Listen free for 30 days
-
A Pair of Blue Eyes
- Narrated by: Peter Wickham
- Length: 15 hrs and 8 mins
- Categories: Literature & Fiction, Classics
People who bought this also bought...
-
Two on a Tower
- By: Thomas Hardy
- Narrated by: Michael Kitchen
- Length: 9 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Two on a Tower is Hardy's ninth novel and contains perhaps his most complete use of the theme of love across the class and age divide, to beautifully depict Hardy's reverence for science and astronomy. The unhappily married Lady Constantine breaks all the rules of social etiquette when she falls in love with young Swithin St. Cleeve, an astronomer and her social inferior. Despite their differences that society deems unacceptable, together, from an astronomical observatory, the lovers 'sweep the heavens'.
-
-
Interesting, but not one of Hardy's best
- By Roderic on 08-06-15
-
The Woodlanders
- By: Thomas Hardy
- Narrated by: Samuel West
- Length: 14 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Set in the Dorset landscape familiar to Hardy novels, The Woodlanders concerns the fortunes of Giles Winterborne, whose love for the well-do-do Grace Melbury is challenged by the arrival of a dashing and dissolute doctor, Edred Fitzpiers. When the mysterious Mrs Charmond further complicates the romantic entanglements, marital choice and class mobility become inextricably linked.
-
-
Superb
- By Christine Miskelly on 25-01-16
-
The Return of the Native
- By: Thomas Hardy
- Narrated by: Alan Rickman
- Length: 15 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Set on Egdon Heath, a fictional barren moor in Wessex, Eustacia Vye longs for the excitement of city life but is cut off from the world in her grandfather's lonely cottage. Clym Yeobright who has returned to the area to become a schoolmaster seems to offer everything she dreams of: passion, excitement and the opportunity to escape. However, Clym's ambitions are quite different, and marriage only increases Eustacia's destructive restlessness, drawing others into a tangled web of deceit and unhappiness.
-
-
Marvellous.
- By Pauline B. on 17-08-11
-
Tess of the D'Urbervilles
- By: Thomas Hardy
- Narrated by: Peter Firth
- Length: 14 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When John Durbeyfield discovers a family connection to the ancient Norman family, the D'Urbervilles, the fate of daughter Tess is transformed. Sent by her ambitious parents to visit her wealthy D'Urberville cousins, Tess attracts the attention of the unscrupulous Alec. Seduced and discarded by him and alone in the world, she finds work as a milkmaid and the love of Angel Clare. Yet his love cannot accept the truth about Tess's past.
-
-
Amazing, loved now and no longer hated ☺
- By Dawn on 13-03-15
-
Gulliver's Travels: A Signature Performance by David Hyde Pierce
- By: Jonathan Swift
- Narrated by: David Hyde Pierce
- Length: 9 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A Signature Performance: Four-time Emmy Award winner David Hyde Pierce delivers an air of lovable self-importance in his rendition of the classic social satire that remains as fresh today as the day it was published.
-
-
Lively and unusual
- By Ruth on 13-02-11
-
Desperate Remedies
- By: Thomas Hardy
- Narrated by: Melody Grove
- Length: 15 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Cytherea has taken a position as lady's maid to the eccentric Miss Aldclyffe. On discovering that the man she loves is already engaged to his cousin, Cytherea comes under the influence of Miss Aldclyffe's fascinating, manipulative steward Manston. Desperate Remedies contains sensational ingredients of blackmail, murder and romance, but with its insight into psychology and sexuality it already bears the unmistakable imprint of Hardy’s future genius.
-
Two on a Tower
- By: Thomas Hardy
- Narrated by: Michael Kitchen
- Length: 9 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Two on a Tower is Hardy's ninth novel and contains perhaps his most complete use of the theme of love across the class and age divide, to beautifully depict Hardy's reverence for science and astronomy. The unhappily married Lady Constantine breaks all the rules of social etiquette when she falls in love with young Swithin St. Cleeve, an astronomer and her social inferior. Despite their differences that society deems unacceptable, together, from an astronomical observatory, the lovers 'sweep the heavens'.
-
-
Interesting, but not one of Hardy's best
- By Roderic on 08-06-15
-
The Woodlanders
- By: Thomas Hardy
- Narrated by: Samuel West
- Length: 14 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Set in the Dorset landscape familiar to Hardy novels, The Woodlanders concerns the fortunes of Giles Winterborne, whose love for the well-do-do Grace Melbury is challenged by the arrival of a dashing and dissolute doctor, Edred Fitzpiers. When the mysterious Mrs Charmond further complicates the romantic entanglements, marital choice and class mobility become inextricably linked.
-
-
Superb
- By Christine Miskelly on 25-01-16
-
The Return of the Native
- By: Thomas Hardy
- Narrated by: Alan Rickman
- Length: 15 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Set on Egdon Heath, a fictional barren moor in Wessex, Eustacia Vye longs for the excitement of city life but is cut off from the world in her grandfather's lonely cottage. Clym Yeobright who has returned to the area to become a schoolmaster seems to offer everything she dreams of: passion, excitement and the opportunity to escape. However, Clym's ambitions are quite different, and marriage only increases Eustacia's destructive restlessness, drawing others into a tangled web of deceit and unhappiness.
-
-
Marvellous.
- By Pauline B. on 17-08-11
-
Tess of the D'Urbervilles
- By: Thomas Hardy
- Narrated by: Peter Firth
- Length: 14 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When John Durbeyfield discovers a family connection to the ancient Norman family, the D'Urbervilles, the fate of daughter Tess is transformed. Sent by her ambitious parents to visit her wealthy D'Urberville cousins, Tess attracts the attention of the unscrupulous Alec. Seduced and discarded by him and alone in the world, she finds work as a milkmaid and the love of Angel Clare. Yet his love cannot accept the truth about Tess's past.
-
-
Amazing, loved now and no longer hated ☺
- By Dawn on 13-03-15
-
Gulliver's Travels: A Signature Performance by David Hyde Pierce
- By: Jonathan Swift
- Narrated by: David Hyde Pierce
- Length: 9 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A Signature Performance: Four-time Emmy Award winner David Hyde Pierce delivers an air of lovable self-importance in his rendition of the classic social satire that remains as fresh today as the day it was published.
-
-
Lively and unusual
- By Ruth on 13-02-11
-
Desperate Remedies
- By: Thomas Hardy
- Narrated by: Melody Grove
- Length: 15 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Cytherea has taken a position as lady's maid to the eccentric Miss Aldclyffe. On discovering that the man she loves is already engaged to his cousin, Cytherea comes under the influence of Miss Aldclyffe's fascinating, manipulative steward Manston. Desperate Remedies contains sensational ingredients of blackmail, murder and romance, but with its insight into psychology and sexuality it already bears the unmistakable imprint of Hardy’s future genius.
-
Bleak House
- The Audible Dickens Collection
- By: Charles Dickens
- Narrated by: Miriam Margolyes
- Length: 43 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This Audible Exclusive performance features a unique introduction written and narrated by Miriam Margolyes. Recognised as one of Dickens' most accomplished titles, Bleak House has impressed critics and audiences alike since it was first published in 1852. The novel boasts one of the most intelligent and engaging plots in all of English literature and is sure to engage the listener's imagination as it transports us back in time to the seedy, grimy and hazardous streets of Victorian London.
-
-
genius
- By uk person on 13-05-18
-
Silas Marner
- By: George Eliot
- Narrated by: Andrew Sachs
- Length: 6 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
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.
-
-
Utterly Charming!!
- By Philip on 28-11-16
-
Passing
- By: Nella Larsen
- Narrated by: Tessa Thompson
- Length: 3 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Light-skinned Black woman Irene Redfield encounters an old childhood friend - Claire - who is now "passing" as a White woman. Claire is married to a racist White man, who doesn't know she has African American blood. In spite of the danger of being found out by her husband and society at large; she finds herself helplessly drawn to Irene's world....
-
Middlemarch
- By: George Eliot
- Narrated by: Maureen O'Brien
- Length: 32 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
George Eliot's most ambitious novel is a masterly evocation of diverse lives and changing fortunes in a provincial community. Peopling its landscape are Dorothea Brooke, a young idealist whose search for intellectual fulfillment leads her into a disastrous marriage to the pedantic scholar Casaubon; and the charming but tactless Dr Lydgate, whose marriage to the spendthrift beauty Rosamund and pioneering medical methods threaten to undermine his career.
-
-
Beautiful reading
- By Auguste Dupin on 12-05-16
-
A Month in Siena
- By: Hisham Matar
- Narrated by: Hisham Matar
- Length: 3 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Shortly after completing his searing work of nonfiction, The Return, Hisham Matar set off for Siena, a city he had never visited before. His plan was to see the paintings of the Sienese school, to immerse himself in the work of artists he admired perhaps above all others.
-
-
Lovely little book
- By Emma on 27-06-20
-
Thomas Hardy
- The Time-Torn Man
- By: Claire Tomalin
- Narrated by: David Shaw-Parker, Jill Balcon
- Length: 6 hrs and 46 mins
- Abridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Penguin presents the audiobook edition of Thomas Hardy by Claire Tomalin, read by Jill Balcon and David Shaw Parker. Paradox ruled Thomas Hardy's life. His birth was almost his death; he became one of the great Victorian novelists and reinvented himself as one of the 20th-century's greatest poets; he was an unhappy husband and a desolate widower; and he wrote bitter attacks on the English class system yet prized the friendship of aristocrats. In the hands of Whitbread Award-winning biographer Claire Tomalin, Thomas Hardy the novelist, poet, neglectful husband and mourning lover all come vividly alive.
-
-
Plese let me introduce you to Claire Tomalin
- By Christine lee on 20-09-18
-
On the Origin of Species
- By: Charles Darwin
- Narrated by: Peter Wickham
- Length: 21 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Perhaps the most influential science book ever written, On the Origin of Species has continued to fascinate for more than a century after its initial publication. Its controversial theory that populations evolve and adapt through a process known as natural selection led to heated scientific, philosophical, and religious debate, revolutionizing every discipline in its wake. With its clear, concise, and surprisingly enjoyable prose, On the Origin of Species is both captivating and edifying.
-
-
Excellently read
- By G Douglas Whistler on 14-02-17
-
The Warden
- By: Anthony Trollope
- Narrated by: Flo Gibson
- Length: 7 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A kindly warden is accused of misusing church funds. This amusing book examines the making and breaking of reputations.
-
Japanese Ghost Stories
- Penguin Classics
- By: Lafcadio Hearn
- Narrated by: Eleanor Matsuura
- Length: 9 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In this collection of classic ghost stories from Japan, beautiful princesses turn out to be frogs, paintings come alive, deadly spectral brides haunt the living and a samurai delivers the baby of a Shinto goddess with mystical help. Here are all the phantoms and ghouls of Japanese folklore: 'rokuro-kubi', whose heads separate from their bodies at night; 'jikininki', or flesh-eating goblins; and terrifying faceless 'mujina' who haunt lonely neighbourhoods.
-
-
Good book, awful script
- By Aldris247 on 08-11-19
-
Great Expectations
- By: Charles Dickens
- Narrated by: Martin Jarvis
- Length: 17 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Pip is an orphan, brought up in a village on the Essex marshes by his disagreeable sister and her husband Joe Gargery, the kind-hearted village blacksmith. Life is harsh and Pip has few prospects until he receives from an anonymous benefactor the chance of escaping the forge for a more promising life in London. But his expectations are fraught with difficulties as he is haunted by figures from his past such as the escaped convict Magwitch, the eccentric Miss Havisham, and her proud, beautiful ward, Estella.
-
-
surpassed my expectations
- By Anonymous User on 21-12-09
-
The Tenant of Wildfell Hall
- By: Anne Brontë
- Narrated by: Alex Jennings, Jenny Agutter
- Length: 16 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The story of a woman's struggle for independence from an abusive husband. Helen 'Graham' has returned to Wildfell Hall in flight from a disastrous marriage and to protect her young son from the influence of his father. Exiled to the desolate moorland mansion, she adopts an assumed name and earns her living as a painter. Gilbert Markham, a local man intrigued by the beautiful young 'widow' offers his friendship but becomes distrustful when her reclusive behaviour sparks rumours and speculation.
-
-
The Tenant of Wildfell Hall
- By Sally on 18-10-09
-
North and South
- By: Elizabeth Gaskell
- Narrated by: Juliet Stevenson
- Length: 18 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Written at the request of Charles Dickens, North and South is a book about rebellion that poses fundamental questions about the nature of social authority and obedience. Gaskell expertly blends individual feeling with social concern and her heroine, Margaret Hale, is one of the most original creations of Victorian literature. When Margaret Hale's father leaves the Church in a crisis of conscience she is forced to leave her comfortable home in the tranquil countryside of Hampshire....
-
-
an interesting novel made special by the reading
- By Margaret on 27-12-10
Summary
Written in 1873 it was autobiographical and the heroine Elfride Swancourt is based on Hardy's first wife Emma Gifford. The novel tells the tail of a the love triangle between a young woman, Elfride Swancourt, and her two suitors from very different backgrounds.
Elfride finds herself caught in a battle between her heart, her mind and the expectations of those around her - her parents and society.
Thomas Hardy (1840 - 1928) was an English novelist and poet of the naturalist movement.
Please note: This is a vintage recording. The audio quality may not be up to modern day standards.
More from the same
What listeners say about A Pair of Blue Eyes
Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Jane
- 12-03-14
A Hardy novel which deserves wider recognition
Would you try another book written by Thomas Hardy or narrated by Peter Wickham?
Yes by Thomas Hardy and no, I would not try another book narrated by Peter Wickham.
Who was your favorite character and why?
Elfrida as she's delineated with sympathy, depth and care.
What didn’t you like about Peter Wickham’s performance?
Although his diction is clear - almost over-pronounced, his manner is arch and affected. His voice for Elfrida was simpering and fussy, his rural Dorset accent was terrible; it ended up as something from the American deep south.
Could you see A Pair of Blue Eyes being made into a movie or a TV series? Who would the stars be?
The book would make a dramatic movie or TV series. Heaven knows who the stars would be....!
Any additional comments?
I just love the sense of landscape in Hardy's novels. He is always strong on plot.
3 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Claire
- 16-07-18
Blue Eyes X 2
The scene is set for A Pair of Blue Eyes by Thomas Hardy, it was suggested I read/listen to this by a good friend, so I did. It was a good call because a) I had not heard of this and nay of missed it and b) I really enjoyed it. It did not end as I had expected and is a nice nieve version of a love triangle. Hardy really paints vivid pictures in your mind and the whole story comes alive.
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Kate Hunloke
- 28-02-15
Thwarted love
Excellent narration. Sad tale. Same old tale of woman misunderstood. Wonderful descriptions of Wessex. Unexpected ending but a satisfying listen.
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Jacki
- 13-08-20
Surprising end
Another great Hardy book with a sad but surprising end. The narration, has to be said, was generally good apart from Peter Wickham's attempt at the accent - abysmal! Thank goodness, speech was quite limited in this book compared to others. I ready Hardy in school and not read him since, but having found him on Audible, am completely obsessed by his descriptive, emotive writing. Onto the next one.