Audiobooks by William Styron

[Spanish] - La decisión de Sophie Audiobook

"Sophie es una muchacha polaca, dulce y de pálida hermosura que vive en una casa de huéspedes del Brooklyn de los años cuarenta junto a Nathan, un joven judío obsesionado por el pasado, y Stingo, el tercero en discordia, un joven procedente del Sur convencido de que llegará a ser un escritor de éxito. Tres personalidades que se relacionarán íntimamente en un ambiente en apariencia alegre y desenfadado, después de la guerra que ha azotado el mundo durante seis años. La historia de una sola persona puede reflejar la de millones de ellas. A través de la experiencia de Sophie, viva imagen de la tragedia del holocausto, Styron incita a meditar sobre las cualidades del ser humano, tanto del que sufre como del que castiga. Una poderosa reflexión acerca del extraño modo en que una persona intenta superar su pasado y cómo éste puede acabar minando sus ansias de sobrevivir. Estamos ante una novela que profundiza en la naturaleza del mal en el individuo y en el género humano. Una obra merecedora del American Book Award en 1980 y adaptada al cine por Alan J. Pakula y protagonizada por Meryl Streep."

William Styron (Author), Carlos Lara (Narrator)

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Great American Authors Read from Their Works, Vol. 1

"These five recordings of twentieth-century American authors interpreting their own works were highly praised when first released in the 1960s. Today the cultural and historical value of these recordings makes them an essential part of our literary heritage. This volume contains readings by James Baldwin from Giovanni’s Room and Another Country, exploring the challenges of being black and gay in mid-twentieth century America. William Styron reads about a disabled child finding brief moments of joy in Lie Down in Darkness, his novel about a troubled Southern family. James Jones reads the most famous passage from his celebrated World War II novel, From Here to Eternity. And Philip Roth does a hilarious comic turn in a bizarre scene from his early novel, Letting Go."

James Baldwin, James Jones, Philip Roth, William Styron (Author), Various (Narrator)

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William Styron Reading from Lie Down in Darkness: From Great American Authors Read from Their Works, Volume 1

"Lie Down in Darkness traces the tragic fate of a Southern family with acute sensitivity, in a style that mirrors the inner lives of its four major characters. The parents are estranged, with each favoring one of their two daughters. The father dotes on Peyton, the family beauty, while the mother is devoted to Maudie, the disabled child. The novel, told in flashbacks, opens with Peyton's funeral after her emotional unraveling and suicide. The passage Styron reads here shows Maudie's magical encounter with the workman, Bennie."

William Styron (Author), William Styron (Narrator)

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Great American Authors Read from Their Works: Complete Collection

"These recordings of twentieth-century American authors interpreting their own works were highly praised when first released in the 1960s. Today the cultural and historical value of these recordings makes them an essential part of our literary heritage. In this collection, James Baldwin reads from Giovanni's Room and Another Country, exploring the challenges of being black and gay in mid-twentieth century America. William Styron reads about a disabled child finding brief moments of joy in Lie Down in Darkness, his novel about a troubled Southern family. James Jones reads the most famous passage from his celebrated World War II novel, From Here to Eternity. And Philip Roth does a hilarious comic turn in a bizarre scene from his early novel, Letting Go. Additionally, Nelson Algren reads from his most famous novel, The Man with the Golden Arm, about the decline and fall of a drug dealer and card sharp. Bernard Malamud's devastating selection from The Magic Barrel portrays poor, embittered old Jews who achieve a moment of grace after fierce antagonism. In John Updike's story from Pigeon Feathers and Other Stories, a seminary student working as a lifeguard draws a witty and lyrical contrast between saving souls and bodies. And James Jones' account of a World War II battle in Japan in The Thin Red Line shows young soldiers at their most heroic and perilous moments."

Bernard Malamud, James Baldwin, James Jones, John Updike, Nelson Algren, Philip Roth, William Styron (Author), Various (Narrator)

Audiobook

Great American Authors Read From Their Works: Volume 1

"Volume 1 contains readings by James Baldwin from Giovanni’s Room and Another Country, exploring the dilemmas of being black and gay in mid-twentieth century America. Willliam Styron reads about a disabled child finding brief moments of joy in Lie Down in Darkness, his novel about a troubled Southern family. James Jones reads the most famous passage from his celebrated World War II novel, From Here to Eternity. And Philip Roth does a hilarious comic turn in a bizarre scene from his early novel, Letting Go."

James Baldwin, James Jones, Philip Roth, William Styron (Author), James Baldwin, James Jones, Philip Roth, William Styron (Narrator)

Audiobook

Great American Authors Read From Their Works: Volume 1, William Styron Reading From Lie Down in Darkness

William Styron (Author), William Styron (Narrator)

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Sophie's Choice

"Selected by the Modern Library as one of the 100 best novels of all time '[One morning] in the early spring, I woke up with the remembrance of a girl I'd once known, Sophie. It was a very vivid half-dream, half-revelation, and all of a sudden I realized that hers was a story I had to tell.' That very day, William Styron began writing the first chapter of Sophie's Choice. First published in 1979, this complex and ambitious novel opens with Stingo, a young southerner, journeying north in 1947 to become a writer. It leads us into his intellectual and emotional entanglement with his neighbors in a Brooklyn rooming house: Nathan, a tortured, brilliant Jew, and his lover, Sophie, a beautiful Polish woman whose wrist bears the grim tattoo of a concentration camp...and whose past is strewn with death that she alone survived. 'Sophie's Choice is a passionate, courageous book...a philosophical novel on the most important subject of the twentieth century,' said novelist and critic John Gardner in The New York Times Book Review. 'One of the reasons Styron succeeds so well in Sophie's Choice is that, like Shakespeare (I think the comparison is not too grand), Styron knows how to cut away from the darkness of his material, so that when he turns to it again it strikes with increasing force....Sophie's Choice is a thriller of the highest order, all the more thrilling for the fact that the dark, gloomy secrets we are unearthing one by one--sorting through lies and terrible misunderstandings like a hand groping for a golden nugget in a rattlesnake's nest--may be authentic secrets of history and our own human nature.' The Modern Library has played a significant role in American cultural life for the better part of a century. The series was founded in 1917 by the publishers Boni and Liveright and eight years later acquired by Bennett Cerf and Donald Klopfer. It provided the foun-dation for their next publishing venture, Random House. The Modern Library has been a staple of the American book trade, providing readers with affordable hard-bound editions of important works of liter-ature and thought. For the Modern Library's seventy-fifth anniversary, Random House redesigned the series, restoring as its emblem the running torchbearer created by Lucian Bernhard in 1925 and refurbishing jackets, bindings, and type, as well as inau- gurating a new program of selecting titles. The Modern Library continues to provide the world's best books, at the best prices."

William Styron (Author), Norman Snow (Narrator)

Audiobook

Audiobooks by William Styron

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