The Spire

By: William Golding

Narrated by: Benedict Cumberbatch

Length: 6 hrs and 49 mins

Publisher's summary

Dean Jocelin has a vision: that God has chosen him to erect a great spire on his cathedral. His mason anxiously advises against it, for the old cathedral was built without foundations. Nevertheless, the spire rises octagon upon octagon, pinnacle by pinnacle, until the stone pillars shriek and the ground beneath it swims. Its shadow falls ever darker on the world below, and on Dean Jocelin in particular.

From the author of Lord of the Flies, The Spire is a dark and powerful portrait of one man's will, and the folly that he creates.

©1964 William Golding (P)2014 Faber & Faber

The Spire Inspires

Captivating story. The writing was exquisite-- practically poetry. Cumberbatch used his talents of creating accents to the fullest. Fabulous book!

Excellent book

The book is great but the performance is even better. Cumberbach outdoes himself. If he was reading the ABCs aloud he would be worth listening to.

Twisty and dark

Twisty and dark story with a building sense of doom. Wonderfully read by Benedict Cumberbatch, who employs a wide range of voices and creates the dean's character brilliantly.

Horrifying study of ghastly man

This is a magnificent, immersive story of cathedrals, ego, and bloodless treachery. Brought to life by brilliant reading by Benedict Cumberbatch, this was both beautiful in its prose and architectural worship, and disarmingly terrifying in its interior viewpoint within a deeply horrible man, descending into madness and darkness. Just brilliant!

worth reading

I liked the story, probably will come back to it.
The performance was great (not a surprise).

Power through for a deep exam. of a man's psyche

Where does The Spire rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

This is a complicated book. I'm not sure it lends itself all that well to an audio version. But I'm still new to audio books, and find I like them best when I can be a tad bit distracted when listening to them. This is a not a book to digest while being distracted. It requires full attention.

What did you like best about this story?

I enjoyed the many levels this story exists on. It is a story, told from one (increasingly crazy) man about his desires, actions, and motivations.

What about Benedict Cumberbatch’s performance did you like?

I read this book as I listened, so I noticed he occasionally took small liberties. Jocelyn spoke with more contractions! So if you are a purist, know that. But the voices he infused the characters with were fantastic.

Powerful narrator meets powerful literature

Fantastic narrating from Cumberbatch, plus splendid literature from Golding. It is so immersive and such a music to my ears - it was truely striking

incredible performance, exceptional prose

not sure I would have enjoyed this quote so much if not for the enthusiastic, expressive, invested performance of the narrator.

Cumberbatch. Cumberbatch. Cumberbatch

May he take this up full time. I enjoyed this story on its own but the narration raised it quite a bit as well

Enjoyable book

Where does The Spire rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

Most others are stories, I'd say this should be required reading for Engineering students (especially those who will specialize in Project Management) in Freshman English class.

What was one of the most memorable moments of The Spire?

The confrontation between Roger Mason and Jocelin, when Roger Mason shows how much he'd already done to try and make the Spire work and Jocelin's blind faith practically drives him to despair, though he still tries his best to find a solution.

Which scene was your favorite?

The memorable moment mentioned above.

If you could rename The Spire, what would you call it?

Watching a Train Wreck About to Happen

Any additional comments?

The performance by Benedict Cumberbatch was phenomenal. He inhabited his characters and the voices he created for each character made the book easy to follow and kept me riveted.