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Scarpia
- Narrated by: Leighton Pugh
- Length: 12 hrs and 42 mins
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Scarpia
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Publisher's summary
Man is a delicate mechanism...he can easily be set off course.
It is the late 18th century, and a young Sicilian nobleman, Vitellio Scarpia, finds himself penniless and in disgrace on the streets of Rome. After leaving his home to pursue a military career, his impulsive and undisciplined nature has led to his expulsion from Spanish royal guard, and he must now seek his fortune in Italy - a fortune inseparably bound up with the ruler of the Eternal City, the Pope.
Scarpia enrolls in the papal army and becomes the lover of an alluring countess who introduces him into Roman society, with its blend of religiosity, sophistication, and intrigue. Half enthralled, half appalled, Scarpia enjoys the life of the decadent city, learning in due course that as an unsophisticated provincial he is no match for the worldliness of Rome.
Patronized by a powerful cardinal, Scarpia is sent on a mission to Venice, where he encounters the beautiful, exquisitely gifted singer Floria Tosca. As the armies of revolutionary France invade Italy, and war and revolution engulf the whole peninsula, the lives of the two become fatefully entwined.
Piers Paul Read brilliantly reimagines the infamous villain of Puccini's opera, Tosca, telling a story that shines a light into the dusty corridors of history and the dark corners of the human soul.
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-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 126
Mario Puzo first answered the question 'What is a family?' with the creation of the Corleones in his landmark best seller The Godfather. Now, 30 years later, Puzo enriches us all with his ultimate vision of the subject: the story of the greatest crime family in Italian history, the Borgias.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Outstanding look at the Papacy
- By Gary on 11-12-08
By: Mario Puzo, and others
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The First Elizabeth
- By: Carolly Erickson
- Narrated by: Antony Ferguson
- Length: 18 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 50
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 45
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 45
In this remarkable biography, Carolly Erickson brings Elizabeth I to life and allows us to see her as a living, breathing, elegant, flirtatious, diplomatic, violent, arrogant, and outrageous woman who commands our attention, fascination, and awe. With the special skill for which she is acclaimed, Carolly Erickson electrifies the senses as she evokes with total fidelity the brilliant colors of Elizabethan clothing and jewelry, the texture of tapestries, and even the close, perfumed air of castle rooms. Erickson demonstrates her extraordinary ability to discern and bring to life psychological and physical reality.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Well Researched Book
- By JustBill on 03-13-15
By: Carolly Erickson
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Peter the Great
- His Life and World
- By: Robert K. Massie
- Narrated by: Frederick Davidson
- Length: 43 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 1,180
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 1,000
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 989
This superbly told story brings to life one of the most remarkable rulers––and men––in all of history and conveys the drama of his life and world. The Russia of Peter's birth was very different from the Russia his energy, genius, and ruthlessness shaped. Crowned co-Tsar as a child of ten, after witnessing bloody uprisings in the streets of Moscow, he would grow up propelled by an unquenchable curiosity, everywhere looking, asking, tinkering, and learning, fired by Western ideas.
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1 out of 5 stars
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Narrater ruins everything
- By BrendaLouQuilts on 12-30-11
By: Robert K. Massie
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Ambition and Desire
- The Dangerous Life of Josephine Bonaparte
- By: Kate Williams
- Narrated by: Corrie James
- Length: 14 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 46
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 42
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 41
Josephine de Beauharnais began as a kept woman of Paris and became the most powerful woman in France. She was no beauty; her teeth were rotten, and she was six years older than her husband, but one twitch of her skirt could bring running the man who terrorized Europe. The tale of Napoleon and Josephine is one of the most famous love stories in the world. With Josephine, Napoleon became the greatest man in Europe, the Supreme Emperor.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Thrilling, romantic, fascinating, and enlightening
- By Leon Miller on 03-30-17
By: Kate Williams
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The House of Medici
- Its Rise and Fall
- By: Christopher Hibbert
- Narrated by: Michael Page
- Length: 11 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 147
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 134
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Story4 out of 5 stars 134
This enthralling book charts the family's huge influence on the political, economic, and cultural history of Florence. Beginning in the early 1430s with the rise of the dynasty under the near-legendary Cosimo de Medici, it moves through their golden era as patrons of some of the most remarkable artists and architects of the Renaissance, to the era of the Medici Popes and Grand Dukes, Florence's slide into decay and bankruptcy, and the end, in 1737, of the Medici line.
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2 out of 5 stars
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Laundry list of names
- By Elizabeth W on 01-02-17
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The Borgias and Their Enemies
- 1431-1519
- By: Christopher Hibbert
- Narrated by: John Telfer
- Length: 9 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 506
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 454
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 448
The name Borgia is synonymous with the corruption, nepotism, and greed that were rife in Renaissance Italy. The powerful, voracious Rodrigo Borgia, better known to history as Pope Alexander VI, was the central figure of the dynasty. Two of his seven papal offspring also rose to power and fame. The Borgias were notorious for seizing power, wealth, land, and titles through bribery, marriage, and murder. The story of the family's dramatic rise from its Spanish roots to the highest position in Italian society is an absorbing tale.
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3 out of 5 stars
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Covers the bases, but falls a little flat.
- By Chap Walker on 06-16-13
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Catherine de Medici
- Renaissance Queen of France
- By: Leonie Frieda
- Narrated by: Sarah Le Fevre
- Length: 21 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 452
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 385
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 382
Poisoner, despot, necromancer - the dark legend of Catherine de Medici is centuries old. In this critically hailed biography, Leonie Frieda reclaims the story of this unjustly maligned queen to reveal a skilled ruler battling extraordinary political and personal odds - from a troubled childhood in Florence to her marriage to Henry, son of King Francis I of France; from her transformation of French culture to her fight to protect her throne and her sons' birthright. Based on thousands of private letters, it is a remarkable account of one of the most influential women to wear a crown.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Narrator didn't get one name right
- By Georgina García- Menocal on 09-15-19
By: Leonie Frieda
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The Romanovs
- 1613-1918
- By: Simon Sebag Montefiore
- Narrated by: Simon Beale
- Length: 28 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 1,299
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 1,166
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 1,161
This is the intimate story of 20 tsars and tsarinas, some touched by genius, some by madness, but all inspired by holy autocracy and imperial ambition. Simon Sebag Montefiore's gripping chronicle reveals their secret world of unlimited power and ruthless empire building, overshadowed by palace conspiracy, family rivalries, sexual decadence, and wild extravagance, with a global cast of adventurers, courtesans, revolutionaries, and poets, from Ivan the Terrible to Tolstoy and Pushkin.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Scholarly but gripping
- By William on 06-16-16
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The Autobiography of Henry VIII
- By: Margaret George
- Narrated by: David Case
- Length: 41 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 679
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 511
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 512
Margaret George's novel brings into focus the larger-than-life King Henry VIII, monarch of prodigious appetites for wine, women, and song.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Perfection!
- By Amy M. Walts on 10-20-07
By: Margaret George
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The Charterhouse of Parma
- By: Henri Beyle Stendhal
- Narrated by: Edoardo Ballerini
- Length: 19 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 182
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 165
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Story4 out of 5 stars 161
In the coming-of-age story, we follow a young Italian nobleman, Fabrizio Valserra, Marchesino del Dongo, on many adventures, including his experiences at the Battle of Waterloo, and romantic intrigues.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Amazing novel finally available on audio!
- By Grant on 03-23-14
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The White King
- Charles I, Traitor, Murderer, Martyr
- By: Leanda de Lisle
- Narrated by: Graeme Malcolm
- Length: 10 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 116
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 107
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 108
Less than 40 years after England's golden age under Elizabeth I, the country was at war with itself. Split between loyalty to the Crown or to Parliament, war raged on English soil. Its casualties were immense. At the head of the disintegrating kingdom was King Charles I. In this vivid portrait - informed by previously unseen manuscripts, including royal correspondence between the king and his queen - Leanda de Lisle depicts a man who was principled and brave but fatally blinkered.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Enlightening Stuart history
- By Adeliese Baumann on 01-25-18
By: Leanda de Lisle
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The Lady Elizabeth
- A Novel
- By: Alison Weir
- Narrated by: Rosalyn Landor
- Length: 20 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 1,263
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 1,005
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 998
Best-selling author Alison Weir turns her masterly storytelling skills to the early life of young Elizabeth Tudor, who would grow up to become England's most intriguing and powerful queen. Sweeping in scope, The Lady Elizabeth is a fascinating portrayal of a woman far ahead of her time - whose dangerous and dramatic path to the throne shapes her future greatness.
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5 out of 5 stars
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An unbelievably extraordinary tale about a girl!
- By Zhao on 12-31-11
By: Alison Weir
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Secret Lives of the Tsars
- Three Centuries of Autocracy, Debauchery, Betrayal, Murder, and Madness from Romanov Russia
- By: Michael Farquhar
- Narrated by: Enn Reitel
- Length: 12 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 157
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 147
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 146
Scandal! Intrigue! Cossacks! Here the world’s most engaging royal historian chronicles the world’s most fascinating imperial dynasty: the Romanovs, whose three-hundred-year reign was remarkable for its shocking violence, spectacular excess, and unimaginable venality. In this incredibly entertaining history, Michael Farquhar collects the best, most captivating true tales of Romanov iniquity.
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4 out of 5 stars
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A good introduction to the Romanovs
- By Daniel Burgon on 07-14-14
By: Michael Farquhar
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The Second Empress
- A Novel of Napoleon's Court
- By: Michelle Moran
- Narrated by: Adam Alexi-Malle, Emma Bering, Tanya Franks
- Length: 10 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 259
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 237
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 238
After the bloody French Revolution, Emperor Napoleon’s power is absolute. When Marie-Louise, the 18-year-old daughter of the King of Austria, is told that the Emperor has demanded her hand in marriage, her father presents her with a terrible choice: marry the cruel, capricious Napoleon, leaving the man she loves and her home forever, or say no, and plunge her country into war. Marie-Louise knows what she must do, and she travels to France, determined to be a good wife despite Napoleon’s reputation. But lavish parties greet her in Paris, and at the extravagant French court, she finds many rivals for her husband’s affection....
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5 out of 5 stars
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A brilliant novel!
- By BVerité on 12-08-12
By: Michelle Moran
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First of the Tudors
- By: Joanna Hickson
- Narrated by: Tom Clegg, Non Haf
- Length: 14 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 87
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 74
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 73
Jasper Tudor, son of Queen Catherine and her second husband, Owen Tudor, has grown up far from the intrigue of the royal court. But after he and his brother Edmund are summoned to London, their half brother, King Henry VI, takes a keen interest in their future. Bestowing earldoms on them both, Henry also gives them the wardship of the young heiress Margaret Beaufort. Although she is still a child, Jasper becomes devoted to her and is devastated when Henry arranges her betrothal to Edmund.
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5 out of 5 stars
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War of the Roses, Again
- By Laurel on 03-27-17
By: Joanna Hickson
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The Turbulent Crown
- The Story of the Tudor Queens
- By: Roland Hui
- Narrated by: Jennifer M. Dixon
- Length: 22 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 120
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 102
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 101
Ten remarkable women. One remarkable era. In the Tudor period, 1485 to 1603, a host of fascinating women sat on the English throne. The dramatic events of their lives are told in The Turbulent Crown: The Story of the Tudor Queens.
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5 out of 5 stars
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a very good listen
- By Evil Guppy on 09-21-19
By: Roland Hui