28 Best France Books
France is a popular category for many book lovers. Our team at Speechify has curated a list of the top France audiobooks everyone must read.
See the top 28 France audiobooks below.
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Hero of Two Worlds
- By: Mike Duncan
- Narrator: Mike Duncan
- Length: 17 hours 20 minutes
- Publisher: Hachette Audio
- Publish date: August 24, 2021
- Language: English
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4.53(3228 ratings)
4.53(3228 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0038.99 USDFrom the bestselling author of The Storm Before the Storm and host of the Revolutions podcast comes the thrilling story of the Marquis de Lafayette’s lifelong quest to defend the principles of liberty and equality Few in history can match theFrom the bestselling author of The Storm Before the Storm and host of the Revolutions podcast comes the thrilling story of the Marquis de Lafayette’s lifelong quest to defend the principles of liberty and equality
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Few in history can match the revolutionary career of the Marquis de Lafayette. Over fifty incredible years at the heart of the Age of Revolution, he fought courageously on both sides of the Atlantic. He was a soldier, statesman, idealist, philanthropist, and abolitionist.
As a teenager, Lafayette ran away from France to join the American Revolution. Returning home a national hero, he helped launch the French Revolution, eventually spending five years locked in dungeon prisons. After his release, Lafayette sparred with Napoleon, joined an underground conspiracy to overthrow King Louis XVIII, and became an international symbol of liberty. Finally, as a revered elder statesman, he was instrumental in the overthrow of the Bourbon Dynasty in the Revolution of 1830.
From enthusiastic youth to world-weary old age, from the pinnacle of glory to the depths of despair, Lafayette never stopped fighting for the rights of all mankind. His remarkable life is the story of where we come from, and an inspiration to defend the ideals he held dear. -
Back Over There
- By: Richard Rubin
- Narrator: Richard Rubin
- Length: 13 hours 2 minutes
- Publisher: Macmillan Audio
- Publish date: April 04, 2017
- Language: English
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4.34(144 ratings)
4.34(144 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0026.99 USDBased on Richard Rubin’s wildly popular New York Times series, Back Over There is a timely journey, in turns reverent and iconoclastic but always fascinating, through a place where the past and present are never really separated.In The Last ofBased on Richard Rubin’s wildly popular New York Times series, Back Over There is a timely journey, in turns reverent and iconoclastic but always fascinating, through a place where the past and present are never really separated.
In The Last of the Doughboys, Richard Rubin introduced readers to a forgotten generation of Americans: the men and women who fought and won the First World War. Interviewing the war’s last survivors face-to-face, he knew well the importance of being present if you want to get the real story. But he soon came to realize that to get the whole story, he had to go Over There, too. So he did, and discovered that while most Americans regard that war as dead and gone, to the French, who still live among its ruins and memories, it remains very much alive.Years later, with the centennial of the war only magnifying this paradox, Rubin decided to go back Over There to see if he could, at last, resolve it. For months he followed the trail of the American Expeditionary Forces on the Western Front, finding trenches, tunnels, bunkers, century-old graffiti and ubiquitous artifacts. But he also found an abiding fondness for America and Americans, and a colorful corps of local after-hours historians and archeologists who tirelessly explore these sites and preserve the memories they embody while patiently waiting for Americans to return and reclaim their own history and heritage. None of whom seemed to mind that his French needed work.
This program is read by the author.
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Dear Paris
- By: Janice MacLeod
- Length: 5 hours 19 minutes
- Publisher: Andrews McMeel Publishing
- Publish date: January 01, 2021
- Language: English
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4.26(146 ratings)
4.26(146 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0014.99 USDBe transported to the banks of the Seine, a corner boulangerie, or beneath the Eiffel Tower with these beautifully illustrated vignettes of life in the City of Light. What began as a way to fund travel became ten years of a letter subscriptionBe transported to the banks of the Seine, a corner boulangerie, or beneath the Eiffel Tower with these beautifully illustrated vignettes of life in the City of Light. What began as a way to fund travel became ten years of a letter subscription service delivering thousands of painted letters to subscribers who delight in fun mail!
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Eat, Pray, Love meets Claude Monet in this epistolary ode to Paris. What started as a whim in a Latin Quarter cafe blossomed into Janice MacLeod’s yearslong endeavor to document and celebrate life in Paris, sending monthly snippets of her paintings and writings to the mailboxes of ardent followers around the world. Now, Dear Paris collects the entirety of the Paris Letters project: 140 illustrated messages discussing everything from macarons to Montmartre.
For readers familiar with the city, Dear Paris is a rendezvous with their own memories, like the first time they walked along the Champs-Elysees or the best pain au chocolat they’ve ever tasted. But it’s about more than just a Paris frozen in nostalgia; the book paints the city as it is today, through elections, protests, and the World Cup–and through the people who call it home. Wistful, charming, surprising, and unfailingly optimistic, Dear Paris is a vicarious visit to one of the most iconic and beloved places in the world.
This audiobook purchase includes a PDF supplement of a selection of the illustrated letters from the Paris Letters project. -
The Resistance Man
- By: Martin Walker
- Narrator: Martin Walker
- Length: 10 hours 16 minutes
- Publisher: Recorded Books, Inc.
- Publish date: February 25, 2014
- Language: English
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4.11(2902 ratings)
4.11(2902 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0024.99 USDBruno CourrEges–provincial French police chief extraordinaire–is back in another delectable tale of mystery and suspense that unfolds in the gastronomically ravishing Dordogne. -
The Crowded Grave
- By: Martin Walker
- Narrator: Martin Walker
- Length: 10 hours 14 minutes
- Publisher: Recorded Books, Inc.
- Publish date: July 03, 2012
- Language: English
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4.09(3856 ratings)
4.09(3856 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0024.99 USDAnother delectable serving of mystery and the pleasures of the Dordogne from the newest master of suspense, Martin Walker. It’ s spring in the idyllic village of St. Denis, and for Chief of Police Bruno CourrEges that means lamb stews, bottlesAnother delectable serving of mystery and the pleasures of the Dordogne from the newest master of suspense, Martin Walker. It’ s spring in the idyllic village of St. Denis, and for Chief of Police Bruno CourrEges that means lamb stews, bottles of his beloved Pomerol, morning walks with his hound, Gigi– and a new string of regional crimes and international capers. When a local archaeological team looking for Cro-Magnon and Neanderthal remains turns up a corpse with a watch on its wrist and a bullet in its head, it’ s up to Bruno to solve the case. But the task will not be easy, not with a meddlesome new magistrate eager to make a strong impression, an ongoing series of attacks by animal rights activists on local foie gras producers, and a nearby summit between France and Spain approaching– not to mention two beautiful, brilliant women vying for Bruno’ s affections. Complicating events even further, the professor in charge of the dig is soon reported missing, leading Bruno to suspect that the past and the present are bound up in dangerous ways. As summer approaches, the wine growing cooler and the fruit sweeter, Bruno’s investigations take him indelibly deeper into contemporary Europe’ s dark history of terrorist and counterterrorist tactics– and toward a dramatic finale. As savory as foie gras, as piquant as vin de noix, and as richly complex as the region’ s truffles, The Crowded Grave is a feast for mystery lovers and Francophiles alike.
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The Saboteur
- By: Paul Kix
- Narrator: Malcolm Hillgartner
- Length: 7 hours 14 minutes
- Publisher: HarperAudio
- Publish date: December 05, 2017
- Language: English
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4.01(931 ratings)
4.01(931 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0018.99 USDIn the tradition of Agent Zigzag comes this breathtaking biography, as fast-paced and emotionally intuitive as the very best spy thrillers, which illuminates an unsung hero of the French Resistance during World War II–Robert de LaIn the tradition of Agent Zigzag comes this breathtaking biography, as fast-paced and emotionally intuitive as the very best spy thrillers, which illuminates an unsung hero of the French Resistance during World War II–Robert de La Rochefoucald, an aristocrat turned anti-Nazi saboteur–and his daring exploits as a resistant trained by Britain’s Special Operations Executive.
A scion of one of the most storied families in France, Robert de La Rochefoucald was raised in magnificent chateaux and educated in Europe’s finest schools. When the Nazis invaded and imprisoned his father, La Rochefoucald escaped to England and learned the dark arts of anarchy and combat–cracking safes and planting bombs and killing with his bare hands–from the officers of Special Operations Executive, the collection of British spies, beloved by Winston Churchill, who altered the war in Europe with tactics that earned it notoriety as the “Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare.” With his newfound skills, La Rochefoucauld returned to France and organized Resistance cells, blew up fortified compounds and munitions factories, interfered with Germans’ war-time missions, and executed Nazi officers. Caught by the Germans, La Rochefoucald withstood months of torture without cracking, and escaped his own death, not once but twice.
The Saboteur recounts La Rochefoucauld’s enthralling adventures, from jumping from a moving truck on his way to his execution to stealing Nazi limos to dressing up in a nun’s habit–one of his many disguises and impersonations. Whatever the mission, whatever the dire circumstance, La Rochefoucauld acquitted himself nobly, with the straight-back aplomb of a man of aristocratic breeding: James Bond before Ian Fleming conjured him.
More than just a fast-paced, true thriller, The Saboteur is also a deep dive into an endlessly fascinating historical moment, telling the untold story of a network of commandos that battled evil, bravely worked to change the course of history, and inspired the creation of America’s own Central Intelligence Agency.
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Citizens
- By: Simon Schama
- Narrator: Frederick Davidson
- Length: 36 hours 48 minutes
- Publisher: Blackstone Publishing
- Publish date: January 01, 2012
- Language: English
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4.01(4978 ratings)
4.01(4978 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0039.95 USDFrom one of the truly preeminent historians of our time, this is a landmark book chronicling the French Revolution. Simon Schama deftly refutes the contemporary notion that the French Revolution represented an uprising of the oppressed poor againstFrom one of the truly preeminent historians of our time, this is a landmark book chronicling the French Revolution. Simon Schama deftly refutes the contemporary notion that the French Revolution represented an uprising of the oppressed poor against a decadent aristocracy and corrupt court. He argues instead that the revolution was born of a rift among the elite over the speed of progress toward modernity and science, social and economic change. Schama’s approach, weaving in and out of private and public lives in the fashion of a novel, brings us closer than we have ever been to the harrowing and seductive French Revolution.
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Peter Mayle’s Provence
- By: Peter Mayle
- Narrator: Peter Mayle
- Length: 6 hours 5 minutes
- Publisher: Macmillan Audio
- Publish date: March 07, 2001
- Language: English
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3.98(66799 ratings)
3.98(66799 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0019.99 USDWhen Peter Mayle and his wife traded England’s long, gray winters and damp summers for life in southern France, they entered an enchanting, wonderful, sometimes bewildering world. Now, share their adventures, pleasures, and frustrations: theWhen Peter Mayle and his wife traded England’s long, gray winters and damp summers for life in southern France, they entered an enchanting, wonderful, sometimes bewildering world. Now, share their adventures, pleasures, and frustrations: the joys and occasional hazards of wining and dining in France, taking part in goat races, attending a Pavorotti concert under the stars — and much more. Meet Provence’s unique characters: a wary truffle hunter, a gourmet in a track suit, the wise and crafty Massot — and many more. Funny, touching, endearing — Peter Mayle’s Provence proves the adage that while you may not be able to escape from it all, you sure can have fun trying.
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A Year in Provence
- By: Peter Mayle
- Narrator: Peter Mayle
- Length: 2 hours 52 minutes
- Publisher: Macmillan Audio
- Publish date: November 01, 2004
- Language: English
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3.98(66799 ratings)
3.98(66799 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0010.99 USDMore than 40,000 listeners have enjoyed this story on cassette. Now anyone who’s ever dreamed of getting away from it all can enjoy the charms and challenges of A Year in Provence on CD!Peter Mayle and his wife had been to Provence asMore than 40,000 listeners have enjoyed this story on cassette. Now anyone who’s ever dreamed of getting away from it all can enjoy the charms and challenges of A Year in Provence on CD!
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Peter Mayle and his wife had been to Provence as tourists. They had dreamed of one day trading the long, gray winters and damp summers of England for the blue skies and sunshine of the coast of southern France. And then they made it happen.
They moved into an old farmhouse at the foot of the Luberon mountains and embarked on a wonderful, if at times bewildering, new life. Among their experiences that first year: being inundated with builders and visitors, grappling with the native accent, taking part in goat races and supervising the planting of a new vineyard.
Peter Mayle personally recounts the pleasures and frustrations of Provencal life–sharing in a way no one else can, the unique and endearing culture that is Provence.
A Year in Provence was a New York Times bestseller for three years and won the British Book Awards’ “Best Travel Book of the Year.” -
Catherine de Medici
- By: Leonie Frieda
- Narrator: Sarah Le Fevre
- Length: 21 hours 36 minutes
- Publisher: HarperAudio
- Publish date: October 16, 2018
- Language: English
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3.96(6542 ratings)
3.96(6542 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.004.99 USDThe inspiration for the STARZ original series, The Serpent Queen, premiering September 11. “A beautifully written portrait of a ruthless, subtle and fearless woman fighting for survival and power in a world of gangsterish brutality, routineThe inspiration for the STARZ original series, The Serpent Queen, premiering September 11.
“A beautifully written portrait of a ruthless, subtle and fearless woman fighting for survival and power in a world of gangsterish brutality, routine assassination and religious mania. . . . Frieda has brought a largely forgotten heroine-villainess and a whole sumptuously vicious era back to life. . . . This is The Godfather meets Elizabeth.” –Simon Sebag Montefiore, author of Stalin: The Court of the Red Tsar
Poisoner, besotted mother, despot, necromancer, engineer of a massacre: the dark legend of Catherine de Medici is centuries old. In this critically hailed biography, Leonie Frieda reclaims the story of this unjustly maligned queen of France to reveal a skilled ruler battling extraordinary political and personal odds.
Based on comprehensive research including thousands of Catherine’s own letters, Frieda unfurls Catherine’s story from her troubled childhood in Florence to her tumultuous marriage to Henry II of France; her transformation of French culture to her reign as a queen who would use brutality to ensure her children’s royal birthright. Brilliantly executed, this enthralling biography goes beyond myth to paint a very human portrait of this remarkable figure.
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(Not Quite) Mastering the Art of French Living
- By: Mark Greenside
- Narrator: Richard Poe
- Length: 8 hours 15 minutes
- Publisher: Blackstone Publishing
- Publish date: January 01, 2020
- Language: English
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3.94(338 ratings)
3.94(338 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0019.95 USDEvery year upon arriving in Plobien, the small Breton town where he spends his summers, American writer Mark Greenside picks back up where he left off with his faux-pas-filled Francophile life. Mellowed and humbled, but not daunted (OK, slightlyEvery year upon arriving in Plobien, the small Breton town where he spends his summers, American writer Mark Greenside picks back up where he left off with his faux-pas-filled Francophile life. Mellowed and humbled, but not daunted (OK, slightly daunted), he faces imminent concerns: What does he cook for a French person? Who has the right-of-way when entering or exiting a roundabout? Where does he pay for a parking ticket? And most dauntingly of all, when can he touch the tomatoes?
Despite the two decades that have passed since Greenside’s snap decision to buy a house in Brittany and begin a bi-continental life, the quirks of French living still manage to confound him. Continuing the journey begun in his 2009 memoir about beginning life in France, (Not Quite) Mastering the Art of French Living details Greenside’s daily adventures in his adopted French home, where the simplest tasks are never straightforward but always end in a great story. Through some hits and lots of misses, he learns the rules of engagement, how he gets what he needs–which is not necessarily what he thinks he wants–and how to be grateful and thankful when (especially when) he fails, which is more often than he can believe.
Introducing the English-speaking world to the region of Brittany in the tradition of Peter Mayle’s homage to Provence, Mark Greenside’s first book, I’ll Never Be French, continues to be among the bestselling books about the region today. Experienced Francophiles and armchair travelers alike will delight in this new chapter exploring the practical and philosophical questions of French life, vividly brought to life by Greenside’s humor and affection for his community.
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The Greater Journey
- By: David McCullough
- Narrator: Edward Herrmann
- Length: 8 hours 48 minutes
- Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio
- Publish date: January 01, 2011
- Language: English
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3.93(17066 ratings)
3.93(17066 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0017.95 USDThe #1 bestseller that tells the remarkable story of the generations of American artists, writers, and doctors who traveled to Paris, fell in love with the city and its people, and changed America through what they learned, told by America’sThe #1 bestseller that tells the remarkable story of the generations of American artists, writers, and doctors who traveled to Paris, fell in love with the city and its people, and changed America through what they learned, told by America’s master historian, David McCullough.
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Not all pioneers went west.
In The Greater Journey, David McCullough tells the enthralling, inspiring–and until now, untold–story of the adventurous American artists, writers, doctors, politicians, and others who set off for Paris in the years between 1830 and 1900, hungry to learn and to excel in their work. What they achieved would profoundly alter American history.
Elizabeth Blackwell, the first female doctor in America, was one of this intrepid band. Another was Charles Sumner, whose encounters with black students at the Sorbonne inspired him to become the most powerful voice for abolition in the US Senate. Friends James Fenimore Cooper and Samuel F. B. Morse worked unrelentingly every day in Paris, Morse not only painting what would be his masterpiece, but also bringing home his momentous idea for the telegraph. Harriet Beecher Stowe traveled to Paris to escape the controversy generated by her book, Uncle Tom’s Cabin. Three of the greatest American artists ever–sculptor Augustus Saint-Gaudens, painters Mary Cassatt and John Singer Sargent–flourished in Paris, inspired by French masters.
Almost forgotten today, the heroic American ambassador Elihu Washburne bravely remained at his post through the Franco-Prussian War, the long Siege of Paris, and the nightmare of the Commune. His vivid diary account of the starvation and suffering endured by the people of Paris is published here for the first time.
Telling their stories with power and intimacy, McCullough brings us into the lives of remarkable men and women who, in Saint-Gaudens’ phrase, longed “to soar into the blue.” -
The Greater Journey
- By: David McCullough
- Narrator: Edward Herrmann
- Length: 16 hours 50 minutes
- Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio
- Publish date: January 01, 2011
- Language: English
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3.93(17066 ratings)
3.93(17066 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0029.95 USDThe #1 bestseller that tells the remarkable story of the generations of American artists, writers, and doctors who traveled to Paris, fell in love with the city and its people, and changed America through what they learned, told by America’sThe #1 bestseller that tells the remarkable story of the generations of American artists, writers, and doctors who traveled to Paris, fell in love with the city and its people, and changed America through what they learned, told by America’s master historian, David McCullough.
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Not all pioneers went west.
In The Greater Journey, David McCullough tells the enthralling, inspiring–and until now, untold–story of the adventurous American artists, writers, doctors, politicians, and others who set off for Paris in the years between 1830 and 1900, hungry to learn and to excel in their work. What they achieved would profoundly alter American history.
Elizabeth Blackwell, the first female doctor in America, was one of this intrepid band. Another was Charles Sumner, whose encounters with black students at the Sorbonne inspired him to become the most powerful voice for abolition in the US Senate. Friends James Fenimore Cooper and Samuel F. B. Morse worked unrelentingly every day in Paris, Morse not only painting what would be his masterpiece, but also bringing home his momentous idea for the telegraph. Harriet Beecher Stowe traveled to Paris to escape the controversy generated by her book, Uncle Tom’s Cabin. Three of the greatest American artists ever–sculptor Augustus Saint-Gaudens, painters Mary Cassatt and John Singer Sargent–flourished in Paris, inspired by French masters.
Almost forgotten today, the heroic American ambassador Elihu Washburne bravely remained at his post through the Franco-Prussian War, the long Siege of Paris, and the nightmare of the Commune. His vivid diary account of the starvation and suffering endured by the people of Paris is published here for the first time.
Telling their stories with power and intimacy, McCullough brings us into the lives of remarkable men and women who, in Saint-Gaudens’ phrase, longed “to soar into the blue.” -
Revolutionary Brothers
- By: Tom Chaffin
- Narrator: Rick Adamson
- Length: 17 hours 22 minutes
- Publisher: Macmillan Audio
- Publish date: November 26, 2019
- Language: English
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3.9(151 ratings)
3.9(151 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0032.99 USD“…a gripping narrative that offers a revelatory perspective on the combined origins of two nations…compelling drama and instructive history.” — Wall Street JournalIn a narrative both panoramic and intimate, Tom Chaffin“…a gripping narrative that offers a revelatory perspective on the combined origins of two nations…compelling drama and instructive history.” — Wall Street Journal
In a narrative both panoramic and intimate, Tom Chaffin captures the four-decade friendship of Thomas Jefferson and the Marquis de Lafayette.
Thomas Jefferson and the Marquis de Lafayette shared a singularly extraordinary friendship, one involved in the making of two revolutions–and two nations. Jefferson first met Lafayette in 1781, when the young French-born general was dispatched to Virginia to assist Jefferson, then the state’s governor, in fighting off the British. The charismatic Lafayette, hungry for glory, could not have seemed more different from Jefferson, the reserved statesman. But when Jefferson, a newly-appointed diplomat, moved to Paris three years later, speaking little French and in need of a partner, their friendship began in earnest.As Lafayette opened doors in Paris and Versailles for Jefferson, so too did the Virginian stand by Lafayette as the Frenchman became inexorably drawn into the maelstrom of his country’s revolution. Jefferson counseled Lafayette as he drafted The Declaration of the Rights of Man and remained a firm supporter of the French Revolution, even after he returned to America in 1789. By 1792, however, the upheaval had rendered Lafayette a man without a country, locked away in a succession of Austrian and Prussian prisons. The burden fell on Jefferson and Lafayette’s other friends to win his release. The two would not see each other again until 1824, in a powerful and emotional reunion at Jefferson’s Monticello.
Steeped in primary sources, Revolutionary Brothers casts fresh light on this remarkable, often complicated, friendship of two extraordinary men.
“Revolutionary Brothers is a compelling narrative of an epic–and unlikely–friendship from the Enlightenment era, enlivened by bracing plot-turns and vividly-drawn characters.”–Walter S. Isaacson, bestselling author of Benjamin Franklin: An American Life
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Marie Antoinette
- By: Evelyne Lever
- Narrator: Lorna Raver
- Length: 14 hours 33 minutes
- Publisher: Blackstone Publishing
- Publish date: January 01, 2006
- Language: English
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3.88(1050 ratings)
3.88(1050 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0024.95 USDMarried for political reasons at the age of fourteen, Marie Antoinette was naïve, impetuous, and ill equipped for the role in which history cast her. From her birth in Vienna in 1755 through her turbulent, unhappy marriage, the bloody turmoilMarried for political reasons at the age of fourteen, Marie Antoinette was naïve, impetuous, and ill equipped for the role in which history cast her. From her birth in Vienna in 1755 through her turbulent, unhappy marriage, the bloody turmoil of the French Revolution, her trial for high treason (during which she was accused of incest), and her final beheading, Marie Antoinette’s life was the tragic tale of disastrous circumstances colliding.
Drawing upon her diaries, letters, court records, and memoirs, Evelyne Lever paints vivid portraits of Marie Antoinette, her inner circle, and the lavish court life at Versailles. Marie Antoinette dispels the myth of the callous queen whose supposed response to her starving subjects was the comment, “Let them eat cake.” What emerges instead is a surprisingly average woman thrust into a position for which she was wholly unprepared, a combination that proved disastrous both for her and for France. This is the revealing story of how Marie Antoinette kept her dignity and courage when Fate turned its back and she lost everything: throne, children, husband, and—in a very public and cruel execution—her life.
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A Girl’s Story
- By: Annie Ernaux
- Narrator: Tavia Gilbert
- Length: 4 hours 6 minutes
- Publisher: Dreamscape Media
- Publish date: April 21, 2020
- Language: English
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3.87(808 ratings)
3.87(808 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0017.99 USDIn A Girl’s Story, Annie Ernaux revisits a night fifty years earlier when she found herself submerged and controlled by another person’s desire and willpower. It was the summer of 1958, the year she turned eighteen, and the man she hadIn A Girl’s Story, Annie Ernaux revisits a night fifty years earlier when she found herself submerged and controlled by another person’s desire and willpower. It was the summer of 1958, the year she turned eighteen, and the man she had given herself to had moved on. She’d submitted her will to his and then found that she was a slave without a master.
Now, fifty years later, she realizes she can obliterate the intervening years and return to consider the young woman who, until now, she had wanted to forget completely. And, in the process, she also discovers that this was the vital, violent, and dolorous origin of her writing life–her writer’s identity, built out of shame, violence, and betrayal.
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Pancakes in Paris
- By: Craig Carlson
- Narrator: Donald Corren
- Length: 9 hours 3 minutes
- Publisher: Blackstone Publishing
- Publish date: January 01, 2016
- Language: English
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3.81(1527 ratings)
3.81(1527 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0019.95 USDParis was practically perfect–although for Craig Carlson one thing was still missing: the good ol’ American breakfast he loved so much. Craig was the last person anyone would have expected to open an American diner in Paris. He came fromParis was practically perfect–although for Craig Carlson one thing was still missing: the good ol’ American breakfast he loved so much.
Craig was the last person anyone would have expected to open an American diner in Paris. He came from humble beginnings in a working-class town in Connecticut, had never worked in a restaurant, and didn’t know anything about starting a brand-new business. But from his first visit to Paris, Craig knew he had found the city of his dreams.
Pancakes in Paris is the story of Craig tackling the impossible–from raising the money to fund his dream to tracking down international suppliers for “exotic” American ingredients, and even finding love along the way. His diner, Breakfast in America, is now a renowned tourist destination, and the story of how it came to be is just as delicious and satisfying as the classic breakfast that tops its menu.
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Eiffel’s Tower
- By: Jill Jonnes
- Narrator: Jill Jonnes
- Length: 13 hours 6 minutes
- Publisher: Recorded Books, Inc.
- Publish date: July 03, 2009
- Language: English
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3.79(2799 ratings)
3.79(2799 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0024.99 USDReminiscent of Erik Larson’s The Devil in the White City, this fascinating account from acclaimed author Jill Jonnes recaptures the 1889 Paris World’s Fair. Casting vehement criticism aside, Gustave Eiffel built his tower to be theReminiscent of Erik Larson’s The Devil in the White City, this fascinating account from acclaimed author Jill Jonnes recaptures the 1889 Paris World’s Fair. Casting vehement criticism aside, Gustave Eiffel built his tower to be the fair’s centerpiece. Perched at the top all summer, he hosted a string of dignitaries.
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Charles de Gaulle
- By: Don Cook
- Narrator: Frederick Davidson
- Length: 22 hours 45 minutes
- Publisher: Blackstone Publishing
- Publish date: January 01, 2009
- Language: English
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3.75(76 ratings)
3.75(76 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0031.95 USDThis magnificent volume by veteran European correspondent Don Cook is the first major biography of de Gaulle written by an American from an American perspective. Rich with new anecdotal material, it offers fresh evaluations and sheds new light onThis magnificent volume by veteran European correspondent Don Cook is the first major biography of de Gaulle written by an American from an American perspective. Rich with new anecdotal material, it offers fresh evaluations and sheds new light on Europe’s most controversial and enigmatic general, politician, and statesman.
Arrogant, haughty, single-minded in war, politics, and his personal life, Charles de Gaulle ranks in many ways as the most powerful personality of an epoch blessed—or cursed—with powerful men. Hitler, Churchill, Roosevelt, Stalin, Truman, Kennedy, and Khrushchev all locked horns with de Gaulle, and all eventually bowed to his wishes.
This exciting biography takes full measure of the man and his times, when great soldiers and statesmen fought center stage and the fate of the world hung in the balance.
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Sudden Courage
- By: Ronald C. Rosbottom
- Narrator: Michael David Axtell
- Length: 10 hours 5 minutes
- Publisher: HarperAudio
- Publish date: August 13, 2019
- Language: English
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3.72(29 ratings)
3.72(29 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0026.99 USDThe author of the acclaimed When Paris Went Dark, longlisted for the National Book Award, returns to World War II once again to tell the incredible story of the youngest members of the French Resistance–many only teenagers–who waged aThe author of the acclaimed When Paris Went Dark, longlisted for the National Book Award, returns to World War II once again to tell the incredible story of the youngest members of the French Resistance–many only teenagers–who waged a hidden war against the Nazi occupiers and their collaborators in Paris and across France.
On June 14, 1940, German tanks rolled into Paris. Eight days later, France accepted a humiliating defeat and foreign occupation. Most citizens adapted and many even allied themselves with the new fascist leadership. Yet others refused to capitulate; in answer to the ruthless violence, shortages, and curfews imposed by the Nazis, a resistance arose. Among this shadow army were Jews, immigrants, communists, workers, writers, police officers, shop owners, including many young people in their teens and twenties.
Ronald Rosbottom tells the riveting story of how those brave and untested youth went from learning about literature to learning the art of sabotage, from figuring out how to solve an equation to how to stealthily avoid patrols, from passing notes to stealing secrets–and even learning how to kill. The standard challenges of adolescence were amplified and distorted.
Sudden Courage brilliantly evokes this dark and uncertain period, from the beginning of the occupation until the last German left French soil. A chronicle of youthful sacrifice and courage in the face of evil, it is a story that holds relevance for our own time, when democratic nations are once again under threat from rising nativism and authoritarianism. Beyond that, it is a riveting investigation about what it means for a young person to come of age under unpredictable and violent circumstances.
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A Cool and Lonely Courage
- By: Susan Ottaway
- Narrator: Catherine Harvey
- Length: 9 hours 4 minutes
- Publisher: Hachette Audio
- Publish date: September 30, 2014
- Language: English
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3.72(243 ratings)
3.72(243 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.009.98 USDThe incredible true story of British special agents Eileen and Jacqueline Nearne, sisters who risked everything to fight for freedom during the Second World War. When elderly recluse Eileen Nearne died, few suspected that the quiet little old ladyThe incredible true story of British special agents Eileen and Jacqueline Nearne, sisters who risked everything to fight for freedom during the Second World War.
When elderly recluse Eileen Nearne died, few suspected that the quiet little old lady was a decorated WWII war hero. Volunteering to serve for British intelligence at age 21, Eileen was posted to Nazi-occupied France to send encoded messages of crucial importance for the Allies, until her capture by the Gestapo.
Eileen was not the only agent in her family; her sister Jacqueline was a courier for the French resistance. While Jacqueline narrowly avoided arrest, Eileen was tortured by the Nazis, then sent to the infamous Ravensbrvock women’s concentration camp. Astonishingly, this resourceful young woman eventually escaped her captors and found her way to the advancing American army.
In this amazing true story of triumph and tragedy, Susan Ottaway unveils the secret lives of two sisters who sacrificed themselves to defend their country.
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Louis XIV
- By: Josephine Wilkinson
- Narrator: Kate Reading
- Length: 16 hours 25 minutes
- Publisher: Blackstone Publishing
- Publish date: January 01, 2019
- Language: English
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3.7(91 ratings)
3.7(91 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0024.95 USDAn intelligent, authoritative, and often surprising biography of the most famous of French monarchs, by an acclaimed biographer and historian This stylish and incisive narrative presents listeners with a fresh perspective on one of the mostAn intelligent, authoritative, and often surprising biography of the most famous of French monarchs, by an acclaimed biographer and historian
This stylish and incisive narrative presents listeners with a fresh perspective on one of the most fascinating kings in European history. Louis XIV’s story has all the ingredients of a Dumas classic: legendary beginnings, beguiling women, court intrigue, a mysterious prisoner in an iron mask, lavish court entertainments, the scandal of a mistress who was immersed in the dark arts, and a central character who is handsome and romantic, but with a frighteningly dark side to his character.
Louis believed himself to be semi-divine. His self-identification as the Sun King, which was reflected in iconography by the sun god, Apollo, influenced every aspect of Louis’s life: his political philosophy, his wars, and his relationships with courtiers and subjects.
As a military strategist, Louis’s capacity was ambiguous, but he was an astute politician who led his country to the heights of sophistication and power—and then had the misfortune to live long enough to see it all crumble away. As the sun began to set upon this most glorious of reigns, it brought a gathering darkness filled with the anguish of dead heirs, threatened borders, and a populace that was dangerously dependent upon—but greatly distanced from—its king.
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The Vanished Collection
- By: Pauline Baer De Perignon
- Narrator: Allyson Johnson
- Length: 5 hours 40 minutes
- Publisher: Dreamscape Media
- Publish date: January 11, 2022
- Language: English
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3.6(188 ratings)
3.6(188 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0017.99 USDIt all started with a list of paintings. There, scribbled by a cousin she hadn’t seen for years, were the names of the masters whose works once belonged to her great-grandfather, Jules Strauss: Renoir, Monet, Degas, Tiepolo, and more. PaulineIt all started with a list of paintings. There, scribbled by a cousin she hadn’t seen for years, were the names of the masters whose works once belonged to her great-grandfather, Jules Strauss: Renoir, Monet, Degas, Tiepolo, and more. Pauline Baer de Perignon knew little to nothing about Strauss, or about his vanished precious art collection. But the list drove her on a frenzied trail of research in the archives of the Louvre and the Dresden museums, through Gestapo records, and to consult with Nobel laureate Patrick Modiano. What happened in 1942? And what became of the collection after Nazis seized her great-grandparents’ elegant Parisian apartment? The quest takes Pauline Baer de Perignon from the Occupation of France to the present day as she breaks the silence around the wrenching experiences her family never fully transmitted and asks what art itself is capable of conveying over time.
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Hemingway’s France
- By: Winston Conrad
- Narrator: Grover Gardner
- Length: 2 hours 17 minutes
- Publisher: Blackstone Publishing
- Publish date: January 01, 2007
- Language: English
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3.59(206 ratings)
3.59(206 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.009.95 USDErnest Hemingway’s literary ambitions took root in France in the 1920s among some of the most extravagantly creative artists of the twentieth century. Pablo Picasso, Georges Braque, James Joyce, T. S. Eliot, Gertrude Stein, F. ScottErnest Hemingway’s literary ambitions took root in France in the 1920s among some of the most extravagantly creative artists of the twentieth century. Pablo Picasso, Georges Braque, James Joyce, T. S. Eliot, Gertrude Stein, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ezra Pound, Cole Porter, Sergey Diaghilev, and others were drawn to the left bank of the Seine in Paris after World War I. Hemingway joined them, and with the publication of his book, The Sun Also Rises, became one of the most powerful forces in the vortex of talent and experimentation.
Hemingway’s France follows Hemingway’s travels through Paris and the sun-drenched South of France as he gathers material and inspiration for his art. With frequent quotations by Hemingway and his peers, this is a uniquely intimate portrait of an exciting era in the arts.
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My (Part-Time) Paris Life
- By: Lisa Anselmo
- Narrator: Lisa Anselmo
- Length: 7 hours 36 minutes
- Publisher: Macmillan Audio
- Publish date: October 11, 2016
- Language: English
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3.54(682 ratings)
3.54(682 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0019.99 USDLisa Anselmo wrapped her entire life around her mother, a strong woman who was a defining force in Lisa’s life–maybe too defining. When her mother dies from breast cancer, Lisa realizes she hasn’t built a life of her own andLisa Anselmo wrapped her entire life around her mother, a strong woman who was a defining force in Lisa’s life–maybe too defining. When her mother dies from breast cancer, Lisa realizes she hasn’t built a life of her own and struggles to find her purpose. Who is she without her mother–and her mother’s expectations?
Desperate for answers, she turns to her favorite city–Paris–and impulsively buys a small apartment, refusing to play it safe for the first time. What starts out as an act of survival sets Lisa on a course that reshapes her life in ways she never could have imagined. Suddenly, she’s living like a local in a city she thought she knew, but her high school French, while fine for buying bread at the corner boulangerie, goes only so far when Paris gives her a strong dose of real life. From dating to homeownership in a foreign country, Lisa quickly learns it’s not all picnics on the Seine, and starts to doubt herself–and her love of the city. But she came to Paris to be happy, and she can’t give up now. Isn’t happiness worth fighting for?
My (Part-time) Paris Life is a story for anyone who’s ever felt lost or hopeless, but still dreams of something more. This candid memoir explores one woman’s search for peace and meaning, and how the ups and downs of expat life in Paris taught her to let go of fear, find self-worth, and create real, lasting happiness in the City of Light.
This program is read by the author.
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Getting Lost
- By: Annie Ernaux
- Narrator: Tavia Gilbert
- Length: 7 hours 10 minutes
- Publisher: Dreamscape Media
- Publish date: January 31, 2023
- Language: English
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3.5(619 ratings)
3.5(619 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0024.99 USDGetting Lost is the diary Annie Ernaux kept during the year and a half she had a secret love affair with a younger married man, a Russian diplomat. Her novel, Simple Passion, was based on this affair, but here her writing is immediate, unfiltered.Getting Lost is the diary Annie Ernaux kept during the year and a half she had a secret love affair with a younger married man, a Russian diplomat. Her novel, Simple Passion, was based on this affair, but here her writing is immediate, unfiltered. In these diaries, it is 1989, and Annie is divorced with two grown sons, living outside of Paris, and nearing fifty. Her lover escapes the city to see her there, and Ernaux seems to survive only in expectation of these encounters, saying “his desire for me is the only thing I can be sure of.” She cannot write; she trudges distractedly through her various other commitments in the world; she awaits his next call; she lives only to feel desire and for the next rendezvous. When he is gone and the desire has faded, she feels that she is a step closer to death. Lauded for her spare prose, Ernaux here removes all artifice, her writing pared down to its most naked and vulnerable. Getting Lost is as strong a book as any she has written, a haunting, desperate view of a strong and successful woman who seduces a man only to lose herself in love and desire.
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When the United States Spoke French
- By: Francois Furstenberg
- Narrator: Francois Furstenberg
- Length: 17 hours 6 minutes
- Publisher: Recorded Books, Inc.
- Publish date: August 08, 2014
- Language: English
Regular Price:Try for $0.0029.99 USDIn 1789, as the French Revolution shook Europe to the core, the new United States was struggling for survival in the face of financial insolvency and bitter political and regional divisions. When the United States Spoke French explores theIn 1789, as the French Revolution shook Europe to the core, the new United States was struggling for survival in the face of financial insolvency and bitter political and regional divisions. When the United States Spoke French explores the republic’ s formative years from the viewpoint of a distinguished circle of five Frenchmen taking refuge in America. When the French Revolution broke out, these men had been among its leaders. They were liberal aristocrats and ardent Anglophiles, convinced of the superiority of the British system of monarchy and constitution. They also idealized the new American republic, which seemed to them an embodiment of the Enlightenment ideals they celebrated. But soon the Revolutionary movement got ahead of them, and they found themselves chased across the Atlantic. Francois Furstenberg follows these five men– Charles-Maurice de Talleyrand-PErigord, Napoleon’ s future foreign minister; theoristreformer Rochefoucauld, the duc de Liancourt; Louis-Marie Vicomte de Noailles; Moreau de Saint-MEry; and Constantin-Francois Chasseboeuf, Comte Volney– as they left their homes and families in France, crossed the Atlantic, and landed in Philadelphia– then America’ s capital, its principal port, and by far its most cosmopolitan city and the home of the wealthiest merchants and financiers. The book vividly reconstructs their American adventures, following along as they integrated themselves into the city and its elite social networks, began speculating on backcountry lands, and eventually became enmeshed in Franco-American diplomacy. Through their stories, we see some of the most famous events of early American history in a new light, from the diplomatic struggles of the 1790s to the Haitian Revolution to the Louisiana Purchase in 1803. By the end of this period, the United States was on its way to becoming a major global power. Through this small circle of men, we find new ways to understand the connections between U.S. and world history, and gain fresh insight into American history’ s most critical era. Beautifully written and brilliantly argued, When the United States Spoke French offers a fresh perspective on the tumultuous years of the young nation, when the first great republican experiments were put to the test.
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All Blood Runs Red
- By: Tom Clavin
- Narrator: James Shippy
- Length: 8 hours 54 minutes
- Publisher: Harlequin Audio
- Publish date: November 05, 2019
- Language: English
Regular Price:Try for $0.0027.99 USDThe incredible story of the first African American military pilot, who went on to become a Paris nightclub impresario, a spy in the French Resistance and an American civil rights pioneerEugene Bullard lived one of the most fascinating lives of theThe incredible story of the first African American military pilot, who went on to become a Paris nightclub impresario, a spy in the French Resistance and an American civil rights pioneer
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Eugene Bullard lived one of the most fascinating lives of the twentieth century. The son of a former slave and an indigenous Creek woman, Bullard fled home at the age of eleven to escape the racial hostility of his Georgia community. When his journey led him to Europe, he garnered worldwide fame as a boxer, and later as the first African American fighter pilot in history.
After the war, Bullard returned to Paris a celebrated hero. But little did he know that the dramatic, globe-spanning arc of his life had just begun.
All Blood Runs Red is the inspiring untold story of an American hero, a thought-provoking chronicle of the twentieth century and a portrait of a man who came from nothing and by his own courage, determination, gumption, intelligence and luck forged a legendary life.
Cliff Weitzman
Cliff Weitzman is a dyslexia advocate and the CEO and founder of Speechify, the #1 text-to-speech app in the world, totaling over 100,000 5-star reviews and ranking first place in the App Store for the News & Magazines category. In 2017, Weitzman was named to the Forbes 30 under 30 list for his work making the internet more accessible to people with learning disabilities. Cliff Weitzman has been featured in EdSurge, Inc., PC Mag, Entrepreneur, Mashable, among other leading outlets.
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