steve nikfar

Great biography, great performance

Reviewed: 12-09-14

The author brilliantly has followed the style of the writing of the period. Very imaginatively, and likely truly, expressed the inner thinkings and feelings of the subject. A great biography with the excitement of a romantic novel, comparable to the book Jane Eyre.

The reader is masterful with different English accents, French accent, and Irish accents. Has performed as the drunken brother, aging father, consumptive sister, and the old English servant.

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Audio Book does not follow the Printed Format

Reviewed: 12-15-11

This audio book is the audio version of the published printed book and is not read in sequence from the beginning to the end as one might expect from an unabridged audio book. In the audio version, the poems are categorized based on their subject matter and are read in that order. The printed version, however, is arranged chronologically based on the birth date of each poet followed by his or her poems. As one who is new to poetry and likes to look up every unfamiliar word in a poem, I found it very frustrating to find each individual poem in the printed book. At the beginning of each poem, the reader announces the title and the poet, but there more than 100 pages of index (author, title, first line, etc.) at the end of the book, which are all incorrect and of no help to unearth the poem. I had to purchase the eBook version and use the search feature of the reader to look up the poems instead.

Twelve readers read this audio book, and this brings variety and reduces monotony. Not all the readers are of the same caliber, and it is unfair to place them all in the same basket. I had encountered the poem “Ozymandias” by Shelley previously, but the three distinct voices in this reading helped me to understand the deeper meaning of the poem. On the other hand, some readings of some of the widely known poems fall at the very bottom when compared to the presentations that are available on the web.

I already own the audio book, the printed book and the electronic book versions of the Giant Book of Poetry. I have come to the conclusion that the easiest way to listen to a specific poem in this anthology, when one wishes to, is to own the cd version as well. However, similar to the audio version, I suspect that the index at the end of the printed book pointing poems to cds could also be index incorrectly. For now, I will pass on the cd version as I have already done my part to help the economy and make Mr. Roetzheim rich.

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9 people found this helpful