Where to Listen to Audiobooks in Classics, British Literature Popular Authors

Please open https://hotaudiobook.com ONLY on your standard browser Safari, Chrome, Microsoft or Firefox to download full audiobooks of your choice for free.

Title: The Canterbury Tales: The Clerk's Tale (Modern Verse Translation)

Author: Geoffrey Chaucer

Narrator: Charlie Simpson

Format: Unabridged

Length: 1 hr and 8 mins

Language: English

Release date: 11-14-13

Publisher: Naxos AudioBooks

Genres: Classics, British Literature

Publisher's Summary:

This is a story from the Canterbury Tales II: Modern Verse Translation collection.

Four more delightful tales from one of the most entertaining storytellers of all time. Though writing in the thirteenth century, Chaucer's wit and observation comes down undiminished through the ages, especially in this accessible modern verse translation. The stories vary considerably from the uproarious Wife of Bath's Tale, promoting the power of women to the sober account of patient Griselda in the Clerk's Tale.

Editorial Reviews:

Charlie Simpsons robust voice and authentic British accent lend a sense of grandeur to "The Clerks Tale", this first story of Group E in Geoffrey Chaucers seminal Canterbury Tales, the saga of an Italian marquis who marries the peasant Griselda and forces her to endure a series daunting tests, including the staged kidnapping of her children, so that she could prove her loyalty to him.

Though written over 600 years ago, timeless themes resonate throughout this classic read by the talented Simpson, who expertly captures the rhythm of Chaucers verses.

Members Reviews:

Great edition, just wish

Can't go wrong with Chaucer. Great edition, just wish, they would have split it into two volumes, or maybe even three with the third being the dictionary as a separate book. Would gladly pay extra for having three instead all in one. Happy reading!!!

Chaucer

This book arrived quickly and its in current English. Reading Chaucer is difficult when you're accustomed to reading today's modern literature. But this makes it easier.

Enjoyable

A must read for those who enjoy the classics!

Beware of the sycophant! (this and other caveats)

In the Nun's Priease Tale, Chaucer utters the most startingly 4 words constructed: Beware of the sycophant! Each tale, like the latter, also contains a moral. The best book in the English language this side of Shakesphere.

Five Stars

Nice to listen to every month!

Please open https://hotaudiobook.com ONLY on your standard browser Safari, Chrome, Microsoft or Firefox to download full audiobooks of your choice for free.

Title: The Canterbury Tales: The Merchant's Tale (Modern Verse Translation)

Author: Geoffrey Chaucer

Narrator: Clive Swift

Format: Abridged

Length: 35 mins

Language: English

Release date: 11-14-13

Publisher: Naxos AudioBooks

Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 4 votes

Genres: Classics, British Literature

Publisher's Summary:

This is a story from the Canterbury Tales I: Modern Verse Translation collection.

Chaucer's greatest work, written towards the end of the fourteenth century, paints a brilliant picture of medieval life, society and values. The stories range from the romantic, courtly idealism of "The Knight's Tale" to the joyous bawdy of the Miller's; all are told with a freshness and vigor in this modern verse translation that make them a delight to hear.

Editorial Reviews:

In "The Merchant's Tale", from Geoffrey Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales, the Merchant tells the story of an old knight named January who wishes to marry in order to have an heir to his fortune. He chooses a beautiful young maiden named May, but when January is struck blind, May takes his handsome young aide, Damian, as her lover. With this tale, the Merchant reinforces his negative view of both marriage and women. Chaucer can be tricky to perform, but Clive Swift manages to be both loose and precise as he navigates Chaucer's language with an impressive and melodic dexterity.

Members Reviews:

Too much is abridged...

Too much has been unnecessarily cut from this story. The translation is good, so is the performance.

Please open https://hotaudiobook.com ONLY on your standard browser Safari, Chrome, Microsoft or Firefox to download full audiobooks of your choice for free.

Title: The Canterbury Tales: The Franklin's Tale (Modern Verse Translation)

Author: Geoffrey Chaucer

Narrator: Anton Lesser

Format: Abridged

Length: 34 mins

Language: English

Release date: 11-14-13

Publisher: Naxos AudioBooks

Ratings: 4.5 of 5 out of 3 votes

Genres: Classics, British Literature

Publisher's Summary:

This is a story from the Canterbury Tales I: Modern Verse Translation collection.

Chaucer's greatest work, written towards the end of the fourteenth century, paints a brilliant picture of medieval life, society and values. The stories range from the romantic, courtly idealism of "The Knight's Tale" to the joyous bawdy of the Miller's; all are told with a freshness and vigor in this modern verse translation that make them a delight to hear.

Editorial Reviews:

In this section of Geoffrey Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales, the knight Arveragus is abroad, while his wife Dorigen is courted by Aurelius. She rejects his advances, joking that she will marry him only if he can perform an impossible task. With the help of a magician, Aurelius does as Dorigen requested, and Arveragus allows Dorigen to keep her promise, despite her objections. Aurelius refuses her, however, when he sees the love they have for each other. Anton Lesser uses a deliberate style to lend accessibility to Chaucer's language, and his emotional precision has a sensitivity that exposes the story's power.

Members Reviews:

one of the edifying tales

Chaucer in modern translation, in rhyming couplets. Lovely reading by Anton Lesser. I could listen all day.

Good listen

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

Yes. It's inexpensive and good. I think that it's helpful to listen to a modern English translation before diving into the Middle English version.

What was one of the most memorable moments of The Canterbury Tales: The Franklin's Tale (Modern Verse Translation)?

It brings the Middle Ages to life.

What about Anton Lessers performance did you like?

Great reading. Audiobooks should be read by professional actors, like this.

Please open https://hotaudiobook.com ONLY on your standard browser Safari, Chrome, Microsoft or Firefox to download full audiobooks of your choice for free.

Title: Mary

Subtitle: A Fiction

Author: Mary Wollstonecraft

Narrator: Nicola Barber

Format: Unabridged

Length: 2 hrs and 38 mins

Language: English

Release date: 10-16-13

Publisher: Harmonic Wave

Ratings: 3 of 5 out of 5 votes

Genres: Classics, British Literature

Publisher's Summary:

This story is, in essence, the novelization of Wollstonecraft's ultimate work, Vindication of the Rights of Women. It follows a girl who grows up in a moderately wealthy English family in 18th century, trying to find love and individuality in a time when such concepts are incomprehensible to society. Mary, the main character, follows life and love through a turbulent series of ups and downs while trying to remain true to herself.

Mary Wollstonecraft (1759-1797) was a British feminist, writer, and philosopher. She is best known for her treatise A Vindication for the Rights of Women which puts forth that women are not naturally inferior to men and it is their lack of education that leads them to appear so.

Members Reviews:

Eh

It was okay. I can see why some might really enjoy it, as it has some interesting characterization. But I just couldn't sink my teeth into it.

Please open https://hotaudiobook.com ONLY on your standard browser Safari, Chrome, Microsoft or Firefox to download full audiobooks of your choice for free.

Title: Tarzan of the Apes

Author: Edgar Rice Burroughs

Narrator: David Plinge

Format: Unabridged

Length: 10 hrs and 13 mins

Language: English

Release date: 06-05-13

Publisher: Spoken Realms

Ratings: 5 of 5 out of 6 votes

Genres: Classics, British Literature

Publisher's Summary:

In this, the first book of the Tarzan series by Edgar Rice Burroughs, little baby Tarzan is adopted by the mighty "she" ape Kala after his parents Lord and Lady Greystroke are abandoned on the African shore by pirates and subsequently die. Tarzan grows up to be the mightiest of the apes, King of the Jungle, and will eventually find his Jane at the end of the vine.

Members Reviews:

Welcome to the Jungle

Thereâs something about the character Tarzan that still resonates with people today even more than 100 years after he was originally created. Television shows, radio shows, feature films, comic book adaptations, animated shows, and animated features have all contributed to this mythic character, while also mostly leaving some of the more unpleasant stuff aside. It can certainly be troubling to some to go back to the source of it all, Tarzan of the Apes, only to discover that it is chock full of sentiments that todayâs readers may take great offense to. The discussion of racism and sexism in this novel, and frankly, of many thousands of novels written in less enlightened times than our own, is valid and worth having, but I wonât be having it here. Readers sensitive to those topics may want to proceed into Tarzan with caution or not at all. That saidâ

I had a great time reading Tarzan of the Apes, but it is absolutely a pulp novel. The plot is well known to most, the details probably less so, but there isnât anything ground breaking going on here. Or is there? Itâs hard to say. On one hand, like I pointed out above, Tarzan has been around for over a hundred years now. That certainly doesnât rank him in Shakespearean terms, but outside of Sherlock Holmes, Zorro, or James Bond, I canât think of many other characters that have persisted quite like that, barring the entrance of comic book super heroes. Tarzan serves as a kind of model man for young boys â like the ultimate Boy Scout. The boy Tarzan, like many boys, is born and feels mundane until that first look in the water reveals he is actually special. And over time, he learns to do things others canât. This is the super hero origin part of the story, and it begins early on. Tarzan becomes capable of physical feats that mere men are not while at the same time, the other side of him becomes the learned English gentleman. In many ways, he foreshadows Bruce Wayne and Batman, except the disguise for Tarzan is absent. He lost his parents, was an outsider, trains his mind and body to super human levels, then re-enters society as a regular man. Outside of the losing your parents part, it isnât hard to imagine this journey as that of a young boyâs fantasy. That alone doesnât seem like quite enough to carry a dime story novel for a century though. Is there more? I feel like the further men of our current culture are separated from their traditional primitive roles of hunter gatherer, the greater the need and difficulty finding value and meaning in oneâs own existence becomes. In that sense, I feel like Tarzan speaks to all the guys out there that are mild mannered, sit at a desk all day doing accounting or insurance adjusting or whatever, and go home to throw something in the microwave, and just donât feel fulfilled. They wish they could have their cake and eat it too. They want to hunt there food, trudge through the jungle back to home, and slap their kill down on the table.

Please open https://hotaudiobook.com ONLY on your standard browser Safari, Chrome, Microsoft or Firefox to download full audiobooks of your choice for free.

Title: English Translation and Classical Reception

Subtitle: Towards a New Literary History

Author: Stuart Gillespie

Narrator: Alex Hyde-White

Format: Unabridged

Length: 9 hrs and 15 mins

Language: English

Release date: 04-13-13

Publisher: Audible Studios

Ratings: 5 of 5 out of 4 votes

Genres: Classics, British Literature

Publisher's Summary:

English Translation and Classical Reception is the first genuine cross-disciplinary study bringing English literary history to bear on questions about the reception of classical literary texts, and vice versa. The text draws on the authors exhaustive knowledge of the subject from the early Renaissance to the present.

Members Reviews:

TRANSLATION

Dr. Stuart Gillespie, among other qualifications, is a scholar of Shakespearean literature at the University Of Glasgow, Scotland. English Translation is an intellectually dense examination of the art of translation; particularly translation of ancient classics like The Iliad, The Odyssey, and works of Ovid, Juvenal, and Horace.

Gillespies book is a warning to book critics that are not authors but interpret authors work. If a critic fails to understand trans-formative moments, by those authors that can create trans-formative moments, then the critics critique is a failure. Gillespie suggests that critics that are not authors should not be critics; i.e. a little too harsh for this ignorant critic.

This is an interesting and insightful book that would be more fun to one who understands Latin.

Please open https://hotaudiobook.com ONLY on your standard browser Safari, Chrome, Microsoft or Firefox to download full audiobooks of your choice for free.

Title: Gripping Stories

Subtitle: Tales of Adventure, Horror and Mystery

Author: Robert Louis Stevenson, Mark Twain, Thomas Hardy, Rudyard Kipling, Ambrose Bierce, James Joyce, John Buchan

Narrator: Cathy Dobson

Format: Unabridged

Length: 20 hrs and 55 mins

Language: English

Release date: 04-08-13

Publisher: Red Door Audiobooks

Ratings: 3 of 5 out of 8 votes

Genres: Classics, British Literature

Publisher's Summary:

A fabulous anthology of some of the finest stories ever written.

Members Reviews:

Nothing was to my Liking

What could have made this a 4 or 5-star listening experience for you?

The Narrated was not up to par by a long shot. No have never listened to a book with her as one before but did not care for her at all. She to me was not interesting, in making it the book come alive.

What was most disappointing about the authorss story?

I listened to the first one & part of the second, have read them but the telling was not enjoyable.

How did the narrator detract from the book?

Sorry the book did not seem to be as one a woman would have narrated.

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

Well known of all the stories of the book, so did not get too far into it. I fast forwarded through the first one, was the narrator, mainly.

Any additional comments?

Just did not like the Narrator was most of it, but was not enjoying it at all.

dreadful narration, couldn't follow story.

I would not recommend this narrator. I found her hard to listen to. don't often give bad reviews

Please open https://hotaudiobook.com ONLY on your standard browser Safari, Chrome, Microsoft or Firefox to download full audiobooks of your choice for free.

Title: Cousin Rosamund

Author: Rebecca West

Narrator: Harriet Carmichael

Format: Unabridged

Length: 12 hrs and 49 mins

Language: English

Release date: 02-22-13

Publisher: Audible Studios

Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 8 votes

Genres: Classics, British Literature

Publisher's Summary:

Cousin Rosamund unfolds the final chapters of the saga that began with The Fountain Overflows, Rebecca West's acknowleged masterpiece, and continued with This Real Night.

As the glitter of the 1920s gives way to the Depression, Rose and Mary find themselves feted and successful pianists. But their happiness is diminished by their cousin's unfathomable marriage to a man they perceive as grotesque.

Lacking her cousin Rosamund's intuitive understanding, Rose looks to the surrogate wisdom of Mr Morpurgo, while quiet days with Aunt Lily and the Darcys at their pub on the Thames offer respite from the tensions of foreign concert tours.

With approaching middle age Rose gains in perspective. Yet the most exciting development still awaits her: the discovery of and delight in her own sexuality.

Critic Reviews:

"A lastingly important English writer." (Marghanita Laski )

"Rich, generous, and consoling in spirit." (Hilary Spurling, Observer)

"Rebecca West, highly intelligent, highly gifted, vital, original, combative, formidable and kind was a great woman." (Victoria Glendinning )

Members Reviews:

Three and done and Wow am I glad.

Bottom Line First:

Cousin Rosamund is Dame Rebecca Westâs concluding book in her Saga of the Century trilogy. It is not up to her standards and can be very aggravating. The narrator, the no long pre-pubescent Rose Aubrey is like her twin sister Mary an accomplished, world traveling concert pianist. Adult as her life may be she is still immature and opinionated. She is unaware of the larger world and of her own humanity. What had been the precocious insights of the child has devolved into the too precious blatherings of a woman moving inside a highly protected cocoon. Unlike the previous books when Dame West knew exactly when turn the plot into a driving force that sweeps away the safe artificial world of her characters; Cousin Rosamund collapses into an obvious and conventional conclusion. If like me you do not like leaving a trilogy unfinished; that is about as much of a recommendation as I care to make.

I remain a fan of Dame Rebecca West. So far I have only read her fiction and until Cousin Rosamund her other books earned my admiration. I have not yet read her non-fiction and I will not let this experience keep me from those books.

In the first two books the Aubrey children and circle of friends deal with among other things gentile poverty and an unreliable if principled father. The narrator becomes a skilled pianist while other characters seek out their destinies as a nurse or house wife. There are events dramatic, the murder of a close family friend and tragic, the loss of the Aubrey parents.

I am not sure what about these event are particular to the period roughly the Fin de siècle to this book the period between World War I and II. There are only barest of references people and events outside of the small circle of characters. There is mention of fashion, the more modern the less complementary. World War I does make a brief and dramatic appearance, but the same events could have been worked into the plot line of any of the mini wars of the Pax Britanica. How this justifies the trilogy as the Saga of the Century is not clear.

And so to book 3, Cousin Rosamund. The Aubrey circle has addressed poverty, war, death and a few other excitements. The new generation is at work and one by one finding love.

Please open https://hotaudiobook.com ONLY on your standard browser Safari, Chrome, Microsoft or Firefox to download full audiobooks of your choice for free.

Title: David Copperfield

Author: Charles Dickens

Narrator: Flo Gibson

Format: Unabridged

Length: 30 hrs and 37 mins

Language: English

Release date: 01-15-13

Publisher: Audio Book Contractors

Ratings: 4.5 of 5 out of 3 votes

Genres: Classics, British Literature

Publisher's Summary:

Through young David's trials with the Murdstones and Uriah Heep, his experiences with the Peggoty family and his love for Emily, Dora, and Agnes, we watch as he grows from a young lad to maturity. This is a heartwarming story, told with great humor and compassion.

Members Reviews:

Is this a race?

Would you recommend this book to a friend? Why or why not?

I would recommend another narrator.

Any additional comments?

I love this book, and Flo is easy to understand but her pace is much too fast.

Please open https://hotaudiobook.com ONLY on your standard browser Safari, Chrome, Microsoft or Firefox to download full audiobooks of your choice for free.

Title: Sir Harry Hotspur of Humblethwaite

Author: Anthony Trollope

Narrator: Flo Gibson

Format: Unabridged

Length: 5 hrs and 55 mins

Language: English

Release date: 01-10-13

Publisher: Audio Book Contractors

Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 2 votes

Genres: Classics, British Literature

Publisher's Summary:

One of Trollope's best short novels tells of a father's vacillation over his daughter's wish to marry his nephew, who is a scamp and a wastrel. Although a sad tale, it is nonetheless brightened with Trollope's inevitable touches of humor.

Members Reviews:

that made me quite sad..

What could have happened to dear Trollope at or about the time of his writing Sir Harry H. of H, there's no knowing....a mystery why this story is steeped in such utter hopelessness and consequent despair......a true mystery....that made me quite sad.....why would he depict so great an obstinacy which ends up destroying a family that could otherwise have survived bigger ills, particularly when there seemed to be so much togetherness and deep love in them?????? P:S: I geatly enjoyed the writing itself, specially the asides and some of the more "humorous" comments.

Too unbelievable

I thought this was going to be a story of redemption,which bothered me, but I could have handled it better than what happened. It was hard to believe that a young girl would be so insanely self sacrificing to someone so undeserving, especially since she hardly knew him. She cooked up a fantasy in her head built on stubbornness and prayer and couldn't let go of it. I have seen Trollope create this kind of woman before and they always frustrate me. I hope they don't really exist in real life.

Three Stars

requested gift?

Moving tale of parents and child

The conflict between Sir Harry and his daughter over a worthless suitor could have been written yesterday. Trollope's descriptions of the father's devotion and pain, the daughter's struggle for independence and blindness toward her lover's flaws, are timeless.

Not Trollope's best

Enjoyable but I found Emily Hotspur aggravating.