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 129
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An unprecedented historical and literary event, this tale written in the 1850s is the only known novel by a female African American slave, and quite possibly the first novel written by a black woman anywhere. A work recently uncovered by renowned scholar and professor Henry Louis Gates, Jr., it is a stirring tale of "passing" and the adventures of a young slave as she makes her way to freedom.
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1 out of 5 stars
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Poor reading of an important book
- By Hilary on 11-15-04
By: Hannah Crafts, and others
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Ruth
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 500
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The orphaned heroine Ruth, apprenticed to a dressmaker, is seduced by wealthy Henry Bellingham who is captivated by her simplicity and beauty. Their affair causes her to lose her home and job to which he offers her shelter, only to cruelly abandon her soon after. She is offered a chance of a new life though shamed in the eyes of society by her illegitimate son. When Henry reappears offering marriage she must choose between social acceptance and her own pride.
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5 out of 5 stars
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-
Story4 out of 5 stars 32
Joaquim Maria Machado de Assis (1839-1908) was the greatest writer ever to come from Brazil and one of the masters of nineteenth-century fiction. Susan Sontag calls him "the greatest writer ever produced in Latin America", surpassing even Borges. Harold Bloom says that Machado is "the supreme black literary artist to date". And Allen Ginsburg calls him "another Kafka". And The Posthumous Memoirs of Bras Cubas is his masterpiece, a dazzling, tragic, and profound novel that belongs next to the greatest works of his contemporaries Melville and Dostoevsky.
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5 out of 5 stars
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A hidden masterpiece
- By C. Park on 08-09-18
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The Jewel of Seven Stars
- By: Bram Stoker
- Narrated by: Simon Vance
- Length: 8 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 735
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 631
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Story4 out of 5 stars 631
The warning was inscribed on the entrance of the hidden tomb, forgotten for millennia in the sands of mystic Egypt. Then the archaeologists and grave robbers came in search of the fabled Jewel of Seven Stars, which they found clutched in the hand of the mummy. Few heeded the ancient warning, until all who came in contact with the Jewel began to die in a mysterious and violent way, with the marks of a strangler around their neck.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Mother of all Mummy-Stories
- By Dorothea on 03-15-08
By: Bram Stoker
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North and South
- By: Elizabeth Gaskell
- Narrated by: Juliet Stevenson
- Length: 18 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 7,244
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 6,442
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 6,446
Written at the request of Charles Dickens, North and South is a book about rebellion that poses fundamental questions about the nature of social authority and obedience. Gaskell expertly blends individual feeling with social concern and her heroine, Margaret Hale, is one of the most original creations of Victorian literature. When Margaret Hale's father leaves the Church in a crisis of conscience she is forced to leave her comfortable home in the tranquil countryside of Hampshire....
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5 out of 5 stars
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Delightful
- By Sally on 01-04-10
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Candide (AudioGO Edition)
- By: Voltaire
- Narrated by: Jack Davenport
- Length: 3 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 1,664
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 1,480
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 1,479
When first published in 1759, Candide became an instant best seller and is now regarded as one of the key texts of the Enlightenment. Voltaire’s preoccupations with evil and with various kinds of human folly and intolerance found a perfect vehicle in this philosophical tale. A master storyteller, he combined often wildly entertaining action with profoundly serious sense, parodying the traditional chivalric and oriental tales with which his public was more familiar.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Guaranteed to keep you smiling if not LOL
- By Robert on 08-09-12
By: Voltaire
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Jude The Obscure
- By: Thomas Hardy
- Narrated by: Stephen Thorne
- Length: 15 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 249
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 201
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Story4 out of 5 stars 200
This is the story of a young country workman obsessed by his ambition to become an Oxford student, interwoven with his fraught relationships with two women.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Staggering
- By Tad Davis on 02-16-10
By: Thomas Hardy
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Little Women
- By: Louisa May Alcott
- Narrated by: Justine Eyre
- Length: 17 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 156
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 120
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 125
It is no secret that Alcott based Little Women on her own early life. While her father, the free-thinking reformer and abolitionist Bronson Alcott, hobnobbed with such eminent male authors as Emerson, Thoreau, and Hawthorne, Louisa supported herself and her sisters with "woman’s work."
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5 out of 5 stars
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Great Narration
- By Madelynn on 09-26-10
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Dombey and Son
- By: Charles Dickens
- Narrated by: Frederick Davidson
- Length: 36 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 123
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 68
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 66
In this carefully crafted novel, Dickens reveals the complexity of London society in the enterprising 1840s as he takes the listener into the business firm and home of one of its most representative patriarchs, Paul Dombey.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Perfect pair
- By Philip on 03-25-08
By: Charles Dickens
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Jane Eyre
- By: Charlotte Brontë
- Narrated by: Thandiwe Newton
- Length: 19 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall5 out of 5 stars 20,107
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 18,382
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Story5 out of 5 stars 18,302
Following Jane from her childhood as an orphan in Northern England through her experience as a governess at Thornfield Hall, Charlotte Brontë's Gothic classic is an early exploration of women's independence in the mid-19th century and the pervasive societal challenges women had to endure. At Thornfield, Jane meets the complex and mysterious Mr. Rochester, with whom she shares a complicated relationship that ultimately forces her to reconcile the conflicting passions of romantic love and religious piety.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Perfect!!
- By Amazon Customer on 04-21-16
By: Charlotte Brontë
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Father Goriot
- By: Honoré de Balzac
- Narrated by: Bill Homewood
- Length: 12 hrs
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 69
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 59
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 57
Impoverished young aristocrat Eugene de Rastignac is determined to climb the social ladder and impress himself on Parisian high society. While staying at the Maison Vauquer, a boarding house in Paris's rue Neuve-Sainte-Genevieve, he encounters Jean-Joachim Goriot, a retired vermicelli maker who has spent his entire fortune supporting his two daughters. The boarders strike up a friendship and Goriot learns of Rastignac's feelings for his daughter Delphine. He begins to see Rastignac as the ideal son-in-law, and the perfect substitute for Delphine's domineering husband. But Rastignac has other opportunities too....
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5 out of 5 stars
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Astounding performance
- By Laurence Grey on 04-05-21
By: Honoré de Balzac
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The Oscar Wilde Collection
- By: Oscar Wilde
- Narrated by: James Marsters, Jacqueline Bisset, Alfred Molina, and others
- Length: 8 hrs and 22 mins
- Original Recording
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 397
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 354
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 353
Four classic comedies from one of the wittiest playwrights in Western literature: Lady Windermere's Fan, A Woman of No Importance, An Ideal Husband, and The Importance of Being Earnest, all featuring star-studded casts with the likes of Jacqueline Bisset, Miriam Margolyes, James Marsters, Alfred Molina, Roger Rees, Yeardley Smith, Eric Stoltz, and many more. This audio also includes a chilling dramatization of Wilde's sole novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Good Collection
- By Anniebligh on 03-31-12
By: Oscar Wilde
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The Narrative of Sojourner Truth
- By: Olive Gilbert
- Narrated by: Bobbie Frohman
- Length: 3 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 91
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 82
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Story4 out of 5 stars 81
A poignant biography as told to Olive Gilbert by Isabella Bomefree - a slave who later took the name of Sojourner Truth. She recounts the harshness of life under slavery, and after winner her freedom, became a vociferous abolitionist for which she has been long remembered and revered.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Requirement for seminary
- By Steven Small on 12-14-18
By: Olive Gilbert
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Le Pere Goriot
- By: Honoré de Balzac
- Narrated by: David McCallion
- Length: 9 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 71
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 61
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 57
Honoré de Balzac uses his classic style of detail to describe a most controversial setting in his novel Le Pere Goriot. The story takes place in Paris just after the fall of Napoleon in 1819. The story focuses on three characters, Rastignac, a student who wants to try and make it big in the capital, Vautrin, an interesting and funny character who is also quite mysterious, and the main character, Goriot, that carries a heavy burden that only a loving parent would endure.
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5 out of 5 stars
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A minor masterpiece
- By Jack Rock on 03-04-18
By: Honoré de Balzac
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Our Nig, or Sketches from the Life of a Free Black in a Two-Story White House
- By: Harriet Wilson
- Narrated by: Robin Miles
- Length: 2 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 108
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 90
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 90
This is the autobiographical novel by Harriet Wilson, the first African-American to publish a novel in North America. Originally published in 1859, it was rediscovered in 1982.
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3 out of 5 stars
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Not a great book but an important one
- By Andre on 08-11-14
By: Harriet Wilson