Don Juan

De: Lord Byron

Narrado por: Frederick Davidson

Duración: 15 h

Resumen del Editor

Byron's exuberant masterpiece tells of the adventures of Don Juan, a handsome and charming young man naturally gifted with the ladies. After his first illicit love affair at the age of 16 in his native Spain, he is exiled to Italy. Following a dramatic shipwreck, his exploits take him to Greece, where he is sold as a slave, and to Russia, where he becomes a favorite of the Empress Catherine, who sends him on to England.

Written in ottava rima stanza form, Byron's Don Juan blends high drama with outrageous farce. Sprinkled with digressions on wealth, power, society, chastity, poets, and England, Don Juan is a poetical novel of satirical fervor and wit.

(P)1996 Blackstone Audio Inc.

unimaginable experience

Where does Don Juan rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

I must say that Don Juan is ranked in my mental list among the best books I've listened

What was one of the most memorable moments of Don Juan?

The whole book is composed of memorable moments, I don't think I'll forget the episode when Don Juan is almost caught, hiding under the bedsheets at Donna Julia's, nor when Lambro, the pirate father of Haidee discovers Don Juan sleeping with his daughter or the Dudù episode.

Which scene was your favorite?

I don't know if Don Juan must be remembered by scenes; rather I think it is the verse, his opinions, etc. which make the book have favorite parts. The poet is very witty and outspoken, but perhaps most importantly, very creative and intelligent. I'm always smiling with things like: "The world is full of strange vicissitudes, and here was one exceedingly unpleasant: A gentleman so rich in the world's goods, handsome and young, enjoying all the present, just at the very time when he least broods on such a thing is suddenly to sea sent, wounded and chained, so that he cannot move, and all because a lady fell in love". Etc.

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

Yes, the book made me laugh the whole time and also gasp with amazement at all the incidents.

Any additional comments?

I am very happy with this audio book. It has been an amazing experience, better than I expected.

One of the two best versions on Audible

Looking for an audiobook of Byron's comic epic masterpiece? Try listening online to Peter Gallagher's wonderful free performance of five selected cantos and you'll wonder why Audible hasn't commissioned him to do the entire poem.  Until then, Michael Sheen's reading of a 22-minute selection from Canto One on the "Great Poets of the Romantic Age" anthology is not to be missed (but what uncredited actress so splendidly takes on the women's parts?). And Tyrone Power's similar selection is certainly worthwhile. But if you want to listen to the whole shimmering shebang, you could do worse than Frederick Davidson. Davidson somehow does not know how Byron pronounces "Juan," and for some reason reads the stanza numbers out loud, but his impersonation of Byron's *narrator* seems to me the best full-length interpretation on Audible. Your other choices are Robert Bethune, who has heroically recorded ALL of Byron's poetry for us, but has has even less understanding of how Byron pronounces "Juan"; Jonathan Keeble, a supremely accomplished performer who somehow (to my ears, but not everyone's) misses the lion's share of Byron's humor; and Charlton Griffin, whose usually over-inflated mannerisms I tend to find off-putting, but who has finally won me over as (so far) the best-ever performer of the entire poem.

Glad to have it

It's nice to see this finally has become available online. Do not let Davidson's accent put you off. He does a fine job and ably conveys Byron's uproarious wit.

He does make one rather appalling mistake: he pronounces Juan as the Spanish pronounce it. As almost any English lit major will tell you, it is to be pronounced: "JOO-un".

A vastly entertaining poem by a truly great poet.

Strong British accent

The narrator has a strong British Accent. Sometimes, it is barely understandable.

I have listened to a lot of audiobooks in English, including TMS and TTC letures on physics, philosophy, psychology, mathematics and biology.

Given, I am not a native English speaker. But I have never had any trouble understanding and following much more complex content than this. What ruins this audiobook for me is simply the author's accent, which makes this very, very hard to listen to.

It surprises me Blackstone Audio would use such a narrator, when there are narrators out there that would be better understood by a great number of people.

If you are not very accustomed to the British English accent, I'd advise you to save your 20$ and stay away from this version.

Hard to follow

I have listen to numerous books. This has been one of the hardest to follow. The accent of the reader and story line was to much for me. I tried to listen to this book but after 1 hour I could not stand it any more. Save use your credit for another book.