Historical Fiction audiobooks

The Rich Are Different

By: Susan Howatch

Narrated by: Wanda McCaddon

Length: 28 hours 52 minutes

Abridged: No

Dinah Slade is a young Englishwoman of immense vitality, great sensual power, and fierce ambition. When the handsome and powerful Paul Van Zale commits the imprudence of falling in love with her, her life and desires become intertwined with the fate of his great American banking family. Among the new acquaintances she makes is Paul’s wife, with... Read more

Elvis in the Morning

By: William F. Buckley

Narrated by: Lloyd James

Length: 9 hours 50 minutes

Abridged: No

Orson is a young boy whose mother works at the US Army base in Germany in the 1950s. There, he becomes a fan of a GI stationed at the base, one Elvis Presley, whose music is played over and over on the radio.When Orson is caught stealing recordings of Elvis’ tunes from the post exchange store, the attendant publicity catches the star’s... Read more

1812

By: David Nevin

Narrated by: Geoffrey Howard

Length: 20 hours 14 minutes

Abridged: No

From the author of the New York Times bestseller Dream West comes this vivid historical novel about the dawn of America and the personalities that shaped it.Only three short decades after the revolution that created the young republic, a deeply divided America would be drawn into war once again. The war of 1812 would either make America a global... Read more

To Shield the Queen

By: Fiona Buckley

Narrated by: Wanda McCaddon

Length: 9 hours 25 minutes

Abridged: No

Rumor has linked Queen Elizabeth I to her master of horse, Robin Dudley. As gossip would have it, only his ailing wife, Amy, prevents marriage between Dudley and the queen. To quell the idle tongues at court, the queen dispatches Ursula Blanchard to tend to the sick woman's needs. But not even Ursula can prevent the "accident" that takes Amy's... Read more

The Bridge of Sighs

By: Olen Steinhauer

Narrated by: Ned Schmidtke

Length: 9 hours 21 minutes

Abridged: No

In this auspicious literary crime debut, an inexperienced homicide detective struggles amid the lawlessness of a post–World War II Eastern European city. It’s August, 1948, three years after the Russians “liberated” this small nation from German occupation. But the Red Army still patrols the capital’s rubble-strewn streets, and the ideals of... Read more

The Difficult Saint

By: Sharan Newman

Narrated by: C. M. Hébert

Length: 11 hours 42 minutes

Abridged: No

This novel in Newman's series of medieval mysteries featuring Catherine LeVendeur takes place in the twelfth century amidst Europe's religious and political turbulence and intolerance. Catherine, wife of one-handed Edgar, daughter of a Jewish merchant, and mother of two small children, is a Christian convert. Agnes, her estranged sister, has... Read more

Dead Man’s Chest

By: Roger L. Johnson

Narrated by: Geoffrey Howard

Length: 16 hours 9 minutes

Abridged: No

When US Navy Commander Roger Johnson happened upon a 1919 Parliamentary transcript dealing with the near sinking of a British man-of-war called the King James, he at first gave it only passing thought—until he came across the words to a sailors’ ballad entitled “Fifteen Men on a Dead Man’s Chest,” and a description of events that matched in... Read more

To Wear the White Cloak

By: Sharan Newman

Narrated by: Wanda McCaddon

Length: 11 hours 31 minutes

Abridged: No

After an absence of a year, Catherine LeVendeur and her husband Edgar are glad to return to Paris. When they enter the house, however, they are shocked by the discovery of the dead body of a Knight Templar. Although innocent, Catherine fears that she or her family will be incriminated. Her father Hubert has recently announced his Jewish roots... Read more

Mistress of Blackstone Castle

By: Patricia Werner

Narrated by: Wanda McCaddon

Length: 8 hours 27 minutes

Abridged: No

Growing up in the orphanage, Heather Blackstone had been taught the art of lace-making. Now a young woman, she earns her living in a Nottingham factory. But legends of her true ancestry haunt her dreams. When a gypsy fortune-teller predicts a journey, Heather’s destiny becomes clear: she must find a way to reclaim her family fortune and the... Read more

King of the Jews

By: Leslie Epstein

Narrated by: Edward Lewis

Length: 10 hours 28 minutes

Abridged: No

This masterpiece of black humor has taken its place among the great classics of Holocaust literature. Set in Poland, it is the story of I.C. Trumpleman, the indiscreet director of an orphanage. When the Germans invade and the Jewish community is forced into a ghetto, Trumpleman is chosen as the head of a Judenrat, granted the power to decide who... Read more

The Expendable Spy

By: Jack D. Hunter

Narrated by: Brian Emerson

Length: 8 hours 20 minutes

Abridged: No

Against the background of a deadly undercover war between the Gestapo and Soviet agents during the collapse of the Third Reich, The Expendable Spy is the hair-raising novel of an audacious American who discovers a secret so big and so appalling that his own intelligence office orders his execution. Read more

The Dress Lodger

By: Sheri Holman

Narrated by: Wanda McCaddon

Length: 12 hours 39 minutes

Abridged: No

In sinister industrial England, fifteen-year-old Gustine is a "dress lodger," a prostitute who rents a beautiful blue dress from her landlord to attract a higher class of clientele. By day a potter's assistant, by night a courtesan of the streets, Gustine works to support her fragile only child, born with a remarkable anatomical defect.Surgeon... Read more

Saints and Villains

By: Denise Giardina

Narrated by: Susan O’Malley

Length: 20 hours 18 minutes

Abridged: No

In the charnel house that was Europe in the Second World War, there were few instances of shining moral courage, let alone secular sainthood. Dietrich Bonhoeffer, the German theologian and Nazi resister, was the exception. A true hero, he risked and finally lost his life through his participation in a failed plot to assassinate Hitler.In this... Read more

The Crazyladies of Pearl Street

By: Trevanian

Narrated by: Leonardo Leoncavallo

Length: 15 hours 32 minutes

Abridged: No

Legendary writer Trevanian brings readers his most personal novel yet: a funny, deeply felt, often touching coming-of-age novel set in 1930s America.

Six-year-old Jean-Luc LaPointe, his little sister, and his spirited but vulnerable young mother have been abandoned—again—by his father, a charming con artist. With no money and nowhere else... Read more

Waterloo

By: Bernard Cornwell

Narrated by: Frederick Davidson

Length: 13 hours 17 minutes

Abridged: No

With the emperor Napoleon at its head, an enormous French army is marching toward Brussels. The British and their allies are also converging on Brussels in preparation for a grand society ball.It is up to Richard Sharpe to convince the Prince of Orange, the inexperienced commander of Wellington’s Dutch troops, to act before it is too late. But... Read more

Sharpe’s Siege

By: Bernard Cornwell

Narrated by: Frederick Davidson

Length: 10 hours 44 minutes

Abridged: No

Trapped with his back to the sea, Major Richard Sharpe and a handful of men must stand against a battalion of French troops.Winter, 1814 – The invasion of France is under way, and the British Navy has called upon the services of Major Richard Sharpe. Sharpe’s mission seemed simple: capture a small unguarded French coastal fort, cripple... Read more

Sharpe’s Rifles

By: Bernard Cornwell

Narrated by: Frederick Davidson

Length: 10 hours 29 minutes

Abridged: No

When Sharpe rises from the ranks to take command, he finds himself with an unexpected ally in the war against Napoleon.It’s 1809, and the powerful French juggernaut is sweeping across Spain. Lieutenant Richard Sharpe is newly in command of the demoralized, distrustful men of the Ninety-fifth Rifles. He must lead them to safety, and the only... Read more

Ivanhoe - Abridged

By: Sir Walter Scott

Narrated by: Brian Cox

Length: 3 hours 7 minutes

Abridged: Yes

Set in the 12th century, during the reign of Richard the Lionheart, Ivanhoe tells of the love of Wilfred of Ivanhoe for the Lady Rowena, his father Cedric’s ward. Cedric intends Rowena for the oafish Athelstane, and banishes his son. 'The love of battle is the food upon which we live – the dust of the mêlée is the breath of... Read more

Far from the Madding Crowd - Abridged

By: Thomas Hardy

Narrated by: Martin Shaw

Length: 2 hours 54 minutes

Abridged: Yes

Hardy’s classic ‘pastoral tale’ of wilful and capricious Bathsheba Everdene and her three suitors, the faithful shepherd, the lonely widower and the dashing but faithless soldier. An immediate success when it was first published in 1874, Thomas Hardy’s ‘pastoral tale’ of the wilful and capricious Bathsheba Everdene, her... Read more

Heart of Darkness - Abridged

By: Joseph Conrad

Narrated by: Joss Ackland

Length: 3 hours 2 minutes

Abridged: Yes

‘The reaches opened before us and closed behind, as if the forest had stepped leisurely across the water to bar the way for our return. We penetrated deeper and deeper into the heart of darkness.’ At the peak of European Imperialism, steamboat captain Charles Marlow travels deep into the African Congo on his way... Read more

The Scarlet Letter - Abridged

By: Nathaniel Hawthorne

Narrated by: Elizabeth McGovern

Length: 3 hours 10 minutes

Abridged: Yes

'Ah, but let her cover the mark as she will, the pang of it will be always in her heart.' A tale of sin, punishment and atonement, The Scarlet Letter exposes the moral rigidity of a 17th-Century Puritan New England community when faced with the illegitimate child of a young mother. Regarded as the first real... Read more

Gulliver’s Travels - Abridged

By: Jonathan Swift

Narrated by: Martin Shaw

Length: 3 hours 9 minutes

Abridged: Yes

Swift’s scornful satire, written “to vex the world rather than divert it”, takes a caustic look at those most contemporary concerns irrational prejudice, social inequality, ivory tower elitism and the correct way to open a boiled egg. 'I cannot but conclude the bulk of your natives to be the most pernicious race of little... Read more

The Minister's Daughter

By: Julie Hearn

Narrated by: Heather O'Neill

Length: 8 hours 3 minutes

Abridged: No

Conceived on a May Morning, Nell is claimed by the piskies and faeries as a merrybegot, one of their own. She is a wild child: herb gatherer and healer, spell-weaver and midwife . . . and, some say, a witch.
Grace is everything Nell is not. She is the Puritan minister’s daughter: beautiful and refined, innocent and sweet-natured . . . to those... Read more

Tiger, Tiger

By: Lynne Reid Banks

Narrated by: Jan Francis

Length: 5 hours 2 minutes

Abridged: No

Two tiger cub brothers are torn from the jungle and taken to Rome. The stronger cub is trained as a killer at the Coliseum. Emperor Caesar makes a gift of the smaller cub to his beautiful daughter, Aurelia. She adores her cub, Boots. Julius, a young animal keeper, teaches Aurelia how to earn Boots’s trust. Boots is pampered while his brother,... Read more