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Title: The Aeneid
ISBN: 0143059025
Author:
Virgil
Publicate Date: 2006-11-02
Publish: 2006-11-02
List Price: $49.95
Average Customer Rating: 3.0
Format: Audio CD
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Amazon Lowest New Price: $10.53
Amazon Lowest Used Price: $9.25
Amazon Merchant Price: $32.97
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| Customer Review: |
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1: powerful
Simon Callow is excellent; articulate, clear, powerful! I leave the lit. crit. to others, this presentation was
a living illustration of the book. I would highly recommend it as an emetic for corporate media baby food.
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2: Great Translation, unbearable narration
I think that Robert Fagles is one of the best translator of Greek and Latin in the past 50 years. I thought that the Odyssey, read by Ian McKellen, was superb, although Homer's Epic was meant to be heard. Virgil's was meant to be read, but, with the enjoyment I had listening to the Odyssey, I thought that I would give the Aeneid a try. What a horrible, horrible mistake! Simon Callow makes the Aeneid virtually intolerable. He reads Virgil's Epic as if he is mocking over-acting. In fact, if this were offered as a parody of bad reading, then most would believe it was simply too hyperbolic even to be funny. No professional reader should ever over-act this badly nor should Penguin Audio Books allow such a travesty to actually be recorded! Honestly, a high school drama student could have rendered a finer job.
The book is wonderful. The audio book is worse that I can describe!
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3: The reader ruins it.
I just started this book, and have really been looking forward to it. Now Im so disapointed because I cant understand it because of the readers dramatic reading. I am still listening but Im in the market for another copy read by someone else. rb
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4: Excellent Rendition of a Classic
I don't think that anyone could ask for a better presentation of Virgil's classic. Fagles's translation is scintillating. When I listen to a work like this I generally simultaneously read or consult a number of translations, and Fagles definitely has created a wondrous and exceptional work in English. Simon Callow's rendition is simultaneously exhilarating and haunting. Highly recommended.
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5: A Stone Waste!
I understand that many readers in the United States find Robert Fagles' translation easy to read. Some likely appreciate his use of colloquialisms. A reader with a European accent surely wasn't the best choice for this translation.
Most importantly, Penguin should never have allowed this audio book to leave its shop in the present condition. Sometimes Mr. Callow was so loud that my ears hurt and at other times he sort of muttered. Some of his presentation was enjoyable, but I gave up on the second CD. I use a reasonably good sound system to listen to audio books and have never before had such difficulty.
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