Download Best Sellers Audiobooks in Classics, American Literature

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Title: The Diaries of Adam and Eve

Author: Mark Twain

Narrator: Robin Field

Format: Unabridged

Length: 1 hr and 45 mins

Language: English

Release date: 11-25-15

Publisher: Mission Audio

Ratings: 2 of 5 out of 1 votes

Genres: Classics, American Literature

Publisher's Summary:

Mark Twain spills his wit and whimsical sense of humor into his novel, The Diaries of Adam and Eve. The story tells of the events that took place in the Garden of Eden prior to the entrance of the deceitful serpent. Adam and Eve are not exactly getting along. Through the struggles listed in their diaries, one can safely assume that these two very different human beings are each other's greatest source of frustration.

Intended as a comical insight into the complex relations between men and women, The Diaries of Adam and Eve displays a progression from continual annoyance to a perfect partnership.

Members Reviews:

Beloved Classic Spoiled by Sub-Par Narration

This is the recorded version that is most faithful to Twain's original manuscript. Unlike most adaptations, it first tells Adam's story, then Eve's, instead of going back and forth, and nothing is left out, making this version about 40 minutes longer than others I have listened to.

Unfortunately, the narrator leaves much to be desired, both in his tone and his inflections, and his attempt to convincingly portray Eve by making his voice higher-pitched, girlish and sing-songy made the second half almost unlistenable for me. I'm thinking of returning this title. The old adaptation with Betty Buckley as Eve and Mandy Patinkin as Adam (and an intro by Walter Cronkite) is much better.

Another thing that would have made this a more credit-worthy listen would have been the inclusion of additional material (e.g., some other short stories by Twain, such as Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County and/or The Man That Corrupted Hadleysburg). Paying an entire credit for 1 hour and 45 minutes seems a little much.

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Title: The Real Thing and Other Stories

Author: Henry James

Narrator: Jeremy Northam

Format: Unabridged

Length: 4 hrs and 23 mins

Language: English

Release date: 11-18-15

Publisher: silksoundbooks Limited

Ratings: 5 of 5 out of 13 votes

Genres: Classics, American Literature

Publisher's Summary:

Illusion and love - two of James' favourite things - grin thorough this collection of funny and wicked tales. The illusion of social class, a favourite stamping ground for James, is explored in the glittering social comedy "The Real Thing", first published in 1892, in which an artist attempts vainly to capture the nature of aristocracy via painting what he takes to be 'real' members of that social group.

In "Broken Wings", the question of whether lovers ever settle down gets the James examination. Greville Fane gleefully teases the world of Barbara Cartland- type romantic fiction, and in "Four Meetings" we get a taste of that distant, slightly chilly, but extraordinary passion that Henry James perfected.

With his usual mix of femme fatales, self-deprecating writers and social climbers running riot around Europe, this collection provides some prime examples of James' extraordinary skill in creating complete worlds for the listener in snapshot glimpses.

Members Reviews:

Five Short Stories

Contents of the Audiobook:

The Real Thing (Chpt 1-4)

Greville Fane (Chpt 5)

Four Meetings (Chpt 6-9)

Broken Wings (Chpt 10-14)

Europe (Chpt 15-18)

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Title: The Tarzan Duology of Edgar Rice Burroughs

Subtitle: Tarzan of the Apes and The Return of Tarzan: A Pulp-Lit Annotated Edition

Author: Edgar Rice Burroughs, Finn J.D. John

Narrator: Finn J.D. John

Format: Unabridged

Length: 16 hrs and 20 mins

Language: English

Release date: 10-14-15

Publisher: Pulp-Lit Productions

Ratings: 4.5 of 5 out of 38 votes

Genres: Classics, American Literature

Publisher's Summary:

In the wild, unexplored coastal jungles of West Africa lives a wild human boy named Tarzan, the adopted son of a tribe of fierce almost-human anthropoid apes - but in reality, the unknown heir of a wealthy and titled English noble family. Then one day, a small party of American treasure-seekers is marooned on Tarzan's beach, including a lovely Baltimore belle named Jane Porter. When she leaves, Tarzan quits his jungle life and learns the ways of civilized man, so that he can follow her. But after he arrives, he finds he must choose between his noble birthright and her future happiness....

The two books in this duology were the world's introduction to Tarzan - possibly the most widely recognized character in fiction. Over the century, since he was introduced to us, he has starred in hundreds of books, comics, and films, and thousands of derivative bits of pop culture such as bubblegum cards and lunch pails. Only Bram Stoker's Dracula has starred in more movies. Yet the Tarzan most people think they know is far different from the original Tarzan - the Tarzan you'll meet in this audiobook. The Tarzan most of us know is a crude, powerful, primitive man who speaks in monosyllables ('Me Tarzan. You Jane. Where boy?') . The original Tarzan was altogether different - fluent in at least four languages (Ape, French, English, and Arabic, in that order) and equally comfortable in the smoking room of a great ocean liner as he was in the savage jungle.

This pulp-lit annotated edition of Burroughs' first two Tarzan books tells the story of the ape-man's origins, from his childhood adventures to his triumphant arrival as Lord Greystoke.

Members Reviews:

A Pulp Classic

Most everything I thought I knew about Tarzan turns out to be incomplete or wrong. Saturday morning television and old television serials don't capture half of it. I really enjoyed Tarzan of the Apes and enjoyed seeing the changes and compromises Burroughs made in the sequel to make it a popular hit. John's narration was well done and I have no real complaint, but he would not have been my choice for this tale about the most manly of men. Very glad I took a chance on this book.

An Old Friend

Tarzan is like an old friend to me. it was a pleasure to reaquaint myself with him in my first audio book.

King of everything

This is such a great story that I can't get enough of. A masterpiece in my opinion

Great Classic

The first book was everything you thought it would be. I was stunned at the ending. I had to know more!

The narrator does a good job except you could say he does a female voice too well in the fact he successfully portrayed them as the air heads they were expected to be. There is a good time commentary at the end of the Duology that expresses the reasons why Edgar wrote what he did and how it came about portrayed the way it was. That goes for roughly 8/10mins. It is a wonderful book and the only Tarzan movie to come close is the 2016 Legend of Tarzan. Though that still underplays Tarzan's true dominating character. Well worth the price.

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Title: Hot Water

Author: P. G. Wodehouse

Narrator: Jonathan Cecil

Format: Unabridged

Length: 7 hrs and 15 mins

Language: English

Release date: 08-14-15

Publisher: Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Ratings: 5 of 5 out of 25 votes

Genres: Classics, American Literature

Publisher's Summary:

The house party at Chateau Blissac, Brittany, features a rather odd array of guests this year.

Mr. J. Wellington Gedge is hoping for some peace and quiet while his wife takes herself off for a while. She, however, has invited numerous visitors to the chateau, to whom he will have to play reluctant host. Senator Opal and his daughter are expected, and so is the chateau's handsome owner, Vicomte de Blissac.

When a certain letter goes missing, landing the senator in the proverbial hot water, it's up to Packy Franklyn, a great pal of the vicomte's, to sort out the mess. Unfortunately this involves a little light safecracking.

Members Reviews:

New characters. Old hijinks

This Wodehouse tale has only one British aristocrat but there's a host of rich as well as some nefarious Americans whose lives intersect in a crazy tale. There are surprises right up to the last chapter. A fun listen.

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Title: The Age of Innocence

Author: Edith Wharton

Narrator: Nicky Whichelow

Format: Unabridged

Length: 9 hrs and 13 mins

Language: English

Release date: 07-16-15

Publisher: A.R.N. Publications

Ratings: 4.5 of 5 out of 40 votes

Genres: Classics, American Literature

Publisher's Summary:

Author Edith Wharton has a phenomenal ability to write about love that is lost and found. A young man by the name of Newland Archer seems to have everything he wants out of life, most notably a beautiful young fiancé named May Welland. Their innocent romance seems unbreakable until the introduction of May's cousin, Ellen Olenska, who is planning on divorcing her husband. As he gets to know her and her more rebellious take on life, Archer finds himself falling in love with her. The nature of their social placements, however, make for a very difficult pursuit of any relationship, and not long after Ellen officially divorces her husband, May and Archer get married rather in a hurry, and it seems that the potential for Archer and Ellen to be together is dashed.

Whereas a man who is overcome with emotion and falls deeply in love with a woman might do everything in his power to see her and be with her, Archer makes some very painful decisions in the later years of his life. At the end of The Age of Innocence, he makes the final decision that effectively brings closure to his relationship with Ellen, and it is one that is as brave as it is heart wrenching.

Members Reviews:

A huge waste of time.

Hated the narrator and thought the direction of the performance terrible. I don't understand why such books are considered classic. I don't get the point.

Sloppy Production

Any additional comments?

I actually chose this version of Age of Innocence to listen to because it was 3 hours shorter than other versions. The reader has a good reading voice and she reads in a way I like; not too dramatic but with some expression. She reads very quickly, which could be an issue if you are driving or otherwise trying to multitask; you will miss a lot. That is what I liked, I was only listening and I didn't want to wait for an actor's over emoting.

What I didn't like was the sense that this was a very poorly produced version; there are an excruciating number of mispronunciations; the reader is British and there are obvious differences in pronunciation between British English and American English, but even given that the reader rushes through words, skipping syllables or misreading the word. She mispronounces even quite well known foreign places; the Tuilleries were twilleria or something like that. These are errors that should be caught by a director or producer and fixed. This kind of shoddy recording work should certainly not be sold at full price.

I have noticed that this production company, A. R. N. Productions, has just put out a number of recordings of classics with very similar style cover art. Just based on the really annoyingly bad production quality of this example, I plan to avoid all of their recorded versions of books.

I know that there are a lot of self-published authors who are putting out audio books with incompetent readers; I have sympathy for their wish to get their books out on audio as inexpensively as possible, although I try very hard to avoid buying books with bad narrators

I have less sympathy for this production company that is putting out fairly attractively packaged new recordings of old classics and doing it badly.

I did listen to 4/5 of this recording before giving up in disgust and finishing up with the David Horovitch recording. He does a very good job, but he does read pretty slowly and with a lot of dramatic pauses, which I don't love either.

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Title: Everything You Need to Know About Atlas Shrugged

Author: Charles River Editors

Narrator: Scott Clem

Format: Unabridged

Length: 39 mins

Language: English

Release date: 06-23-15

Publisher: Charles River Editors

Ratings: 3.5 of 5 out of 18 votes

Genres: Classics, American Literature

Publisher's Summary:

Learn everything you need to know about Atlas Shrugged, quickly!

This audiobook includes a discussion of the plot, characters, main themes, and political philosophy of Ayn Rand.

In 2009, with the global economy hemorrhaging jobs and Western governments using hundreds of billions of dollars in taxpayer money to "bail out" troubled financial firms and large companies, frustrated people and political analysts turned to a book written over 50 years earlier as a guide out of the abyss.

Though Atlas Shrugged had been a popular title when Ayn Rand published it in 1957, it's quite possible that the only reference to it that many Americans heard before 2009 came from the hit TV series Mad Men. However, this staple of conservative and libertarian readers took on new life as the new Obama Administration sought to use government resources to fix financial problems.

Conservative commentators like Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh praised the book to their audiences, and Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas labeled it one of his favorite novels. By January 2009, one article in The Wall Street Journal was titled, "Atlas Shrugged from Fiction to Fact in 52 Years".

In that time, the giant novel that Rand considered her magnum opus has seen its sales spike dramatically, eventually reaching the top of Amazon's best sellers list. Even today, it is still within Kindle's top 500 titles, making it one of the most heavily read books of the last several years.

Today, many have heard of the title and are partially familiar with it, but the sheer size of the book makes it inaccessible for people who don't have a lot of time to read or ponder Rand's philosophy. Thankfully, that problem is now solved with Everything You Need to Know About Atlas Shrugged, a primer that can get anyone caught up to speed on the plot, characters, themes, symbols, and philosophy of Rand's classic

Members Reviews:

Brief summary misses the motivational effects

The summary does an excellent job at listing and explaining key themes from the Novel but fails to motivate one to read the Novel.

Horrible interpretation & performance

Quite the bastardization of one of the world's most profound novels. What was the author/narrator thinking?

saved me from reading a 1000 page

$$$ music ,sex and a Brige to no where, strikes in company. where a lack of production is the goal.. Sounds like today

Can't Believe I Burned A Credit On This!

Have buyers regret, should have asked for a refund. The level of this very very short book was that of a junior high book report. Provided no new insights at all.

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Title: The Blithedale Romance

Author: Nathaniel Hawthorne

Narrator: Jonathan Fried

Format: Unabridged

Length: 8 hrs and 52 mins

Language: English

Release date: 06-01-15

Publisher: Recorded Books

Ratings: 3.5 of 5 out of 4 votes

Genres: Classics, American Literature

Publisher's Summary:

Miles Coverdale, embarks on a quest for the betterment of the world through the agrarian lifestyle and community of the Blithedale Farm. The story begins with a conversation between Coverdale and Old Moodie, a character who reappears throughout the story. The legend of the mysterious Veiled Lady is introduced; she is a popular clairvoyant who disappears unannounced from the social scene. Coverdale then makes the voyage to Blithedale, where he is introduced to such characters as Zenobia and Mr. and Mrs. Silas Foster.

At their first community dinner, they are interrupted by the arrival of Hollingsworth, a previous acquaintance of Coverdale's, who is carrying a frail, pale girl. Though Hollingsworth believes the girl (whose age is never clarified) is an expected guest, none of the Blithedale citizens recognize her. She immediately develops a strong attachment to Zenobia, and reveals her name to be Priscilla. Soon after, Coverdale becomes severely ill and is bedridden. During his sickness, he believes he is on the brink of death and develops a closeness with Hollingsworth due to their anxiety-ridden situation and discussion of worldly ideals. Hollingsworth and Zenobia take care of him, and he returns to health shortly.

As he recovers and spring comes, the residents of the community begin to work the land successfully and prove to their neighbors the plausibility of their cause. Priscilla starts to open up, and relationships between the other characters develop as well. Tension in the friendship between Coverdale and Hollingsworth intensifies as their philosophical disagreements continue. Meanwhile, Zenobia and Hollingsworth become close and rumor flies they might build a house together.

Mr. Moodie makes a reappearance and asks about Priscilla and Zenobia for reasons to be revealed later. Coverdale then meets a stranger who turns out to be a Professor Westervelt. Westervelt also asks about Zenobia and Hollingsworth.

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Title: To Kill a Mockingbird: A Reader's Guide to the Harper Lee Novel

Author: Robert Crayola

Narrator: Jon DiIenno

Format: Unabridged

Length: 1 hr and 3 mins

Language: English

Release date: 04-23-15

Publisher: Robert Crayola

Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 9 votes

Genres: Classics, American Literature

Publisher's Summary:

Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird is widely considered one of the greatest of American novels. This new guide gives you an in-depth analysis of this important work, unlocking its confusing aspects, making the book accessible and enjoyable, and helping you uncover all the details that make up the story.

Included in this guide: a biography of author Harper Lee, a look at the book's context, its literary elements, detailed chapter summaries, analysis, and an examination of critical questions and essay topics. This is the definitive guide to To Kill a Mockingbird, concise and easy to listen to.

Members Reviews:

Very good!

This book helped me understand the meaning behind the characters and story of To Kill A Mockingbird. I would recommend reading it to fully appreciate the original book.

Study guide

Easy to follow and character profiles very helpful. Grand Daughter doing book report and is helping organize thoughts. Wanted book but not available on Kendel

Reading To kill a Mockingbird

I enjoyed watching the movie as a child so I decided to read the book now that I am an adult. I enjoyed story.

Disappointing guide

I am facilitating a book club reading of To Kill a Mockingbird so I thought this book would help with my analysis and preparation. I found the book to be simplistic and the questions were not thought provoking.

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Title: Rules of Civility & Decent Behaviour in Company and Conversation

Author: George Washington

Narrator: Glenn Hascall

Format: Unabridged

Length: 24 mins

Language: English

Release date: 03-20-15

Publisher: Spoken Realms

Ratings: 4.5 of 5 out of 6 votes

Genres: Classics, American Literature

Publisher's Summary:

When Americas first President, George Washington, was 13 years of age, he penned 110 rules of civility. Some believe he was simply transcribing something he had read, but no one seems to know exactly what that may have been. This provides a glimpse at the early days of his character development. Narrated by Glenn Hascall.

Members Reviews:

I like etiquette. Coming from Washington, sublime!

it is always good to keep in mind all of the subtle things we unintentionally do in company. If everyone respected others while they were in public, it is an obvious result that no one person would ever feel disrespected. It will always take work to be respectful, but it is always appreciated when done in earnest righteously.

Where did civility go?

Find all you need, next to the Bible, to teacher polite behavior to the generations that have never been taught.

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Title: Under the Lilacs

Author: Louisa May Alcott

Narrator: Flo Gibson

Format: Unabridged

Length: 6 hrs and 56 mins

Language: English

Release date: 03-20-15

Publisher: Audio Book Contractors

Ratings: 5 of 5 out of 4 votes

Genres: Classics, American Literature

Publisher's Summary:

Ben and his trained dog, Sancho, run away from the circus and soon find a warm welcome in a kind community where spirited games are played. Theatricals and imaginative pageantry are all part of the fun.

Members Reviews:

Always a favorite!

listen to this book!!

Such a happy story! I hope you will love it.

Lucy.