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Audiobooks Narrated by Geoffrey Blaisdell
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"The dramatic true story offive brilliant young soldiers from Harvard, this is a thrilling tale of combat and heroism.
Five Lieutenantstells the story of five young Harvard men who took up the call to arms in the spring of 1917 and met differing fates in the maelstrom of battle on the western front in 1918. Delving deep into the motivations, horrific experiences, and ultimate fates of this Harvard-educated quintet—and by extension, of the brilliant young officer class that left its collegiate and postcollegiate pursuits to enlist in the army and lead America's rough-and-ready doughboys—Five Lieutenantspresents a unique, timeless, and fascinating account of citizen soldiers at war and of the price these extraordinary men paid while earnestly giving all they had in an effort to end 'the war to end all wars.'
Drawing on the subjects' intimate, eloquent, and uncensored letters and memoirs, this is a fascinating microcosm of the American experience in the First World War and of the horrific experiences and hardships faced by the educated class of young men who were relied upon to lead doughboys in the trenches and, ultimately, in open battle."
"Venice, the dazzling city on the lagoon, is sailing toward the ruin of her maritime empire, determined to go down in a maelstrom of pleasure, music, and masquerade.
Venice, 1731. Opera is the popular entertainment of the day, and the castrati are its reigning stars. Tito Amato, mutilated as a boy to preserve his enchanting soprano voice, returns to the city of his birth with his friend Felice, a castrato whose voice has failed. Disaster strikes Tito's opera premier when the singer loses one beloved friend to poison and another to unjust accusation and arrest. Alarmed that the merchant-aristocrat who owns the theater is pressing the authorities to close the case, Tito races the executioner to find the real killer.
The possible suspects could people the cast of one of his operas: a libertine nobleman and his spurned wife, a jealous soprano, an ambitious composer, and a patrician family bent on the theater's ruin. With Carnival gaiety swirling around him and rousing Venetian passions in an ominous crescendo, Tito finds that the most astonishing secrets lurk behind the masks of his own family and friends."
"Venice, 1734. Castrato soprano Tito Amato, star of Venice opera, has let fame go to his head. Neglecting his vocal practice for dubious pleasures, Tito finds himself demoted to secondary roles and overshadowed by a visiting singer who usurps his position. But when the murder of scene painter Luca Cavalieri threatens to close the opera house, Tito sees an opportunity to reclaim his status and jumps at the chance to find the killer. He is aided by Englishman Augustus "Gussie" Rumbolt, who is in Europe making his grand tour. The hunt for the person who wears the mask of Palantinus carries Tito and Gussie into the treacherous depths of the city of Venice, dedicated as it is to masquerade and pleasure, where Tito matches wits with the masked leader of a secret society bent on the destruction of Venice's Jewish ghetto."
"In Venice in 1742, Tito Amato is singing lead roles at the Teatro San Marco. On opening night, he has the entire audience entranced, except for one box with its scarlet curtains tightly drawn. Is this a lovers' assignation or a meeting deep in political intrigue? Annoyed at being ignored, Tito aims the full force of his golden throat at the fourth-tier box and is astounded when the curtains part and a woman tumbles over the railing.
The victim is Zulietta Giardino, a mischievous courtesan involved with a young glassmaker. As Tito was the only one to see the masked man who pushed Zulietta to her death, the chief of Venice's rudimentary police force requests the singer's assistance. Did a wager over a rival courtesan's jewels spell Zulietta's death? Or did the motive involve sinister events in the glass factories of Murano?"
"A master of literary naturalism, Dreiser is known for his great intensity and keen journalistic eye as he examines real-life subjects. This powerful novel explores the dynamics of the financial world during the Civil War and after the stock-market panic caused by the Great Chicago Fire.
The first in a 'trilogy of desire,'The Financiertells the story of the ruthlessly dominating broker Frank Cowperwood as he climbs the ladder of success, his adoring mistress championing his every move. As he goes on to both win and lose a fortune or two, he steps on anything—and anyone—in his path. Based on the life of financier C. T. Yerkes, Dreiser's cutting portrayal of the corrupt magnate Cowperwood illustrates the idea that wealth is often obtained by less than reputable means."
"What Is Art? is the result of fifteen years' reflection on the nature and purpose of art.
Tolstoy claims that all good art is related to the authentic life of the broader community and that the aesthetic value of a work of art is not independent of its moral content. The book is noteworthy not only for its famous iconoclasm and compelling attacks on the aestheticist notion of "art for art's sake" but even more for its wit, its lucid and beautiful prose, and its sincere expression of the deepest social conscience.
Tolstoy is an author critics typically rank alongside Shakespeare and Homer. A sustained consideration of the cultural import of art by someone who was himself an artist of the highest stature will always remain relevant and fascinating to anyone interested in the place of art and literature in society."
"Seven hundred years ago Church officials hid the body of St. Francis from the world. What secret went with Francis of Assisi to his grave?
The Franciscan Conspiracy is set against the chaotic backdrop of thirteenth-century Italy, a time when the extreme poverty of religious zealots clashed with the burgeoning prosperity of merchants, the monastic orders, and high church officials.Father Leo, closest companion of their Order's founder, refuses to take his secrets with him to the grave.In a cryptic farewell message, he launches the young hermit Conrad into a labyrinth whose every passage confronts his deepest fears. Along with a single companion, sixteen-year-old Sister Amata, Conrad sets out to make sense of the bizarre and puzzling events that followed Francis of Assisi's death in 1226. This quest will lead to a truth that will shake the faith of the masses to the core and bring into question the foundation of the Franciscan Order.
This multilayered, intricately plotted mystery is a provocative tale."
"In September 1740, singer Tito Amato is offered the lead role in an opera being staged at an isolated villa in the Italian hills. Puzzled by the air of secrecy that enshrouds the production but attracted by a generous fee, Tito agrees.
The countryside is awash with the golden hues of autumn, but the bucolic mood quickly turns menacing when a notorious figure from Tito's past turns up at the villa. That night, at the stroke of twelve, a soprano stumbles over a stranger who has been beaten to death with the clock pendulum.
With the local constable away on a boar hunt, the midnight murderer strikes with impunity, raising terror to a fevered crescendo. Tito must pursue his own quest for answers, a quest that leads straight into the painful secrets of his heart and beyond."
"Winner of the 1919 Pulitzer Prize when it was first published, The Magnificent Ambersons chronicles the changing fortunes of three generations of an American dynasty. The family serves as a metaphor for the old society that crumbled after the Industrial Revolution while a middle-western town spread and darkened into a city.
George Amberson Minafer is the spoiled and arrogant grandson of the founder of the family's magnificence. George, eclipsed by a new breed of industrial tycoons and land developers whose power comes not through family connections but through financial dealings and modern manufacturing, descends from the Midwestern aristocracy to the working class. But George refuses to accept his diminishing status, clinging to all the superficiality he has always known.
As the wheels of industry transform the social landscape, the definitions of ambition, success, and loyalty also change."
