Martina Hutchins

3 books read for LibriVox

filter sort genre era audiobooks

Anna Karenina Leo Tolstoy, translated by Constance Garnett
Tolstoy follows Anna's affair and Levin's awkward farming life in parallel, and somehow the mowing scenes stay with you as long as the tragedy does. It's long and unhurried, but you come out knowing these people better than some of your actual relatives.
Les Misérables Victor Hugo, translated by Isabel F. Hapgood
Yes, it's huge, and Hugo will stop everything for fifty pages on the Paris sewers, but Jean Valjean lifting that cart, or the bishop handing over his candlesticks, will sit in your chest for years. Skim the digressions if you must; the mercy at the center holds.
Romola George Eliot
You have to settle into its dense Renaissance Florence, but Romola rewards you with a woman growing beyond her sheltered life while Tito Melema’s charm curdles and Savonarola’s certainty presses in. It’s morally serious, richly observed, and best when you want a slow, thoughtful read.

3 books read for LibriVox

filter sort genre era audiobooks

Anna Karenina Leo Tolstoy, translated by Constance Garnett
Tolstoy follows Anna's affair and Levin's awkward farming life in parallel, and somehow the mowing scenes stay with you as long as the tragedy does. It's long and unhurried, but you come out knowing these people better than some of your actual relatives.
Les Misérables Victor Hugo, translated by Isabel F. Hapgood
Yes, it's huge, and Hugo will stop everything for fifty pages on the Paris sewers, but Jean Valjean lifting that cart, or the bishop handing over his candlesticks, will sit in your chest for years. Skim the digressions if you must; the mercy at the center holds.
Romola George Eliot
You have to settle into its dense Renaissance Florence, but Romola rewards you with a woman growing beyond her sheltered life while Tito Melema’s charm curdles and Savonarola’s certainty presses in. It’s morally serious, richly observed, and best when you want a slow, thoughtful read.