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: A Christmas Carol

Subtitle: A Charles Dickens Christmas Story

Author: Charles Dickens

Narrator: Bill DeWees

Format: Unabridged

Length: 1 hr and 6 mins

Language: English

Release date: 08-29-11

Publisher: Simply Media

Genres: Classics, British Literature

Publisher's Summary:

Charles Dickens beloved Christmas story is here narrated by Bill DeWees, with his special inflection to make the story English but easily understood by Americans. This is particularly nice to hear in relistenings during the holiday season - and year round.

Members Reviews:

TV and Movies versions were good, but the book is better. . .

One of my co-workers encouraged me to read this since I have only seen the TV/Movie versions. It was a quick read and very enjoyable. Fortunately, the TV/Movie versions weren't too far off the mark. Regardless, there were facets of the story that you would only get through the book, which is why reading the book will always be my favorite option.

BAH! HUMBUG!! "God bless Us, Every One"

A Christmas Carol is a beloved Christmas favorite. Nothing says Christmas like favorite Christmas stories. This timeless tale has been told in many versions. Iâve seen the movie and play but Iâve never read the book. I thought it was about time to finally read this tale.

The illustrations throughout the book were fun to look at. Not common to find illustrations in books today unless they are children stories.

Lots of great quotes come from this story but the most famous is BAH! HUMBUG! followed by:

"God bless Us, Every One!"

Standalone

As great to read vs as to watch as a production.

We've enjoyed many kinds of productions of this classic Scrooge story. The original makes us 'rise to the occasion' - or at least gets us to mentally take the time to step back in that era. Life was so different, so the real factor is (I think) a little richer, than already assembled viewables. Emotional, and the older language adds some incentive to digging into the story.

A must read!

Dickens has always intimidated me. Somehow, I made my way through high school and college without having to read one of his novels. Finally, a few weeks before Christmas, I decided to give this a try when I learned it is relatively short. I figured if it took some work, at least it wouldn't take all that long. I'm sorry I waited so long. It was impossible for me to separate this from the many versions of A Christmas Carol I've seen over the years. I loved it. I enjoyed the glimpse into the time and place of the story. The story and theme are, of course, legendary.

Don't be intimidated. This is a book everyone should read at least once.

Classic I Know

I have tried this one before and was distracted within the first five chapters but with the advise of a colleague I am going to attempt this one again. I am late 30's and sometimes have a tough time focusing for long spans of time unless the story is captivating from the get go, you have to appreciate writing for the sake of verb-age and description to get into this. So, because it is a classic and I think the classics should be read - I'll give it another go but not looking forward to it despite the wonderful reviews. Hated Pride and Prejudice too - just depends on personal taste I suppose. Loved The Divine Comedy....

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: Barchester Towers

Author: Anthony Trollope

Narrator: Margaret Hilton

Format: Unabridged

Length: 21 hrs and 54 mins

Language: English

Release date: 07-20-11

Publisher: Recorded Books

Ratings: 3.5 of 5 out of 9 votes

Genres: Classics, British Literature

Publisher's Summary:

First, a warning: If you havent read any Trollope, start with The Warden; its the first in a series of which Barchester is second. Next, a rather shocking warning: Trollope may be as addictive as a soap opera. It has plenty of the right ingredientsarchly drawn characters and plots that enmesh the listener in the daily ups and downs of those characters lives. Of course, the great crevasse that divides your average daytime soap from Barchester Towers is the elegance and skill of the writer and the witty invention from which he draws his charming and classic fantasies.

Editorial Reviews:

Margaret Hilton imparts restraint and understatement to her performance of Anthony Trollopes 1857 novel, Barchester Towers.

The second installment in Trollopes "Chronicles of Barsetshire series, this novel takes place in the city of Barchester, where the beloved bishop has died. Bishop Proudie takes his position, accompanied by his intrusive wife, Mrs. Proudie. Meanwhile, the bishops unlikeable chaplain, Mr. Slope, has ordered clergyman Dr. Stanhope back from Italy. He is accompanied by his scandalous daughter, Madeline. These characters and others add to this satirical story about religious hypocrisy.

Hiltons unabridged performance carries the subtly ironic edge that characterizes Trollopes prose.

Members Reviews:

Trollope's not for me

Is there anything you would change about this book?

I would like the book to be kinder to its characters - they are all ridiculed and satirised and it's difficult to listen to a book in whose characters the author seems to find no redeeming features.

What was your reaction to the ending? (No spoilers please!)

I haven't listened to the end - I'm going to return it.

What do you think the narrator could have done better?

The narrator could have altered her tone a little - it was all read in a rather arch, floating tone. I could have done with someone who sounded more interested in conveying a story than reciting lines as if she was a in a play.

If this book were a film would you go see it?

Yes - as I think the characters were interesting and I love a good period drama

Any additional comments?

I have heard so many good things about Anthony Trollope but this book left me feeling frustrated and tired. It may have been the narration or the story itself but I will have to try the text version before I try another Trollope audiobook.

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 Return of the Native

Author: Thomas Hardy

Narrator: Patrick Tull

Format: Unabridged

Length: 16 hrs and 25 mins

Language: English

Release date: 07-08-11

Publisher: Recorded Books

Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 5 votes

Genres: Classics, British Literature

Publisher's Summary:

Virginia Woolf once called Thomas Hardy "the greatest tragic writer among English novelists". His atmospheric novels were often considered shocking upon their publication. In this classic, Clym Yeobright returns to Egdon Heath from Paris, intending to settle down and improve the lives of his townspeople. But the alluring and mysterious Eustacia Vye has other plans. Like so many of Hardys masterpieces, The Return of the Native is both a rich character study and a critical examination of Victorian society.

Editorial Reviews:

Hardy's classic unfolds slowly and atmospherically, guided inexorably toward its conclusion by a master storyteller. Narrator Patrick Tull would seem to be a great choice, given his gravelly British accent and his excellent character voices. His effort falls short, though, because he speaks too quickly and in too low a register for listeners to understand him. His focus is on being conversational and with getting the accents right, rather than diction.

Members Reviews:

Wonderful

Would you consider the audio edition of The Return of the Native to be better than the print version?

I would. I love Patrick Tull's voice, and for some reason the density of Hardy translates really well to audio (especially with such a gifted narrator). I think I appreciate Hardy's long descriptions of setting much more than I would when reading, given that our modern tastes are a little more sparing.

What did you like best about this story?

The forehead slapping decisions of the two sets of couples. And when the young boy is gambling.

Have you listened to any of Patrick Tulls other performances before? How does this one compare?

I have listened to his version of Dickens' Hard Times, which is why I bought this edition. I love, love, love his voice. He has such skill with women, especially. Dickens has a wider variety of characters than Hardy, so Dickens was, in that respect, more fun. But man oh man, when Eustacia is lamenting her scourging, I really felt like I was listening to *her* and not Tull at all.

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

When the Reddleman wins back the guineas. And when Eustacia hears the "frog" on the second 5th of November.

Any additional comments?

I think that classics like this one are really done a wonderful service with such careful and artful narration. Even as a literature lover, I simply don't have the time to sit down and really immerse myself in a book like this, but when I enjoy it this way, I get to savor it while doing all sorts of other things.

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: Vanity Fair

Author: William Makepeace Thackeray

Narrator: Edward Petherbridge

Format: Abridged

Length: 2 hrs and 21 mins

Language: English

Release date: 07-05-11

Publisher: The Copyright Group

Ratings: 2 of 5 out of 1 votes

Genres: Classics, British Literature

Publisher's Summary:

This book comes with an introduction and notes by Owen Knowles, University of Hull. Thackeray's upper-class Regency world is a noisy and jostling commercial fairground, predominantly driven by acquisitive greed and soulless materialism, in which the narrator himself plays a brilliantly versatile role as a serio-comic observer. Although subtitled 'A Novel without a Hero', "Vanity Fair" follows the fortunes of two contrasting but inter-linked lives. Through the retiring Amelia Sedley and the brilliant Becky Sharp, Thackeray examines the position of women in an intensely exploitative male world.

Members Reviews:

Thackeray's Vanity Fair: The Victorian Society

When I read the book I got the impression that I was given a unique oportunity to look at the Victorian society and recognise the things that were both good and bad about it. The novel is "without a hero", as Thackeray proclaims, but it is about the life and development of two women Becky Sharp and Amelia Sedley. By comparing and contrasting the two of them, Thackeray manages to show his readers that society in the Victorian Era influenced the development of the character of his heros, but not to the point of actually making them what they turn out to be. It is a wonderful book, full of insight and ever so true for our own time as well. If you want to know many truths about the Victorians and their lives, that's the book to read... You will, undoubtedly, enjoy the experience

Thackery is more than happy to offer several pages of explanation and further clarification

Where most authors would make a statement, and perhaps give a paragraph or two of explanation, Thackery is more than happy to offer several pages of explanation and further clarification. The word usage is perhaps more flowery than modern writing, but the characters are interesting. Becky Sharp would nowadays be either written up as a success story or have enough money to bury the unflattering past. Vanity Fair makes the point that this was a bad time to be without money, for both men and women alike.

Good read prior to watching the movie

This book is a social commentary on the life in the early 1800s. Society's rules are rigid and social climbers are not looked upon with favor. Poverty is deemed a personal fault as well as a social stigma. Becky Sharp is a clever girl who gets her way but ultimately gets ground down by society. She proves herself to be more than a schemer but is not able to achieve the socal status she craves.

Her friend Amelia, as clueless as she can be is ultimately saved from a life of unhappiness through Becky's intervention. Lots of subplots, deviousness, snobbishness, manipulation etc. Life hasn't changed too much. Money is still power, however in those days the upper class could live a long time on credit and their name. Thackeray is none too subtle as to his contempt for social classes and the power they have over the lower classes. I recommend this and then see the movie with Reese Witherspoon.

Favorite Victorian Novel

I wish there was an inexhaustable reserve of Victorian novels like this one but of course there comes a point when you've read them all. This ranks in my top 20 favorite novels of all time. Seems to me if I remember correctly a bit of a twist ending. Compelling characters and great story.

Great story

A very interesting tale. Sometimes long winded.

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: Doctor Marigold

Subtitle: Dickens on Dickens

Author: Charles Dickens

Narrator: Gerald Dickens

Format: Unabridged

Length: 57 mins

Language: English

Release date: 06-06-11

Publisher: Create Digital Publishing

Ratings: 4.5 of 5 out of 5 votes

Genres: Classics, British Literature

Publisher's Summary:

Gerald Dickens, the great great grandson of Charles Dickens, reads one of his more unusual novels, Doctor Marigold. First introduced in 1865, The Adventures of Doctor Marigold pulls the audience into the story until they become part of this gentleman's life.

Members Reviews:

Dickens at his best

This brief short story is a first person account of the life of a "Cheap-Jack", a kind of salesman or barker at fairs, who sells cheap, everyday items to the poor. Dickens clearly is in love with the typical non-stop patter or auctioneer's song that these men engaged in, and samples of these day-long chants make up much of the book. The story that moves all this forward is the man's love for his wife, daughter, and granddaughter. Dickens does his usual masterful job of pulling at your heartstrings and bringing everything to a teary, happy ending. But make no mistake, the real love affair is between Dickens and the English language.

A gem.

Smashing Dickens Evening

This was truly delighul. Gerald Dickens performed the entirety of Dickens' little-known short story with such flare that I could envision the poor deaf and mute Sophy standing right by his side. After the monologue, the audience was invited to a reception where we sipped wine, nibbled dessert treats and chatted with the actor and many of those involved in staging the annual Dickens festival in Rivereside. I got to hobnob with Queen Victoria!

Excellent, as always

Dickenson knows how to spin a story. He does not mock his characters, as a rule, and, no matter their station, gives us insight into why we should care.

This is a short story,, but powerful and well told.

Fan of Charles Dickens but not much time for reading? Read this!

I recently had the experience of seeing a live reading/performance of this story performed by Gerald Dickens, the great-great grandson of it's author, Charles Dickens and, being a fan of both the author and the actor relations and having not previously read the story, I wanted to read it before seeing it. Luckily for me (a bit of a slow reader), this was a short story and I was able to read it in a day's time. Like many of Mr. Dickens' writings, this one covers a wide range of social topics of his time and emotions (it's both sad and uplifting).

Dickens at his best

If you have, are, or have had, Deaf in your family or friends you will be interested in this highly intelligent treatment of the subject during a time when Deaf were not well treated or well thought of.

If you are interested in how life was lived in Dicken's time this book is revealing.

It is obvious why this work was not a classic. It does not strike most people's "chord" as some of his others did.

Being interested in history and interested in Deaf Culture I found the book a very worthwhile read.

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: Persuasion

Author: Jane Austen

Narrator: Anne Flosnik

Format: Unabridged

Length: 8 hrs and 42 mins

Language: English

Release date: 05-17-11

Publisher: Tantor Audio

Ratings: 4.5 of 5 out of 40 votes

Genres: Classics, British Literature

Publisher's Summary:

Jane Austen's final novel is the story of Anne Elliot, a woman who gets a second chance. As a teenager she becomes engaged to a man who seems perfect for her, Frederick Wentworth. But she is persuaded to break the engagement off by her friend, Lady Russell, who believes that he is too poor to be a suitable match. The episode plunges Anne into a period of bleak disappointment.

Eight years later, Frederick returns from the Napoleonic Wars flushed with success. Anne's circumstances have also changed; her father's spendthrift ways mean he has been forced to lease the family home to a naval family. Will Anne and Frederick rediscover their love? Can their changed fortunes inhibit their feelings?

Persuasion is a story of self-knowledge and personal regeneration, of social change and emotional politics. It is Austen's most mature work, and also her most wickedly satirical.

Members Reviews:

Spreading ???Purification and Perfume??? in Bath

Anne Elliot is an intelligent, well-read, sensible, kind, and appealing Jane Austen heroine. Her vain, snobbish, and foolish family is woefully unworthy of her and takes her for granted. Eight years before the novel begins, Anne was persuaded to break off her engagement with one Frederick Wentworth, a handsome young naval officer, because he had no money or family name. As the novel opens, her father???s lavish lifestyle has put Anne???s family in such dire financial straits that they must rent out their estate and relocate to cheaper lodgings in Bath, which initiates a chain of events by which Wentworth, now a wealthy captain, re-enters Anne???s life. But what about that gentlemanly widower cousin of Anne???s who wants to marry her?

If you???ve read other Austen novels, you may guess the what will happen in Persuasion and find resemblances between it and her other works: middle-class or upper-class family dramas about marriages and money starring emotional heroines who are more sensible than the people around them. And I can???t help but feel that the role played in Persuasion by Anne???s rheumatic widow friend Mrs. Smith is a little too convenient.

Regardless of the degree to which Austen is writing her usual story in Persuasion, however, her prose is a delicious delight, especially when read by Ann Flosnik. Her voice, slightly nasal and deep, warmly sympathetic and amused, and ever clear and expressive, is perfectly suited to Austen???s witty and empathetic delineation of the foibles and devotions of the British middle and upper class. And there are many great lines, as when a naval officer mentions the examples in literature of the fickle nature of women???s hearts, so Anne replies, "Men have had every advantage of us in telling their own story. Education has been theirs in so much higher a degree; the pen has???been in their hands. I will not allow books to prove anything."

Persuasion is a funny and moving novel, with plenty of interesting thoughts on gender, class, love, and family.

A wonderful story well read

The story itself is fine elegiac and satisfying. It is beautifully read, and I enjoyed it throughly and quickly, I could hardly put it down.

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 Open Window

Author: Hector Hugh Munro

Narrator: Cathy Dobson

Format: Unabridged

Length: 8 mins

Language: English

Release date: 04-29-11

Publisher: Red Door Audiobooks

Ratings: 4.5 of 5 out of 8 votes

Genres: Classics, British Literature

Publisher's Summary:

Framton Nuttel pays an unannounced call on Mrs. Sappleton and finds himself in the midst of a macabre spectacle which is not as it seems. Hector Hugh Munros genius storytelling at its best.

©2011 Red Door Audiobooks (P)2011 Red Door Audiobooks

Members Reviews:

Good One from Saki

Saki should be better appreciated-- try this one.

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: De Profundis

Author: Oscar Wilde

Narrator: Corin Redgrave

Format: Abridged

Length: 1 hr and 10 mins

Language: English

Release date: 04-20-11

Publisher: Saland Publishing

Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 17 votes

Genres: Classics, British Literature

Publisher's Summary:

Performed by Corin Redgrave in Reading Prison to mark Oscar Wilde's centenary. With an introduction by Merlin Holland, Oscar Wilde's grandson.

©2005 L'Ocean (P)2005 L'Ocean

Members Reviews:

Unworthy to comment, but here goes

What did you love best about De Profundis?

The performance and the final passages.

How would you have changed the story to make it more enjoyable?

Not an appropriate question. I guess I would have had Mr Wilde find the humble cure he thirsted for upon release from prison and produce more work rather than succumb to the drain of society.

What about Corin Redgraves performance did you like?

Very expressive performance well beyond a simple reading with the wonderful hint of Irish accent. Also very appropriate echoes from the walls within which your man was encarcerated.

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

Passages like that about the balm to be found in the

Any additional comments?

This is a very short work, but it does give a direct insight into the way the life of an interesting man was virtually snubbed out after he was torn from the pedestal he never really needed. It is worth a little trip to Wikipedia to find out something of the context that surrounds this epistle from the depths. But perhaps also worth listening to it for yourself before you read any kind of literary criticism of 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: Robinson Crusoe

Author: Daniel Defoe

Narrator: Tony Britton

Format: Abridged

Length: 2 hrs and 17 mins

Language: English

Release date: 04-01-11

Publisher: The Copyright Group

Ratings: 4.5 of 5 out of 3 votes

Genres: Classics, British Literature

Publisher's Summary:

Defoe's masterpiece is part adventure and part do-it-yourself book. It describes the experiences of the resourceful sailor and castaway Robinson Crusoe. After escaping shipwreck and being swept on to an island with nothing but his wits, Crusoe survives - and even prospers - through his ingenuity and perseverance. He builds his own dwelling and makes furniture and clothes. He lives alone until the arrival of cannibals brings him an unexpected companion and the chance landing of mutineers gives him the opportunity to return home.

Members Reviews:

Classic story, well worth rereading

The last time I read this book was close to 60 years ago, while still in high school, where it was assigned, as one of the required books for the term, in our Freshman English class. That was way back, when schools actually required students to read at least 4 books, each semester of every year, just for their English course. While the syntax and language are, at times, arcane, the story is a classic one, to which I recommend all readers.

Good man found his way

I read this book , when I was 10or 12 years old.

I was amazed how I saw Robinson Crusoe and Friday this time. I saw a man doing penance for some wrong dealings , and earning his way back to society.

A classic

I tried to read this book when I was a teenager and I was put off by the language and writing style. This time I stayed with it and was glad I did. The writing style is quite a bit different than today's. Some of the sentences in this book were three pages long. I viewed it on a Kindle and was glad to have the dictionary available to look up some of the terms used. Overall a very good book. It dragged in some spots, especially when he spends forty pages discussing why the settlers should marry the women they've lived with. The scanning was haphazard - there was no editing after it was scanned, so page numbers and odd notations are scattered randomly throughout. It was free, so I can't complain too much.

Perfect for someone who still enjoys picking up a book!

Purchased as a gift for a family member. This was not a new copy and I did not want a new one. The condition was exactly as stated in the description. Classic story and the great feel of an old book. Quite a combination.

Good read!

How do you get as old as me and not have read Robinson Crusoe? I don't know the answer to that question. My grandson suggested that I read it, and I did. I thoroughly enjoyed 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: Heart of Darkness & The Secret Sharer: CliffsNotes

Author: Daniel Moran

Narrator: Dan John Miller

Format: Unabridged

Length: 2 hrs and 54 mins

Language: English

Release date: 03-16-11

Publisher: Brilliance Audio

Ratings: 4.5 of 5 out of 3 votes

Genres: Classics, British Literature

Publisher's Summary:

The CliffsNotes study guide on Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness and "The Secret Sharer" supplements the original literary works, giving you background information about the author, an introduction to the works, and critical commentaries, all for you to use as an educational tool that will allow you to better understand these works. This study guide was written with the assumption that you have read Heart of Darkness and "The Secret Sharer".

Reading a literary work doesnt mean that you immediately grasp the major themes and devices used by the author; this study guide will help supplement your reading to be sure you get all you can from Conrad's Heart of Darkness and "The Secret Sharer".

CliffsNotes Review tests your comprehension of the original text and reinforces learning with questions and answers, practice projects, and more. For further information on Joseph Conrad, Heart of Darkness and "The Secret Sharer", check out the CliffsNotes Resource Center at www.cliffsnotes.com.

Members Reviews:

Five Stars

great.

useful

worthwhile to read when reading Conrad's novella. Points out some subtleties that one might miss.

excellent

My son needed a resource for his English class on this novel. Cliffs Notes gave him the literary assessments needed - he got an "A" and that's what mattered.

A "must have" companion to the book...

This is a well written study guide to one of the greatest novels ever written. It helps to unravel all the layers, symbols and themes of Conrad's masterpiece. Without it, I am sure I would not have appreciated the book as much as I do.

Essential companion for the book

Anyone who has had to read either of these titles for school knows that teachers find a lot more in them than first meets the eye. Cliff Notes are a great way to gain insight into books and get a feel for the various interpretations. NOTE TO STUDENTS: You still have to read the book, folks. This just helps you understand it.