The Forest cover art

The Forest

Preview

Try for $0.00
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, and podcasts.
Premium Plus auto-renews for $14.95/mo + applicable taxes after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

The Forest

Written by: Edward Rutherfurd
Narrated by: Lynn Redgrave
Try for $0.00

$14.95 a month after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Buy Now for $23.99

Buy Now for $23.99

Confirm purchase
Pay using card ending in
By confirming your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and Amazon's Privacy Notice. Tax where applicable.
Cancel

About this listen

Edward Rutherfurd's new audiobook covers four centuries of British history, with the New Forest as background, culminating in a five-family saga set in the days of Jane Austen.

Few places in England are more resonant, more mysterious yet more friendly than the huge forest that lies by England's southern coast, that provided hunting for England's Saxon and Norman kings, and whose ancient oaks were used to build Nelson's navy. Jane Austen and her family lived just 25 miles northeast of the forest. The river Avon runs down the forest's western edge. On its eastern side is the ancient Saxon capital of Winchester, the great port of Southampton from which the Titanic set out, and the QE2 sails to this day, and beyond that Portsmouth, home of the British Navy.

It is against this backdrop that Rutherfurd tells a tale of woodsmen, monks, sailors, craftswomen and families. The largest family in the novel is modeled loosely upon the extended family of Jane Austen, together with certain other known families from the New Forest area. And so, we have the magical formula of previous Rutherfurd novels with the same sense of the passing of centuries but a shorter time period allowing for more character development and drama, culminating in the Austen period, a favorite in British history, just at the time when the New Forest was at its most bustling.

©2000 Edward Rutherfurd; 2012 Random House Audio
Fiction Historical Fiction Literary Fiction England
activate_Holiday_promo_in_buybox_DT_T2

What the critics say

"Not all good things come in small packages. If you like books that are big, Edward Rutherfurd is your man. He writes wonderful sagas, tales that cover centuries, always keeping these long stories lively by telling us about the events and conflicts of people's lives. Rutherfurd does the painstaking research; the reader has all the fun." ( Seattle Times)
"Many of the most memorable characters are women - Adela the Norman, bold in the face of injustice; her descendant Alice Albion, almost brave enough to defeat the hatred of the civil war; tough old Adelaide, so loyal to ancient grievances that she can't let her sweet niece Fanny take hold of love." ( Kansas City Star)
"The novel covers 10 centuries, tracking a half-dozen or so families and their fates, their fortunes, and intrigues moving the stories along. But the trees have tales to tell, too. As fiction, it works like a charm.... English majors will love this, and so will almost anyone else who starts page one and follows Puckle, Godwin Pride, Cola the Huntsman and their descendents along Rutherfurd's twisting road." ( New York Daily News)

What listeners say about The Forest

Average Customer Ratings
Overall
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    5
  • 4 Stars
    4
  • 3 Stars
    1
  • 2 Stars
    0
  • 1 Stars
    0
Performance
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    7
  • 4 Stars
    1
  • 3 Stars
    1
  • 2 Stars
    0
  • 1 Stars
    0
Story
  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    4
  • 4 Stars
    2
  • 3 Stars
    2
  • 2 Stars
    0
  • 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

Unfortunately Abridged

Having read and listened to a number of Edward Rutherford books already, I came to feel as though this was much to short, with extra large leaps in time. I felt as though I was missing parts of the story. The story that is here is lovely, it just didn't feel complete.

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

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!