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The Europeans
- Narrated by: Cameron Stewart
- Length: 23 hrs and 3 mins
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The Europeans
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Summary
From the best-selling author of Natasha's Dance, The Europeans is a richly enthralling, panoramic cultural history of 19th-century Europe, told through the intertwined lives of three remarkable people: a great singer, Pauline Viardot, a great writer, Ivan Turgenev, and a great connoisseur, Pauline's husband, Louis. Their passionate, ambitious lives were bound up with an astonishing array of writers, composers and painters all trying to make their way through the exciting, prosperous and genuinely pan-European culture that came about as a result of huge economic and technological change. This culture - through trains, telegraphs and printing - allowed artists of all kinds to exchange ideas and make a living, shuttling back and forth across the whole continent, from the British Isles to Imperial Russia, as they exploited a new cosmopolitan age.
The Europeans is Orlando Figes' masterpiece. Surprising, beautifully written, it describes huge changes through intimate details, little-known stories and through the lens of Turgenev and the Viardots' touching, strange love triangle. Events which we now see as central to European high culture are made completely fresh, allowing the reader to revel in the sheer precariousness with which the great salons, premieres and best sellers came into existence.
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What listeners say about The Europeans
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Citizen M
- 21-04-22
Wow!
Superb and exhaustive account of European cosmopolitanism. Figes is astonishingly good, and this is truly excellent.
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Fletcher Christian
- 05-01-20
Great historian, brilliant concept, verbose result
Figes is a fantastic historian and I enjoyed his books about Russia immensely. I can see how timely it is to write about the creation of a European artistic consciousness at the time when Britain has decided to throw it away. But this book is slightly too discursive and a tighter biography of Turgenev and his circle would have worked better. However, this book is still far better than most contemporary history so four stars.
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2 people found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Catarina
- 09-02-20
A brilliant cultural history of 19th century Europ
the lives of 3 cultural personalities tell the story of European culture 1820 to 1900
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Anonymous User
- 07-04-21
A microscope to 19th cent European high culture
Fabulously detailed, deeply enjoyable, perhaps misses the big picture? Internationalism vs nationalism, always a pendulum swinging.
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Overall1 out of 5 stars
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Performance1 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- linda pennell
- 12-02-20
Don’t bother
I bought this to have while travelling. I love the book but is is hefty Sadly the reader is stilted and robotic, stress in the wrong place on sentences. I gave up after a few minutes
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1 person found this helpful