The Dead and Other Stories (Penguin Classics on Audio) [Audiobook] [Audio Cassette]

James Joyce (Author), Gerald McSorley (Contributor)

Book Description

Series: Penguin Classics on Audio | Publication Date: August 1995

The Dublin Joyce evokes is a city struggling against its own lack of passion and commitment and a spiritual and political isolation. 2 cassettes.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

This is a good recording of three of the 15 stories in Joyce's great collection, Dubliners, but there is no reason for libraries to purchase it. Although each of the stories in Dubliners can stand on its own, together they constitute an organic whole, and Penguin has broken them up into samplers strictly to make Joyce attractive and affordable to individual buyers. The packaging, which features a handsome old photograph of Dublin's O'Connell Street, is small and too fragile for regular library usage. "The Dead" and "Grace" are among Joyce's best stories (also included here is "The Sisters"), and the narration by actor Gerald McSorley is gently poetic and has a fine Irish ring. But there are well-narrated programs of the complete Dubliners, such as Frederick Davidson's version for Blackstone Audio (Audio Reviews, LJ 3/1/93). As one of the undisputed masterpieces of 20th-century literature, Dubliners deserves to be available to students and all listeners in its entirety.?Peter Josyph, New York
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From AudioFile

It's hard to explain what gives some readers a friendly, reassuring voice, but Ralph Cosham possesses such a natural appeal. Perhaps it's the lightness of his cadence or the pleasing, understated Irish accent he brings to these five short stories, including the famous final story, from Joyce's DUBLINERS. Cosham (or his director) falters only occasionally, as when he fails to pronounce with three syllables, as the narration indicates, Gabriel Conroy's surname "Con-o-roy," which was Joyce's way of showing the working-class speech of the caretaker's daughter, and when some of the spirited exchanges at the Morkans' annual New Year's Eve dinner are rendered a bit ordinarily. On the whole, however, a satisfying collection that also includes "Araby," "Eveline," "A Mother," and "Clay." G.H. © AudioFile 2002, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Audio Cassette
• Publisher: Penguin Highbridge (Aud) (August 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0140860835
• ISBN-13: 978-0140860832
• Product Dimensions: 7 x 4.5 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,835,854 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #15 in Books > Books on Cassette > Authors, A-Z > ( J ) > Joyce, James

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars I am partial to the Setlock readings, yet these are also quite competent, December 28, 2011

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This review is from: The Dead and Other Stories (Penguin Classics on Audio) (Audio Cassette)

I have long been fascinated and strengthened by the melancholy, slow, gentle, thoughtful readings of each of the Dubliners stories, some dozen, by Richard Setlock for the Commuter's Library series, still available, as these, in cassette tape only, such as at The Dead and Grace (Commuter's Library S.) as well as The Sisters. These recodings with Setlock have a slow nobilit and portentous meaning un heard in our carpet chewing expressionist readings.

nevertheless, we may find some reasoned alternative in these Gerard McSorley redingsof three of the talesÑ The Dead, of course, and also Grace and the Sisters, in which cSorley reaches for incarnating the women's voices and varius timbres of the characters.

You might remember McSorley from Dublin's Abbey Theatre, or from Braveheart, etc.

Nevertheless, to hear Setlock read Iy Day in the Comittee Room is a revelation and the light.

A fine effort here by McSorley, yet I remain longing for the Setlock reading . . .

LATER:
Okay, so I love the Setlock reading, so measured, so restrained, not trying to do the women's voices as women, so melancholy as a dreary rainy cold evening, but this is starting to make sense to me too, as if the fog is lifting, and sure, this works as well. My heart and ears remain with Setlock, but, go with this one, as well, to supplement. Joyce is always so multi-faceted that this reading is also highly instructive.