Great Audiobooks

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Middlemarch, by George Eliot. Part X. Oct 16, 2023

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Middlemarch: A Study of Provincial Life is a novel by George Eliot, the pen name of Mary Anne Evans, later Marian Evans. It is her seventh novel, begun in 1869 and then put aside during the final illness of Thornton Lewes, the son of her companion George Henry Lewes. During the following year Eliot resumed work, fusing together several stories into a coherent whole, and during 1871–72 the novel appeared in serial form. The first one-volume edition was published in 1874, and attracted large sales.

Subtitled "A Study of Provincial Life," the novel is set in the fictitious Midlands town of Middlemarch during the period 1830–32. It has multiple plots with a large cast of characters, and in addition to its distinct though interlocking narratives it pursues a number of underlying themes, including the nature of marriage, idealism and self-interest, religion and hypocrisy, political reform, and education. The pace is leisurely, the tone is mildly didactic (with an authorial voice that occasionally bursts through the narrative), and the canvas is very broad. (From Wikipedia.)

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Middlemarch, by George Eliot. Part IX. Oct 16, 2023

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Helen's Babies, by John Habberton. Part IV. Oct 12, 2023

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In this hilarious novel, Harry Burton, a bachelor white-goods salesman, goes to take care of his sister Helen's two little boys for ten days while she and her husband are out of town. Helen says, "The children won't give you the slightest trouble; they're the best children in the world!" but, as you can imagine, Toddie and Budge are always up to something, and all sorts of comic mischief ensues.

It just so happens that there's a lovely young lady in the neighborhood whom Harry admires very much, but she always seems to be passing by when he's deep in some terrible mess of the boys' making...

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Helen's Babies, by John Habberton. Part III. Oct 12, 2023

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It just so happens that there's a lovely young lady in the neighborhood whom Harry admires very much, but she always seems to be passing by when he's deep in some terrible mess of the boys' making...

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Helen's Babies, by John Habberton. Part II. Oct 12, 2023

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It just so happens that there's a lovely young lady in the neighborhood whom Harry admires very much, but she always seems to be passing by when he's deep in some terrible mess of the boys' making...

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Helen's Babies, by John Habberton. Part I. Oct 12, 2023

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It just so happens that there's a lovely young lady in the neighborhood whom Harry admires very much, but she always seems to be passing by when he's deep in some terrible mess of the boys' making...

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The Happy Prince and Other Tales, by Oscar Wilde. Part II. Oct 12, 2023

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Oscar Wilde said of his story The Happy Prince that it was "an attempt to treat a tragic modern problem in a form that aims at delicacy and imaginative treatment; it is a reaction against the purely imitative character of modern art.” His Fairy Tales then were only partly written for children and as he said, "partly for those who have kept the childlike faculties of wonder and joy, and who find in simplicity a subtle strangeness".

In The Happy Prince and The Nightingale and the Rose, Wilde explores love and self sacrifice. The Selfish Giant will not let the children in his garden but repents and is redeemed. The Miller in the Devoted Friend is not only selfish but an egotistical hypocrite. The Remarkable Rocket is also a tale about egotism and conceit.

Part I

The Happy Prince

The Nightingale and the Rose

The Selfish Giant

Part II

The Devoted Friend

The Remarkable Rocket

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The Happy Prince and Other Tales, by Oscar Wilde. Part I. Oct 12, 2023

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Part I

The Happy Prince