Stone Blind: A Novel
(OverDrive MP3 Audiobook, OverDrive Listen)
Longlisted for the Women's Prize for Fiction 2023
""Haynes is master of her trade . . . She succeeds in breathing warm life into some of our oldest stories."—Telegraph (UK)
The national bestselling author of A Thousand Ships and Pandora's Jar returns with a fresh and stunningly perceptive take on the story of Medusa, the original monstered woman.
They will fear you and flee you and call you a monster.
The only mortal in a family of gods, Medusa is the youngest of the Gorgon sisters. Unlike her siblings, Medusa grows older, experiences change, feels weakness. Her mortal lifespan gives her an urgency that her family will never know.
When the sea god Poseidon assaults Medusa in Athene's temple, the goddess is enraged. Furious by the violation of her sacred space, Athene takes revenge—on the young woman. Punished for Poseidon's actions, Medusa is forever transformed. Writhing snakes replace her hair and her gaze will turn any living creature to stone. Cursed with the power to destroy all she loves with one look, Medusa condemns herself to a life of solitude.
Until Perseus embarks upon a fateful quest to fetch the head of a Gorgon . . .
In Stone Blind, classicist and comedian Natalie Haynes turns our understanding of this legendary myth on its head, bringing empathy and nuance to one of the earliest stories in which a woman—injured by a powerful man—is blamed, punished, and monstered for the assault. Delving into the origins of this mythic tale, Haynes revitalizes and reconstructs Medusa's story with her passion and fierce wit, offering a timely retelling of this classic myth that speaks to us today.
If you are having problem transferring a title to your device, please fill out this support form or visit the library so we can help you to use our eBooks and eAudio Books.
Natalie Haynes. (2023). Stone Blind: A Novel. Unabridged HarperAudio.
Chicago / Turabian - Author Date Citation (style guide)Natalie Haynes. 2023. Stone Blind: A Novel. HarperAudio.
Chicago / Turabian - Humanities Citation (style guide)Natalie Haynes, Stone Blind: A Novel. HarperAudio, 2023.
MLA Citation (style guide)Natalie Haynes. Stone Blind: A Novel. Unabridged HarperAudio, 2023.
| Library | Owned | Available |
|---|---|---|
| Shared Digital Collection | 8 | 2 |
There are 3 holds on this title.
OverDrive Product Record
- images
- cover:
- href: https://img1.od-cdn.com/ImageType-100/0293-1/{77C44420-F60C-4AE8-B0EC-723F885719B0}IMG100.JPG
- type: image/jpeg
- thumbnail:
- href: https://img1.od-cdn.com/ImageType-200/0293-1/{77C44420-F60C-4AE8-B0EC-723F885719B0}IMG200.JPG
- type: image/jpeg
- cover150Wide:
- href: https://img1.od-cdn.com/ImageType-150/0293-1/{77C44420-F60C-4AE8-B0EC-723F885719B0}IMG150.JPG
- type: image/jpeg
- cover300Wide:
- href: https://img1.od-cdn.com/ImageType-400/0293-1/{77C44420-F60C-4AE8-B0EC-723F885719B0}IMG400.JPG
- type: image/jpeg
- cover:
- formats
- identifiers:
- type: ISBN
- value: 9780063258426
- name: OverDrive MP3 Audiobook
- id: audiobook-mp3
- identifiers:
- identifiers:
- type: ISBN
- value: 9780063258426
- name: OverDrive Listen
- id: audiobook-overdrive
- identifiers:
- mediaType
- Audiobook
- primaryCreator
- role: Author
- name: Natalie Haynes
- title
- Stone Blind
- dateAdded
- 2023-02-03T18:25:00Z
- contentDetails
- href: https://link.overdrive.com/?websiteID=141&titleID=8986923
- type: text/html
- account:
- name: Sacramento Public Library (CA)
- id: 1151
- sortTitle
- Stone Blind A Novel
- crossRefId
- 8986923
- subtitle
- A Novel
- id
- 77C44420-F60C-4AE8-B0EC-723F885719B0
- starRating
- 0
OverDrive MetaData
- isPublicDomain
- False
- formats
- duration: 08:46:12
- fileName: StoneBlind_9780063258426_8986923
- partCount: 7
- fileSize: 249757764
- identifiers:
- type: ISBN
- value: 9780063258426
- rights:
- type: PlayOnPC
- value: 1
- type: PlayOnPCCount
- value: -1
- type: BurnToCD
- value: 1
- type: BurnToCDCount
- value: -1
- type: PlayOnPM
- value: 1
- type: TransferToSDMI
- value: 1
- type: TransferToNonSDMI
- value: 1
- type: TransferCount
- value: -1
- type: CollaborativePlay
- value: 0
- type: PublicPerformance
- value: 0
- type: TranscodeToAAC
- value: 1
- name: OverDrive MP3 Audiobook
- isReadAlong: False
- id: audiobook-mp3
- onSaleDate: 2/7/2023
- samples:
- source: From the book
- formatType: audiobook-overdrive
- url: https://samples.overdrive.com/?crid=77c44420-f60c-4ae8-b0ec-723f885719b0&.epub-sample.overdrive.com
- duration: 08:40:16
- fileName: StoneBlind_9780063258426_8986923
- partCount: 0
- fileSize: 249730609
- identifiers:
- type: ISBN
- value: 9780063258426
- name: OverDrive Listen
- isReadAlong: False
- id: audiobook-overdrive
- onSaleDate: 2/7/2023
- samples:
- source: From the book
- formatType: audiobook-overdrive
- url: https://samples.overdrive.com/?crid=77c44420-f60c-4ae8-b0ec-723f885719b0&.epub-sample.overdrive.com
- creators
- role: Author
- fileAs: Haynes, Natalie
- bioText:
Natalie Haynes is the author of six books, including the nonfiction work Pandora's Jar, which was a New York Times bestseller, and the novels A Thousand Ships, which was a national bestseller and short-listed for the 2020 Women's Prize for Fiction, and Stone Blind. She has written and recorded nine series of Natalie Haynes Stands Up for the Classics for the BBC. Haynes has written for the Times, the Independent, the Guardian, and the Observer. She lives in London.
- name: Natalie Haynes
- role: Narrator
- fileAs: Haynes, Natalie
- bioText:
Natalie Haynes is the author of six books, including the nonfiction work Pandora's Jar, which was a New York Times bestseller, and the novels A Thousand Ships, which was a national bestseller and short-listed for the 2020 Women's Prize for Fiction, and Stone Blind. She has written and recorded nine series of Natalie Haynes Stands Up for the Classics for the BBC. Haynes has written for the Times, the Independent, the Guardian, and the Observer. She lives in London.
- name: Natalie Haynes
- publishDate
- 2023-02-07T00:00:00-05:00
- edition
- Unabridged
- isOwnedByCollections
- True
- title
- Stone Blind
- fullDescription
Longlisted for the Women's Prize for Fiction 2023
""Haynes is master of her trade . . . She succeeds in breathing warm life into some of our oldest stories."—Telegraph (UK)
The national bestselling author of A Thousand Ships and Pandora's Jar returns with a fresh and stunningly perceptive take on the story of Medusa, the original monstered woman.
They will fear you and flee you and call you a monster.
The only mortal in a family of gods, Medusa is the youngest of the Gorgon sisters. Unlike her siblings, Medusa grows older, experiences change, feels weakness. Her mortal lifespan gives her an urgency that her family will never know.
When the sea god Poseidon assaults Medusa in Athene's temple, the goddess is enraged. Furious by the violation of her sacred space, Athene takes revenge—on the young woman. Punished for Poseidon's actions, Medusa is forever transformed. Writhing snakes replace her hair and her gaze will turn any living creature to stone. Cursed with the power to destroy all she loves with one look, Medusa condemns herself to a life of solitude.
Until Perseus embarks upon a fateful quest to fetch the head of a Gorgon . . .
In Stone Blind, classicist and comedian Natalie Haynes turns our understanding of this legendary myth on its head, bringing empathy and nuance to one of the earliest stories in which a woman—injured by a powerful man—is blamed, punished, and monstered for the assault. Delving into the origins of this mythic tale, Haynes revitalizes and reconstructs Medusa's story with her passion and fierce wit, offering a timely retelling of this classic myth that speaks to us today.
- reviews
- premium: True
- source:
- content:
December 19, 2022
Haynes (A Thousand Ships) reframes the story of Medusa from Greek mythology as one of victim-shaming in this sharp retelling. Haynes recasts Medusa, the only mortal from a family of gods, not as a monster but as survivor of rape by Poseidon, whose wife, Athena, then punishes her for it. As Medusa deals with her new life with a head of snakes and a gaze that turns people to stone, Haynes interjects by addressing the reader with a question: “I’m wondering if you still think of her as a monster.... I suppose it depends on what you think that word means.” Haynes’s inventive reappraisal extends to her narrative devices, including rueful passages from the perspective of Medusa’s severed head (“I have a much lower opinion of mortal men than did, for reasons which I would assume were obvious”), and she invites the reader into Medusa’s point of view with rich sensory details: “She could hear the cormorants arguing with the gulls and she knew exactly which rocks they had perched on before picking their quarrel.” Even before the plot builds toward Perseus’s pursuit of Medusa, Hayes conveys an urgency to Medusa’s life as a mortal woman among vengeful gods. Fans of feminist retellings will love this.
- premium: True
- source:
- content:
March 1, 2023
Haynes (A Thousand Ships) offers a feminist retelling of Medusa's story, suggesting that she may not have been the horror that she has always been made out to be. Haynes creates a beautifully loving life for Medusa--pre-Perseus--growing up as the only mortal among a family of Gorgons. But then Medusa is raped by Poseidon and further traumatized by Athene, who jealously turns her into the snake-haired creature of legend. Haynes poignantly explores what makes someone human or monstrous. Her Greek gods are distilled to their base characteristics--petty, dramatic, sometimes hilarious, but also devastating in their arrogance and privilege. Worst are those who have the benefit of being both divine and male, as their sense of entitlement has no bounds. Haynes narrates her own novel, bringing a transparency and passion that elevates the audio into something truly special. Her depiction of sweet Medusa's death is devastating; listeners' hearts will break as they consider the wrongs that she endured. VERDICT In this gripping narrative, Haynes stays true to the original myths, using them as a lens to explore modern tragedies and to put forth an urgent message about the true cost of misogyny. Highly recommended.--Matthew Galloway
Copyright 2023 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
- popularity
- 7472
- links
- self:
- href: https://api.overdrive.com/v1/collections/v1L1BWwAAAA2I/products/77c44420-f60c-4ae8-b0ec-723f885719b0/metadata
- type: application/vnd.overdrive.api+json
- self:
- id
- 77c44420-f60c-4ae8-b0ec-723f885719b0
- starRating
- 3.9
- images
- cover:
- href: https://img1.od-cdn.com/ImageType-100/0293-1/{77C44420-F60C-4AE8-B0EC-723F885719B0}IMG100.JPG
- type: image/jpeg
- thumbnail:
- href: https://img1.od-cdn.com/ImageType-200/0293-1/{77C44420-F60C-4AE8-B0EC-723F885719B0}IMG200.JPG
- type: image/jpeg
- cover150Wide:
- href: https://img1.od-cdn.com/ImageType-150/0293-1/{77C44420-F60C-4AE8-B0EC-723F885719B0}IMG150.JPG
- type: image/jpeg
- cover300Wide:
- href: https://img1.od-cdn.com/ImageType-400/0293-1/{77C44420-F60C-4AE8-B0EC-723F885719B0}IMG400.JPG
- type: image/jpeg
- cover:
- isPublicPerformanceAllowed
- False
- languages
- code: en
- name: English
- subjects
- value: Classic Literature
- value: Fiction
- value: Literature
- value: Historical Fiction
- publishDateText
- 02/07/2023
- mediaType
- Audiobook
- shortDescription
Longlisted for the Women's Prize for Fiction 2023
""Haynes is master of her trade . . . She succeeds in breathing warm life into some of our oldest stories."—Telegraph (UK)
The national bestselling author of A Thousand Ships and Pandora's Jar returns with a fresh and stunningly perceptive take on the story of Medusa, the original monstered woman.
They will fear you and flee you and call you a monster.
The only mortal in a family of gods, Medusa is the youngest of the Gorgon sisters. Unlike her siblings, Medusa grows older, experiences change, feels weakness. Her mortal lifespan gives her an urgency that her family will never know.
When the sea god Poseidon assaults Medusa in Athene's temple, the goddess is enraged. Furious by the violation of her sacred space, Athene takes revenge—on the young woman. Punished for Poseidon's actions, Medusa is forever transformed. Writhing snakes...
- sortTitle
- Stone Blind A Novel
- crossRefId
- 8986923
- subtitle
- A Novel
- publisher
- HarperAudio
- bisacCodes
- code: FIC004000
- description: Fiction / Classics
- code: FIC019000
- description: Fiction / Literary
- code: FIC014010
- description: Fiction / Historical / Ancient
