Audiobooks/Classics:As might be expected from the line-up of readers, the readings of these classic texts are all excellent. They are, however, abridged to a uniform three CDs per novel, with mixed results.
Presumably the main market for classic audiobooks is busy people who want a painless way of filling gaps in their literary education; but such people do not necessarily need to have their literature pre-minced for them. The design of the discs themselves is simple and attractive, with the main information in a clear and legible typeface (good for visually challenged listeners, who are bound to make up a good proportion of the audience), but there is no inlay and the text printed on the boxes is sparse. The boxes themselves are shoddy - mine are already cracked and broken. Moreover, when you "rip" these discs to your computer, in order to transfer the audio files onto your MP3 player - much the most convenient way to listen to audiobooks, and entirely legal for your own use - you have to label each disc with its title and the name of the reader (not each book, each disc, ie three times per book) by typing the information manually. Most CDs have this kind of information encoded into them, and having to do it manually is an irritant.
Saskia Wickham's voice is quite beautiful, and in spite of a few idiosyncratic (or perhaps I mean just British) pronunciations of Russian names, her reading of Anna Karenina is a joy to listen to. The abridgement of this substantial novel to two-and-a-half hours is, however, a travesty. It is a novel of great breadth and depth, with two major protagonists and several subplots, but it is hacked to pieces here. The pacing feels all wrong, and so truncated are the subplots that they seem irrelevant, with inconsequential scenes and characters wandering aimlessly across the face of the story. The novel is, sadly, ruined by this treatment.
All the other novels were given a full three hours (or so it says on the boxes). It hardly seems balanced to have given the Hardy, the Eliot and the Austen novels - all shorter and much slighter works - half an hour longer each than the Tolstoy.
Far From the Madding Crowd is less gloomy than the average Hardy novel, but with a fair whack of Victorian grotesque. This novel does not suffer so badly by being abridged, though I regret the loss of the episode where our modest hero, Gabriel, saves the flock from bloat brought on by the breaking of some ovicultural taboo - not so much for itself, but because this event puts Bathsheba in Gabriel's debt and is thus an important plot point. Still, this is a rattling yarn and well worth listening to, in spite of occasional non-sequiturs, presumably caused by the abridgement.
If Anna Karenina is famous for its wise and sonorous opening, students of literature will know The Mill on the Floss for its contrived and melodramatic ending. The plot does not improve with time, but I had forgotten how much genuine comedy and delight there is in this novel, especially in the first half. Well worth revisiting in this accessible format.
Joanna Lumley's superbly arch reading of Austen's most light-hearted and amusing novel, Northanger Abbey, is particularly successful when she is in character as the novel's tongue-in-cheek narrator. Her approach to this reading draws all the humour in the writing to the surface for the delectation of the listener. She makes young Catherine Morland sound rather too mature, though, even stuffy. The abridgement is successful on this occasion. It excises the rather tedious episode where Catherine's enchantment with Gothic literature leads her to suspect the odious (but in this respect innocent) General Tilney of murdering his wife. The story loses little that is of interest to a modern reader by the exclusion of this satirical sally. I recommend this audiobook to anyone interested in getting acquainted with Jane Austen, though a serious student will want to have the whole thing.
The complex narrative structure of Wuthering Heights, with its intricately related narrative voices, one recounting the other, demands a particular kind of concentration of the reader, and makes this novel peculiarly challenging for treatment as an audiobook read by a single voice. In spite of Richard Pascoe's manful endeavours (he does Heathcliff especially well), it is very difficult for a listener to know at all times which of the narrators or characters is speaking. Given that the characters' names are already confusing (they all seem to start with H, and Christian and surnames are repeated and interchangeable), the experience can be rather disorienting, especially when a third narrative voice is introduced, as occasionally happens. Still, top marks for effort, and an enjoyable if demanding listening experience.
Siobhán Parkinson is a novelist and editor. Her new novel for older children, Blue Like Friday, is published by Puffin
Anna Karenina By Leo Tolstoy Abridged on 3 CDs, approx 2.5 hrs. Read by Saskia Wickham Hodder and Stoughton, £14.99 Far From the Madding Crowd By Thomas Hardy Abridged on 3 CDs, approx 3 hrs. Read by Julie Christie Hodder and Stoughton, £14.99 The Mill on the Floss By George Eliot Abridged on 3 CDs, approx 3 hrs. Read by Emily Watson Hodder and Stoughton, £14.99 Northanger Abbey By Jane Austen Abridged on 3 CDs, approx 3 hrs. Read by Joanna Lumley Hodder and Stoughton, £14.99 Wuthering Heights By Emily Brontë Abridged on 3 CDs, approx 3 hrs. Read by Richard Pascoe Hodder and Stoughton, £14.99