I'm also a big fan of Juliet Stevenson. I listened to all 35 hours of
Middlemarch a couple of years ago, and it was one of the best books I ever heard. Here's my capsule review from my book journal:
Quote:
|
Over the years, I'd tried and failed to several times to read this. It was one of those classics that I always thought I should read and that many have named the greatest 19th-century novel, perhaps even the all-time greatest novel in the English language. But I had little success until I decided to listen to the unabridged audiobook (all 35 hours) during my commute. Juliet Stevenson was a phenomenal narrator, easily personifying the dozens of characters, both male and female with a dizzying array of voices and appropriate accents. She even read the chapter epigraphs in French, German, Italian, Spanish, and Middle English. But most importantly, she made those characters come alive to me: Middlemarch became a very real place populated by an intriguing array of admirable, selfish, kind, opinionated, intelligent, narcissistic, generous, ambitious individuals. There were times when I laughed out loud and other times when I gasped in surprise or sorrow. Such a wonderful novel. I now fully agree with all the praise and will most definitely read and/or listen to it again.
|