The Historical category has 3,261 audiobooks on Listento.it, with an average listener rating of 4.5★ across 6,239 ratings. The most-rated is Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World.
The Immortal Irishman
Summary
From the National Book Award-winning and best-selling author Timothy Egan comes the epic story of one of the most fascinating and colorful Irishmen in 19th-century America. The Irish-American story, with all its twists and triumphs, is told through the improbable life of one man. A dashing young orator during the Great Famine of the 1840s, in which a million of his Irish countrymen died, Thomas Francis Meagher led a failed uprising against British rule, for which he was banished to a Tasmanian prison colony. He escaped and six months later was heralded in the streets of New York - the revolutionary hero, back from the dead, at the dawn of the great Irish immigration to America. Meagher's rebirth in America included his leading the newly formed Irish Brigade from New York in many of the fiercest battles of the Civil War - Bull Run, Antietam, Fredericksburg. Twice shot from his horse while leading charges, left for dead in the Virginia mud, Meagher's dream was that Irish-American troops, seasoned by war, would return to Ireland and liberate their homeland from British rule. The hero's last chapter, as territorial governor of Montana, was a romantic quest for a true home in the far frontier. His death has long been a mystery to which Egan brings haunting, colorful new evidence.
©2016 Timothy Egan (P)2015 Brilliance Audio, all rights reserved.
Wicked and the Wallflower
Summary
When Wicked Comes Calling... When a mysterious stranger finds his way into her bedchamber and offers his help in landing a duke, Lady Felicity Faircloth agrees - on one condition. She’s seen enough of the world to believe in passion, and won’t accept a marriage without it. The Wallflower Makes a Dangerous Bargain... Bastard son of a duke and king of London’s dark streets, Devil has spent a lifetime wielding power and seizing opportunity, and the spinster wallflower is everything he needs to exact a revenge years in the making. All he must do is turn the plain little mouse into an irresistible temptress, set his trap, and destroy his enemy. For the Promise of Passion... But there’s nothing plain about Felicity Faircloth, who quickly decides she’d rather have Devil than another. Soon, Devil’s carefully laid plans are in chaos and he must choose between everything he's ever wanted... and the only thing he's ever desired.
©2018 Sarah Trabucchi (P)2018 HarperCollins Publishers
The Chase
Summary
New York Times and USA Today best-selling author Lynsay Sands "hits all the right notes" (Suzanne Enoch) whether she's penning passionate tales of the Argeneau vampire family or transporting her listeners to the Scottish Highlands. In her charming historical romance classic The Chase, a beautiful Highlands hellion flees the handsome "English devil" she's been promised to, and her intended groom realizes that his enchanting prize will be much harder to win than he imagined. Lynsay's loyal listeners, as well as fans of Hannah Howell and Kinley MacGregor, will adore The Chase...as well as the very sexy capture!
©2017 Lynsay Sands (P)2017 HarperCollins Publishers
The Beast of Beswick
Summary
Lord Nathaniel Harte, the disagreeable duke of Beswick, spends his days smashing porcelain, antagonizing his servants, and snarling at anyone who gets too close. With a ruined face like his, it's hard to like much about the world - especially smart-mouthed harpies (with lips better suited to kissing than speaking) who brave his castle with indecent proposals. But Lady Astrid Everleigh will stop at nothing to see her younger sister safe from a notorious scoundrel, even if it means offering herself up on a silver platter to the forbidding Beast of Beswick himself. And by offer, she means what no highborn lady of sound and sensible mind would ever dream of - a tender of marriage with her as his bride.
©2019 Amalie Howard (P)2019 Dreamscape Media, LLC
Taming the Highland Bride
Summary
She was ready to let her heart run wild.... Merry Stewart has had enough! Enough of her brothers, whose behavior would make even the most improper lady blush. Enough of their Highland home, which would surely have fallen to ruin were it not for her. She dreams of escaping into the arms of her betrothed, Alexander d'Aumesbery-even though they haven't yet met. But when they do, Merry is devastated. It seems he's no better than the men in her family. So beautiful, so brazen . . . From the moment he meets Merry, Alexander is determined to make her his. Desperate to convince her he's nothing like the members of her roguish clan, he will prove he is every bit the well-mannered gentleman. Yet, beneath it all beats a heart as intense and uncontrollable as hers. And finally, when his life is threatened, Merry realizes he's the husband she's been waiting for . . . and their passion becomes the one thing that cannot be tamed.
©2010 Lynsay Sands (P)2010 HarperCollins Publishers
Miss Darcy's Companion
Summary
Miss Georgiana Darcy is need of a companion, and she would much rather not have Mrs. Younge. The recently bereaved Miss Elizabeth Bennet is in need of a position. When she accepts the one Mr. Darcy offers, she finds herself in his near-constant company and gets to know him at his best. Not as he would present himself to strangers in some remote corner of Hertfordshire, but as his nearest and dearest know him. An excellent brother, landlord, master. A wonderful man, noble, kind and impossibly handsome. So who falls in love first? What of Mr. Wickham and his dastardly ploys? And how is a lady's companion ever to have a future with one who could marry into the best houses in the land?
©2016 Joana Starnes (P)2017 Joana Starnes
Someone to Care
Summary
Once the Countess of Riverdale, Viola Kingsley throws all caution to the wind when adventure calls in the form of a handsome aristocrat.... Two years after the death of the Earl of Riverdale, his family has overcome the shame of being stripped of their titles and fortune - except for his onetime countess, Viola. With her children grown and herself no longer part of the social whirl of the ton, she is uncertain where to look for happiness - until quite by accident her path crosses once again with that of the Marquess of Dorchester, Marcel Lamarr. Marcel Lamarr has been a notorious womanizer since the death of his wife nearly 20 years earlier. Viola caught his eye when she herself was a young mother, but she evaded his seduction at the time. A prize that eluded him before, she is all the more irresistible to him now although he is surprised to discover that she is as eager now for the excitement he offers as he is himself. When the two defy convention and run away together, they discover that the ties of respectability are not so easily severed, and pleasure can ensnare you when you least expect it....
©2018 Mary Balogh (P)2018 Recorded Books
Wicked Highland Wishes
Summary
Desire tempted them. Honor forbade them. Love ensnared them. Legendary warrior Lachlan MacLeod has never encountered anything or anyone he could not conquer. But when his younger brother confesses his love for Bridgette MacLean - the only woman Lachlan has ever wanted - Lachlan turns away from the beautiful Scottish lass, vowing to be no more than her friend. Yet his need for Bridgette enslaves him and may well prove to be the one thing he cannot defeat. Fiercely independent Bridgette longs to be treated as an equal to the men. She always imagined great battles in her future, not great love. Then Lachlan saw her as no one ever had and captured her heart, awakening new cravings inside her without realizing it. But when Lachlan's younger brother suffers a grave injury while saving her life, she feels unable to deny his plea for her heart. However, it is impossible to give what belongs to another. Torn between their own desire and their loyalties, Bridgette and Lachlan must find the courage to grasp the passion awaiting them and face the pain their choice will cause. Yet even as they confront their future and love finally seems within their grasp, a fight for the Scottish throne divides the Highland clans and Bridgette becomes a pawn in a political game that threatens to tear her and Lachlan apart forever.
©2016 Julie Johnstone (P)2016 Julie Johnstone
The Magic of You
Summary
As wild and reckless as the most incorrigible of her male cousins, young Amy Malory has reached marriageable age, and she has set her amorous sights on a most unsuitable mate: the handsome, straightlaced ship's captain who once nearly had her uncle James hung for piracy. Warren Anderson is shocked by the brazen advances of his despised enemy's high-spirited niece. Still tormented by an unfaithful former lover's past treachery, he is determined to resist Amy's charms. But an overpowering yearning for the enchanting minx threatens to defeat his defiant heart and force its sensuous surrender to a love that could stoke the fires of a perilous family feud.
©2005 Johanna Lindsey (P)2008 Brilliance Audio, Inc.
Colonel Roosevelt
Summary
Of all our great presidents, Theodore Roosevelt is the only one whose greatness increased out of office. When he toured Europe in 1910 as plain “Colonel Roosevelt”, he was hailed as the most famous man in the world. Crowned heads vied to put him up in their palaces. “If I see another king,” he joked, “I think I shall bite him.” Had TR won his historic “Bull Moose” campaign in 1912 (when he outpolled the sitting president, William Howard Taft), he might have averted World War I, so great was his international influence. Had he not died in 1919, at the early age of 60, he would unquestionably have been reelected to a third term in the White House and completed the work he began in 1901 of establishing the United States as a model democracy, militarily strong and socially just. This biography by Edmund Morris, the Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award-winning author of The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt and Theodore Rex, is itself the completion of a trilogy sure to stand as definitive. Packed with more adventure, variety, drama, humor, and tragedy than a big novel, yet documented down to the smallest fact, it recounts the last decade of perhaps the most amazing life in American history. What other president has written 40 books, hunted lions, founded a third political party, survived an assassin’s bullet, and explored an unknown river longer than the Rhine?
©2010 Edmund Morris; 2010 Random House Audio (P)2010 Random House Audio
Bethia
Summary
Two misfits. One great love.
Bethia may be the former Ramsay laird's daughter, but she fears she'll never marry. She loves her cousins, but their beauty makes her feel plump and plain in comparison. The lads never notice her like they do the others. She's most confident when she's nursing the clan's animals back to health, yet her heart desires a family of her own. Then a man rushes to the castle gates, desperate for someone to save his dog, and Bethia's simple life changes forever.
The tragedy in Donnan's past ruined him. For the past two years, he has shunned his adopted clan. He now lives alone, beyond the castle gates, and associates only with his beloved dogs. But when one of the dogs is injured, and beautiful Bethia is the one who treats her, he realizes there may be room in his heart to love again. Her kindness is just the salve he needs to recover from the past - if he can bring himself to share his secrets with her.
The Ramsays' enemy, Bearchun, watches them, eager to ruin the clan once and for all. He's certain that Bethia and Donnan might be the key to destroying them. But has he underestimated the two misfits?
©2017 Keira Montclair (P)2017 Keira Montclair
La Duchesse
Summary
Au cœur d'un XIX e siècle conservateur, le combat d'une jeune noble orpheline et déshéritée pour survivre et devenir une femme libre... Après la mort de sa mère, Angélique Latham grandit au château de Belgrave, en Angleterre, au côté du duc de Westerfield, son père. Mais lorsque celui-ci disparaît à son tour, rien ne se passe comme prévu : sans scrupule, les demi-frères de la jeune fille lui refusent son héritage et la chassent du domaine. Angélique se retrouve livrée à elle-même avec pour seuls bagages sa grande beauté, son esprit vif et, fort heureusement, un pécule mis de côté pour elle par le duc. La voici bientôt à Paris, où le hasard place sur sa route une prostituée, à qui elle vient en aide. Une rencontre décisive, qui entraîne Angélique sur des chemins inattendus, avec l'ouverture du Boudoir, une "maison de plaisirs" où se presse la bonne société. Dissimulant sa véritable identité, elle y devient "la Duchesse" et dirige l'établissement avec dignité et talent.
©2017 / 2021 Danielle Steel / Presses de la Cité pour la traduction française. Traduit par Sophie Pertus (P)2021 Lizzie, un département d'Univers Poche, Paris
Jake
Summary
Jake Ramsay, eldest son of the chief of Clan Grant, has always felt the weight of his sire's shadow. Tales of Alexander Grant's prowess are whispered throughout the Highlands, and Alex's loving marriage to Jake's mother, Maddie, is equally legendary. Jake's not sure he can live up to his birthright, but when he rescues a beautiful, strong-willed lass from a horrible fate, such concerns start to seem inconsequential. He becomes consumed with the need to protect the lass, Aline, and punish the man who hurt her. The past two years of Aline's life have been pure misery. A wicked man stole her from her home and then controlled and used her. But when Jake, the handsome Highlander who rescued her, brings her to the Grant keep, she feels like she's entered a fairy tale. The Grants welcome her into their hearts and home, but while she wishes more than anything to stay, her abuser is not the only one she left behind. She must return to the wretch's keep. In his quest to save Aline, Jake discovers her abuser is in league with another man, one with violent ambitions in the Highlands. In order to save his clan and his love, he will have to stop worrying about his sire's legacy and start creating one of his own.
©2016 Keira Montclair (P)2016 Keira Montclair
A Gentleman's Position
Summary
Power, privilege, and the rigid rules of class leave two hearts yearning for connection in the sizzling new Society of Gentlemen novel from K. J. Charles. Among his eccentric though strictly principled group of friends, Lord Richard Vane is the confidant on whom everyone depends for advice, moral rectitude, and discreet assistance. Yet when Richard has a problem, he turns to his valet, a fixer of unparalleled genius - and the object of Richard's deepest desires. If there is one rule a gentleman must follow, it is never to dally with servants. But when David is close enough to touch, the rules of class collide with the basest sort of animal instinct: overpowering lust. For David Cyprian, burglary and blackmail are as much in a day's work as bootblacking - anything for the man he's devoted to. But the one thing he wants for himself is the one thing Richard refuses to give: his heart. With the tension between them growing to be unbearable, David's seemingly incorruptible master has left him no choice. Putting his finely honed skills of seduction and manipulation to good use, he will convince Richard to forget all about his well-meaning objections and give in to sweet, sinful temptation.
©2016 K. J. Charles (P)2016 Audible, Inc.
Hitler
Summary
This masterful biography by one of Germany’s best known journalists was the leading nonfiction best seller in Germany. Fest shows Hitler as the receptacle of the dreads and resentments of a shaken social order, gifted with an uncanny instinct for all that was hollow behind the appearance of power, at home and abroad. Though a warped human being, he was neither clown nor puppet, as many liked to think; Hitler appears here as an enormously astute politician, impressing and hypnotizing Germans and foreigners alike with the scope of his projects and the theatricality of their presentation. In the last analysis, however, Fest uncovers in Hitler a constantly destructive personality, which aimed at and achieved destruction on an unprecedented scale, not least because an insecure world gave him his opportunities.
©1991 Classics on Tape (P)1991 Blackstone Audio, Inc.
American Caesar
Summary
Virtually all Americans above a certain age hold strong opinions about Douglas MacArthur. They either worship him or despise him. Now, in this superb book, one of our most outstanding writers, after a meticulous three-year examination of the record, presents his startling insights about the man. The narrative is gripping, because the general's life was fascinating. It is moving, because he was a man of vision. It ends, finally, in tragedy, because his character, though majestic, was tragically flawed.
©1978 William Manchester (P)1991 Blackstone Audio Inc.
Queen Victoria: Twenty-Four Days That Changed Her Life
Summary
"Worsley gives us Victoria in all her infinite variety - queen and mother, matriach and minx. I loved it." (Daisy Goodwin, author of The American Heiress, The Fortune Hunter, and Victoria: A Novel) This program includes an introduction read by the author, as well as a bonus interview exclusive to the audiobook. The story of the queen who defied convention and defined an era. Perhaps one of the best known of the English monarchs, Queen Victoria forever shaped a chapter of English history, bequeathing her name to the Victorian age. In Queen Victoria, Lucy Worsley introduces this iconic woman in a new light. Going beyond an exploration of the queen merely as a monarch, Worsley considers Victoria as a woman leading a truly extraordinary life in a unique time period. The audiobook is structured around the various roles that Victoria inhabited - a daughter raised to wield power, a loving but tempestuous wife, a controlling mother, and a cunning widow - all while wearing the royal crown. Far from a protofeminist, Queen Victoria was socially conservative and never supported women’s rights. And yet, Victoria thwarted the strict rules of womanhood that defined the era to which she gave her name. She was passionate, selfish, and moody, boldly defying the will of politicians who sought to control her and emotionally controlling her family for decades. How did the woman who defined Victorian womanhood also manage to defy its conventions? Drawing from the vast collection of Victoria’s correspondence and the rich documentation of her life, Worsley recreates 24 of the most important days in Victoria's life, including her parents' wedding day, the day she met Albert, her own wedding day, the birth of her first child, a Windsor Christmas, the death of Prince Albert, and many more. Each day gives a glimpse into the identity of this powerful, difficult queen as a wife and widow, mother and matriarch, and above all, a woman of her time.
©2018 Lucy Worsley (P)2018 Hodder & Stoughton Limited
The Romanov Sisters
Summary
They were the Princess Dianas of their day - perhaps the most photographed and talked about young royals of the early 20th century. The four captivating Russian Grand Duchesses - Olga, Tatiana, Maria, and Anastasia Romanov - were much admired for their happy dispositions, their looks, the clothes they wore, and their privileged lifestyle. Over the years, the story of the four Romanov sisters and their tragic end in a basement at Ekaterinburg in 1918 has clouded our view of them, leading to a mass of sentimental and idealized hagiography. With this treasure trove of diaries and letters from the grand duchesses to their friends and family, we learn that they were intelligent, sensitive, and perceptive witnesses to the dark turmoil within their immediate family and the ominous approach of the Russian Revolution - the nightmare that would sweep their world away and them along with it. The Romanov Sisters sets out to capture the joy as well as the insecurities and poignancy of those young lives against the backdrop of the dying days of late Imperial Russia, World War I, and the Russian Revolution. Helen Rappaport aims to present a new and challenging take on the story, drawing extensively on previously unseen or unpublished letters, diaries, and archival sources, as well as private collections. It is a book that will surprise people, even aficionados.
©2014 Helen Rappaport (P)2014 Macmillan Audio
Desert Queen
Summary
Turning her back on her privileged life in Victorian England, Gertrude Bell (1868-1926), fired by her innate curiosity, journeyed the world and became fascinated with all things Arab. Traveling the length and breadth of the Arab region, armed with a love for its language and its people, she not only produced several enormously popular books based on her experiences but became instrumental to the British foreign office. When World War I erupted, and the British needed the loyalty of the Arab leaders, it was Gertrude Bell's work and connections that helped provide the brain for T. E. Lawrence's military brawn. After the war she participated in both the Paris and Cairo conferences, played a major role in creating the modern Middle East, and was generally considered the most powerful woman in the British Empire. In this incident-packed biography, Janet Wallach reveals a woman whose achievements and independent spirit were especially remarkable for her times, and who brought the same passion and intensity to her explorations as she did to her rich romantic life. Too long eclipsed by Lawrence's fame, Gertrude Bell emerges in this first major biography as a woman whose accomplishments rank as crucial to world history (especially in light of the continuing geopolitical importance of the Middle East) and whose life was a grand adventure.
©1996 Janet Wallach (P)2012 Random House Audio
Highlander's Ransom
Summary
Book one of the Sinclair Brothers trilogy. He was out for revenge. Laird Robert Sinclair will stop at nothing to exact revenge on Lord Raef Warren, the English scoundrel who brought war to his doorstep and razed his lands and people. Leaving his clan in the Highlands to conduct covert attacks in the Borderlands, Robert lives to be a thorn in Warren's side. So when he finds a beautiful English lass on her way to marry Warren, he whisks her away to the Highlands with a plan to ransom her back to her dastardly fiancé. She would not be controlled. Lady Alwin Hewett had no idea when she left her father's manor to marry a man she'd never met that she would instead be kidnapped by a Highland rogue out for vengeance. But she refuses to be a pawn in any man's game. So when she learns that Robert has had them secretly wed, she will stop at nothing to regain her freedom. But her heart may have other plans.... This full-length Scottish historical romance is part of the Sinclair Brothers trilogy, but also can be enjoyed as a standalone novel. Pick up your copy today!
©2015 Emma Prince (P)2017 Emma Prince