The Europe category has 561 audiobooks on Listento.it, with an average listener rating of 4.3★ across 1,762 ratings. The most-rated is Clanlands.
The Wisdom of Donkeys
Summary
"The demon of speed is often associated with forgetting, with avoidance...and slowness with memory and confronting," observes Milan Kundera in his novel Slowness. With that purpose in mind - a search for slowness and tranquility - Andy Merrifield sets out on a journey of the soul with a friend's donkey, Gribouille, to walk amid the ruins and spectacular vistas of southern France's Haute-Auvergne. As Merrifield contemplates literature, science, truth, and beauty amid the French countryside, Gribouille surprises him with his subtle wisdom, reminding him time and again that enlightenment is all around us if we but seek it.
©2008 Andy Merrifield (P)2013 Audible, Inc.
Marie Antoinette's Watch
Summary
"Marie Antoinette's Watch is a wonderful book." - William Gibson, author of Neuromancer Across continents and into and out of the hands of royalty, revolutionaries, smugglers, thieves, and the world's greatest tech engineers, was Marie Antoinette's watch, the "160" worth an estimated $40 million in today's dollars. Perhaps the most sought after personal technology device of the last 200 years, the timepiece, designed by the legendary Abraham-Louis Breguet, is the launching point for a thrilling and fluidly woven set of narratives that are, in part, forbidden love story, historical document, and police procedural. Marie Antoinette's Watch also deftly lays out the history of horology and the 18th Century engineering feats attained in Paris's answer to Silicon Valley, the Ile de la Cite, that made the watch the most intricate and prized personal device of its time - something that's come full circle today. In the hands of Techcrunch's East Coast Editor, John Biggs, Marie Antoinette's Watch is by turns edifying and lurid, historical and utterly modern. Culminating in a heist in a Tel Aviv antiquities museum in the 1980s, Biggs tells the story of how one object can transform countries, cultures, high technology, and time itself.
©2015 John Biggs (P)2017 John Biggs
Prince Philip Revealed
Summary
Discover the full and fascinating story of Prince Philip - one of the most important, influential, and elusive royals - in this colorful and revelatory biography written by the renowned royal family expert and editor in chief of Majesty magazine. The son of Greek and Danish royalty, consort to the queen, and the grandfather of Princes Harry and William, Prince Philip has been at the heart of the royal family for decades - yet he remains an enigma to many. Now, Ingrid Seward, the editor in chief of Majesty magazine, brings her decades of experience covering the royal family to this fascinating and insightful biography of Queen Elizabeth II's husband, and father, grandfather, and great-grandfather of the next three kings of England. From his early childhood in Paris among aristocrats and his mother's battle with schizophrenia to his distinctive military service during World War II and marriage to Elizabeth in 1947, Seward chronicles Philip's life and reveals his many faces - as a father, a philanthropist, a philanderer, and a statesman. Though it would take years for Philip to find his place in a royal court that initially distrusted him, he remains one of the most complex, powerful, yet confounding members of Britain’s royal family. Entertaining, eye-opening, and informative, Prince Philip is perfect for any anglophile and fans of the series The Crown.
©2020 Ingrid Seward. All rights reserved. (P)2020 Simon & Schuster UK. All rights reserved.
Danubia
Summary
From the end of the Middle Ages to the First World War, Europe was dominated by one family: the Habsburgs. Their unprecedented rule is the focus of Simon Winder's vivid third book, Danubia. Winder's approach is friendly, witty, personal; this is a narrative that, while erudite and well researched, prefers to be discursive and anecdotal. In his survey of the centuries of often incompetent Habsburg rule which have continued to shape the fate of Central Europe, Winder does not shy away from the horrors, railing against the effects of nationalism, recounting the violence that was often part of life. But this is a history dominated above all by Winder's energy and curiosity. Thrillingly informative, Danubia is a treat that listeners will be eager to dip into.
©2013 Simon Winder (P)2018 Tantor
Ivory Vikings
Summary
In the early 1800s, on a Hebridean beach in Scotland, the sea exposed an ancient treasure cache: 93 chessmen carved from walrus ivory. Norse netsuke, each face individual, each full of quirks, the Lewis Chessmen are probably the most famous chess pieces in the world. Harry played Wizard's Chess with them in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. Housed at the British Museum, they are among its most visited and beloved objects. Questions abounded: Who carved them? Where? Ivory Vikings explores these mysteries by connecting medieval Icelandic sagas with modern archaeology, art history, forensics, and the history of board games. In the process, Ivory Vikings presents a vivid history of the 400 years when the Vikings ruled the North Atlantic, and the sea road connected countries and islands we think of as far apart and culturally distinct: Norway and Scotland, Ireland and Iceland, and Greenland and North America. The story of the Lewis chessmen explains the economic lure behind the Viking voyages to the west in the 800s and 900s. And finally, it brings from the shadows an extraordinarily talented woman artist of the 12th century: Margret the Adroit of Iceland.
©2015 Nancy Marie Brown (P)2015 Recorded Books
Dominion
Summary
Dominion, the fifth volume in Peter Ackroyd's masterful History of England, begins in 1815 as national glory following the Battle of Waterloo gives way to a post-war depression and ends with the death of Queen Victoria in January 1901. Spanning the end of the Regency, Ackroyd takes listeners from the accession of the profligate George IV, whose government was steered by Lord Liverpool, whose face was set against reform, to the "Sailor King" William IV, whose reign saw the modernization of the political system and the abolition of slavery. But it was the accession of Queen Victoria, at only 18 years old, that sparked an era of enormous innovation. Technological progress - from steam railways to the first telegram - swept the nation, and the finest inventions were showcased at the first Great Exhibition in 1851. The emergence of the middle-classes changed the shape of society, and scientific advances changed the old pieties of the Church of England and spread secular ideas among the population. Though intense industrialization brought booming times for the factory owners, the working classes were still subjected to poor housing, long work hours, and dire poverty. Yet by the end of Victoria's reign, the British Empire dominated much of the globe, and Britannia really did seem to rule the waves.
©2018 Peter Ackroyd (P)2018 Blackstone Audio, Inc.
The Europeans
Summary
From the “master of historical narrative” (Financial Times), a dazzling, richly detailed, panoramic work - the first to document the genesis of a continent-wide European culture. The 19th century in Europe was a time of unprecedented artistic achievement. It was also the first age of cultural globalization - an epoch when mass communications and high-speed rail travel brought Europe together, overcoming the barriers of nationalism and facilitating the development of a truly European canon of artistic, musical, and literary works. By 1900, the same books were being read across the continent, the same paintings reproduced, the same music played in homes and heard in concert halls, the same operas performed in all the major theatres. Drawing from a wealth of documents, letters, and other archival materials, acclaimed historian Orlando Figes examines the interplay of money and art that made this unification possible. At the center of the book is a poignant love triangle: the Russian writer Ivan Turgenev; the Spanish prima donna Pauline Viardot, with whom Turgenev had a long and intimate relationship; and her husband Louis Viardot, an art critic, theater manager, and republican activist. Together, Turgenev and the Viardots acted as a kind of European cultural exchange - they either knew or crossed paths with Delacroix, Berlioz, Chopin, Brahms, Liszt, the Schumanns, Hugo, Flaubert, Dickens, and Dostoyevsky, among many other towering figures. As Figes observes, nearly all of civilization’s great advances have come during periods of heightened cosmopolitanism - when people, ideas, and artistic creations circulate freely between nations. Vivid and insightful, The Europeans shows how such cosmopolitan ferment shaped artistic traditions that came to dominate world culture.
©2019 Orlando Figes (P)2019 Blackstone Publishing
The Marches
Summary
Ten years after the walk across Central Asia and Afghanistan that he memorialized in his best-selling The Places in Between, Rory Stewart set out on a new journey, traversing a thousand miles between England and Scotland. Stewart was raised along the border of the two countries, the frontier taking on poignant significance in his understanding of what it means to be both Scottish and English, of his relationship with his father, who's lived on this land his whole life, and of his ties to the rich history and culture of the region. Now representing this borderland as a Member of Parliament, Stewart's march begins as his father turns 90, Scotland is about to vote on independence, and Britain may disappear forever. At times alone and at times joined by his father, Stewart melds the story of his journey with an intimate portrait of the changing social and political landscape of the region. Stewart has written for the New York Times Magazine, Granta, and the London Review of Books.
©2016 Rory Stewart (P)2016 Recorded Books
A Brief History of France
Summary
When we think of France we often evoke images of fine food and wine, the elegant boulevards of Paris, the chic beaches of St Tropez. Yet, as the largest country in Europe, it is a place of huge diversity. The idea of 'Frenchness' emerged from over 2,000 years of history and it is a riveting story from Roman conquest to the present day. Cecil Jenkins tells the story of the formation of this nation through its people, great events and culture. Through this narrative he charts why the French began to see themselves as so different from the rest of Europe and why, today, they face the same problems of identity as many other nations.
©2011 Cecil Jenkins (P)2014 Audible Ltd
Mary, Queen of Scots: The History and Legacy of Mary Stuart of Scotland
Summary
"Did I not tell you this would happen? I knew they would never allow me to live, I was too great an obstacle to their religion." - Mary, Queen of Scots The position in history of Mary Queen of Scots is a paradoxical one. Her fame as a monarch lies less in her personality or achievements than in her position within the dynastic maneuvers and political-religious upheavals taking place in northwest Europe in the 16th century. Most monarchs spend their early years learning in preparation to rule and then spend the latter part of their lives wielding power and status. Mary was thrust upon the throne when she was only a week old, and she ceased to be queen nearly 20 years before her death. Mary's was an unusual reign in a tumultuous period, and her tragedy was intertwined with her country's transformation. In Mary's case, she was a second cousin once removed of England's Queen Elizabeth I, which made her a rival for the throne. Mary was the granddaughter of Margaret Tudor, Henry VIII's sister, and her Catholicism made Mary the true and rightful Queen of England in the eyes of many Catholics and the Vatican. These facts, coupled with the realization that several English supported Mary, made Elizabeth I uneasy. Mary also did not help herself when she married James Hepburn, Earl of Bothwell, who was widely accused of raping her. The Scottish people rebelled, and Mary abdicated and fled southwards towards England. Elizabeth I was unsure at first what to do with Mary, so she kept Mary imprisoned in several castles and manor houses inside England (making escape difficult and thus unlikely). After 18 years in Elizabeth's custody, it became clear that the situation was becoming untenable.
©2012 Charles River Editors (P)2015 Charles River Editors
Chaucer's People
Summary
In Chaucer's People, Liza Picard guides us through the tumultuous world of the late 14th century in an ingenious, informative and entertaining way. Through the assorted cast of pilgrims Chaucer selected for The Canterbury Tales, Picard brings medieval social history to life and uncovers the detail behind Chaucer's poetic portraits. These are the lives lived beyond the court circles frequented by most of his well-heeled audience. Drawing on contemporary experiences of a vast range of subjects including war, trade, religion, plague and banking, Liza Picard recreates the medieval world in all its glorious detail. Chaucer chose his pilgrims carefully. He sometimes raises a thought-provoking query in an apparently simple portrait. The Prioress was a sweet, pretty, well-mannered young nun; what was she doing on the road to Canterbury with a mixed band of men instead of staying in her convent to pray? The Knight was 'a very perfect gentle knight'; but why had his military service landed him in such distant places as Lithuania and Spain? By providing these characters with a three-dimensional framework - the times in which they lived - Liza Picard opens up the 14th century world to us. PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying reference material will be available in your Library section along with the audio.
©2017 Liza Picard (P)2017 Orion Publishing Group
Scottish History: A Captivating Guide to the History of Scotland
Summary
Did you know that the Scots never won a battle when they were favorites? A sense of poetic irony registers when one learns that Scotland has never won a major military battle when the odds were in their favor. In 1513, the largest Scottish army to ever invade England was defeated by a significantly smaller English army at Flodden Field. In only two hours, the Scots lost 10,000 men. History repeated itself in 1542, when a Scottish army of 15,000 men was defeated by only 3,000 English soldiers. Despite their much smaller numbers, the English managed to take 1,200 Scottish men as prisoners. This humiliating defeat eventually contributed to the demise of King James V. This captivating history audiobook takes you on a remarkable journey from the earliest extensive historical record of Scotland through the long struggle toward nationhood, all the way to postwar Scotland. In Scottish History: A Captivating Guide to the History of Scotland, you will discover topics such as Medieval strife The emergence of the Scottish nation-state The Golden Age The wars of independence The Black Death Mary, Queen of Scots: “The Daughter of Debate” The king of Great Britain The union and the Scottish Enlightenment The Industrial Revolution Scottish feminism The Loch Ness Monster And much, much more So listen to this audiobook now if you want to discover more about the startling history of Scotland!
©2018 Captivating History (P)2018 Captivating History
Pravda Ha Ha
Summary
Bloomsbury presents Pravda Ha Ha by Rory MacLean, read by Rory MacLean. "A gem of a book, informative, companionable, sometimes funny, and wholly original. MacLean must surely be the outstanding, and most indefatigable, traveller writer of our time." (John le Carré) In 1989 the Berlin Wall fell. In that euphoric year Rory MacLean travelled from Berlin to Moscow, exploring lands that were - for most Brits and Americans - part of the forgotten half of Europe. Thirty years on, MacLean traces his original journey backwards, across countries confronting old ghosts and new fears: from revanchist Russia, through Ukraine’s bloodlands, into illiberal Hungary and then Poland, Germany and the UK. Along the way he shoulders an AK-47 to go hunting with Moscow's chicken tsar, plays video games in St Petersburg with a cyber-hacker who cracked the US election, drops by the Che Guevara High School of Political Leadership in a nonexistent nowhereland and meets the Warsaw doctor who tried to stop a march of 70,000 nationalists. Finally, on the shores of Lake Geneva, he waits patiently to chat with Mikhail Gorbachev. As Europe sleepwalks into a perilous new age, MacLean explores how opportunists - both within and outside of Russia, from Putin to Home Counties populists - have made a joke of truth, exploiting refugees and the dispossessed, and examines the veracity of historical narrative from reportage to fiction and fake news. He asks what happened to the optimism of 1989 and, in the shadow of Brexit, chronicles the collapse of the European dream.
©2019 Rory MacLean (P)2019 Bloomsbury Publishing Plc
![Cover art for The Balkans [Modern Library Chronicles]](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/31c9Aj2iVhL._SL500_.jpg)
The Balkans [Modern Library Chronicles]
Summary
In this fascinating work, winner of the Wolfson Prize for History Mark Mazower uncovers the history of the Balkans with detail and clarity. He explores the reasons for current conflicts and examines the Balkans as a religious, cultural, and economic melting pot for Europe and Asia. Through Robert O'Keefe's articulate narration, listeners will be absorbed by this rich world.
©2000 Mark Mazower
Bohemian London
Summary
London has always been home to outsiders. To people who won't or can't abide by the conventions of respectable society. For close to two centuries these misfit individualists have had a name. They have been called Bohemians. This book is an entertaining, anecdotal history of Bohemian London. A guide to its more colourful inhabitants. Rossetti and Swinburne, defying the morality of high Victorian England. Oscar Wilde and Aubrey Beardsley in the decadent 1890s. The Bloomsburyites and the Bright Young Things. Dylan Thomas, boozing in the Blitz, and Francis Bacon and his cronies, wasting time and getting wasted in 1950s Soho. It's also a guide to the places where Bohemia has flourished. The legendary Cafe Royal, a home away from home to artists and writers for nearly a century. The Cave of the Golden Calf, a First World War nightclub run by the Swedish playwright August Strindberg's widow. The Colony Room, the infamous drinking den presided over by the gloriously foul-mouthed Muriel Belcher, and the Gargoyle Club in Dean Street, where the artistic avant-garde mixed with upper-crust eccentrics. The pubs of Fitzrovia where the painters Augustus John and Nina Hamnett rubbed shoulders with the occultist Aleister Crowley and where the short-story writer Julian Maclaren-Ross, wearing mirror sunglasses and clutching a silver-topped Malacca cane, held court for his acolytes and admirers. The story of Bohemian London is one of drink and drugs, sex and death, excess and indulgence. It's also a story of achievement and success. Some of the finest art and literature of the last two centuries has emerged from Bohemia. Nick Rennison's book provides a lively and enjoyable portrait of the world in which Bohemian Londoners once lived.
©2017 Nick Rennison (P)2017 Audible, Ltd
Great Ladies
Summary
There has been a great deal written about Tudor queens, but less so about those women who surrounded the throne, who may have held even more power and influence than those who actually wore the golden crown. Some ladies who served at the Tudor court are only faceless silhouettes lost to the sands of time, but there are those who dedicated their lives to please their royal mistresses and left documentation, allowing us to piece their life stories together and link them to the stories of Tudor queens. These female attendants saw their queens and princesses up close and often used their intimate bonds to their own benefit. Some were beloved, others hated. This is the story of the ladies of the Tudor court like you've never heard it before.
©2017 Sylvia Barbara Soberton (P)2019 Tantor
Queen Elizabeth I: A Life from Beginning to End
Summary
There are many versions of Queen Elizabeth I of England; the beautiful young Tudor Queen courted by all the princes of Europe; a fearless virgin warrior in white velvet, rousing her troops on the battlefield; an irascible old woman in a powdered wig, surrounded by fawning young men. A formidable woman, Elizabeth I ruled alone at a time when Europe was a hotbed of conflict, dominated by empire-seeking Kings with opposing religious beliefs. Inside you will hear about.... Early Years Becoming Queen of England The Matter of Succession Mary Queen of Scots The Last Suitor Trouble in England Mary's Execution The Essex Affair And much more! A shrewd politician, Elizabeth manipulated these Kings using any means necessary, including her own hand in marriage, to transform what had been a small, relatively impoverished half-island nation into one of the greatest powers in the world. "Queen of the Seas", "The Virgin Queen", "Gloriana" and "Good Old Bess", Queen Elizabeth I inspired a cult following during her lifetime that endures to this day.
©2017 Hourly History (P)2018 Hourly History
The Great Book of Ireland: Interesting Stories, Irish History & Random Facts About Ireland
Summary
How much do you know about Ireland? There’s so much to learn about the Emerald Isle that even its residents don’t know. In this trivia book, you’ll learn more about Ireland’s history, pop culture, folklore, and so much more! In The Great Book of Ireland, you’ll learn: How did Ireland get its name? Why is it known as the Emerald Isle? Who was St. Patrick really? What do leprechauns and shamrocks have to do with St. Patrick’s Day? Which Irish company had a 9,000-year lease? What is Ireland’s top attraction? Which movies have been filmed in Ireland? Which famous novel may have been based on an Irish myth? Which legends did the Irish believe in? And so much more! This book is packed with trivia facts about Ireland. Some of the facts you’ll learn in this book are shocking, some are tragic, and others will leave you with goosebumps. But they’re all interesting! Whether you’re just learning about Ireland or you already think you’re an expert on the state, you’ll learn something you didn’t know in every chapter. Your history teacher will be interesting at all of your newfound knowledge. So what are you waiting for? Get started to learn more about Ireland!
©2019 LAK Publishing (P)2019 LAK Publishing
Portugal: Essential Travel Tips
Summary
In this Sam's Travel Guide on Portugal, you will find all the information you need to know about: Must-visit locations in Portugal The best beaches in Portugal Best islands in Portugal Best souvenirs to buy in Portugal Things to avoid in Portugal Best restaurants in Portugal Best hotels in Portugal When you download Portugal: Essential Travel Tips - All You Need to Know, you will be well-prepared to visit the country of your dreams! Buy this audiobook today! Would you like to start today? If you do, just scroll up and hit the "Buy Now" button. Enjoy Sam's Travel Guides!
©2018 Sam's Travel Guide (P)2019 Sam's Travel Guide
The Scramble for Africa: The History and Legacy of the Colonization of Africa by European Nations During the New Imperialism Era
Summary
The British South-African Company's shares May be at a discount - (Trade-martyrs! - trade-martyrs!) But he, our Colossus, strides on, he declares, Whether with or without chums or charters - or charters. Hooray! We brave Britons are right now to the front - Provided we've someone to boss us - to boss us; And Scuttlers will have their work cut out to shunt This stalwart, far-striding Colossus - Colossus! —Excerpt from an editorial in Punch, December 10, 1892 The modern history of Africa was, until very recently, written on behalf of the indigenous races by the white man, who had forcefully entered the continent during a particularly hubristic and dynamic phase of European history. In 1884, Prince Otto von Bismark, the German chancellor, brought the plenipotentiaries of all major powers of Europe together, to deal with Africa's colonization in such a manner as to avoid provocation of war. This event - known as the Berlin Conference of 1884-1885 - galvanized a phenomenon that came to be known as the Scramble for Africa. The conference established two fundamental rules for European seizure of Africa. The first of these was that no recognition of annexation would be granted without evidence of a practical occupation, and the second, that a practical occupation would be deemed unlawful without a formal appeal for protection made on behalf of a territory by its leader, a plea that must be committed to paper in the form of a legal treaty. This began a rush, spearheaded mainly by European commercial interests in the form of Chartered Companies, to penetrate the African interior and woo its leadership with guns, trinkets, and alcohol, and having thus obtained their marks or seals upon spurious treaties, begin establishing boundaries of future European African colonies. The ease with which this was achieved was due to the fact that, at that point, traditional African leadership was disunited, and the people had just staggered back from centuries of concussion inflicted by the slave trade. Thus, to usurp authority, to intimidate an already broken society, and to play one leader against the other was a diplomatic task so childishly simple, the matter was wrapped up, for the most part, in less than a decade.
©2017 Charles River Editors (P)2017 Charles River Editors