The Italian

By: Ann Radcliffe, Robert Miles - editor and introduction

Narrated by: Sara Alexander

Length: 22 hrs and 27 mins

Publisher's summary

Brought to you by Penguin.

From the first moment Vincentio di Vivaldi, a young nobleman, sets eyes on the veiled figure of Ellena, he is captivated by her enigmatic beauty and grace. But his haughty and manipulative mother is against the match and enlists the help of her confessor to come between them. Schedoni, previously a leading figure of the Inquisition, is a demonic, scheming monk with no qualms about the task, whether it entails abduction, torture - or even murder.

The Italian secured Ann Radcliffe's position as the leading writer of Gothic romance of the age, for its atmosphere of supernatural and nightmarish horrors, combined with her evocation of sublime landscapes and chilling narrative.

Public Domain (P)2020 Penguin Audio

Recording Problems Fixed

I've read this book many times because I teach it. I was glad when I finally found a job that audiobook version because that allows me to review it for teaching while doing other things. This version felt longer than other 20+ hour novels I listen to. The narrator made the protagonist sound like a weak fool, which she's not. But she did a great job voicing servants who play an intriguing role in this novel. I was dreading the audio errors other reviewers reported. I think Penguin must have corrected them because I didn't encounter any.

Bad editing

A lot of bloopers, pauses and re-do’s were not edited out. This is especially so at the end of chapter 15. I was okay with it at first but it got to be too much and too distracting.

No

Unnecessarily long winded. There’s a few moments of beauty in imagery and language but it’s mostly just slow and boring. And the narration is overbearing- there’s almost no dialogue which means endless third person descriptions, and a serious difficulty in immersing into the story.

Poorly Edited Audio File

Great story but choose another version before purchase. The narrator is spot on for this Gothic horror classic, but unfortunately the editing team didn't remove the bloopers before this was uploaded here. It's almost as if the editing stopped 8 1/2 hours in. I absolutely loved this novel and had it been professionally edited, I would have kept the audiobook.