Eminent Victorians
Giles Lytton Strachey
Read by Margaret Espaillat
On Modern Library's list of 100 Best Non-Fiction books, "Eminent Victorians" marked an epoch in the art of biography; it also helped to crack the old myths of high Victorianism and to usher in a new spirit by which chauvinism, hypocrisy and the stiff upper lip were debunked. In it, Strachey cleverly exposes the self-seeking ambitions of Cardinal Manning and the manipulative, neurotic Florence Nightingale; and in his essays on Dr Arnold and General Gordon, his quarries are not only his subjects but also the public-school system and the whole structure of nineteenth-century liberal values. (12 hr 2 min)
Chapters
| Preface and Cardinal Manning, Chapter 1 | 20:12 | Read by Margaret Espaillat |
| Cardinal Manning, Chapter 2 | 29:02 | Read by Margaret Espaillat |
| Cardinal Manning, Chapter 3 | 39:55 | Read by Margaret Espaillat |
| Cardinal Manning, Chapter 4 | 33:05 | Read by Margaret Espaillat |
| Cardinal Manning, Chapter 5 | 37:15 | Read by Margaret Espaillat |
| Cardinal Manning, Chapter 6 | 37:20 | Read by Margaret Espaillat |
| Cardinal Manning, Chapter 7 | 37:25 | Read by Margaret Espaillat |
| Cardinal Manning, Chapter 8 | 13:32 | Read by Margaret Espaillat |
| Cardinal Manning, Chapter 9 | 10:22 | Read by Margaret Espaillat |
| Cardinal Manning, Chapter 10 | 13:49 | Read by Margaret Espaillat |
| Florence Nightingale, Chapter 1 | 14:00 | Read by Margaret Espaillat |
| Florence Nightingale, Chapter 2 | 49:02 | Read by Margaret Espaillat |
| Florence Nightingale, Chapter 3 | 54:17 | Read by Margaret Espaillat |
| Florence Nightingale, Chapters 4 & 5 | 29:13 | Read by Margaret Espaillat |
| Dr. Arnold, Part 1 | 36:38 | Read by Margaret Espaillat |
| Dr. Arnold, Part 2 | 37:26 | Read by Margaret Espaillat |
| The End of General Gordon, Part 1 | 34:37 | Read by Margaret Espaillat |
| The End of General Gordon, Part 2 | 28:41 | Read by Margaret Espaillat |
| The End of General Gordon, Part 3 | 30:02 | Read by Margaret Espaillat |
| The End of General Gordon, Part 4 | 29:46 | Read by Margaret Espaillat |
| The End of General Gordon, Part 5 | 35:11 | Read by Margaret Espaillat |
| The End of General Gordon, Part 6 | 36:24 | Read by Margaret Espaillat |
| The End of General Gordon, Part 7 | 35:20 | Read by Margaret Espaillat |
Reviews
The Florence Nightingale bio rocks...
Book Lover
My five stars are for the Nightingale bio, which is excellent - there was so much more to her life than the two paragraphs you read in school! I was fascinated to learn what mighty obstacles she overcame, especially given her gender and what that meant in her lifetime. And I knew nothing about what this extraordinary woman accomplished in the many years of her life after the Crimea. The reader is perfect for this bio, with good pacing and tone. I'm not reviewing the other three bios... I listened to half of the Manning bio before realizing I just didn't care about the life of this cardinal (or probably any other cardinal, lol). Same issue with the short work on General Somebody, and I didn't bother with the 4th. But that's my lack of interest, not a failing of either writer or reader. Listen to the Florence Nightingale bio... it's well worth the time.
P Walters
Read well by an American lady. I learned a lot about these eminent Victorians and thanked heavens that those days are long gone.
Azfad
Very good narration but the book struggled to get my attention. Revolutionary in its time perhaps, but now reads very ponderously.