The 13 Clocks Audiobook By James Thurber cover art

The 13 Clocks

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The 13 Clocks

By: James Thurber
Narrated by: Edward Woodward
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The evil Duke of cold Coffin Castle fancies he has frozen time by stopping all of the clocks. He is fearful that one day a Prince may come and win away the hand of his niece, beautiful Princess Saralinda—the only warm hand in the castle. Several suitors have tried to court the Princess, but the Duke assigns them impossible tasks to thwart that fate. A few days before Saralinda's twenty-first birthday, a mysterious prince arrives to complete a seemingly impossible task and free Saralinda from the clutches of her uncle.

©2016 James Thurber (P)2002 Phoenix Books Fairy Tales, Folk Tales & Myths Royalty
Timeless Humor • Clever Wordplay • Competent Narrator • Delightful Fairy Tale • Irresistible Plot • Spectacular Voices
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A wonderful fairy tale for young and old alike. The narrator brought the story to life. I highly recommend this.

Great fairy tale

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Gorgeous language, clever humor and irresistible plot makes makes this masterpiece a joy to read. The voice artist and the music are perfect. Outstanding production.

Engrossing and Witty Fable Beautifully Read

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I liked the different sounds of Characters an-. the Story

Wond e r f U I

a great story

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James Thurber is a National Treasure. This is a gentle Fairy tale that can be enjoyed by all ages.

Buy the book and enjoy it. But you need to know that you have to download it on the highest quality for good audio quality. Otherwise the music will drown out the speech.

audible fails to tell you

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James Thurber is, of course, delightful, and Edward Woodard is an absolute Wonder.

As a Fairy Tale Should Be

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Instead of this one's loud, horrible music, Google "Lauren Bacall 13 clocks" to find the Internet Archive version. Besides hearing her seductive, cat-like voice, it blissfully has NO music or sound effects. As a child, I absolutely loved Peter Ustinov's version, which I can't find online.

Thurber's story, humor, gleeful wordplay, and wisdom is timeless here. The 13 Clocks is one of my favorite works he ever wrote. Sadly, not enough people know it.

Audible, please get either the Ustinov or Bacall versions!

Try the Lauren Bacall and Peter Ustinov versions

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The story is 10 stars and performance is good but wrecked by the overwrought production. Try to find the version done by Peter Ustinov it is almost a perfect production. The story is so good that even the bad choices of loud music and slapdash sound effects could nudge down the overall score

Ruined by sound effects and over loud music

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One of Thurber's best stories; his wordplay and humor make this a winner. But it is made even better with Edward Woodard's fantastic narration. It took me awhile to get used to the sound effects and music and I'm still not sure if I would like it better without these. However, it's delightful anyway and if you have children they should enjoy it too.

A Great Tale For Young and Old Alike

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What a very fun short story! Highly recommend if you love a good fairy tale, with some Monty Python-esque humor twisted in! It only takes an hour to listen to it. It's a tough book to find (....audio or otherwise -- my local library doesn't even have it!), but this Audible version is outstanding! The voices are spectacular, and you won't be able to resist repeating some of very clever phrases, or saying, "golux" out loud!

I loved this story!

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All in all, I enjoyed this reading of a story that I've enjoyed since childhood, but I really can't give it full marks. While Edward Woodward is an extremely competent narrator and kept the story moving along at a very good pace, I didn't quite get the impression he was enjoying himself portraying all the different characters and his reading at times seems slightly rushed. While using sound effects was all right, I found that the background music was a distraction throughout the story and at times almost but not quite overwhelmed the narrator.

A good, very good, performance and audio-book ... but I have to say I have heard better.

A very good reading, but something's missing...

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