Wealth of Nations

This is a massive undertaking for any listener, but ultimately worth the effort. The recording is not the best, with some occasional disconcerting popping, which made me think stones were hitting my windshield as I drove. Edwards's plodding reading takes some getting used to, but it ultimately works, allowing the listener to unravel some of Smith's winding thought. This is not for everyone, but if you can get inside Smith's detailed descriptions of late 18th-century economics, you'll appreciate his analytic mind -- and you might even imagine him a prophet of the emerging capitalist system. Of course, capitalists never tire of claiming Smith as one of their own, usually with only a familiarity of Smith's image of the invisible hand, but there is much more here, especially in Smith's criticisms of the excesses of the "masters." Smith may still be construed as an apologist for our present capitalist system, but his thought much more compex than that, and a must-read/listen for anyone wanting to tackle David Ricardo or understand Marx. A printed copy of the work is handy when the spoken argument bogs down, but even with a more than occasional use of the reverse button when I drifted, I was surprised how easily I got into the rhythm of this work.

I would love to be able to listen to this book in a better quality audio. It really needs to be rerecorded. The quality is so poor it's hard to listen to and I have not been able to get through it.

Smith's book is of a piece. This audio book is impossible to follow, because the narrator reads the scholarly apparatus right in the stream of the book. So you'll have a paragraph of Smith, and then two paragraphs of footnotes from the editor, then Smith for a couple paragraphs, then another footnote... it makes it impossible to follow the development of Smith's argument. Audible seriously needs to get another version of this book.

The text is obviously very dense and a lot to get through, but this audio recording makes it impossible. It sounds extremely outdated, and is very distracting.

if you are interested in this book, you should check the audio quality, it is very very poor in this edition.

This book should have been done in resolution 4 instead of 2. Had I noticed, I would not have purchased it.

Great book. The recording was done 20 years ago and it shows.

The Voice Quality of the book is terrible, Couldn't judge the content since the voice quality is aweful !

I was astonished to see this book with a low rating, but relieved to find the reviewers uniformly complaining about the recording quality. I entirely agree, but want it perfectly clear that this is a GREAT work. Smith is reminiscent of Aristotle in his ability to reason incisively from direct observation and to organize his perceptions in a clear and concise way.

While the book itself is probably quite good, the recording leaves an immense amount to be desired. The compression on the sound is so heavy that you feel like you're listening to someone talking on the telephone only worse! Frankly, I'm shocked that Audible makes this crappy recording available!