Confronting the Classics

Traditions, Adventures and Innovations

By: Mary Beard

Narrated by: Lynne Jenson

One of the world's leading historians provides a revolutionary tour of the Ancient World, dusting off the classics for the twenty-first century. Mary Beard, drawing on thirty years of teaching and writing about Greek and Roman history, provides a panoramic portrait of the classical world, a book in which we encounter not only Cleopatra and Alexander the Great, Julius Caesar and Hannibal, but also the common people - the millions of inhabitants of the Roman Empire, the slaves, soldiers, and women. How did they live? Where did they go if their marriage was in trouble or if they were broke? Or, perhaps just as important, how did they clean their teeth?

Effortlessly combining the epic with the quotidian, Beard forces us along the way to reexamine so many of the assumptions we held as gospel - not the least of them the perception that the Emperor Caligula was bonkers or Nero a monster. With capacious wit and verve, Beard demonstrates that, far from being carved in marble, the classical world is still very much alive.

©2013 Mary Beard Publications Ltd (P)2013 Audible, Inc.

horrible horrible narration but worth a listen

great collection of essays and summaries but narration while not grating is brutal. it's someone who does romance novels tackling non fiction and about as bad and weird as you'd expect

Annoying narrator

Would you say that listening to this book was time well-spent? Why or why not?

Yes, in terms of content, even though it's repurposed book reviews. No, when the narrator is factored in. Her ersatz English accent and abundant mispronunciations make this very hard to listen to.

If you’ve listened to books by Mary Beard before, how does this one compare?

I haven't listened to other Mary Beard books, but her own videos on YouTube are considerably more engaging.

How did the narrator detract from the book?

Her pseudo English accent is over the top, with annoying and meaningless little flutters of delight. She can't handle words in Greek, Latin, French, Italian, German, or indeed often English.

erratic voice changes

the audio was erratic in sequence, sometime a crisp voice, then it was interspersed with a tired, raspy voice ..... the engineering needs to be better.....

Terrible Narration

The body of this book is outstanding. Unfortunately, the narrator was not up to the task of correctly or consistently pronouncing Latin and Greek terms or names. This makes for unpleasant listening, and I'm surprised if the author approved the finished product. There are, of course, variations in how one chooses to pronounce Latin and Greek, but the narrator was all over the place.

Narrator

Once again the brilliant Mary Beard is underserved by a very poor narrator. Besides her clear difficulty with the text (specifically pronunciations) The book was clearly recorded at different times and/or places resulting in sound levels jumping up-and-down and inconsistencies throughout. This is what I should've read rather than listened to.

Great book -horrible narration

Given the subject matter, one would think the narrator would have at least a loose grasp on that subject matter. This is not the case here. Names are often mispronounced, sometimes two different pronunciations in the same paragraph! Moreover, the narrator stumble upon trivial word, and turns of phrase! Please do not let this narrator near anything having to do with Classics ever again!

Great book undermined by horrible narration.

Lynne Jenson narrates this book as if every single sentence were just outrageously hilarious and she can barely control her laughter. Seriously, every phrase ends with a barely suppressed affected giggle. It's a stylistic choice I suppose, but a bad one. Like listening to Dolores Umbridge read a book. Mary Beard deserves better.

Excellent work, bad narration

The narrator is oddly peppy at inappropriate times and does not have the best grasp on pronunciations.