Tramp Audiobook By Joyce Milton cover art

Tramp

The Life of Charlie Chaplin

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Tramp

By: Joyce Milton
Narrated by: Clinton Wade
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Charlie Chaplin made an amazing 71 films by the time he was only 33 years old. He was not only known as the world’s first international movie star, but as a comedian, film director, and a man ripe with scandal, accused of plagiarism, communism, pacifism, liberalism, and anti-Americanism. He seduced young women, marrying four different times, each time to a woman younger than the next.

In this animated biography of Chaplin, Joyce Milton reveals to us a life riddled with gossip and a struggle to rise from an impoverished London childhood to the life of a successful American film star. Milton shows us how the creation of his famous character - The Tramp, the Little Fellow - was both rewarding and then devastating as he became obsolete with the changes of time.

Tramp is a perceptive, clever, and captivating biography of a talented and complicated man whose life was filled with scandal, politics, and art.

©1996 Joyce Milton (P)2013 Audible, Inc. Entertainment & Celebrities Entertainment & Performing Arts Film & TV History & Criticism Celebrity Funny Comedy

Editorial reviews

Though few discussions on cinema get by without mentioning Charlie Chaplin and his influence, Joyce Milton’s Tramp: The Life of Charlie Chaplin sets out to tell the story of the famed mustache and bowler away from the camera. In a clipped baritone, popular Audible performer Clinton Wade takes listeners from the early and hardworking history of the Chaplin family to Chaplin’s film successes and later to his scandals - both political and social. For those who remember the classic characters of the silent era, and those who just love a captivating look at a complicated life, Milton’s Tramp is an audiobook not to be overlooked.
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The story was great, but good god the narrator was awful. I would have rather listened and a robot.

Gah the narrator

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Charlie Chaplin is an icon. He led a fascinating and often controversial life. You’d never know it based on this narrators monotone voice, which often broke up sentences at the wrong time to take a breath.

Narrator ruined what should have been a great book

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Sometimes we get to here thing from family and friends
that the author leaves out due to personal reasons. This is one of those books.

Excellent Book

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Chaplin is one of the most controversial figures in all of Hollywood. His legacy towers in the lore of the old Hollywood system and how his persona, glossed up for the 1992 bio-pic, this book definately does not shy away from the shadier side of his life.

The book does a good job of balancing his genius but also his betrayal and abuse of other. The contradictions of the man are fascinating and it's a good crash course in the material.

I feel though it does seem somewhat dated in it's approach. The copyright, I believe, was 1996 and it would be interesting to see how Chaplin would be written in the post #MeToo era.

My biggest gripe is the narration. It's very boring/slow and lacks any passion.

Other then that, I would recommend to anyone wanting to learn more about the details of Chaplin's life.

A Pretty Sweeping Biography of the Hollywood Icon

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I remember him being around when I was an older kid. I remember seeing him on TV, getting an award. He had an amazing life, and SPOILER ** A happy ending for him* I remember his wife and one of his girls. He's definitely made his mark, nobody will forget him. Really good writing and narration. Thank you!

The Intriguing Life of Charlie Chaplin

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Very interesting read. I never realized that Luna was quite selfish in her own right compared to the way she’s always been pro she’s always been portrayed as someone who dearly loved him and did her best to protect him as he got older reading the book you get to feeling that she was no less of a person trying to live off of his genius in notoriety and I found that to be a little sad. It certainly changed my outlook on Charlie Chaplin they always call him the little tramp or the little guy and he was but he had so much going against him when he was younger that he made so much of himself as he got older something to be proud of.

Very interesting life

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How dare you Joyce Milton! I refuse to believe your propaganda and that’s not even the point. If Mr. Chaplin was the monster you made him out to be (which he wasn’t) who are you to judge him so harshly? Did you know him personally? Did you have long conversations with him over dinner and get to know him on a level which is separate from his public persona?
While researching this absurdity, did it occur to you that maybe some of his ex lovers and friends weren’t being 100% honest?
I don’t doubt the man’s humanity. Of course he fouled up from time to time. We all do. But it’s nobody’s business! Famous and in the public eye or not, the man led an extraordinary life and his contribution to this world was enormous and legendary. I’m thankful to Charlie for every giggle and belly laugh he provides me when I watch his films. He helps me to remember that nothing is more important than laughter and love.
And the rubbish you just spat at the world in the form of this publication demonstrated neither of those things.
Charles Spencer Chaplin II will forever inspire me along side millions if not billions of other souls. He is forever the epitome of class and dignity regardless of what trash you and the others put out there. Charlie is immortal and you are in inconceivably bad taste to have written this.
Shame on you.

A disgrace!

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I was so excited to listen to this book, but I can't even get past the first chapter! This narrator is so bad, there is no way I can listen to him through this entire book. I'm sorry to say this, but it is true. It's almost like it is computer generated. Maybe it is, I'm really not sure. I wish I could get a refund and try someone else's book! This has taught me to be sure to listen to samples first.

Worst narrator ever!!

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In addition to having a voice that I personally feel was somewhat grating, the reader’s very frequent tendency to make a full stop (period) in the middle of sentences or at some other point in the sentence other than the end interrupted not only the flow of the sentence, but also the story. Example: “He was his own person [full stop]. Believing he didn’t need to answer to anyone.” (Invented, but representative, sentence.)

ODD PHRASING

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The book seemed to have been written by a disinterested writer, very dry and was just about hitting the chronologically predetermined points. The narrator is what killed this for me though. If it wasn’t actually read by a text-to-speech function on a pre 2000’s Macintosh, it might as well have been and probably would have saved someone a few bucks. There could not have been less emotion expressed or feeling given to an already dry text. I listened to “Charlie Chaplin and His Times” by Kenneth S. Lynn, read by Adams Morgan, and it is miles and leaps and bounds above this book and its narrative performance.

Most boring narrator ever

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