Beric the Briton

A Story of the Roman Invasion

By: George Alfred Henty

Narrated by: Jim Hodges

Length: 13 hrs and 18 mins

Publisher's summary

Bring history back to life through Jim Hodges' historically accurate, exciting, and edifying audio recordings.

Beric, a boy chief of a British tribe, takes a prominent part in the insurrection against Rome under Queen Boadicea. These efforts are useless against the mighty Roman army. For a short time, Beric and his companions continue the fight but are ultimately defeated and taken as prisoners to Rome. Through the eyes of Beric, the listener learns of life in AD 61 Rome, the gladiatorial schools, the great fire, and life in Nero's court. This classic work will shed light upon an event much neglected in history today.

The Henty Historical Novel Collection, written by George Henty in the 1800s, covers many time periods in history throughout the world. In this collection you will learn history, geography, and vocabulary while also discovering hero characters for your children to emulate.

Public Domain (P)2004 Jim Hodges Productions

Nice Story

The narrator is excellent at voices even woman’s. The story is about a Brit who becomes a gladiator under Nero and is an uplifting tale of hope and peace

Engaging storyline!

Much of that part of history seems veiled in shadow and unknown. I enjoyed this story because I don't know much about the history of that era / part of the world. It's historical fiction, so the outcome isn't very plausible. But on the whole I really enjoyed it. Enjoyed learning more about the Britons and Rome. I struggle with Jim Hodges as a reader, but you just have to give it a chance and once you're into the story you forget about the narration.

One of the Best of G. A. Henry’s Stories

A well though out story that provides hours of adventure, suspense, and historical knowledge. Jim Hodges delivers the narration with superb style which makes for a delightful experience.

An exciting an empire sprawling story

This was an enjoyable tale, it rivals that of some of Henty’s other works I have listened to including The cat of Bubastes and The young Carthaginian.

Enjoyable but use caution

I learned a great deal about Roman occupied Britain, which was my goal. There is also a great deal of information on Rome and Nero. Readers will recognize the typical Henty flow and plot structure.
There is one, brief scene, however, that is quite disturbing. A British native sees a black person for the first time and is quite candid in expressing his opinions. While this passage may accurately represent the prejudices of the time, I would strongly suggest caution in exposing children to it. (The character first compares the black man to an animal, then swears that if his wife ever gave birth to a baby looking like that, he would kill it.) It made me so sick to hear that, that I had to put the book down for a while.

Gilbert Godfried as a brithonic noble...

The story is well done. The absolute sniveling nature of the reader is unbearable. Brithonic chieftains sounding like Gilbert Godfried, constant uptalk, whatever you call the cringe hushed loud voices like mom is going to get mad if you make too much noise in your basement youtube studio...

Better read than listened to.

Really interesting!

I found this story very well told and fun to listen to. I really liked it a lot. Great job everyone!

Amazing story, but poor narration.

The story is great, but it's severely undermined by the narration. The narration comes across and someone reading a history workbook to an 8 year old, as he speaks of people hurling themselves into spears. There is a lot to be desired when it comes to emotion from the narrator.

A lot of interesting historical information

The story is told from the perspective of a Romanized Briton living during the time of Nero. Henty uses character dialogue to tell most events and morals of the story. Henty tries hard to write about the ancient cultures in as positive a way as possible. Certain characters express prejudices which are offensive to most of us today. Henty uses other characters to correct this only sometimes which I did not like. The main characters’ values are virtues we still admire, however. These ideas were much more prominent throughout the story.

Though he writes of battles and gladiatorial contests as well as Nero’s great immorality, corruption, and cruelty, in his objective to paint the cultures in the most favorable light, Henty does not always give a full picture of the great evils of the ancient societies. He often moralizes and is “preachy.” His use of characters’ dialogue to tell the story plot makes the copious plot action in the story considerably less exciting.

In spite of this, my kids ages 8 and 11 still liked the book. Thus actually surprised me because I found the book tedious at times. I think perhaps they liked it because ancient Roman and Celtic cultures as well as events relevant to everyday life come alive in this book. Details are about geography, war, books, buildings, money, social structure, business, and so many other are riddled throughout the book. It is easy to think Beric interesting because, while he is the son of a chief, he lives first as a favored captive, then as a rebel, then as a slave in the gladiator’s arena, then as a hired guard, then as an outlaw, and finally as governor. He handles adversity heroically but never gains so much status as to make him unapproachable. What makes Beric most likable and memorable, though, is his nobility. He embodies the essence of the chivalrous knight who fights to protect the defenseless and defend truth against lies and corruption.

This is not perfect book but I did learn a lot of new things in a memorable way.

The narrator/ narrative style

The narrator and the chosen style is completely wrong for this book. Both would be well suited for a children's' or young person's book, but ruins the historical fiction book, which is fairly well written. Try again.