The Spell cover art

The Spell

 Preview
LIMITED TIME OFFER

3 months free
Try for £0.00
£8.99/mo thereafter. Renews automatically. Terms apply. Offer ends 31 July 2025 at 23:59 GMT.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
Premium Plus auto-renews for £8.99/mo after 3 months. Cancel monthly.

The Spell

By: Alan Hollinghurst
Narrated by: Ben Allen
Try for £0.00

£8.99/mo after 3 months. Offer ends 31 July 2025 23:59 GMT. Cancel monthly.

Buy Now for £12.99

Buy Now for £12.99

Confirm Purchase
Pay using card ending in
Switch payment method
By completing your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and authorise Audible to charge your designated card or any other card on file. Please see our Privacy Notice, Cookies Notice and Interest-based Ads Notice.
Cancel

About this listen

From the Booker Prize-winning author of The Line of Beauty.

The Spell is a comedy of sexual manners that follows the interlocking affairs of four men: Robin, an architect in his late forties, who is trying to build an idyllic life in Dorset with his younger lover, Justin; Robin's twenty-two year old son Danny, a volatile beauty who lives for clubbing and casual sex; and the shy Alex, who is Justin's ex-boyfriend.

As each in turn falls under the spell of romance or drugs, country living or rough trade, a richly ironic picture emerges of the clashing imperatives of modern gay life. At once lyrical, sceptical and romantic, The Spell confirms Alan Hollinghurst as one of Britain's most important novelists.

©1999 Alan Hollinghurst (P)2018 Macmillan Digital Audio Genre Fiction Literary Fiction Literature & Fiction Small Town & Rural Fiction Witty

Listeners also enjoyed...

 The Swimming Pool Library cover art
Holding the Man cover art
Mother's Boy cover art
Maurice cover art
Call Me by Your Name cover art
Blue Sky Adam cover art
The Charioteer cover art
A Party in San Niccolo cover art
Alec cover art
The Dog In The Chapel cover art
The Lessons cover art
Only Dad cover art
10 Things That Never Happened cover art
The Wildflower Path cover art
Wish You Were Here cover art
Boyfriend Material cover art
All stars
Most relevant  
Not one of his best in my view. None of the characters are that sympathetic.

Okay story

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
A pleasant story, full of very sexy characters. Melancholy in places, quite amusing in other places.

The story is quite languid in feel which makes it a more gentle experience rather than many of highly charged literature of today.

A idyll c look on gay life

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Compared to “ The Swimming Pool Library” and”The Folding Star” this lacked depth, purpose and edge.

Disappointing

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
The narrator was superb. Hollinghurst’s use of simile and description is masterful.
The characters were superbly rounded and easily identified one from the other. Both Dorset and London are vividly brought to life- the sights, the sounds, the light, the smells all brilliantly put to paper.

Excellently written and read

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.