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The Man Upstairs and Other Stories

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The Man Upstairs and Other Stories

By: P. G. Wodehouse
Narrated by: Frederick Davidson
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Annette had been busy at her piano when the knocking coming from the room above finally wrenched her mind from composing her music. Aha! The unseen brute obviously disliked her playing and intimated his views with his boot heel. Insulted, she struck the piano's loud pedal. His reply: Bang! Bang! Bang!

This little incident from "The Man Upstairs" is just one of the many capers that P. G. Wodehouse humorously portrays in this collection, which includes nineteen of Wodehouse's delightful pre–World War II short stories. Though these tales are decades old, such was Wodehouse's amiable genius that they have not aged a bit. Like ancient crusted port, they have matured with the years, and perhaps only now can their timeless humor be savored with its full bouquet.

Among the other stories in this collection are"The Man Who Disliked Cats," "The Good Angel," "Pots o' Money," and "Out of School."

(P)1997 Blackstone Audio, Inc. Anthologies Anthologies & Short Stories Fiction Genre Fiction Literary Fiction Literature & Fiction Funny Witty Short Story Comedy
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Critic reviews

“Timelessly funny…[Davidson] is wry, British, and almost drawling, and one supposes that this is pretty much how Wodehouse himself would sound.”

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This reader has by far the most unpleasantly superciliously sly-sounding & condescending tones, from his voice alone exactly the sort who I'd never feel able to trust with a set of house keys were he to be found to be a next door neighbour... and indeed were he to be so and unlikely to move away, he'd be one of the reasons I'd find would contribute to my moving household elsewhere myself. Indeed before I've penetrated very much past the earlier stages, I find I can bear his slimy tones no longer. I'm an experienced audio books consumer and have, I assure you, never so reacted to any other book reader. Quite why this voice was considered suitable for this function, is beyond me. If I'd been the auditioning listener at his audition's trial I'd have told him to amend his style completely - or collect his cards on his way out.
All of which means there are quite a few Wodehouse works now beyond reach to me since this man, Frederick Davidson, appears in the reader credit. Which might explain why these are in the freebie section of Audible's extended listening list. In this case, being free is not enough reason to suffer this "performance" in my remaining hours & days.

Reader is the issue

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Plum at his early best.
Some lovely crafted dialogue and laugh out loud moments.
Well told.

Great little stories

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A collection of Wodehouse short stories that serves very well as an audiobook to hold in reserve and dip into when you want a quick 20 minute listen.



If you want to listen for several hours at a time, then a longer single story would be a better bet as these can become a bit "samey" if listened to end-to-end.



Personally, I was not wildly taken with the narration, but not to the extent of marring the pleasure of Wodehouse's writing.

A useful anthology for short listens

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If this book wasn’t for you, who do you think might enjoy it more?

I never found out! The narration is so naïve and poor that within a chapter I was so annoyed with Mr Davidson for ruining the brilliant PG Wodehouse that I abandoned the story

What was most disappointing about P. G. Wodehouse’s story?

Nothing, just the sub standard narration!

What didn’t you like about Frederick Davidson’s performance?

Everything!! You've caused your own problems by previously using the incomparable services of Jonathan Cecil who not only reads the words, he acts the parts. His diction is perfect, he has a thousand voices, he reads at the correct speed and emphasises at the correct moment. I'm afraid Mr Davidson is very poor in comparison and I won't buy him again.

If you could play editor, what scene or scenes would you have cut from The Man Upstairs and Other Stories?

I couldn't comment as I never got past the first chapter of this poor performance.

Any additional comments?

Jonathan Cecil is brilliant! Paul Shelley, Graham Seed, Nigel Lambert, Dinsdale Landen, Jeremy Sinden and James Saxon are acceptable and Ian Carmichael disappointing. David Ian Davies and Frederick Davidson however are awful, almost childish in the way they read and become immensely annoying. 'Jill the Reckless' is just as bad as the 'Man Upstairs' above and I shall not be investing in other titles read by these really poor narrators! I'm only sorry that I had to discover this the hard way and that my collection of Wodehouse will never include these titles!!!

You will NOT enjoy this version

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Narrator puts you off straight away, not sure why he was chosen but is impossible to listen to

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