Listen free for 30 days

Listen with offer

  • Felix Holt, The Radical

  • By: George Eliot
  • Narrated by: Nadia May
  • Length: 17 hrs and 50 mins
  • 4.2 out of 5 stars (83 ratings)
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.
Felix Holt, The Radical cover art

Felix Holt, The Radical

By: George Eliot
Narrated by: Nadia May
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 £20.99

Buy Now for £20.99

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...

Richard III cover art
Scenes of Clerical Life cover art
Romola cover art
Middlemarch cover art
Silas Marner cover art
Hamlet: The Arkangel Shakespeare cover art
Middlemarch cover art
Adam Bede cover art
Daniel Deronda cover art
The Claverings cover art
He Knew He Was Right cover art
Desperate Remedies cover art
Life and Adventures of Jack Engle cover art
The Complete Short Stories cover art
Villette cover art
The Golden Bowl cover art

Summary

Relinquishing thoughts of a materially rewarding life, the respectably educated Felix Holt returns to his native village in North Loamshire and becomes an artisan. He is a forceful young man of honor, integrity, and idealism, burning to participate in political life so that he may improve the lot of his fellow artisans.

Contrasted with Felix Holt is the intelligent, economically secure Harold Transome, just returned from the East to assume responsibility for Transome Court, his inherited manor home, and to take a seat in Parliament.

Both men vie for the hand of Esther, a young woman of charm and virtue, who must choose between a life of idealism and a life of refinement.

The narrative is enhanced by plot twists involving illegitimacy and lines of inheritances, as well as by Eliot's vivid character studies, including the corrupt political agent Johnson; Harold Transome's mother, with her fears of a secret being revealed; and the loyal servant Denner.

(P)1999 Blackstone Audio Inc.

Critic reviews

"George Eliot's work places great importance on setting...much background is provided to make the 19th-century love triangle come alive. Narrator Nadia May fills the listener in with brisk, breathless cadences, breezing through the lengthy descriptions like a lovable neighborhood gossip. Her crisp accent, pauses between sentences, and mastery of tone help the listener understand the predicament of Esther Lyon....As she reads the text, May seems to be enjoying it herself, which enables the listener to do the same." ( AudioFile)

What listeners say about Felix Holt, The Radical

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    40
  • 4 Stars
    27
  • 3 Stars
    12
  • 2 Stars
    1
  • 1 Stars
    3
Performance
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    40
  • 4 Stars
    18
  • 3 Stars
    5
  • 2 Stars
    3
  • 1 Stars
    3
Story
  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    30
  • 4 Stars
    23
  • 3 Stars
    10
  • 2 Stars
    3
  • 1 Stars
    2

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

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

Mixed feelings

I listened to this book after thoroughly enjoying Middlemarch and I am not so enthusiastic about this. There is still Eliot's enjoyable humour and her fantastic descriptions of nineteenth century life.
However, my main problem was that I did not like Felix Holt or Harold Transome. Part of me is glad about this but at other times I found it hard to engage with these characters. We were promised so much mystery surrounding Harold that was never delivered upon.
The story is set around the Reform Act of 1832 and the book is a great way of looking at social tensions around at that time however, some, like me, may find that there is a little too much detail on this front.

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

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

4 people found this helpful

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

Too difficult to understand

Please can I return this book.
I have tried hard to follow the story however, I have found it too difficult to comprehend

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

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful

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

to many characters

boring I gave up on it, no story to take hold of very disappointing

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

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful

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

Radical is as Radical Does!

Dickens, Trollope and here, George Eliot, along with all history, records how society gets itself into a state of unrest which gets out of control. One group thinks they have the right over another group - the basis of oppression and war, in fact.
Always have done, always will do, till the 'end cometh'!
I so love George Eliot's writings centred in England, did not appreciate the Italianate 'Romola'.
I think one of the reasons is the way she could put over a dispassionate view of her own sex. She was no unscriptural Feminist, in my opinion, but naturally lived to her optimum, without the 'down with men' attitude - no bias, just objective summing up of some of the unlovely traits of some women who would normally be the heroine: "Her women's love of conquest"
The first lone dialogue between Felix and Esther was quite wonderful especially Felix's opinion of women: "All life is stunted to suit their littleness" That is the kind of concise profundity that I have often tried to express when I speak of the Matriarchy. [I'm being objective here, I know how dissatisfied I have been with my own female carryings on, down the years!]
Such a wonderful writer, was George Eliot, others of that era, often devolved into some 'Sensationlist' writing, but Ms Eliot was always wonderful.

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

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

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

Subtle and powerful story of a female heroine

Little know among her work, this is a great story by one of the 19th century best novelists which stays with you and builds in intensity. It’s a long book, but it’s a hymn to female self discovery at a time women were ‘property’, so it’s worth it.

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

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

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

Brilliant

I loved this! Story is wonderful: such intricate plotting, so lightly conveyed; great narrator; fascinating historical context. Brilliantly read and very enjoyable to listen to.

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

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

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

Fresh voice of a radical

George Eliot’s writing is particularly brilliant in this novel. It is so refreshing to read a 19th century novel that does not praise riches but cares for people, justice, community and place. Felix Holt is a wonderful, refreshing and inspiring character to be admired. Esther Lions has a wonderful character growth curve. The novel is full of interesting characters and stories. Praise the radical!

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

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

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

One of our greatest novels, superbly read.

"Felix Holt" is the greatest English novel most people have never read. Unjustly overshadowed by "Middlemarch" it connects that masterpiece with "Silas Marner". All three books show a masterly sureness of technique, characterisation and grasp of a moral theme unmatched in English literature. A budding novelist could learn more from "Felix Holt" than from a thousand Mills and Boons. Had se died in 1868, we'd all hail "Felix Holt" as her masterpiece.

The story suffers, excessively, from its reputation of having an over-complicated plot. But no other mechanism could easily have accommodated all the themes of this most Radical of novels: no less than a rejection or rather a remodelling of the Cinderella myth which, in its crudest rags-to-riches form, shapes most Romantic fiction. Boldly, George Eliot asserts, demonstrates that wealth cannot be the path to genuine happiness: if one person is rich it can only be because the majority is poor. Felix and her author are quite clear that service, working for the good of all, but especially for the unglamorous and underprivileged, is our human obligation, and, by far, the greatest possible human reward ¬– a theme explored in the moral fable, "Silas Marner", and here presented in a ‘realistic’ novel.

This is a book for the thinking reader: George Eliot treats us as adults, explores the big issues boldly and shrewdly, we read not to escape into Never Never Land but to extend our human sympathies and understanding of ourselves. "Middlemarch" works on a larger canvas but in terms of the Marriage Debate "Felix Holt" is perhaps our bravest and most challenging novel. The alert and witty reading makes the experience a perpetual delight. Especially second time through!

The most bewildering chapter is the Introduction. Best skipped until you have read the whole work. Then it makes sense!

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

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

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

Poor narration

Fascinating insight into the political changes in Britain at the time of the Reform act. Wince-making female characters who deem men to be superior. Written in the 1860s so in line with those times. Glad to be alive now not then. The narrator wasn’t great and just seemed to read vast tranches with no proper understanding of the meanings contained therein.

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

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

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

What a gem! Nadia May's reading was extraordinary

If you enjoy George Elliot's flowery and loquacious19th century style and her books like Middlemarch you'll love this massive tome.

Definitely one for audio as I think the length and weight would be off-putting to lug about. Also Nadia May's narration and voice variations introduce an additional layer of light and shade which enhances Elliot's exquisite words.

I even enjoyed catching the great writer out just the once when she confused infer and imply. Somehow it humanised her brilliance!

Go for if you have the stamina! And, if that isn't enough George Eliot for you, I also loved another of her little known novels Daniel Deronda.

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

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!