Listen free for 30 days

Listen with offer

Preview

£0.00 for first 30 days

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.

Nightwood

By: Djuna Barnes, Jeanette Winterson - preface, T. S. Eliot - introduction
Narrated by: Gemma Dawson
Try for £0.00

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

Buy Now for £17.99

Buy Now for £17.99

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.

Summary

Nightwood, Djuna Barnes's strange and sinuous tour de force novel unfolds in the decadent shadows of Europe's great cities, Paris, Berlin, and Vienna - a world in which the boundaries of class, religion, and sexuality are bold but surprisingly porous.

The outsized characters who inhabit this world are some of the most memorable in all of fiction - there is Guido Volkbein, the Wandering Jew and son of a self-proclaimed baron; Robin Vote, the American expatriate who marries him and then engages in a series of affairs, first with Nora Flood and then with Jenny Petherbridge, driving all of her lovers to distraction with her passion for wandering alone in the night; and there is Dr. Matthew-Mighty-Grain-of-Salt-Dante-O'Connor, a transvestite and ostensible gynecologist, whose digressive speeches brim with fury, keen insights, and surprising allusions.

Barnes's depiction of these characters and their relationships has made the novel a landmark of feminist and lesbian literature.

©1937 Djuna Barnes; preface copyright 2006 by Jeanette Winterson (P)2017 Tantor
activate_Holiday_promo_in_buybox_DT_T2

Listeners also enjoyed...

Mrs. Dalloway cover art
In Cold Blood cover art
Ulysses cover art
The Sound and the Fury cover art
To the Lighthouse cover art
Vintage Vampire Stories cover art
James Joyce cover art
Restoration cover art
Light in August cover art
Between the Acts cover art
As I Lay Dying cover art
Recollections of My Non-Existence cover art
The Hour of the Star cover art
Absalom, Absalom! cover art
Leviathan cover art
The Black Obelisk cover art

What listeners say about Nightwood

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 3.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    4
  • 4 Stars
    8
  • 3 Stars
    4
  • 2 Stars
    2
  • 1 Stars
    3
Performance
  • 3.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    4
  • 4 Stars
    6
  • 3 Stars
    4
  • 2 Stars
    3
  • 1 Stars
    1
Story
  • 3 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    4
  • 4 Stars
    3
  • 3 Stars
    6
  • 2 Stars
    0
  • 1 Stars
    5

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

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

absolutely dire twaddle

how the doctor was not bludgeoned to death for droning on is beyond me. The similes go down about as well as a fart in a car on a hot summers day with the windows up as you go past a seweage works.

my theory is this is a giant sandbag, you have to read between the lines of recommendation to work out it's all sarcasm on behalf of the reviewers.

the pearl dissolving in a glass of wine is actually poisonous like asbestos in the lungs of a ship worker.

yes it's an early LGBT book but it's dated and has problematic racial views.

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
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Thought provoking

One of the best Modernist texts that is read very well by audible. Enjoyable text to read and hear

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

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful