
The Amateur Emigrant
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 $11.17
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
-
Narrated by:
-
Donal Donnelly
About this listen
Listeners also enjoyed...
-
Treasure Island
- By: Robert Louis Stevenson
- Narrated by: Jasper Britton
- Length: 6 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Treasure Island must be the most enthralling adventure book ever written. As we listen to the voice of Jim Hawkins telling his extraordinary tale, and later that of his companion, Dr. Livesey, we are plunged into a world of pirates, buried treasure, mutiny, and deceit.
-
-
Rousing tale
- By Jason on 03-11-08
-
David Copperfield
- By: Charles Dickens
- Narrated by: Richard Armitage
- Length: 36 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Between his work on the 2014 Audible Audiobook of the Year, Hamlet, Prince of Denmark: A Novel, and his performance of Classic Love Poems, narrator Richard Armitage ( The Hobbit, Hannibal) has quickly become a listener favorite. Now, in this defining performance of Charles Dickens' classic David Copperfield, Armitage lends his unique voice and interpretation, truly inhabiting each character and bringing real energy to the life of one of Dickens' most famous characters.
-
-
A PERFECT narration of an English classic!
- By Wayne on 09-03-17
By: Charles Dickens
-
Heart of Darkness: A Signature Performance by Kenneth Branagh
- By: Joseph Conrad
- Narrated by: Kenneth Branagh
- Length: 3 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A Signature Performance: Kenneth Branagh plays this like a campfire ghost story, told by a haunted, slightly insane Marlow.
-
-
Disgusting Revision
- By Long_Schlong_Silver on 09-27-18
By: Joseph Conrad
-
Edgar Allan Poe - The Complete Short Stories
- By: Edgar Allan Poe
- Narrated by: Bob Thomley
- Length: 16 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
All of Edgar Allan Poe’s great short stories in one 16-hour collection.
-
-
NEVERMORE
- By Jim "The Impatient" on 11-23-15
By: Edgar Allan Poe
-
A Room of One's Own
- By: Virginia Woolf
- Narrated by: Juliet Stevenson
- Length: 5 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A Room of One's Own, based on a lecture given at Girton College Cambridge, is one of the great feminist polemics. Woolf's blazing polemic on female creativity, the role of the writer, and the silent fate of Shakespeare's imaginary sister remains a powerful reminder of a woman's need for financial independence and intellectual freedom.
-
-
A Witty, Beautiful Plea for Androgynous Integrity
- By Jefferson on 08-20-14
By: Virginia Woolf
-
Surprised by Joy
- The Shape of My Early Life
- By: C. S. Lewis
- Narrated by: Ralph Cosham
- Length: 6 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In this book, C.S. Lewis tells of his search for joy, a spiritual journey that led him from the Christianity of his early youth into atheism and then back to Christianity.
-
-
Not what I expected
- By connie on 12-21-09
By: C. S. Lewis
-
Treasure Island
- By: Robert Louis Stevenson
- Narrated by: Jasper Britton
- Length: 6 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Treasure Island must be the most enthralling adventure book ever written. As we listen to the voice of Jim Hawkins telling his extraordinary tale, and later that of his companion, Dr. Livesey, we are plunged into a world of pirates, buried treasure, mutiny, and deceit.
-
-
Rousing tale
- By Jason on 03-11-08
-
David Copperfield
- By: Charles Dickens
- Narrated by: Richard Armitage
- Length: 36 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Between his work on the 2014 Audible Audiobook of the Year, Hamlet, Prince of Denmark: A Novel, and his performance of Classic Love Poems, narrator Richard Armitage ( The Hobbit, Hannibal) has quickly become a listener favorite. Now, in this defining performance of Charles Dickens' classic David Copperfield, Armitage lends his unique voice and interpretation, truly inhabiting each character and bringing real energy to the life of one of Dickens' most famous characters.
-
-
A PERFECT narration of an English classic!
- By Wayne on 09-03-17
By: Charles Dickens
-
Heart of Darkness: A Signature Performance by Kenneth Branagh
- By: Joseph Conrad
- Narrated by: Kenneth Branagh
- Length: 3 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A Signature Performance: Kenneth Branagh plays this like a campfire ghost story, told by a haunted, slightly insane Marlow.
-
-
Disgusting Revision
- By Long_Schlong_Silver on 09-27-18
By: Joseph Conrad
-
Edgar Allan Poe - The Complete Short Stories
- By: Edgar Allan Poe
- Narrated by: Bob Thomley
- Length: 16 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
All of Edgar Allan Poe’s great short stories in one 16-hour collection.
-
-
NEVERMORE
- By Jim "The Impatient" on 11-23-15
By: Edgar Allan Poe
-
A Room of One's Own
- By: Virginia Woolf
- Narrated by: Juliet Stevenson
- Length: 5 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A Room of One's Own, based on a lecture given at Girton College Cambridge, is one of the great feminist polemics. Woolf's blazing polemic on female creativity, the role of the writer, and the silent fate of Shakespeare's imaginary sister remains a powerful reminder of a woman's need for financial independence and intellectual freedom.
-
-
A Witty, Beautiful Plea for Androgynous Integrity
- By Jefferson on 08-20-14
By: Virginia Woolf
-
Surprised by Joy
- The Shape of My Early Life
- By: C. S. Lewis
- Narrated by: Ralph Cosham
- Length: 6 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In this book, C.S. Lewis tells of his search for joy, a spiritual journey that led him from the Christianity of his early youth into atheism and then back to Christianity.
-
-
Not what I expected
- By connie on 12-21-09
By: C. S. Lewis
-
The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man
- By: James Weldon Johnson
- Narrated by: Richard Allen
- Length: 6 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Originally published anonymously in 1912, The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man revealed as never before the color line dividing America, and the price it exacted on those souls who could traverse the two worlds. The book presents the fictional account of "an ex-colored man" - an African-American who could pass for white - as he attempts to choose which side of the line will better suit his life, and his psyche.
-
-
New favorite
- By Jess on 03-19-15
-
John Barleycorn
- By: Jack London
- Narrated by: Zachary Cowan
- Length: 6 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
John Barleycorn is an autobiographical work written by American author Jack London in 1913. Much of the book discusses alcholol and its influence on his life.
-
-
Some gems but too long
- By Dusty Cross-ties on 10-22-23
By: Jack London
-
Trollope
- An Autobiography
- By: Anthony Trollope
- Narrated by: Bernard Mayes
- Length: 10 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Anthony Trollope is most famous for his portrait of the professional and landed classes of Victorian England, especially in his Palliser and Barsetshire novels. But he was also the author of one of the most fascinating autobiographies of the nineteenth century. Trollope was born in 1815, the product of a formidable mother and a tragically unsuccessful father who was socially ambitious for his sons. He was the victim of vicious bullying at Harrow and Winchester. But he had inherited his mother's determination, and managed later to carve out a successful career in the General Post Office while devoting every spare moment to writing. How he paid his groom to wake him every morning at 5:30 a.m. and disciplined himself to write 250 words every fifteen minutes has become part of literary legend. His efforts resulted in over sixty books, a sizable fortune, and fame, and his autobiography. Trollope looks back on his life with satisfaction. Perhaps as interesting as the facts he reveals and the opinions he records about Dickens and George Eliot, politics and the civil service are the judgments he passes on his own character.
-
-
the meaning of work
- By jasmine00 on 01-05-08
By: Anthony Trollope
-
The Prince and the Pauper
- By: Mark Twain
- Narrated by: Steve West
- Length: 7 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
They look alike, but they live in very different worlds. Tom Canty, impoverished and abused by his father, is fascinated with royalty. Edward Tudor, heir to the throne of England, is kind and generous but wants to run free and play in the river - just once. How insubstantial their differences truly are becomes clear when a chance encounter leads to an exchange of clothing - and roles. The pauper finds himself caught up in the pomp and folly of the royal court, and the prince wanders horror-stricken through the lower strata of English society.
-
-
Wonderful author, terrific narrator, splendid book
- By Rahni on 10-01-17
By: Mark Twain
-
Burning Boy
- The Life and Work of Stephen Crane
- By: Paul Auster
- Narrated by: Paul Auster
- Length: 35 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
With Burning Boy, celebrated novelist Paul Auster tells the extraordinary story of Stephen Crane, best known as the author of The Red Badge of Courage, who transformed American literature through an avalanche of original short stories, novellas, poems, journalism, and war reportage before his life was cut short by tuberculosis at age 28.
-
-
Brilliant and enjoyable
- By Alvin Marcetti on 01-08-23
By: Paul Auster
-
Chapters from My Autobiography
- By: Mark Twain
- Narrated by: Bronson Pinchot
- Length: 11 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This book is part memoir, part philosophical text, part study in human behavior, from one of America's greatest literary treasures. Narrated masterfully by Bronson Pinchot, this audiobook also includes Twain’s popular short story, "The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County".
-
-
Fabulous Performance AND Read
- By Douglas on 10-24-10
By: Mark Twain
-
Autobiography of Mark Twain, Vol. 3
- By: Mark Twain
- Narrated by: Grover Gardner
- Length: 24 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When the first volume of Mark Twain's uncensored autobiography was published in 2010, it was hailed as an essential addition to the shelf of his works and a crucial document for our understanding of the great humorist's life and times. This third and final volume crowns and completes his life's work. Like its companion volumes, it chronicles Twain's inner and outer life through a series of daily dictations that go wherever his fancy leads.
-
-
Worth waiting for
- By Tad Davis on 12-09-15
By: Mark Twain
-
Charles Dickens and the Great Theatre of the World
- By: Simon Callow
- Narrated by: Simon Callow
- Length: 11 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Dickens was one of the first true celebrity authors. Thousands of fans in Britain and America eagerly awaited each new installment of his stories, and flocked to see him on his legendary speaking tours. Not only did he create an incredible cast of characters on the page, but he was also a dazzling mimic and storyteller, and he wrote, stage-managed, and acted in plays for the public. Throughout his life, from his childhood performances to his legendarily powerful reading tours, Dickens was fanatical about the stage.
-
-
Loved it!
- By Tad Davis on 08-20-12
By: Simon Callow
-
Mark Twain
- A Life
- By: Ron Powers
- Narrated by: Ron Powers
- Length: 10 hrs and 54 mins
- Abridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Mark Twain founded the American voice. His works are a living national treasury: taught, quoted, and reprinted more than those of any writer except Shakespeare. His awestruck contemporaries saw him as the representative figure of his times, and his influence has deeply flavored the 20th and 21st centuries.
-
-
Buy the Book
- By W.Denis on 10-22-05
By: Ron Powers
-
Autobiography of Mark Twain, Vol. 2
- By: Mark Twain
- Narrated by: Grover Gardner
- Length: 26 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Mark Twain's complete, uncensored Autobiography was an instant best seller when the first volume was published in 2010, on the centennial of the author's death, as he requested. Published to rave reviews, the Autobiography was hailed as the capstone of Twain's career. It captures his authentic and unsuppressed voice, speaking clearly from the grave and brimming with humor, ideas, and opinions. The eagerly awaited second volume delves deeper into Twain's life, uncovering the many roles he played in his private and public worlds.
-
-
The way it should be done.
- By Ian on 10-16-13
By: Mark Twain
-
Joan of Arc
- By: Mark Twain
- Narrated by: Michael Anthony
- Length: 15 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Very few people know that Mark Twain wrote a major work on Joan of Arc. Still fewer know that he considered it not only his most important, but also his best work. He spent 12 years in research and many months in France doing archival work, and then made several attempts until he felt he finally had the story he wanted to tell.
-
-
Twain's best
- By Number Cruncher on 12-25-07
By: Mark Twain
-
Letters
- By: C. S. Lewis
- Narrated by: Ralph Cosham
- Length: 37 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This volume of short essays and other pieces by C. S. Lewis is part of a larger collection, C. S. Lewis: Essay Collection and Other Short Pieces. In addition to his many books, letters, and poems, C. S. Lewis wrote a great number of essays and shorter pieces on various subjects. He wrote extensively on Christian theology and the defense of faith but also on ethical issues and the nature of literature and storytelling. Within this audiobook is a treasure trove of Lewis' reflections on diverse topics.
-
-
Just Lewis
- By William on 02-07-21
By: C. S. Lewis
Editorial reviews
Famed Scottish adventure writer Robert Louis Stevenson is given great treatment by Donal Donnelly, whose light Irish brogue carries the listener over the waves and hordes that populate The Amateur Emigrant, Stevenson’s account of his 1879-1880 journey from Glasgow to California to meet his future wife. Stevenson, a son of privilege, uses his travel as an opportunity to study how the lower classes fared on a long trip across the ocean and beyond.
Written during an epoch of mass migration - especially from Europe to America - Stevenson’s is a firsthand account by a fine writer of the difficulties suffered by those less fortunate than himself. This memoir belongs to the same category as other social and adventure odysseys like Democracy in America and Life on the Mississippi.
Critic reviews
"It is the best book he ever wrote - a marvelous piece of writing, lakelike in its lucidity and depth, a genuine original." (Jonathan Raban, author of Old Glory)
What listeners say about The Amateur Emigrant
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- John A.
- 02-24-22
A great book
A great book that is a wonderful accompaniment to the authors other books. It is a wonderful story and I found it relatable and generally pleasant. I further highly recommend this book.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Becca
- 08-13-19
Wonderful detail for family historians
This is a nicely spun accounting of the long journey of immigration to the USA from Europe in the early part of the 20th century. The narration was excellent as well.
What prompted me to obtain this title, however, was the promise of adding interesting details to my genealogical research. Four of my ancestors immigrated to the USA around the same time as this was written, and were themselves steerage passengers. Though I have photos of the ships, and some general information, this "day in the life of" style work was more of what I needed now to paint a more robust visual history of the trip my ancestors undertook. In this, I was most certainly not disappointed! I found this account fascinating.
Even better, when later in the work he recounts his travels across the USA by train, I realized those details were also helpful for my research in a different branch of my family, in which the Midwestern railroad lines formed a large part of transportation.
This is a relatively short title, but do not let that dissuade you if you have even a passing interest in early American history, travel, immigration from Europe, the actual journey details (representative), or even how the USA appeared to some outside eyes upon their arrival. Immigrants are such an integral part of this country's history and growth! This title is a truly remarkable glimpse into that time, and something I firmly believe all historians, family historians, and genealogists should hear/read at a minimum, though I also think a quick reminder of this country's earlier days would be beneficial to all who reside in the USA.
Highly recommended.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Tad Davis
- 05-18-20
Fascinating
At one time Robert Louis Stevenson had to make a journey across the Atlantic as a second class passenger. He would have gone steerage, he said, but second class gave him a table in his room he could use for writing. The second class cabins were next to steerage and for the most part they ate the same fare, and by choice he spent more time there.
He's a deft and mostly light-hearted observer of human foibles, so his account of the journey makes for quiet, fun reading. Apart from his Travels with a Donkey, I haven't had much experience with Stevenson's nonfiction — I did try to read some of his essays on moral philosophy once and found them pretty rough going. This short account is anything but. It's like a snail’s eye view of the Titanic’s maiden voyage with the dancing and good times and without the iceberg.
Stevenson excels at giving thumbnail sketches of his fellow passengers, including the stowaways. When these are found, they are asked to work for the remainder of the voyage. If they have a usable skill, like engineering, that's the job they're given; otherwise they get some kind of makework project. Stevenson contrasts one in particular who has a particular genius for shirking with another who is always looking for additional responsibilities: there's not much question which he admires more.
Eventually the ship reaches New York and he's able to set foot on land and enjoy the “blessings” of an American hotel. Having enjoyed Mark Twain’s satirical books about European travel, it was fun to see the tables turned by someone with an equally sharp eye and acerbic wit. Stevenson and a friend share a room, whose striking feature is that it has two windows — one opening into the hallway and one into the adjoining room, where three men snore the night away. Stevenson spends his night on the floor and never closes his eyes. The next day he goes shopping for books and finds the staff rude and unhelpful: I seem to remember a similar experience the first time I went to New York.
He departs by train for California, numb with the effort of making his way through crowds that almost literally threaten to crush him. The train takes him from the Jersey shore to Pittsburgh, then to Chicago, rebuilt after the fire. (One car is reserved for families, one for single men, and one for Chinese.) He continues his brief portraits of traveling companions, but because the mode of transportation involves frequent stops and fragmented schedules, the opportunities are fewer and the portraits somewhat less detailed. He has his first encounters with black Americans and his first encounter with that longstanding symbol of American individualism, the handgun.
His only concession to physiology is to note that railroad cars have a “convenience” at either end.
The length of the journey is unpredictable. The train is forever having to pull onto a side track to let an express go by. And there are accidents and breakdowns on the tracks ahead that force the train into a prolonged standstill. So forget knowing what hour the train will arrive in San Francisco; the schedule won't even name the day. At one point they have to change trains, it seems, simply because the cars have become so full of “bad air” as to become almost uninhabitable.
This leads him to reflect on the racism of his fellow Caucasians, in this case directed toward the Chinese people on the train. They are described as dirty and blamed for the stink; white people pretend to choke when a Chinese person walks by. And yet Stevenson notes that of all the groups he traveled with, the Chinese were by far the most careful with respect to hygiene, and he hails their science and culture that for many centuries far outclassed that of Europe. Looking out of the train window, he says, do we even see the same world they do? He reflects also on the injustice done to Native Americans, and the “civilized” way Caucasians humiliated, invaded, cheated, and hunted them at every opportunity.
It's a remarkable account, turning what must have been a fairly ordinary journey into a sharply observed exploration. The long travail comes to an end as the train approaches San Francisco, with the rising sun turning the Bay into gold.
Donal Donnelly narrates with his usual skill, striking a balance between bemused wonder and detached irony.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall
- Griff
- 11-03-08
What a rip-off
This might be a good book - but the quality of the recording makes it very difficult to tell. It sounds as if was recorded by Thomas Edison on to a very early wax cylinder, lost in a dusty cupboard for over 100 years, then rediscovered and transferred from an audio file to digital using two tin cans linked by tight string. Why Audible thinks this is suitable quality for commercial resale is anybody's guess. Certainly I'm not sticking around long enough to find out - I'm out of here as soon as I can get free of my subscription.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
5 people found this helpful