Parallel to a book with essays, book reviews and some letters of G. O. I have started reading "Keep the Aspidistra Flying" - and now I´ve to see to it that it doesn´t get me down! Such an depressing, brutally honest little novel - I just hope some word of encouragement is yet to come!? Anyone else who´s read it? - would very much like to hear your opinion.
Anyway, I´ve "copied out" some ratings from this site http://www.audible.com/pd/History/The-Road-to-Wigan-Pier-Audiobook/B00771B74S about all three Orwells that Jeremy has narrated for CSA:
"This Masterpiece is so brilliantly read with ease and the voice sweeps along like a Spanish matador on heat."
"An important book beautifully read"
"Very finely narrated classic account of the civil war in Spain in the 1930s. The book deserves its status as a classic and the narration is one of the finest I have encountered. Recommended."
"A very well read and well written book. The narrator sounds exactly like I would expect George Orwell to sound. This is a great version of a powerful book."
"What really makes this shine is that Jeremy Northam really picks up and runs with Orwell's passion in not only the first part of the book but also the second part: a political essay which I suspect could seem dull and ranty in the hands of a lesser reader. It's so good I shall almost certainly listen to this audiobook again, something I this far have never felt the need to do."
"I am sure that much of my enjoyment of the work was due to Jeremy's excellent and impassioned narration. The second part moves from social observation to political ideology and, had I been just reading, I possibly would have got lost and given up. However, having the audio made it feel as though the different ideas and perspectives were being explained just to me(!) and I now have a far better understanding of the politics of the time."
"Indispensable
A classic of polemical journalism. Jeremy Northam captures Orwell's tone, both narrative and polemical, perfectly. I listened to it on a train ride from Glasgow to London and the time simply flew by."
"The narrator is excellent I can't imagine anybody else doing better."
"Good, well narrated book. The narrator did some great impersonations of the characters in the book. Very talented man."
"Excellent
A great combination of an excellent book read by a great narrator. I'd highly recommend this particular recording - very, very entertaining. The narration is brilliant."
"Fascinating
A beautifully written (and spoken) account of an amazing Story."
"Masterful reading of this modern classic."
"Superb reading by a supremely talented British actor, who brings the characters to life and makes Orwell's prose and phrasing sing."
And most begrudgingly but for the sake of completeness and though I really cannot make any sense of it added to this:
"Stick to the paperback
It's very rare for me to find an audiobook I wish I hadn't bought, but this is it. And the stupid thing is, I should have known it before I clicked 'buy'. Why? Because buying a book you've read a dozen times will probably always disappoint because it can't live up to the characters and settings conjured up in your imagination. Added to this is Jeremy Northam's cringe-inducing French and Russian accents. I wish he'd just read the lines instead of trying to bring the characters to life; he ends up killing them. It's not just that his 'foreign accent' talents are about as bad as Raph Fiennes' stomach curdling 'Amon Goeth' in Schindlers' List, it's that he doesn't have the right voice or diction for this work. Sorry, Jeremy!"
Well, "sorry" yourself!
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