Tropic of Cancer Audiobook By Henry Miller cover art

Tropic of Cancer

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Tropic of Cancer

By: Henry Miller
Narrated by: Campbell Scott
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Now hailed as an American classic, Tropic of Cancer, Henry Miller's masterpiece, was banned as obscene in this country for 27 years after its first publication in Paris in 1943. Only a historic court ruling that changed American censorship standards, ushering in a new era of freedom and frankness in modern literature, permitted the publication of this first volume of Miller's famed mixture of memoir and fiction, which chronicles with unapologetic gusto, the bawdy adventures of a young expatriate writer, his friends, and the characters they meet in Paris in the 1930s. Tropic of Cancer is now considered, as Norman Mailer said, "one of the 10 or 20 great novels of our century".©1961 Grove Press, Inc. (P)2008 HarperCollins Publishers Classics Genre Fiction Literary Fiction Fiction

Editorial reviews

Tropic of Cancer is Henry Miller's 1934 "autobiography as novel" about the impoverished, middle-aged writer's expatriate sojourn in depression-era Paris and France. Banned in the US until 1961 for its sexual content, Tropic of Cancer has been and remains a literary classic of a unique sort. "A dirty book worth reading," Ezra Pound famously wrote, as he went on to compare it to James Joyce's Ulysses. Prominent 1930s literati including T. S. Eliot, John Dos Passos, Aldous Huxley, and George Orwell joined in praising this non-literary, literary work.

Campbell Scott's narrative style has a unique stamp. His baseline technique in Tropic of Cancer is the dampening of his voice, joined with a masterly expressive control that emanates from this restriction. The effect is a quite strong sense of, and control over, mood and an intimate narrative connection with the individual listener. Scott's approach is suggestive of sotto voce, literarily "under speaking", similar to that bit of news spoken by a friend through a cupped hand in lowered tones into your ear in the Age of iPod, the narrator speaking through your earphones. Scott moves fluently from this baseline into the very lively stuff of Miller's tropes, riffs and rhetoric, and comically charmed outrages. Scott hits the marks, even as a tonal resonance of intimate communication remains constant. And Henry Miller's narrative voice? George Orwell observed, in his 1940 essay "Inside the Whale", "Read him for five pages, ten pages, and you feel the peculiar relief that comes not so much from understanding as from being understood. 'He knows all about me,' you feel. 'It is as though you could hear a voice speaking to you...with no humbug in it, no moral purpose, merely an implicit assumption that we are all alike.'"

With their production of Tropic of Cancer, Harper Audio and Campbell Scott have reached an elusive artistic benchmark: that point where the voice of the author and the voice of the narrator converge. David Chasey
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A tale of a cad, a fairly week human, these follies that make up the vast majority of us. Ignore the course writing style and it, Tropic of Cancer, could supply the pieces that are left out of those masterpieces that cloak and suggest or allude to what drives all of us.

That drive to quell drive

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The story line revolving solely around a pathetic young man led through life by his cock didn’t really hold my interest. The writing style was more entertaining than the plot. Entertaining as far as surrealism goes but needed more substance.

Fun writing style boring story

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I had read this decades ago. I wasn't all that impressed. But hearing it read aloud makes the poetry come through. There is a lot of musing on life and Paris and friends: and that is lovely to listen to. There really isn't any plot, just some extended narrative and a few anecdotes. I thought the narrator did a good job of playing the observer that Henry Miller was. My only complaint was that it needed more chapter breaks.

So much poetry, so little plot

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Good listen. The recording cuts off at the last word of every chapter... It sounds like it should continue, but when I checked my copy, I was reassured—It is unabridged. Overall would reccomend.

Miller's Paris

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This one was tough for me. Wildly vulgar (which doesn't bother me too much) and misogynistic (which bothers me very much) and yet also, in parts, a beautifully written love letter to Paris with many spot-on observations about expat life as an American abroad that feel as real now as when they were written in the '30s.

I'm not sure I would recommend it exactly but if you can get past the misogyny--I don't know if I would have been able to except that I had just finished American Psycho which is much much worse--maybe. I did find the last third less interesting that the first two-thirds but it was still worth finishing. Although the performance was very good.

A Vulgar Love Letter to Paris

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I’m not the right audience for this book. It’s well-written, meaning the prose is outstanding and remarkable. But the narrative is a bit hard to follow, the characters are hard to get a grip on, and it’s... well I understand the prose is the point. I didn’t love it. I didn’t love the performance either. Sounds like he’s whispering the whole time kind of and they have a bunch of music stings that are in strange places in the text— mid paragraph for example.

Landmark in literature— not for everyone

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campbell scott couldn't match Henry's enthusiamsm and disgust with parisian life, but still, one gets used to it. i was saddened the story ended, but thank audible there's more!

henry miller is a master storyteller.

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Didn't really like the narrative tone at the beginning. But I've got to say that it grew on me. The story was a bit hard to follow and didn't really have a goal or meaning, just following a guys experience in France.
The sex scenes were rather lacking. Was expecting details, instead was given vague encounters.

Honestly thought it would be raunchier.

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The obscenities, the misogyny, the racism, and the anti-semitism were despicable. The sexual emphasis along with demeaning words, eye-rolling. The depiction of the seamy side of bohemian life all too realistic. He incorporated genius references to writers and artists. He used their work in his inner dialogue. Although he used streams of consciousness, it was easy to follow. Miller seems to be be a pessimistic, miserable fellow. However during this time he was literally starving.

It was sordiid, but brilliant

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Would you consider the audio edition of Tropic of Cancer to be better than the print version?

Not entirely - only for the purpose of listening to it in my car.

What was one of the most memorable moments of Tropic of Cancer?

Van Norden's tirade about microphones in his trousers

Have you listened to any of Campbell Scott’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

No I haven't. Even though I like Campbell Scott as an actor and enjoyed his narration, I didn't feel that it matched what I expected, which was more of a Brooklyn accent.

Who was the most memorable character of Tropic of Cancer and why?

Mona stood out for me, as she was like a ghost, weaving in and out of the story. (Mona was based on Miller's second wife June - who was also like a ghost in his life). The other characters, including Henry, are quite sordid and hopeless.

Any additional comments?

Paris and the left bank, in the early 1900's, was often romanticized, and for the most part - rightly so. With 'Tropic of Cancer' though, you get it warts and all - the bed bugs, lice and cockroaches - the poverty, sleeping on straw, moldy cheeses and breads, rancid butter etc. The pendulum also swings to the other side where you have the 'swanky' side of life, the prostitutes, the sex, the great meals. You also have to wade through crap like women being referred to as 'c*nts' - however - believe me, it's worth it for the rhapsodizing and for the history. It's interesting, funny, has great dialogue and is a kind of sordid classic!

A great sordid classic

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