Gaudy Night

Yet another brilliant storey, so many ways this could go. Nice to finally see his love interest bloom.

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Dorothy L. Sayers at University

This is a wonderful example of the work of Dorothy L Sayers with her Hero Lord Peter side lined by Harriet who seeks a nasty prankster at her old college at Oxford. Not only do we find several excellent red herrings but also a chance to realize how far we have progress in the education opportunities for women. There is also a good illustrations of the problems that can arise in hot house intensity of higher education, also the danger of out growing youthful friendships. All set against the tensions in the lead up to the Second World war. A must for all Dorothy L Sayers fans with the performance bring the words to life.

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Miss Sayers at her best - shame the narration wasn't that great

I have waited a long time for this book to be released I audio for at. In my humble opinion this is Miss Sayers at her very best. By why oh why didn't the get Edward Petherbridge for the narration. This is why I have marked down the performance.

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15 people found this helpful

Good story spoilt by narration

What made the experience of listening to Gaudy Night the most enjoyable?

Dorothy Sayers' excellent account of women's college life.

Who was your favorite character and why?

Harriet Vane and the Dean, for their analytical conversations

How could the performance have been better?

A different reader! I have Ian Carmichael and Edward Pethebridge narrations of Lord Peter Wimsey books and they are so much better. Needs an upper-class male voice! Also the narration is quiet with the voice dropping away at the end of sentences and there are pronunciation mistakes - poor research? I won't buy any more Lord Peter Wimsey narrated by this reader, though I will try her readings of other books as it may be a narrator/subject mismatch.

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

The reaction of the culprit when caught - she so clearly believed she was right.

Any additional comments?

Please consider reissuing the Lord Peter Wimsey books with a different narrator. The comments above also apply to the recording of Five Red Herrings, where the Scots accents and place name pronunciations are atrocious.

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4 people found this helpful

Narrator awful

The book itself is wonderfully written and enjoyable. Sadly, the narrator is so awful it makes you want to stop listening all together.

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1 person found this helpful

Great story ruined by narrator

This is one of my favourite Dorothy L Sayers stories so I was pleased to find it available; but it’s been spoiled by dreadful narration. I endured the reading of it to the end but will be avoiding anything read by her in future.

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1 person found this helpful

Excellent story

Fascinating portrait of an academic world with interesting references to eugenics and the Nazi regime.
The narrator however made several howlers. None of the classic Greek names were pronounced correctly not even Aesop. Several times words like row and bow were pronounced to rhyme with Ow! Not with hoe as the context made clear. Also hesitation at the end of pages produced a brief hiatus in the story. Was this actually AI reading not a real person?

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The narrator does not do a good job

This story is absolutely wonderful.

All the way through I kept trying to figure out the exact nature of the narrator's shortcomings:

1. She has a nice voice
2. She doesn't have the ability to differentiate her voices according to character, sometimes she tries it and applies the voice too late, mostly she doesn't (Martin Jarvis is one of the best in this regard and often improves one's enjoyment of the story).
3. The way that the words are strung together sounds like my kindle when I select the voice option (what you get is a computer selecting the words from a database and stringing them together without the necessary understanding to give the correct intonation and emotion).

It is a real tragedy because it appears that this narrator is currently the only option in the audible stable for the Lord Peter Wimsey books.

However, this story is wonderful and scholarly, I am not a scholar and supplemented my understanding by researching for example Latin phrases on the Internet - it gives more depth and tenderness to the story.... Sublime, truly sublime..............shame about the narrator.

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11 people found this helpful

Ruined by performance

This is one of my favourite books which I have read many times since I was a teenager. However my enjoyment is completely spoiled by the very strange reading. Robotic, erratic stressing of words, just dreadful.

2021 Edit. It is still impossible to buy unabridged recordings of Sayer’s books that aren’t read by this dreadful narrator, even though wonderful recordings of them being read by Ian Carmichael exist. A great disservice to the author and Audible customers.

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3 people found this helpful

They finally get together

Good story and well read with the ending that everyone wants Cannot wait for the next story to be available as an audio book

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