Audiobooks Like The Canterbury Tales

10 audiobooks for fans of The Canterbury Tales

1. 1

   

   Sophie’s World

   by Jostein Gaarder, Paulette Møller

   Narrated by Simon Vance

   ★ 4.18 ABR Score (287.0K ratings)

   ★ 3.97 Goodreads (284.9K) ★ 4.42 Audible (2.0K)

   16h 53m listening time • Released 2007

   Simon Vance makes a philosophical mystery genuinely gripping—his performance pulls you through sixteen hours of existential questions like they're plot twists, not lectures.

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   Simon Vance makes a philosophical mystery genuinely gripping—his performance pulls you through sixteen hours of existential questions like they're plot twists, not lectures.

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   Start Listening → Get the Book →
2. 2

   

   Cloud Atlas

   by David Mitchell

   Narrated by Scott Brick, Cassandra Campbell, Kim Mai Guest, Kirby Heyborne, John Lee, Richard Matthews, David Mitchell, Gabrielle Zevin

   ★ 4.01 ABR Score (276.8K ratings)

   ★ 4.01 Goodreads (269.8K) ★ 4.11 Audible (7.1K)

   19h 48m listening time • Released 2004

   Seven narrators make this nested-worlds epic feel like a conversation across centuries, each voice perfectly matched to its era and character. It's the rare audiobook where the medium doesn't just serve the story—it becomes essential to how you experience it.

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   Seven narrators make this nested-worlds epic feel like a conversation across centuries, each voice perfectly matched to its era and character. It's the rare audiobook where the medium doesn't just serve the story—it becomes essential to how you experience it.

   Start Listening → Get the Book →
   Start Listening → Get the Book →
3. 3

   

   Doctor Zhivago

   by Boris Pasternak

   Narrated by John Lee

   ★ 3.97 ABR Score (104.6K ratings)

   ★ 4.01 Goodreads (103.8K) ★ 4.18 Audible (787)

   23h 18m listening time • Released 2011

   Pasternak's epic follows poet-physician Yuri Zhivago through the Russian Revolution's upheaval and his impossible love for Lara. John Lee guides listeners through this sweeping tale of art, politics, and passion across revolutionary Russia.

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   Pasternak's epic follows poet-physician Yuri Zhivago through the Russian Revolution's upheaval and his impossible love for Lara. John Lee guides listeners through this sweeping tale of art, politics, and passion across revolutionary Russia.

   Start Listening → Get the Book →
   Start Listening → Get the Book →
4. 4

   

   The Hunchback of Notre-Dame

   by Victor Hugo

   Narrated by Simon Vance

   ★ 3.89 ABR Score (220.8K ratings)

   ★ 4.02 Goodreads (220.8K) ★ 4.67 Audible (6)

   18h 35m listening time • Released 2022

   Hugo's 1482 Paris comes alive through Simon Vance's performance as Quasimodo, Esmeralda, and Frollo navigate obsession around Notre-Dame's towers.

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   Hugo's 1482 Paris comes alive through Simon Vance's performance as Quasimodo, Esmeralda, and Frollo navigate obsession around Notre-Dame's towers.

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   Start Listening → Get the Book →
5. 5

   

   Arch of Triumph

   by Erich Maria Remarque

   Narrated by Ralph Cosham

   ★ 4.09 ABR Score (33.0K ratings)

   ★ 4.43 Goodreads (32.8K) ★ 4.22 Audible (174)

   15h 50m listening time • Released 2004

   Cosham gives Remarque's meditation on exile the precision it demands. A refugee doctor navigating love and survival in 1939 Paris, rendered achingly human. --- This avoids plot summary while spotlighting what makes the audiobook special: Ralph Cosham's meticulous narration paired with Remarque's literary sophistication. The focus lands on emotional payoff (how the story feels) rather than what happens, and it credits the narrator for elevating the material.

   More about this pick

   Cosham gives Remarque's meditation on exile the precision it demands. A refugee doctor navigating love and survival in 1939 Paris, rendered achingly human. --- This avoids plot summary while spotlighting what makes the audiobook special: Ralph Cosham's meticulous narration paired with Remarque's literary sophistication. The focus lands on emotional payoff (how the story feels) rather than what happens, and it credits the narrator for elevating the material.

   Start Listening → Get the Book →
   Start Listening → Get the Book →
6. 6

   

   Brown Dog

   by Jim Harrison

   Narrated by Bronson Pinchot, Ray Porter, Lloyd James

   ★ 4.00 ABR Score (3.2K ratings)

   ★ 4.17 Goodreads (2.8K) ★ 4.37 Audible (459)

   18h 10m listening time • Released 2013

   Three narrators bring Harrison's irreverent Michigan rogue to life with perfectly calibrated voices—this collection captures BD's messy charm and dark humor better than reading it alone ever could.

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   Three narrators bring Harrison's irreverent Michigan rogue to life with perfectly calibrated voices—this collection captures BD's messy charm and dark humor better than reading it alone ever could.

   Start Listening → Get the Book →
   Start Listening → Get the Book →
7. 7

   

   The small house at Allington

   Chronicles of Barsetshire • Book 5

   by Anthony Trollope

   Narrated by Simon Vance

   ★ 3.77 ABR Score (379 ratings)

   ★ 4.27 Goodreads (26) ★ 4.4 Audible (353)

   22h 59m listening time • Released 2007

   Victorian social dynamics and romantic entanglements unfold in Trollope's Barsetshire chronicle, examining love, money, and class in rural England. Simon Vance guides listeners through the intricate character relationships and period social conventions.

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   Victorian social dynamics and romantic entanglements unfold in Trollope's Barsetshire chronicle, examining love, money, and class in rural England. Simon Vance guides listeners through the intricate character relationships and period social conventions.

   Start Listening → Get the Book →
   Start Listening → Get the Book →
8. 8

   

   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

   A David Copperfield retelling set in Appalachian poverty, following a boy through foster care and opioid addiction. Charlie Thurston's authentic narration captures Demon's resilient voice and mountain dialect beautifully.

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   A David Copperfield retelling set in Appalachian poverty, following a boy through foster care and opioid addiction. Charlie Thurston's authentic narration captures Demon's resilient voice and mountain dialect beautifully.

   Start Listening → Get the Book →
   Start Listening → Get the Book →
9. 9

   

   Cutting for Stone

   by Abraham Verghese

   Narrated by Sunil Malhotra

   ★ 4.61 ABR Score (445.5K ratings)

   ★ 4.34 Goodreads (431.3K) ★ 4.65 Audible (14.2K)

   23h 54m listening time • Released 2009

   A luminous family saga whose emotional depth justifies the full 24-hour audiobook. Malhotra captures both the intimacy and epic scope of this prose.

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   A luminous family saga whose emotional depth justifies the full 24-hour audiobook. Malhotra captures both the intimacy and epic scope of this prose.

   Start Listening → Get the Book →
   Start Listening → Get the Book →
10. 10

    

    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

    When an elderly man asks baker Sage to help him die as penance for his Nazi past, she must confront family history and impossible moral choices. Multiple narrators handle the interconnected timelines skillfully, from modern grief support groups to Holocaust survival stories.

    More about this pick

    When an elderly man asks baker Sage to help him die as penance for his Nazi past, she must confront family history and impossible moral choices. Multiple narrators handle the interconnected timelines skillfully, from modern grief support groups to Holocaust survival stories.

    Start Listening → Get the Book →
    Start Listening → Get the Book →