The Greatest Gift cover art

The Greatest Gift

Preview
Get this deal Try Premium Plus free
Offer ends 29 January 2026 at 11:59PM GMT.
Prime members: New to Audible? Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Just £0.99/mo for your first 3 months of Audible.
1 bestseller or new release per month—yours to keep.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, podcasts, and Originals.
Auto-renews at £8.99/mo after 3 months. Cancel monthly.
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.
£8.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically.

The Greatest Gift

By: Philip Van Doren Stern
Narrated by: Edward Herrmann, Madeleine Maby
Get this deal Try Premium Plus free

£8.99/mo after 3 months. Cancel monthly. Offer ends 29 January 2026 at 11:59PM GMT.

£8.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Buy Now for £5.99

Buy Now for £5.99

LIMITED TIME OFFER | £0.99/mo for the first 3 months

Premium Plus auto-renews at £8.99/mo after 3 months. Terms apply.

About this listen

For almost seventy years, people the world over have fallen in love with Frank Capra’s classic Christmas movie It’s a Wonderful Life. But few of those fans know that Capra’s film was based on a short story by Philip Van Doren Stern, which came to Stern in a dream one night.

Unable at first to find a publisher for his evocative tale about a man named George Pratt who ponders suicide until he receives an opportunity to see what the world would be like without him, Stern published the story in a small pamphlet and sent it out as his 1943 Christmas card. One of those 200 cards found its way into the hands of Frank Capra, who shared it with Jimmy Stewart, and the film that resulted became the holiday tradition cherished today.

©1943 Philip Van Doren Stern (P)2014 Simon & Schuster Inc. Published in the UK by Random House
Anthologies & Short Stories Classics Fiction Winter Romance Christmas Short Story

Listeners also enjoyed...

Comes the Blind Fury cover art
Cry for the Strangers cover art
Nathaniel cover art
Beyond the Farthest Star cover art
I, Rhoda cover art
Dreamers and Deceivers cover art
Jane Eyre cover art
A Girl of the Limberlost cover art
The Bells of Burracombe cover art
The Big Sea cover art
A Christmas Carol: The Unabridged Classic Narrated by Chandler Craig cover art
Jacob T. Marley cover art
The Early Stories of Truman Capote cover art
A Christmas Carol cover art
The Power of One cover art
The Winds of War cover art
No reviews yet