The Dream of a Ridiculous Man
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The Dream of a Ridiculous Man
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Narrated by:
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Walter Zimmerman
About this listen
The Dream of a Ridiculous Man is one of his best short pieces. No less a writer than Virginia Woolf says of Dostoevsky, "Out of Shakespeare there is no more exciting reading."
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Fyodor Dostoevsky’s penultimate serial plays like a super-concentrated version of his most famous works from the 1860s and '70s. The story follows a man perhaps even more brooding, deranged, and paranoid than Dostoevsky’s most famous anti-heroes, a man who’s very thoughts are so numerous and twisted that they seem to nullify him, rendering his life meaningless. On his way to kill himself, the ridiculous man is struck by a chance encounter with a young girl, which in turn prompts a life-altering vision of paradise. Performer Walter Zimmerman’s fluid, deliberate style brings clarity and tempo to the labyrinthine psychoanalytics for which Dostoevsky is famous. Through his tortuously absurd protagonist, the author’s telltale meditations on utopia, nihilism, and spirituality are all expounded to satirically outrageous conclusions.
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 44
Machado de Assis’ classic novel, the precursor of Latin American fiction, is finally rendered as a stunningly relevant work for 21st-century audiences. In eloquent, contemporary prose, Costa and Patterson breathe new life into the dynamic character of Brás Cubas and reveal the vivid, tempestuous Rio de Janeiro of his time. The recently deceased Cubas narrates his life story, admitting glibly: “I am not so much a writer who has died, as a dead man who has decided to write.”
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5 out of 5 stars
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Incredible story from an incredible author
- By Anonymous User on 01-01-21
By: Joaquim Maria Machado de Assis, and others
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De Profundis
- By: Oscar Wilde
- Narrated by: David McCallion
- Length: 1 hr and 41 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 40
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 38
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 38
At its heart, De Profundis is a love letter and is better known as the De Profundis papers. Written in 1897, while Oscar Wilde was imprisoned in Reading Gaol, De Profundis would become one of his best-known works. The papers include Wilde's account of living a lavish lifestyle and his relationship with Lord Alfred Douglas, both of which he credited for his eventual downfall and imprisonment. The second half of the papers is Wilde's account of prison life and his spiritual awakening.
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1 out of 5 stars
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This Work Really Is Wilde Going Off...
- By James E. Lytle on 05-16-21
By: Oscar Wilde
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The Diary of a Country Priest
- By: Georges Bernanos
- Narrated by: Kris Dyer
- Length: 11 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 32
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 30
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 30
A young, shy, sickly priest is assigned to his first parish, a sleepy village in Northern France. Though his faith is devout, he finds nothing but indifference and mockery. The children laugh at his teachings, his parishioners are consumed by boredom, rumours are spread about him and he is tormented by stomach pains. Even his attempts to clarify his thoughts in a diary fail to deliver him from worldly concerns. Yet somehow, despite his suffering, he tries to find love for his fellow humans and even a state of grace.
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4 out of 5 stars
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A "Bucket List" Book to Read
- By S. Cremona on 05-11-22
By: Georges Bernanos
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Demian
- By: Hermann Hesse
- Narrated by: Michael A. Smith
- Length: 5 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 70
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 65
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 65
The passionate account of a young man's growing awareness of his own identity, of his involvement in the secret and dangerous world of petty crime, and how, influenced by a precocious schoolmate, he rebels against convention and discovers not only the great joy of independence, but his own new powers for good and evil.
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5 out of 5 stars
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i came here because of kpop
- By Christine K. on 09-07-16
By: Hermann Hesse
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The Brothers Karamazov
- By: Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Constance Garnett - translator
- Narrated by: Alastair Cameron
- Length: 34 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 152
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 144
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 142
The Brothers Karamazov is a tale of a complicated and broken family headed by a father, Fyodor Karamazov, who becomes entangled with his three sons, whom he neglected, after both mothers died.
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5 out of 5 stars
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A Great Voice for a Great Book
- By Lisa on 12-08-16
By: Fyodor Dostoyevsky, and others
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The Man Without Qualities
- By: Robert Musil
- Narrated by: John Telfer
- Length: 60 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 52
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 42
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 43
In 1913, the Viennese aristocracy is gathering to celebrate the 17th jubilee of the accession of Emperor Franz Josef, even as the Austro-Hungarian Empire is collapsing and the rest of Vienna is showing signs of rebellion. At the centre of this social labyrinth is Ulrich: a veteran, a seducer and a scientist, yet also a man 'without qualities' and therefore a brilliant and detached observer of his changing world.
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5 out of 5 stars
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An unmatched intellectual epic
- By Delano on 06-23-22
By: Robert Musil
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The Book of Disquiet
- By: Fernando Pessoa
- Narrated by: Adam Sims
- Length: 17 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 152
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 125
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 123
Assembled from notes and jottings left unpublished at the time of the author’s death, The Book of Disquiet is a collection of aphoristic prose-poetry musings on dreams, solitude, time and memory. Credited to Pessoa’s alter ego, Bernardo Soares, who chronicles his contemplations in this so-called "factless" autobiography, the work is a journey of one man’s soul and, by extension, of all human souls that allow their minds and hearts to roam far and free.
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5 out of 5 stars
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The book that saved my life
- By Hutchinson on 03-09-21
By: Fernando Pessoa
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Frankenstein
- The Modern Prometheus
- By: Mary Shelley
- Narrated by: Mark Nelson
- Length: 8 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 53
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 47
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Story4 out of 5 stars 46
During the rainy summer of 1816, the "Year Without a Summer", the world was locked in a long cold volcanic winter caused by the eruption of Mount Tambora in 1815. Mary Shelley, aged 18, and her lover (and later husband) Percy Bysshe Shelley, visited Lord Byron at the Villa Diodati by Lake Geneva in Switzerland. The weather was consistently too cold and dreary that summer to enjoy the outdoor holiday activities they had planned, so the group retired indoors until dawn.
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5 out of 5 stars
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A must read/listen
- By R. Daly on 11-13-23
By: Mary Shelley
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A Woman of No Importance
- By: Oscar Wilde
- Narrated by: Miriam Margolyes, Samantha Mathis, Rosalind Ayres, and others
- Length: 1 hr and 34 mins
- Original Recording
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 225
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 188
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 188
Devilishly attractive Lord Illingworth is notorious for his skill as a seducer. But he is still invited to all the "best" houses, while his female conquests must hide their shame in seclusion. In this devastating drawing-room comedy, Oscar Wilde uses his celebrated wit to expose English society's narrow view of everything from sexual mores to Americans.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Pitch Perfect Performance
- By Cheryl on 08-26-12
By: Oscar Wilde
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Two Horror Classics: Frankenstein and Dracula
- By: Mary Shelley, Bram Stoker
- Narrated by: Gildart Jackson
- Length: 28 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 80
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 72
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 71
In Frankenstein, a classic tale of bio-engineering gone horribly wrong, Victor Frankenstein uses body parts of the dead to bring a creature to life. When Frankenstein abandons his experiment in horror, the Monster embarks on a quest that results in the ultimate revenge. In Dracula, a timeless gothic vampire romance, young solicitor Jonathan Harker must shield his fiancé, Mina, from the predations of the insatiable Count Dracula. Mysteriously drawn to the Count, Mina, however, struggles to break free from the psychic grip of the mysterious dark stranger from Transylvania.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Wonderful rendition of two Gothic Horror classics!
- By Teela'Na on 10-03-19
By: Mary Shelley, and others
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Philosopher of the Heart
- The Restless Life of Søren Kierkegaard
- By: Clare Carlisle
- Narrated by: Simon Vance
- Length: 10 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 71
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 63
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 62
Søren Kierkegaard is one of the most passionate and challenging of all modern philosophers, and is often regarded as the founder of existentialism. Over about a decade in the 1840s and 1850s, writings poured from his pen pursuing the question of existence - how to be a human being in the world? - while exploring the possibilities of Christianity and confronting the failures of its institutional manifestation around him.
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3 out of 5 stars
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Fatally flawed
- By Citizen M on 02-26-23
By: Clare Carlisle
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The Bridge of San Luis Rey
- By: Thornton Wilder
- Narrated by: Sam Waterston
- Length: 3 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 618
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Performance3.5 out of 5 stars 457
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Story4 out of 5 stars 454
Wilder's stories consistently explored the connections between the commonplace and cosmic dimensions of human experience, always returning to fundamental questions about the meaning of life. This Pulitzer Prize-winning tale concerns the lives of five people who fall to their deaths from a Peruvian rope bridge in 1714. A humble Franciscan, Brother Juniper, witnesses the accident and determines to learn about the lives of the victims in order to find out whether this accident happened by chance or by plan.
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2 out of 5 stars
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Excellent Story, But Poor Audiobook Technically
- By RKL on 11-15-13
By: Thornton Wilder
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Secrets in the Dark
- A Life in Sermons
- By: Frederick Buechner, Brian D. McLaren - foreword
- Narrated by: Adam Verner
- Length: 12 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 31
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 28
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 28
Frederick Buechner has long been a kindred spirit to those who find elements of doubt as constant companions on their journey of faith. He is a passionate writer and preacher who can alter lives with a simple phrase. Reflecting Buechner's exquisite gift for storytelling and his compassionate pastor's heart, Secrets in the Dark will inspire laughter, hope, and bring great solace. Start listening and rediscover what it means to be thoughtful about faith.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Food for Thinking People of Faith
- By GDF on 10-05-20
By: Frederick Buechner, and others
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The Forgotten Language
- An Introduction to the Understanding of Dreams, Fairy Tales, and Myths
- By: Erich Fromm
- Narrated by: Kevin Young
- Length: 7 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 56
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 47
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 47
In this study, Fromm argues that man needs to analyze his unconscious thoughts, his dreams, and his conscious fantasies, as they reflect a universal and symbolic representation of himself.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Fromm at full steam
- By Paul on 02-15-16
By: Erich Fromm
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The Beast in the Jungle and the Evolution of the Short Story
- By: Henry James
- Narrated by: Jonathan Epstein
- Length: 2 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 30
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 28
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 28
A gentleman, with the aid of a close female companion, investigates a hidden disturbance within his unconscious. This acclaimed classic short story is rendered in perfect Jamesian fashion by narrator Jonathan Epstein.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Wonderful
- By Joyce on 10-15-16
By: Henry James
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Figures of Earth
- A Comedy of Appearances
- By: James Branch Cabell
- Narrated by: Robert Blumenfeld
- Length: 7 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 26
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 23
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Story4 out of 5 stars 23
Figures of Earth, subtitled "A Comedy of Appearances", follows the vicissitudes of Dom Manuel the Redeemer from his lowly swineherd origins through his unlikely elevation to the Count of Poictesme, and beyond. Published in 1921, it was the second volume of “The Biography of Manuel”, Cabell’s great work about an imaginary land that also managed to skewer the world of his upbringing as a Southern Gentleman of Virginia, and nearly everything else, besides!
What listeners say about The Dream of a Ridiculous Man
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance3 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Gambit
- 09-13-16
The story was great
The story was great the narrator not so
much... I suggest listening to the story but looking for a different narrator
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Mark
- 07-04-14
Dostoyevsky Gem
Any additional comments?
What a wonderful, challenging, philosophical, fantastical short story by Dostoyevsky. The narrator is very clear and well-paced. Audio quality is OK.
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance2 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Rex Michael Dillon
- 05-10-19
Not the greatest telling
Although this is one of my favorite Dostoevsky short stories, this translation and the telling felt a bit stiff. This story is best read or told as one of those conversations you have on rare occasions when you are both trapped waiting. The reader doesn't share the urgency and conviction that Dostoevsky was trying to convey.
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Jeb
- 03-19-12
Incredibly imaginative
Dostoevsky's gift as a story-teller is on display in "The Dream of a Ridiculous Man". Zimmerman is ideal for narrating FD.
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
- Jeremy Devens
- 01-09-09
Inspiring
Not perfect, but well written and well thought out. If you like Dostoevsky, you'll like this.
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11 people found this helpful
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance2 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- James
- 08-27-12
An Alternative to This Narration
Any additional comments?
I'm sorry to say I couldn't enjoy Walter Zimmerman's narration. I've found this same story in a small, inexpensive collection of Dostoyevsky short stories called "A Disgraceful Affair." Since it isn't obvoius which stories that collection contains (odd to me, since Dream of a Ridiculous Man is pretty famous and I'd think the collection would sell better if they'd put it up front), I thought I'd come here and recommend that one as an alternative.The narrators for that collection are Michael Page and Kirby Heyborne, and I'm not sure which reads Dream of a Ridiculous Man. The performance there is a bit more manic than the voice I "hear" when I read Dostoyevsky, but it's a worthy intepretation.Anyway, if you want to give a different narrator a shot at this great story, punch "A Disgraceful Affair" into the search engine. I don't know the other stories it contains except the very early one called "White Nights," which is also lovely.
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3 people found this helpful
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Overall2 out of 5 stars
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Performance2 out of 5 stars
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Story1 out of 5 stars
- Marty
- 05-07-19
Expected to be Wowed.
An article I read had referenced this book and it sounded good. I was a bit disappointed with the lack of purpose and it reminded me of the 1960 movie "The Time Machine".
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Overallout of 5 stars
- M. M.
- 03-16-10
great book but....
Walter Zimmerman is terrible...
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1 person found this helpful