Alice Dugdale

By: Anthony Trollope

Narrated by: Sheila Lash

Anthony Trollope is known primarily for his epic novels like Barchester Towers. However, he also wrote a number of smaller "gems". This is one of the best. Alice Dugdale is a plain but intelligent girl who sees the love of her life pushed by society to marry the beautiful, but somewhat vacuous, rich girl in town. Alice's reaction to this situation makes a wonderful and insightful story.

Public Domain (P)1986 Jimcin Recordings

Mr. Right and Miss Wrong

Sheila Lash did a fine job narrating Alice Dugdale, one of Trollope's best. The complications of this Anthony Trollope story are delicious: two girls, one man, wrong assumptions, misunderstandings, misinterpretations, and ambitious mothers with tricks, traps and strategies. In a time of a general man shortage, the struggle to find marriageable partners for single daughters was ferocious. A Friday night barroom brawl is gentile by comparison. Trollope stories are best compared to soap operas: slow paced, teasing hints and unexpected developments. One expects intermittent interruptions to sell some liquid soap then of course, end just the way a story ought.

There are some technical glitches in a couple of spots (or it could be something with my download) with the recording which should be corrected but certainly not grave enough to detract from the total enjoyment of the story. I am going to delete it then download it again to see if that clears up the recording.

Fun book, wooden narrator

Trollope is one of my favorite authors to listen to--at least when read by an able narrator like David Case. His writing is leisurely, funny, sly, compassionate, and psychologically acute. But the narrator of this book is sub-par. Despite a pleasant voice and good enunciation, she reads as stiffly as if she had never seen the sentences before, with no attempt at fluidity or expressiveness. She never differentiates one character's voice from another--nor the characters' voices from that of Trollope's narrator.

Audio problems

The book was a nice, short diversion, and the narrator was good; but part of the time, the narrator sounded as if she were standing very far from the microphone or turned away from it. It was not a good recording. Still, it did not affect the story.

ok

This is a very old recording, with lots of background noise (like cassette tapes going bad, which it probably is) and read in a monotone. The story is interesting in that people are much franker with each other than in, say, Jane Austen or in Trollope's more famous works. They will say you lied, you insulted me, etc., so the people seemed more realistic. Ended rather suddenly.

Trollop is great

This book wasn’t for you, but who do you think might enjoy it more?

Someone who doesn't know Trollop's storytelling. This is a short reading but I would recommend starting with one of his better books.

Would you ever listen to anything by Anthony Trollope again?

Yes.

How did the narrator detract from the book?

Not as expressive as most other narrators.

You didn’t love this book... but did it have any redeeming qualities?

It can act as a taste to his larger and later works.

Any additional comments?

The recording itself is not good. There was an echo in the first half of the reading. Maybe it was recorded at an earlier time so is not proficient.

I would not recommend it

I love Trollope and appreciate the effectiveness of his long sentences. But this narrator did not seem at ease with reading long sentences at all. Also very flat interpretation: all sentences sounded the same, as did all characters. The technical quality of the recording did not help, there was an echo in the background and the voice sounded muffled in some parts, I would not recommend this audiobook.