Literary Criticism audiobooks

The Futilitarians

By: Anne Gisleson

Narrated by: Anne Gisleson

Length: 8 hours 27 minutes

Abridged: No

A memoir of friendship and literature chronicling a search for meaning and comfort in great books, and a beautiful path out of grief.

Anne Gisleson had lost her twin sisters, had been forced to flee her home during Hurricane Katrina, and had witnessed cancer take her beloved father. Before she met her husband, Brad, he had suffered his own... Read more

The Law of Superheroes

By: James Daily, J.D. & Ryan Davidson, J.D.

Narrated by: Eric G. Dove

Length: 7 hours 58 minutes

Abridged: No

Could Superman sue if someone exposed his identity as Clark Kent? Is a life sentence for an immortal like Apocalypse “cruel and unusual punishment?” Is X-ray vision a violation of search and seizure laws? Is the Joker legally insane? And who foots the bill when a hero destroys a skyscraper or two while defending Metropolis?Fear not, gentle... Read more

Dragonwriter

By: Todd McCaffrey (Editor)

Narrated by: Emily Durante, Mel Foster, Janis Ian & Todd McC...

Length: 7 hours 49 minutes

Abridged: No

A Tribute to SF Great Anne McCaffreyAngelina Adams - David Brin - David Gerrold - John Goodwin - Janis Ian
Alec Johnson - Georgeanne Kennedy - Mercedes Lackey - Sharon Lee & Steve Miller
Lois McMaster Bujold - Elizabeth Moon - Charlotte Moore - Robert Neilson
Jody Lynn Nye & Bill Fawcett - Robin Roberts - Elizabeth Ann Scarborough
Wen... Read more

Women of Will

By: Tina Packer

Narrated by: Tina Packer & Nigel Gore

Length: 15 hours 12 minutes

Abridged: No

Women of Will, a narrative combining trenchant analysis and riveting scenes, explores the themes of love, loss, freedom, control, violence, and power through the heroines of Shakespeare’s text. Drawing on her knowledge as director, actor, and teacher, Packer traces the chronological evolution of Shakespeare’s female characters and examines... Read more

Mind of an Outlaw

By: Norman Mailer

Narrated by: Christopher Lane

Length: 22 hours 27 minutes

Abridged: No

Norman Mailer was one of the towering figures of twentieth-century American letters and an acknowledged master of the essay. Mind of an Outlaw, the first posthumous publication from this outsize literary icon, collects Mailer’s most important and representative work in the form that many rank as his most electrifying.As America’s foremost public... Read more

Advertisements for Myself

By: Norman Mailer

Narrated by: Christopher Lane

Length: 20 hours 41 minutes

Abridged: No

Originally published in 1959, Advertisements for Myself is an inventive collection of stories, essays, polemic, meditations, and interviews. It is Mailer at his brilliant, provocative, outrageous best. Emerging at the height of "hip," Advertisements is at once a chronicle of a crucial era in the formation of modern American culture and an... Read more

Hemingway Didn't Say That

By: Garson O'Toole

Narrated by: Mel Foster

Length: 8 hours 43 minutes

Abridged: No

”Extensive and brilliant investigations…a tour de force of detective work…Mr. O’Toole is a beacon of accuracy who should inspire all readers who prefer their facts real rather than phony.” —Wall Street JournalEverywhere you look, you’ll find viral quotable wisdom attributed to icons ranging from Abraham Lincoln to Mark Twain, from Cicero to... Read more

At the Strangers' Gate

By: Adam Gopnik

Narrated by: Adam Gopnik

Length: 9 hours 43 minutes

Abridged: No

From The New York Times best-selling author of Paris to the Moon and beloved New Yorker writer, a memoir that captures the romance of New York City in the 1980s.

When Adam Gopnik and his soon-to-be-wife, Martha, left the comforts of home in Montreal for New York, the city then, much like today, was a pilgrimage site for the young, the arty, and... Read more

The Untold Story of the Talking Book

By: Matthew Rubery

Narrated by: Jim Denison

Length: 11 hours 31 minutes

Abridged: No

Histories of the book often move straight from the codex to the digital screen. Left out of that familiar account is nearly 150 years of audio recordings. Recounting the fascinating history of audio-recorded literature, Matthew Rubery traces the path of innovation from Edison’s recitation of “Mary Had a Little Lamb” for his tinfoil phonograph in... Read more

Juliet’s Answer

By: Glenn Dixon

Narrated by: Jim Meskimen

Length: 7 hours 32 minutes

Abridged: No

When Glenn Dixon is spurned by love, he packs his bags for Verona, Italy. Once there, he volunteers to answer the thousands of letters that arrive addressed to Juliet—letters sent from lovelorn people all over the world to Juliet’s hometown, people who long to understand the mysteries of the human heart.Glenn’s journey takes him deep into the... Read more

Where the Past Begins

By: Amy Tan

Narrated by: Amy Tan & Daniel Halpern

Length: 14 hours 32 minutes

Abridged: No

In Where the Past Begins, bestselling author of The Joy Luck Club and The Valley of Amazement Amy Tan reveals herself in a way she never has before, delving into her childhood, adolescence, family history, beginnings as a writer and professional life to explore the answers to questions of purpose and meaning that we all ask ourselves as we get... Read more

The Dawn Watch

By: Maya Jasanoff

Narrated by: Laurel Lekfow

Length: 10 hours 8 minutes

Abridged: No

“Enlightening, compassionate, superb” —John Le Carré

Winner of the 2018 Cundhill History Prize

A New York Times Book Review Notable Book of 2017

One of the New York Times 100 Notable Books of 2017

A visionary exploration of the life and times of Joseph Conrad, his turbulent age of globalization and our own, from one of the most exciting young... Read more

The Written World

By: Martin Puchner

Narrated by: Arthur Morey

Length: 12 hours 2 minutes

Abridged: No

The story of literature in sixteen acts—from Homer to Harry Potter, including The Tale of Genji, Don Quixote, The Communist Manifesto, and how they shaped world history

In this groundbreaking book, Martin Puchner leads us on a remarkable journey through time and around the globe to reveal the how stories and literature have created the world we... Read more

Slugfest

By: Reed Tucker

Narrated by: Will Collyer

Length: 10 hours 43 minutes

Abridged: No

The first in-depth, behind-the-scenes book treatment of the rivalry between the two comic book giants.

THEY ARE THE TWO TITANS OF THE COMIC BOOK INDUSTRY--the Coke and Pepsi of superheroes--and for more than 50 years, Marvel and DC have been locked in an epic battle for spandex supremacy. At stake is not just sales, but cultural relevancy and... Read more

De Gabo a Mario

By: Angel Esteban & Ana Gallego

Narrated by: Adriana Sananes

Length: 11 hours 53 minutes

Abridged: No

"Lo que vas a encontrar en este libro . es una historia en la que los protagonistas tuvieron la suerte de saber lo necesario en el lugar correcto y el tiempo adecuado, y por ello hoy son lo que son: grandes figuras de la literatura mundial, culpables de que los anos sesenta y setenta de XX hayan sido el verdadero siglo de oro de la literatura... Read more

El jardin devastado

By: Jorge Volpi

Narrated by: Alfredo Huereca

Length: 2 hours 15 minutes

Abridged: No

"Uno tras otro, alli, a la intemperie. Docenas.Mutilados, exhibidos. Sin sepultura. Una imagen que Laila solo ha visto en las peliculas. Ideal para un premio de fotoperiodismo." El infierno se desata en Irak tras la invasion y una mujer busca entre los muertos a su amor. Bagdad es un cadaver cuyos trozos se disputan las aves de rapina y ella... Read more

Is Shakespeare Dead?

By: Mark Twain

Length: 3 hours 2 minutes

Abridged: No

Is Shakespeare Dead? is a short, semi-autobiographical work by American humorist Samuel Clemens, better known as Mark Twain. It explores the controversy over the authorship of the Shakespearean literary canon via satire, anecdote, and extensive quotation of contemporary authors on the subject. The original publication spans only 150 pages, and... Read more

Those Who Walk in Darkness

By: John Ridley

Narrated by: Patricia R. Floyd

Length: 11 hours 1 minute

Abridged: No

John Ridley, the best-selling author of The Drift, is renowned for his gritty, violent tales and their razor-sharp dialogue. This foray into science fiction is an explosive thriller. In the near future, superheroes are very real. But so are supervillains. When San Francisco is toasted during a superbeing clash, America has had enough. All... Read more

A Way With Words IV

By: Michael Drout

Narrated by: Michael Drout

Length: 8 hours 16 minutes

Abridged: No

In A Way with Words I, II, and III, Professor Michael D.C. Drout increased listeners' understanding of the way literature works, of the rhetoric that in many ways defines people's lives, and of the intricacies of grammar, all while maintaining a lively tone that conveys the professor's infectious enthusiasm for the subject. In part IV of this... Read more

Notas sobre el nacionalismo

By: George Orwell

Narrated by: Juan Antonio Bernal

Length: 59 minutes

Abridged: No

George Orwell ofrece en este audiolibro una de las reflexiones más lúcidas sobre los nacionalismos. En tiempos como los que estamos viviendo, los nacionalismos y los extremismos en todas sus formas resurgen con fuerza. En este extraordinario ensayo, publicado en mayo de 1945, en los estertores de la Segunda Guerra Mundial, y disponible ahora en... Read more

Un cuarto propio

By: Virginia Woolf

Narrated by: Neus Sendra

Length: 3 hours 55 minutes

Abridged: No

Un cuarto propio es un breve ensayo de Virginia Woolf sobre la condición femenina que se ha convertido en un icono de la literatura del siglo XX. «No hay marca en la pared para medir la precisa estatura de las mujeres. No hay medidas que determinen las condiciones de una buena madre o el cariño de una hija, la fidelidad de una hermana o la... Read more

Odyssey of the West VI

By: Timothy B. Shutt

Narrated by: Timothy B. Shutt, Katherine Elkins & Joel F. Re...

Length: 8 hours 2 minutes

Abridged: No

The Odyssey of the West series, a grand exploration of art, literature, revolutionary theories, and intellectual progress through the ages, concludes with a fascinating look at the twentieth century. Series editor and esteemed university professor Timothy B. Shutt is joined by contributing lecturers for a lively discussion of the major works and... Read more

The Infernal Library

By: Daniel Kalder

Narrated by: Chris Ciulla

Length: 15 hours 25 minutes

Abridged: No

The Infernal Library is a harrowing audiobook tour of “dictator literature” in the twentieth-century, featuring the soul-killing prose and poetry of Hitler, Mao, and many more, which shows how books have sometimes shaped the world for the worse.

Since the days of the Roman Empire dictators have written books. But in the twentieth-century despots... Read more

The World Broke in Two

By: Bill Goldstein

Narrated by: Bill Goldstein

Length: 12 hours 5 minutes

Abridged: No

This program is read by the author.

A revelatory narrative of the intersecting lives and works of revered authors Virginia Woolf, T. S. Eliot, E. M. Forster and D. H. Lawrence during 1922, the birth year of modernism


The World Broke in Two tells the fascinating story of the intellectual and personal journeys four legendary writers, Virginia Woolf,... Read more