Audio only
Defending Alice
A Novel of Love and Race in the Roaring TwentiesBy Richard StrattonNarrated by James Anderson Foster, Imani Jade Powers, Joel FroomkinLength19h 15m
About this audiobook
“Gripping courtroom drama and social commentary . . . the story flows well . . . [the author is] masterful in building suspense.”—Kirkus Reviews
Set in 1920s New York, an addictively readable, thoroughly entertaining historical novel involving sex and secrets, race and redemption, and power and privilege—based on a sensational real-life case that made international headlines—in which the marriage between a working-class black woman and the scion of one of America’s most powerful white families ends in a scandalous annulment lawsuit.
When Alice Jones, a blue-collar woman with at least one Black parent marries Leonard “Kip” Rhinelander, the son of one of New York’s most prominent society families, the scandal rocks high society—and eventually sets the city afire when Kip later sues for an annulment, accusing Alice of having hidden her “Negro blood” and intentionally deceiving him that she was white.
While New York society in the Roaring Twenties witnessed more than a few scandals, the real-life Rhinelander case set tongues wagging and became perhaps the most examined interracial relationship in American history. In Defending Alice, Richard Stratton reimagines this remarkable story, from the couple’s courtship through their controversial marriage to their shocking divorce trial and its aftermath. Chronicled by Alice’s attorney, brilliant trial lawyer Lee Parsons Davis, and told in flashbacks and entries from Alice and Kip’s fictional personal diaries, this epic page-turner vividly brings to life the New York of a century ago—a world seemingly far removed yet tragically familiar to our own.
Stratton brilliantly evokes this dazzling era in all its glamour and excess, and in retelling the Rhinelander story, explores issues of sex, race, class, prejudice, and justice that are as relevant today as they were a century ago when this headline-making trial took place.
Audiobook details
Rating★★★ 2.8 (384)
Includes Goodreads
GenreHistorical Fiction, General Fiction
Length19 hrs 15 mins
Narrated byJames Anderson Foster, Imani Jade Powers, Joel Froomkin
FormatAudiobook
Publish dateNov 22, 2022
LanguageEnglish
Northern ShadowsDaniel Greene12h 52m4.7 (281)$23
The Ghost by the Billabong (The Matilda Saga, #5)Jackie French14h 58m4.6 (773)$33 · $0.00
The Labyrinth of the SpiritsCarlos Ruiz Zafon27h 55m4.5 (77.2K)$53 · $0.00
The Things We Cannot SayKelly Rimmer13h 48m4.5 (359.1K)$33 · $0.00
Their Castilian OrphanAnna Belfrage14h 45m4.7 (122)$27
Lieutenant Hornblower (Annotated)C. S. Forester11h 41m4.5 (2.9K)$2 · $0.00
Eagles over BritainLee Jackson12h 26m4.5 (18.6K)$23
Rilla of InglesideLucy Maud Montgomery11h 44m4.5 (48.2K)$2 · $0.00
The Viennese DressmakerKathryn Gauci11h 46m4.5 (2.1K)$23 · $0.00
The Man in the Brown Suit & They Came to BaghdadAgatha Christie15h 43m4.6 (495)$33 · $0.00
Under the Light of the Italian MoonJennifer Anton12h 28m4.5 (5.3K)$23 · $0.00
Jubilee, 50th Anniversary EditionMargaret Walker15h 43m4.5 (9.5K)$25 · $0.00
Arch of TriumphErich Maria Remarque15h 51m4.4 (36.6K)$28
Serenade for NadiaZülfü Livaneli9h 9m4.4 (20.1K)$20
Pride and PrejudiceJane Austen14h 44m4.4 (4.7M)$2 · $0.00
Flying Colours (Annotated)Cecil Louis Troughton Smith9h 26m4.4 (10.1K)$2 · $0.00
With Love from HarlemReShonda Tate13h 48m4.5 (2K)$6 · $0.00
Under the Java MoonHeather B. Moore12h 23m4.4 (3.2K)$23
Sweet Home Highland ChristmasMay McGoldrick, Jan Coffey2h 54m4.5 (1.4K)$7 · $0.00
FamilyJ. California Cooper4h 43m4.4 (3.6K)$15
Supreme ClienteleAshley & JaQuavis8h 58m4.7 (3.4K)$20
Body Refinement in a Beast Tamer’s World, Book 1Seth Ring14h 7m4.7 (1.3K)$27
Desperate MeasuresBrenda Jackson8h 59m4.7 (669)$28 · $0.00
Searching For ThanksgivingS.E. Smith4h 24m4.8 (395)$20
Naughty 4Brenda Hampton7h 30m4.7 (726)$17
The Dance with Me TrilogyShelley Shepard Gray21h 44m4.7 (1.2K)$35
The DopemanJaQuavis Coleman5h 25m4.7 (3.8K)$20
BAEJahquel J.5h 22m4.7 (3.1K)$20
Dark RisingJeffrey Wilson, Brian Andrews13h 47m4.7 (1.3K)$27
WhistlerAnn Patchett10h 45m4.6 (4.6K)$29 · $0.00
Grand Opening 2Carl Weber9h 16m4.7 (2.4K)$20
Sons of Valor II: Violence of ActionBrian Andrews, Jeffrey Wilson12h 34m4.6 (3.6K)$23
Malevolent MagicMildred Abbott7h 13m4.7 (1.2K)$17
Bikes, Toys, and Hot BoyzGenesis Woods, Shantaé13h 9m4.7 (722)$23
This Side of Paradise - The Original 1920 Edition (Annotated)F. Scott Fitzgerald11h 30m4.6 (1.6K)$2 · $0.00
War LordBernard Cornwell13h 21m4.6 (33.1K)$33 · $0.00
Ghetto BastardK’wan7h 37m4.6 (2.9K)$20
The Great Gatsby: Original 1925 Edition (An F. Scott Fitzgerald Classic NovelFrancis Scott Fitzgerald4h 45m4.6 (9.3K)$18 · $0.00
The Vineyard BrideKatie Winters5h 5m4.6 (1.9K)$15
Something Like LoveBeverly Jenkins10h 21m4.6 (2.7K)$29 · $0.00
You may also like
Fantomina, or, Love in a MazeEliza Haywood1h 14m3.7 (3.7K)$2 · $0.00
Liza of LambethW. Somerset Maugham2h 23m3.6 (3.4K)$1 · $0.00
Rodin’s LoverHeather Webb12h 27m3.9 (5.4K)$23
Washington SquareHenry James7h 21m3.9 (35.2K)$1.20 · $0.00
Anna Karenina (Annotated Maude Translation)Leo Tolstoy41h 11m4.3 (999.9K)$1 · $0.00
Washington SquareHenry James7h 9m3.8 (32K)$2.30
Fantomina (Annotated)Eliza Haywood1h 24m3.6 (2.9K)$2 · $0.00
The Wings of the DoveHenry James19h 53m3.9 (24.3K)$1.20 · $0.00
Jennie Gerhardt A NovelTheodore Dreiser14h 21m4.1 (4.8K)$2.30
Anna Karenina (Louise Maude's Translation)Leo Tolstoy41h 8m4.3 (1M)$2 · $0.00
Anna KareninaLeo Tolstoy87h 3m4.3 (1M)$2 · $0.00
Half a Lifelong RomanceEileen Chang15h 37m4.2 (3.3K)$23 · $0.00
Until the Red Leaves Fall: A moving story of secrets and betrayal from the bestselling author of At the Foot of the Cherry TreeAlli Parker13h 39m4.0 (721)$33 · $0.00
ConstanceFranny Moyle13h 1m3.9 (1.2K)$23
Daisy MillerHenry James4h 25m3.6 (131.3K)$2 · $0.00
The Forbidden Passion (Annotated)Alexandre Dumas, Jane Austen, Fanny Burney, Pierre Choderlos de Laclos, Georgette Heyer, Eliza Haywood, Maria Edgeworth, Mary Wollstonecraft, Mrs. Olifant, William Makepeace Thackeray, Samuel Richardson, Henry Fielding, Henry James, Leo Tolstoy, Edith Wharton, Charlotte Brontë, Emily Brontë, Anne Brontë, Thomas Hardy, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Grace Livingston Hill616h 15m$1.99 · $0.00
Coo-ee Tales of Australian Life by Australian LadiesHarriet Anne Patchett Martin8h 18m$2 · $0.00
Sir Robert's Fortune the Story of a Scotch MoorMrs Oliphant17h 29m3.4 (10)$2.30
A Country Gentleman and his FamilyMrs Oliphant17h 24m3.5 (46)$2.30
Stories of Love, Scandal, and Ruin – 4 Classic Tragic Romance NovelsJohann Wolfgang von Goethe, Alexandre Dumas fils, Gustave Flaubert, Leo Tolstoy78h 18m$1