Alison

Annotated. The diatribes Hugo goes on (for hours) are goddawful painful. Several times I was trapped in my car listening without being able to reach for the fast forward button, so I'd yell at my iphone, "I DON'T FREAKIN CARE--GET BACK TO THE PLOT!!!"

Likely not.

Maybe.

The plot of the characters was wonderful. If only it was drowned put in the details (of the Paris sewer system, of every minute of the battle of waterloo...)

I understand how you can take a HUGE book and successfully boil it to a few hour stage production! It may be the first time I like a movie over the original book.

Not this version. I loved Christopher Plummer's range of characters but all the small characters (including Alison when talking to herself) were so quiet I had to keep cranking up the volume and still couldn't understand some lines. (and I am not deaf) Then the next character would BOOM in response, deafening me. I had to give up using headphones entirely to finish the book and then bought the hardcopy so I could read the parts I couldn't hear. Perhaps a sound engineer could make it listenable?!

That a story of utter nonsense could become a classic!

Only with a better sound engineer so you can hear when he whispers. I really was delighted with his range of characters--never thought he had it in him!

No. It was a little manic to take all at once!

Pretty high up there.

Well, Harold, of course. If he wasn't you wouldn't enjoy the book.

No, but I certainly would. He was excellent.

It made me laugh and cry--but sometimes the tears were for good. It is so touching a story.

I don't think anyone who hasn't been married or lost someone to cancer can truly get this book.

I would recommend this book to someone who wanted to read Twain specifically or to someone about to travel to Europe and the Middle East.

It did drag on or ramble at times, but that's Twain.

He didn't really try to differentiate the characters because it was written in first person. I do wish he had taken bigger pauses between subject changes though. Twain can make some big topic jumps but there was no breath between so more than a few times when I was doing something else I had to rewind to catch the transition.

No.

Yes--but only to those who find 19th century England a great place to visit. The characters are engaging and the narration is superb. As far as England stories set in the 1800's it is more serious than Dickens (less sarcasm) and the characters are as interesting but less annoying than in Trollope.

I recently read "Can You Forgive Her?" by Trollope so I can't help but compare since they both covered young women/men in the 19th century, touching on class differences and politics. I did enjoy Trollope but I found the characters less annoying and the narration even better. And the plot was more interesting. How can you not love lines like "He was as genuine in character as any ruminant animal." ?!

The best of the narrators I've come across in my 2 years with Audible. Ms Stevenson creates a unique voice for every character and you can even tell who's talking in rapid pub conversations (an Eliot favorite).

The whole Garth family because they are fun, honest, and loving. Or maybe Dr Lydgate because the poor, noble man needs a break from his wretched wife. Though if I had him out for dinner I'd try to steal him away from her.

Roy Dotrice is one of the best narrators around. Martin's plotlines are addictive although too graphically violent and he obsessed with rape.

Keeps you hanging on for the next book.

I am disappointed he has changed the pronunciation of several characters names (Petyr to Peter, Catlin to Katelin) but that may be from the unfortunate influence of television.

Absolutely. It has no ending otherwise. This book introduced even more characters and plotlines and took us farther from any satisfying plot conclusions.

I haven't read any of the print editions.

It's great to be back with some of the characters we haven't heard from in awhile.

The narrator should have kept his accents for the characters the same as previous books... Danerys voice change is particularly disappointing.

Only sell Roy Dotrice version. I bought before realizing it was a different narrator and it has ruined the story for me. He doesn't even bother to pronounce characters' names the same, nor vary their voices so you can't tell who's talking during conversations.

See above

Remove John Lees version from your catalogue so people don't make the mistake and waste their money. Only sell Roy 's version!

People who wasted money on John Lees version should get a free Roy Dotrice version.