
An Imaginative Experience
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Narrated by:
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Samuel West
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By:
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Mary Wesley
About this listen
A traveller on a train returning to London smells the burn of brakes as it hisses to a stop in the middle of the countryside. He sees a white-faced woman leap from the train and race to the aid of a sheep stranded on its back, unable to rise, in a field. Righting it, she turns, and he sees her face is full of tragedy. Considering tragedies of his own, he does not intrude, but the image lodges in his mind: a strange but familiar despair, unable, despite itself, to ignore the desperation it recognises in others.
From these seeds Mary Wesley draws out a plot of an unforgettable impact: of loss, of release, of a necessarily comic acceptance of fate, of love - the 'imaginative experience'. Rich in character and wit, and powerfully moving, this is a novel of the heart's pain and deliverance.
©1994 Mary Wesley (P)2014 Audible, Inc.Listeners also enjoyed...
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Transcription
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In 1940, 18-year-old Juliet Armstrong is reluctantly recruited into the world of espionage. Sent to an obscure department of MI5 tasked with monitoring the comings and goings of British Fascist sympathizers, she discovers the work to be by turns both tedious and terrifying. But after the war has ended, she presumes the events of those years have been relegated to the past forever. Ten years later, now a radio producer at the BBC, Juliet is unexpectedly confronted by figures from her past. A different war is being fought now, but Juliet finds herself once more under threat.
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Nineteen thirty-four, London. Into the decaying cul-de-sac of Bleeding Heart Square steps aristocratic Lydia Langstone fleeing an abusive marriage. However, unknown to Lydia, a dark mystery haunts Bleeding Heart Square. What happened to Miss Penhow, the middle-aged spinster who owns the house and who vanished four years earlier? Why is a seedy plain-clothes policeman obsessively watching the square? What is making struggling journalist Rory Wentwood so desperate to contact Miss Penhow?
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Fantastic!
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Performance
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Story
The villagers of Thrush Green celebrate Christmas traditionally, in a way that has hardly changed over the generations. Children eagerly hang up their stockings, families go to church together and everyone enjoys the treats of the festive season. And when it snows as the carol singers make their way round the cottages on the green, it looks as if Christmas will be perfect this year. But not everything is as peaceful as it seems.
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Wish there were more
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Voices in Summer
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- Unabridged
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As in her worldwide best sellers The Shell Seekers and September, it is the richness of emotional seasons that has made Rosamunde Pilcher's novels beloved the world over. Now she invites listeners into long summer days on the coast of Cornwall - and into the stormy heart of newlywed Laura Haverstock. Shy, recovering from illness, and away from her husband, Laura's is a fearful heart on the verge of intimate discoveries...about herself, her family, and the source of true love within her.
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Exceedinly Disappointing!
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What listeners say about An Imaginative Experience
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Cariola
- 04-21-13
Great Characters, Wonderful Reader
This was a bit of fluff--in the best possible way. I'm at a stressful point at work and needed something fairly light (although it does have a vein of tragedy running through it). It begins when a young woman pulls the emergency brake on a train--something passenger Sylvester Wykes admits that he's always wanted to do but never had the guts. The reason Julia Piper pulled the brake? To help a sheep she had seen from her window who was stuck on its back. When they all disembark at the next station, Sylvester sees her again, mildly curious, but Maurice Benson takes a more stalkerish mode, determined to find out everything he can about her.
Wesley has created a group of intriguing characters not only in Julia, Sylvester, and Maurice, but in the secondary characters as well. There's Sylvester's soon-to-be ex-wife, Celia, who ran off with another man, denuding the house in the process; even things that had been handed down from his father were gone, as well as the teakettle he had just purchased to replace the one she had just taken. Rebecca, Sylvester's domineering former secretary, can't help herself from frequently popping in with attempts to take charge. It's great fun to see how the mild-mannered Sylvester gradually learns how to manage her. Much of the story centers around the shop on the corner, run by the agreeable Mr. Patel. Julia befriends his wife, despite her inability to speak English, and becomes close to the Patel's two little boys. Her mother, Clodagh, is the epitome of a horrible mother, for various reasons preferring her son-in-law to her own daughter. And there's a dog in the mix--a 'lurcher' eventually named Joyful.
In some ways, as one reviewer states, this is a pretty typical love story. But it's one with a little surprise around every corner. It has been a long time since I've read a Mary Wesley novel, and this one remionded me of how much I've enjoyed her others. I only wish that Audible would carry more unabridged editions. This one was read by Samuel West, who is my all-time favorite reader.
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- K8
- 09-06-18
Quintessentially English
I adore Mary Wesley. This book is a little dated but still very enjoyable although not one of my favorites. The two main characters were adorable but there were too many loose ends for me to feel fully happy at the end. Unfortunately Ms. Wesley is no longer able to add more. Descriptions of the homes and gardens were lovely.
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- Mary Sue
- 11-11-18
Unorthodox for its time
No one can beat Mary Wesley for a post-war explosion of options, moral and otherwise. Was UK life really like this during and following WWII? Irreverent, unorthodox, yes, but hilarious and perfectly narrated. Mary Wesley is truly worth a try -- quite a discovery if you find you like her! #Quirky #WWII
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- Elizabeth
- 12-22-17
Excellent Writer, Excellent Narrator
Where does An Imaginative Experience rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?
It is among the best.
Any additional comments?
Mary Wesley is such a good writer; it's a shame that this is the only one of her novels that Audible has in an unabridged version.
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- LouLou
- 12-11-23
Provocative charming story
Oh how I love Mary Wesley. Engaging slice of life postwar-1970s ish fiction. Thought provoking, charming tale.
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