Beauty's Punishment

By: Anne Rice

Narrated by: Samantha Prescott, Corbin Steele

Length: 8 hrs and 1 min

Publisher's Summary

An erotic novel of discipline, love, and surrender for the enjoyment of men and women.

This sequel to The Claiming of Sleeping Beauty, the first of Anne Rice's elegantly written volumes of erotica, continues her explicit, teasing exploration of the psychology of human desire. Now Beauty, having indulged in a secret and forbidden infatuation with the rebellious slave Prince Tristan, is sent away from the Satyricon-like world of the Castle. Sold at auction, she will soon experience the tantalizing punishments of "the village", as her education in love, cruelty, dominance, submission, and tenderness is turned over to the brazenly handsome Captain of the Guard. And once again Rice's fabulous tale of pleasure and pain dares to explore the most primal and well-hidden desires of the human heart.

©1984 A.N. Roquelaure (P)2013 HarperCollinsPublishers

Needs better narrators!!!!!

Would you try another book from Anne Rice and/or Samantha Prescott and Corbin Steele ?

I would definitely (and certainly have) listen to/read anything by Anne Rice. When I was younger I thought her writing rather stilted, but as an adult, I very much appreciate her fluid writing style! This book, along with its predecessor and sequel, is wonderful: inventive, thought provoking, engaging. Not so much the narrators though. They do their best, I believe (and hope), but it really does fall flat. Thank goodness I've actually read these books before and didn't go through them for the first time with these audiobooks.

What did you like best about this story?

In the Sleeping Beauty novels, I find the most charm coming from the interaction of the characters. Remove the copious amounts of sex and there are psychological wonders here in their interactions with one another. There is something compelling about having so many extraneous elements to life stripped away, leaving only this one thing that these characters all have to build their existences around.

What do you think the narrator could have done better?

In my mind, I always imagined the Sleeping Beauty novels to be in need of some sort of European accent, at least British, yet Samantha Prescott and Corbin Steele are as American as it comes (except for the one random character of the auctioneer she played with a cockney accent). Characters come from different countries and need distinction to capture the exotic feeling Ms. Rice has written so masterfully. Clearly from the narrative they are using English currency, why then the rather uninflected American accents? And obviously, these two narrators did not ever meet up to discuss how to make things cohesive. Case in point: the character, Prince Laurant. This is a french name. It would natively be pronounced with almost no sounding of the last two letters. Ms. Prescott pronounces it "Luh-RAWnt". Mr. Steele pronounces it "LOR-rint". Such things are distracting and I don't find an excuse for them. The producer and director should have put everyone on the same page.

Was Beauty's Punishment worth the listening time?

I enjoy the story so much that I can tune out most of the flaws in the audiobook production. But I would always recommend anyone actually read the books before I would recommend these audio versions.

Any additional comments?

I did not notice it much in "The Claiming Of Sleeping Beauty" but I certainly noticed it in this sequel. This recording has been MASSIVELY over produced. As an audiobook narrator and producer, I am constantly tuned in to the sound of the recording as well as the performance, and every breath that these two actors take has been meticulously edited out, making the performances feel tight and airless. There has also been such editing on vocal 'noises' ("F" sounds, "P" sounds, "S" sounds) that certain words are distorted and clipped to be almost unrecognizable. For example: a world like PURELY comes out with a strong "H" sound: hughr-ly, because the first letter has been edited to non-existence. This was monstrously distracting and it puzzles me that this final version was permitted to be sold.

Wow

I've always loved this author, and this series, and once again I wasn't let down, you MUST give it a try, although it certainly won't be for everyone and definitely not for the faint hearted

Good Story

I have heard this on both audible format and on cassette tape. The cassette version featured Elizabeth Montgomery, and her narration was MUCH better. The audible format does not have the range of emotion that the cassette version had. Otherwise, it is an enjoyable tale.

Exciting, erotic and satisfying.

Normally I do not read erotic novels. But after hearing about this series from a friend of mine, I decided to listen to it and see if I would like it. I found it simply amazing and could not stop listening at any chance I could get. True Ann Rice and her current and former form. Outstanding job.

an ok read

To much anal sex for my taste. Not clear on why this is needed. I read it bef6years ago, it didn't leave an impression. I read it this time and it sounded foreign to me.

Horrible narration

I have read these books so many times I know them by heart. the woman narrating this is awful! her pausing randomly throughout was horrible.

Inconsistencies

So if your anything like me you notice things. Like in the first book it stats that Beauty’s parents served the princes grandfather but in this book it claimed that the sultan of another land showed the queen this way of life. Maybe I’m missing something but wouldn’t the grandfather expose his daughter to this as opposed to some random sultan. If the people were walking around her house and carrying on wouldn’t she notice.

Love Anne Rice

The narrator was easy to understand, the story is interesting. An amazing fantasy explained in great detail. My husband even listened for a while!

Was Captivated The Entire Time

I enjoyed the story as much as the first book. Definitely enjoyed the voices done by both narrators. Listened straight through for 8 hours I was so enthralled.

Not accurate of BDSM at all...

Basically it's a whole lot of paddling and degradation which is fine buy doesn't even begin to cover the fringe of BDSM.