The Hunting of the Snark Audiobook By Lewis Carroll cover art

The Hunting of the Snark

Preview

Try for $0.00
Prime logo Prime members: New to Audible?
Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
Premium Plus auto-renews for $14.95/mo after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

The Hunting of the Snark

By: Lewis Carroll
Narrated by: Boris Karloff
Try for $0.00

$14.95/month after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Buy for $6.10

Buy for $6.10

Confirm purchase
Pay using card ending in
By confirming your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and Amazon's Privacy Notice. Taxes where applicable.
Cancel

About this listen

But what is a Snark? "Humpty Dumpty's theory, of two meanings packed into one word like a portmanteau, seems to me the right explanation for all."
-Lewis Carroll©2008 Saland Publishing (P)2008 Saland Publishing
Fiction Classics
activate_Holiday_promo_in_buybox_DT_T2

What listeners say about The Hunting of the Snark

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    23
  • 4 Stars
    9
  • 3 Stars
    3
  • 2 Stars
    2
  • 1 Stars
    2
Performance
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    24
  • 4 Stars
    7
  • 3 Stars
    2
  • 2 Stars
    1
  • 1 Stars
    0
Story
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    26
  • 4 Stars
    5
  • 3 Stars
    1
  • 2 Stars
    0
  • 1 Stars
    2

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

Sort by:
Filter by:
  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Boris Karloff's Voice Is Magical

Who could be more perfect to read THE HUNTING OF THE SNARK? This was my first purchase of Spoken Word books. I listen to it often, as The Snark was a Boojum, you see.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

A true classic

A true classic, much like a Bach sonata, short but perfect in form. I truly enjoyed it.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Boris Karloff reads Lewis Carroll - perfect!

What made the experience of listening to The Hunting of the Snark the most enjoyable?

Boris Karloff! I mean, seriously, it's Boris freakin' Karloff! He's absolutely perfect for this material; I love his voice.

Who was your favorite character and why?

I don't really have a favorite character; I just love the poem as a whole. It's my favorite work of Lewis Carroll, and it's always been a goal of mine (one I fear I will never achieve) to memorize the whole thing.

What does Boris Karloff bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

He's just the perfect voice, with emphasis in all the right places. There's no one else I could imagine to do a better job.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Savory & Strange--but Missing a Fit!!!

Boris Karloff has a grand time with Lewis Carroll's epic nonsense quest poem, reading the pointedly crazy lines with a cadaverously enthusiastic and engaging rhythm. It sounds at times as if he's not reading so much as inhabiting the poem, adventuring in an echoing and fantastic landscape of chasms and crags, always staying right between gravitas and camp.

My only complaint--and it's a big one--is that this version is NOT (I repeat, NOT) unabridged, because it's missing an entire Fit or chapter (the sixth one of eight, the one about the Barrister's Dream). I also caught Karloff skipping a stanza in an earlier fit... And the humorous preface in which Carroll "defends" himself from the charge of nonsense and explains how to pronounce "slithy toves" is missing.

In conclusion, if you get this expecting a fun romp with Karloff and Carroll rather than a 100% complete unabridged reading of The Hunting of the Snark, you will enjoy it.

You gotta love the Horror-B-Movie King declaiming from his sepulcher,

They sought it with thimbles, they sought it with care;
They pursued it with forks and hope;
They threatened its life with a railway-share;
They charmed it with smiles ands soap.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

10 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Some parts were skipped

I was very disappointed that some of my favorite lined were skipped in this reading.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

3 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Wonderful wacky poem

Boris Karloff is the perfect reader of this amusing and mysterious poetic work.

Delightful, and beats several listens.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    1 out of 5 stars

Not the complete poem

I paid to hear this, I expect a refund. Who decided to leave parts out?

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Missing the final words of the recording!

Carroll's poem is wonderful, Karloff's performance unsurpassable (even though abridged to fit on one side of an LP). But, here on Audible, the end of the poem's final sentence has been completely lopped off! Look for Karloff's "complete" (albeit abridged) recording elsewhere.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful