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Didn't Like the Narration

Revisado: 02-04-25

The narrator's tone struck me as supercilious. I quit listening after a few chapters. It's a shame, because I wanted to learn more about Frederick Douglass.

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I got bored

Revisado: 01-09-25

Much detail, with interesting observations that were new to me, even though I have read several books on this subject. However, it was too tiresome for me to finish.

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All about Meade

Revisado: 01-06-25

This is a very detailed narration of the Gettysburg campaign from Meade’s perspective. Like Meade himself, the narrative is not flashy, but solid, and places Meade’s actions in the context of what he knew at the time. The author explains why he holds a high opinion of Meade, and engages with others who were critical, both at the time and in histories of the battle. The narrator is clear, but has some odd pronunciations of names.

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Okay book. Narration not for me.

Revisado: 11-20-24

This is a history of the diplomacy leading us to the war, and the five months of fighting in 1914–mostly the latter. Lots of detail about individual experiences of soldiers and civilians. This was okay, but ultimately did not hold my interest. The narrator’s tone struck me as supercilious. His vowels in French names seemed to me to be way off. I became annoyed and quit listening about halfway through.

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Great sports history

Revisado: 12-04-23

If you are a Michigan football fan with an interest in the history of the program, this book is for you. Well read. I loved it.

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Interesting book.

Revisado: 11-25-23

If you are interested in words and phrases and the differences between British and American English, you will enjoy this book. The book is over 100 years old, but it did not seem terribly antiquated to me. As regards the narration, the reader used many pronunciations that I have never heard of before. Perhaps she knows more about it than I do???

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Not very good.

Revisado: 06-06-22

The plot is highly unbelievable. This novel doesn’t hold a candle to the early novels in the series.

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Massively disappointing

Revisado: 03-09-20

I disagree with many of the other reviewers. This book struck me as an aggregation of all available data, largely from personal diaries, rather than a cohesive narrative. In this regard, it falls way short of Larson's other books, such as The Garden of the Beasts. The Splendid and the Vile has huge amounts of very minor (trivial?) details without any particular point that I could discern. It may be the raw material of a story, rather than the finished product.

The worst of it, though, is the narration. It was clipped, unserious, and obnoxious throughout. The voices, especially those of the Americans, were absurd. I can't imagine what the narrator was thinking of, as he has been very good in other books i have listened to, e.g., Ken Follett's novels. Perhaps if the book had been more than a compilation of miscellany, the narrator would have had something to convey.

All this begs the question of why I listened to the whole book. I kept thinking as I listened that I was going to return it. Then, some very interesting fact would come along that I had not known. So, I kept on listening . . . . If the book had been better edited, and the narration more straightforward, I probably would have given it three stars.

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Reading citations detracts.

Revisado: 01-12-18

I could not listen and get the flow of thought because every citation was read. I returned it to Audible. I may try it in print so that I can skip over the citations when not important to me.

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Brutal

Revisado: 01-10-18

Would you recommend this book to a friend? Why or why not?

Yes, I would recommend this to anyone interested in the perspective of the German people on their experience of the war years 1939-1945. I would caution anyone that the facts are very brutal, and it is almost brutalizing to listen to the book. I have read a lot about World War II, but there was a great deal in this book that I did not know.

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