Middlemarch

Great audio book. It has totally disrupted my life over the last days because I've stayed awake to listen, not been able to work because I couldn't stop listening and thinking about it whilst not listening. Really brilliant reading and I will be totally bereft when it finishes in about an hours' time. Best audio book I've had for ages.

I first read Middlemarch many years ago and much enjoyed it. Browsing through the audible website recently I came across this version read by Juliet Stevenson and downloaded it on impulse. Since listening to it, I have been recommending it to anyone who will listen. Juliet Stevenson is a wonderful storyteller - she captures the mood of the book and the personalities of the characters. The combination of a good narrator and good book is irresistible - I resented every interruption!

I bought this audio book for something different to listen to and thought that listening to a classic may educate me into a different type of listening.
the book is beautifully descriptive which to start off with i found hard going as I wasn't used to this way of writing. However after a number of times wondering whether to give up or not I was glad i didnt as it was wonderful and found i was listening to it for hours in the middle of the night captured by the various characters who i felt i had begun to know and be part of their lives.
well worth pursuing

If you could take only one audiobook to a desert island, this would have to be it! I have long been a fan of both George Eliot's work and of Juliet Stevenson's narration, but this surpassed all expectations. A well-crafted story brilliantly characterised.

If Oscars were awarded for audio-book narrations, Juliet Stephenson would surely be in the front line to win several for her multiple performances in Middlemarch. This inordinately long book is made to feel considerably shorter by her fine portrayals, giving each separate character his or her own distinctive voice.

I knew this book to be excellent but I was not prepared for such a feat of narration. Juliet Stevenson is outstanding! She creates a million different voices so that each character is instantly recognizable, and just seems to add to Eliot's depth of meaning. Every day I long to put my earphones in and just immerse myself in the story. Unmissable!!

I have read the novel at least 5 times over the years but hearing the words read in Juliet Stevensons beautiful and flexible voice has added a unique new pleasure to the enjoyment of this great story. I found it perfect!

The book is excellent, of course, but Juliet Stevenson's narration is an astounding tour de force. Characters are many, demanding all tones and dynamics - from those of deep-voiced or husky males to silvery, pacific or spiritually conscious females. All are convincingly manifested. Overlaying their natural timbres, the acquired tones of experience convey characters as middle-aged & deeply earthed, shallow, criminal, loving, hating, Oxbridge intellectual & innocent, enthusiastic, bumpkin, familial, old & wavery, drunk, idealistically or dully clerical, brilliantly or spitefully medical and otherwise totally various. Every character is believable and immediately recognisable throughout the entire performance of this very long book.
I feel obliged (if unwilling) to mention that I found most of the introductory quotations to each chapter, in various languages, long and (even when in English) incomprehensible. Such quotations were, I assume, written for the reader to slowly cogitate over, whilst looking to the drama ahead and waiting for their undoubted relevance to be revealed. Not only did I find the quotations extremely irritating, but I was really sad to find Ms Stevenson's rendering of those in Italian, French and German equally so. Even so I choose not to remove any of my 5 stars, which are, in my demanding estimation, totally deserved.

I admit I am only listening to this as I feel I should as it is a classic and not one we tackled at school. Whilst I appreciate it as a social commentary of it's time and that the narrator is very good I have to say it is like wading through treacle. I am now half way and have my doubts if I will ever finish. If it were the paperback I would skip to the end........

One of the best written books, ever. I have read the book many times over the years, watched the BBC drama numerous times, and now I have enjoyed listening to it. A wonderful piece of English literature, superbly narrated by Juliet Stevenson.