
Real People
A Novel
Failed to add items
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
$0.99/mo for the first 3 months

Buy for $14.95
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
-
Narrated by:
-
Lesa Wilson
-
By:
-
Alison Lurie
About this listen
At an artistic Garden of Eden, one writer finds that serpents lurk in every corner.
The mansion is called Illyria, but for the writers and artists who flock there each summer, it may as well be paradise. Away from family, friends, and ordinary responsibilities, the creative spirit can flower, nurtured by the company of other artistic souls. Janet Belle Smith's husband doesn't understand why she can't write at home - or really, for that matter, why she must write at all - but for Janet, the reason is clear. Only in Illyria can she be herself.
But as the writer mingles with her fellow artists - including a Marxist novelist, a Beat poet, a wild-man sculptor - she begins to fear that the "real" her isn't who she expected, and Illyria is not the peaceful kingdom it appears to be. This creative paradise is rotting from inside out, and if Janet doesn't move quickly, she'll be trapped in the rubble when the walls come tumbling down.
©1969 Alison Lurie (P)2014 Audible Inc.Listeners also enjoyed...
-
Foreign Affairs
- By: Alison Lurie
- Narrated by: Jennifer Van Dyck
- Length: 10 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Virginia Miner, a 50-something, unmarried tenured professor, is in London to work on her new book about children's folk rhymes. Despite carrying a U.S. passport, Vinnie feels essentially English and rather looks down on her fellow Americans. But in spite of that, she is drawn into a mortifying and oddly satisfying affair with an Oklahoman tourist who dresses more Bronco Billy than Beau Brummel.
-
-
Fascinating
- By Margaret on 03-16-12
By: Alison Lurie
-
Savage Beauty
- The Life of Edna St. Vincent Millay
- By: Nancy Milford
- Narrated by: Bernadette Dunne
- Length: 24 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
If F. Scott Fitzgerald was the hero of the Jazz Age, Edna St. Vincent Millay, as flamboyant in her love affairs as she was in her art, was its heroine. A winner of the Pulitzer Prize, Millay was dazzling in the performance of herself. Her voice was likened to an instrument of seduction, and her impact on crowds and on men was legendary. Yet beneath her studied act, all was not well.
-
-
Fascinating Woman
- By David P on 04-29-22
By: Nancy Milford
-
The Ghost Writer
- The Nathan Zuckerman Series, Book 1
- By: Philip Roth
- Narrated by: Malcolm Hillgartner
- Length: 4 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Ghost Writer introduces Nathan Zuckerman in the 1950s, a budding writer infatuated with the great books, discovering the contradictory claims of literature and experience while an overnight guest in the secluded New England farmhouse of his idol, E. I. Lonoff. At Lonoff's, Zuckerman meets Amy Bellette, a haunting young woman of indeterminate foreign background who turns out to be a former student of Lonoff's and who may also have been his mistress.
-
-
Turning Sentences Around
- By Darwin8u on 01-28-17
By: Philip Roth
-
City of Girls
- A Novel
- By: Elizabeth Gilbert
- Narrated by: Blair Brown
- Length: 15 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Beloved author Elizabeth Gilbert returns to fiction with a unique love story set in the New York City theater world during the 1940s. Told from the perspective of an older woman as she looks back on her youth with both pleasure and regret (but mostly pleasure), City of Girls explores themes of female sexuality and promiscuity, as well as the idiosyncrasies of true love. In 1940, nineteen-year-old Vivian Morris has just been kicked out of Vassar College, owing to her lackluster freshman-year performance.
-
-
A strong story
- By Anita Kristensen on 06-08-19
-
The End of the Affair
- By: Graham Greene
- Narrated by: Colin Firth
- Length: 6 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Graham Greene’s evocative analysis of the love of self, the love of another, and the love of God is an English classic that has been translated for the stage, the screen, and even the opera house. Academy Award-winning actor Colin Firth (The King’s Speech, A Single Man) turns in an authentic and stirring performance for this distinguished audio release.
-
-
Colin Firth Kills It
- By Em on 05-09-12
By: Graham Greene
-
Good Behaviour
- A BBC 2 Between the Covers Book Club Pick – Booker Prize Gems
- By: Molly Keane
- Narrated by: Aoife McMahon
- Length: 8 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Behind the gates of Temple Alice, the aristocratic Anglo-Irish St Charles family sinks into a state of decaying grace. To Aroon St Charles, large and unlovely daughter of the house, the fierce forces of sex, money, jealousy and love seem locked out by the ritual patterns of good behaviour. But crumbling codes of conduct cannot hope to save the members of the St Charles family from their own unruly and inadmissible desires. This elegant and allusive novel established Molly Keane as the natural successor to Jean Rhys.
-
-
Great all around
- By Kindle Customer on 07-18-24
By: Molly Keane
-
Foreign Affairs
- By: Alison Lurie
- Narrated by: Jennifer Van Dyck
- Length: 10 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Virginia Miner, a 50-something, unmarried tenured professor, is in London to work on her new book about children's folk rhymes. Despite carrying a U.S. passport, Vinnie feels essentially English and rather looks down on her fellow Americans. But in spite of that, she is drawn into a mortifying and oddly satisfying affair with an Oklahoman tourist who dresses more Bronco Billy than Beau Brummel.
-
-
Fascinating
- By Margaret on 03-16-12
By: Alison Lurie
-
Savage Beauty
- The Life of Edna St. Vincent Millay
- By: Nancy Milford
- Narrated by: Bernadette Dunne
- Length: 24 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
If F. Scott Fitzgerald was the hero of the Jazz Age, Edna St. Vincent Millay, as flamboyant in her love affairs as she was in her art, was its heroine. A winner of the Pulitzer Prize, Millay was dazzling in the performance of herself. Her voice was likened to an instrument of seduction, and her impact on crowds and on men was legendary. Yet beneath her studied act, all was not well.
-
-
Fascinating Woman
- By David P on 04-29-22
By: Nancy Milford
-
The Ghost Writer
- The Nathan Zuckerman Series, Book 1
- By: Philip Roth
- Narrated by: Malcolm Hillgartner
- Length: 4 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Ghost Writer introduces Nathan Zuckerman in the 1950s, a budding writer infatuated with the great books, discovering the contradictory claims of literature and experience while an overnight guest in the secluded New England farmhouse of his idol, E. I. Lonoff. At Lonoff's, Zuckerman meets Amy Bellette, a haunting young woman of indeterminate foreign background who turns out to be a former student of Lonoff's and who may also have been his mistress.
-
-
Turning Sentences Around
- By Darwin8u on 01-28-17
By: Philip Roth
-
City of Girls
- A Novel
- By: Elizabeth Gilbert
- Narrated by: Blair Brown
- Length: 15 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Beloved author Elizabeth Gilbert returns to fiction with a unique love story set in the New York City theater world during the 1940s. Told from the perspective of an older woman as she looks back on her youth with both pleasure and regret (but mostly pleasure), City of Girls explores themes of female sexuality and promiscuity, as well as the idiosyncrasies of true love. In 1940, nineteen-year-old Vivian Morris has just been kicked out of Vassar College, owing to her lackluster freshman-year performance.
-
-
A strong story
- By Anita Kristensen on 06-08-19
-
The End of the Affair
- By: Graham Greene
- Narrated by: Colin Firth
- Length: 6 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Graham Greene’s evocative analysis of the love of self, the love of another, and the love of God is an English classic that has been translated for the stage, the screen, and even the opera house. Academy Award-winning actor Colin Firth (The King’s Speech, A Single Man) turns in an authentic and stirring performance for this distinguished audio release.
-
-
Colin Firth Kills It
- By Em on 05-09-12
By: Graham Greene
-
Good Behaviour
- A BBC 2 Between the Covers Book Club Pick – Booker Prize Gems
- By: Molly Keane
- Narrated by: Aoife McMahon
- Length: 8 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Behind the gates of Temple Alice, the aristocratic Anglo-Irish St Charles family sinks into a state of decaying grace. To Aroon St Charles, large and unlovely daughter of the house, the fierce forces of sex, money, jealousy and love seem locked out by the ritual patterns of good behaviour. But crumbling codes of conduct cannot hope to save the members of the St Charles family from their own unruly and inadmissible desires. This elegant and allusive novel established Molly Keane as the natural successor to Jean Rhys.
-
-
Great all around
- By Kindle Customer on 07-18-24
By: Molly Keane
-
Of Love and Shadows
- A Novel
- By: Isabel Allende
- Narrated by: Cynthia Farrell
- Length: 10 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Irene Beltrán is a force to be reckoned with. As a magazine journalist, an unusual profession for a woman with her privileged upbringing, she is constantly challenging the oppressive regime. Her investigative partner is photographer Francisco Leal, the son of impoverished Spanish Marxist émigrés. Together, they are an inseparable team and - despite Irene’s engagement to an army captain - form a passionate connection.
-
-
Good story, but difficult to follow at times
- By Carmen on 04-21-20
By: Isabel Allende
-
Shrines of Gaiety
- A Novel
- By: Kate Atkinson
- Narrated by: Jason Watkins
- Length: 15 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
1926, and in a country still recovering from the Great War, London has become the focus for a delirious new nightlife. In the clubs of Soho, peers of the realm rub shoulders with starlets, foreign dignitaries with gangsters, and girls sell dances for a shilling a time. The notorious queen of this glittering world is Nellie Coker, ruthless but also ambitious to advance her six children, including the enigmatic eldest, Niven, whose character has been forged in the crucible of the Somme. But success breeds enemies, and Nellie’s empire faces threats from without and within.
-
-
Rich characters of all stripes
- By Glorious Lorius on 11-09-22
By: Kate Atkinson
-
Old Filth
- By: Jane Gardam
- Narrated by: Bill Wallace
- Length: 9 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Sir Edward Feathers has had a brilliant career, from his early days as a lawyer in Southeast Asia, where he earned the nickname Old Filth (FILTH being an acronym for Failed In London Try Hong Kong) to his final working days as a respected judge at the English bar. Yet through it all he has carried with him the wounds of a difficult and emotionally hollow childhood. Now an 80-year-old widower living in comfortable seclusion in Dorset, Feathers is finally free from the regimen of work and the sentimental scaffolding that has sustained him throughout his life.
-
-
Literature at its finest!
- By M. Dyson on 07-29-23
By: Jane Gardam
-
Young Hearts Crying
- By: Richard Yates
- Narrated by: Marc Vietor
- Length: 12 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Yates movingly portrays a man and a woman from their courtship in the 1950s to their divorce in the '70s, chronicling their heartbreaking attempts to reach their highest ambitions. Michael Davenport dreams of being a poet after returning home from World War II, and at first he and his new wife, Lucy, enjoy their life together. But as the decades pass and the success of others creates a fear of failure in both Michael and Lucy, their once bright future gives way to a life of adultery and isolation.
By: Richard Yates
-
Crossing to Safety
- By: Wallace Stegner
- Narrated by: Richard Poe
- Length: 12 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
One of the finest American authors of the 20th century, Wallace Stegner compiled an impressive collection of accolades during his lifetime, including a Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, a National Book Award, and three O. Henry Awards. His final novel, Crossing to Safety is the quiet yet stirring tale of two couples that meet during the Great Depression and form a lifelong bond.
-
-
Amazing Stegner and his beautiful last book
- By Rebecca on 11-16-13
By: Wallace Stegner
-
Z: A Novel of Zelda Fitzgerald
- By: Therese Anne Fowler
- Narrated by: Jenna Lamia
- Length: 12 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When beautiful, reckless Southern belle Zelda Sayre meets F. Scott Fitzgerald at a country club dance in 1918, she is seventeen years old and he is a young army lieutenant stationed in Alabama. Before long, the "ungettable" Zelda has fallen for him despite his unsuitability: Scott isn't wealthy or prominent or even a Southerner, and keeps insisting, absurdly, that his writing will bring him both fortune and fame. Her father is deeply unimpressed.
-
-
Great! From the first page to the last.....
- By L.W. on 03-30-13
-
Up a Road Slowly
- By: Irene Hunt
- Narrated by: Jaselyn Blanchard
- Length: 4 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Julie would remember her happy days at Aunt Cordelia’s forever. Running through the spacious rooms, singing on rainy nights in front of the blazing fireplace. There were rides in the woods on Peter the Great, the races with Danny Trevort. Maybe best of all were the precious moments alone in her room at night, gazing at the sea of stars. But there was sadness too - the painful jealousy Julie felt after her sister got married, the tragic death of a schoolmate, and the bitter disappointment of her first love. Sometimes it all seemed like too much to handle.
-
-
Coming of age in mid century
- By Mary A. Kozy on 01-17-21
By: Irene Hunt
-
Tara Road
- A Novel
- By: Maeve Binchy
- Narrated by: Katherine Borowitz
- Length: 17 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Ria lived on Tara Road in Dublin with her dashing husband, Danny, and their two children. She fully believed she was happily married, right up until the day Danny told her he was leaving her to be with his young, pregnant girlfriend. By a chance phone call, Ria meets Marilyn, a woman from New England unable to come to terms with her only son's death and now separated from her husband. The two women exchange houses for the summer with extraordinary consequences, each learning that the other has a deep secret that can never be revealed.
-
-
Material good - quality, not-so-much
- By B. W. on 09-05-08
By: Maeve Binchy
-
The Razor's Edge
- By: W. Somerset Maugham
- Narrated by: Michael Page
- Length: 11 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Great War changed everything and everyone, and Larry Darrell is no exception. Though his physical wounds from the war heal, his spirit is changed almost beyond recognition. He leaves his betrothed, the beautiful and devoted Isabel; studies philosophy and religion in Paris; lives as a monk, and witnesses the exotic hardships of Spanish life. All of life that he can find - from an Indian Ashrama to labor in a coal mine - becomes Larry's spiritual experiment as he spurns the comfort and privilege of the Roaring 20s.
-
-
An Classic of Love and the Desire for Meaning
- By Eric on 01-06-17
-
Live from New York
- The Complete, Uncensored History of Saturday Night Live as Told by Its Stars, Writers, and Guests
- By: James Andrew Miller, Tom Shales
- Narrated by: Christina Delaine, Paul Woodson
- Length: 28 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When first published to celebrate the 30th anniversary of Saturday Night Live, Live from New York was immediately proclaimed the best book ever produced on the landmark and legendary late-night show. In their own words, unfiltered and uncensored, a dazzling galaxy of trail-blazing talents recalled three turbulent decades of on-camera antics and off-camera escapades.
-
-
The First Forty Years ... and Counting
- By Dubi on 10-21-18
By: James Andrew Miller, and others
-
Snobs
- By: Julian Fellowes
- Narrated by: Richard Morant
- Length: 10 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Edith Lavery, the pretty daughter of an accountant, meets gossip-column favorite Charles Broughton (Earl of Broughton and heir to the Marquess of Uckfield) at Ascot. When he proposes and she accepts, does she really love him, or is she merely dazzled by his title and money?
-
-
A Fantastic Beach Read!
- By Lori on 04-08-05
By: Julian Fellowes
-
Past Imperfect
- By: Julian Fellowes
- Narrated by: Richard Morant
- Length: 16 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Damian Baxter is hugely wealthy and dying. He lives alone in a big house in Surrey, England, looked after by a chauffeur, butler, cook and housemaid. He has but one concern--his fortune in excess of 500 million and who should inherit it on his death.
-
-
Read Snobs instead
- By cristina on 02-14-13
By: Julian Fellowes
What listeners say about Real People
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- John S.
- 08-12-15
Other reviewers have loved it, me ... not so much
The audio sample seemed well done, and I was curious about writers' colonies, so I figured I'd apply an expiring credit towards this one. The only work I'd read of Lurie's I'd read, I liked, though it was non-fiction: Familiar Spirits: A Memoir of James Merrill and David Jackson.
Initially, the book held promise with its description of the grounds, staff and attendees. Then, the soap-opera-like tone set in, where I had trouble keeping the characters apart, not really liking any of them, including the protagonist. Had this been a library book, I might've thrown in the towel, but it's relatively short, and well written, so I persevered. The final scene made a good point, but honestly, I felt it rather a slog getting there.
Audio narration fit well, no complaints on that score.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
2 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Dutchess Abroad
- 09-17-19
Lurie Bares the Bones of the Writing Life
Without making comparisons between real and fictional retreats and their temporary or long term residents, many names both of institutions and creative souls are called to the surface. Lured by the author’s confessional voice and clever (re) constructions of dialogues among retreat guests we’re feasted on the organic development of story telling and art making. The end a surprisingly lucid argument for honesty in art.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
1 person found this helpful