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The Riddle Of The Sands
- Narrated by: Anton Lesser
- Length: 10 hrs and 9 mins
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Enjoy the first novels that brought the world two of Agatha Christies’ most enduring detectives: Miss Marple and Hercule Poirot. The Murder at the Vicarage is the first Miss Marple mystery, one which tests all her powers of observation and deduction. In The Mysterious Affair at Styles, Captain Arthur Hastings, invalided in the Great War, is recuperating as a guest of John Cavendish at Styles Court, the "country-place" of John's autocratic old aunt, Emily Inglethorpe.
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Victor Maskell has been betrayed. After the announcement in the Commons, the hasty revelation of his double life of wartime espionage, his photograph is all over the papers. His disgrace is public, his position as curator of the Queen’s pictures terminated… Maskell writes his own testament, in an act not unlike the restoration of one of his beloved pictures, in order for the process of verification and attribution to begin.
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Brilliant writer writes the most boring spy story
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In Scoop, surreptitiously dubbed "a newspaper adventure", Waugh flays Fleet Street and the social pastimes of its war correspondants as he tells how William Boot became the star of British super-journalism and how, leaving part of his shirt in the claws of the lovely Katchen, he returned from Ishmaelia to London as the "Daily's Beast's" more accoladed overseas reporter.
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At age 24 Winston Churchill was utterly convinced it was his destiny to become prime minister of England one day, despite the fact he had just lost his first election campaign for Parliament. He believed that to achieve his goal, he had to do something spectacular on the battlefield. Despite deliberately putting himself in extreme danger as a British army officer in colonial wars in India and Sudan and as a journalist covering a Cuban uprising against the Spanish, glory and fame had eluded him.
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England, 1364: When married off at aged twelve to an elderly farmer, brazen redheaded Eleanor quickly realizes it won’t matter what she says or does, God is not on her side—or any poor woman’s for that matter. But then again, Eleanor was born under the joint signs of Venus and Mars, making her both a lover and a fighter.
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The Decent Thing to Do
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As Good as the Series
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Darting back and forth across the icy North Atlantic, Compass Rose played a deadly cat-and-mouse game with packs of German U-boats lying in wait beneath the ocean waves. Packed with tension and vivid descriptions of agonizing U-boat hunts, this tale of the most bitter and chilling campaign of the war tells of ordinary men who had to master their own fears before they could face a brutal menace - one that would strike without warning from the deep.
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Hard Edged Historical Fiction
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Manhattan Beach
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Anna Kerrigan, nearly 12 years old, accompanies her father to the house of a man who, she gleans, is crucial to the survival of her father and her family. Anna observes the uniformed servants, the lavishing of toys on the children, and some secret pact between her father and Dexter Styles. Years later her father has disappeared, and the country is at war. Anna works at the Brooklyn Navy Yard, where women are allowed to hold jobs that had always belonged to men.
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Love !!
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Shaking off this label, a shy and lonely 17-year-old, Horatio Hornblower, embarks on a memorable career in Nelson's navy on HMS Justinian. In action, adventure, and battle he is forged into one of the most formidable junior officers in the service.
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Into the Storm
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Pressed into service when World War II breaks out in the Pacific, the USS Walker---a Great-War vintage "four-stacker" destroyer---finds itself in full retreat from pursuit by Japanese battleships. Its captain, Lieutenant Commander Matthew Patrick Reddy, knows that he and his crew are in dire straits. In desperation, he heads Walker into a squall, hoping it will give them cover---and emerges somewhere else.
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It just never grabbed me.
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This is a captivating historical mystery, infused with romance, that links the lives of three women across a century - two deep in the past, one in the present - to the doomed passenger liner, RMS Lusitania.... Her finances are in dire straits, and best-selling author Sarah Blake is struggling to find a big idea for her next book. Desperate, she breaks the one promise she made to her mother and opens an old chest that belonged to her great-grandfather, who died when the RMS Lusitania was sunk by a German U-boat in 1915. What she discovers there could change history.
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I enjoyed this book, at least most of it.
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Ship Breaker
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In America's Gulf Coast region, where grounded oil tankers are being broken down for parts, Nailer, a teenage boy, works the light crew, scavenging for copper wiring just to make quota - and hopefully live to see another day. But when, by luck or chance, he discovers an exquisite clipper ship beached during a recent hurricane, Nailer faces the most important decision of his life: Strip the ship for all it's worth or rescue its lone survivor, a beautiful and wealthy girl who could lead him to a better life.
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A Fine Story; Not The WindUp Girl
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Island in the Sea of Time
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During a perfect spring evening on Nantucket, a violent storm erupts and a dome of crawling, colored fire blankets the island. When the howling winds subside and the night skies clear, the stars appear to have shifted. The mainland has become a wilderness of unbroken forest, where tools of bronze and stone litter the beaches, and primitive natives scatter in terror.
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Listen to this before "Dies the fire"
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Pirate's Passage
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Nova Scotia, 1952. Not exactly the place you'd expect to run into pirates. But an old mariner, his boat driven ashore in a gale, brings with him enough stories about buccaneers and their lore to make it seem that he must have had firsthand experience of the pirate life. But how is that possible?
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A great Pirate tale for all ages!
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Publisher's summary
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Treasure Island (Alpha DVD)
- By: Robert Louis Stevenson
- Narrated by: Dick Hill
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Treasure Island is a tale of pirates, treasure, and shipwreck. When young Jim Hawkins finds a packet in Captain Flint's sea chest, he could not know that the map inside it would lead him to unimaginable treasure. Shipping as cabin boy on the Hispaniola, he sails with Squire Trelawney, Captain Smollett, Dr. Livesey, the sinister Long John Silver and a frightening crew to Treasure Island. There, mutiny, murder and mayhem lead to a thrilling climax.
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terrible narrator
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The Secret Sharer
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A young sea captain discovers a stowaway - and allows him to stay, eventually seeing in him a reflection of himself. Or perhaps that's all there ever was. Wendy Mullen's contralto voice captures the music of the sea; you'll be mesmerized by the telling and the tale. Conrad is at his best, and Mullen's reading captivates.
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Conrad's literary rigging is tight.
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The Mutiny of the Elsinore
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Life has lost its savor for Mr. Pathurst. New York, fame, women, the arts, have all become tedious. Searching for excitement, he books passage on a cargo vessel sailing from Baltimore to Seattle on a route that travels around the treacherous Cape Horn.
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Just can't listen
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The Shadow-Line
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Written at the start of the Great War, when his son Borys was at the Western Front, The Shadow-Line is Conrad's supreme effort to open man's eyes to the meaning of war through the stimulus of art. In many ways an autobiographical narrative, this masterpiece of his final period relates the story of a young and inexperienced sea captain whose first command finds him with a ship becalmed in tropical seas and a crew smitten with fever.
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A Reflexion on Maturity
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Sailing Alone Around the World
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Joshua Slocum was believed to be the first man to sail single-handed around the world. After a distinguished career, where he worked his way up from cabin boy to captain, Joshua Slocum wrecked his ship off the coast of Brazil. Turning this catastrophe to his advantage, he built a sailing canoe from the wreckage and sailed back to New York. Moreover, he wrote Voyage of the Liberdad, a chronicle of his trip, and earned some literary success.
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A REMARKABLE MAN
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Hannay: His 5 Adventures
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Performance
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In The Thirty-Nine Steps, Hannay struggles to thwart an assassination plot designed to hasten war between Britain and Germany. Later he is plucked from the trenches first, in Greenmantle, to frustrate a plot to ferment an uprising in the Islamic world; and then, in Mr. Standfast, to undertake a vital secret mission against a German spy ring operating among pacifist elements in England. After the war, his adventures continue in The Three Hostages; and then in The Island of Sheep, when an old oath to protect the son of a friend from his days in Africa draws him into new danger.
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Values of a bygone era
- By Barbara on 03-16-24
By: John Buchan
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Treasure Island (Alpha DVD)
- By: Robert Louis Stevenson
- Narrated by: Dick Hill
- Length: 8 hrs and 5 mins
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Overall
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Performance
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Treasure Island is a tale of pirates, treasure, and shipwreck. When young Jim Hawkins finds a packet in Captain Flint's sea chest, he could not know that the map inside it would lead him to unimaginable treasure. Shipping as cabin boy on the Hispaniola, he sails with Squire Trelawney, Captain Smollett, Dr. Livesey, the sinister Long John Silver and a frightening crew to Treasure Island. There, mutiny, murder and mayhem lead to a thrilling climax.
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terrible narrator
- By Lesa on 03-30-09
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The Secret Sharer
- By: Joseph Conrad
- Narrated by: Wendy Ellison Mullen
- Length: 1 hr and 47 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
A young sea captain discovers a stowaway - and allows him to stay, eventually seeing in him a reflection of himself. Or perhaps that's all there ever was. Wendy Mullen's contralto voice captures the music of the sea; you'll be mesmerized by the telling and the tale. Conrad is at his best, and Mullen's reading captivates.
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Conrad's literary rigging is tight.
- By Darwin8u on 04-06-13
By: Joseph Conrad
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The Mutiny of the Elsinore
- By: Jack London
- Narrated by: John Bolen
- Length: 11 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Life has lost its savor for Mr. Pathurst. New York, fame, women, the arts, have all become tedious. Searching for excitement, he books passage on a cargo vessel sailing from Baltimore to Seattle on a route that travels around the treacherous Cape Horn.
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Just can't listen
- By Michael on 06-25-05
By: Jack London
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The Shadow-Line
- By: Joseph Conrad
- Narrated by: Fred Williams
- Length: 4 hrs and 54 mins
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Overall
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Performance
-
Story
Written at the start of the Great War, when his son Borys was at the Western Front, The Shadow-Line is Conrad's supreme effort to open man's eyes to the meaning of war through the stimulus of art. In many ways an autobiographical narrative, this masterpiece of his final period relates the story of a young and inexperienced sea captain whose first command finds him with a ship becalmed in tropical seas and a crew smitten with fever.
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A Reflexion on Maturity
- By Darwin8u on 01-05-17
By: Joseph Conrad
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Sailing Alone Around the World
- By: Joshua Slocum
- Narrated by: Alan Sklar
- Length: 7 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Joshua Slocum was believed to be the first man to sail single-handed around the world. After a distinguished career, where he worked his way up from cabin boy to captain, Joshua Slocum wrecked his ship off the coast of Brazil. Turning this catastrophe to his advantage, he built a sailing canoe from the wreckage and sailed back to New York. Moreover, he wrote Voyage of the Liberdad, a chronicle of his trip, and earned some literary success.
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A REMARKABLE MAN
- By Rod on 05-03-06
By: Joshua Slocum
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Hannay: His 5 Adventures
- By: John Buchan
- Narrated by: Graham Scott
- Length: 49 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
-
Story
In The Thirty-Nine Steps, Hannay struggles to thwart an assassination plot designed to hasten war between Britain and Germany. Later he is plucked from the trenches first, in Greenmantle, to frustrate a plot to ferment an uprising in the Islamic world; and then, in Mr. Standfast, to undertake a vital secret mission against a German spy ring operating among pacifist elements in England. After the war, his adventures continue in The Three Hostages; and then in The Island of Sheep, when an old oath to protect the son of a friend from his days in Africa draws him into new danger.
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Values of a bygone era
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By: John Buchan
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The Sea Wolf
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- Length: 6 hrs and 7 mins
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Performance
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Jack London worshiped strong and virtuous heroes, and his stories give great weight to the inevitable triumph of good over evil. His telling of the adventures of Humphrey van Weydon in The Sea Wolf is in keeping with this theme of moral man. His powerful and gripping saga of van Weydon's capture by a seal-hunting ship and the ensuing tangles with its dreaded captain, Wolf Larsen, makes this a classic American tale of peril and victory.
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I won the lottery!
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Offshore
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On Battersea Reach, a mixed bag of the temporarily lost and the patently eccentric live on houseboats, rising and falling with the tide of the Thames. There is good-natured Maurice, by occupation a male prostitute, by chance a receiver of stolen goods. And Richard, an ex-navy man whose boat, much like its owner, dominates the Reach.
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S.O.S
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By: Penelope Fitzgerald, and others
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When Eight Bells Toll
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From the acclaimed master of action and suspense. The all-time classic. Millions of pounds in gold bullion are being pirated in the Irish Sea. Investigations by the British Secret Service, and a sixth sense, have bought Philip Calvert to a bleak, lonely bay in the Western Highlands. But the sleepy atmosphere of Torbay is deceptive. The place is the focal point of many mysterious disappearances. Even the unimaginative Highland Police Sergeant seems to be acting a part. But why?
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My Favorite Thriller Writer
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Ramage
- The Lord Ramage Novels, Book 1
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In a daring foray, under the very nose of the French Mediterranean fleet, Lieutenant Lord Nicholas Ramage is to sail his tiny cutter close in to the Italian shore and rescue a party of stranded aristocrats from Napoleon's fast-advancing army.
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Engaging
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A High Wind in Jamaica
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Set in the 19th century against a backdrop of island life and the vast surrounding seas, A High Wind in Jamaica is the gripping story of the Bas-Thornton children, whose parents send them back to England following a hurricane in the postcolonial Caribbean they call home. Having set sail, the children quickly fall into the hands of pirates. As their voyage continues, things take an awful turn
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Prose that reads like a Child's Fever Dream
- By Darwin8u on 01-02-17
By: Richard Hughes
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Under Enemy Colors
- By: S. Thomas Russell
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At the time of the French Revolution, one of Britain's most skillful naval officers, Charles Saunders Hayden, is a young lieutenant, the son of an English father and a French mother. His abilities and his loyalty to the king of England are beyond dispute, yet his career seems doomed by his "mixed" heritage and lack of political connections. Consequently, Hayden is assigned to an aging frigate, the Themis, under the command of Captain Josiah Hart, a man known as "Faint Hart" throughout the service.
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Perfect for first timer
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Howard Pyle's Book of Pirates
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Merle Johnson has here gathered together in one volume all of the nineteenth-century author-artist's classic pirate stories that had been scattered through many magazines and books. Well researched and with richly drawn characters, Pyle's work will appeal to students of history and adventure lovers alike.
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Fascinating and wonderfully read
- By Fletch on 09-08-06
By: Howard Pyle, and others
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The Captain of the Pole Star
- By: Arthur Conan Doyle
- Narrated by: B. J. Harrison
- Length: 1 hr and 6 mins
- Unabridged
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Word goes among the crew of the Pole Star that the captain is haunted by demons. And after the days turn into weeks in the frigid Arctic Ocean, stories begin to circulate of ghosts and midnight hauntings.
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Conan Doyle wrote more than Mr. Holmes.
- By Kristi R. on 11-14-11
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Mr Midshipman Hornblower
- By: C. S. Forester
- Narrated by: Christian Rodska
- Length: 8 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
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Shaking off this label, a shy and lonely 17-year-old, Horatio Hornblower, embarks on a memorable career in Nelson's navy on HMS Justinian. In action, adventure, and battle he is forged into one of the most formidable junior officers in the service.
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First rate historical fiction
- By Jason on 04-30-17
By: C. S. Forester
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Billy Budd
- By: Herman Melville
- Narrated by: Peter Joyce
- Length: 3 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
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On one level...Melville’s tale is an historical adventure telling the story of life aboard ship shortly after the mutiny at Spithead in 1797. Billy is taken from a homeward bound merchantman to serve on the ‘Seventy Four’ HMS Indomitable. He falls foul of Claggart, the ‘Master at Arms’, and the final confrontation results in death. Billy becomes an unwilling martyr - what passes for justice must be implemented because of the rebellious climate of the time.
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Well done, a pleasure to listen to!
- By Kindle Customer on 10-17-18
By: Herman Melville
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Hell on Ice
- The Saga of the Jeannette
- By: Edward Ellsberg
- Narrated by: Stephen Hoye
- Length: 14 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
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In the 1870s, newspaperman James Gordon Bennett of the New York Herald drummed up excitement and publicity for his paper through highly publicized missions of exploration. In 1879, Bennett's idea for a voyage was his most audacious to date: the North Pole. To do this, he hired a team of naval veterans in addition to a smattering of civilians with specialized knowledge in meteorology, whaling, and naturalism. The men on board the Jeannette set off in September of 1879. This would be the last time anyone saw them for two years.
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Great story, and great way to approach the telling
- By Christopher on 08-22-14
By: Edward Ellsberg
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Captains Courageous
- By: Rudyard Kipling
- Narrated by: George Guidall
- Length: 5 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
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Captains Courageous is Rudyard Kipling’s classic fable of a boy’s initiation into the fellowship of men, played out on the high seas of the late 1800s. When he falls overboard from a luxury liner, Harvey Cheyne, the spoiled son of an American millionaire, is rescued by a small New England fishing schooner. To earn his keep, Harvey must prove his worth in the only way the skipper and his hardy crew will accept: through the grueling mastery of a fisherman’s skills.
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A MINOR sea story and a MINOR Kipling
- By Darwin8u on 06-24-13
By: Rudyard Kipling
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A clever Christian allegory
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The outstanding narration is what I enjoyed most
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Languid & loquacious language
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A clever Christian allegory
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An engrossing detective novel
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The Innocence of Father Brown (Annotated)
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Exclusive audio collection. Eleven Max Carrados stories - narrated by national treasure Stephen Fry. Max Carrados featured in a series of mystery stories that first appeared in 1914. Carrados featured alongside Sherlock Holmes in The Strand magazine, in which they both had top billing. The character often boasted how being blind meant his other senses were heightened. This exclusive audio collection features 11 Max Carrados stories.
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A Very Difficult Thing to Do Properly
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Long and often dull.
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By: D. H. Lawrence
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The story of Paxton, an antiquarian and archaeologist who holidays in "Seaburgh" and inadvertently stumbles across one of the lost crowns of Anglia, which legendarily protect the country from invasion. Montague Rhodes James was a noted British mediaeval scholar and provost of King's College, Cambridge (1905–1918) and of Eton College (1918–1936). He is best remembered for his ghost stories which are widely regarded as among the finest in English literature.
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Trollope is amazing, and Timothy West is amazing
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For 15 years the weaver Silas Marner has plied his loom near the village of Raveloe, alone and unjustly in exile, cut off from faith and human love, he cares only for his hoard of golden guineas. But two events occur that will change his life forever; his gold disappears and a golden-haired baby girl appears. But where did she come from and who really stole the gold? This moving tale sees Silas eventually redeemed and restored to life by the unlikely means of his love for the orphan child Eppie.
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amazing
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Three Men in a Boat (AmazonClassics Edition)
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In 1889, satirist Jerome K. Jerome fully intended to write a serious travel guide when he and his two best friends embarked on a boating trip up the river Thames to Oxford. But his musings on landmarks and local history were soon hijacked by his own digressive, waggish voice. And so, what began as a peaceful and edifying two-week exploration soon floated upriver into farce - aided, quite naturally, by a portly ration of cheese, some very bad weather, and a dog named Montmorency.
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Hilarious and lovable!!
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What listeners say about The Riddle Of The Sands
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- John Ray
- 06-13-21
Stirring Schoolboy Adventure
Despite my seemingly derogatory title, this is very good and well narrated. Highly recommend! Also recommend the 70s film starring Michael York of the same title.
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3 people found this helpful
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- MamaBear
- 01-27-23
Beware the casual racism of 1903, otherwise great
This is an interesting book, with a fascinating premise: that Germany could use its Frisian Islands militarily against Britain.
It’s very technical with regard to nautical terminology and details, which aren’t my thing so I just let them flow past while my hands did other things. So it was good for multitasking.
I am interested in geography, so I kept bringing up maps to orient myself to where they were. Again, there’s a lot of detail.
I’m left wondering if publishing this novel acted as a deterrent to trying an attack of the type described here during WWI.
The narrative character started out as a drawling pain in the rear. Thankfully, the drawling and complaining didn’t continue into the second half of the book.
Interesting look back at espionage prior to WWI, and a kind of historical futurism. Just be aware that the British habit of casually stated racial superiority is on full display, as is the pro-colonialism perspective of the day.
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- Drone Boy
- 05-16-24
Keeps One Awake
This is an excellent early example of spy fiction, and a prescriptive example of predictive literature given its focus on a German dream of invading Britain a decade before WW1. The Riddle of the Sands is a listen you want to get to the end of, even if you are not a Yachting enthusiast.
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- Anonymous User
- 01-31-23
Brilliant story,beautifully read
This wonderful book deserves Anton Lesser as narrator. It’s a fast-paced adventure that draws the reader/listener in and is hard to break away from.
The narration is excellent. Lesser makes the characters come to life.
Superb.
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- John McKendricks
- 01-19-24
historical accuracy
Slow start, characters are developed nicely over time. Very fast pace towards the end. Narrator does an excellent job of acting out various characters.
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- Peter W. Kalnin
- 10-23-23
A 19th Century Classic
By modern standards, this story unfolds very, very slowly. It is realistic and quite believable.
The performance is perfect. Anton Lesser is masterful.
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- JOHN DAVIS
- 09-05-24
Terrific narrator with excellent writing
It simply moved too slowly to hold my interest. I suspect that someone with sailing experience would find it more engaging. The writing is superior and perhaps I will return to give it another read/listen
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- Katherine
- 04-26-12
Slow beginning, but worth the wait
It takes awhile for this story to get going, but it becomes gripping later. Anton Lesser's reading is, as always, magnificent. This is a classic thriller - no gory stuff, and more of a mental cat-and-mouse game than an action adventure. There is a lot of sailing terminology, but it is not essential to understand the jargon (I didn't understand most of it) to enjoy the book.
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9 people found this helpful
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- Gail N.
- 08-20-18
If you can sail a boat, this might be great
If someone is an expert sailor, "The Riddle of the Sands" might be just the thing. But I am not a sailor and do not really know much about sailing. Port and starboard are about the extent of my knowledge. So for me this was a real slog - it seemed to go on forever with endless descriptions of activities on board the vessel and the various types of tides, currents and sand bars encountered. There is a story of friendship and a romance buried in there somewhere. The reader is first rate. But the two main characters remained remote and inaccessible to me and the paranoid plot did not make a lot of sense. In fact, teasing out what that paranoid plot actually is takes up the main part of the story. Apparently, at the time of its writing in 1903, Great Britain was concerned about the possibility of a land invasion mounted by sea. And at the time, this book stirred a lot of public debate. While the prose is intelligent, the notion of a hidden fleet in this age of satellite imagery, nukes and drones seems rather quaint. In short, it is not very relevant today; it may have reached its expiry date.
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall
- Charles R Hasbrouck
- 06-11-09
a great listen
A classic that is engaging, exciting, entertaining, and even humorous at times.
So well written that you forget it was written close to 100 years ago.... as good or better than any modern thriller.
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4 people found this helpful