Dorothea Brooke

Horrendous narration of a historically interesting “novel”

Revisado: 07-27-24

I listened to every minute of this because I have an interest in 19th century French literature, but anyone who likes to have enjoyable audible experiences will despise the robotic narration. I’m half tempted to believe this was a computer-generated voice who inflected the text with no sensibility or taste. Truly awful. However. The book is interesting because it captures a type of story and type of thematic that is going to be (more masterfully) depicted in Madame Bovary or Ana Karenina. Listen only if you don’t have time to read on paper. Good book, terrible narration.

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Devastating story of how to destroy lives through insincerity

Revisado: 05-13-23

The story of a well intentioned but weak willed young man who destroys a woman’s life because of his emotional cowardice. The psychological sophistication of this novel about socially unapproved romance makes it an early precursor of Madame Bovaryand Ana Karenina. The narration is surprisingly flat despite the actor’s other accomplishments, but it doesn’t actively detract from the text itself. Highly recommend it.

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Extremely poor narration

Revisado: 03-19-21

Currently trying not to let Gyllenhaal’s narration ruin this great novel for me. In addition to mispronouncing things (“mischievous,” “acacia,” etc.), she makes no distinction between one character and another, so much so that it’s sometimes hard to tel which character has started speaking and who has stopped. She reads in a style that I can only call “dreamy,” softening the sounds of every sentence no matter the content of the sentence itself. It’s depressing.

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Info-packed history that stresses the contingency of Napoleon’s success

Revisado: 03-06-20

First the “negative”: this book packs an enormous amount of facts with every sentence, and the reader is even enough that you could easily miss a major event or shift because it was read in the same tone as less important details. I’ve had to rewind repeatedly to catch something major that was mentioned for two seconds. I wonder if it is something inherent in the source material, or whether it could have been read with fluctuating emphasis.

However, the book is a huge treasure of information about every major part of Napoleon’s trajectory. I have listened to every chapter with interest, and am glad to have bought it. Fans of detailed battle plans will enjoy this, as will fans of historical writing that doesn’t glorify the human agency of the hero in question, choosing instead to point out at every turn that circumstances could have pushed the course of history is a different direction.

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