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Richard II
- Arkangel Shakespeare
- Narrated by: Rupert Graves, Julian Glover, John Wood
- Length: 2 hrs and 52 mins
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Publisher's summary
Shakespeare's finest verse play is also his first portrait of the psychology of power.
The sensitive and poetic Richard II is undoubtedly the rightful king of England, but he is unscrupulous and weak. When his cousin Henry Bolingbroke returns from banishment and mounts a challenge to his authority, Richard's right to the throne proves of little help to him. Richard is forced to abdicate, but as his power is stripped away, he gains dignity and self-awareness, and he meets his death heroically. Meanwhile Bolingbroke's seizure of the crown has caused resentment among the nobles of England.
Rupert Graves is Richard II, and Julian Glover is Bolingbroke. John Wood plays John of Gaunt.
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From knock-knock jokes to the wild goose chase, we owe many of our most-used and best-loved phrases to the talent of the Bard. His words are timeless in their direct wisdom, their witty humor, and their surprising applicability to modern life: its nature, its purpose, and its pitfalls. We’ve collected some of our favorite William Shakespeare quotes for when you want to think about life’s big questions, wax poetic on the nature of love, or just need a good laugh. Immerse yourself in these Shakespeare quotes to dive into the comedies and tragedies penned by the Bard of Avon.
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In her essay on Jacquetta, Philippa Gregory uses original documents, archaeology and histories of myth and witchcraft to create the first-ever biography of the young duchess who was to survive two reigns and two wars to become the first lady at two rival courts. David Baldwin, established author on the Wars of the Roses, tells the story of Elizabeth Woodville, the first commoner to marry a king of England for love, and Michael Jones, fellow of the Royal Historical Society, writes of Margaret Beaufort, the almost-unknown matriarch of the House of Tudor. The Women of the Cousins’ War will appeal to all.
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Great book
- By Stacey Wallace on 11-14-11
By: Philippa Gregory, and others
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Mary Queen of Scots
- By: Antonia Fraser
- Narrated by: Anne Flosnik
- Length: 25 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
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Her royal birth gave her claim to the thrones of two nations; her marriage to the young French dauphin promised to place a third glorious crown on her noble head. Instead, Mary Stuart became the victim of her own impulsive heart, scandalizing her world with a foolish passion that would lead to abduction, rape, and even murder. Here is her story, a queen who lost a throne for love, a monarch pampered and adored even as she was led to her beheading, the unforgettable woman who became a legend for all time.
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Shockingly disingenuous.
- By rainjade on 08-14-18
By: Antonia Fraser
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Tudor History
- A Captivating Guide to the Tudors, the Wars of the Roses, the Six Wives of Henry VIII and the Life of Elizabeth I
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- Narrated by: Desmond Manny
- Length: 10 hrs and 5 mins
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Five Tudor monarchs sat on the throne of England and Ireland from 1485 to 1603. The family earned their royal rights through strategic planning and battlefield prowess, and kept them because of intellect, strength, and sheer determination. The Tudors, one of England’s most powerful and famous royal dynasties, knitted together a fragmented and small island nation that became one of the world’s financial, colonial, and technological superpowers.
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A facinating guide.
- By James Mark on 03-07-19
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Elizabeth and Mary
- Cousins, Rivals, Queens
- By: Jane Dunn
- Narrated by: Donada Peters
- Length: 19 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
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In a rich and riveting narrative, Jane Dunn reveals the extraordinary rivalry between the regal cousins. It is the story of two queens ruling on one island, each with a claim to the throne of England, each embodying dramatically opposing qualities of character, ideals of womanliness (and views of sexuality), and divinely ordained kingship.
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Fantastic book
- By Catharina on 05-09-04
By: Jane Dunn
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Richard III
- England's Most Controversial King
- By: Chris Skidmore
- Narrated by: Steven Crossley
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From acclaimed historian Chris Skidmore comes the authoritative biography of Richard III, England's most controversial king, a man alternately praised as a saint and cursed as a villain.
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Glad I read it now that it is over
- By Missee on 08-08-19
By: Chris Skidmore
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Lancaster and York
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- By: Alison Weir
- Narrated by: Maggie Mash
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Lancater and York is a riveting account of the Wars of the Roses, from beloved historian Alison Weir. The war between the houses of Lancaster and York was characterised by treachery, deceit, and bloody battles. Alison Weir's lucid and gripping account focuses on the human side of history. At the centre of the book stands Henry VI, the pious king whose mental instability led to political chaos, and his wife Margaret of Anjou, who took up her arms in her husband's cause and battled in a violent man's world.
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Dense, fascinating history...questionable delivery
- By kbreezy on 10-04-17
By: Alison Weir
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A Year in the Life of William Shakespeare
- 1599
- By: James Shapiro
- Narrated by: James Shapiro
- Length: 6 hrs and 28 mins
- Abridged
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1599 was an epochal year for Shakespeare and England. During that year, Shakespeare wrote four of his most famous plays: Henry the Fifth, Julius Caesar, As You Like It, and, most remarkably, Hamlet; Elizabethans sent off an army to crush an Irish rebellion, weathered an Armada threat from Spain, gambled on a fledgling East India Company, and waited to see who would succeed their aging and childless queen.
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Note!--Abridged version
- By Scott on 01-05-16
By: James Shapiro
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The Turbulent Crown
- The Story of the Tudor Queens
- By: Roland Hui
- Narrated by: Jennifer M. Dixon
- Length: 22 hrs and 6 mins
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Ten remarkable women. One remarkable era. In the Tudor period, 1485 to 1603, a host of fascinating women sat on the English throne. The dramatic events of their lives are told in The Turbulent Crown: The Story of the Tudor Queens.
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a very good listen
- By Evil Guppy on 09-21-19
By: Roland Hui
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A Distant Mirror
- The Calamitous Fourteenth Century
- By: Barbara W. Tuchman
- Narrated by: Wanda McCaddon
- Length: 28 hrs and 38 mins
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The 14th century reflects two contradictory images: on the one hand, a glittering time of crusades and castles, cathedrals and chivalry, and the exquisitely decorated Books of Hours; and on the other, a time of ferocity and spiritual agony, a world of chaos and the plague.
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And you thought the twentieth century was rough...
- By Rob on 03-23-06
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Our Oriental Heritage
- The Story of Civilization, Volume 1
- By: Will Durant
- Narrated by: Robin Field
- Length: 50 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
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The first volume of Will Durant's Pulitzer Prize-winning series, Our Oriental Heritage: The Story of Civilization, Volume I chronicles the early history of Egypt, the Middle East, and Asia.
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Wonderful
- By Michael on 11-30-13
By: Will Durant
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Wounds Heal Ill That Men Do Give Themselves
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The all-conquering King Henry V is dead, and the throne is occupied by his infant son, Henry VI. The good Duke Humphrey of Gloucester has been appointed protector, but a struggle for power soon develops between the young king's Lancastrian relatives and the powerful house of York under Richard Plantagenet. Meanwhile the French, led by Joan of Arc, the maid of Orleans, threaten to win back the territories lost to Henry V.
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Good Lord, what madness rules in brainsick men
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Henry VI, Part 2
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Young King Henry VI has married the beautiful Margaret of Anjou but the new queen is ruthless and ambitious. Supported by the powerful Duke of Suffolk, Margaret plots the overthrow of her enemies, chief among them the Duke of Gloucester. But the Duke of York also aspires to the crown, and the common people, led by Jack Cade, are in rebellion. To the despair of the mild young king, England descends into civil war.
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First thing we do, let's kill all the reviewers!
- By Darwin8u on 02-07-17
What listeners say about Richard II
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- sarah
- 09-07-16
it was a little choppy at the beginning.
it was a little choppy at the beginning but it was a great audio book! Really helped me grasp the text for school! totally would listen again!
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- Darwin8u
- 04-10-17
I wasted time, and now doth time waste me.
"I wasted time, and now doth time waste me.”
-- William Shakespeare, Richard II
'Richard II' is a gem. It will never be my favorite, but it is fascinating and finely finished. In many ways it is William Shakespeare meets Machiavelli. Shakespeare wrote eight historical "War of the Roses" plays. They weren't written in order. It is pretty easy, if you are a Star Wars fan, to think of the plays like this. Richard II is = the Phantom Menace. Henry VI, Part 1; Henry VI, Part 2; Henry VI, Part 3; and Richard III (together known as the Minor Tetralogy) were all written and performed first (Like A New Hope, Empires Strikes Back, and Return of the Jedi). Then Shakespeare jumps back and gives us the Henriad, aka the Major Tetralogy (Richard II; Henry IV, Part 1; Henry IV, Part 2; Henry V).
It is also a fascinating look at the body of the king. The king having both a physical body and the kingdom. Shakespeare does a brilliant job in some later speeches made by Richard II of illuminating the King's two bodies (Natural Body and Body Politic). This isn't new. This isn't me. I ran across this theme in several places (Wikipedia, "The King's Two Buckets") after I read the play, and now I want to go check out Ernst Kantorowicz's The King's Two Bodies: A Study in Mediaeval Political Theology. This plays a large part in this play. The king is LITERALLY the embodiment of England (its people and the land).
This dualism can be taken even further as a metaphor for Christ and His double nature/role as divine mediator. I'm not saying Shakespeare means for us to interpret Richard II as a type of Christ. But, I think we could look at England's King as existing in a similar (man/divine) space. Anyway, there were several direct references to Judas', betrayal, etc.. Enough to warrant me spending a couple sentences on that topic.
There are also several minor themes that bob around in this play as well: honor, rituals of state, loyalty (to family, King, country). There were also several nice lines, specifically:
- “You may my glories and my state depose,
But not my griefs; still am I king of those.”
- “Woe, destruction, ruin, and decay;
the worst is death and death will have his day.”
- “Let's talk of graves, of worms, and epitaphs;
Make dust our paper and with rainy eyes
Write sorrow on the bosom of the earth,
Let's choose executors and talk of wills”
- “Each substance of a grief has twenty shadows."
- “My brain I'll prove the female to my soul;
my soul the father: and these two beget
a generation of still-breeding thoughts,
and these same thoughts people this little world.”
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17 people found this helpful
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- Iacobus de arenoso
- 12-02-22
Great Reading - Bland Characterizations of Main Characters
This reading is excellent to listen to. As a dramatization however it leaves a little to be desired. The main dramatis personae deserve some distinct characterizations by the actors but do not receive such worthy treatment. Compare, for example, this reading here to the dramatization of Richard II in The Hollow Crown; distinct and distinctly different characters (even just when considering their voices and manners of speech). In this audio recording all sound like old men and even older men and are just read to sound Shakespearean British (of course). A missed opportunity. Tragic characters like Richard II and his antagonists deserve better. Still … of the many Audible Shakespeares, these are consistently of great quality and value. Recommended.
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- Anonymous User
- 01-11-20
Excellent performance
And powerful play. Appreciated the execution of thrle scene in which Richard II looks in the mirror, ruminates on his cisafe, and breaks the mirror.
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- Samuel Shurtleff
- 12-05-17
Wonderful Material Wonderfully Performed
Beautiful play brought to life so well. Excellent in every way. Give it a listen.
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- Felicia J
- 09-29-14
Give sorrow leave awhile to tutor me
Oh my dear Richard, hapless monarch with a poet's soul, where have you been all my life? Your eloquent heartbreak has made me fall in love with Shakespeare all over again.
Richard II is a truly wonderful & thought-provoking play, performed ably & in its entirety by a full cast in this Arkangel Shakespeare version. As I followed along with the written play, this production swept me into Richard's medieval world, complete with sound effects and mood music. (The scene in which Richard shouts from the battlements of Flint Castle his defiance of his cousin Bolingbroke was particularly effective, embellished by a mournful wind and birds' cries.)
Richard, the pompous, spendthrift King of England, has alienated nobles and commoners alike with his heavy taxes and careless management of the realm. He listens to flattering sycophants rather than wiser statesmen like his uncle John of Gaunt, whose son, Henry Bolingbroke, he banishes from England. When Gaunt dies, Richard seizes his lands and riches to fund an Irish war, which brings Bolingbroke back from exile to challenge his authority. While Richard constantly asserts his divine right to rule, his cousin acts - and mere humans bring down one of God's anointed who has lost their love and respect.
But Richard is no cardboard villain - he's a weak, self-absorbed man who perhaps had it in him to be great, but only discovers the best in himself through abject defeat. As he loses crown, kingdom and all, he gains nobility and dignity in suffering, expressed in some of Shakespeare's most soaring poetry. The reader weeps with Richard; a bad king he may have been, but only a heart of stone would not pity a man in such pain.
As his power is stripped away, Richard wields the only weapon left to him: the medieval belief in the divine appointment and right of kings. His adversaries never escape doubts about the rightness of their actions. Should men depose those whom God himself has raised to the throne?
With its complex dual protagonists, intricate political plot, and beautifully soaring language, Richard II was a pleasant surprise to me and will perhaps become one of my favorite of Shakespeare's works.
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- Diana S. Long
- 01-15-18
Absolutely Brilliant Performance
I listened to the Arkangel full cast recording of the play along with reading in E Book format from the Delphi Complete Works of William Shakespeare. Be still my heart, the performance was enthralling and emotionally charged. Some of the best Shakespearean lines written by him have to appear in this play. In this work we find King Richard deposed and his crown taken from him by Henry Bolingbroke, not that many of the characters seemed to mind but it was heart-wrenching none the less. Even in the dungeon with the water dripping you could feel the emotional hopelessness he felt. If the live play were as excellent as this was, I for one would give them a standing ovation. Wonderful and entertaining.
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- BRIAN D
- 06-28-19
Excellent but with some problems
Shakespeare’s histories of the Plantagenets kings are some of my favorites in the canon and this recording did not disappoint. The performances by the actors are all first rate. Truly excellent and I can’t wait to get to the next one...
However, there some things that I found problematic. These all had to do with the production. There is a lot of use of vocal effects (reverb and echo) to set the space (outside, in the castle, etc). I found this unnecessary and distracting. The same holds true for the ambient sound effects. They’re are fine to help establish the scene but become a distraction from the language.
There is music in the scene breaks but is incredibly banal and generic. The cues do nothing to enhance the story.
My last complaint is that the entire play had only three chapters so if I want to go back to a previous scene, I have to hunt and peck for it. A separate chapter break for each act and scene would have been appreciated.
The other thing I would have liked was a ‘stage manager’ voice, especially at the the start of each section going the act and scene number, location, and who’s on stage at the start. It can be a challenge to know where we are and who’s speaking.
These issues knocked a star off for me but I will still definitely listen to more in this series.
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- Kindle Customer
- 08-16-16
Great for newcomers to Shakespeare
Fourth purchase from Arkangel series! Superb acting. Great intro to a lesser-known play. Doesn't disappoint.
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