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The Charterhouse of Parma
- Narrated by: Edoardo Ballerini
- Length: 19 hrs and 34 mins
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From the publishers that brought you A Game of Thrones comes the series that inspired George R.R. Martin’s epic work. France became a great nation under Philip the Fair - but it was a greatness achieved at the expense of her people, for his was a reign characterised by violence, the scandalous adulteries of his daughters-in-law, and the triumph of royal authority.
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Dr. Johnson may have been correct in saying that “Rousseau was a very bad man,” but none can argue that his ideas are among the most influential in all of world history. It was Rousseau, the father of the romantic movement, who was responsible for introducing at least two modern day thoughts that pervade academia. The Confessions is Rousseau’s landmark autobiography. Both brilliant and flawed, it is nonetheless beautifully written and remains one of the most moving human documents in all of literature.
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Honoré de Balzac uses his classic style of detail to describe a most controversial setting in his novel Le Pere Goriot. The story takes place in Paris just after the fall of Napoleon in 1819. The story focuses on three characters, Rastignac, a student who wants to try and make it big in the capital, Vautrin, an interesting and funny character who is also quite mysterious, and the main character, Goriot, that carries a heavy burden that only a loving parent would endure.
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The problem is with Cellini himself.
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Qué bonita historia y que gran narración.
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Gripping novel, excellent production
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A Spiritual and Philosophical Tour-de-Force
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What listeners say about The Charterhouse of Parma
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- W Perry Hall
- 12-24-17
O wretched soul, what sweetness it was!
'O wretched soul, what sweetness it was!
How we burned at the moment when I saw
those eyes that I might never see again.'
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Lines from Petrarch, on handkerchief given secretly as a gift in novel's forbidden love affair
The 1839 The Charterhouse of Parma represented a movement away and forward from the romanticism of Stendhal's time, this was one of the earliest examples of realism in a way that was considered revolutionary then; Balzac considered it the most important novel of his time. Though some elements of the romantic emotionalism linger, the novel turns to realism in more fully exploring human nature and psychology of its primary characters.
Stendhal, like the protagonist Fabrice del Dongo, served with Napoleon's army in the 1812 campaign into Russia. After Napoleon's fall, Stendhal lived six years in Italy, a country he fell in love with, before returning to his native France.
Upon return from serving with Napoleon's army, del Dongo returns to the intrigue and politics of the court of Parma and fends off repeated advances from his relatively young aunt by marriage, 15 years his senior. He falls head over heels for the young maiden Clelia and they begin a platonic affair...until after she is married (and insists that they have sex in complete darkness so she would not be fully aware that she was committing an adulterous sin).
Once he deems the affair hopeless, that he can never be with his love, he turns to the cloth, escaping the cruel world into the charterhouse, or monastery.
I enjoyed it as a unique departure in my reading, appreciating the blend of the realism with some of the dramatically emotional pull of hopeless love.
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2 people found this helpful
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- Patricia
- 04-25-14
A classic you don't want to miss
This is another classic I never got around to reading and finally Audiobooks made it possible for me to finally get to it. I thought it started a little slow but oh how it developed. It was hard to stop my walks and turn off my iPod. I walked extra just to keep listening. It is a French author writing about an Italian hero and I enjoyed the comments about the two different cultures. The beautiful Italian names will ring in my head forever. Don't miss it.
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17 people found this helpful
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- Marianne
- 10-17-15
Napoleonic fiction
Where does The Charterhouse of Parma rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?
very high
Who was your favorite character and why?
Mosca, a complicated character
What does Edoardo Ballerini bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?
Depth, feeling, and wonderful pronunciation.
If only all your readers of books with European words could pronounce them as well as he does.
I look for books that he reads.
Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?
all of it
Any additional comments?
Get Ballerini to do more readings.
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5 people found this helpful
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- SandyK
- 09-19-22
Highly Regarded, But…
This novel is highly regarded in literary circles through time.
I see many reasons why.
But I don’t think it’s great, however great might be defined.
I won’t bother you with all the features that are traditionally regarded as excellent or those that I admire. I’ll just say that I think the plot unwinds in ways that aren’t particularly interesting, and the characters sort of meander on to the end on disparate courses that seem rather contrived to me.
I take leave of the story with little of the inspiration or glow I tend to have after reading a great piece of literature.
The narration is more than satisfactory.
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- Amazon Customer
- 07-07-20
Beautiful in every way
Beautiful writing along with perfect narrating make this version a must listen. Fabrice is truly our hero! 👏👏
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Overall
- Amazon Customer
- 09-01-21
Lesser novel by a great writer
Reading excellent. First part of book dealing with Waterloo unforgettable. Remainder of book, court intrigues, love affairs by turns silly or tedious, often both . Not a patch on Stendhal's The Red and the Black. Still, glad to have heard this novel read well.
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- Canon John 3
- 08-19-15
Another version of Candide
Any additional comments?
This is a remarkable enjoyable epic of a young man in search of love encountering the ways of the world which have not changed since this book was written. It reminded me of Voltaire's Candide but far more sophisticated in nuance and breadth and soul. It's comparison of the French and Italian personas is very interesting.
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7 people found this helpful
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- DFK
- 06-25-22
Started out great, but disappointed
I thoroughly enjoyed the first part of the book, when the young and naive Fabrice sets out to join Napoleon. There is humor, satire, and adventure in this portion, in some ways reminding me of the adventures of The Three Musketeers (in the many volumes of Dumas’ books), and I was hoping it would continue in that vein. But following that, the endless intrigues with far too many characters and fickle romances and love affairs, frequently obsessive, become tedious and drawn out. Perhaps a good editor could have done something to improve the book, because it certainly started out great. I listened to Ballerini read a different book and enjoyed his reading much more. Here, it was fine, but did not make the book any less tedious as it dragged on to the end. Sometimes “quit while you are ahead” can be excellent advice!
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- Grant
- 03-23-14
Amazing novel finally available on audio!
One of my favorite books, this title has not been available in audio in English until very recently. The work is hard to define -- part adventure, part a shameless exercise in romanticism, and part a realistic portrait of court politics that feels surprisingly contemporary. The text presupposes a basic knowledge of European history and politics of the period, and without such knowledge I found bits of the text confusing, especially when zipping by at audio speed. (In particular, replay chapter 1 before proceeding to start on a firm footing.) But the general flow of events becomes clear over time, and missing a few political nuances does not detract from a very enjoyable experience. Beautifully read by a skilled narrater.
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21 people found this helpful
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- Merlin
- 10-03-17
Disappointing-neither serious nor all that funny
Stendhal's 'The Red and the Black' is one of my favorite novels. I found this one disappointing. It isn't as amusing. It gets bogged down at times in tedious court intrigue (the narrator himself admits this in one place!). And the way it ends tells me that Stendhal didn't really know where he was going with it.
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1 person found this helpful