Romola cover art

Romola

Preview

£0.00 for first 30 days

Try for £0.00
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Romola

By: George Eliot
Narrated by: Nadia May
Try for £0.00

£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Buy Now for £23.99

Buy Now for £23.99

Confirm Purchase
Pay using card ending in
By completing your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and authorise Audible to charge your designated card or any other card on file. Please see our Privacy Notice, Cookies Notice and Interest-based Ads Notice.
Cancel

About this listen

"There is no book of mine about which I more thoroughly feel that I swear by every sentence as having been written with my best blood." Thus wrote George Eliot about Romola, the book that is central in her career as a novelist and among her most colorful, fluent, and persuasive works.

Set in Florence in 1492, a time of great political and religious turmoil, Eliot's novel blends vivid fictional characters with historical figures such as Savonarola, Machiavelli, and the Medicis. When Romola, the virtuous daughter of a blind scholar, marries Tito Melema, a charismatic young Greek, she is bound to a man whose escalating betrayals threaten to destroy all that she holds dear. Profoundly inspired by Savonarola's teachings, then crushed by the religious leader's ultimate failure, Romola finds her salvation in noble self-sacrifice.

(P)1997 Blackstone Audio Inc.
Classics Fiction Historical Fiction Literary Fiction
activate_Holiday_promo_in_buybox_DT_T2

Listeners also enjoyed...

Daniel Deronda cover art

Critic reviews

"George Eliot's humanity colors all her other gifts — her humor, her morality, and her exquisite rhetoric." (Henry James)

What listeners say about Romola

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 3.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    0
  • 4 Stars
    5
  • 3 Stars
    2
  • 2 Stars
    1
  • 1 Stars
    0
Performance
  • 3.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    1
  • 4 Stars
    2
  • 3 Stars
    2
  • 2 Stars
    1
  • 1 Stars
    0
Story
  • 3.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    1
  • 4 Stars
    3
  • 3 Stars
    1
  • 2 Stars
    1
  • 1 Stars
    0

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

Sort by:
Filter by:
  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

A Long Time Ago In Florence

Some of George Eliot's writings are full of didactic, and highfalutin dialogues, but full of clever thinking. And here, another intelligent narration on Audible, to enhance understanding.
Eliot, as with many well-educated female authors of Victorian times, benefited from the hand of her father in her upbringing, after the death of her mother, in particular Godly [pastor] fathers.
No need for this educated lady to campaign to take over the male role; she respected God-given gender roles, and her mind had been expanded to encompass both sides of her feminine talents.
A beautiful phrase from chapter 23, as a teaching from the epistles: ...Tito was experiencing that inexorable law of human souls, that we prepare ourselves for sudden deeds by the reiterated choice of good or evil which gradually determines character....
And just as in Adam Bede, she gave the female protagonist some wonderful sermons, so she does the same in chapter 24 by the 'Dominican Friar'. Spiritual licence to put less Roman Catholic words coming from the pupit!
Romola tries to be a good wife, but she can't do it, her resentful emotions take over when she talks to her husband. It's a miserable thing when we can't find joy in a relationship that should be happy and loving.
I cannot see anyone enjoying this novel, who has not a knowledge and a commitment to God and His Word.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!