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The Invisible Man
- Narrated by: James Adams
- Length: 5 hrs and 19 mins
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Aroused by trepidation and curiosity, the local villagers bring it upon themselves to find the answers. What they discover is a man trapped in a terror of his own creation, and a chilling reflection of the unsolvable mysteries of their own souls.
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These four stories test Father Brown in many ways, creating headaches a plenty. However, Father Brown is nothing if not redoubtable and whilst Chesterton's stories are, in his own words, "very slight and improbable", his method is all his own. Bill Wallis captures perfectly the mood and tone of Father Brown in this collection.
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Short
- By chambs on 09-22-17
By: G. K. Chesterton
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What Maisie Knew
- By: Henry James
- Narrated by: Maureen O' Brien
- Length: 11 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
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Maisie is an innocent six year-old, torn between her divorced parents, pathetically isolated yet tragically involved.
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A great reader reads a great writer
- By Seth on 08-27-12
By: Henry James
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The Complete Father Brown Collection
- By: G. K. Chesterton
- Narrated by: Stephen Scalon
- Length: 41 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
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Shabby and lumbering, with a face like a Norfolk dumpling, Father Brown makes for an improbable super-sleuth. But his innocence is the secret of his success: refusing the scientific method of detection, he adopts instead an approach of simple sympathy, interpreting each crime as a work of art, and each criminal as a man no worse than himself… Here you will find the complete Father Brown stories in the chronological order of their original publication. The Innocence of Father Brown Starts at Chapter 1, The Wisdom of Father Brown Starts at Chapter 13.
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Good collection, bad editing, bad American accent
- By Samantha on 04-01-20
By: G. K. Chesterton
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The Insidious Dr. Fu Manchu
- By: Sax Rohmer
- Narrated by: Gary Martin
- Length: 8 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
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The first of the popular mystery series introduces a pair of English detectives to their archnemesis, the diabolical Dr. Fu Manchu. Flavorful atmosphere, fast-paced action, and colorful characters enliven this classic of the genre.
By: Sax Rohmer
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The Darwin Affair
- A Novel
- By: Tim Mason
- Narrated by: Derek Perkins
- Length: 11 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
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London, June 1860: When an assassination attempt is made on Queen Victoria, and a petty thief is gruesomely murdered moments later - and only a block away - Chief Detective Inspector Charles Field quickly surmises that these crimes are connected to an even more sinister plot. Was Victoria really the assassin's target? Are those closest to the Crown hiding something? Soon, Field's investigation exposes a shocking conspiracy in which the publication of Charles Darwin's On the Origin of Species sets off a string of murders, arson, kidnapping, and the pursuit of a diabolical madman.
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Dickensian “Jack the Ripper”
- By Kate on 07-14-19
By: Tim Mason
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Lot No. 249
- By: Arthur Conan Doyle
- Narrated by: B.J. Harrison
- Length: 1 hr and 17 mins
- Unabridged
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Unexplained events are happening at Oxford these days. Several students have been attacked at night by some strange form of wild animal. It can scale walls with cat-like agility. Its arms are as thin and as strong as steel bands. And there is one student who conducts midnight studies in his room with certain Egyptian artifacts. The most significant of which is a 6'7" tall mummy.
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YOUR AS WHITE AS A CHEESE
- By Jim "The Impatient" on 01-12-17
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The Crime at Black Dudley
- An Albert Campion Mystery
- By: Margery Allingham
- Narrated by: David Thorpe
- Length: 7 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
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When George Abbershaw is invited to Black Dudley Manor for the weekend, he has only one thing on his mind - proposing to Meggie Oliphant. Unfortunately for George, things don't quite go according to plan. A harmless game turns decidedly deadly and suspicions of murder take precedence over matrimony. Trapped in a remote country house with a murderer, George can see no way out. But Albert Campion can.
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I LIKE this narrator quite a lot!!!!
- By Meep on 11-16-13
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These Names Make Clues
- By: E. C.R. Lorac
- Narrated by: David Thorpe
- Length: 8 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
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Chief Inspector Macdonald has been invited to a treasure hunt party at the house of the Graham Coombe, the celebrated publisher of Murder by Mesmerism. The clues of the hunt have been devised by Coombe's thriller-writer friends, disguised on the night under literary pseudonyms. The fun comes to an abrupt end, however, when 'Samuel Pepys' is found murdered in the telephone room in bizarre circumstances.
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Fun story.
- By peter on 03-12-22
By: E. C.R. Lorac
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Arsene Lupin, Gentleman Burglar
- By: Maurice Leblanc
- Narrated by: Walter Covell
- Length: 5 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
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Maurice Leblanc, a writer of detective fiction during the same period as Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, created Arsene Lupin, a sort of French Robin Hood. An inventive genius, a master of disguise, and an accomplished actor, Lupin operates in the choice chateaux and salons. He scorns sham and with great disdain leaves his card in a baron's residence. The card reads, "Arsene Lupin, gentleman-burglar, will return when the furniture is genuine."
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An Old Favorite Made Better
- By Donna Marie on 08-09-07
By: Maurice Leblanc
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When a Victorian scientist propels himself into the year 802,701 AD, he is initially delighted to find that suffering has been replaced by beauty, contentment and peace. Entranced at first by the Eloi, an elfin species descended from man, he soon realises that this beautiful people are simply remnants of a once-great culture - now weak and childishly afraid of the dark. But they have every reason to be afraid: in deep tunnels beneath their paradise lurks another race descended from humanity - the sinister Morlocks.
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John Banks
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What listeners say about The Invisible Man
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Brian
- 06-06-13
Way ahead of its time!
What does James Adams bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?
James Adams did a wonderful job with this. I had listened to of few different narrators and I don't know if he was the best, but he did a great job. No complaints! I think he captured the temperament of the invisible man with ease.
Any additional comments?
I was going to title this review, "Stands the test of time," but then I figured the better title was "Way ahead of its time." I've read, or tried to read, some old Sci-fi from the 40's and 50's, and... I'm sorry... but it is just corny. Stuff that is considered classics from the 50's (give or take a decade) would be considered just plain BAD if written today, in my opinion. But if this book were written and released today, I think it would still be good - very good. This is why I think it was just way ahead of it's time, like most of H.G.'s stuff.
It was fun reading a book written in the era of 1897. It's not historical fiction set in the late 19th century, it was actually written back then and was the way things were. This added to the "coolness" of the book. But yet, like I said, it isn't the corny/bad stuff that you might expect from "old/classic scifi."
I had read the first 1/3 of the book a year ago (having always wanted to read it) but got side tracked. I picked up the audio book here for 50 cents and was well worth it. A great story and a great listen!
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- Jes_074
- 06-23-12
Better than any movie
I've seen movie after movie and the real story is better than any of them. In all the movies the Invisible man is shot. Instead of how he really dies. This is a great story that explains what happens when someone gains a little power and it corrupts them absolutely. Here is a case where someone found something great and instead of using it wisely he decided to use if for unwise actions. He did do one thing wisely and that was not trust those in power less they make hundreds like him. Wouldn't George Orwell have loved to put that in 1984?
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- Jefferson
- 11-01-14
"How can you be happy like that?"
On the fourth day of February a "stranger [falls] out of infinity into Iping Village" in the Sussex countryside and rents a room at the local inn. His body swathed in clothes, his face wrapped in white bandages, his eyes hidden behind a pair of big blue spectacles, he cuts a bizarre figure. The local "yokels" speculate that he must have suffered some kind of accident. Or that he must be a disguised criminal on the run from the police. Or an ashamed mixed-race piebald hiding his appearance. Or an anarchist working on bombs. Or a lunatic. He claims that he's an "experimental investigator." Surely he's unpleasant and irritable, possessing "A bark of a laugh that he seemed to bite and kill in his mouth," upsetting dogs and boys, and rebuffing all attempts to get to know him with curses so that he may be left undisturbed to do his work. No one even knows his name. About when wags begin walking round the village imitating the stranger by pulling down the brims of their hats and pulling up the collars of their coats and kids begin singing a Bogey Man song whenever they see the stranger, events take a surreal turn when the vicar's house is burgled and the locals put two and two together and send the constable to arrest the stranger, who then disrobes and disappears, for, it turns out, he is the Invisible Man.
Most of H. G. Wells' The Invisible Man (1897) concerns the efforts of "the writer" to collate and interpret the testimony of various witnesses to the Invisible Man's "reign of terror" in the British countryside after the fact. Told from the points of view of countryside denizens like the proprietress of the inn and her husband, the village clock-jobber, general practitioner, reverend, and constable, and even a bachelor tramp, much of the story is a mysterious comedy of class or manner or place. When we finally learn the stranger's name and get his story from his own mouth over half way through, the tale shifts into a study of the alienated mad scientist. Even this is at a remove, however, for his monologue is narrated from the point of view of his university acquaintance Dr. Kemp, who interrupts his story now and then with questions and comments. Wells thus distances us from his scientist until, perhaps, the end of the climax of the short novel.
The Invisible Man explores themes that appear elsewhere in Wells' work: unknown wonders and terrors in the world/universe caused or explained by science may appear at any moment; people fear extraordinary things; men of science who cut themselves off from community become "inhuman"; "contemporary society" is marred by "desecrated fields" and "dank, squalid respectability and . . . sordid commercialism." It is interesting to read the novel with Wells' great short story "In the Country of the Blind," in which a sighted man enters a village of blind people and thinks to rule them, while here an invisible man thinks at first that his condition will give him wonderful advantages over the common run of sighted humanity, permitting him to perpetrate any crime and to do anything he wants.
Perhaps Wells stacks the deck against his scientist. If he had become invisible in the summer instead of the winter, if he'd been a man of calmer temper, if he'd used a different palliative than strychnine, if he'd had more money, if he'd found a less "miserable tool" than the wonderfully named Thomas Marvel, if he'd met Dr. Kemp earlier, and so on, things might have turned out differently. But because the brilliant man is self-centered, irritable, anti-social, and amoral and has become "ruled by a fixed idea" (that his experiments are the only reality), has "lost his human sympathy," has come to believe that "the common conventions of humanity" like not robbing people in their own homes "are all very well for common people," and has imagined schemes for using the "commoners" around him instead of for improving their lives, for all those reasons Wells relishes making things difficult for his scientist.
As in most of his work, Wells' writing here is concise, clear, amusing, terrifying, and literary. He provides reality-establishing scientific explanations involving optics, physics, dynamos, and chemicals for invisibility. He writes comical and vivid descriptions: "His mottled face was apprehensive, and he moved with a sort of reluctant alacrity." He applies irony liberally: "'An invisible man is a man of power.' He stopped for a moment to sneeze violently." And he is capable of harrowing prose: "Down went the heap of struggling men again and rolled over. There was, I am afraid, some savage kicking. Then suddenly a wild scream of 'Mercy! Mercy!' that died down swiftly to a sound like choking."
James Adams reads the audiobook perfectly.
People interested in the history of science fiction (this is one of the first sf stories about invisibility), in studies of criminal intellectual pride, or in compact philosophical novels, should read this book.
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- Benjamin Burns
- 03-29-16
A Sci-fi / Fantasy Classic
H.G. Wells, as many well recognize, is rightfully considered one of the fathers of science-fiction. Certain of his stories, like The Invisible Man, might rightfully be classed fantasy (in a broad sense) or even horror, as well. Regardless, he is a master of these stories, and of writing in general. I dare say he could find a way to make phonebook listings an interesting narrative.
That said, this probably, in my opinion, is one of his slightly less engaging, and less deep books. There simply is not quite as much depth to the characters, nor as much to ponder by the reader in terms of psychological or sociological or philosophical impart in the end.
Thus, even though I thoroughly enjoyed the reading / listening experience, I feel it could have been a little bit more.
As for the audio side of things, James Adams' performance was perfectly on point. He expressed each character's emotions and motivations clearly and accurately, and he gave each unique characteristics as best as one man can do, short of a truly gifted voice actor. I think if one wants an audio version of The Invisible Man, this is the one to have.
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- Jason Barber
- 04-08-17
Great version!
Narrator did an excellent job. Was very pleased with this edition. Great buy, well worth a listen.
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- Kevin
- 09-21-16
Vader228
great voice. story worth a listen but not a lot of action or horror. quick read, but most of story is him telling everyone he is invisble and then everyone trying to stop him.
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- Calliope
- 10-19-14
part slapstick action, part sci-fi ideology
It's hard to really like a book with such an unsympathetic central (and title) character. While many reviews say that the character was driven insane by his discovery of invisibility, I'm not so sure......I thought it seemed like he was always a selfish, rude megalomaniac and was only given more ability to express that as an invisible man. It's hard to say, of course.
What surprised me was how much of the story is taken up with what is essentially slapstick action of people chasing, and being chased by, the invisible man. It's kind of ridiculous and unnecessary, in my opinion, and detracts from any suspense or thriller-type of atmosphere that could have been built. The underlying sci-fi of how a physicist discovered the secret of invisibility and the social message of the difficulties of being invisible are kind of lost under the action and reaction of the end effect (an invisible man who can enter or leave anywhere undetected, and so can attack people at whim).
I've enjoyed so many other HG Wells books, that it was a real disappointment to me to find this book really only average, in my opinion. And the narration was really only fair, with unnatural accents really distracting from the flow of the story.
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- Andrew Neveils
- 08-09-21
Wells Disappoints (Somewhat) Again
I do wish that author H.G.Wells had fleshed out this story more. It’s too brief and hardly explores the ramifications of Dr. Griffin’s turning invisible. The struggle or “reign of terror” is brief and underwhelming, though I can certainly see how this would be more terrifying in the 19th Century. Nevertheless, there are hardly any likable characters and I really wish Wells had taken the time to more fully explore Dr. Griffin’s madness — he mostly comes across as an entitled jerk rather than a horrifying villain.
I found the narration by James Adams to be very good.
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- dachi
- 10-20-16
Performance was not that great
Any additional comments?
I think this book lacked in performance department; not that story was much better but... Anyhow; I almost gave up at first when I started reading it, and had little hard time finishing it.
I read it absentmindedly, I hardly remember what it was about. What I remember is that it is about a guy who through experimentation turns himself invisible but has hard time reproducing the results. The fact that he has foul mood does not helps him much with townsfolk and so gets himself into a trouble with them; who try to kill him eventually... And it goes on and on, people are hunting him down while he is trying to escape from them and tries to carry on with his experiments...
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- G. Parish
- 07-22-15
All too human
A tale of a mad scientist who, despite being presented as slightly insane and disconnected from reality, is all too human. We need not look to closely to see his darkness reflected in ourselves all the evil each of us can so easily generate. Regardless of whether morality is defined by a deity or a community, it is illustrated here not only how bad we need it, but what happens if we dare ignore it.
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