The Longest Day cover art

The Longest Day

June 6, 1944

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The Longest Day

By: Cornelius Ryan
Narrated by: Clive Chafer
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About this listen

The classic account of the Allied invasion of Normandy....

The Longest Day is Cornelius Ryan’s unsurpassed account of D-day, a book that endures as a masterpiece of military history. In this compelling tale of courage and heroism, glory and tragedy, Ryan painstakingly re-creates the fateful hours that preceded and followed the massive invasion of Normandy to retell the story of an epic battle that would turn the tide against world fascism and free Europe from the grip of Nazi Germany.

This book, first published in 1959, is a must for anyone who loves history, as well as for anyone who wants to better understand how free nations prevailed at a time when darkness enshrouded the earth.

©1959 Cornelius Ryan; 1987 by Kathryn Morgan Ryan, Victoria Ryan Baida, and Geoffrey J. M. Ryan (P)2012 Blackstone Audio, Inc. Europe France Military World War

Critic Reviews

“What I write about is not war but the courage of man.” (Cornelius Ryan)
“Fifty years from now, the history of D-day, I am sure, will lean heavily on this book.” ( New York Times Book Review)
“A dramatic, moving masterpiece, a living memorial to the men who died, and as suspenseful as the most gripping mystery story.” ( Chicago Sunday Tribune)
All stars
Most relevant  
iconic book, sadly, read by the least talented actor I've ever heard. soldiered on though , no pun intended .

how can this great book have been read so badly

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I enjoyed this book thoroughly. It would be great if he bridged everything from The Longest Day right the way through to The Last Battle, as I felt that The Longest Day ended quite abruptly.
This shouldn't take away from what a fantastic job Cornelius did on this book - outstanding.

The narration can get a touch dry if you're not used to English war narrations, and the impersonations of characters I found to be far from what I would expect (pitch and tone etc.), which took away from the 'story' at times.

Overall it was great. The performance was not as good as The Last Battle, but nevertheless it was worthwhile.

Great book

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I'm English, and I really struggled to get around the performance of the American accent

Bad American accent

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Have read the book a few times over the years as well as visiting the landing grounds themselves, if you haven’t been I highly recommend doing so.
However the narrator of this particular reading sounds like a “speak and spell”, droning on in a very uninspiring way and flattening what is a fascinating story.
I would recommend you buy the book and miss this recording as you will get so much more from the book.

This is a marvellous history of the D-day landings , but

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Amazingly vivid sequential accounts of the lead up to D Day, the airborne assaults during the night and the landing on the 6th of June from both sides. Well worth the listen.

Fantastic

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A fine book indeed. I would highly recommend this and all of Ryan's works to anyone.

A fine book indeed

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