The Chimes by Charles Dickens (narrated by Richard Armitage)

Audible will occasionally offer its members free books. I love free books with every fiber of my being, so I will always give these a try. I've met some real sucky stuff this way, but I've run across some good ones too, ones I never would have thought to try if it wasn't free. This was one of those free books that Audible gave away over Christmas. Honestly, I was mostly attracted by having Thorin Oakenshield read me a story, but I'm not averse to a Dickens novel either, so it seemed like a win-win.

But imagine taking all the pathos from Dickens' Little Dorrit and cramming it into 4 chapters. This has got to be the single most depressing story I've ever read. This is why we have Prozac, people.

It starts like most Dickens novels. The rich folk are telling the poor folk that they have no right to be born or marry or be happy, or they are telling them that they just need to leave everything up to their "father" or protector - in other words, the rich folk. Then the third chapter starts and things get a little freaky. There are goblins and ghosts and things just spiral all to hell for the poor folk. It's a lot like A Christmas Carol (or It's a Wonderful Life) where the main character's ghost gets to see what life is like after he's gone. I'm not entirely sure why the goblins do this to him - they are accusing him of something, but damn if I can tell you what it is. It may be that he's thinking that people are born bad, but can you blame him? These rich folk eat his tripe, which to him is something really special, while making him feel like he's robbed poor widows and orphans for having it for a meal. They tell his daughter that they will basically send her to jail if she marries the man she's in love with because he'll just abandon her and her kids will be hooligans. They are just first-class douchebags.

But then it turns all Dallas - Who Shot JR on you. And everything is all right and we get a happy ending. Confused? Yeah, me too.

But Richard Armitage makes it all worthwhile. He could make bestsellers out of technical manuals. All the characters are easily distinguishable and well characterized. I would have listened to anything he did anyway, but now I have a real, legitimate reason.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Losing My Religion

I was raised Baptist. My grandmother on my dad’s side was very much into church life. She was there every Sunday and Wednesday; she helped serve the Wednesday dinner at the church; she played piano for a long time, then retired so to speak to the pews where she was almost a hall monitor over the kids, who kept moving further and further to the front to escape her. The quote from Shakespeare could have been written for her, “And though she be little, she is fierce.” My dad said I’m a lot like her; I kind of wish that was more true than it is. My family was not into church life so much. We recently watched the film Almost Christmas with Danny Glover, and there’s one part where they’re all in church and the pastor refers to them as CME Christians - they’re only in church on Christmas, Mothers Day, and Easter. That was us. Dad claimed it was because of the hypocrisy he saw in the church, and I totally understood that. I went to a private school that was affiliated with a Baptist church, a
Read more

36 Books That Changed The World by The Great Courses (audiobook)

As a bibliophile, is there any wonder I felt I needed to listen to this course? It's a very interesting look at several books written throughout history that had a profound impact one the world. I've read very few of them, but most of them are on my "to read at some point in my life" list. Here's the breakdown and the lecturer(s) on each: 1. The Epic of Gilgamesh by Grant L. Voth 2. Homer's The Odyssey by John M. Bowers 3. The Bhagavad Gita by Grant Hardy 4. Sun Tsu 's The Art of War by Andrew R. Wilson 5. Confucius's The Analects by Mark W. Muesse 6. Herodotus' Histories by Elizabeth Vandiver 7. Plato's The Republic by Dennis Dalton 8. Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics by Robert C. Bartlett 9. Ovid's Metamorphoses by Elizabeth Vandiver 10. Marcus Aurelius's Meditations by Luke Timothy Johnson 11. St. Augustine's Confessions by William R. Cook & Ronald B. Herzman 12. The Koran by Grant Hardy 13. Fibonacci's Th
Read more

Review: “Three Identical Strangers”

It’s been a while since I posted anything on here. Part of the reason is that I haven’t really had anything to write about; the other part is I’m not sure anyone really cares what I think. Now at least, I’ve found something I want to tell people about, no matter how few people see it. I joined Moviepass a few months ago. I won’t shill it here, but I think it’s great. If you want more information let me know & I’ll wax rhapsodic there. The thing I love most about it is that it makes me feel able to see films I wouldn’t normally see. There’s at least four films I’ve seen since joining that I wouldn’t have seen without Moviepass, and every one of them I have enjoyed. Maybe I’ll write more on those later. Three Identical Strangers is a documentary that is hard to believe is true. What would you do if you suddenly found out you had a twin? When 19-year-old Bobby attends his first day of college, he is greeted warmly by every stranger he meets, but they all keep calling him Eddie. Af
Read more