A Laodicean

A Story of Today

By: Thomas Hardy

Narrated by: Clive Chafer

Paula Power, the daughter of a wealthy railway magnate, inherits De Stancy Castle, an ancient castle in need of modernization. She commissions a young architect from London, George Somerset, to undertake the work. Somerset falls in love with Paula. But Paula, the Laodicean of the title, meaning a person who is lukewarm or halfhearted, is torn between George's admiration and that of Captain De Stancy, whose old-world romanticism contrasts with Somerset's forward-looking outlook.

Paula's vacillation in her romantic life is also reflected in her views about religion, politics, and social progress, a dilemma faced by people in the Victorian era as industrialization was beginning to greatly change their lives. Paula will have to decide between the two men, however, or risk losing them both.

Public Domain (P)2016 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Disappointment

Book would be better if the narrator was somebody else not so stiff
The end a little disappointing for such a great author which I liked all his book
This one left me wishing that there was few more sentences in the end for some justice

Lukewarm

Interesting in its description of Architecture and detail, modern in the frailty of the 1800s version of photoshop and telecommunications, still true today. Love triangle is always timeless.

I’m a Hardy fan

This is a Hardy book I’d not heard of. In spite of that I wanted to listen. I found the reader’s performance lack luster and dull. That may have been on purpose to forward the theme but it disturbed me. That said, I very much enjoyed the story itself.

Not an Easy Listen

The narrator has a voice better suited for documentaries than for novel reading. The cadence of the narrator didn't provide the correct type of emotion needed for the novel. Basically it put me to sleep.

A nice little story.

In spite of the pretty mundane narrative I found, I did want to keep listening until the end.

I have looked at the other reviews, and I'm wondering if I'm I the only one who hears the narrator constantly referring to a she as he? I was often confused as to whom he was referring to.

Not the Most Famous Hardy Work

But a very satisfying read. The heroine is another of Harry’s well written characters -a free independent spirit - who realizes her choice of a mate has nothing to do with possessing a glorious ancestry.

A modern tale

As always Hardy writes gloriously. This is an odd novel about. A couple drawn to the antiquarian even medieval yet presented as modern. A prefiguring of the nouveau aristocracy of The Great Gadsby A great villain called Dare among the innocents

Definitely a Loadicean

It isn't Hardy's best, but it is good in its own right. Wished it had a more conclusive ending.

Poor narration

This is a newly discovered Thomas Hardy book, as I thought I had read them all. It is not Hardy at his best, but is a very nice story. However, the narration is truly awful. At first, I stopped listening, because I thought it was some kind of computer reading the story. Later, I picked it back up and got into the story enough to make it through to the end. But truly, this reader ruined it. How do people like that get these jobs?

Speed it up and you'll survive it

it's like listening to a co-worker drone on about their 3rd cousin, once removed, that has a really in depth, obscure hobby and seems to gravitate towards toxic relationships because they, themselves, are the drama