Audiobooks Like The Red and the Black

Davina Porter narrates The Red and the Black with a literary precision that gives Stendhal's psychological portrait room to develop — twenty hours of social ambition and self-deception that benefits from a narrator who can inhabit Julien Sorel's rationalizations without endorsing them. Four of the recommendations also feature Porter's narration, and the list as a whole gravitates toward long-form literary fiction where character psychology and social structure are in constant, costly collision.

10 audiobooks for fans of The Red and the Black

  1. 1
    Tess of the D'Urbervilles: Thomas Hardy (New Casebooks) cover

    Tess of the D'Urbervilles: Thomas Hardy (New Casebooks)

    by Peter Widdowson

    Narrated by Davina Porter

    3.84 ABR Score (2.2K ratings)
    ★ 3.3 Goodreads (10) ★ 4.37 Audible (2.2K)
    17h 6m listening time • Released 2011

    Davina Porter's narration transforms Hardy's tragedy into something visceral and immediate, capturing Tess's quiet devastation with a voice that makes her suffering feel unbearably real.

  2. 2
    The Canterbury Tales cover

    The Canterbury Tales

    by Peter Ackroyd, Geoffrey Chaucer, Nick Bantock

    Narrated by Keith Moore, Toby Leonard Moore, Colin McPhillamy, John Curless, John Keating, Graeme Malcolm, Davina Porter, Steven Crossley

    3.71 ABR Score (2.7K ratings)
    ★ 3.57 Goodreads (2.6K) ★ 4.32 Audible (98)
    16h 55m listening time • Released 2011

    Multiple narrators bring Ackroyd's modernized Canterbury Tales to vivid life, each voice perfectly matched to their pilgrim, making this sprawling medieval classic feel urgent and intimate.

  3. 3
    Demon Copperhead cover

    Demon Copperhead

    by Barbara Kingsolver

    Narrated by Charlie Thurston

    4.81 ABR Score (858.9K ratings)
    ★ 4.46 Goodreads (824.6K) ★ 4.77 Audible (34.3K)
    21h 3m listening time • Released 2022
  4. 4
    Small Great Things cover

    Small Great Things

    Ruth Jefferson • Book 1

    by Jodi Picoult

    Narrated by Audra McDonald, Cassandra Campbell, Ari Fliakos

    4.74 ABR Score (478.4K ratings)
    ★ 4.36 Goodreads (444.3K) ★ 4.75 Audible (34.1K)
    16h 14m listening time • Released 2016
  5. 5
    The Storyteller cover

    The Storyteller

    by Jodi Picoult

    Narrated by Mozhan Marno, Jennifer Ikeda, Edoardo Ballerini, Suzanne Toren, Fred Berman

    4.57 ABR Score (299.1K ratings)
    ★ 4.3 Goodreads (278.1K) ★ 4.61 Audible (21.0K)
    18h 13m listening time • Released 2013

    Multiple narrators bring genuine depth to this emotional story about complicity and forgiveness—each voice makes you feel like you're hearing a different person's truth.

  6. 6
    The House of the Spirits cover

    The House of the Spirits

    Trilogía Involuntaria • Book 3

    by Isabel Allende, Magda Bogin

    Narrated by Thom Rivera, Marisol Ramirez

    4.35 ABR Score (328.3K ratings)
    ★ 4.3 Goodreads (325.3K) ★ 4.45 Audible (3.0K)
    18h 51m listening time • Released 2016
  7. 7
    The Godfather cover

    The Godfather

    The Godfather • Book 1

    by Mario Puzo

    Narrated by Joe Mantegna

    4.35 ABR Score (468.1K ratings)
    ★ 4.4 Goodreads (468.0K) ★ 4.88 Audible (128)
    18h 5m listening time • Released 2014

    Puzo's crime epic isn't just a novel about the Mafia — it's a story about power, family, and the American dream pursued by any means necessary.

  8. 8
    The Right Attitude to Rain cover

    The Right Attitude to Rain

    Isabel Dalhousie • Book 3

    by Alexander McCall Smith

    Narrated by Davina Porter

    3.85 ABR Score (11.9K ratings)
    ★ 3.78 Goodreads (11.4K) ★ 4.24 Audible (541)
    8h 50m listening time • Released 2007
  9. 9
    Cranford cover

    Cranford

    by Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell

    Narrated by Davina Porter

    3.84 ABR Score (48.5K ratings)
    ★ 3.83 Goodreads (48.4K) ★ 4.16 Audible (135)
    7h 38m listening time • Released 2009

    Davina Porter's warm, precise narration transforms this Victorian gem into something intimate and immediate—you'll hear every delicious piece of gossip and genuine affection that holds this community together.

  10. 10
    Madame Bovary cover

    Madame Bovary

    by Gustave Flaubert

    Narrated by Davina Porter

    3.74 ABR Score (379.2K ratings)
    ★ 3.71 Goodreads (378.9K) ★ 3.95 Audible (370)
    13h 5m listening time • Released 1999

    Davina Porter's narration transforms Flaubert's obsessive prose into something hypnotic—you hear the suffocation of provincial life in every perfectly measured pause and inflection.

How We Rank Audiobooks

Rankings are driven by listener ratings and review counts from Audible and Goodreads. Books with high ratings across a large number of listeners rank higher — a 4.5 with 50,000 ratings says more than a 4.8 with 200.

Unlike most book lists, we weight audiobook-specific factors: narrator performance, production quality, and how well a story translates to audio. A great book with a poor narration isn't a great audiobook.

We don't accept paid placements or prioritize new releases. These rankings reflect what listeners actually enjoy, not what's being promoted.

Rankings update periodically as new ratings come in and new titles are added to the collection.

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