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Barry Lyndon

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Barry Lyndon

By: William Makepeace Thackeray
Narrated by: Jonathan Keeble
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About this listen

Like Tom Jones before him, Barry Lyndon is one of the most lively and roguish characters in English literature. He may now be best known through the colorful Stanley Kubrick film released in 1975, but it is Thackeray who, in true 19th-century style, shows him best.

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Public Domain (P)2013 Naxos AudioBooks Classics Linguistics Social Sciences
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Barry Lyndon is a very good novel that eventually became an excellent Kubrick film. It shares many of the traits that Thackeray would display in Vanity Fair - well-judged set-pieces, lively characterisation, and plenty of well observed action.
The main character was raised in Ireland, and much of the early action is set there - and that's where the problems with this audiobook are to be found. The narrator is certainly a skilled actor, and keeps the action moving well. Sadly, however, he has adopted for the Irish characters a very generic 'Irish' accent that combines elements of the contemporary Ulster accent with stage Irish stereotypes to produce something that blurs all distinctions related to social class and regional variation [aristocrats from Waterford sound like labourers from Belfast or west of Ireland peasants, for example]. This probably won't matter to some readers, but it did matter to me - it's the equivalent of playing the Artful Dodger with a Scottish accent or Elizabeth Bennett with a working class Manchester accent: not only is it wrong, and not only does it distort or obscure Thackeray's nuanced portrayal of Irish society, it also raises the infuriating question of why the narrator and producers didn't think it was important to get these basic details right. Similarly, Irish place names are mangled - Naas is pronounced ''Naaahs', Donegal as 'Dunigul', and so on. I found this to be culturally disrespectful and careless, but also eventually impossible to listen to. And perhaps most importantly, it works against one of the novel's main objectives, which was to challenge simplistic thinking about Ireland and the Irish.

A good story marred by inappropriate narration

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I'm sure it's a good book but it seems to stagnate at certain points and I find myself zoning out alot. I also don't really understand "high society" or the older days these people had no jobs and did nothing all day yet had so much £££ seems like all they did was spend money and to to balls and constantly worry about Thier status. waste of time.

meh

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A brilliant performance of a classic. The novel stands up very well and the narration is masterful - clear spoken, full of character and emotion and with many deft touches that help bring the text to life. Highly recommended!

Brilliant Performance of a classic

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