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Little, Big: or, The Fairies’ Parliament Audiobook
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(3.00) - 4,165 listener ratings
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Publisher Description
Edgewood—which is not found on any map—is many houses, all put inside each other or across each other. It's filled with and surrounded by mystery and enchantment; the further in you go, the bigger it gets.
Smoky Barnable, who has fallen in love with Daily Alice Drinkwater, travels from the City on foot to Edgewood, her family home. There he finds himself on the magical border of an otherworld.
Crowley's work has a special alchemy—mixing the world we know with an imagined world that seems more true and real. Winner of the World Fantasy Award, Little, Big is elegant, sensual, funny, and unforgettable. It is a story of fantastic love and heartrending loss, of impossible things and unshakable destinies, and of the great Tale that envelops us all. It is a wonder.
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"Good heavens. I really liked this book but it took FOREVER to read. It is one of those pleasantly heavy paperbacks with thin pages and tiny print. I don't know why I even chose this book. I guess I didn't realize it was the same author as Lord Byron's something something that I didn't really like. But this one was good. Kind of confusing and I would have to read it again to catch everything. The characters were very interesting. The plot was told out of order a bit. It has something to do with the fairy dimensions but takes place entirely in our world with mostly normal occurrences. So, although I guess it is considered fantasy, it seemed really realistic rather than floofy. It made me cry at one point. Four "F" words in the last 3/4 of the book, but by then it was too late to stop. Lots of sex but none of it ever described. One description of a naked woman's body."
— Wendy (5 out of 5 stars)
Quotes
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“A book that all by itself calls for a redefinition of fantasy.”
— Ursula K. Le Guin -
“Little, Big is one of those sprawling, dream-like fantasy novels that has very British sensibilities but, paradoxically, it takes the Americans to do really well...The esteemed literary critic Harold Bloom called Little, Big ‘a neglected masterpiece. The closest achievement we have to the Alice stories of Lewis Carroll’, and the vast novel does have an almost soporific, Wonderland quality to it—best read on lazy days in dappled sunshine.”
— Guardian (London) -
“Crowley is generous, obsessed, fascinating, gripping. Really, I think Crowley is so good that he has left everybody else in the dust.”
— Peter Straub, award-winning horror fiction author -
“One of my favorite works of modern fantasy, Little, Big is an amazing tale told in an amazing way. Reading it I felt as if I were watching a high-wire artist: one slip and he would fall into the dreadful net of Twee. Yet Crowley never slips, not upon a single word, and the book grows more powerful with every page.”
— Katharine Kerr, bestselling author -
“John Crowley writes sentences of such coruscating magnificence that the rest of the English language has fallen in love with them. I once knew an adverbial clause who was so infatuated with the linguistic beauty of Little, Big that the poor creature pined away into a comma.”
— James Morrow, World Fantasy Award–winning author -
“Ambitious, dazzling, strangely moving, a marvelous magic-realist family chronicle.”
— Washington Post -
“A haunting and suspenseful adventure transports the listener into a realm at once enchantingly ethereal and grounded in our ordinary world. John Crowley knows the essence of this setting best and proves it as narrator, delivering just the right combination of amazement and aplomb. Nicole Vilencia announces titles within the chapters. Her breathy and resonant voice is reminiscent of a fairy queen…This intergenerational fantasy dazzles with is elegant, lyrical prose. Winner of the AudioFile Earphones Award.”
— AudioFile
Awards
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Winner of the AudioFile Earphones Award
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Winner of the 1982 World Fantasy Award for Best Novel
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Winner of the 1982 Mythopoeic Award
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Finalist for the 1982 Hugo Award for Best Novel
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Finalist for the Locus Award for Best Fantasy Novel
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Finalist for the 1981 Nebula Award for Best Novel
Little, Big Listener Reviews
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" This is a really hard book to read.The only person I know who got through this book was the person who gave it to me. But it's worth the work. "
— Melissa, 2/19/2014 -
" Over 500 pages of boring. Zzzzzzzz "
— Leslie, 2/19/2014 -
" the writing is very beautiful and evocative (i literally got goosebumps while reading), but the story did not resolve itself for me... at the end i still had only the foggiest idea of what happened, what the Tale was... it was like waking from a dream and remembering only the essence without any details. so.. only 3 stars. "
— Serene, 2/18/2014 -
" This was a delicious book. Too much of a mouthful to read too quickly and having taken a month to read it, I still I feel it was over too quickly and that I didn't pay half as much attention to enjoying it as I should have. Definitely a book to read again and again. "
— Kristel, 2/12/2014 -
" I could not make it through this book. I got through less than 100 pages and could not maintain any interest. This is rare for me as I can be fairly stubborn about finishing a book just because I started it. "
— Kay, 1/22/2014 -
" I've been reading this book for over a month and while it's perfectly enjoyable I never get that burning urge to pick up back up... "
— Cameron, 1/17/2014 -
" This book was good and disappointing at the same time. Sometimes books get too hyper detailed scene by scene and lose me. This had that hyper-realistic effect on me. "
— Adam, 1/12/2014 -
" Great book to read at summer solstice time, based as it somewhat is on Midsummer Night's Dream - at least the Oberon/Titania part. It got a little long, but I basically enjoyed it very much. "
— Diane, 1/11/2014 -
" This was a little slow and clever for me - reminded me most of Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrel, in that it's almost more atmosphere than plot. "
— Russ, 12/26/2013 -
" This is not a plot driven book. It is driven by mood and scene. And it may be magical, but it might not! "
— Jo, 11/30/2013 -
" Strange and difficult at times, but beautifully written with some great characters. "
— Chris, 11/24/2013 -
" Im going to try to find everything written by John Crowley This book is magical but really only for people who love fantasy Its the perfect escape from the real world "
— Becca, 11/6/2013 -
" One of my absolute favorites. "
— Kate, 9/26/2013 -
" This one still pops up in my mind long after I've read it. Cleverly written. It's all about perspective. "
— Kathard1000, 7/23/2013 -
" I suppose this book had a plot, though I could not find it. The author does have a way with words, though. After a 100 pages of lush prose with little-to-no-direction vis-a-vis a "point," I quit. "
— Anu, 12/15/2012 -
" This is a beautiful book in it's scope. The language, the story itself is like a dream. However, it was hard to sustain the intensity of this book for me and I put it down and didn't pick it back up. I do hope to finish it though. "
— Midnyte, 12/1/2012 -
" just couldn't get into it. too whimsical :) "
— pie, 11/9/2012 -
" Beautiful, flowing prose. Unfortunately, as another reviewer said, the plot just doesn't really deliver. In the end I don't wind up caring much about most of the characters, because they don't really accomplish much besides simply... being. "
— G, 10/3/2012 -
" I thought I was going to love this book. It had a cool fairy-tale / present day theme, which usually I'm really into. But I just didn't enjoy it that much. I think that the idea was really interesting, but I didn't really care what happened to any of the characters. "
— Marcie, 9/15/2012 -
" Another one on my top ten list. Heavy on atmosphere light on plot, but his brilliant writing makes it all worthwhile. Spend some time with Smoky Barnable and Daily Alice Drinkwater in their strange and lovely world. "
— Rebecca, 8/25/2012 -
" Sooooooooooooooooo tedious. I tried many times to force myself to finish this one, but I just couldn't find the willpower to carry on. "
— Ben, 5/18/2012 -
" An absolutely haunting book. I look forward to reading it again. (I never read books again.) "
— Biskin, 3/2/2012 -
" very close to a perfect story. amazing. highly recommended. take your time. it's a world that is delightful to enter, to move about in, and to see the ordinary as poetry. "
— Maggie, 2/15/2012 -
" Incredibly well-written and very lyrical. It's unlike any other fantasy story I've read. Still, I was left with a few questions, and the ending left me wanting something more. Definitely worth the read, however! "
— "Aubri"/Lisa, 1/23/2012 -
" This is one of those books that leads you along with tiny intimations of wonderful things but never gets there. Maddening. I got halfway through (with great effort) and was so irritated and bored I wished I had never started.The house was a great idea, but the author couldn't seem to follow through. "
— Esther, 12/30/2011
About John Crowley
John Crowley, a major voice in imaginative writing, was born in Presque Isle, Maine, in 1942. After college in Indiana he moved to New York City to make movies and found work in documentary films, an occupation he still pursues. Crowley teaches creative writing at Yale University and has published many novels, among them Engine Summer, the Ægypt quartet, and Little, Big. He is a three-time winner of the World Fantasy Award and in 1992 received the Award in Literature from the American Academy of Arts and Letters.