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Where Angels Fear to Tread

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Where Angels Fear to Tread

By: E. M. Forster
Narrated by: Edward Petherbridge
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About this listen

 English widow Lilia causes a scandal by marrying Gino, a highly unsuitable Italian 12 years her junior. But when her relatives are confronted by the beauty of Italy and the charm of Gino, they are forced to examine their own narrow lives.Public Domain (P)2009 BBC Audiobooks Ltd Classics Italy
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There are other good readings of Forster, by women and men. At first I was a little resistant to Edward Petherbridge’s cut glass accent but, in the end, his fine-toned and surprisingly sensitive, tender restraint won me round. A fine performance, particularly given the mess of melodrama Forster, somewhat uncharacteristically, stumbles into and around towards the end of the book. Even this is as well handled as it might be by the reader.

As to the story, it strikes—as it would for a first novel by a young man—as a kind of proto version of the much more beautiful and compelling novels to come. But for all the imbalance of the plot and self-consciousness of some of the writing, it’s still shot through with excellent moments. And you can see the brilliant daring of Forster start to emerge and unfurl its wings to dry in the Italian sun. It doesn’t yet have the assured touch of his later triumphs. But the splendours of Forster’s quiet moral art are all there waiting. He is already able to startle is out of existential complacency in his uncannily sympathetic way.

A good voice for Forster

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I listen with earphones and I gave up as couldn't hear properly. The start of the sentence was loud then fading to a mumble. Sorry.

narrator issue for me

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