Customer Reviews

The Origin of Species

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

When I first read Darwin's Origin of Species, although I was fascinated, it took me a long time to get through it. Darwin writes well, but frequently seems to use grammatically complex sentences which stretch to entire paragraphs, and it is hard to read it with anything other than total concentration.

Hence when I saw that an audiobook version of OoS was available I was excited. I hoped that having a human read the book would give it extra clarity and emphasis, and make it more enjoyable.

I was wrong.

From the first track, David Case's smug and nasal tone was overpowering. Case manages to butcher phrases and passages that originally set my mind on fire when first read. I abandoned listening after the first disk.

To confirm I wasn't being oversensitive I played the starting paragraphs to a family member, and their response was a low groan.

To conclude; if there are any rougue millionaires/publishing companies out there, please hire someone better (Stephen Fry?) to read this work.

Narrator David Case reads this as if it is a classic 19th century work of fiction and not one of the most important books of science ever produced.

I listened to these CD's while driving cross country. They are excellent. Darwin is a marvel, of course, and we take his theories for granted but it's so exciting to listen to his thoughts as he was making huge advances in our understanding of the world.

Good and prompt service. Thanks.
Extremely well read, and the amount of information that Darwin had in 1859 is incredible. However I think the introduction should have been read.