
The Middle Sea
A History of the Mediterranean
Failed to add items
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
3 months free
Buy for $39.95
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
-
Narrated by:
-
Alpha Trivette
This lively and dramatic book brings roaring to life the grand sweep of 5,000 years of history in the cradle of civilization.
A colorful account of the civilizations that rose and fell on the lands bordering the Mediterranean, The Middle Sea represents the culmination of a great historian’s unparalleled art and scholarship. John Julius Norwich provides brilliant portraits of the Phoenicians, the Egyptians, the Greeks, the Romans, the Byzantines, the Arabs, the French, the Venetians, the Popes, and the pirates of the Gulf. Above all, he deftly traces the intermingling of ancient conflicts and modern sensibilities that shapes life today on the shores of the Middle Sea.
©2006 John Julius Norwich (P)2014 Audible Inc.Listeners also enjoyed...




















Critic reviews
People who viewed this also viewed...






not awful but filled with errors
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
An engaging history with a terrible reader.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
First, after the fall of Rome, and certainly once he enters into the 19th century, Norwich shifts to an almost exclusive discussion of the various conflicts that swept across the Mediterranean littoral over the last 1000 years. While these are important, and have consequences we live with to this day, the shifting of borders and movements of armies doesn't translate well to audio. Moreover, after the fall of Rome he all but entirely drops the discussion of cultural developments, ethnic interactions, and social forces which had been discussed more thoroughly when dealing with the empires of antiquity. The Renaissance gets barely a mention, nor is there any discussion of the flow of knowledge and technologies across the Mediterranean.
Second, the narrator is a huge distraction. I thought that "Alpha Trivette" was the name of a crappy text-to-speech program, but according to IMDB he is an actual actor of some sort. However, he has the most jarring delivery, often pausing at odd spots mid-sentence; I set the playback speed to 1.25x to smooth out the flow, which helped. Worse still, he has a tin ear for the pronunciation of, well, every other language spoken around the Mediterranean. For example, the Italian name Gugliermo is rendered "googly-ermo" rather than "gool-yer-mo," the Israeli port of Acre is rendered "ack-ree" rather than "aker," and on and on. I wish readers would check on the pronunciation of words they were unfamiliar with before jumping in and thoroughly mangling everything.
Interesting concept, but overall disappointing.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Fine narrator. Great history.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
The ending was pretty silly
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
A Poor Reading of Review of Quick of Western Civ.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Great book! Who is the moron narrating it?
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Worst Possible Narration
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
What could have made this a 4 or 5-star listening experience for you?
There is no sense of purpose or direction. The reader was terrible. I think it would require a complete re-do. it is the first and only Audible Book I truly disliked and could not finish.Would you be willing to try another one of Alpha Trivette’s performances?
Never, if that is the name of the readerA huge disappointment in every way
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
REALLY BAD NARRATOR
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.