Victorian Rickmaniac

[firecat]

Alan Rickman's reading of The Return of the Native by Thomas Hardy is truly wonderful. I never would have discovered Hardy's gentle, funny, deadly honest, fabulously observant mind otherwise, and I would have been the poorer for it.

One of the reviews at Amazon described Rickman's narration as "austere." Hahahaha. Like taking a bath in warm chocolate is austere.

And he sings!

Comments

Re: Victorian Rickmaniac

[pir-anha.livejournal.com]

*grin*. sounds delish. is this an audio book?

Re: Victorian Rickmaniac

[firecat]

Yep, on cassette. amazon writeup

[supergee.livejournal.com]

I had the book as assigned reading in high school, and I enjoyed it.

[firecat]

Have you read any other Hardy? I'm tempted to try, but I also read somewhere that Return of the Native was his best book.

[supergee.livejournal.com]

I also liked The Mayor of Casterbridge.

[mac-arthur-park.livejournal.com]

I think Alan Rickman could read the list of ingredients of a box of laundry detergent and make it sound decadent.

[lavendargrrl.livejournal.com]

Hear, hear!~ I'm agreeing with you...~sigh~ his voice is positively Delicious...

[firecat]

For sure.

Note, I wouldn't say his reading was decadent per se. It was rich and nuanced and melodious (OK, we've lost the chocolate metaphor)

[klwalton.livejournal.com]

Have you seen this?
http://www.whenlovespeaks.com/

Alan Rickman does a wonderful rendition of #130, there's a clip on the site :).

speaking semi-metaphorically

[kyubi.livejournal.com]

I guess bittersweet chocolate might be thought "austere" by folks more used to Nestle's Quik...

Re: speaking semi-metaphorically

[firecat]

Yeah, I suppose you're right. And I definitely meant bittersweet chocolate. :-)

[chorus-of-chaos.livejournal.com]

he's officially been added to the list of people who could just sit and read to me forever. I don't care what, classics, poetry, cereal boxes, laundry labels...just read! He's there with Sean Connery james Earl Jones, Patrick Stewart, damn, whose that other guy, with the really DDDDDDDDEEEEEEEEPPPPPP voice....sigh...I've actually got this written down somewhere....

[marykaykare.livejournal.com]

Alan Rickman. Singing.



MKK

[firecat]

That was a delicate invisible swoon! (It showed up in my email copy, but not on the web, because you used angle brackets so it thought it was html.)

Shall I revive you long enough to mention that he sings one of the songs in French?

[elynne.livejournal.com]

Mrowr. Oh, thank you for this... I will have to get this as soon as my check comes in, so I have something to listen to when I'm driving around town. Though it may tempt me to sit in the car for a while after I get wherever I'm going. Mrorw. Mmmmm...

And I've been having Snape dreams again. :]

Rickman for free

[firecat]

I originally got it from my local library. Yes, I did rather enjoy driving while I had it.