Ruined by Gabbling reader

I have long been a fan of William Dalrymple's books and have print copies of all but the present one which I hoped to enjoy as much as the previous ones by listening to the audio version. Alas, this has not been so. I value William Dalrymple's work for its detailed and meticulous research and the fact that the works are extremely dense in the sense that there is more information per sentence and per paragraph packed into each book than is usual. For this quality of densely-packed information, a more measured style of reading is, in my opinion anyway, obligatory if the poor listener is to be able to derive even a fraction of the information being presented. I appreciate that it has become a widespread phenomenon for the young to gabble - and to thus making their utterances completely incomprehensible to the listener. This is not important when it is their own utterances which cannot be heard. It is, however, of vital importance when the speed of delivery is such that the listener cannot hope to derive all the densely-packed meaning from sentences constructed with infinite care by a master of the written word such as William Dalrymple. I have no idea whether the reader of this book is young, and certainly clarity was not an issue, but the speed of delivery made it impossible for me to enjoy even the first chapter of this work. I gave up.

14 people found this helpful

Interesting story spoilt by poor narration

I have never given up on an audio book before but gave up on this after about 3 hours. The narration is so poor that it makes the story line difficult to follow. Some of it is not the narrator's fault - who had the bright idea of reading out all the footnotes everytime there is a quotation from another writer? Everytime there is a mention of money (and given the subject that is frequently) he reads out the converstion into today' s money, that becomes maddening after a while.
But, in my view, the narrator is poor. He shows no empathy with the story he is reading and never varies the pace.

I am going to buy the book and read it as I am sure the story is interesting. Maybe the book deserves more than 3 stars but I have only listened to a portion of it.

13 people found this helpful

Amazing story, terrible recording

I loved the book.

There was clearly something badly wrong with the audio though. It deserves being re-recorded properly.

8 people found this helpful

Buy it in print

I made it to the end but despite the beautiful Indian pronunciation, this epic tome was ruined by the kindergarten tone of the narrator. No feel for the text that made it just made it so many words and hard to follow (don't start me on the infuriating currency conversions) and I had to re-listen to great chunks of it. It really needs an accompanying pdf as the print version is full of interesting content.

9 people found this helpful

Interesting book.

Very interesting book, packed with information, but read at breakneck speed, which made it very hard to absorb the facts.

3 people found this helpful

excellent narrative ...

poor narration, largely due to mangled pronunciation of non-English nouns. The text itself flows smoothly and is a riveting listen.

3 people found this helpful

Wish it could have been better....

Book:
Whilst there are chapters to start with on EIC, the latter part of the book is all about the decline of the Mughals in particular tedious details of Sha Alam and his harem. The oft repeated present day fiscal values after sometime become monotonous. Mr Dalrymple seems to have skimmed over the rise and fall of Tippu who tormented the EIC, no end. The Company was inextricably linked with the affairs of Mysore and ensuing battles fought by Lord Cornwallis and Wellesley barely get a mention. There was true `Anarchy' in the Deccan which is largely missing. The book is mainly the story of Bengal and Delhi during the rise of the Company. Likewise, the Anglo-Maratha confrontations are superficially covered. I have read a better Dalrymple.

Audio-book:
One word: Excruciating. The author (Siddarth Sagar) presumably a second generation Asian could not or did not bother to get Indian names right. He only had to ask his elders at home, before he embarked on this project. This narrator is not alone in this foible. Audible MUST insist that readers do a bit of homework and engage with the relevant diaspora before tackling exotic words. The pronunciation of simple three syllable words like Yamuna, Marathas, Awadh amongst others was particularly agonizing. I believe that there is no excuse as he is an active thespian of our current times. There are sentences where words at the end get garbled which is frankly exasperating. Finally, which `Einstein' asked the narrator to mindlessly read out foot-notes and present day fiscal values which only deters the audience from appreciating the running story.
I am therefore returning the audio-book, sorry.

1 person found this helpful

Engaging with reservations about conclusions

An engaging read ni doubt.WD sticks to his idea of EIC taking India from Mughals even though the evidence he himself provides shows that it was taken from the Marathas.That is the biggest issue one could take with the book. He also heroises Tipu whilst trying not to do so, despite Tipu's torrid human rights record. WD is moored in his Mughalophilia but does well to research and write this history despite this bias.

Given that the book is about India, the narrator would have done well to bring his pronunciation of Indian terms on par with his pronunciation of the French in the book.

Big disappointment

I was really looking forward to this book, but was left dissatisfied. The reader is not quite as bad as some listeners suggested, but it seems he was hired because he can pronounce Hindi words properly but he often mangles English words which is disconcerting. The editor is at fault for insisting on breaking up the text with frequent and quite worthless translations of old monetary values into current values. The story frequently departs from the East India Company and is mostly about the various civil wars in India in the second half of the 18th Century and a seemingly endless description of battles.

Epic listen. Highly recommended!

Incredibly well written and narrated. Feels like listening to the next “Game of Thrones” but a historical one. Fascinating insight into the brutal story of a little known company in London, England that went on to transform India and the world.