Literary Criticism audiobooks

The Possessed

By: Elif Batuman

Narrated by: Elif Batuman

Length: 9 hours 31 minutes

Abridged: No

One of The Economist's 2011 Books of the Year 


THE TRUE BUT UNLIKELY STORIES OF LIVES DEVOTED―ABSURDLY! MELANCHOLICALLY! BEAUTIFULLY!―TO THE RUSSIAN CLASSICS

No one who read Elif Batuman's first article (in the journal n+1) will ever forget it. "Babel in California" told the true story of various human destinies intersecting at Stanford University... Read more

Notas sobre el nacionalismo

By: George Orwell

Narrated by: Juan Antonio Bernal

Length: 59 minutes

Abridged: No

George Orwell ofrece en este audiolibro una de las reflexiones más lúcidas sobre los nacionalismos. En tiempos como los que estamos viviendo, los nacionalismos y los extremismos en todas sus formas resurgen con fuerza. En este extraordinario ensayo, publicado en mayo de 1945, en los estertores de la Segunda Guerra Mundial, y disponible ahora en... Read more

The Art of Cruelty

By: Maggie Nelson

Narrated by: Tavia Gilbert

Length: 8 hours 49 minutes

Abridged: No

Today both reality and entertainment crowd our fields of vision with brutal imagery. The pervasiveness of images of torture, horror, and war has all but demolished the twentieth-century hope that such imagery might shock us into a less alienated state, or aid in the creation of a just social order. What to do now? When to look, when to turn... Read more

Juliet’s Answer

By: Glenn Dixon

Narrated by: Jim Meskimen

Length: 7 hours 32 minutes

Abridged: No

When Glenn Dixon is spurned by love, he packs his bags for Verona, Italy. Once there, he volunteers to answer the thousands of letters that arrive addressed to Juliet—letters sent from lovelorn people all over the world to Juliet’s hometown, people who long to understand the mysteries of the human heart.Glenn’s journey takes him deep into the... Read more

The Patriots

By: Sana Krasikov

Narrated by: Suzanne Toren & George Guidall

Length: 22 hours 58 minutes

Abridged: No

A debut novel by acclaimed story writer Sana Krasikov that examines the effects of the Cold War on three generations of one Jewish American family, from the 1930s to the present. Florence Fein grows up in Brooklyn in the 1930s, to a family that is gaining a foothold in the middle class. At City College she becomes engaged politically with the... Read more

How To Write A Poem

By: HowExpert

Narrated by: Rebecca Cromer

Length: 39 minutes

Abridged: No

If you want to learn how to write a poem, then get this step-by-step How to Write a Poem guide.In this step-by-step guide, you will learn how to be a poet. How to write a poem the right way How to think like a poet How to tell a story in a unique and eloquent way Simple exercises to unlock the poet within you How to rhyme with couplets How to... Read more

100 quotes by Victor Hugo

By: Victor Hugo

Narrated by: Katie Haigh

Length: 31 minutes

Abridged: No

Expand your horizons with three stories from far-away countries, tales of timeless wisdom and a window to the soul of other cultures. These three stories are from the most different parts of the world, but all are food for thought and use powerful imagery to help children develop their intelligence and imagination. The first story is from India:... Read more

100 quotes by Gustave Flaubert

By: Gustave Flaubert

Narrated by: Katie Haigh

Length: 34 minutes

Abridged: No

King Edward I "Longshanks", or the "Hammer of the Scots", was a major figure of Medieval England. Arguably one of the most controversial British monarchs, he was portrayed as an ignominous villain in Mel Gibsons' Braveheart; but the reality was different. Indeed, his reign stands among the most dramatic and important of the entire Middle Ages,... Read more

Un cuarto propio

By: Virginia Woolf

Narrated by: Neus Sendra

Length: 3 hours 55 minutes

Abridged: No

Un cuarto propio es un breve ensayo de Virginia Woolf sobre la condición femenina que se ha convertido en un icono de la literatura del siglo XX. «No hay marca en la pared para medir la precisa estatura de las mujeres. No hay medidas que determinen las condiciones de una buena madre o el cariño de una hija, la fidelidad de una hermana o la... Read more

100 citations d'Honoré de Balzac

By: Balzac

Narrated by: Nicolas Planchais

Length: 33 minutes

Abridged: No

Honoré de Balzac est un maître du roman français, dont il a abordé plusieurs genres, du roman philosophique avec Le Chef-d'œuvre inconnu au roman fantastique avec La Peau de chagrin ou encore au roman poétique avec Le Lys dans la vallée. Il a surtout excellé dans la veine du réalisme, avec notamment Le Père Goriot et Eugénie Grandet, mais il... Read more

A Prominent Israeli Author Reflects on the Country’s Founding — and Future

By: Amos Oz

Narrated by: Amos Oz & Jeffrey Brown

Length: 5 minutes

Abridged: No

Amos Oz grew up in Israel in the early years of its statehood. Now, in his first book in over a decade, the writer looks back at that time through the eyes of three characters -- each at a different life stage and with a distinctive attitude toward the new state. Jeffrey Brown sits down with Oz to discuss his writing process, the “gift of... Read more

The Secret Garden

By: Frances Hodgson Burnett

Narrated by: Helen Stainer

Length: 6 hours 53 minutes

Abridged: No

The Secret Garden is a classic of English children's literature. Mary Lennox is a troubled, sickly, and unloved 10-year-old girl born in India to selfish, wealthy British parents. However there is a cholera epidemic in India which kills Mary's parents and all the servants. She is sent to Yorkshire, to live with her reclusive and embittered Uncle... Read more

The Sky Is Falling

By: Lester Del Rey

Narrated by: Helen Stainer

Length: 3 hours 14 minutes

Abridged: No

The Sky Is Falling is a science fiction classic: Computer engineer Dave Hansen is transported from Earth to a world reminiscent of Ancient Egypt, where the rules of science and physics are replaced by the rules of magic. Hanson was summoned to help save the world's sky from collapsing. The sky is a literal dome that arches above the world, with... Read more

The Big Time

By: Fritz Leiber

Narrated by: Helen Stainer

Length: 3 hours 42 minutes

Abridged: No

The Big Time is a science fiction novel by Fritz Leiber. It was awarded the Hugo Award during 1958. The storyline features members of one of two factions, both capable of time travel, engaged in a long-term conflict called "The Change War". Their method of battle involves changing the outcomes of events throughout history (temporal war). The two... Read more

The Tunnel Under the World

By: Frederik Pohl

Narrated by: Edward Miller

Length: 1 hour 23 minutes

Abridged: No

The Tunnel Under The World is a science fiction short story by Frederik Pohl. It was first published in 1955. Guy and Mary Burckhardt wake up in their house in Tylerton on June 15, having both had terrible nightmares, but they can't recall the events of their dreams. Guy dismisses the dream and goes to work as usual, the downtown offices of... Read more

Watchbird (Unabridged)

By: Robert Sheckley

Narrated by: Edward Miller

Length: 51 minutes

Abridged: No

Engineers have created an intelligent robot bird and its main objective is to prevent murder! The robot is encouraged to study what murder is, and its definition of murder expands until humans find themselves no longer able to operate on dying patients or to eat a salad because of the salad's feelings! What to do? Terminate the robots or starve... Read more

Black Amazon of Mars

By: Leigh Douglass Brackett

Narrated by: Edward Miller

Length: 2 hours 55 minutes

Abridged: No

"Grimly Eric John Stark slogged toward that ancient Martian city.with every step he cursed the talisman of Ban Cruach that flamed in his blood-stained belt. Behind him screamed the hordes of Ciaran, hungering for that magic jewel.ahead lay the dread abode of the Ice Creatures.at his side stalked the whispering spectre of Ban Cruach, urging him... Read more

The Defenders

By: Philip K. Dick

Narrated by: Edward Miller

Length: 59 minutes

Abridged: No

The Defenders is a 1953 science fiction novel by American master of the genre Philip K. Dick, and the basis for Dick's 1964 novel The Penultimate Truth. (It is one of several of his stories to be expanded into a novel)... Eight years ago a nuclear war began between the U.S. and the Soviet Union. American survivors evacuated to gigantic bunkers... Read more

Advertisements for Myself

By: Norman Mailer

Narrated by: Christopher Lane

Length: 20 hours 41 minutes

Abridged: No

Originally published in 1959, Advertisements for Myself is an inventive collection of stories, essays, polemic, meditations, and interviews. It is Mailer at his brilliant, provocative, outrageous best. Emerging at the height of "hip," Advertisements is at once a chronicle of a crucial era in the formation of modern American culture and an... Read more

The Feud

By: Alex Beam

Narrated by: Douglas Pullar

Length: 5 hours 42 minutes

Abridged: No

In 1940, Edmund Wilson was the undisputed big dog of American letters. Vladimir Nabokov was a near-penniless Russian exile seeking asylum in the States. Wilson became a mentor to Nabokov, introducing him to every editor of note, assigning to him book reviews for the New Republic, engineering a Guggenheim. Their intimate friendship blossomed over... Read more

Mind of an Outlaw

By: Norman Mailer

Narrated by: Christopher Lane

Length: 22 hours 27 minutes

Abridged: No

Norman Mailer was one of the towering figures of twentieth-century American letters and an acknowledged master of the essay. Mind of an Outlaw, the first posthumous publication from this outsize literary icon, collects Mailer’s most important and representative work in the form that many rank as his most electrifying.As America’s foremost public... Read more

Michael Chabon Blends Fact and Fiction to Create ‘a Truth’

By: Michael Chabon

Narrated by: Michael Chabon & Jeffrey Brown

Length: 4 minutes

Abridged: No

In his new book, Moonglow: A Novel, Pulitzer Prize-winning author Michael Chabon blurs the line between truth and fiction, placing historical figures and true stories in a world of fantasy. He delves into a tale about war, family and technology in mid-century America; in doing so, he says he gives his readers “a truth,” if not the truth. Chabon... Read more

The Clothing of Books

By: Jhumpa Lahiri

Narrated by: Jhumpa Lahiri

Length: 58 minutes

Abridged: No

A deeply personal reflection from the Pulitzer Prize–winning author of The Namesake that explores the art of the book jacket from the perspectives of both reader and writer.

How do you clothe a book? Probing the complex relationships between text and image, author and designer, and art and commerce, Lahiri delves into the role of the uniform;... Read more

The Untold Story of the Talking Book

By: Matthew Rubery

Narrated by: Jim Denison

Length: 11 hours 31 minutes

Abridged: No

Histories of the book often move straight from the codex to the digital screen. Left out of that familiar account is nearly 150 years of audio recordings. Recounting the fascinating history of audio-recorded literature, Matthew Rubery traces the path of innovation from Edison’s recitation of “Mary Had a Little Lamb” for his tinfoil phonograph in... Read more