Literary Criticism audiobooks

10 Books That Screwed Up the World

By: Benjamin Wiker, Ph.D.

Narrated by: Robertson Dean

Length: 6 hours 54 minutes

Abridged: No

You've heard of the "Great Books"?



These are their evil opposites. From Machiavelli's The Prince to Karl Marx's Communist Manifesto to Alfred Kinsey's Sexual Behavior in the Human Male, these "influential" books have led to war, genocide, totalitarian oppression, family breakdown, and disastrous social experiments. And yet these authors' bad... Read more

Tony Horwitz: A Voyage Long and Strange

By: PBS NewsHour

Narrated by: PBS NewsHour

Length: 7 minutes

Abridged: No

In this discussion, author Tony Horwitz talks about his new book, A Voyage Long and Strange: Rediscovering the New World, and how the American continent during 1500s is largely a forgotten time. While most students know about Columbus sailing the ocean blue in 1492 and the Pilgrims landing in 1620, Horwitz tells the NewsHour’s Ray Suarez that... Read more

Die Augusteische Dichtung - Abridged

By: Niklas Holzberg

Narrated by: Niklas Holzberg

Length: 1 hour 11 minutes

Abridged: Yes

Philologie mit Prof. Dr. Niklas Holzberg: NACH PHILIPPI 42 v. Chr. Oktavian und Mark Anton haben die Cäsarmörder besiegt und teilen das römische Reich unter sich auf. In der unsicheren politischen Situation entstehen die idyllische Hirtenpoesie Vergils und die zeitkritischen Satiren des Horaz. NACH AKTIUM 31 v. Chr. Oktavian hat Mark... Read more

Simon Winchester: The Man Who Loved China

By: PBS NewsHour

Narrated by: PBS NewsHour

Length: 7 minutes

Abridged: No

In The Man Who Loved China, Simon Winchester tells the story of Joseph Needham, an eccentric biochemist at Cambridge University who embarked on two great love affairs—Lu Gwei-Djen and China. In this interview, Winchester discusses Needham's introduction to Chinese language, his creation of an intellectual force during war and conflict, China's... Read more

The Romantic Manifesto

By: Ayn Rand

Narrated by: Bernadette Dunne

Length: 7 hours 21 minutes

Abridged: No

In this beautifully written and brilliantly reasoned collection of essays, Ayn Rand throws new light on the nature of art and its purpose in human life. Once again, Rand demonstrates her bold originality and her refusal to let popular catchphrases and conventional ideas define her sense of the truth.In her ethics AynRand extolled the virtue of... Read more

Die erotische Dichtung der Römer - Abridged

By: Niklas Holzberg

Narrated by: Niklas Holzberg

Length: 1 hour 8 minutes

Abridged: Yes

AMOR IN ROMA Die für das Sexualleben im antiken Rom gültige Ordnung ist dem Liebesgott eher feindlich gesinnt, weshalb die Verfasser erotischer Poesie eine Gegenwelt errichten. CATULL (UM 55 V. CHR.) Berühmt ist das Wechselbad seiner Gefühle in den Lesbia-Gedichten ("Ich hasse und liebe"). Als Spott- und Schmähdichter schreckt er vor... Read more

Das Alter in der Literatur - Abridged

By: Helmut Bachmaier

Narrated by: Helmut Bachmaier

Length: 1 hour

Abridged: Yes

Die Literaturgeschichte bietet viele Beispiele für Lob und Fluch des Alters. Bei Autoren wie Montaigne, Shakespeare oder Goethe finden wir Einsichten, die durch die moderne Altersforschung verifiziert wurden. Ein Reigen von verschiedenen Altersbildern der Literaturgeschichte liefert Anregungen und Material, um das eigene Altern zu reflektieren. Read more

How to Read and Why

By: Harold Bloom

Narrated by: John McDonough

Length: 11 hours 7 minutes

Abridged: No

"Information is endlessly available to us; where shall wisdom be found?" is the crucial question with which renowned literary critic Harold Bloom begins this impassioned book on the pleasures and benefits of reading well. For more than forty years, Bloom has transformed college students into
lifelong readers with his unrivaled love for... Read more

Thalia Book Club: The Autobiography of a Biographer

By: James Atlas, Edmund Morris & Stacy Schiff

Narrated by: Various

Length: 1 hour 5 minutes

Abridged: No

A panel of James Atlas (Delmore Schwartz, Saul Bellow), Edmund Morris (Theodore Roosevelt) and Stacy Schiff (Vladimir Nabokov, Antoine de Saint-Exupery) discuss the process of researching and writing another person's story. Read more

Achebe Discusses Africa 50 Years After 'Things Fall Apart'

By: Chinua Achebe

Narrated by: Chinua Achebe & Jeffrey Brown

Length: 7 minutes

Abridged: No

A half century after Chinua Achebe penned Things Fall Apart, Jeffrey Brown discusses Africa's ongoing story with the famed author. Read more

Achebe Discusses Africa 50 Years After 'Things Fall Apart'

By: PBS NewsHour

Narrated by: PBS NewsHour

Length: 8 minutes

Abridged: No

A half century after Chinua Achebe penned Things Fall Apart, Jeffrey Brown discusses Africa's ongoing story with the famed author. Read more

A Writer’s People

By: V. S. Naipaul

Narrated by: Simon Vance

Length: 5 hours 20 minutes

Abridged: No

Born in Trinidad of Indian descent, a resident of England for his entire adult life, and a prodigious traveler, V. S. Naipaul has always faced the challenges of "fitting one civilization to another." Here, he takes us into his sometimes inadvertent process of creative and intellectual assimilation, which has shaped both his writing and his... Read more

Junot Diaz: The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao

By: PBS NewsHour

Narrated by: PBS NewsHour

Length: 7 minutes

Abridged: No

From the 'Fuku' of the Dominican Republic to Klingon from Star Trek, the world of author Junot Diaz is a vibrant mix of cultures and languages. He discusses his influences and winning the Pulitzer Prize earlier this month for his novel, The Brief Wondrous Life of Wao. Read more

Armageddon in Retrospect

By: Kurt Vonnegut

Narrated by: Rip Torn

Length: 5 hours 15 minutes

Abridged: No

The New York Times bestseller from the author of Slaughterhouse-Five—a “gripping” posthumous collection of Kurt Vonnegut’s previously unpublished work on the subject of war and peace.

A fitting tribute to a literary legend and a profoundly humane humorist, Armageddon in Retrospect is a collection of twelve previously unpublished writings. Imbued... Read more

The Everything Guide to C.S. Lewis & Narnia - Abridged

By: Jon Kennedy

Narrated by: Mark Warner

Length: 4 hours 24 minutes

Abridged: Yes

The Lion, the Witch, and the man behind it all. Now, more than ever, the works of C.S. Lewis enthrall and entertain listeners of all ages. But who was this man of intellect and imagination? The Everything Guide to C.S. Lewis and Narnia gives you an in-depth look at this master storyteller, his life and times, and his best-known works. You'll... Read more

Those Who Walk in Darkness

By: John Ridley

Narrated by: Patricia R. Floyd

Length: 11 hours 1 minute

Abridged: No

John Ridley, the best-selling author of The Drift, is renowned for his gritty, violent tales and their razor-sharp dialogue. This foray into science fiction is an explosive thriller. In the near future, superheroes are very real. But so are supervillains. When San Francisco is toasted during a superbeing clash, America has had enough. All... Read more

The Philosophical Dictionary

By: Voltaire

Narrated by: Donal Donnelly

Length: 4 hours 15 minutes

Abridged: No

-A collection of Voltaire's ideas and thoughts that were too short for pamphlets but worth saving for later development-wise and witty entries on subjects as diverse as atheism and kissing. Read more

Thalia Book Club: Susan Cooper's The Dark is Rising

By: Susan Cooper

Narrated by: Daniel Gerroll

Length: 1 hour 2 minutes

Abridged: No

Susan Cooper talks with Symphony Space's education director about The Dark Is Rising sequence, her series of five thrilling fantasy novels for young readers, among them The Dark Is Rising and 1976 Newbery Medal winner The Grey King.

The heroic series, originally published in the 1960s and 70s, is inspired by Arthurian myths and depicts an epic... Read more

Memoirs of Africa with Alexandra Fuller and Wendy Kann

By: Alexandra Fuller & Wendy Kann

Narrated by: Isaiah Sheffer

Length: 1 hour 33 minutes

Abridged: No

Isaiah Sheffer sits down with two memoirists, Alexandra Fuller and Wendy Kann, to discuss their memoirs from Africa: Fuller's Scribbling the Cat and Kann's Casting With a Fragile Thread. Read more

Ex Libris

By: Anne Fadiman

Narrated by: Suzanne Toren

Length: 4 hours 17 minutes

Abridged: No

Perfectly balanced between humor and erudition, Ex Libris establishes Anne Fadiman as one of our finest contemporary essayists. Anne Fadiman is—by her own admission—the sort of person who learned about sex from her father's copy of Fanny Hill, whose husband buys her 19 pounds of dusty books for her birthday, and who once found herself poring... Read more

Thalia Book Club: Mastering the Art of Writing About Cooking

By: Julia Child, Judith Jones & Alex Prud'Homme

Narrated by: Various

Length: 1 hour 20 minutes

Abridged: No

Judith Jones and Alex Prud'homme discuss and read from their kitchen-based memoirs: Prud'homme's My Life in Food and Jones's My Life In Paris (co-authored by Prud'homme and Julia Child). Read more

Die griechische Literatur. Von Homer bis zum Ende der Antike - Abridged

By: Martin Hose

Narrated by: Martin Hose

Length: 1 hour 37 minutes

Abridged: Yes

Die Epen Homers, die Tragödien des Sophokles oder die Dialoge Platons gehören zu den Fixpunkten der europäischen Literatur. Zugleich sind sie Wegmarken der griechischen Literaturgeschichte, die mit einer technischen Revolution, der Nutzung der Schrift, einsetzt und in einem Prozess von fast 1500 Jahren in stetig wachsender Verfeinerung eine... Read more

Thalia Book Club: Claire Messud's The Emperor's Children

By: Claire Messud

Narrated by: Valerie Martin & Hope Davis

Length: 1 hour 26 minutes

Abridged: No

Claire Messud joins Valerie Martin to discuss her book, The Emperor's Children. Hope Davis reads an excerpt from the book. Read more

Thalia Book Club: Edwidge Danticat's Brother, I'm Dying

By: Edwige Danticat

Narrated by: Jonathan Demme

Length: 1 hour 34 minutes

Abridged: No

Edwidge Danticat sits down with director Jonathan Demme (Silence of the Lambs) to discuss and read from her book, Brother, I'm Dying. Read more