Eliza Lawley has 4 audiobooks on Listento.it, narrated by 4 narrators, with an average listener rating of 5★ across 2 ratings. The most-rated is The Satyricon.
The Satyricon
Summary
Libidinous, licentious, salacious and very, very funny, The Satyricon is one of the most remarkable documents from ancient Rome. It tells the ribald story of Encolpius, a man of active and varied appetites (powered notably by his passion for his favourite lover, the handsome Giton), who plunges without inhibition into the life of Roman pleasures: orgies of food, feasting, abundant sex and escapades. The kind of hedonism found occasionally in Roman mosaics is here brought to life. In the feast at the house of Trimalchio we have an extraordinary account of a Roman banquet where dish after dish - each more extravagant than the last - is presented to the diners, who lie on their couches for course after course. And after all that they still find the energy to indulge in intense pleasures of a different kind. Again and again. There are historical questions around the author - Petronius (c27-66 CE), who lived during the time of Emperor Nero - and the text, which was originally much longer than the sections that have survived. This is of interest to academics but need not deter the enjoyment of the delightfully personal tale that has come down to us. Among the characters Encolpius encounters is Eumolpus, a poet philosopher whose extravagant (and loud) journeys into epic poetry attract the Roman equivalent of rotten tomatoes. Very, very funny. It must be said, however, that this is literature, aiming high. It presents an engaging picture of Roman low life: 'women hot after gladiators or dusty muleteers', old men casting glances (and more) at shapely youths, and an elaborate ceremony to Priapus in an attempt to restore lost vigour. But it does so with style and elegance, full of classical references to poetry, history and philosophy though often with dry, humorous asides. Not for the faint-hearted, The Satyricon is a delight from beginning to end, and especially in this hugely entertaining reading by Nicholas Boulton, which opens with a fascinating introduction to the work and its provenance. Translation: Alfred R. Allinson.
Public Domain (P)2017 Ukemi Audiobooks
The Dressmaker's Christmas
Summary
On Christmas Eve 1875, an unnamed baby girl is rescued from the workhouse and handed over to a wealthy couple, Rose and Silas Clements, to raise as their very own. The couple call the child Holly and welcome her into their home as their little Christmas miracle. As Holly grows into a lovely girl, full of joy and imagination as wild as her red hair, so too does Rose’s resentment of her. As the years pass by and the Clements have a child of their own, Holly is relegated to nothing more than the family’s maid. Not even Silas, the man that Holly has come to know and love as her papa, seems able to save her from his wife’s cruel ways. Tragedy strikes the day after Holly’s 16th birthday, and she is cast from the Clementses' home to face Christmas on the cold London streets, alone and terrified. With her world ripped from under her feet, Holly climbs the stone wall of London Bridge and peers into the rapid waters below, but a voice from the dark offers her hope...all she has to do is follow him. Find out what happens to Holly in The Dressmaker’s Christmas.
©2019 Eliza Lawley (P)2020 Eliza Lawley
The Orphan's Notebook
Summary
In March 1876, the life of eight-year-old Josephine Mary Jones changed forever. Torn from the protection and love of her family and her beloved wolfhound, Clyde, Josie finds herself cold and alone at the Foundling Hospital, where her spirit and outspokenness are seen as nothing but trouble. Josie desperately misses her family and Clyde, but there is one small glimmer of hope in her otherwise grey and endless days: a foundling boy by the name of Leo Hastings. When Leo is stolen from her, just like everyone else she has ever loved, Josie turns to the only thing she has left...a scrap of paper and a small nub of a pencil. Can one lonely, orphaned child really change her own fate? Or will she end up just like the other forgotten children - alone and left to die on the cold hard streets of Victorian London?
©2020 Eliza Lawley (P)2020 Eliza Lawley
The Ragman's Daughter
Summary
At just nine-years-old, Briar Walker is forced out onto the cold London streets to hunt through piles of dirt and ash for things her drunken father can sell in exchange for a bottle of whiskey. Longing for the day when she can escape his wrath, Briar secretly hides away a few treasures of her own. Then, one day, Briar is cornered by the terrible Jones twins and forced to run for her life. Pulled to safety by the charming and handsome Jack Harris, Briar finds herself at the mercy of The Family; one of the most notorious pickpocket gangs in the whole of London. To her surprise, she’s offered a place with The Family, and a place with Jack, until tragic events tear them apart and threaten Briar’s entire future....
©2019 Eliza Lawley (P)2020 Eliza Lawley