Relics of General Chassé

A Tale of Antwerp

By: Anthony Trollope

Narrated by: Cathy Dobson

Anthony Trollope (1815-1882) was one of England's most successful and respected novelists.

'Relics of General Chassé' is a humorous tale of a corpulent and somewhat dandified clergyman who, while visiting the castle at Antwerp, inadvertently becomes separated from his breeches. What follows shakes him to the core. The breeches fall into the hands of a group of female English tourists who decide to take some sample of the cloth as a souvenir.

Having snipped enough of the garment to make a bag, a needle case, a pin cushion, a pair of slippers and some leggings there are only a few seams and buttons left. The clergyman is left in a highly embarrassing position, not least because his nearest spare pair of breeches is in Brussels. What follows is pure comedy....

Public Domain (P)2017 Red Door Audiobooks

Fantastic Story, Terrible Naration

This short story was sooo good. As one would expect with Trollope, the characters were engaging and not above pricking the pomposity of the good.

The narrator was awful. It almost sounded like they were attempting to read prose as poetry. With weirdly long drawn out words and lilts that sounded like the text was full of exclamation points. I don't know what was so exciting about the hairbrush "bristles!", but the narrator sure wanted to get that across. It completely took me out of the story. There were times where it evened out a little and wasn't bad but then it was like they remembered what they were doing and slid back into that weird cadence. I wish Audible offered this story read by a different narrator because it's so funny, but I almost couldn't finish it.