Listen free for 30 days

Listen with offer

Offer ends May 1st, 2024 11:59PM GMT. Terms and conditions apply.
£7.99/month after 3 months. Renews automatically.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
The Asylum cover art

The Asylum

By: John Harwood
Narrated by: Rosalyn Landor
Get this deal Try for £0.00

Pay £99p/month. After 3 months pay £7.99/month. Renews automatically. See terms for eligibility.

£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically.

Buy Now for £15.99

Buy Now for £15.99

Pay using card ending in
By completing your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and authorise Audible to charge your designated card or any other card on file. Please see our Privacy Notice, Cookies Notice and Interest-based Ads Notice.

Listeners also enjoyed...

The Ghost Writer cover art
A Cornish Girl cover art
14 cover art
The Shadow of What Was Lost cover art
Lightning cover art
Shattered cover art
New Spring cover art
Painting the Darkness cover art
Classic Ghost Stories cover art
Departure cover art
The Travelling Grave and Other Stories cover art
Asylum cover art
The American Boy cover art
Ghost Gifts cover art
Cephrael's Hand cover art
Glass and Steele Boxed Set: Books 1-3 cover art

Summary

A brilliant new Gothic thriller from the acclaimed author of The Ghost Writer and The Séance.

Confused and disoriented, Georgina Ferrars awakens in a small room in Tregannon House, a private asylum in a remote corner of England. She has no memory of the past few weeks. The doctor Maynard Straker tells her that she admitted herself under the name Lucy Ashton the day before and then suffered a seizure. When she insists he has mistaken her for someone else, Dr. Straker sends a telegram to her uncle, who replies that Georgina Ferrars is at home with him in London: "Your patient must be an imposter."

Suddenly her voluntary confinement becomes involuntary. Who is the woman in her uncle’s house? And what has become of her two most precious possessions: a dragonfly pin left to her by her mother and a journal that contains the only record of those missing weeks? Georgina’s perilous quest to free herself takes her from a cliffside cottage on the Isle of Wight to the secret passages of Tregannon House and into a web of hidden family ties on which her survival depends.

Here is another delicious read from the author praised by Ruth Rendell as having "a gift for creating suspense, apparently effortlessly, as if it belongs in the nature of fiction."

©2013 John Harwood (P)2013 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Critic reviews

"Creepy doings - certificates of insanity, switched identities, morbid personalities - in and around an asylum in 19th-century England… Harwood certainly makes the atmosphere work here." ( Kirkus Reviews)
"Engrossing… The crisp prose and twisty plot will encourage many to read this in one sitting." ( Publishers Weekly)
"Harwood, master of creeping Victorian horror, does it again in his latest tale of pervasive evil and madness.… Twisted in every sense of the word and wonderfully atmospheric, this dark psychological tale shocks by degree until truth of a sort is revealed, in a style similar to that of Joanne Harris’  Sleep, Pale Sister and D. J. Taylor’s  Kept." ( Booklist)

What listeners say about The Asylum

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    210
  • 4 Stars
    168
  • 3 Stars
    106
  • 2 Stars
    25
  • 1 Stars
    17
Performance
  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    243
  • 4 Stars
    139
  • 3 Stars
    63
  • 2 Stars
    22
  • 1 Stars
    6
Story
  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    187
  • 4 Stars
    143
  • 3 Stars
    101
  • 2 Stars
    35
  • 1 Stars
    14

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

Sort by:
Filter by:
  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

A cracking Gothic yarn!

I have raced through this book and am now sorry I've finished it. It has overtones of Wilkie Collins but maybe that's because it's set in the 19th century and the asylum reminded me of 'The Woman in White' - this is far more exciting, though.

The reader has a very refined voice which may irritate some people but it goes very well with the story and she's able to use it to voice the different characters. I looked for other books by John Harwood but this seems to be the only one.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

18 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Victorian Gothic thriller

What did you like most about The Asylum?

Nicely judged and imagined Victorian tale of fear of madness, repressed sexuality, and greed.I did not think initially that I would follow this through to the end, but I did - the story got hold of me in a way that I often think marks a good writer. The author does not overdo the Gothic atmosphere, but all the ingredients are there: a remote asylum for the insane on Dartmoor, an aloof and questionable doctor with a strange laboratory in the grounds, a woman who suffers from amnesia so badly that she can remember nothing about how she came to be there. Who is doing what to whom? We do not find out till the very end, and in between there is a feast of those long newsy Victorian letters between friends, lost wills, tyrannical fathers and unfaithful lovers. Anyone who has enjoyed a good 19th century novel will enjoy this, and find it more accessible.

I don't usually go in for complaining about endings, as it seems to me that that is the author's choice, and their right. I can have an opinion, however, and that's fair enough. Some readers will find the ending unconvincing, but I thought it just about stood the reality test.

Who was your favorite character and why?

I liked the heroine for her doughty determination not to be put down by this crowd of Victorian men who truly felt their superiority to be so obvious as not to need any evidence to support it!

What about Rosalyn Landor’s performance did you like?

The reader does a good job of sustaining the atmosphere and maintaining the style of a carefully articulating, educated woman of the period, and I think she manages the frail male asylum heir particularly well.

Any additional comments?

Good listen for a boring trip home, or a rainy Saturday when you don't want anything that will stretch you too far.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

8 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

A real treat

It's a real treat to find John Harwood in audio. His last book, The Seance appeared on audible for a nanosecond and then was withdrawn. Harwood tells deliberately gothic tales - but they are always very gripping and a very good read or listen. Rosalyn Landor's reading is good and she manages to give the characters the right personalities from the start. There is not much more to say about the story than you'll find in the blurb and one doesn't want to give any of the plot away so suffice it to say that it's an excellent summer listen or a good one for a cosy bedtime. Enjoy!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

8 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

Darkly Menacing.

Never having had the pleasure of John Harwoods works before I didn't know what to expect. Dark and brooding you are immediately drawn in to a this mystery being drip fed clues along the way while Georgina Ferris tries to solve the puzzle of how she ended up in an asylum in Cornwall. She soon realises that the answers lie in her families past.
The pace was perfect and as the drama unfolded I was almost climbing into my ipod.
But damn it the ending was anti climatic, Dr Strakers part really confused me, but hey horses for courses, it still does not detract from the very excellent writing, even though the ending wasn't to my taste will still look for more by JH.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

7 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Gripping Victorian Gothic

Clearly inspired by The Woman in White, this is a good stab at a Victorian gothic novel. Shades of Sarah Waters and Michel Faber (but with less sex!). I could pick holes in the fact the the device of the letters is not very convincing - no one would report conversation like that in a letter - but it's so enjoyable overall that can forgive that. The story is, perhaps, a bit rushed at the end but it's jolly entertaining.

Rosalyn Landor has just the right voice for a genteel 19th century lady.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

7 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Much more compelling that the synopsis suggests

Very much enjoyed this book: an excellent story, with more complexity and a slowly revealed back story. This makes the narrative canvas much wider than might appear from the synopsis, and though the comparison with Wilkie Collins might be going a bit far (* fewer words than he would use I feel sure!), it is an excellent read.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

6 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

great twists and turns

An evocative period tale. Appealing heroine, great cast. The story is spooky and atmospheric. I would recommend this to fans of the seance.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

5 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Kept my interest

Overall this novel did keep my interest, as some other reviewers have mentioned, there is a strong 'Woman in White' feeling running through. As this (Woman in W) is one of my all time favourite books the Asylum left me a bit unsure.
The characters were well drawn, but as ever I get very irritated by the actions of the daft heroin as she misses the obvious!!
Nevertheless, I enjoyed the book, there were a couple of twists that were quite good and it held my interest throughout.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

3 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Loved It

Would you listen to The Asylum again? Why?

Yes, I twas a very interesting and mind gripping story, which kept you in suspense.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

3 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

A long story but very engaging

This book was recommended to me, as it sounded just like the kind of book I would love. A creepy Victorian atmosphere, an asylum etc..
The book was quite long and very descriptive, but I persevered and was delighted that I did.
It tells a very engaging story, and holds you right until the end.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

2 people found this helpful