Beloved

Beloved

  • by Toni Morrison
  • Narrated by Toni Morrison
  • 12 hrs and 6 mins
  • Unabridged Audiobook
4.11 (1109
Ratings.
)

Publisher's Summary

Staring unflinchingly into the abyss of slavery, this spellbinding novel transforms history into a story as powerful as Exodus and as intimate as a lullaby. Sethe, its protagonist, was born a slave and escaped to Ohio, but 18 years later she is still not free. She has too many memories of Sweet Home, the beautiful farm where so many hideous things happened. And Sethe's new home is haunted by the ghost of her baby, who died nameless and whose tombstone is engraved with a single word: Beloved. Filled with bitter poetry and suspense as taut as a rope, Beloved is a towering achievement.Toni Morrison is the Robert F. Goheen Professor of Humanities at Princeton University. She has received the National Book Critics Circle Award and the Pulitzer Prize. In 1993 she was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature. She lives in Rockland County, New York, and Princeton, New Jersey.

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What the Critics Say

"Toni Morrison is not just an important contemporary novelist but a major figure in our national literature." (New York Review of Books)
"A masterwork....Wonderful....I can't imagine American literature without it." (Los Angeles Times)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful

Perhaps best read on paper

Lyrical prose is woven into this story of a compelling period in our history. The story line is believable, and is an adept portrayal of how human beings can treat and react to each other. I believe I would have enjoyed this book much more if I had consumed it with my eyes instead of my ears. I missed the opportunity to go back a few pages to check a line or re-read a paragraph. The complexity of the story is at times like the quiet taste of a familiar herb in a vibrantly constructed meal - something you can't quite place, can't quite encompass on the first pass. I would recommend this book, with the reminder that other listeners may have the same problem maintaining grasp of the elusive thread. I've listened to several hundred books, and would place this in the top 50.
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- Cathy

Author-read Books

I have just started listening to this book, and have decided that I will have to buy a printed copy and read its text concurrently while listening in order to make it to the end. This is the third audiobook I have purchased which is read aloud by its author, and it will be the last. I cannot understand Ms Morrison's pronunciation of many of the words. There is no differentiation in voice, so one doesn't know what character is talking or thinking. There are no pauses between the paragraphs or shifts in the time periods. [Contrast the amateurish reading of Beloved with the professionally read "The Sound and The Fury"--an even more diffcult book to follow.] Frankly, Ms Morrison is not a professional reader and subscribers are cautioned to listen to the sample [which I did not] before purchasing this audiobook. Unfortunately, Beloved is only available as an audiobook read by Ms Morrison. So readers of this review don't think I am picking on Toni Morrison, Charles Frazier's self-read of Cold Mountain suffers from the same deficiencies. Does any one know why the producers of audiobooks allow authors to read their own books? I will guess that it all has to do with retaining copyrights and royalties by the author and the author's agent.
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- John R Williford

Book Details

  • Release Date: 05-22-2006
  • Publisher: Random House Audio
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