Customer Reviews

Three Men in a Boat (A CSA Word Classic)

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

 

 

I love the book "Three Men in a Boat", and I love Hugh Laurie's comic timing, so I expected this audiobook to be a riot. When I listened to it I found it amusing, but I was still disappointed. The book is chock-full of hilarious anecdotes and digressions, and almost all of them have been removed from this version. They have left almost nothing but the actual story itself, which unfortunately consists in great part of the narrator saying, "And then we passed Iffley, which is a pretty little town... And Streatley was next..." It didn't even contain Harris's account of his battle with the swans! Hugh Laurie was hilarious, as you would expect from the man who played Wooster to perfection, but the abridgment left much to be desired. I recommend reading the full book instead.

I'm an Anglophile, so I was excited to find a very British book being read by my favorite British actor, Hugh Laurie. The text is wonderful, with humor in abundance and lovely descriptions of the England they travel through. The times are represented well, and the language is a delight.

As read by Hugh Laurie, the characters are brought to life in a rich experience. I forget I'm in traffic, and not sculling down the Thames. I definitely recommend this for anyone wanting a relaxing, humorous taste of Merry Old.

I am not fond of audiobooks but this one is a gem. Imagine Mr. Wooster (as in Wooster&Jeeves) reminiscing of a trip with his pals sans Jeeves to get them out of trouble. I am looking forward to Mr. Laurie narrating the Journal of a Pilgrimage (by JK Jerome).

I think that I tried to read this novel once but didn't quite "get" it at the time. This audio version read by the immensely talented Hugh Laurie brings out the author's tongue-in-cheek humor wonderfully. If you enjoyed Laurie in the televised P. G. Wodehouse Jeeves & Wooster series, you'll love this.

I picked this solely because of my love of Hugh Laurie, and he is indeed entertaining to listen to.

Though this doesn't indicate length except saying "abridged," it is indeed not very long - just two discs - and I think I'd have liked even more (I think it ran a bit over 2 hours at most?).

However, as it is, it's pleasant to listen to and amusing at times, but one should appreciate the dry sense of humor Laurie and Brits tend to have: only the British can spend 20 minutes to describe a packing scene and make one laugh. : )

I haven't heard the audio book but did read the book and the entire time I was reading it I was thinking how much better it would be to hear it. It would need some abridgement and a good reader so I'm pleased to see that it's been done and I will accept the evaluation of the previous reviewer. I rate the book three stars so I give it an extra star for the audio format.