Art & Drama Audio Books

Middlemarch - George Eliot - Audio Book

2007-05-24T05:26:00.000-07:00

Middlemarch - George Eliot : Named for the fictional community in which it is set, Middlemarch is George Eliot's rich and teeming portrait of provincial life in Victorian England. In it, a panoply of complicated characters attempt to carry out their destinies against the various social expectations that accompany their class and gender.

At the center of the narrative is Dorothea Brooke, a thoughtful and idealistic young woman determined to make a difference with her life. Enamored of a man who she believes is setting this example, she traps herself into a loveless marriage. Her parallel is Tertius Lydgate, a young doctor from the city whose passionate ambition to spread the new science of medicine is complicated by his love for the wrong woman.

Epic in scope and unsurpassed in its study of human nature, Middlemarch is one of the greatest works in all of world literature.

What THEY said about it:

"One of the most profound, wise, and absorbing of English novelsand above all, truthful and forgiving about human behavior."--Hermione Lee

"One of the few English novels written for grown-up people."--Virginia Woolf

"No Victorian novel approaches Middlemarch in its width of reference, its intellectual power, or the imperturbable spaciousness of its narrative. No writer has ever represented the ambiguities of moral choice so fully."--V. S. Pritchett

Regrettably, I have nothing more to say about it apart that I totally agree with them !

The Arabian Nights - Sir Richard Burton - Audio Book

2007-05-14T04:49:00.000-07:00

The Arabian Nights - Sir Richard Burton : Though The Arabian Nights are generally known as stories for children, they were originally tales for adults full of adventure, sexuality, violence and the supernatural.

They certainly inspired the imagination of Sir Richard Burton, the 19th century explorer, linguist and erotologist who brought all his worldly experience and a superbly expressive prose style to bear on the tales of Sindbad the Seaman and Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves. Scheherazade must keep her king entertained with stories if she is to avoid the promised sentence of death.

The tales told are mainly of fantasy and love. The tales within the Arabian Nights are light hearted and amusing. More than half of the stories are of charming Princes whose wits are captivated by the beauty of Princesses and the end of such tale are of course "happy". I have to say that its difficult for me to distinguish between what is Arabic and what is Persian in these beautiful tales. It does'nt matter:I am just enjoying it !

Flashback - David Barry - Audio Book

2007-04-26T07:22:00.000-07:00

Flashback - David Barry : David Barry's autobiography spans almost five decades of theatre, film and televisionexperience.As a 14 year old he toured Europe with Sir Laurence Olivier and Vivien Leigh in one of the most prestigious post-war theatre tours.

Vivien Leigh took a shine to him and he saw both sides of her close up. One minute she was sweetness and light, and the next she became a screaming harridan as she publicly berated Sir Laurence.

His is a story that covers everything from the pitfalls of working in live television to performing with hard drinking actors.

The autobiography is well-written and very entertaining. I wish that he will soon write a book about himself, his life, how it is to be an actor and to be sure that after one tour is finished another will come.Of all autobiographies that I read, for example about "sports legend" or of so called "stars", this one is the one you have been waiting for.

Crucible, The - Arthur Miller - Audio Book

2007-04-18T07:01:00.000-07:00

Crucible, The - Arthur Miller : Salem, Massachusetts, 1692. A community stands accused of witchcraft, and in the mood of fear and recrimination that quickly develops men denounce their neighbours, truth is perverted by superstition, and an innocent word or deed can be distorted
into damning evidence of guilt.

The voice of reason is drowned by the rising tide of hysteria as events acquire their own momentum and run out of control.

Drawing its inspiration from the McCarthy hearings in the United States in the 1950s, 'The Crucible' uses seventeenth-century history to explore the consequences for society when men allow the dark forces of unreason to be unleashed.

Do we really have to go back in the 50s to read the story of such an event? Today, in the 21st century, there are still and it seems to me more and more such events which are happening. Just listen to this audio book : the story is a masterpiece.

Gulliver's Travels - Jonathan Swift - Audio Book

2007-03-26T01:23:00.000-07:00

Gulliver's Travels - Jonathan Swift : "A masterwork of irony that contains both a dark and bitter meaning and a joyous, extraordinary creativity of imagination. That's why it has lived for so long." Malcom Bradbury

Gulliver's Travels tells of the fantastic voyages of Lemuel Gulliver, an Englishman and ship's surgeon, who travels to the "several remote nations of the world." In the beginning, he becomes shipwrecked in the land of Lilliput, where the distressed inhabitants are only six inches tall. His second voyage takes him to Brobdingnag, where lives a race of giants. At Glubdubdrib, the Island of Sorcerers, he speaks with great men of the past and learns from them the lies of history. Further adventures find Gulliver in a land ruled by intelligent horses.

This novel contains everything to content children as well as adults

Homor Audiobooks - Great fun!

2007-03-24T07:22:00.000-07:00

I you're in to having time off from the rather serious biz of Art and Drama, then listening to an audiobook with humorous content might just be it! This blog about humor audiobooks offers a great selection.

Technorati Profile

Alexander's Bridge - Willa Cather - Audio Book

2007-03-24T02:10:00.000-07:00

Alexander's Bridge - Willa Cather : There is a pleasure in listening to the imagery of Alexander's Bridge that is similar to viewing a beautiful watercolor, as in the following description of a Boston street in late afternoon: "The sun sank rapidly; the silvery light had faded from the bare boughs and the watery twilight was setting in when Wilson at last walked down the hill, descending into cooler and cooler depths of grayish shadow."

Against this delicate imagery, Willa Cather renders the tough inner terrain of a man in mid-life crisis. Bartley Alexander is a master bridge engineer. At forty-three he is at the height of his power, comfortable with success and all it brings. Yet he yearns for the lost vibrancy of his youth. He leads a double life, veering between his beautiful, accomplished wife and his mistress, an actress he knew as a student in Paris. This conflict creates a crack in the structure of his life which ultimately undermines him.

After such an introduction there is nothing left to say because I could'nt say it better.

Michelangelo - George Bull - Audio Book

2007-03-20T03:31:00.000-07:00

Michelangelo - George Bull : Michelangelo Buonarroti (1475-1564) was recognized in his lifetime as the greatest living artist, creator of a succession of masterpieces in sculpture, fresco painting, and architecture. In all his work, Michelangelo impressed his contemporaries as a forceful personality, a divine genius endowed with terribilit, or intense emotional power. Often portrayed as a solitary and austere figure, he in fact enjoyed a remarkable range of friendships, and those he loved and hated, served or resisted, are presented here, from his family and fellow artists to the popes, nobles, and rulers of Europe.

A magnificent story which brings us back into the Italian Renaissance.

Ballet Stories - David Angus - Audio Book

2007-03-17T03:00:00.000-07:00

Ballet Stories - David Angus : The magic of ballet is evoked in these enchanting stories presented with many musical excerpts from the works themselves. The stories of two French ballets - Giselle and Coppelia - and the three great ballets by Tchaikovsky are presented in engaging style by Jenny Agutter, who was herself a dancer before turning to acting.

These are tales of princes and princesses, of good fairies and bad witches, and, in Tchaikovsky's The Nutcracker, the brave soldier and Clara - but does it happen, or is it a dream?

How lovely it is to embark on such a journey !

Searching for the Sound - Phil Lesh - Audio Book

2007-03-13T06:33:00.000-07:00

Searching for the Sound - Phil Lesh : The bass player for the greatest improvisational band in American history tells the full, true story of his life, Jerry Garcia, and the Grateful Dead.

Phil Lesh first met Jerry Garcia in 1959 in the clubs of Palo Alto, California. At Garcia's suggestion, Lesh learned to play the electric bass and joined him in a new group that blended R & B, country, and rock 'n' roll with an experimental fervor never before heard.

In time for the Grateful Dead's fortieth anniversary, Phil Lesh offers the first behind-the-scenes history of the Dead. Lesh chronicles how the Dead's signature sound emerged, flowed, and swelled to reach millions of devoted fans, from their first gigs at Frenchy's Bikini-A-Go-Go for an audience of three, to the legendary Acid Tests, to packed stadiums around the world.

A story made of ups and downs, of hope and despair, of violence and of companionship. A story on the fragility of the artist confronted with the success and the price which he has to pay. Very human and moving.

The History of Opera - Richard Fawkes - Audio Book

2007-03-10T07:30:00.000-08:00

The History of Opera - Richard Fawkes : Opera, said Moliere, is the most expensive noise known to man.

From its beginnings in the 16th century, through to today when there are as many musical styles as there are composers, opera has fascinated, infuriated, delighted, been censored, been banned,
excited riots, even won a nation its freedom. Here is the colourful story of sometimes temperamental composers and even more temperamental singers working in an art form which has produced some of man's noblest artistic creations.

A very interesting history of the opera with great singers (i.e. Enrico Caruso and Fyodor Chaliapin.). Worth to listen to.

The Nathaniel Hawthorne Audio Collection - Nathanial Hawthorne - Audio Book

2007-03-08T10:38:00.000-08:00

The Nathaniel Hawthorne Audio Collection - Nathanial Hawthorne : On July 28, 1851, Nathaniel Hawthorne's wife left their house in Western Massachusetts to visit relatives. Hawthorne and his five-year-old son Julian stayed behind. How father and son got on together for the next three weeks is the subject of Twenty Days with Julian & Little Bunny, by Papa, a tender and funny extract from Hawthorne's notebooks, perhaps one of the earliest accounts in literature of a father caring for a young child.

Each day starts early and will be given over to swimming and skipping stones, berry picking and subduing armies of thistles. At one point Mr. Herman Melville comes over to enjoy a late night discussion of eternity over cigars.

A true story and a real delight .

The Song of Roland - Charlemagne - Audio Book

2007-03-01T04:32:00.000-08:00

The Song of Roland - Charlemagne : Since his youth, living in poverty in a cave in Italy, Roland's mother has taught him that someday he will be a brave hero like his father, Milon, and serve with the great army of Charlemagne. He learns from her that he is descended from great heroes of old and that his mother is Charlemagne's sister, the Princess Bertha. When Charlemagne comes to Italy, Roland confronts the king, who rejoices to find his long-lost sister and gives both her and her son a place of honor in his court. As Roland becomes a man and a knight, he embarks on a quest to the Far East and becomes champion to the Princess of Cathay.

One of the most known legends of the French medieval literature. Another way of "learning" history.

All Shook Up: Music, Passion, and Politics - Carson Holloway - Audio Book

2007-02-27T00:33:00.000-08:00

All Shook Up: Music, Passion, and Politics - Carson Holloway : The national debate over popular music's effect on character is both furious and confused. Conservatives complain primarily about lyrics, appealing to public decency and safety. Liberals, swift to the defense of any self-expression, simultaneously celebrate rock's liberating ethos and deny its cultural influence.
Carson Holloway is out to shatter the assumptions of pop's critics and defenders alike, showing that music is more beneficial than we think.

Plato and Aristotle, Holloway finds, were aware that music can either inflame the soul with passion or can awaken it to reason and help to cultivate temperance. What Holloway
proposes a rediscovery of the musical wisdom of Plato and Aristotle will completely change
the way we think about music.

Another way of trying to understand Music! This audio book help us to have an idea of the
kind of music which pleases us and why.

Michael Palin Diaries 1969-1979: The Python Years - Michael Palin - Audio Book

2007-02-24T06:36:00.000-08:00

Michael Palin Diaries 1969-1979: The Python Years - Michael Palin : MICHAEL PALIN's diaries begin in the late 1960s and tell how Python emerged and triumphed. Enjoying an unlikely cult status early on, the group then proceeded to tour in the United States and Canada, appearing, like pop stars, at sold-out stadiums coast to coast and on national chat shows. They even stayed in hotels newly trashed by Led Zeppelin, later investors in Monty Python and the Holy Grail,
With this growing fame in the United States came the move from local public broadcasting to national television there and battles over censorship followed as up to one line in four was cut from the Python sketches, rendering them incomprehensible.

A perceptive and funny chronicle, the diaries are a rich portrait of a fascinating period.

What else to say apart : listen to this audio book

Michelangelo Buonarroti - George Bull - Audio Book

2007-02-23T05:17:00.000-08:00

Michelangelo Buonarroti - George Bull : This great Italian artist who lived from 1475 to 1564 was allready during his lifetime acclaimed as the greatest living artist, creator of a succession of masterpieces in sculpture, fresco painting, and architecture. In restrospect one can say Michelangelo was a true genius!

In all his work, Michelangelo impressed his contemporaries as a forceful personality, a divine genius endowed with an intense emotional power and a great mind. Often portrayed as a solitary and austere figure, he in fact enjoyed a remarkable range of friendships, and those he loved and hated, served or resisted, are presented in this audiobook. His contacts range from his family and fellow artists to the popes, nobles, and rulers of Europe.

To read books about Michelangelo, and god knows there are plenty, is one thing, but to listen to this audio book with plenty more details about him is like having him in "front of you".

A Child's Christmas In Wales - Dylan Thomas - Audio Book

2007-02-21T23:52:00.000-08:00

A Child's Christmas In Wales - Dylan Thomas : A Child's Christmas in Wales recalls all of the sights, smells, and sounds of a long-ago-Christmas.Thomas's wonderful recollection of this holiday in the seaside town of his youth is captured in this vivid performance. Also included are five other selected poems read by Dylan Thomas, including his well-known Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night.

The pleasure of hearing this audio book is great and the sroties which are told beautiful. Ther si no better narrator for these poems.

Rodin - Frederic V. Grunfeld - Audio Book

2007-02-18T22:59:00.000-08:00

Rodin - Frederic V. Grunfeld : Augustus Rodin was not only the greatest sculptor but also one of the most remarkable personalities of modern times. Frederic V. Grunfelds exhaustive biography, the first in over fifty years, documents a lifetime of both artistic and personal struggle against poverty, against the conservative Salon, and against an art establishment that for years denied him recognition. Rodins crucial love affair with his pupil, Camille Claudel, emerges here in all its tragic complexity, as do his relationships with the British painter, Gwen John, and the American-born duchess, Claire de Choiseul. Grunfeld also sheds new light on Rodins friendships with some of the most gifted writers and artists of the day from Robert Louis Stevenson and George Bernard Shaw to Emile Zola and James McNeill Whistler.

A very absorbing story very well explained in this audio book.

The Canterbury Tales - Volume I - Geoffrey Chaucer - Audio Book

2007-02-16T04:58:00.000-08:00

The Canterbury Tales - Volume I - Geoffrey Chaucer :

The Prologue
The Knight's Tale
The Miller's Tale
The Pardoner's Tale
The Merchant's Tale
The Franklin's Tale

Chaucer's greatest work, written towards the end of the fourteenth century, paints a brilliant picture of medieval life, society and values.

Chaucer imagines a group of twenty-nine pilgrims who meet in the Tabard Inn in Southwark, intent on making the traditional journey to the martyr's shrine of St Thomas a Becket in Canterbury. Harry Bailly landlord of the Tabard, proposes that the company should entertain themselves on the road with a story telling competition. The teller of the best tale will be rewarded with a supper at the others' expense when the travellers return to London.

The stories range from the romantic, courtly idealism of The Knight's Tale to the joyous bawdy of The Miller's. All those stories are told with a freshness and vigour in this modern verse translation that make them a delight to hear.

Helen Hayes: My Life in Three Acts - Helen Hayes with Katherine Hatch - Audio Book

2007-02-14T00:03:00.000-08:00

Helen Hayes: My Life in Three Acts Helen Hayes with Katherine Hatch : Helen Hayes, acclaimed First Lady of the American Theatre, has been on stage, screen and television for more than fifty years. In that time she moved among the worlds most famous and talented: actors, film stars, writers, businessmen. She speaks with wit, wisdom, and candor on topics both public and private. She offers deft behind-the-sceens portraits of such personalities as Joan Crawford,
William Randolph Hearst, Charlie Chaplin, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Richard Burton, Lillian Gish, Dwight D. Eisenhower, and Gloria Swanson.

She expresses her strong views on what is wrong with the American theatre today and what has always been wrong with Hollywood. An engrossing account of a rich and productive life.

A very interesting audio book who tells a lot about the so called "star system" either from
yesterday as for todoy and the fragility of it all.

Guitar: An American Life - Tim Brookes - Audio Books

2007-02-11T23:32:00.000-08:00

Guitar: An American Life - Tim Brookes : One man's quest for his dream guitar inspires him to explore the instrument's largely untold history.

What was it about a small, humble folk instrument that allowed it to become an American icon? The guitar represents freedom, the open road, protest and rebellion, the blues, youth, lost love, and sexuality. The guitar was picked up by everyone, miners and society ladies, lumberjacks and presidents' wives, Hawaiians, African-Americans, Cajuns, jazz players, spiritualists, cowboys, and teenagers. In time, it became America's instrument, its soundtrack.

Who in his childhood or as well in his adolescence, was not fascinated by this instrument: the guitar! This audio book bring back not only magnificent memories but also allows to learn even more about the making of this instrument.

Ustinov at Eighty - Peter Ustinov - Audio Book

2007-02-11T00:14:00.000-08:00

Ustinov at Eighty - Peter Ustinov : Peter Ustinov has an astonishing range of accomplishments and credits to his name. He has written 23 plays and 13 books, appeared in 50 films, and has in his time collected two Oscars, three Emmys and a Grammy. He is also a director, producer, graphic artist, photographer, raconteur and the recipient of many humanitarian awards.

In this interview with John Bird, conducted on the approach to his 80th birthday, Ustinov recounts scenes from his childhood (including performing cabaret for Hailie Selassie at the age of three) and describes the changing relationship he had with his mother and father.

If you ever had the chance to listen to Peter Ustinov when he was still alive you know how witty, clever and engaged he was. In this audio book, when he talks about his life it's exactly as if he was just sitting near you. A real delight.

The Allen Ginsberg Audio Book - Allen Ginsberg

2007-02-08T23:48:00.000-08:00

The Allen Ginsberg Audio Book - Allen Ginsberg : Upon the release of his first published work, Howl and Other Poems, in 1956, Allen Ginsberg became the unlikely force of a movement that would change a generation. Literature, art, sex, love, family, politics; nothing would ever be the same. The Beat Generation was born through Ginsberg and his friends.

This collection of more than two dozen poems in verse and song is the best of the best, celebrating someone who was of his time, ahead of his time, and whose legacy will transcend time.

Allen Ginsberg is a name which I had somewhere in my memory. When I saw that the collection of his work was now available in audio books I just went for it and it's worth listening to it.

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn - Mark Twain - Audio Book

2007-02-06T01:03:00.000-08:00

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn - Mark Twain : 'Cordially hated and dreaded by all the mothers of the town because he was idle, and lawless, vulgar, and bad and because all their children admired him so', Huckleberry Finn, the fourteen-year-old son of the town drunkard,
joins runaway slave Jim on an exciting journey down the mighty Mississippi River on a raft.

"It's the best book we've had. All American writing comes from that. There was nothing before. There has been nothing as good since." ERNEST HEMINGWAY

What else to say after that? Anything except that to listen to the audio book will strengthen this Ernest Hemingway's comment. Close your eyes and enjoy !