Literary Criticism audiobooks

Gardens

By: Robert Pogue Harrison

Narrated by: Drew Birdseye

Length: 5 hours 57 minutes

Abridged: No

Humans have long turned to gardens—both real and imaginary—for sanctuary from the frenzy and tumult that surrounds them. Those gardens may be as far away from everyday reality as Gilgamesh’s garden of the gods or as near as our own backyard, but in their very conception and the marks they bear of human care and cultivation, gardens stand as... Read more

Changing My Mind

By: Zadie Smith

Narrated by: Barbara Rosenblat

Length: 12 hours 25 minutes

Abridged: No

"[These essays] reflect a lively, unselfconscious, rigorous, erudite, and earnestly open mind that's busy refining its view of life, literature, and a great deal in between." —Los Angeles Times

Split into five sections--Reading, Being, Seeing, Feeling, and Remembering--Changing My Mind finds Zadie Smith casting an acute eye over material both... Read more

Thalia Book Club: Scott Westerfeld's Leviathan

By: Scott Westerfeld

Narrated by: Matthew Cody

Length: 1 hour 10 minutes

Abridged: No

The New York Times best-selling author of Uglies discusses his latest series - which takes readers on a fantastical adventure around the world, set in an alternate-history World War I, complete with living airships - with Matthew Cody (Powerless) and middle graders and teens ages 12 and up. The event includes a conversation with the... Read more

Classical Mythology

By: Peter Meineck

Narrated by: Peter Meineck

Length: 7 hours 56 minutes

Abridged: No

Rome grew from a tiny community of small hill villages near the River Tiber in central Italy to one of the most powerful empires the world has seen. The Romans themselves believed that their great city was founded in the middle of the eighth century BCE. By the middle of the second century CE, Rome had a population of 1.5 million; Alexandria, in... Read more

Poet Sherman Alexie Talks

By: PBS NewsHour

Narrated by: PBS NewsHour

Length: 4 minutes

Abridged: No

Author Sherman Alexie talks about his new book of poetry called Faces and his new short story collection, War Dances. Read more

Thalia Book Club: Trenton Lee Stewart's Mysterious Benedict Society

By: Trenton Lee Stewart

Narrated by: Madeline Cohen & Trenton Lee Stewart

Length: 1 hour 3 minutes

Abridged: No

Trenton Lee Stewart sits down with Madeline Cohen to discuss and read from his Mysterious Benedict Society series. Read more

Walt Whitman and the Birth of Modern American Poetry

By: Karen Karbiener

Narrated by: Karen Karbiener

Length: 8 hours 16 minutes

Abridged: No

In this course, Walt Whitman and the Birth of Modern American Poetry, we'll explore how Walt Whitman broke with the tyranny of European literary forms to establish a broad, new voice for American poetry. By throwing aside the stolid conventions and clichEd meters of old Europe, Walt Whitman produced a vital, compelling form of verse, one... Read more

Masterpieces of Medieval Literature

By: Timothy B. Shutt

Narrated by: George K. Wilson

Length: 8 hours 20 minutes

Abridged: No

It is during the Middle Ages that modern Europe, indeed, modern Western culture as we know it, comes to be. Classical Mediterranean culture drew from the ancient Middle East, and more directly, from the Hebrews, Greeks, and Romans. The Middle Ages add the Northlands, Celts, and Germans, and ultimately, Slavs as well, to the mix. And the Middle... Read more

Shakespeare

By: Harold Bloom

Narrated by: Harold Bloom

Length: 8 hours 12 minutes

Abridged: No

Shakespeare invented characters in a new kind of way. He not only gave them personality and depth, he gave them life. Not a life that went simply from point to point, but one that developed rather than unfolded. In so doing, Shakespeare created characters with whom everyone can identify, whether the characters were kings and queens or fools and... Read more

Collections of Nothing

By: William Davies King

Narrated by: Robert Pavlovich

Length: 5 hours 8 minutes

Abridged: No

Nearly everyone collects something, even those who don’t think of themselves as collectors. William Davies King, on the other hand, has devoted decades to collecting nothing—and a lot of it. With Collections of Nothing, he takes a hard look at this habitual hoarding to see what truths it can reveal about the impulse to accumulate. Part... Read more

El Príncipe

By: Nicolás Maquiavelo

Narrated by: Staff Audiolibros Colección

Length: 2 hours 3 minutes

Abridged: No

El príncipe constituye un capítulo fundacional del pensamiento y la literatura occidental, y, sin embargo, el lector tiene que sortear la inercia de tópicos seculares al intentar aventurarse por sus páginas. Pero, en última instancia, Maquiavelo fue sobre todo un esforzado patriota florentino, y gran parte de su vida estuvo dedicada al servicio... Read more

Leave Me Alone, I'm Reading

By: Maureen Corrigan

Narrated by: Maureen Corrigan

Length: 8 hours 28 minutes

Abridged: No

A book reviewer for The Washington Post and NPR's Fresh Air, Maureen Corrigan is obsessed with books-so much so that they caused her to delay marriage. This audiobook explores her obsession with all things literary. Corrigan expertly weaves together her own life story withthe stories from the books she loves. Read more

Ayn Rand Answers

By: Ayn Rand

Narrated by: Bernadette Dunne

Length: 10 hours 1 minute

Abridged: No

After the publication of Atlas Shrugged in 1957, Ayn Rand turned to nonfiction writing and occasional lecturing. Her aim was to bring her philosophy to a wider audience and to apply it to current cultural and political issues. The taped lectures and the question-and-answer sessions that followed added not only an eloquent new dimension to Ayn... Read more

Thalia Book Club: David Wroblewski's The Story of Edgar Sawtelle

By: David Wroblewski

Narrated by: Dan Menaker

Length: 1 hour 13 minutes

Abridged: No

David Wrobleski sits down with Dan Menaker to discuss and read excerpts from his book, The Story of Edgar Sawtelle. Read more

Shakespeare

By: Raphael Shargel

Narrated by: Raphael Shargel

Length: 8 hours 21 minutes

Abridged: No

Professor Raphael Shargel channels his passion for teaching and expertise as a Shakespearean scholar into this illuminative study of the Immortal Bard's eight great comedies. Shakespeare's genius is as readily apparent in these comedies as in his timeless tragedies. Often marked by internal and external conflicts, young lovers struggling for... Read more

Odyssey of the West VI

By: Timothy B. Shutt

Narrated by: Timothy B. Shutt, Katherine Elkins & Joel F. Re...

Length: 8 hours 2 minutes

Abridged: No

The Odyssey of the West series, a grand exploration of art, literature, revolutionary theories, and intellectual progress through the ages, concludes with a fascinating look at the twentieth century. Series editor and esteemed university professor Timothy B. Shutt is joined by contributing lecturers for a lively discussion of the major works and... Read more

Thalia Book Club: Amy Bloom's Away

By: Amy Bloom

Narrated by: Isaiah Sheffer & Jill Eikenberry

Length: 1 hour 18 minutes

Abridged: No

Amy Bloom sits down with Isaiah Sheffer to discuss her book, Away. Jill Eikenberry reads an excerpt from the book. Read more

Leaves of Grass

By: Walt Whitman

Narrated by: Robin Field

Length: 18 hours 48 minutes

Abridged: No

One of the great innovative figures in American letters, Walt Whitman created a daring new kind of poetry that became a major force in world literature. His poems have been woven into the very fabric of the American character and have continued to provide inspiration to people and poets for generations.Leaves of Grass is Whitman's masterpiece,... Read more

La ciudad de los herejes

By: Frederico Andahazi

Narrated by: Walter Krochmal

Length: 8 hours 11 minutes

Abridged: No

En la Francia medieval, el duque Geoffroy de Charny ha hecho uso de su malefica inteligencia para urdir un plan que le asegurara gloria y poder. Dominado por la ambicion, se propone revivir el caracter milagroso del Santo Sudario, la perfecta excusa que justifique la construccion de una iglesia para su propio provecho. Mientras tanto, su hija... Read more

Classical Mythology

By: Peter Meineck

Narrated by: Peter Meineck

Length: 8 hours 10 minutes

Abridged: No

In Classical Mythology: The Greeks, widely published Professor Peter Meineck examines in thrilling detail the far-reaching influence of Greek myths on Western thought and literature. The nature of myth and its importance to ancient Greece in terms of storytelling, music, poetry, religion, cults, rituals, theatre, and literature are viewed... Read more

Harry, a History

By: Melissa Anelli

Narrated by: Renée Raudman

Length: 10 hours 58 minutes

Abridged: No

During the brief span of just one decade, hundreds of millions of perfectly ordinary people made history: they became the only ones who would remember what it was like when the Harry Potter saga was still unfinished. What it was like to seek out friends, families, online forums, fan fiction, and podcasts to get a fix between novels. When the... Read more

Thalia Book Club: Gary Schmidt's The Wednesday Wars

By: Gary Schmidt

Narrated by: Khris Lewin

Length: 1 hour 4 minutes

Abridged: No

Two-time Newbery Medal winner Gary Schmidt talks about the frequently comic mishaps and adventures of a 12-year-old Long Island boy in the Vietnam era. Actor Khris Lewin performs an excerpt from the book. Co-presented with Bank Street Bookstore.

Thalia Kids' Book Club events are lively talks between children's book authors and their fans (ages... Read more

A Way With Words IV

By: Michael Drout

Narrated by: Michael Drout

Length: 8 hours 16 minutes

Abridged: No

In A Way with Words I, II, and III, Professor Michael D.C. Drout increased listeners' understanding of the way literature works, of the rhetoric that in many ways defines people's lives, and of the intricacies of grammar, all while maintaining a lively tone that conveys the professor's infectious enthusiasm for the subject. In part IV of this... Read more

Thalia Book Club: Raymond Chandler's The Big Sleep

By: Raymond Chandler

Narrated by: Jonathan Lethem, Judith Freeman & Rich Cohen

Length: 1 hour 20 minutes

Abridged: No

Jonathan Lethem (Motherless Brooklyn, The Fortress of Solitude) joins Judith Freeman and Rich Cohen in celebrating Raymond Chandler's classic detective novel, The Big Sleep. Read more