Download Best Sellers Audiobooks in Classics, American Literature

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Title: An Excursion to Canada

Author: Henry David Thoreau

Narrator: Deaver Brown

Format: Unabridged

Length: 3 hrs and 4 mins

Language: English

Release date: 03-20-12

Publisher: Simply Media

Ratings: 3.5 of 5 out of 6 votes

Genres: Classics, American Literature

Publisher's Summary:

An Excursion to Canada is a remarkable work by Thoreau, very different from his other works. Here he becomes an American traveler who shows far greater respect for America than Canada, while explaining the details of the chasm between the Church (Black) and the soldiers (Red) in Quebec that Stendhal pointed out in The Red and the Black in France. Thoreau falls into the American trap of blaming French Canadians for not speaking English in their native province of Quebec but places no criticism upon himself for not speaking French. He has much criticism of the Quebecois Canadians and gets into the ongoing British-America versus French-America controversies alive today. As a great naturalist and surveyor, as well as botanist, he paints an especially vivid picture of the St. Lawrence River and embankment. Something like DeTocqueville's Democracy in America, but here Canada is the country under the microscope. Canadians and Americans should listen to this, as well as anyone interested in Thoreau.

Members Reviews:

Thoreau good , Brown bad

Would you be willing to try another one of Deaver Browns performances?

NO

Was An Excursion to Canada worth the listening time?

The story showed Thoreau's sense of humor. Thoreau's literacy and story telling were present. Unfortunately he was carrying a rather large chip on his shoulder for Quebec.

I would have to say don't no, don't buy this book.

Any additional comments?

Some people should not allow their voice to be recorded

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Title: Babbitt

Author: Sinclair Lewis

Narrator: Flo Gibson

Format: Unabridged

Length: 11 hrs and 19 mins

Language: English

Release date: 03-09-12

Publisher: Audio Book Contractors, Inc.

Ratings: 4.5 of 5 out of 6 votes

Genres: Classics, American Literature

Publisher's Summary:

This classic satirical novel portrays Babbitt as a materialistic, hypocritical, and self-important middle-aged realtor. His brief romantic encounter and an attempt at liberalism are curbed by fear of criticism, forcing him to conform to the wills of his fellow citizens and club members.

Members Reviews:

The ultimate middleman

In 1922 the ultimate middleman, George F. Babbitt from Floral Heights, Cincinnati, took the stage and showed a character who was crass, pushy, materialistic, conformist yet occasionally sympathetic. Caustic but funny satirical novel never gets old, possibly because American class distinctions haven't changed all that much over the years. This is the starting place for Sinclair Lewis's most important novels, not MAIN STREET which showed Americans the way things had been, but BABBITT that showed Americans they way things were (and Europeans the way things they'd always suspected). Highly recommended.

Classic critique of conformism

Lewis' portrait of the striving middle class is just as appropriate for today's society as it was when he wrote it. His critique of the ideal citizen rings just as true now as then. The hypocracy is just as obvious, and the reward for 'virtue' just as strong. When one of the good fellows starts to think through his position and criticize it, he is ostracized for his unorthodox thoughts, for becoming a red, even though he's nothing close to it. The worst of the red-baiting was yet to come when Lewis wrote Babbitt, but he captures the idea of it pretty well, and the modern parallel seems to be anti-muslim sentiment.

One of the more interesting recurring themes in the book is discussing the benefit of Prohibition while flouting it. In good society, one must always discuss the virutes of Prohibition, especially for the lower classes who need it, so as not to exceed in their imbibing. "Congress didn't understand the right system. Now, if I'd been running the thing, I'd have arranged it so that the drinker himself was licensed, and then we could have taken care of the shiftless workman - kept him from drinking - and yet not 've interfered with the rights - with the personal liberty - of fellows like ourselves." The sentiment of this statement seems to be expressed constantly by various groups still today. Let's take away the rights that these people certainly cannot be trusted with, but make sure we still get to exercise them. It seems preposterous to say who can and cannot have a drink, based on another man's opinion of him, but yet we seem to think it's alright for a number of other activities...

In Babbitt's world, the Good Citizen is the ideal citizen, the man who knows what's best for society and does it, without complaining. He enjoys what he is supposed to enjoy (the modest benefits of a modern, consumerist society), and loathes what he's supposed to loathe (anyone that business leaders tell you is threatening the current situation).

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Title: The American

Author: Henry James

Narrator: Robin Lawson

Format: Unabridged

Length: 13 hrs and 47 mins

Language: English

Release date: 02-22-12

Publisher: Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Ratings: 3.5 of 5 out of 84 votes

Genres: Classics, American Literature

Publisher's Summary:

During a trip to Europe, wealthy American businessman Christopher Newman proposes marriage to the scintillating and beautiful aristocrat Claire de Cintré. To his dismay, he comes up against the machinations of her impoverished but proud family, who find Newman to be a vulgar example of the American privileged class. Brilliantly combining elements of comedy, tragedy, romance, and melodrama, this tale of thwarted desire vividly contrasts 19th-century American and European manners.

Literary critic Leon Edel, considered the foremost authority on the works of Henry James, wrote of this novel: Behind its melodrama and its simple romance is the history of mans dream of better worlds, travel to strange lands, and marriage to high and noble ladies. At the same time, the book reveals a deep affection for American innocence and a deep awareness that such innocence carries with it a fund of ignorance.

Critic Reviews:

A masterpiece of American romanticism in which James shows us his profound grasp of what he was ultimately to call the Americo-European legend. (Leon Edel, literary critic, biographer, and foremost authority on the works of Henry James)

Members Reviews:

Pleasing novel, seemingly read by the protagonist

I really enjoy Henry James, and this book was no exception. It is a portrait, perhaps one of the earlier, of a character encountered in a number of books (e.g., Sinclair Lewis' Dodsworth): the intelligent, successful, open and likeable American who goes out to see the (old) world and who is somehow completely blind to European social structure and conventions. In some aspects he is naive, but he is not stupid or inexperienced; he is simply unable to grasp the way members of a class-based society perceive humanity. And above all, he is genuinely likeable. I was also somewhat surprised to find that this book was written in 1877 -- to me, it really felt like an early-20th century novel, though I can't explain the precise reason. It wasn't the greatest piece of literature I've ever read, but it was very nice.

As for the narrator: it's really hard to rate him. On the one hand, he has a very warm, pleasant, clear voice, and he has a touch of that slightly outdated American accent which is perfect for the character and the narrator. He makes no attempt at characterizations, which I thought was fine -- I never felt confused as to the identity of the speaker. But the major problem with him is that he simply doesn't know any language other than American. Most of the story takes part in France, and there are quite a few French characters and expressions. For all of these, the narrator sounds like a caricature of an American mispronouncing French. He even mispronounces French expressions that are used in English, such as "coup d'etat" (he pronounces the final t). And the only character he tries to supply with an accent -- an elderly English woman -- sounds more or less like Dick Van Dyke's hilarious mock-Cockney accent in "Mary Poppins". It really sounded as if the main character was reading the novel.

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Title: The Good Soldier

Author: Ford Madox Ford

Narrator: Ralph Cosham

Format: Unabridged

Length: 7 hrs and 19 mins

Language: English

Release date: 02-10-12

Publisher: Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Ratings: 3.5 of 5 out of 128 votes

Genres: Classics, American Literature

Publisher's Summary:

The Good Soldier is a story about the complex social and sexual relationships between two couples - one English, one American - and the growing awareness of American narrator John Dowell of the intrigues and passions behind their orderly Edwardian façade. It is Dowells attitude - his puzzlement, uncertainty, and the seemingly haphazard manner of his narration - that makes the book so powerful and mysterious. In Fords brilliantly woven tale, nothing is quite what it seems.

Despite its catalog of death, insanity, and despair, this novel has many comic moments and has inspired the work of several distinguished writers, including Graham Greene. Originally published in 1915, The Good Soldier is considered by many to be Ford Madox Fords masterpiece.

Ford Madox Ford (18731939) was a novelist, poet, literary critic, editor, and one of the founding fathers of English Modernism. He published over seventy books in his lifetime, perhaps most famously The Good Soldier. His books often centered on the conflict between traditional British values and those of the modern industrial society.

Critic Reviews:

One of the finest novels of our century. (Graham Greene)

The Good Soldier, often regarded as his best work, reflects Fords ambivalent fascination with the phenomenon of the English gentleman. The conclusion is anticipated in the well-known opening line: This is the saddest story I have ever heard. (

New York Times)

This is the most intriguing, shocking, and original book I have ever read

The Good Soldier is the only book I have ever read and wanted to read again immediately. (

Times, London)

Members Reviews:

The Clueless Cuckold and the Romantic Philanderer

The Good Soldier (1915) by Ford Maddox Ford is "the saddest story" the narrator has ever heard, but because it's so well written about unlikeable characters who have been emotionally destroyed before the first chapter begins, it engrossed rather than moved me. The narrator, John Dowell, a Pennsylvania Quaker and a member of the American idle rich, is telling the tragic story of the relationships in the early 20th century Europe between himself and his wife, Florence, the relationship then between a married couple of the English aristocracy, Captain Edward Ashburnham ("the good soldier") and his wife Leonora, and the relationships between the four of them. He's telling the story in the way that people who witness disasters like "the sack of a city or the falling to pieces of a people" feel compelled to write about them for the benefit of future generations or simply "to get the sight out of their heads." Unsure whether to begin at the beginning and progress chronologically to the end, or to tell his imagined listener whatever comes to his mind when it comes and to fill in missing things as needed, he settles on the latter method. This makes the novel innovative for its time, an early example of modernism, though without the stream of consciousness of writers like Virginia Woolf. Dowell recounts how his wife, "poor dear Florence," was, he thought, an invalid with a heart condition that required him to live as her caretaker for the twelve years they were together, carefully monitoring all subjects of conversation to suppress any "dangerous" topics (involving religion or strong emotions or politics, etc.) so as to avoid upsetting her weak heart.

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Title: On the Decay of the Art of Lying

Author: Mark Twain

Narrator: Brian Troxel

Format: Unabridged

Length: 16 mins

Language: English

Release date: 01-24-12

Publisher: Audible Studios

Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 37 votes

Genres: Classics, American Literature

Publisher's Summary:

Mark Twain composed this short essay on the "art of lying" in 1885 for a meeting of the Historical and Antiquarian Club of Hartford, Connecticut. In the essay, Twain laments the four ways in which men of America's Gilded Age employ man's "most faithful friend". The essay, Twain notes, was "offered for the thirty-dollar prize," but it "did not take the prize."

Editorial Reviews:

Master satirist Twain explains the lie as a social necessity given the complications of moral existence and human natures fickleness. The lie counterbalances hard truth. Twains intent is to bemoan the act of lying as a waning skillful act of intellect. Twains humor is more evident here than his bitterness. Narrator Brian Troxels droll and reedy tone will makes listeners feel as if they are present at an intimate lecture by Twain himself. Troxel manifests Twain using only his voice, and his jaunty and wry performance showcases Twains nuanced yet precise argument of the lie as a key answer to the problems of reality.

Members Reviews:

A Must Listen

Though a rather short story, it is well worth listening to. Loaded with infallible truths and lies. it is an excellent aid for those who want to improve upon the art of lying for the good.

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Title: Cool Hand Luke

Author: Donn Pearce

Narrator: Mark Hammer

Format: Unabridged

Length: 8 hrs and 54 mins

Language: English

Release date: 12-01-11

Publisher: Recorded Books

Ratings: 4.5 of 5 out of 45 votes

Genres: Classics, American Literature

Publisher's Summary:

Based in part on Donn Pearces own experiences working on a Florida road gang, this classic story of Cool Hand Luke, the defiant survivor who refused to be defeated by the forces of corrupt authority, is earthy, sensitively written, and revealing.

Members Reviews:

Like the movie but not

If you decide to get the book please try to put the movie out of your mind. I was almost halfway thru when I decided to start from the beginning and just enjoy the story and the wonderful narrator. The performance is excellent. He gives each and every character a distinct voice full of personality and unique accents. The scene where George Kennedy has a fight with Luke just doesn't happen in the book. And I missed a third of this wonderful performance waiting and trying to match up the movie and book. That's when I started over and glad I did.

cool hand Lukes have always been my favorite

If you could sum up Cool Hand Luke in three words, what would they be?

mark hammer does a wonderful job of narrating

What did you like best about this story?

mark hammer southern drawl as he did the narrating

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

I did listen to this book all in 1 sitting

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Title: Tobacco Road

Author: Erskine Caldwell

Narrator: Mark Hammer

Format: Unabridged

Length: 6 hrs and 34 mins

Language: English

Release date: 11-22-11

Publisher: Recorded Books

Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 52 votes

Genres: Classics, American Literature

Publisher's Summary:

Earthy, raunchy, and high spirited, this story of larkabout Jeeter Lesters struggle to keep his farm is one of the most poignant and humorous in Depression-era literature and an American classic.

Members Reviews:

A noxious tale perfectly painted

Where does Tobacco Road rank among all the audiobooks youve listened to so far?

This is the most difficult book I've ever listened to. The characters are desperately, willfully, unrelentingly benighted. Every day I wanted to stop listening. What scheme would one of them sabotage next? I wondered. If it wasn't for Mark Hammer's narration, I would have been very tempted to quit.

Another thought that kept me going was that Caldwell might have been using Jeeter and all as metaphors for the opposite side of the coin - the Wall Street manipulators, laissez faire capitalists, and technocrats he might be blaming for the Depression the Lesters were struggling to survive. I haven't read that in any review, though.

What was most disappointing about Erskine Caldwells story?

The despair was devastating.

What about Mark Hammers performance did you like?

I bought this book because Mark Hammer narrated it. His accent and his pace allowed me to keep listening to this tragedy.

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

This novel depressed me. I can't imagine why it ran so long on Broadway.

Wonderful

It is easy to see why this novel is a classic. The author did a great job at portraying the bleakness of the characters lives while tempering it with the unintentional humor from their folly and ignorance. Caldwell gives them dimension and makes them sympathetic despite themselves. Moreover, the narrator does an absolutely amazing job. One of the best audiobooks I've ever heard!

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Title: Fanshawe

Author: Nathanial Hawthorne

Narrator: David DeVries

Format: Unabridged

Length: 4 hrs and 17 mins

Language: English

Release date: 11-02-11

Publisher: Audible Studios

Ratings: 3.5 of 5 out of 7 votes

Genres: Classics, American Literature

Publisher's Summary:

Based on Hawthorne's experiences as an undergraduate in the early 1820s, Fanshawe follows the romance of a young woman by two college students. Fanshawe was Hawthorne's first attempt at a novel, and after its commercial failure, the author destroyed the remaining unsold copies, leaving this novel to be mostly unknown until years after his death.

Editorial Reviews:

Nathaniel Hawthornes classmate Henry Wordsworth Longfellow guessed that the setting of this early work of Hawthornes was the two authors' former alma matter, Bowdoin College. For that itself this romance is interesting; it is the possibly autobiographical writing of a burgeoning Hawthorne, about being young. Like many, Hawthorne was embarrassed by his early effort. He wanted it destroyed, but for its flaws there are elements of his future skill. David Devries articulates the already highly fashioned language with eloquence. More than just a footnote to a great career, the story of two students vying for the same woman, and the rousing drama that puts their characters and skills to the test, will keep you listening.

Members Reviews:

Short and Unremarkable Romanticism

Nathaniel Hawthorne is one of the greatest American writers who ever lived, a claim that is far less controversial than many of my literary claims. However, being Hawthorne does not mean that everything you write is solid gold. The novel in question, Fanshawe, was written during or immediately after Hawthorneâs college days, and Hawthorne became so disenchanted with it in later years that he attempted to purchase and destroy all remaining copies in circulation. His wife was not even aware that such a book had been written by her husband. While I am glad Hawthorne did not entirely purge this book from our literary heritage, I was not entranced by this short, faintly Gothic work.

Set at Harley College, a fictional New England establishment loosely based on Hawthorneâs own Bowdoin College, centers on Ellen Langton, temporarily in the care of Dr. Melmoth, the college headmaster, and the affection she inspires in three very different men: Fanshawe, a partial invalid and dedicated student; Edward Walcott, a manly, vigorous, and hotheaded student, and âthe Angler,â the mysterious villain of the piece, so named for his fishing skills. Along the way other characters are encountered, such as Dr. Melmothâs shrewish wife, the conflicted innkeeper Hugh Crombie, two old women in a cabin who end up being significant, and a handful of other faces. A faint Gothic atmosphere and Romantic sensibility is present throughout, but neither the first nor the second shoe is ever really dropped in either regard. While there are moments of cleverness and humor present, the action both rushes and drags, and the ending is supremely unsatisfactory. The main criticism is that the work is too short to allow the reader to care sufficiently about the characters; had it been revised and expanded by a more mature Hawthorne, it could potentially have blossomed into an American classic.

This edition was produced by CreateSpace, a very cut-corners and sometimes borderline fraudulent company that will sell you the most obscure works it can dig out of the archives for a generally reasonable price. The cover, which appears to represent a shrinkwrapped wad of paper falling into the eternal abyss, is actually more aesthetic than one might expect.

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Title: The Job

Subtitle: An American Novel

Author: Sinclair Lewis

Narrator: Marianne Fraulo

Format: Unabridged

Length: 9 hrs and 41 mins

Language: English

Release date: 10-05-11

Publisher: Audible Studios

Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 25 votes

Genres: Classics, American Literature

Publisher's Summary:

Sinclair Lewis (1885-1951) was an American novelist and playwright who, in 1930, became the first American to win the Nobel Prize for literature. The Job is one of his earliest novels. Concerning the exploits of a 1920s career woman, it is one of the first novels about feminism and is considered one of the stepping stones towards Lewis' success.

Editorial Reviews:

Here the acclaimed Lewis provides an honest and lacquer-free look at the life of a woman who works for a living. Lewis aptly renders Unas frustration as she performs tedious chores for small men who lack her empathy, insight, and fortitude. Lewis view of marriage as an alternative is also unromantic. His honed and exact language is imbued with knowing and sympathy. Lewis was a feminist because he was a humanist, and Unas suffering was as valid to him as anyones. Narrator Marianne Fraulos patient and enduring tone suits Una perfectly. Fraulos wise, often sardonic delivery allows Una to emerge quickly as a reliable witness to her own oppression. Listeners will be moved by Una via Fraulos restrained yet whole-hearted and authentic performance.

Critic Reviews:

"Sinclair Lewis has one attribute of geniussympathetic insight.... He has not only made a woman who works for her living the central figure of his story, he has insisted on doing so without sentimentality or melodrama or false pathos." (New Republic)

"Sane, generous, well-balanced, above all real, [the novel] interprets by presenting this world as it is." (The New York Times)

"Lewis was consciously exploring [in The Job] the choices and pressures that women felt personally and socially during the first third of the twentieth century. And, yes, this fictional exploration still has relevance emotionally and politically because the choices for and pressures on women have not been significantly modified." (Massachusetts Review)

Members Reviews:

A look at women's lives in the work force in the early 1900

Again Sinclair Lewis show us how institutionalized life was for women who

wanted respect and chance for a better life, but was almost impossible in

their world at that time

If you are a reader of great books

A wonderful well written story of a woman trying to make a career in the early part of the 20th century. Sinclair Lewis once again wrote a great novel

Good book.

This was my first foray into Sinclair Lewis' works. I enjoyed it. I would compare him (naively) to Theodore Dreiser.

If you think your job sucks do not read this book

Warning. If you think your job sucks do not read this book.

Good Author Good Book!

Good old book.

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Title: Ragged Dick

Subtitle: Or Street Life in New York with the Boot-Blacks

Author: Horatio Alger

Narrator: Christopher Crennen

Format: Unabridged

Length: 4 hrs and 48 mins

Language: English

Release date: 09-01-11

Publisher: Aspen Leaf Media, Inc.

Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 10 votes

Genres: Classics, American Literature

Publisher's Summary:

Horatio Alger Jr. (1832-1899) authored over 100 adventure books, many focusing on a poor boy's struggle to overcome poverty and adversity. Alger's books are fast-paced "page-turners" that have enjoyed immense popularity while advocating generosity, honesty, industry, thrift, temperance, education, and bravery. Alger was born near Boston, attended Harvard, and moved to New York City in 1866. He is one of America's all-time, best-selling fiction authors.

Ragged Dick details the adventures of Richard Hunter, a homeless boy who earns a living shining shoes on the streets of Manhattan in the mid 1800s. Inspired by a customer he meets, Dick resolves to improve his situation, finds a roommate who can act as his tutor, and overcomes adversity with wit and good cheer. First published in book form in 1866, Ragged Dick was Alger's first great publishing success.

Members Reviews:

A charming tale...

A vivid portrait of another season in time. A lovely, encouraging tale of a young hero overcoming circumstances by right actions, perseverance and a good heart...

Poor narrator

This is a typical Alger story. Rags to riches with an incredible amount of good luck for the heros. Alger was immensly popular during his time frame and this may appeal to history buffs for that reason. If you want a feel good story that ends well everytime and are not hung up on reality this is a fun read...or it would be with a better narrator. The gentleman who narrates Marjorie Morningstar would be excellent. Unfortunately, Christopher Crennen narrates like he is reading a laundry list and a boring one at that. A certain unpleasant twang on certain words doesn't help. He does articulate well.