![]() Set against the background of the Great Game being played between Britain and Russia on the north-west frontier after the second Afghan war, it tells the story of an 11-year-old orphan boy who looks and sounds like a native but beneath his filthy rags is white. ![]() Kim, by Rudyard Kipling, read by Madhav Sharma (13½hrs unabridged, Naxos, £38.50)Įspionage has become so sophisticated and hi-tech that it's difficult to believe that this, the greatest of all spy stories, was published more than a century ago when agents relied on wits rather than gadgets. Her voice, a combination of prudish and passionate, sense and sensibility, is irresistible. Now, listening to Maureen O'Brien's cool, intelligent reading, I can perfectly understand why they did. What I mainly remember about reading Middlemarch all those years ago – apart from Eliot's views on political reform, education, religion and the status of women – is my exasperation with Dorothea and Dr Lydgate for hitching up with the wrong people. The author provides the treasure chest, but the reader holds the key. Loth as I am to agree with any opinion held by the dusty old pedant who marries young, beautiful, idealistic Dorothea Brooke, he has got it in one. "I am fastidious in voices and I cannot endure listening to an imperfect reader," says Edward Casaubon in chapter two. Halfway through CD six I was ready to concede that, if not the greatest, Middlemarch – which follows the various fortunes, thwarted, blighted and occasionally happy, of a dozen characters in provincial England circa 1830 – is certainly up there with the finest novels in any language. ![]() Ever dutiful, I opted for the unabridged BBC recording with an unknown reader, originally published on cassette. Then two abridged audio versions of Middlemarch, often described as the greatest novel in the English language, came out from Penguin and Naxos. ![]() Being force-fed Silas Marner as a child didn't help, but I dutifully ploughed through all her critically acclaimed books, vowing never to return. Sometimes it just doesn't tally with your own fond memories. Rereading the classics becomes a whole new experience if, second time round, you have to rely on audio rather than print. Middlemarch, by George Eliot, read by Maureen O'Brien (32hrs unabridged, BBC, £30.99) ![]()
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