Pride and Prejudice in top 100 on iTunes podcasts
For all of you who were camping out for iPhones last week (not us; we’ll stick with our old pal Enrico) and need something to fill your 8G of memory, an unabridged audiobook of Pride and Prejudice is among the Top 100 podcasts on iTunes.
A free chapter-by-chapter reading of “Pride and Prejudice” and a series called “The Classic Tales Podcast,” featuring works by Edgar Allen Poe, Arthur Conan Doyle and Hardy, both made it onto iTunes’s top 100 podcasts list.
The podcasts, which are unabridged, aren’t exactly quick listens. “Pride and Prejudice” runs about six hours, while Plato’s “Republic” is even longer, at 375 minutes. While Hollywood actors are increasingly popping up on audiobooks, the voices on the podcasts are mostly those of no-name professional book readers.
If anyone downloads it, send a review! Thanks to Alert Janeite Lisa for the link.
July 2nd, 2007 at 4:37 am
Ooh, goody!
July 2nd, 2007 at 3:15 pm
An unabridged reading of P&P at six hours?! Wow! I was expecting to hear the narrator to sound like one of those TV commercials with the announcer reading out the obligatory legal fine print at a mile a minute…
Running time is actually eleven and a half hours. The narrator is Catherine Byers, who obviously did her homework and was able to come up with a different voice for each of the characters. I find her phrasing sometimes disconcerting, oftentimes dropping the pause where a pause ought to be. Her intonation varies from flat all the way to, in my opinion, overacted. She does manage to switch voices accurately, although in places, she does not quite get into character, making the delivery sound somewhat half-hearted.
However, I should not be too critical when the price for this “audiobook” is $0.00. For those who do not have an iTunes account, you can still listen to streaming audio or download the MP3 files (one per chapter) from LearnOutLoud.com:
http://www.learnoutloud.com/Catalog/Literature/European-Classics/Pride-and-Prejudice-Podcast/23785#3
Overall, I would rate it six out of ten, part of it from the fact that it is free. I found most of the voices to be adequate, or tolerable, except for Miss Bingley. I cannot understand why Ms Byers chose to give her such an awful voice—a high-pitched nasal voice with the most awful lisp, if you can call it that. I guarantee you will be pulling your hair out whenever Miss Bingley starts speaking. Lucky me, I shave my head.
If you don’t believe me, go ahead and give it a listen. I suggest volume one, chapter ten. Here is part of it, rewritten to capture the voice, as best I can:
STOP! STOP! Aaaaargh!
July 3rd, 2007 at 12:19 am
I downloaded this when I saw it immediately, but was very disappointed in the reading. The narrator speaks too fast and I feel like she is faking an accent. I’m spoiled though by recently listening to the unabridged Sense & Sensibility as read by the fabulous Juliet Stevenson. I dropped the $40 something odd dollars for that item but it was certainly worth it. All in all, this podcast is good in its being free, but I couldn’t get past the narration to enjoy it.
July 3rd, 2007 at 2:20 am
Kerry, I agree with you regarding Juliet Stevenson, 1000%! She is a nonpareil narrator, and an excellent actor to boot. But it’s not fair to compare the two, or, as far as I’m concerned, any other.
When Juliet’s version of Persuasion came out, I purchased my third copy (already had the ones by Nadia May and Jill Masters, yuck!). But her Northanger Abbey is by far my favorite. I find NA very funny on its own, but Juliet brings the hilarity to its fullest. Her Mr Thorpe is perfect.
And of course, her Sense and Sensibility is simply wonderful.
She also did the other three novels, but all are abridged. I am patiently waiting, hoping, for her unabridged versions of these.
July 12th, 2007 at 9:45 pm
I downloaded this podcast, and am overall satisfied with it.
However, the several of the chapters are given the wrong title, and Volume One, Chapter 23 is missing!
Nevertheless, I think it is worth subscribing to- it is free!