Sisi
Empress on Her Own: A Novel
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Narrated by:
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Elizabeth Knowelden
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By:
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Allison Pataki
About this listen
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • A sweeping historical novel that tells the dramatic story of Sisi, the empress of Austria-Hungary who fought for her family, her people, and her empire in a changing world
“Irresistible—completely impossible to put down . . . Allison Pataki reimagines the reign of the nineteenth-century Princess Diana in this stunning book.”—Michelle Moran, bestselling author of Rebel Queen
Married to Emperor Franz Joseph, Elisabeth—fondly known as Sisi—captures the hearts of her people as their “fairy queen,” but beneath that dazzling persona lives a far more complex figure. In mid-nineteenth-century Vienna, the halls of the Hofburg Palace buzz not only with imperial waltzes and champagne but with temptations, rivals, and cutthroat intrigue. Feeling stifled by strict protocols and a turbulent marriage, Sisi finds solace at her estate outside Budapest, where she rides her beloved horses and enjoys visits from a man with whom she’s unwittingly become enamored. But tragic news brings the empressout of her fragile seclusion, forcing her to return to her capital and a world of gossip, envy, and sorrow where a dangerous fate lurks in the shadows.
Through love affairs and loss, dedication and defiance, Sisi struggles against conflicting desires: to keep her family together, or to flee amid the collapse of her suffocating marriage and the gathering tumult of the First World War. In an age of crumbling monarchies, the empress fights to assert her right to the throne beside her husband, to win the love of her people and the world, and to save an empire. But in the end, can she save herself?
Featuring larger-than-life historic figures such as Bavaria’s “Mad King Ludwig” and the tragic Crown Prince Rudolf, and set against many of Europe’s grandest sites—from Germany’s storied Neuschwanstein Castle to England’s lush shires—Sisi brings to life an extraordinary woman and the romantic, volatile era over which she presided.
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Critic reviews
“[Allison] Pataki successfully juggles numerous political and personal plot lines while maintaining her focus on a fascinating central character. Extensive notes reveal the author’s attention to detail and explain where the novel diverges from the historical record. . . . Readers of Pataki’s first book will want to know the rest of Sisi’s story, but this novel stands on its own for historical fiction fans.”—Library Journal
“Sisi is a deeply moving book about a complex character.”—BookPage
“A satisfying saga of the late Habsburg period.”—Kirkus Reviews
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It was a good listen overall… too bad someone who could speak German wasn’t able to narrate it.
- By Anonymous User on 11-30-24
By: Count Corti
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Beauty in the Broken Places
- A Memoir of Love, Faith, and Resilience
- By: Allison Pataki, Lee Woodruff, David Levy
- Narrated by: Allison Pataki, Lee Woodruff - foreword, David Levy - epilogue
- Length: 6 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
On the flight to their "babymoon" in Hawaii before their first child arrived, Allison Pataki's husband turned to her to ask if his eye looked strange, and then suddenly lost consciousness. After making an emergency landing, they discovered that Dave, a lifelong, healthy athlete and orthopedic surgery resident at Rush Medical School in Chicago, had suffered a rare, and often fatal, stroke. Dave was one of the lucky ones though, and he survived, but the man who woke up from his coma was not the same man Allison had fallen in love with at Yale.
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A Most Remarkable and Inspirational Story
- By Anonymous User on 06-19-18
By: Allison Pataki, and others
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Finding Margaret Fuller
- A Novel
- By: Allison Pataki
- Narrated by: Barrie Kreinik
- Length: 13 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
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Story
Young, brazen, beautiful, and unapologetically brilliant, Margaret Fuller accepts an invitation from Ralph Waldo Emerson, the celebrated Sage of Concord, to meet his coterie of enlightened friends. There she becomes “the radiant genius and fiery heart” of the Transcendentalists, a role model to a young Louisa May Alcott, an inspiration for Nathaniel Hawthorne’s Hester Prynne and the scandalous Scarlet Letter, a friend to Henry David Thoreau as he ventures out to Walden Pond . . . and a muse to Emerson. But Margaret craves more than poetry and interpersonal drama.
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Another fabulous book by Alison Pataki
- By Anonymous User on 05-03-24
By: Allison Pataki
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Where the Light Falls
- A Novel of the French Revolution
- By: Allison Pataki, Owen Pataki
- Narrated by: Bruce Mann
- Length: 14 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
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Story
Three years after the storming of the Bastille, the streets of Paris are roiling with the spirit of revolution. The citizens of France are enlivened by the ideals of liberty, equality, and fraternity. The monarchy of King Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette has been dismantled - with the help of the guillotine - and a new nation is rising in its place. Jean-Luc, an idealistic young lawyer, moves his wife, Marie, and their infant son from their comfortable life in Marseille to Paris in the hopes of joining the cause.
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An enjoyable listen
- By Anonymous User on 01-19-18
By: Allison Pataki, and others
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The Rebel Empresses
- Elisabeth of Austria and Eugénie of France, Power and Glamour in the Struggle for Europe
- By: Nancy Goldstone
- Length: 19 hrs
- Unabridged
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Story
When they married Emperors Franz Joseph and Napoleon III, respectively, Elisabeth of Austria and Eugénie of France became two of the most famous women on the planet. Not only were they both young and beautiful—becoming cultural and fashion icons of their time—but they played a pivotal role in ruling their realms during a tempestuous era characterized by unprecedented political and technological change. Fearless, adventurous, and independent, Elisabeth and Eugénie represented a new kind of empress—one who rebelled against tradition and anticipated and embraced modern values.
By: Nancy Goldstone
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The Romanov Empress
- A Novel of Tsarina Maria Feodorovna
- By: C. W. Gortner
- Narrated by: Katharine Lee McEwan
- Length: 17 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
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Narrated by the mother of Russia’s last tsar, this vivid, historically authentic novel brings to life the courageous story of Maria Feodorovna, one of Imperial Russia’s most compelling women, who witnessed the splendor and tragic downfall of the Romanovs as she fought to save her dynasty in its final years.
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Pure Excellence!
- By Bunny on 09-09-18
By: C. W. Gortner
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The Vatican Princess
- A Novel of Lucrezia Borgia
- By: C. W. Gortner
- Narrated by: Julia Whelan
- Length: 16 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
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Story
Glamorous and predatory, the Borgias fascinated and terrorized 15th-century Renaissance Italy, and Lucrezia Borgia, beloved daughter of the pope, was at the center of the dynasty's ambitions. Slandered as a heartless seductress who lured men to their doom, was she in fact the villainess of legend, or was she trapped in a familial web, forced to choose between loyalty and survival?
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Compelling story
- By Anonymous User on 05-11-16
By: C. W. Gortner
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The Magnificent Lives of Marjorie Post
- A Novel
- By: Allison Pataki
- Narrated by: Barrie Kreinik
- Length: 14 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
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Story
Mrs. Post, the President and First Lady are here to see you. . . . So begins another average evening for Marjorie Merriweather Post. Presidents have come and gone, but she has hosted them all. Growing up in the modest farmlands of Battle Creek, Michigan, Marjorie was inspired by a few simple rules: always think for yourself, never take success for granted, and work hard—even when deemed American royalty, even while covered in imperial diamonds.
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That's 10 hours of my life I'll never get back
- By Anonymous User on 03-30-22
By: Allison Pataki
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The Fortune Hunter
- A Novel
- By: Daisy Goodwin
- Narrated by: Clare Corbett
- Length: 14 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
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Empress Elizabeth of Austria, known as "Sisi", is the Princess Diana of 19th-century Europe. Famously beautiful, as captured in a portrait with diamond stars in her hair, she is unfulfilled in her marriage to the older Emperor Franz Joseph. Sisi has spent years evading the stifling formality of royal life on her private train or yacht or, whenever she can, on the back of a horse. Captain Bay Middleton is dashing, young, and the finest horseman in England. He is also impoverished, with no hope of buying the horse needed to win the Grand National....
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Listen to this one
- By Anonymous User on 09-08-14
By: Daisy Goodwin
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In the Shadow of the Empress
- The Defiant Lives of Maria Theresa, Mother of Marie Antoinette, and Her Daughters
- By: Nancy Goldstone
- Narrated by: Emma Newman
- Length: 23 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
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The vibrant, sprawling saga of Empress Maria Theresa - one of the most renowned women rulers in history - and three of her extraordinary daughters, including Marie Antoinette, the doomed queen of France.
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Awful narration!
- By Anonymous User on 09-27-21
By: Nancy Goldstone
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Victoria
- A Novel
- By: Daisy Goodwin
- Narrated by: Anna Wilson-Jones
- Length: 12 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
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Early one morning, less than a month after her 18th birthday, Alexandrina Victoria is roused from bed with the news that her uncle William IV has died, and she is now queen of England. The men who run the country have doubts about whether this sheltered young woman, who stands less than five feet tall, can rule the greatest nation in the world. Surely she must rely on her mother and her venal advisor, Sir John Conroy, or her uncle, the Duke of Cumberland, who are all too eager to relieve her of the burdens of power.
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The Young Victoria
- By Anonymous User on 12-18-17
By: Daisy Goodwin
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The Royal Nanny
- A Novel
- By: Karen Harper
- Narrated by: Melanie Crawley
- Length: 11 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
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April 1897: A young nanny arrives at Sandringham, ancestral estate of the Duke and Duchess of York. She is excited, exhausted - and about to meet royalty. So begins the unforgettable story of Charlotte Bill, who would care for a generation of royals as their parents never could. Neither Charlotte - LaLa, as her charges dub her - nor anyone else can predict that eldest sons David and Bertie will each one day be king. LaLa knows only that these children, and the four who swiftly follow, need her steadfast loyalty and unconditional affection.
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Loved it!
- By Anonymous User on 08-05-20
By: Karen Harper
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The Habsburg Empire
- A New History
- By: Pieter M. Judson
- Narrated by: Michael Page
- Length: 18 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
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Rejecting fragmented histories of nations in the making, this bold revision surveys the shared institutions that bridged difference and distance to bring stability and meaning to the far-flung empire. By supporting new schools, law courts, and railroads along with scientific and artistic advances, the Habsburg monarchs sought to anchor their authority in the cultures and economies of Central Europe. A rising standard of living throughout the empire deepened the legitimacy of Habsburg rule.
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Ideal for students of empires, nationalism, minorities and ethnic groups
- By Anonymous User on 02-11-17
By: Pieter M. Judson
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The Mitford Affair
- A Novel
- By: Marie Benedict
- Narrated by: Emma Griffiths
- Length: 10 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
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Between the World Wars, the six Mitford sisters—each more beautiful, brilliant, and eccentric than the next—dominate the English political, literary, and social scenes. Though they've weathered scandals before, the family falls into disarray when Diana divorces her wealthy husband to marry a fascist leader and Unity follows her sister's lead all the way to Munich, inciting rumors that she's become Hitler's mistress.
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the mitford affair
- By Anonymous User on 01-20-23
By: Marie Benedict