A Lady of Quality

By: Frances Hodgson Burnett

Narrated by: Laurie Klein

Length: 9 hrs

Publisher's Summary

Set in 17th century England, this marvelous tale is about Mistress Clorinda, a tempestuous stable brat born out of wedlock. It’s a story of rebellion, dark secrets and great love. At a young age Mistress Clorinda inspires her father, Sir Jeoffry Wildairs to publicly acknowledge her. She grows to be a strong, defiant, aggressive woman of great beauty, who triumphs over all. She survives her mother’s attempt to murder her, her nurses neglect, and her own checkered past, to become, at last, a lady of quality.

©2014 Books In Motion (P)2014 Books In Motion

Very Victorian!

This story is so maudlin and two dimensional you should get a medal for finishing it. I’m giving it an extra star for being a typical drama of the time, but it’s too dated even for me. I read that it was made into a play. Must have been popular in its time.

The language is that of a 19th century author trying to imagine how 17th century people spoke. It’s incredibly awkward and makes a histrionic story worse.

The narrator reads it partly as if it’s a children’s story, partly as if it’s a melodrama— which it was. I’m sure she did the best she could with a bad book but I think she could have helped improve it by reading it in a more modern style rather than mimicking the traditions of the age. You can also hear her turning the pages in the recording.

I loved The Making of a Marchioness and Burnett’s children’s stories. This book is just TOO typical of the Victorian era to make for good reading today.

The reviewer called Laurie got it exactly right.

The language is stilted, awkward, clearly written by someone who didn't use it daily. Also, the description of the plot is totally wrong. Clo is not born out of wedlock, getting her father to acknowledge her provenance is not part of the plot.

Not quite as I anticipated; an unexpected delight.

If you could sum up A Lady of Quality in three words, what would they be?

Unique, uplifting, enchanting.

Who was your favorite character and why?

Clorinda's gradual transformation is believable and beautiful.

What did you like about the performance? What did you dislike?

The style was rather stilted and almost robotic at parts and so put me off at the start that I almost did not persist. However, as my ear tuned to it, it became less obtrusive as the interest of the story commanded more interest,

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

Yes.

Any additional comments?

This novel had a pace throughout which holds your interest and the plot did not take some of the more obvious directions it could have, much to my eventual delight.

hard to follow or relate to characters

couldn't finish it.. not helped by rather flat narration and mispronounced words..shone pronounced shown as in come.. and it made me laugh out loud when the heroine eyed up a man's eequippage.. which is actually horse transport not his anatomy and is written equipage. I'm not even sure the narrator was following the story..other books by the author can be much better than this