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The Merry Go Round
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Mrs Craddock
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Bertha Ley comes of age, inherits her father's money, and promptly marries a handsome, calm, and unimaginative man. Bertha is wildly in love with Edward and believes she can be happy playing the role of a dutiful wife in their country home. But, intelligent and sensual, she quickly becomes bored by her oppressively conventional life, and finds her love for her husband slipping away. Originally rejected by publishers, Mrs. Craddock was first published only on condition that certain "shocking" passages were removed. It was 30 years before the full text could be published.
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An absorbing picture of a marriage
- By Youngenough on 13-12-13
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Ashenden
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When war broke out in 1914, Somerset Maugham was dispatched by the British Secret Service to Switzerland under the guise of completing a play. Multilingual, knowledgeable about many European countries, and a celebrated writer, Maugham had the perfect cover, and the assignment appealed to his love of romance, and of the ridiculous. The stories collected in Ashenden are rooted in Maugham's own experiences as an agent, reflecting the ruthlessness and brutality of espionage, its intrigue and treachery, as well as its absurdity.
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Dryly witty, with a splinter of ice at its heart
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Christmas Holiday
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At the age of twenty-three, Charlie Mason is endowed with good looks, good manners and a cheerful disposition. Following three years at Cambridge and one working in his father's business, he is looking forward to a jaunt in Paris with Simon, his oldest friend.
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One of Jane Austen's most popular novels. Arrogant, self-willed, and egotistical, Emma is her most unusual heroine.
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Lively and fresh
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Theatre
- By: W. Somerset Maugham
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- Length: 8 hrs and 7 mins
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Julia Lambert is in her prime, the greatest actress in England. Off stage, however, she is bored by her handsome husband, coquettish, and undisciplined. She is at first flattered and amused by the attentions of a shy and eager young fan, but before long Julia is amazed to find herself falling wildly, dangerously, in love.
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Of Its Era
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Then and Now
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Maugham found a parallel to the turmoil of our own times in the duplicity, intrigue, and sensuality of the Italian Renaissance. Then and Now enters the world of Machiavelli, and covers three important months in the career of that crafty politician, worldly seducer, and high priest of schemers.
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Mrs Craddock
- By: W. Somerset Maugham
- Narrated by: Beth Chalmers
- Length: 10 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
-
Story
Bertha Ley comes of age, inherits her father's money, and promptly marries a handsome, calm, and unimaginative man. Bertha is wildly in love with Edward and believes she can be happy playing the role of a dutiful wife in their country home. But, intelligent and sensual, she quickly becomes bored by her oppressively conventional life, and finds her love for her husband slipping away. Originally rejected by publishers, Mrs. Craddock was first published only on condition that certain "shocking" passages were removed. It was 30 years before the full text could be published.
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An absorbing picture of a marriage
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Ashenden
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- Length: 9 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
-
Story
When war broke out in 1914, Somerset Maugham was dispatched by the British Secret Service to Switzerland under the guise of completing a play. Multilingual, knowledgeable about many European countries, and a celebrated writer, Maugham had the perfect cover, and the assignment appealed to his love of romance, and of the ridiculous. The stories collected in Ashenden are rooted in Maugham's own experiences as an agent, reflecting the ruthlessness and brutality of espionage, its intrigue and treachery, as well as its absurdity.
-
-
Dryly witty, with a splinter of ice at its heart
- By Brendan on 23-12-12
-
Christmas Holiday
- By: W Somerset Maugham
- Narrated by: Ben Elliot
- Length: 9 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
At the age of twenty-three, Charlie Mason is endowed with good looks, good manners and a cheerful disposition. Following three years at Cambridge and one working in his father's business, he is looking forward to a jaunt in Paris with Simon, his oldest friend.
-
Emma [Naxos]
- By: Jane Austen
- Narrated by: Juliet Stevenson
- Length: 16 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
-
Story
One of Jane Austen's most popular novels. Arrogant, self-willed, and egotistical, Emma is her most unusual heroine.
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Lively and fresh
- By Kirsten on 04-09-12
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Theatre
- By: W. Somerset Maugham
- Narrated by: Lucy Scott
- Length: 8 hrs and 7 mins
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Julia Lambert is in her prime, the greatest actress in England. Off stage, however, she is bored by her handsome husband, coquettish, and undisciplined. She is at first flattered and amused by the attentions of a shy and eager young fan, but before long Julia is amazed to find herself falling wildly, dangerously, in love.
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Of Its Era
- By Alison on 28-03-14
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Then and Now
- By: W. Somerset Maugham
- Narrated by: Andrew Wincott
- Length: 7 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
-
Story
Maugham found a parallel to the turmoil of our own times in the duplicity, intrigue, and sensuality of the Italian Renaissance. Then and Now enters the world of Machiavelli, and covers three important months in the career of that crafty politician, worldly seducer, and high priest of schemers.
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The Narrow Corner
- By: W. Somerset Maugham
- Narrated by: David Thorpe
- Length: 8 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
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Performance
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On his way home from a remote Pacific island, Dr Saunders travels with two strangers: the treacherous Captain Nichols, and Fred, a handsome Australian with a shadowy past. Driven to shelter from a storm on the island of Banda, the trio meets good-natured Erik Christessen and his fiancée, the cool and beautiful Louise. A tense, exotic tale of love, jealousy, murder and suicide, which evolved from a passage in Maugham's earlier masterpiece, The Moon and Sixpence.
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The Magician
- By: W Somerset Maugham
- Narrated by: David Rintoul
- Length: 7 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
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Set in the bohemian café society of Paris at the turn of the nineteenth century, Maugham's exploration of hypnotism and the occult was inspired by the sinister black magician Aleister Crowley. At the start of this compulsive gothic horror story, Arthur and his beautiful, innocent fiancée Margaret look forward to an idyllic life together, until they encounter the mesmerising and repulsive Oliver Haddo...
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Great narration, beautiful language
- By Dr on 21-02-13
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The Razor's Edge
- By: W. Somerset Maugham
- Narrated by: Gordon Griffin
- Length: 13 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
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Story
Larry Darrell is a young American in search of the absolute. The progress of this spiritual odyssey involves him with some of Maugham's most brilliant characters: his fiancée Isabel, whose choice between love and wealth have lifelong repercussions; and Elliot Templeton, her uncle, a classic expatriate American snob. The most ambitious of Maugham's novels, this is also one in which Maugham himself plays a considerable part as he wanders in and out of the story, to observe his characters struggling with their fates.
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One of my desert island books
- By AReader on 04-02-15
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The Summing Up
- By: W Somerset Maugham
- Narrated by: Andrew Wincott
- Length: 8 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
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Autobiographical without being an autobiography, confessional without disclosing his private self, The Summing Up, written when Maugham was sixty-four, is an inimitable expression of a personal credo. It is not only a classic avowal of a professional author's ideas about style, literature, art, drama and philosophy, but also an illuminating insight into this great writer's craft.
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On a Chinese Screen
- By: W Somerset Maugham
- Narrated by: Richard Mitchley
- Length: 4 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
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Story
Maugham spent the winter months of 1919 travelling 1500 miles up the Yangtze river. Always more interested in people than places, he noted down acute and finely crafted sketches of those he met on countless scraps of paper. In the resulting collection we encounter Western missionaries, army officers and company managers who are culturally out of their depth in the immensity of the Chinese civilisation.
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Far Eastern Tales
- By: W. Somerset Maugham
- Narrated by: Robert Powell
- Length: 9 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
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Story
Far eastern Tales is a collection of Maugham's short stories, all born of his experiences in Malaysia, Singapore, and other outposts of the former British Empire. The stories included on this recording are Footprints in the Jungle, Mabel, P & O, The Door of Oportunity, The Buried Talent, Before the Party, Mr. Know-all, Neil MacAdam, The End of the Flight and The Force of Circumstance.
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Far Eastern Tales (Unabridged)
- By Toni Hinckley on 24-03-10
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The House of Mirth
- By: Edith Wharton
- Narrated by: Eleanor Bron
- Length: 12 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
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Performance
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Story
Beautiful, sophisticated and endlessly ambitious Lily Bart endeavours to climb the social ladder of New York's elite by securing a good match and living beyond her means. Now nearing 30 years of age and having rejected several proposals, forever in the hope of finding someone better, her future prospects are threatened. A damning commentary of 20th-century social order, Edith Wharton's tale established her as one of the greatest British novelists of the 1900s.
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Beautifully done.
- By Philip on 26-06-13
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Catalina
- By: W. Somerset Maugham
- Narrated by: Harriet Carmichael
- Length: 8 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
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Story
Crippled 16-year-old Catalina is the one person unable to join in the festivities of the Feast of the Assumption. But then she has a vision of the Virgin, and is miraculously cured. In the dark days of the Spanish Inquisition, such a claim to blessedness has serious consequences, especially when Catalina seems more inclined to obey her heart than the demands of the Church. The last of Maugham's novels, Catalina is a romantic celebration of Spain and a delightfully mischievous satire on absolutism.
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The Moon And Sixpence
- By: W. Somerset Maugham
- Narrated by: Robert Hardy
- Length: 7 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
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Story
Charles Strickland, a conventional stockbroker, abandons his wife and children for Paris and Tahiti, to live his life as a painter. While his betrayal of family, duty and honour gives him the freedom to achieve greatness, his decision leads to an obsession which carries severe implications.
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Great story - Excellent narrator
- By Barbara on 02-03-11
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Rain and Other Stories
- By: W. Somerset Maugham
- Narrated by: Steven Crossley
- Length: 7 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
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Story
W. Somerset Maugham is one of the best-loved short story writers of the last 100 years. In this collection of his finest short work Maugham takes the listener to the sun-drenched Pacific islands where the Governor mercilessly abuses the inhabitants; to the story "Rain", in which the Reverend and the prostitute play out one of the most famous finales ever written; to the studies of chauvinistic Colonels, and snide conversations in Edwardian drawing rooms, as well as at the gates of heaven. As an introduction to one of the greatest writers in the English language Stephen Crossley's reading is the perfect place to start.
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Wonderful
- By Sue on 26-04-16
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The Riviera Express
- A Miss Dimont Mystery, Book 1
- By: TP Fielden
- Narrated by: Eve Karpf
- Length: 8 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
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Gerald Hennessey - silver-screen star and much-loved heartthrob - never quite makes it to Temple Regis, the quaint Devonshire seaside town on the English Riviera. Murdered on the 4.30 from Paddington, the loss of this great man throws Temple Regis' community into disarray. Not least Miss Judy Dimont, corkscrew-haired reporter for the local rag, The Riviera Express. Investigating Gerald's death, she's quickly called to the scene of a second murder.
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Slow and repetitive
- By Deborah on 10-10-17
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The Portrait of a Lady
- By: Henry James
- Narrated by: Juliet Stevenson
- Length: 26 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
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The Portrait of a Lady tells the compelling and ultimately tragic tale of a beautiful young American woman's encounter with European sophistication. Set principally in England and Italy, the story follows Isabel Archer's fortunes as a variety of admirers vie for her hand. Her choice will be crucial, and she is not wanting for advice, whether from the generous-spirited Ralph Touchett or the charming Madame Merle.
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gripping novel
- By MRS on 30-09-16
Summary
Looking out upon the backstreets, the suburbs and the high society haunts of Edwardian London, the delightfully witty and independent spinster Miss Ley surveys a tangled web of lives; she sympathetically observes the struggle under the pressures of convention, and the complex interplay between love and reason. Through Miss Ley's eyes we witness the brief but happy marriage of a dying poet; a woman's adulterous passion for a young rascal; and finally, an honourable man's decision to take virtue to extremes.
William Somerset Maugham (25 January 1874 – 16 December 1965) was an English playwright, novelist and short story writer. He was among the most popular writers of his era and reputedly the highest paid author of the 1930s. Maugham was orphaned by the age of ten, but after an unhappy childhood, he flourished when he moved to London to study medicine as a young man, giving him plenty of inspiration for his literary ambitions. His first novel, Liza of Lambeth, sold out in a matter of weeks, prompting Maugham to leave medicine and embark on a 65-year career as a man of letters. By 1914 he was famous, with ten successful plays produced and ten novels published. In 1917, he was asked by the British Secret Intelligence Service (now MI6) to undertake a special mission in Russia; an experience which would go on to inspire Ashenden, a collection of short stories about a gentlemanly spy that influenced Ian Fleming’s James Bond series. Maugham’s most famous works include Of Human Bondage, a semiautobiographical novel, The Moon and Sixpence, Cakes and Ales and The Razor's Edge. His writing has inspired a string of over 35 film adaptations and has influenced many notable authors, including Anthony Burgess, George Orwell and Gabriel Garcia Marquez.
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- Alison
- 24-02-14
Listen to it, but be mindful of its context
I love WSM and read all his books, plays and short stories in my teens and 20s. Now and again, I am reliving these by re-reading (or listening to) some of the books. Ideally I'd be able to listen to an unabridged version of 'Of Human Bondage' but cannot find one, at least not on audible.
I had just finished (and loved) The Goldfinch, so I needed a change of pace. I certainly got that!
The Merry Go Round is a series of overlapping and extended short stories. The central character doesn't really have a big part to play, but she is the focus for the other players as she is involved with, or knows, them all. So we go off for while and get engrossed in the story of two or three characters; then this story is 'parked' and we set off with another set of people before coming back to the old story line. This worked very well for me.
The thing with WSM is the clearly defined sense of time and place. This book is of its era, its class and its social standards. So you do have to be in the mood for a time-piece, and get yourself in the mindset of the author and the characters you will meet. It's snobbish, even prudish, perhaps, by today's standards. But the charm lies in the way he evokes that era.
The narration is good. Some of the voices assumed are a bit annoying - but then, this seemed to go with annoying characters of which there are several...!
Very much enjoyed my fairly short excursion into Edwardian London society.
2 of 2 people found this review helpful