Audiobooks Like The Red and the Black

Read more

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)
    More about this pick

    Hardy's tragic heroine faces social hypocrisy and cruel fate in Victorian England. Davina Porter's nuanced reading captures both Tess's vulnerability and fierce dignity across 17 hours.

    Start Listening → Get the Book →
  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)
    More about this pick

    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.

    Start Listening → Get the Book →
  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)
    More about this pick

    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 →
  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)
    More about this pick

    Three stellar narrators handle this explosive story of a Black nurse forbidden from touching a white supremacist couple's newborn with devastating emotional precision.

    Start Listening → Get the Book →
  5. 5
    Cutting for Stone cover

    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)
    More about this pick

    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 →
  6. 6
    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)
    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 →
  7. 7
    The Great Believers cover

    The Great Believers

    by Rebecca Makkai

    Narrated by Michael Crouch

    ★ 4.46 ABR Score (179.2K ratings)
    ★ 4.3 Goodreads (175.1K) ★ 4.59 Audible (4.1K)
    More about this pick

    Yale's art world triumph collides with the AIDS epidemic devastating 1980s Chicago in parallel with a mother's search for her daughter in modern Paris. Michael Crouch navigates both timelines with emotional precision, honoring each character's pain and resilience.

    Start Listening → Get the Book →
  8. 8
    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)
    More about this pick

    Three generations of the Trueba family navigate love, politics, and supernatural forces in an unnamed Latin American country. The magical realist epic spans decades of political upheaval while exploring how personal relationships intersect with larger historical forces in unforgettable ways.

    Start Listening → Get the Book →
  9. 9
    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)
    More about this pick

    Joe Mantegna's performance captures both the intimacy of family dinners and the brutality of Corleone business dealings. His narration honors Puzo's epic scope while highlighting the personal costs of power, tradition, and revenge in America's most infamous crime family.

    Start Listening → Get the Book →
  10. 10
    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)
    More about this pick

    Philosophy professor Isabel Dalhousie investigates a young fiancée's suspicious motives in Edinburgh. Porter's narration captures the genteel intrigue as Isabel questions whether love or money drives the relationship.

    Start Listening → Get the Book →

Browse Related Lists

The Red and the Black Best Literature & Fiction Audiobooks Most Popular Literature & Fiction

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.

Read our full ranking methodology →