Headlong Hall
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Narrated by:
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Graham Scott
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Alan Weyman
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Denis Daly
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Rachel May
About this listen
Headlong Hall
By Thomas Love Peacock
Presented by Voices of Today
Narration by Graham Scott
Also featuring the voices of Alan Weyman, Denis Daly, and Rachel May.
Text prepared by Denis Daly and Alan Weyman.
Music for songs composed and arranged by Alan Weyman.
Thomas Love Peacock (1785-1866) was a scholar, novelist, and poet. For many years he rendered distinguished service to the East India Company.
Headlong Hall was the first of his seven novels, all of which display the same structure. There is a faint semblance of a plot, which is merely a device to bring together a bunch of voluble eccentrics, who converse on a wide range of topical issues. Headlong Hall is the rural seat of the ebullient Squire Headlong, who invites a number of philosophers, a clergyman, a musician, a novelist, and a phrenologist, to dine with him and share their views. At the end of the book the squire, in typical impetuous fashion, arranges marriages for himself and three of his guests.
Public Domain (P)2021 Voices of TodayThe only other reviewer here lambasted it, but I think it has its charms. Whilst one of the characters, Mr. Jenkison, is read in a rather over-the-top manner, and on occasion is hard to understand what is said, you eventually get used to it. The full book can be found on google books if there are any lines that you need to check what was said.
The performance comes across as of the very enthusiastic amateur variety, not at the same standard of some ultra-professionally read and recorded audiobooks, sounds like different lines are recorded in different environments and stitched together, but you're not going to find this title recorded better anywhere else.
The singing sections are a little bizarre here and there, and sound like they have been produced and edited in strange ways, with pitch correction/stretching or timing correction, which is a little jarring at times.
Eccentric book performed eccentrically
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For me this is a very poor production of a unique and insightful piece of early nineteenth century literature. I tried but could not continue listening. The characters in Headlong Hall maybe eccentric, but why objects of ridicule? Some of the character's voices are just unintelligible agonising noises. Regret I wasted my money.
Cannot recommend
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