Tod

Awful Narration

Revisado: 09-18-24

The female narrator who does the first two parts has a really nice speaking voice, but she has no facility with accents. When she tries to do them, it sounds idiotic. The Brit and the New Jersey billionaire were the worst, but they were all pretty awful. I mean, really really bad. It reminded me of that 2024 Olympics break dancer from Australia: like, is this for real? After a heroic effort over many hours, and despite fact that I really wanted to finish the story, I just gave up on the audiobook. I couldn’t stand those ridiculous accents anymore. I’ll probably buy the text version and read it at some point.

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Alan Munro's reading is a Travesty

Revisado: 05-04-19

If Marcus Aurelius were alive and in power today he would have Alan Munro executed for crimes against humanity.

This reading is stilted, awkward mess. An utter travesty.

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The perfect gift for my grandpa as his mental faculties decline

Revisado: 08-15-18

Hilarious! This is probably one of the funniest political comedies I have ever experienced, with the possible exception of “Mr. Bean Goes to Washington.” My only complaint is that the main character had zero depth and was therefore not entirely believable. The idea that anyone would vote for such a buffoon in a presidential race is a bit implausible. Then again, a good farce is not as dependent on character as it is on out-of-nowhere wackiness and wild, inane flights of fancy... And this book has both in spades! Bravo, Mr. Corsi! Douglas Adams has nothing on you!

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Horrible Music begins every chapter. Annoying!

Revisado: 07-02-18

Every single "Great Courses" chapter begins with a cacophonous baroque intro (truly awful fanfare music) and ends with very loud, very canned "applause." Not just this title, but every title in the series.

Every single chapter/lecture.

It really ruins this series. Good luck listening to any of them before bed - you'll end up wanting to throw your phone against a wall.

Whoever produced this series should be drawn and quartered.

Try the Modern Scholars series instead.

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A remarkable reading of a wonderful work.

Revisado: 08-01-17

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Simon Vance occupies prime real estate in my pantheon of audiobook readers. From Dickens to Defoe, he nails the classics like no other.

Regarding the novel: When I read certain other classics--I'm looking at you, Moby Dick--the structure can feel erratic and much of the story can feel tangential. I find it interesting, therefore, that one of the first English novels, Robinson Crusoe, is so exceptionally well-structured by today's standards. With one glaring exception (cough cough, bear attack) every bit of this novel mattered, and every bit of this novel fit with the others. There's so much written about it elsewhere that I won't go any further, except to say that it was a delight to experience, thanks both to the genius of its18th-century writer and to the riveting voice talent of our own century's Simon Vance.

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It ain't no War and Peace

Revisado: 10-15-16

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Having just finished War and Peace, I am probably in the worst possible position to review Anna Karenina with any degree of perspective. I thought War and Peace was one of the best books I had ever read, so going from that to this was bound to be fraught with--shall we say--a complexity of opinion.This book is great. It really is. But to review it under these circumstances would be of little use to anyone, because that which preceded it--at the risk of starting World War III--was so much better. So instead of talking about Konstantin Levin, let me talk about David Horovitch, the narrator, and his performance. This guy knows how to use his voice. It's really quite stunning to experience; he imbues every phrase with exactly the passion and nuance you would expect from the characters themselves. It's as if the characters were hovering over his shoulder, telling him "no...say it like THIS." He is truly a voice "actor" and a consummate performance artist in every sense. If Tolstoy were alive today, he would insist on buying David Horovitch a lavish dinner. Having said that--and this is not a complaint, really--what Horovitch doesn't do is don different voices for each character, as some voice actors do. He switches from accent to accent (and language to language) with great fluidity, but he rarely alters his voice to accommodate the gender of his characters. I don't view this as a shortcoming, necessarily, because unless it's done to perfection it can be extremely off-putting to hear a deep gravelly man-voice trying to sound like a coquettish maiden or a nine-year-old boy. But in this case, because there are so many characters and so much rapid dialogue, there is occasionally some confusion because of this. Be that as it may: If you've read Tolstoy, and also if you haven't, I strongly recommend this audio version of Anna Karenina. It is profoundly great. My only caveat is that, if you're on a no-holds-barred, damn-the-torpedoes Tolstoy binge, you should probably read it before you read War and Peace, and not after.

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Madden at his scholarly best.

Revisado: 09-02-15

I've listened to a dozen courses from Professor Madden, and this is right up there among my favorites. His style is very informal, with a great narrative flow and lots of fascinating asides along the way. The course itself has a very broad scope, so if you are looking for general knowledge or just want to brush up on the period, you won't be disappointed. Highly recommended!

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Great content, clunky lecture

Revisado: 08-31-15

This is a solid overview of Ancient Greece. The lecturer is a bit awkward, but in a harmless, even endearing way. If you know little or nothing about Greek history, I recommend this course highly.

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Way, way too ambitious

Revisado: 02-22-14

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I found this book a cluttered mess. Not because it was poorly written--it wasn't--but because the author tried to cover far too much material. The reader is bounced from Mesopotamia to China to India and back, told story after story of kings and emperors, with little or nothing to connect the stories (understandable, since most of the regions she tries to cover were isolated from each other at the time).

Additionally, the author seems only mildly critical of her sources, and not critical at all when it comes to Biblical sources (she did her undergrad at Jerry Falwell's Liberty University, if that tells you anything). She starts the book trying a bit too hard to present evidence for the Great Flood, and makes a number of unsupported assertions regarding certain Biblical figures. Fine, I get it. Sources for some of these times and events are sparse, and the Bible has some value as a historical source. But her willingness to use it so uncritically made me wonder immediately whether she had a religious agenda.

After further reading, my feeling is that she doesn't to have an agenda, other than to write a history book. Also on the positive side, she has at the very least woven the many disparate strands of ancient history into a single (if extraordinarily busy) tapestry, and she is not unskilled as a writer. I feel as if she could write an entertaining and informative volume if she could just get away from the "history of everything" premise and stick with a certain topic. It feels like a gimmick, and it doesn't really work. Frankly, in fact, I don't think anyone could pull this off; human history is just too vast and complex.

The narrator has a difficult job, but he manages to trot along. Someone else here said he sounds like he's just trying to get through the book as quickly as he can, and I agree that it feels like that sometimes. But he must also be given credit for pronouncing the names of ancient Chinese warlords and complex Middle-Eastern place-names with a rapid fluency that doesn't bog the narrative down.

I am hesitant to say this, because it sounds more negative than it is, but I use this book quite often to help me fall asleep at night. Since there's nothing to really focus on for any length of time, the rapid, disjointed narrative has a strong soporific effect on me. It's interesting for a while, then I start to feel drowsy, and the next thing I know it's morning.

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