Peter Saccio has 4 audiobooks on Listento.it, narrated by 2 narrators, with an average listener rating of 4.7★ across 319 ratings. The most-rated is The House in the Cerulean Sea.
The House in the Cerulean Sea
Summary
"Daniel Henning is a great narrator for this quirky and theatrical audiobook.... Henning revels in a cornucopia of characters, diving into nuanced voices and colorful moments with accents and growls, tone shifts and whispers.... This is definitely a title for those who enjoy fantasy stories replete with gnomes and witches and all in between." (AudioFile Magazine) Lambda Literary Award-winning author TJ Klune's breakout contemporary fantasy Linus Baker is a by-the-book case worker in the Department in Charge of Magical Youth. He's tasked with determining whether six dangerous magical children are likely to bring about the end of the world. Arthur Parnassus is the master of the orphanage. He would do anything to keep the children safe, even if it means the world will burn. And his secrets will come to light. The House in the Cerulean Sea is an enchanting love story, masterfully told, about the profound experience of discovering an unlikely family in an unexpected place - and realizing that family is yours. Chicago Tribune Best Books of the Year - 2020 Amazon.com Best Books of the Year - 2020 A Macmillan Audio production from Tor Books "1984 meets The Umbrella Academy with a pinch of Douglas Adams thrown in." (Gail Carriger, New York Times best-selling author of Soulless)
©2020 TJ Klune (P)2020 Macmillan Audio
William Shakespeare: Comedies, Histories, and Tragedies
Summary
Shakespeare's plays - whether a comedy like A Midsummer Night's Dream, a history like Henry IV, or a tragedy like Hamlet - are treasure troves of insight into our very humanity. These 36 lectures introduce you to Shakespeare's major plays from each of these three genres and explain the achievement that makes him the leading playwright in Western civilization. As you'll see, the key to Shakespeare's massive achievement is his "abundance," according to Professor Saccio; not only in the number and length of his plays but in the variety of experiences they depict, the multitude of actions and characters they contain, the combination of public and private life they deal with, and the richness of feelings they express. All the major plays are here for you to dive into, explore, and enjoy: The Taming of the Shrew (with its realistic look at bourgeois marriage customs), Measure for Measure (which shows Shakespeare breaking out of comic conventions), Richard III (the source of one of the Bard's most entertaining and frightening historical villains), Henry V (which raises questions about the morality of warfare), Macbeth (with its piercing look into the consciousness of a man hungry for power), and more. As the richness of each of these and other plays is revealed, you'll also touch upon the far-ranging philosophical and theological implications behind them. By the last lecture, you'll have a true understanding of why these comedies, histories, and tragedies endure even to this very day. PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying reference material will be available in your Library section along with the audio.
©1999 The Teaching Company, LLC (P)1999 The Great Courses
Shakespeare: The Word and the Action
Summary
Shakespeare is the leading playwright - and probably the leading writer - in Western civilization. His works are one of the greatest achievements of the human mind and spirit. And yet, for far too many of us, they remain a closed book. Why? Professor Saccio is well suited in these 16 lectures to bring you back into Shakespeare's world and tune you into what he calls "Shakespeare's wavelength." As you hear him effortlessly deliver heretofore impenetrable language with the proper meter, emphasis, intonation, and emotion, you'll experience the pleasure that comes with true mastery. Professor Saccio also prepares you to read or watch the plays by orienting you to Shakespeare's use of multiple plots, lines of action, and the sometimes outmoded forms of human behavior (such as courtship in Elizabethan England) that arise in his plays. Shakespeare was acutely aware of the importance of history - and not just of events but of ideas. You'll see how his tragedies and histories are meditations on the changing world around him and of the eternal issues of character and human nature. You'll journey into a world where actions and ideas intersect and raise profound and unexpected questions, such as how Richard III could be both a classic villain and a Renaissance figure, and whether a man such as Coriolanus can be a hero without a cause or a country. To read Shakespeare is to take a daunting journey into a perpetually undiscovered country that reinvents itself with every visit. But with these lectures, it will become a familiar pleasure. PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying reference material will be available in your Library section along with the audio.
©1995 The Teaching Company, LLC (P)1995 The Great Courses
Modern British Drama
Summary
Waiting for Godot. The Importance of Being Earnest. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead. Since Shakespeare's time, no period has produced more brilliant and various theatrical dramas in Great Britain than in the past 100 years. Professor Saccio has selected the major British playwrights of the past century to cover Wilde, Shaw, Coward, Beckett, Osborne, Pinter, Stoppard, Churchill, and Hare. Why this roster of modern British playwrights? As you'll discover while exploring their great works in these eight lectures, some of them celebrate (or satirize) elite manners, some explore the changes in a kingdom that once ruled a quarter of the globe, some assault the sociopolitical establishment, and some probe the Existential anxiety of the modern age. "Unlike other media, dramatic art occurs in a certain place in time; in the 'here and now,'" states Professor Saccio. You'll examine the role theater has played in British culture and society over the past 100 years. You'll witness the evolution of the stylistic conventions of the British play, from the genteel drawing-room comedies of the late 19th century to the radical political theater of the late 20th century. Throughout this brief survey of some of the great innovators of the dramatic arts of the modern era, you'll understand how and why modern British drama has changed so dramatically, and you'll realize the importance of the political and social context in which these works were written.
©1994 The Teaching Company, LLC (P)1994 The Great Courses