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The Sun Also Rises
- Narrated by: William Hurt
- Length: 7 hrs and 46 mins
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The Sun Also Rises
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For Whom the Bell Tolls
- Written by: Ernest Hemingway
- Narrated by: Campbell Scott
- Length: 16 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 201
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 168
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 167
In 1937, Ernest Hemingway traveled to Spain to cover the civil war there for the North American Newspaper Alliance. Three years later he completed the greatest novel to emerge from "the good fight", For Whom the Bell Tolls.
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3 out of 5 stars
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Disappointed
- By Anonymous User on 2019-01-10
Written by: Ernest Hemingway
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A Farewell to Arms
- Written by: Ernest Hemingway
- Narrated by: John Slattery
- Length: 8 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 151
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 130
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 130
The best American novel to emerge from World War I, A Farewell to Arms is the unforgettable story of an American ambulance driver on the Italian front and his passion for a beautiful English nurse.
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5 out of 5 stars
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A satisfying story with great narration
- By Ellen Keith on 2018-09-19
Written by: Ernest Hemingway
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To Have and Have Not
- Written by: Ernest Hemingway
- Narrated by: Will Patton
- Length: 5 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 12
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 11
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Story4 out of 5 stars 11
To Have and Have Not is the dramatic story of Harry Morgan, an honest man who is forced into running contraband between Cuba and Key West as a means of keeping his crumbling family financially afloat. His adventures lead him into the world of wealthy and dissipated yachtsmen who throng the region, and involve him in a strange and unlikely love affair.
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4 out of 5 stars
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excellent
- By JesseNiles on 2020-06-15
Written by: Ernest Hemingway
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The Old Man and the Sea
- Written by: Ernest Hemingway
- Narrated by: Donald Sutherland
- Length: 2 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 293
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 249
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 249
The Old Man and the Sea is one of Hemingway's most enduring works. Told in language of great simplicity and power, it is the story of an old Cuban fisherman, down on his luck, and his supreme ordeal, a relentless, agonizing battle with a giant marlin far out in the Gulf Stream. Here Hemingway recasts, in strikingly contemporary style, the classic theme of courage in the face of defeat, of personal triumph won from loss.
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5 out of 5 stars
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it really is beautiful
- By Andrew on 2023-04-21
Written by: Ernest Hemingway
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For Whom the Bell Tolls
- Written by: Ernest Hemingway
- Narrated by: Tom Logan
- Length: 19 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall5 out of 5 stars 1
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Performance0 out of 5 stars 0
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Story0 out of 5 stars 0
For Whom the Bell Tolls is a novel by Ernest Hemingway published in 1940. It tells the story of Robert Jordan, a young American volunteer attached to a Republican guerrilla unit during the Spanish Civil War. As a dynamiter, he is assigned to blow up a bridge during an attack on the city of Segovia.
Written by: Ernest Hemingway
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The Snows of Kilimanjaro and Other Stories
- Written by: Ernest Hemingway
- Narrated by: Stacy Keach
- Length: 4 hrs and 54 mins
- Abridged
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Overall3.5 out of 5 stars 9
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 7
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Story4 out of 5 stars 7
The ideal introduction to the genius of Ernest Hemingway, The Snows of Kilimanjaro and Other Stories contains ten of Hemingway's most acclaimed and popular works of short fiction. Selected from Winner Take Nothing, Men Without Women, and The Fifth Column and the First Forty-Nine Stories, this collection includes "The Killers," the first of Hemingway's mature stories to be accepted by an American periodical.
Written by: Ernest Hemingway
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For Whom the Bell Tolls
- Written by: Ernest Hemingway
- Narrated by: Campbell Scott
- Length: 16 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 201
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 168
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 167
In 1937, Ernest Hemingway traveled to Spain to cover the civil war there for the North American Newspaper Alliance. Three years later he completed the greatest novel to emerge from "the good fight", For Whom the Bell Tolls.
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3 out of 5 stars
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Disappointed
- By Anonymous User on 2019-01-10
Written by: Ernest Hemingway
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A Farewell to Arms
- Written by: Ernest Hemingway
- Narrated by: John Slattery
- Length: 8 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 151
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 130
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 130
The best American novel to emerge from World War I, A Farewell to Arms is the unforgettable story of an American ambulance driver on the Italian front and his passion for a beautiful English nurse.
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5 out of 5 stars
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A satisfying story with great narration
- By Ellen Keith on 2018-09-19
Written by: Ernest Hemingway
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To Have and Have Not
- Written by: Ernest Hemingway
- Narrated by: Will Patton
- Length: 5 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 12
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 11
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Story4 out of 5 stars 11
To Have and Have Not is the dramatic story of Harry Morgan, an honest man who is forced into running contraband between Cuba and Key West as a means of keeping his crumbling family financially afloat. His adventures lead him into the world of wealthy and dissipated yachtsmen who throng the region, and involve him in a strange and unlikely love affair.
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4 out of 5 stars
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excellent
- By JesseNiles on 2020-06-15
Written by: Ernest Hemingway
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The Old Man and the Sea
- Written by: Ernest Hemingway
- Narrated by: Donald Sutherland
- Length: 2 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 293
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 249
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 249
The Old Man and the Sea is one of Hemingway's most enduring works. Told in language of great simplicity and power, it is the story of an old Cuban fisherman, down on his luck, and his supreme ordeal, a relentless, agonizing battle with a giant marlin far out in the Gulf Stream. Here Hemingway recasts, in strikingly contemporary style, the classic theme of courage in the face of defeat, of personal triumph won from loss.
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5 out of 5 stars
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it really is beautiful
- By Andrew on 2023-04-21
Written by: Ernest Hemingway
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For Whom the Bell Tolls
- Written by: Ernest Hemingway
- Narrated by: Tom Logan
- Length: 19 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars 1
-
Performance0 out of 5 stars 0
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Story0 out of 5 stars 0
For Whom the Bell Tolls is a novel by Ernest Hemingway published in 1940. It tells the story of Robert Jordan, a young American volunteer attached to a Republican guerrilla unit during the Spanish Civil War. As a dynamiter, he is assigned to blow up a bridge during an attack on the city of Segovia.
Written by: Ernest Hemingway
-
The Snows of Kilimanjaro and Other Stories
- Written by: Ernest Hemingway
- Narrated by: Stacy Keach
- Length: 4 hrs and 54 mins
- Abridged
-
Overall3.5 out of 5 stars 9
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 7
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Story4 out of 5 stars 7
The ideal introduction to the genius of Ernest Hemingway, The Snows of Kilimanjaro and Other Stories contains ten of Hemingway's most acclaimed and popular works of short fiction. Selected from Winner Take Nothing, Men Without Women, and The Fifth Column and the First Forty-Nine Stories, this collection includes "The Killers," the first of Hemingway's mature stories to be accepted by an American periodical.
Written by: Ernest Hemingway
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Green Hills of Africa
- Written by: Ernest Hemingway
- Narrated by: Josh Lucas
- Length: 5 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 16
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 16
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 16
His second major venture into nonfiction (after Death in the Afternoon, 1932), Green Hills of Africa is Ernest Hemingway's lyrical journal of a month on safari in the great game country of East Africa, where he and his wife, Pauline, journeyed in December of 1933. Hemingway's well-known interest in - and fascination with - big-game hunting is magnificently captured in this evocative account of his trip.
Written by: Ernest Hemingway
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A Moveable Feast
- The Restored Edition
- Written by: Ernest Hemingway
- Narrated by: John Bedford Lloyd
- Length: 6 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 28
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 24
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 24
When Ernest Hemingway died in 1961 he had nearly completed A Moveable Feast, which eventually was published posthumously in 1964 and edited by his widow Mary Hemingway. This new special edition of Hemingway's classic memoir of his early years in Paris in the 1920's presents the original manuscript as the author intended it to be published at the time of his death.
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5 out of 5 stars
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I want to give it a 10
- By Roberta W on 2022-12-13
Written by: Ernest Hemingway
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On the Road
- 50th Anniversary Edition
- Written by: Jack Kerouac
- Narrated by: Will Patton
- Length: 11 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 71
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 66
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Story4 out of 5 stars 67
Few novels have had as profound an impact on American culture as On the Road. Pulsating with the rhythms of 1950s underground America, jazz, sex, illicit drugs, and the mystery and promise of the open road, Kerouac’s classic novel of freedom and longing defined what it meant to be “beat” and has inspired generations of writers, musicians, artists, poets, and seekers who cite their discovery of the book as the event that “set them free”.
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5 out of 5 stars
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This is what audiobooks are meant to be.
- By Andriy on 2018-06-28
Written by: Jack Kerouac
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East of Eden
- Written by: John Steinbeck
- Narrated by: Richard Poe
- Length: 25 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall5 out of 5 stars 467
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 408
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Story5 out of 5 stars 406
This sprawling and often brutal novel, set in the rich farmlands of California's Salinas Valley, follows the intertwined destinies of two families - the Trasks and the Hamiltons - whose generations helplessly reenact the fall of Adam and Eve and the poisonous rivalry of Cain and Abel.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Worthy of its reputation
- By M on 2019-01-16
Written by: John Steinbeck
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Death in the Afternoon
- Written by: Ernest Hemingway
- Narrated by: Boyd Gaines
- Length: 9 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 5
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 5
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Story4 out of 5 stars 5
Still considered one of the best books ever written about bullfighting, Death in the Afternoon reflects Hemingway's belief that bullfighting was more than mere sport. Here he describes and explains the technical aspects of this dangerous ritual, and "the emotional and spiritual intensity and pure classic beauty that can be produced by a man, an animal, and a piece of scarlet serge draped on a stick."
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5 out of 5 stars
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The Experience of Hemingway's Spain
- By Dave on 2021-07-29
Written by: Ernest Hemingway
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The Grapes of Wrath
- Written by: John Steinbeck, Robert DeMott
- Narrated by: Dylan Baker
- Length: 21 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 316
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 275
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 273
Shocking and controversial when it was first published in 1939, Steinbeck's Pulitzer prize-winning epic The Grapes of Wrath remains his undisputed masterpiece. Set against the background of Dust Bowl Oklahoma and Californian migrant life, it tells of Tom Joad and his family, who, like thousands of others, are forced to travel west in search of the promised land. Their story is one of false hopes, thwarted desires, and broken dreams, yet out of their suffering Steinbeck created a drama that is intensely human, yet majestic in its scale and moral vision.
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5 out of 5 stars
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The harmonica was a bit much!
- By Amazon Customer on 2020-06-13
Written by: John Steinbeck, and others
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Catch-22
- Written by: Joseph Heller
- Narrated by: Jay O. Sanders
- Length: 19 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 184
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 150
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 151
Set in Italy during World War II, this is the story of the incomparable, malingering bombardier Yossarian, a hero who is furious because thousands of people he has never met are trying to kill him. But his real problem is not the enemy - it is his own army, which keeps increasing the number of missions the men must fly to complete their service. Yet if Yossarian makes any attempt to excuse himself from the perilous missions he's assigned, he'll be in violation of Catch-22.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Great book, tough as audiobook
- By Andrew S on 2018-02-15
Written by: Joseph Heller
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The Crying of Lot 49
- Written by: Thomas Pynchon
- Narrated by: George Wilson
- Length: 6 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall5 out of 5 stars 18
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 14
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 15
Quite unexpectedly, Mrs. Oedipa Maas finds herself the executor of the estate of Pierce Inverarity, a man she used to know in a more-or-less intimate fashion. When Oedipa heads off to Southern California to sort through Pierce's affairs, she becomes ensnared in a hilarious and puzzling worldwide conspiracy.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Great Narration
- By Andrey S. on 2023-04-24
Written by: Thomas Pynchon
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Of Mice and Men
- Written by: John Steinbeck
- Narrated by: Gary Sinise
- Length: 3 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall5 out of 5 stars 265
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 233
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Story5 out of 5 stars 232
Celebrating its 75th anniversary, John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men remains one of America's most widely read and beloved novels. Here is Steinbeck’s dramatic adaptation of his novel-as-play, which received the New York Drama Critics’ Circle Award for Best Play in 1937-1938 and has featured a number of actors who have played the iconic roles of George and Lennie on stage and film, including James Earl Jones, John Malkovich and Gary Sinise.
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3 out of 5 stars
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Great listen, but intro/outro music needs to go
- By Amazon Customer on 2019-04-02
Written by: John Steinbeck
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The Hemingway Stories
- As Featured in the Film by Ken Burns and Lynn Novick on PBS
- Written by: Ernest Hemingway
- Narrated by: Stacy Keach, John Bedford Lloyd, Tobias Wolff
- Length: 7 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 10
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 7
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 7
Showcasing the best of Ernest Hemingway’s short stories including his well-known classics - as featured in the magnificent three-part, six-hour PBS documentary by Ken Burns and Lynn Novick - this new collection is introduced by award-winning author Tobias Wolff.
Written by: Ernest Hemingway
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Pirate Enlightenment, or the Real Libertalia
- Written by: David Graeber
- Narrated by: Roger Davis
- Length: 5 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall5 out of 5 stars 2
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 2
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 2
Pirates have long lived in the realm of romance and fantasy, symbolizing risk, lawlessness, and radical visions of freedom. But at the root of this mythology is a rich history of pirate societies—vibrant, imaginative experiments in self-governance and alternative social formations at the edges of European empire. David Graeber explores how the proto-democratic, even libertarian practices of the Zana-Malata—an ethnic group made up of mixed descendants of pirates who settled on Madagascar at the beginning of the eighteenth century—came to shape the Enlightenment project.
Written by: David Graeber
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Pale Fire
- Written by: Vladimir Nabokov
- Narrated by: Marc Vietor, Robert Blumenfeld
- Length: 9 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 12
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 10
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 10
A 999 line poem in heroic couplets, divided into 4 cantos, was composed - according to Nabokov's fiction - by John Francis Shade, an obsessively methodical man, during the last 20 days of his life.
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5 out of 5 stars
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I didnt mind re-reading it 3 times!
- By Amazon Customer on 2018-09-20
Written by: Vladimir Nabokov
Publisher's Summary
Originally published in 1926, The Sun Also Rises is Ernest Hemingway’s first novel and a classic example of his spare but powerful writing style.
A poignant look at the disillusionment and angst of the post-World War I generation, the novel introduces two of Hemingway’s most unforgettable characters: Jake Barnes and Lady Brett Ashley. The story follows the flamboyant Brett and the hapless Jake as they journey from the wild nightlife of 1920s Paris to the brutal bullfighting rings of Spain with a motley group of expatriates. In his first great literary masterpiece, Hemingway portrays an age of moral bankruptcy, spiritual dissolution, unrealized love, and vanishing illusions.
What the critics say
2007 Audie Award Finalist for Classics
"An absorbing, beautifully and tenderly absurd, heart-breaking narrative....It is a truly gripping story, told in lean, hard athletic prose...magnificent." (The New York Times)
“The ideal companion for troubled times: equal parts Continental escape and serious grappling with the question of what it means to be, and feel, lost.” (The Wall Street Journal)
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What listeners say about The Sun Also Rises
Average Customer RatingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Mauro
- 2019-09-12
By far the best book I've listened to
Hemingway's story is superb and William Hurt really brings it to life. I don't understand why so many listeners here were disappointed by the reader, I almost gave up listening to this book. I'm glad I didn't. Hurt did a great job adapting Hemingway's style to audio.
1 person found this helpful
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Overall1 out of 5 stars
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Performance1 out of 5 stars
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Story1 out of 5 stars
- Anonymous User
- 2023-05-16
Out of date
This book is full of tired dandies and chats about nothing important. In a hundred years, people won’t be reading this other than for pure historical value. Boring.
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Overall1 out of 5 stars
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Performance3 out of 5 stars
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Story1 out of 5 stars
- Eric Hellsten
- 2023-01-18
Boring and pointless
Descriptive writing to a fault. I guess I am not a Hemi great fan so it will save me the trouble of reading any more of his novels.
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Overall2 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story1 out of 5 stars
- Isana
- 2022-11-19
boring!
I thought I love Hemingway. Read The Man and the Sea, as well as For Whom the Bell Tolls. I was so deeply touched by both those books. This one, however, goes on and on about the same daily routines... It's a shame to return a book of a well-known good author, but I can't keep listening. It's quite depressing too.
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Overall2 out of 5 stars
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Performance3 out of 5 stars
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Story2 out of 5 stars
- James
- 2022-11-07
A book about going to cafes
I’ve always heard about Ernst Hemingway and thought I should give one of his books a try. I read on google the sun also rises was well received by readers so that’s the one I chose.
Most of the book goes, we went into a cafe and ordered a drink.
We then hailed a cab went down the road and went to another cafe.
In the morning we got up and had breakfast at a cafe.
Maybe before the internet people eating in cafes in Paris and Spain was more interesting. Having said that there is something about how he writes his characters because I stuck to it and wanted to see the book to the end no matter how boring I thought the plot was. We all know a Brett lol.
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story1 out of 5 stars
- Larry Smith
- 2022-07-15
Boring as sawdust
I don't often quit a book but I had to make an exception in this case. Was the memory of this work why Hemingway shot himself?
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance3 out of 5 stars
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Story3 out of 5 stars
- Alexander Turner
- 2021-07-29
Not Hemmingway's best work
I am glad I read 'For Whom the Bell Tolls' first as this would have made me skeptical of Hemmingway's books
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- errington collett
- 2021-06-17
I was transported into this novel...
One of the better audio books I've listened to in a while. I think I could listen to William Hurt recite the New York yellow pages.
I've read this before but it's equally enjoyable spoken in words from an great orator..
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- LM
- 2021-04-22
Well narrated
Well written and we'll narrated by William Hurt. The story is very captivating despite being more of a slice of life story where not much happens.
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story2 out of 5 stars
- Michael Broks
- 2020-03-09
Not entirely sure what the point was
MInd you I suppose I should cut Hemingway the same slack as I am willing to cut Tolstoy for say Anna Karinina. I guess some writers enjoyed writng about people who don't appear to accomplish very much which only enforces my wish to be a Russian aristocrat in the 1830's or apparently a North American expatriote in France prior to WW!!. But seriously, as much as I enjoyed reading about the cultural milieu and the angst of these 30 somethings?? living in it, I didn't find this story to be as profound as I had hoped. I will not call it boring but I willl say I thought the narrator fit the tone of the story perfectly. I mighty have to listen again to see if I missed anything.
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Overall2 out of 5 stars
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Performance1 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Kerry
- 2014-09-14
Great actor, terrible reader, kills classic
What didn’t you like about William Hurt’s performance?
His foreign accents are abominable. Even his performance of the main character is completely flat. Frankly, I didn't even finish listening because the accents were so distracting!
49 people found this helpful
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance2 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Darryl
- 2013-08-28
love Hemingway, not Hurt
I'm sorry but William Hurt hurts this novel. He does fine with the dialogue passages which makes sense i guess as an actor, but his voice and bored rendition of the narrative passages is just plain poor. At times as he's reading it seemed that he was seeing the text for the first time, his emphasis and inflection is off all over the place.
This is a great novel and I wish they would get the reading by Adams that Books on Tape had that I bought the cassettes of years ago. Much better reading. Adams did many of EH's novels and did them well, and though then I may have wished for variety in voices, I'd take those now.
Nice idea to have distinctive voices for EH, but you need some more dynamic readers, not ones that sound bored by the project. Donald Sutherland is a great actor, but a terrible reader of Old Man. Get the Charlton Heston versions of Old Man and Snows if you can and Scourby's reading of Macomber is awesome, Heston and Scourby are perfection.
42 people found this helpful
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance2 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- MJI
- 2015-04-17
Disappointed with narration
Wished I had read rather than listened. Very weak narration as compared to other audible books. Hemingway no problem.... Weak acting
40 people found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
- Gerald
- 2006-11-29
Bravo Papa!
This is possibly the best audio book I have ever listened to. William Hurt's narration is masterful bordering on dramatization but never losing touch with the classic Hemingway prose. This is one of those rare books that I did not want to end. It is altogether possible I will listen to it again simply because it was such a pleasure.
34 people found this helpful
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Overall1 out of 5 stars
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Performance1 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Katie
- 2014-01-10
WORST preformance of an audio book! Ever!
Would you try another book from Ernest Hemingway and/or William Hurt?
Ernest Hemmingway - yes. William Hurt - never again.
Would you be willing to try another one of William Hurt’s performances?
No. No. No. Such a boing performance. I've read this story 2 times and thought I'd try listening to my (once) favorite story. Almost abandoned listening to the story multiple times. No tone change in the character's voice. It was like listening to a teenager tell a story he really doesn't want to tell. Monotone and boooreing!
You didn’t love this book... but did it have any redeeming qualities?
The story is fantastic.
Any additional comments?
If you're a fan of Ernest Hemmingway, stick to the printed version of this book and try For Whom the Bell Tolls in audio version.
23 people found this helpful
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Overall2 out of 5 stars
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Performance1 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Just this guy
- 2014-10-27
Utterly painful droning narration.
This book wasn’t for you, but who do you think might enjoy it more?
Insomniacs. People who unreservedly love William Hurt
What was one of the most memorable moments of The Sun Also Rises?
Giving up and turning the awful droning off.
Who would you have cast as narrator instead of William Hurt?
I cant stay awake through the "Hurt" I realize there are all different tastes and people prefer different narrational styles. However William Hurt to my ears is so painfully flat, droning, and lacking any real character depth in his narration as to make this book listenable. I have had this book for over 6 months and have tried to listen to is many times without success. This is very rare for me to be unable to listen to a story (especially a well written story) due to the narrator. I have narrators I prefer not to listen to (Scott Brick) however I still managed to listen through a @40 hour book (The Company) multiple times in the years it has been in my library. This book however is possibly the first time in my @15 years as an Audible subscriber I can't manage to finish to a book I purchased. Hell I doubt I have managed to stay awake through more than the first couple of hours. As for who to read this story, I would say Campbell Scott. He did a fantastic job on For Whom the Bell Tolls. For me Campbell Scott just gets the Hemingway pacing, cool and tonality.
What reaction did this book spark in you? Anger, sadness, disappointment?
Hugely disappointed by the monotone narration. Such a waste of a good story and a credit.
Any additional comments?
Listen to the sample very carefully, It doesn't get any better and probably gets much worse. ZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzz Can I get a refund for this wasted credit?
22 people found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Anonymous User
- 2018-06-18
William Hurt captures 'The Lost Generation'
I have been a long-time Audible customer (and before that, Books on Tape . . . ). I have never written a review before, but was prompted to do so by the many scathing reviews of William Hurt's narration of this title. Let me just say, I strongly dissent -- and I say that as someone who is not a particular fan of Mr. Hurt as an actor. This book is, at its heart, a vivid portrait of "The Lost Generation," devastated by The Great War; disillusioned by the United States they found at home after the war; and now broken and adrift in a fog of alcohol as they wander about Europe. To my ears, Mr. Hurt's narration captures this morally exhausted mindset perfectly. He sounds world-weary, benumbed by all that has happened to him and his friends. Indeed, he seems exactly like I would expect Jake Barnes to sound if he were sitting across the bar at 2 AM, many empty bottles of wine sitting between us, as he tells me the story of his adventures with Lady Brett Ashley and the rest of his hard drinking, hard living crew. For anyone who admires this classic novel -- or who wants to experience it as I suspect Hemingway would have intended -- I highly recommend this audible version. And kudos to Mr. Hurt for truly bringing this tragic story to life in a way the mere reading the book never did for me.
17 people found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
- Arizonablaze
- 2007-06-28
Excellent narration
I had to read this book for a university course. First I read the novel myself and then listened to William Hurt's narration. He made the novel come alive for me and inspired me to write my essay on this novel. I especially enjoyed his characterization of Bill's dialogue. I would recommend this audio book to anyone looking for an enjoyable experience.
17 people found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
- Johnny
- 2007-06-11
What a great reading!
William Hurt's narration of this novel is simply amazing. His voice makes the story come to life, and his rendition of Mike (the drunken Scottsman) made me really fall in love with the story.
Hurt's excellent French pronunciations also helps considering I have no working knowledge of how to speak romance languages. This story was great from beginning to end. An audible must have!
15 people found this helpful
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance1 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- ChrisMac
- 2014-04-07
Great story badly read.
Would you consider the audio edition of The Sun Also Rises to be better than the print version?
William Hurt's bizarre phrasing of the narrative portions was a Major distraction. His rendering of Spanish and French accents was very good, but Bret's English accent was truly bizarre.
What was one of the most memorable moments of The Sun Also Rises?
The bullfights, beautifully, graphically, tragically described mirrored the encounters of the main characters, always coming closer to each other, to love or to fight, and then backing away, a tangled dance like that of matador and bull, dodging, feinting, charging and ending, not in death, but still with a sense of tragedy.
Would you be willing to try another one of William Hurt’s performances?
No. Not ever.
13 people found this helpful