Metamorphoses

By: Ovid

Narrated by: Barry Kraft

Length: 15 hrs and 17 mins

Publisher's Summary

Ovid's sensuous and witty poem brings together a dazzling array of mythological tales, ingeniously linked by the idea of transformation, often as a result of love or lust, in which men and women find themselves magically changed into new and sometimes extraordinary beings. Beginning with the creation of the world and ending with the deification of Augustus, Ovid interweaves many of the best known myths and legends of ancient Greece and Rome, including Daedalus and Icarus, Pyramus and Thisbe, Pygmalion, Perseus and Andromeda, and the fall of Troy. Mortals become gods, animals turn to stone, and humans change into flowers, trees, or stars.

First published in A.D. 8, Ovid's Metamorphoses remains one of the most accessible and inspirational introductions to Greek mythology.

Translated by Frank Justus Miller.

(P)2008 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Plagued by flaw in audio-book format

This is a potentially wonderful work that doesn't succeed because of problems inherent in the audio format which hit this work particularly hard. If I were to go into the audio-book publishing business, I would be much more attentive to chapter/section breaks, even if it means departing from the precise way it's done in the written work.

I can tell that the translation and narration here are fine based on the way I'm captivated by the first episode in each of Ovid's "Books." Really. . . this material is absolutely riveting, a wonderful listen. I also notice that by the end of the Book, I'm barely awake and pretty sure I did doze off at points in the interim.

One-hour-plus of un-broken narration does not work, not for Metamorphosis, and probably not for any audio book.

We need meaningful breaks (silence, audio-book music, place markers that would show in an iPod, etc.) after every episode, not after every book. I don't care whether Ovid demarcated it that way. I don't care if ancient audiences heard all-the-way-through oral recitations. These audio-books are geared for modern audiences and if the format is to flourish, publishers need to get out of auto-pilot mode (where they passively mimic written text) and really think about user experience.

It's probably harsh to pin all this on a review of Metamorphosis. I've seen it throughout audio. If I’d have figured out how to articulate it earlier, I'd have wrote this for Iliad, Odyssey or Aneid. But this is the piece where I realized why I wasn't enjoying the work as much as I could have.

39 of 66 people found this review helpful

Epic mythology

This performance of Ovid's Metamorphosis is very good. The book contains most of the Greek and Roman myths, and Ovid is an excellent poet. This. however, is not something you can listen to while doing something else. If your mind wanders for a second, you may miss important details of the story. It also helps to have some familiarity with the myths so if someone is referred to as the son of so and so you know who Ovid is referring to. for that reason, I would not reccomend this as your first book on Greek mythology. You do have to stay focused while listening to this book, but it is rewarding. I was able to pick up on some of the humor that I missed when reading the print book. It must be said that many of these tales are violent, and sexual violence is a common theme in this book. Hearing these tales spoken aloud by a skilled narrator makes them feel more tragic than if I was just reading them silently in my mind. all in all, I reccomend the Audible version.

Wonderful

A pivotal work and understandably so. Every line oozes with that famous Ovidian wit and Charm.

1 of 1 people found this review helpful