Occasionally, I get audiotaped novels at the library. I don’t really have a great time to listen to them. Even when I was working, my commute was short enough that it didn’t seem to be worth the hastle of putting in the tape. However, I do like to listen to them when I take my daily walks.
Right now, I am listening to Georgette Heyer’s The Foundling, read by Phyllida Nash for Chivers. I’ve read all of her commonly available books: most of them several times. I find that I actually prefer to listen to a story that I have read before. I am something of a speed reader, and the pace of the audioapes seems too slow if I don’t already know what is going to happen.
Phyllida Nash is a great reader. The best readers develop “voices” for each of the characters. Although a voice will occasionally not agree with my own interpretation, I usually can get used to it after a few chapters. I don’t think I have disagreed so far with any of Nash’s voices.
The Foundling has never been one of my top favorites, but I have found in listening to the Heyer books that sometimes even my less favorite of her books gain a new attraction when read out loud. Listening to The Foundling, I realize that my lack of enthusiasm for it is due to the initial chapters. The protagonist, a young man with a diffident personality who dislikes quarreling, is a doormat for his uncle and the other members of his household. Heyer’s skill is such that I feel sympathy for his plight rather than disdain for his lack of assertiveness. However, the bullying in the first chapters is too well drawn to be comfortably comic. Later, the novel turns into a picaresque comedy as the young man escapes his household and travels about on his own. I am looking forward to that part.
Based on trackback from Anita I corrected the publisher to Chivers from Chilton (also a publishing house, but not the right one.) 07-17-2003 06:29 am