Download the Best Full Audiobooks in Classics, American Literature

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Title: The Sun Also Rises

Author: Ernest Hemingway

Narrator: William Hurt

Format: Unabridged

Length: 7 hrs and 46 mins

Language: English

Release date: 10-10-06

Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio

Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 2809 votes

Genres: Classics, American Literature

Publisher's Summary:

Follow the flamboyant Brett and the hapless Jake as they journey from the wild nightlife of 1920s Paris to the brutal bullfighting rings of Spain with a motley group of expatriates. It is an age of moral bankruptcy, spiritual dissolution, unrealized love, and vanishing illusions. First published in 1926, The Sun Also Rises helped to establish Hemingway as one of the greatest writers of the 20th century.

Critic Reviews:

"An absorbing, beautifully and tenderly absurd, heart-breaking narrative....It is a truly gripping story, told in lean, hard athletic prose...magnificent." (The New York Times)

Members Reviews:

Disappointed with narration

Wished I had read rather than listened. Very weak narration as compared to other audible books. Hemingway no problem.... Weak acting

Great actor, terrible reader, kills classic

What didnt you like about William Hurts performance?

His foreign accents are abominable. Even his performance of the main character is completely flat. Frankly, I didn't even finish listening because the accents were so distracting!

love Hemingway, not Hurt

I'm sorry but William Hurt hurts this novel. He does fine with the dialogue passages which makes sense i guess as an actor, but his voice and bored rendition of the narrative passages is just plain poor. At times as he's reading it seemed that he was seeing the text for the first time, his emphasis and inflection is off all over the place.

This is a great novel and I wish they would get the reading by Adams that Books on Tape had that I bought the cassettes of years ago. Much better reading. Adams did many of EH's novels and did them well, and though then I may have wished for variety in voices, I'd take those now.

Nice idea to have distinctive voices for EH, but you need some more dynamic readers, not ones that sound bored by the project. Donald Sutherland is a great actor, but a terrible reader of Old Man. Get the Charlton Heston versions of Old Man and Snows if you can and Scourby's reading of Macomber is awesome, Heston and Scourby are perfection.

WORST preformance of an audio book! Ever!

Would you try another book from Ernest Hemingway and/or William Hurt?

Ernest Hemmingway - yes. William Hurt - never again.

Would you be willing to try another one of William Hurts performances?

No. No. No. Such a boing performance. I've read this story 2 times and thought I'd try listening to my (once) favorite story. Almost abandoned listening to the story multiple times. No tone change in the character's voice. It was like listening to a teenager tell a story he really doesn't want to tell. Monotone and boooreing!

You didnt love this book... but did it have any redeeming qualities?

The story is fantastic.

Any additional comments?

If you're a fan of Ernest Hemmingway, stick to the printed version of this book and try For Whom the Bell Tolls in audio version.

Utterly painful droning narration.

This book wasnt for you, but who do you think might enjoy it more?

Insomniacs. People who unreservedly love William Hurt

What was one of the most memorable moments of The Sun Also Rises?

Giving up and turning the awful droning off.

Who would you have cast as narrator instead of William Hurt?

I cant stay awake through the "Hurt" I realize there are all different tastes and people prefer different narrational styles.

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Title: All the King's Men

Author: Robert Penn Warren

Narrator: Michael Emerson

Format: Unabridged

Length: 20 hrs and 57 mins

Language: English

Release date: 09-11-06

Publisher: Recorded Books

Ratings: 4.5 of 5 out of 1360 votes

Genres: Classics, American Literature

Publisher's Summary:

The fictionalized account of Louisiana's colorful and notorious governor, Huey Pierce Long, All the King's Men follows the startling rise and fall of Willie Stark, a country lawyer in the Deep South of the 1930s. Beset by political enemies, Stark seeks aid from his right-hand man, Jack Burden, who will bear witness to the cataclysmic unfolding of this very American tragedy.

Critic Reviews:

"The definitive novel about American politics." (The New York Times)

"Mr. Warren has employed vivid characterization and strong language combined with subtle overtones to write a vital, compelling narrative." (Booklist)

"Michael Emerson's performance brings the characters to life with verve and personality....Through a mix of understatement and intensity, Emerson clearly conveys the political turmoil underlying the book; his performance perfectly complements the story, which is as timely as it was 60 years ago....Emerson's reading does justice to a great work." (AudioFile)

Members Reviews:

people & politics

a classic exploration of the complexities of personality, power, character, good and evil. the writing is sublime and the narration is wonderful. i found myself stopping the play just to think about the implications of the author's observations on characters and events. it is a novel of it's time and uses the vernacular of its time. that, too, is something to ponder and to assess for ourselves how much we believe that we as individuals or society have changed.

very thought provoking. i know i will come back to listen to this again.

Beautifully presented

This is a wonderfully moving, insightful presentation of the novel, treating the characters with tenderness as they are being torn apart. That said - this is not an audiobook for the casual listener, the novel demands attention. If you are like me, and listen to audiobooks while walking on busy streets, relying on an author to dwell on important plot points long enough for you to hear them eventually (think Tolstoy), you will find yourself rewinding All The King's Men a lot.

Outstanding

This is an outstanding reading of a great piece of literature. I can't add to 60 years of literary reviews praising this Pulitzer winning classic, but I can compliment Michael Emerson's reading of it. Mr. Emerson's reading is a perfect fit for what is unquestionably a great work of American Literature. His pacing, intonation, and articulation of Warrens beautiful use of our language enhance the experience of this excellent book.

Marvelously written and read

This is a great novel. You probably already know that. What you may not know is that this audiobook production is top-notch. The narrator is spot on, capturing the poetry of the writing and the tone of the south. Just a fantastic package of writing and narration.

Highly recommended.

Beautiful Prose

Every now and then you happen upon a book that makes you just stop and listen. This is it. The prose is beautiful. It is not an "action" book it is a book to savour. If I could only ever listen to one book this would be it

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Title: To Have and Have Not

Author: Ernest Hemingway

Narrator: Will Patton

Format: Unabridged

Length: 5 hrs and 25 mins

Language: English

Release date: 08-01-06

Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio

Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 494 votes

Genres: Classics, American Literature

Publisher's Summary:

Harsh, realistic, yet with one of the most subtle and moving relationships in the Hemingway oeuvre, To Have and Have Not is literary high adventure at its finest.

Critic Reviews:

"A truly classic author." (Library Journal)

Members Reviews:

Love Hemingway, Patton not so much

while I applaud the notion behind getting "name" actors to honor Hemingway by narrating his works, there is a problem that arises too often: good actors are not automatically good narrators. not only did i tire quickly of Patton's breathy whisper which he applies to almost every facet of this novel, it is so passive that it is completely wrong for the prose style and the action. the temperament of the characters, Morgan especially, all seem to blend together into boredom. there is little emotion in any speech, and the poetry in narrative passages is lost into a big homogenous sameness. there are moments when Patton gets more into it, some passages near the end stand out as his better moments of narration, but on the whole the vigor is missing. I felt very much the same way with Hurt's work on Sun Also Rises; it's as though they feel that to give this important writer proper reading they must add gravity to the prose by speaking slowly and quietly. the crispness and vitality of the prose doesn't need their improvement, it just needs a proper reading. again i find myself thinking back to Adams narrations from Books on Tape, I don't remember ever feeling like he was bored with the project; nice to have variation in theory, but give me his vitality. (Campbell Scott is much the same way as Hurt and Patton, and let's not start on Sutherland)

A Good Reading of a Bleak Novel

To Have and Have Not is a difficult book to love, despite this well-handled reading of the text. The story is bleak, violent and pessimistic in tone, set as it is during the Great Depression, and leaves little room for hope to redeem its bleakness. The novel also jumps between points of views and characters instead of sticking with one narrator or protagonist. This creates a novel with less unity, though Hemingway's intent seems to be to give readers a look at both the wealthy and the poor and the troubles endured by both. However, this omniscient point of view is less popular with modern readers and many will interpret these passages as digressions. Hemingway himself is said to have regarded it as his least successful novel. Still, it is an eye-opening look into a now half-forgotten era.

Rambling Ernest at his best

No doubt Ernest Hemingway looked at life in a clear plain way. This story gets you inside the heads of many characters. Not really going anywhere, in no particular order, is the beauty of it. Simplicity and clarity of voice is the trademark, and what makes this another great listen from the man himself.

Moving story, great narrator

Would you consider the audio edition of To Have and Have Not to be better than the print version?

Yes

What was one of the most memorable moments of To Have and Have Not?

I was moved when Hemingway had multiple people, that were unrelated to the main characters in the story, expose their nightly bedtime thoughts, worries, and general perceptions.

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Title: Islands in the Stream

Author: Ernest Hemingway

Narrator: Bruce Greenwood

Format: Unabridged

Length: 13 hrs and 34 mins

Language: English

Release date: 07-12-06

Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio

Ratings: 4.5 of 5 out of 634 votes

Genres: Classics, American Literature

Publisher's Summary:

Ernest Hemingway did more to change the style of English prose than any other writer in the 20th century, and for his efforts he was awarded the Nobel Prize for literature in 1954. Hemingway wrote in short, declarative sentences and was known for his tough, terse prose. Publication of The Sun Also Rises and A Farewell to Arms immediately established Ernest Hemingway as one of the greatest literary lights of the 20th century.

As part of the expatriate community in 1920s Paris, the former journalist and World War I ambulance driver began a career that lead to international fame. Hemingway was an aficionado of bullfighting and big-game hunting, and his main protagonists were always men and women of courage and conviction who suffered unseen scars, both physical and emotional. He covered the Spanish Civil War, portraying it in fiction in his brilliant novel For Whom the Bell Tolls, and he subsequently covered World War II. His classic novella The Old Man and the Sea won the Pulitzer Prize in 1953. He died in 1961.

Members Reviews:

Hemingway was a Genius

This work is really three books in one, dealing with different phases in the main proponents life. Hemingway takes us effortlessly into this world where manliness is the most important characteristic of any of the participants. The writing is outstanding. There are passages which appear to deal with elements of Hemingways own life. I constantly felt that every word that was needed had been used but that not one of them was spare. Every Hemingway title that I listen to leaves me more in awe of the man's abilities and this is one of the strongest so far. If you have any regard for the english language at any level you owe it to yourself to listen to this.

The narration is excellent. Clear, crisp with enough characterisation to aid with discriminating the parts without veering into caricature.

Best presentation of any audiobook ever.

Bruce Greenwood's reading of this classic Hemingway novel is incredible. I have been listening audio-books for nearly twenty years and this is the best audio presentation I've ever heard. Greenwood's acting talent definitely pays off.

As for the book, its Hemingway, of course its good. I highly recommend listening to this one.

Good Read

First time to read Hemingway. most enjoyable. If you get a chance you must visit his home in Key West. Having been there you so much more enjoyable his books.

Beautifully Written, Lacking a Solid Plot

Bruce Greenwood delivers an amazing performance on an odd book. I struggled to finish this one, but couldn't give up on it. Every time I'd listen, I'd get drawn in by his brilliant descriptions and dialogue, and then get bored after an hour because it never seemed to go anywhere. That being said, I would still recommend it to anyone. There are several moments that invoked a deep emotional response in me, and isn't that what it's all about?

Had it all. Completely engrossing.

My favorite Hemingway and new favorite narrator. Super combination. Wish it was twice as long.

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Title: For Whom the Bell Tolls

Author: Ernest Hemingway

Narrator: Campbell Scott

Format: Unabridged

Length: 16 hrs and 23 mins

Language: English

Release date: 05-01-06

Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio

Ratings: 4.5 of 5 out of 3890 votes

Genres: Classics, American Literature

Publisher's Summary:

The story of Robert Jordan, a young American in the International Brigades attached to an antifascist guerilla unit in the mountains of Spain, it tells of loyalty and courage, love and defeat, and the tragic death of an ideal. In his portrayal of Jordan's love for the beautiful Maria and his superb account of El Sordo's last stand, in his brilliant travesty of La Pasionaria and his unwillingness to believe in blind faith, Hemingway surpasses his achievement in The Sun Also Rises and A Farewell to Arms to create a work at once rare and beautiful, strong and brutal, compassionate, moving, and wise.

"If the function of a writer is to reveal reality," Maxwell Perkins wrote Hemingway after reading the manuscript, "no one ever so completely performed it." Greater in power, broader in scope, and more intensely emotional than any of the author's previous works, it stands as one of the best war novels of all time.

Critic Reviews:

"This is the best book Ernest Hemingway has written, the fullest, the deepest, the truest. It will, I think, be one of the major novels in American literature." (The New York Times Book Review)

Members Reviews:

The Mountains of Spain

I have long been a Hemingway fan but have not been through all his writings. If you have any doubt that Hemingway was a literary giant you need only listen to this title. Between listens I would find myself thinking about the characters. The thread of their lives, and their very souls, were exposed brilliantly. I finished the listen days ago and still find myself thinking about it. I feel like I was there, with them, in the mountains, dedicated to the cause. In a sense, I'm still there, heart pressed to the pine needles on the forest floor along side Robert Jordan. In this book, at least, Hemingway was that good. Give it a try; I think you'll like this one.

Should have read this years ago

Wow .. what an astoundingly good book. I had no idea the writing would be so accessible, and at the same time so profound. It is truly a rare thing! Im left cursing myself for not having read Hemingway years ago. Spend a few minutes refreshing the basics of the Spanish Civil War before jumping in .. then enjoy the ride. Look forward especially to the lengthy description of the smell of death .its a master class in descriptive prose.

Incorrect charges of censorship.

Any additional comments?

Having read some of the previous reviews about censorship, and the editing out of curse words in this audio version, I felt that I should add a quick note on Hemingway's use of language in this novel. To give a sort of Spanish feel to the language, he writes a good portion of his dialogue a though it were directly translated from Spanish. So, "What passes with you?" can bear some getting used to. Also, he uses "thou" and "thy" at times in place of "you" to represent the moving between formal (usted) and informal (tu) Spanish. But, the big kicker (the one that seems to be making listeners upset) is the way he handles cursing. I believe that lines like, "I obscenity in the milk of thy tiredness," and "Where the un-nameable is this vileness I am to guard" are causing people to think that the audiobook has been censored in some way. It hasn't.

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Title: A Farewell to Arms

Author: Ernest Hemingway

Narrator: John Slattery

Format: Unabridged

Length: 8 hrs and 37 mins

Language: English

Release date: 05-01-06

Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio

Ratings: 4.5 of 5 out of 2626 votes

Genres: Classics, American Literature

Publisher's Summary:

Hemingway's frank portrayal of the love between Lieutenant Henry and Catherine Barkley, caught in the inexorable sweep of war, glows with an intensity unrivaled in modern literature, while his description of the German attack on Caporetto, of lines of fired men marching in the rain, hungry, weary, and demoralized, is one of the greatest moments in literary history.

A story of love and pain, of loyalty and desertion, A Farewell to Arms, written when he was 30 years old, represents a new romanticism for Hemingway.

Members Reviews:

This is not unabridged

Really a great story from really a great narrator. If it was truly unabridged, I would unhesitatingly go for five stars. However, all of the profanity is omitted. There is a silent gap where Hemingway intended a profane word. Hemingway chose his words carefully and he used profanity to make a point about World War I. Of another of his works, Hemingway said "I've tried to reduce profanity but I reduced so much profanity when writing the book that I'm afraid not much could come out. Perhaps we will have to consider it simply as a profane book and hope that the next book will be less profane or perhaps more sacred."

The censorship is conspicuous and, in the case of the retreat chapter, it compromises the narrative. It is a lie to call this audiobook "unabridged." Audible needs to either respect Hemingway's work, or re-categorize this audiobook as abridged.

Just FYI

Amazingly, this is the edited version (curse words removed). As I understand it, that's how it was published originally, yet it's still a bizarre choice for today's audio version.

Not my favorite of Hemingway

While a very good book, not my favorite of Hemingway novels. Written in classic Hemingway prose, with very mundanely realistic dialogues, it was the story itself that I did not love. This is purely a personal opinion, but I found the narrative dragged at times.

Excellent reader, easy to listen to.

I would suggest to anyone considering listening to Hemingway on Audible, that you might be better served with THE SUN ALSO RISES or FOR WHOM THE BELL TOLLS.

This Narrator Nails It

Of course this is a wonderful, affecting novel, and I am enjoying listening to it. But this narrator! What a wonderful performance! He has the perfect delivery for Frederic Henry, capturing the character with his voice, timing, and inflection. Slattery switches between accents and genders without missing a beat. I can lose myself in the narrative and dialogue, thinking that the characters are real and speaking to me.

Wonderful book

I am relatively new to Hemingway. I had read all the criticisms of Hemingway particularly by journalists over the years, and since they said he wrote using simple words I did not bother with him.

They said Hemingway was too concerned with being macho, well this story tells one sweetest stories I have read, and the macho thing is a silly remark to have been made.

The reader was very good and I was taken with his ability to do various Italian accents so clearly, along with his other characterizations.

What a wonderful and tender story, and the characters I understood as if they were real.

Hemingway's character portrayals are remarkable because they seem like you really knew these people.

Ben

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Title: Moby Dick

Author: Herman Melville

Narrator: William Hootkins

Format: Unabridged

Length: 24 hrs and 48 mins

Language: English

Release date: 11-07-05

Publisher: Naxos AudioBooks

Ratings: 4.5 of 5 out of 557 votes

Genres: Classics, American Literature

Publisher's Summary:

"Call me Ishmael." Thus starts the greatest American novel. Melville said himself that he wanted to write "a mighty book about a mighty theme" and so he did. It is a story of one man's obsessive revenge-journey against the white whale, Moby-Dick, who injured him in an earlier meeting. Woven into the story of the last journey of The Pequod is a mesh of philosophy, rumination, religion, history, and a mass of information about whaling through the ages.

© and (P)2005 NAXOS AudioBooks Ltd.

Members Reviews:

Excellent, EXCELLENT reading!

I've been trying to read Moby Dick for years. I would read a few chapters and then drag off and not be able to finish. This reader changed my whole experience with the book. Moby Dick is, of course, a wonderful book, but the reader added a whole new dimension. He brought the characters to life, which gave me a whole new perspective on their personalities (especially Ishmael). This perspective made the plot, subtext and interplay of the book so much more lively and exciting. Even the "boring" parts involving "all you need to know about whaling." Thank you thank you thank you so much, dear reader. You have a great talent!

Well Done William Hootkins

I love this book but have found most of the unabridged audiobooks of Moby Dick difficult to listen to. This is a long book with parts that are not exactly high drama - so Hootkins' "overacting" is really good at pulling us through those long arcs. It is certainly the best Moby Dick audiobook out there. I would go out on a limb and say it's actually one of the best audiobooks I've ever heard (my Audible library has over 300 books). I wish each every audiobook was this good.

Best Book I Have EVER Read

Since joining Audible a year ago I have chewed through the classics and contemporaries like a wood chipper.

That being said, I say this:

Moby Dick is not just a great book, it is the best book I have EVER read.

None too familiar with it before tackling the read, I'd always for some reason thought it would be stuffy, dusty, old world reading. Nay, my friend. It was saucy, salty, and American.

The subject matter is absolutely riveting to the imagination. The deep inner thoughts of the characters are poetic and stirring. The manic, unresting, hungry intelligence of Ishmael illuminates a world I'd have never known existed, the intimate inner workings of an industry, and the beauty of the experiences had by men who might be dismissed as uneducated and rough. The stories are so spectacular, so grippingly entertaining, I'd often stop what I was doing while listening, hands stilled in their motions, and half smiling and wide eyed, waiting to hear what came next. And sometimes all I could say was, "No, freaking, way."

Treat yourself to Moby Dick.

The reader is great

Great story brought to life by a fantastic reader. His pace is slow enough so that you dont miss anything, and he really brings the characters to life...

Classic in every respect

Would you consider the audio edition of Moby Dick to be better than the print version?

The reading of this book is a performance! I've began looking up book specifically read by William Hootkins. The store is rambling and fragmented at times, you sense Melville has a destination but is in no hurry to get there.

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Title: As I Lay Dying

Author: William Faulkner

Narrator: Marc Cashman, Robertson Dean, Lina Patel, Lorna Raver

Format: Unabridged

Length: 6 hrs and 55 mins

Language: English

Release date: 08-23-05

Publisher: Random House Audio

Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 833 votes

Genres: Classics, American Literature

Publisher's Summary:

At the heart of this 1930 novel is the Bundren family's bizarre journey to Jefferson to bury Addie, their wife and mother. Faulkner lets each family member, including Addie, and others along the way tell their private responses to Addie's life.

Check out more

.

(P)2005 Random House, Inc. Random House Audio, a division of Random House, Inc.

Critic Reviews:

"For range of effect, philosophical weight, originality of style, variety of characterization, humor, and tragic intensity, [Faulkner's works] are without equal in our time and country". (Robert Penn Warren)

Members Reviews:

Faulkner's As I Lay Dying review

As a Faulknerian scholar, I was pleasantly surprised by this audio rendition of one of Faulkner's complex works. I used this recording to assist a blind peer who was studying the novel, and I read my copy along with the recorded reading to help establish and clarify the characters' points of view, especially with regards to the sections involving stream of consciousness.

Together, we found the use of multiple readers helped distinguish the different narrators of this work. We thoroughly approved of the readers' Southern accents and (being from the South)found very few flaws in that regard. A few artistic interpretations of the stream of consciousness sections were distracting, as the readers chose to add punctuation rather than flow rapidly from one thought to the next without breaks. This did not take away from the story as a whole, but I did need to clarify this for the academic purposes of my peer.

All in all, this was an excellent rendition of Faulkner's novel. I am pleased to have this recording in my permanent library.

One of the best

Having a lengthy daily commute, I have listened to over a hundred recorded books and this one is absolutely among the best I have heard! Faulkner's writing begs to be read out loud and this recording was beautiful, capturing you in its slow southern spell.

Listening to a Play

The multiple voices are simply wonderful and, having read this in hard copy many times over the years, I had some trepidations about listening. However the words are as powerful as they are in print and have the added quality of staying as the voices of a "play" in your head. Terrific.

Clarity

I use this "tour de force" novel in my high school English class, and I've found that the audio helps the students follow the story better. I personally enjoy the narrators who with their use of dialects are able to add life to the characters, even Addie, who is dead for most of the novel.

You Have to "Get" Faulkner

Faulkner is not an easy read. Expect to go back often and really listen to the story. Expect to look up some notes and commentary to grasp what the hell is going on. Expect to struggle with lines like, "My mother is a fish"

Expect to WORK through this book.

And expect the best of literature and performance. Expect to learn. Expect to expand your insight into frustration and futility. Expect to feel pain.

This is a great piece of literature and it's very well delivered.

Worth the effort.

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Title: Light in August

Author: William Faulkner

Narrator: Scott Brick

Format: Unabridged

Length: 17 hrs and 22 mins

Language: English

Release date: 08-12-05

Publisher: Random House Audio

Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 48 votes

Genres: Classics, American Literature

Publisher's Summary:

Joe Christmas does not know whether he is black or white. Faulkner makes of Joe's tragedy a powerful indictment of racism; at the same time, Joe's life is a study of the divided self and becomes a symbol of 20th century man.

Critic Reviews:

"For all his concern with the South, Faulkner was actually seeking out the nature of man. Thus we must turn to him for that continuity of moral purpose which made for the greatness of our classics." (Ralph Ellison)

Members Reviews:

Simply great.

Scott Brick makes for a great narrator for this Faulkner classic. Well recorded reading. Like most of Faulkner's novels this is a gritty, and hard edged look into the human experience of the plight of the common southerner "after the fall". The plight of Joe Christmas and Lena Grove is unforgettable and well adapted for audible.

Faulkner on humanity

Faulkner is a writer who portrays the truths of human nature, with ease and grace. The story is a slow and plodding tale of humanity, rife with reality of the racism and sexism, machoism and religiosity of that era. An era not so very much different from the era in which we live, with the exception that people today don't strictly say out loud what they think of others. Faulkner doesn't neglect the charm of southern life, or does he neglect the bigotry, prejudices, and hardships. The clarity of his voice rings and he speaks against the worst aspects of society then and now.

Faulkner is excellent!

This is my first book by William Faulkner. I really enjoyed it. The adventure and intrigue kept me on the edge of my seat.

Great book , loved it .

It had a great narrator , a strong story , and was an overall great read . Would recommend this book to all ,

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Title: Billy Budd, Sailor

Author: Herman Melville

Narrator: William Roberts

Format: Unabridged

Length: 3 hrs and 34 mins

Language: English

Release date: 07-22-05

Publisher: Naxos AudioBooks

Ratings: 3.5 of 5 out of 313 votes

Genres: Classics, American Literature

Publisher's Summary:

Written some 40 years after Moby Dick, Melville's Billy Budd is a moving tale of good versus evil. Set aboard a British navy ship at the end of the eighteenth century, a young, innocent sailor's charm and good nature put the men around him at ease. Ship life agreed with Billy. He made friends quickly and was well liked, which infuriated John Claggart, the ship's cold-blooded superior officer.

Mutiny was a continual threat greatly feared by naval officers. Even minor offences were dealt with harshly to keep crews in their place, regardless of whether the accused was guilty or innocent.

The envious Master-at-Arms becomes obsessed with the destruction of the 'Handsome Sailor' and torments the young man until his false accusations lead to an eventual charge of treason against Billy.

Members Reviews:

A good reading of a classic story

I had to read "Billy Budd" for a senior seminar class in college, and this audiobook version worked great for me. The narration of this version is a little dry, but then there are other versions where the quality is simply dreadful to say the least.

As many may already know, there are various copies of Billy Budd (BB: Foretopman, BB: Sailor, etc.) because Melville never published the novella in his lifetime. However, I listened to this audiobook while reading along with the Norton Critical Edition of Billy Budd, and the changes were hardly distinct (except for the name of the ship Indomitable vs. Belipotent and an added paragraph towards the end of the novella).

Anyway, I've listened to this audiobook 4 times since I bought it, and it's a great version in my opinion.

Captivating

Such beautiful language. New respect for Melville, master of the complexities of the human heart.

Need chapter markers not violins

Some passages required me to refer back to the written version. This audiobook is presented with only three chapters, not the chapter markers that the author intended. Instead of chapter markers there was nice string music interspersed in odd spots.

The Good, The Bad and The Ugly

Billy Budd, Sailor, written by: Herman Melville, Narrated by: William Roberts. This is a magnificent story of a good wholesome and loved by many Billy Budd, and how his nature fuses with the drastic life on a sea ship at the end of the 18th millennium. Billy is an impressed sailor who faces off with a ships first officer, antagonistic to Billy because of Billys goodness and appreciation by others. This book tells the story of the debased ravaging the pure; because of incarnate evil, lodged herein, in the first officer, John Claggart. The presence of the devil is a strong force in this novella.

Billy is eventually put under false charges, and reacts violently. Thus, Billy becomes unfairly charged, but being properly prosecuted for his violent reaction when unfairly charged. Needless to say, the crew is in Billys favor, but the book next weights the need of the admiralty law to prevail and keep order and the crews demand for true and proper justice.

A short novel, with multitudes of character interactions, deep seated conflicts in right and wrong, justice and equity and the disregard of those in control for the common man. All that counts is keeping those in power in authority.

Great little story.

Awesome

I like the way Billy Budd was presented. I also like the way the story was fluent and not confusing.