Dickens
I was typing up a reply comment to Elly‘s:
And how do you like Bleak House? I’ve never read it.
And then I decided I might as well just publish it on its own since its length was growing and it belonged to a different category anyway.
Here goes:
I did like it. I enjoyed listening to it, but I think I would have had a hard time actually reading it. The reader was very good, and able to do the Dickens’ accents that don’t make sense to me (“wery” for “very” makes me think the character has a speech impediment, but it’s an accent). The British actor was able to communicate the characters through his accents, and I would have missed that by reading the printed words. “Why don’t the English teach their children how to speak” and all that. :) Plus, Dickens loves to pile on the words, and in listening to them I can let them roll over me as I fold laundry or wash dishes; whereas, I would have to muddle my way through them if I was staring at the page.
That said, I would never every consider even for a moment attempting a Librivox recording of any of Dickens’ novels. Dickens’ plot and characters are hard enough to keep track of without also having to keep track of how different people are portraying the different characters. The voice matters, the voice communicates meaning beyond the word, and so I am not a big fan of Librivox. I at least want a consistent characterization, if not a well-interpreted characterization. The library has gobs of professionally produced audio books, and so why should I mess around with Librivox? To me, it is analogous to an amateur group putting on a Shakespeare play and Kenneth Branaugh producing a Shakespeare play. The same words spoken, but not the same level of meaning conveyed to the viewer.
The back of the Blackstone Audio box claims this is supposed to be Dicken’s best portrayals of personalities, and after finishing it, I would think that is probably correct. I’ve only READ Oliver Twist, but I’ve listened to A Tale of Two Cities and David Copperfield. I’ve started reading and listening to Hard Times and Great Expectations, but didn’t get past the beginning.
Next on my Dickens list will, I think, be Hard Times on audio.
