Robert Louis Stevenson's Classic: A Child's Garden of Verses

Annotated with a Study of Themes

By: Robert Louis Stevenson

Narrated by: Michael Sheppard

Length: 1 hr and 13 mins

Publisher's summary

Unique to this title is:

• A study of the themes present in A Child's Garden of Verses

You may, of course, skip it and go straight to the main title if you do not want any spoilers and come back later to the beginning.

Robert Louis Stevenson, Scottish essayist, poet, and author of fiction and travel books, was born in 1850 in Edinburgh, Scotland, as an only son of a prosperous civil engineer. He entered the University of Edinburgh at the age of 17 and studied to be an engineer to follow his father in the family business. However, he soon realized that he was not cut out for that profession. His father agreed to let him study law instead, and although Stevenson graduated from the law school, he never practiced law because by then, he knew he wanted to be a writer.

He started writing in his teens, and when he was 16, he wrote The Pentland Rising, a story based on a historical event, and his father paid for 100 copies to be printed in pamphlet form. He published his first book at the age of 28.

Stevenson enjoyed adventure and used every opportunity to travel, and that reflects in his fiction. Unfortunately, the main reason he spent a lot of time abroad was his poor health.

A Child's Garden of Verses is a book of poetry for children. Stevenson dedicated the poems to his nurse, Cummy (Alison Cunningham), who cared for him during his many childhood illnesses. The collection includes some of Stevenson's most famous poems, including “The Land of Counterpane”, “My Shadow", and “The Lamplighter”.

Enjoy this timeless classic!

Public Domain (P)2020 Chronos Publishing

Soothing voice

This is the first time I have read/listened to this book. Audiobook Giveaways (Chronos Publishing) does well creating their audiobooks. I like the study of themes at the beginning. Some of their other books have included a historical introduction and information about the author. I think these all add to their rendition to make them stand out versus other audio productions.
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This is the first book I have listened to by this narrator ( Michael Sheppard ) and I think he did well narrating this content. He occasionally uses accents to give variety. His style is smooth and soft. I think I could fall asleep to his voice if I was not focusing on the verses. I generally listen at 1.5x speed but I increased to 1.8x speed. ———

There are no explicit sex scenes, violence, or swearing. ———

I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and voluntarily left this unbiased review.
Please feel free to comment on whether you found my review helpful.

Story 4/5
Narration 5/5

Wonderful Childhood Memories

There was a copy of this book in my library when I was a child and my Mother and I spent many pleasant hours reading it. It's been years since I thought about it, but as I listened, I found myself reciting the lines along with the narrator. Some memories just don't fade away.
Thanks to narrator Michael Sheppard or helping me to relive some treasured moments.

Fun poetry

This is a good book of children’s poetry. A lot of them are really fun a memorable. The narration is very well done.