Tried and true (well, at least tried)
Audio books (on
tape and CD)
available in the NTU Audio-Visual Library
with
occasional notes
by Karen Chung
Novels
– unabridged
Novels
– abridged
Simplified
novels and stories for ESL learners and children's literature
Short stories
Short
stories, collections
Essays,
diaries, humour
Drama/plays
and one-person performances
Shakespeare
Poetry
Discussions
on authors, works and genres
Communication
skills, vocabulary, pronunciation
Linguistics
resources
Science
History, music, art,
philosophy lectures
Music
Radio and TV
Movies
Books on tape suitable for English
listening practice
German
novels
German radio
drama
Other German tapes
Miscellaneous
(including Latin and EFL)
Works
downloaded from the Internet
1.
Jane Austen. Emma. Female, RP. Cover-to-cover classics. Outstanding reading,
as is true of all the recordings in the cover-to-cover series. Of all of Austen's
heroines, this is certainly the one most like the author herself. (AC) PR4034
E4 1984 12 tapes (80 min. each).
2. Jane
Austen. Pride and Prejudice. Read by Irene Sutcliffe. Cover-to-cover classics.
Female, RP.Beautifully read. (AC PR4034 P7 1983 10 tapes (69 min. each).
3. Jane Austen. Sense and Sensibility. Cover-to-cover
classics. Read by Ann Badel. Female, RP. (AC) PR4034 S4 1986 9 tapes (70 min.
each).
4. Charlotte Brontë. Jane
Eyre. Cover-to-cover classics. Read by Maureen O'Brien. Female, RP. Very good
characterizations. A truly wonderful novel. (AC) PR4167 J36 1984 15 tapes (87
min. each).
5. Emily Brontë. Wuthering
Heights. Cover-to-cover classics. Female, RP. Reader: Patricia Routledge.
Wonderful reading in RP and sometimes difficult-to-understand dialect (e.g. when
Old Joseph talks). A masterpiece. (AC) PR4172 W87 10 tapes (85 min. each).
6. Wilkie Collins. The Woman in White.
Spellbinding mystery and drama. (AC) PR4494 W6 1985 18 tapes (83 min. each).
7. Charles Dickens. Great Expectations.
Read by Martin Jarvis. Male, RP. Excellent reading; good characterizations. (AC)
PR4560 J37 1984 13 tapes (81 min. each).
8.
Charles Dickens. Hard Times. Read by Stephen Thorne. Cover-to-cover classics.
Male, RP. Great reading with clever characterizations and dialect. (AC) PR4561
A1 1985 9 tapes (70 min. each).
9. Stella
Gibbons. Cold Comfort Farm, read by Prunella Scales. RP. Argo. Entertaining
satire of stereotyped gothic novel. (AC) PZ7 G522 2 tapes (126 min.).
10. George Eliot. Silas Marner. This long
and dense novel goes down much more easily listening to it on tape than trying
to wade through the book.
11. George Eliot.
The Mill on the Floss. A silly, incredible ending mars this otherwise engaging
novel. (AC) PR4664 A84 1984 14 tapes.
12.
F. Scott Fitzgerald. The Great Gatsby, read by Alexander Scourby. 3 cassettes;
outstanding reading of a great novel. (AC) PS3511.I9 G74z 1985 3 tapes (4 hrs.,
30 min.).
13. Thomas Hardy. Return of
the Native. Cover-to-cover classics. Read by Alan Richman. Male, RP. If you
choose just one Hardy novel, I'd recommend this one. (AC) PR4747 A1 1985 12 tapes.
14. Thomas Hardy. Far from the Madding
Crowd. Read by Stephen Thorne. Male, RP. Cover-to-cover classics. I'd avoided
this set for a long time, much as I like the Cover-to-cover series, because I'd
seen the movie, and I sometimes OD on Hardy, since we've got so much of him in
the AV library. But this reading is a delight. I was reminded of Hardy's minute
attention to detail, which sometimes is a bit wordy, but usually has an identifiable
purpose, and his little brutally honest observations (e.g. about things people
do when they think they aren't being observed, and how they react when confronted
with knowledge that they have in fact been seen) tends to hit one with renewed
force at odd times. (AC) PR4745 T476 11 tapes (ca. 78 min. each)
15.
Henry Rider Haggard. King Solomon's Mines. Exotic fun. (AC) PR4731 A4 1985
2 tapes (174 min.).
16. Ernest
Hemingway. The Old Man and the Sea. 2 cassettes. Read by Charlton Heston.
Male, US. Excellent reading of a man's struggle with a fish and himself. (AC)
PS3515.E37 O4 1987 2 tapes.
17. Aldous
Huxley. Brave New World. Audio Partners; read by Michael York; 6 cassettes.
Good RP reading; reader is clever at imitating accents, perhaps too clever; he
uses it to distinguish characters in the book; the anti-hero Bernard Marx is Scottish,
and he also does northern England (?), Cockney, and a very convincing American
accent; but I found the accents distracting and that they sometimes added an extraneous
element of humor where it wasn't necessarily intended. This set is a great way
to reread or refresh your memory of the book, in any case. (AC) PR6015.U9 B655z
1998 6 tapes (8 hrs.20 min.).
18. Franz
Kafka. The Trial. 6 cassettes, with intro, etc. Blackwell audio. Kafka
is an expert at building horror while the characters go about trying to live more
or less normal lives in an abnormal situation; good reading, rendered in an offhand-sounding
style; with notes and discussion on the translation and various editions. (AC)
PT2621.A26 P75z 1998 6 tapes (9 hrs.).
19.
Daphne du Maurier. Frenchman's Creek. The quintessential romance novel,
with a seductive French-accented pirate as the anti-hero. (AC) PR6007.U47 F7 6
tapes (88 min. each).
20. John Steinbeck.
The Grapes of Wrath. 12 tapes; male, US, slight southern accent; good interpretation,
creation of appropriate milieu. (AC) PS3537.T3234 G81z 1998.
21.
Anthony Trollope. Barchester Towers. Trollope is entertaining but superficial.
(AC) PR5684 B372 1983 2 tapes (176 min.).
22.
Robert Louis Stevenson. The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Read
by Tom Baker. Male, RP. I think this is one of my favorite books. This story goes
far beyond the popular stereotype of the 'split personality' the book is known
for to examine the dark side of humans, and ways to deal with and come to terms
with it. The lesson of this book is that if somehow we could find a way to indulge
this dark side, it would destroy the rest of us, though our good side may have
started out as the much stronger and more dominant side. Excellent reading with
dialect and convincing characterizations. (AC) PR5485 A35/1982. 2 tapes
23. Evelyn Waugh. Scoop; humorous, farcical
in parts. (AC) PR6045.A97 S36 6 tapes
1.
Jane Austen. Mansfield Park. BBC study tapes. Female, RP. If only this
were the whole novel. Lovely reading in rather old-fashioned sounding
RP and fun charactersizations; the reader is especially good at catty females.
The youngest of three sisters ends up destitute and with ten children on her hands.
The eldest sister, Lady Bertram, takes in the second eldest child, Fanny Price,
at the second sister's urging. She is not given as much love or attention as her
cousins, but her cousin Edmund is kind to her. Fanny always insists on doing the
right thing, those who don't are duly punished, and Fanny eventually she ends
up marrying Edmund, the only other really upright one of his generation in the
story. (AC) PR4034.M3 F80 5 tapes (49 min. each).
2.
Jane Austen. Persuasion. BBC study tapes. Female, RP. Too bad it's abridged.
(AC ) PR4034 P4 1985 6 tapes.
3. John Bunyan.
Pilgrim's Progress. Read by John Gielgud. Hear the highlights of the famous
allegory. It's interesting, but the Bible language does get a little tiring. Hear
first about Christian's journey,
with all its challenges and pitfalls, to his final reward, then that of his wife
Christiana and his kids who he left behind. (AC) PR3330 A22 1984 2 tapes (139
min.).
4. Alan Burgess. The Small Woman,
filmed as The Inn of the Sixth Happiness, read by Ingrid Bergman. 2 cassettes;
Argo. Corny story line and ridiculous idealizations, but engaging. (AC) PZ7 B873
1979 2 tapes.
5. Anthony Burgess. Reading
Selections from: A Clockwork Orange. A gory and violent story, but excellent
reading by the author in Mancunian (Manchester)-accented English, laced with Russian
words. (AC) PR6052.U638 C5 1987 1 tape. (60 min.)
6.
Kate Chopin. The Awakening. CD. Naxos. Abridged. Female. Southernish accent
¡V supposedly Louisianan. Well worth listening to.
7.
Charles Dickens. The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby. (AC) PR4565
A35 1982 2 tapes. (175 min.)
8. Charles
Dickens. The Pickwick Papers. Selections.
9.
Charles Dickens. Bleak House. BBC; selections; 2 cassettes; too
fragmentary to know what's really going on in this novel.
10.
Kaye Gibbons. A Virtuous Woman. This is my second time to listen to this;
I don't seem to have added it to this list the first time. But it was worth relistening
to. A wife, now dead of cancer, and her second husband narrate by turns their
own stories of their pasts, how they met, and how they interacted. Good juxtapositions
of differing views of the same facts, e.g. the husband talks proudly about his
target practice and membership in the NRA; the wife says 'he couldn't hit the
broad side of a barn', and that every time he fired his gun she would have flashbacks
of a traumatic incident with her first husband, and she would get the second husband
to stop in some wily feminine way. The couple was mismatched in some ways, but
seemed basically happy together, based on their mutual need. Both readers, the
author and Terry Beaver, have interesting Southern accents with a different distribution
of glottal stops compared to General American. (AC) PN3557.I322 V5z/1997 2 tapes
11. William Golding. Lord of the Flies:
Dramatized excerpts from the novel, adapted by John B. Wilson, 60 min. Carefully
chosen bits of dialogue and narration take you through the whole novel. Except
side B is defective! Hopefully the library will have fixed this by now ¡V check.
Mr. (Ole) Peterson sometimes teaches this novel in his fiction class.
12. Thomas Hardy. The Mayor of Casterbridge.
A man sells his wife, then eventually takes her back ¡V or she takes him back.
Many twists of fate in this rather sad but quite implausible story. Listen to
it as an allegory. (AC) PR4750 M25z 1995 4 tapes (6 hrs.15 min.)
13.
D. H. Lawrence. Lady Chatterley's Lover (abridged). This story did nothing
for me.
14. D. H. Lawrence. Sons and
Lovers. Abridged. 2 cassettes; read by Ian McKellen; male, RP. London: Decca.
I don't much care for Lawrence, but this was engaging and listenable, maybe because
it's said to be the most biographical of Lawrence's novels, and thus more true
to life. Paul's mother, trapped in a miserable marriage, essentially commits emotional
incest with her son. Because of the intense closeness the mother has developed
with Paul, he ends up unable to form a healthy relationship with a woman. (AC)
PR6023.A93 A6 1982 2 tapes (171 min.)
15.
D. H. Lawrence. Women in Love. Adapted in six parts by Roy Spencer; produced
by Trevor Hill. Dramatization, abridged; RP; good acting, perhaps a bit too glib
in parts; but I don't care for Lawrence so the whole thing rubs me the wrong way.
BBC. 6 cassettes. (AC) PR6023 A93 6 tapes (52 min. each)
16.
Scenes from Louisa May Alcott's Little Women. (2 tapes; excerpts), read
by Glenda Jackson (RP) Well-chosen highlights of the novel. (AC) PS1017 L57 1984
2 tapes (167 min.)
17. Hermann Melville.
Moby Dick (2-cassette radio play version) Get a good feeling for the story
if you're not up to reading this 900+ page novel. (AC) PS2384.M6 M45z 1980 2 tapes
18. Edna O'Brien. Reads from her novel
The Country Girls. 2 cassettes. A good listen; description of prisonlike
convent school life, sexual awakening. (AC) PZ7 O274 2 tapes (134 min.)
19. Mary Shelley. Frankenstein. Audiobooks.
CD. 160 minutes, abridged by Duncan Steen. (AC) PR5397 F73z 1994 2 tapes (AC)
PR5397 F731z 1994 2 CDs (2 hrs.37 min.)
20.
Laurence Stern. Sentimental Journey. Read by Donald Sinden. Stern is eccentric,
and although this work is supposed to be considerably less eccentric than his
Tristram Shandy, it is still a bit weird. You'll hear excerpts from the
travel experiences of a man who by his own description can be rude, stingy, and
lascivious. It would seem his main redeeming virtues are his honesty and articulateness.
Good reading, but tape 1 side A squeaks badly. (AC) PR3714 S46 2 tapes (109 min.)
21. Bram Stoker. Dracula, Hear the main
storyline on one 60-minute cassette. Male, RP. The plot is the same very, very
familiar one from the Dracula movies: the wooden stake, the garlic blossoms, the
cross, and mirrors. Are vampires sexy? I don't think so, and this tape certainly
didn't change my mind. If you want a somewhat longer abridgment, choose the 2-cassette
version; this is also well read. (AC) PR6037.T617 D7 1 tape (60 min.)
22. William Makepeace Thackeray. Vanity Fair.
Good abridgment of this long novel. (AC) PR5618.A2 R42 1996 4 tapes (8 hrs.)
Simplified novels and
stories for ESL learners and children's literature
1.
The Reverend W. Awdry. The Railway Stories, read by William Rushton.
There's a whole series of these, and they are indeed meant for a young audience;
two of these were more than enough for me. They are fun, though ¡V personified
trains, trucks, helicopters and such interact and play out their inner desires
and conflicts. (AC) PZ8.9 A927 2 tapes (134 min.).
2.
Richmal Crompton. The William Stories. Read by Kenneth Williams. If hearing
articulate narrations of the misadventures of a naughty boy and his friends is
your kind of thing, this is for you. Tape 1, side A: William succeeds where his
father failed in getting rid of a visiting aunt who long ago wore out her welcome.
The same theme from 1A is repeated in a story on 1B in which William gets rid
of an unwanted tenant from a friend's home through suggestions of witchcraft.
(AC) PZ8.9 C766 2 tapes (152 min.).
3.
Richmal Crompton. More William Stories. Read by Kenneth Williams. There
is a great deal of structural similarity between the William stories, and many
impossible coincidences, but they do not fail to entertain. I really liked the
one on side 1A where William learns to carve whistles out of reeds from an old
man, who he rewards in a very meaningful way for his kindness; and a twist of
fate saves the day when William discovers he forgot to perform the errand he was
sent out on in the first place. Side B has a happy ending in a similar kind of
way; this one involves staging a historical pageant and competition with another
group of kids, also friendship with the opposite sex, and finding there is satisfaction
in dealing with some otherwise irritating people. Tape 2: A: William inadvertently
helps two groups of people with their problems. B: William plans to take a hostage,
and nearly succeeds, but things, as always, come out differently than expected.
(AC) PZ8.9 C765 1983 2 tapes (136 min.).
4.
Alexandre Dumas. The Count of Monte Cristo. Penguin readers, level 3. 2
cassettes. Male, RP. A clear, slow reading of a very short, very simplified abridgment
of the book. (AC) PQ2223 H6z 2000 2 tapes.
5.
Henry Fielding. Tom Jones. Penguin Readers, Level 6; 2 cassettes. Male,
RP. This is my favorite so far of all the simplified novels on tape. It is read
in beautiful RP with lively and convincing characterizations. Although it is read
at a somewhat slower pace than regular audio books, it is the only one of its
type so far that didn't keep reminding me as I was listening that it was meant
for non-native speakers (maybe because it's level 6). So much happens in this
story that it will hold your interest all the way through. Great fun! (AC) PR3454
H5z 1999
6. Thomas Hardy. Tess of the
d'Urbervilles. Oxford Bookworms, Level 6. Female, RP. Beautiful reading with
good characterizations and dialect readings. This version does not sound overly
slow or artificial, though in places the simpler language does make itself felt.
Knowing beforehand where things were heading in the story – i.e. towards
tragedy – made it a bit hard to persist and listen through to the end.
But as a recording it is impeccable. (AC) PR4748 W4z 2000 3 tapes
7.
Anthony Hope. The Prisoner of Zenda. Oxford Bookworms series, stage 3.
2 cassettes. In simplified English. A man with dark red hair and blue eyes in
England stemming from an illicit relationship in the family long ago looks just
like the king of an Austrian kingdom with a shared ancestor. He visits the place
and ends up being called on to impersonate the king when the king is drugged by
his half-brother and nemesis Black Michael just before his coronation. The storyline
isn't totally predictable, but it's very fairytale-ish. The story is read very
slowly for intermediate readers, which is uncomfortable for a native speaker;
but the story is so intricate and engaging (though totally unbelievable) that
you get used to it. The reading is in impeccable RP, and features good voice characterizations,
including of female characters. (AC) PN1997 P77z 2000 2 tapes.
8.
Henry James. Washington Square. 2 cassettes. Oxford Bookworm series, stage
4. Retold by Kirin McGovern; read by Nonie Kent. Simplified and read slowly; US
English. This seems to be a reasonably good adaptation of the original, but the
slow pace will drive you crazy if your English is really good. (AC) PQ2223 H6z
2000 2 tapes.
9. Rudyard Kipling. The
Jungle Books. (AC) PR4854 J8 2 tapes.
10.
Rudyard Kipling. Just So Stories. (AC) PR4852 J87 2 tapes (92 min.).
11. Howard Sage. Fictional Flights.
Heinle and Heinle. This is a collection of simplified stories for ESL learners
with accompanying thought questions. The first is "Jack and the Beanstalk",
and I didn't really like the writing style that much; the second, "Feast"
by Eric Larsen, was much more interesting; "A Bag of Oranges" by Spiro
Athanas was OK; "Gerald's Song" by Phillip O'Connor I found maddeningly
oversimplified, repetitive, and pointless; "Sunday in the Park" by Bel
Kaufman was mildly entertaining, with a cutesy ending. Accompanying book available.
(AC) PE1128 S2155.1993. 1 tape.
12. Anna
Sewell. Black Beauty. Abridged into 2 cassettes. Read in impeccable RP
by Angela Rippon. Angela Rippon has one of the sweetest reading voices you can
imagine. A joy to listen to. Hear about a horse's trials and triumphs from a horse's
point of view. (AC) PZ10.3 S481 2 tapes (115 min.).
13.
Johanna Spyri. Heidi, read by Judi Dench. A delightful reading of the classic
children's novel, abridged into 2 cassettes. Heidi much prefers staying with her
grandfather on the mountain to life with a wealthy family in Frankfurt; and she
always looks after the welfare of her elders. And wheelchair-bound Klara learns
to walk after Peter the naughty goatherd pushes her wheelchair down the mountain,
thus destroying it. (AC) PZ7 S697 2 tapes (113 min.).
14.
Noel Streatfeild. Ballet Shoes. Read by Moira Shearer. Decca; 2 tapes.
Mainly a children's story; how three orphans find their place in the world. (AC)
PZ7 S773 2 tapes (154 min.).
15.
Mark Twain. The Adventures of Tom Sawyer.
(AC) PS1306 A1 1995 5 tapes (7 hrs., 42min.).
16.
Mark Twain. Huckleberry Finn. 3-cassette radio play version. Silly guitar
songs, but reasonably good dramatization. (AC) PS1305.A2 L585 3 tapes (192 min.).
17. Jules Verne. Journey to the Center of
the Earth. Male, RP. This cliffhanger offers pure entertainment and pure delight.
A young man gets dragged along by his obsessed uncle on a quest to reach the center
of the earth, the possibility of which they learned of in a coded message stuck
in an ancient manuscript. They descend into the passageways of an extinct volcano
in Iceland and experience a long series of challenges and close calls, discovering
new places, like a subterranean sea, and very old creatures and plants along the
way. They get out of their mess in a thoroughly fantastic way, but then you have
to suspend reason and disbelief for the whole book anyway so it doesn't much matter!
Tape 2 squeaks in parts. (AC) PR2469 A6J68 1982 2 tapes
18.
Tales from cultures far and near. Read by Jim Weiss. These are fun; you
can hear an English version of ½Ñ¸¯«G in ªÅ«°p; though the reader has one foreign accent
for all nationalities; it seems to work best in the Spanish story about the flea's
hide tambourine. (AC) PZ8.1 T34z 1990 1 tape (60 min.).
19.
Henry Williamson.Tarka the Otter. Read by Peter Ustinov; The Reluctant
Dragon, by Kenneth Grahame, read by Michael Hordern; 2 cassettes. There are
only two copies of the first tape of this set, so you won't hear the whole thing;
Tarka the Otter is a lot of moderately engaging music, with harmonica in
the forefront, and very little narration,. The story is very simple and without
many surprises, but it is after all intended for kids. (AC) PR6045.I55 A6 1982
2 tapes (47 min.).
20. Johann Wyss. The
Swiss Family Robinson. Penguin Readers, level 3; 1 cassette. The story is
greatly simplified and shortened, and read slowly and clearly in RP. The storyline
follows Robinson Crusoe very closely. A fun, light listen. (AC) PZ7.Q996
S84z 2000 1 tape.
1.
Jeffery Archer. A Quiver Full of Arrows: "The Perfect Gentleman",
"One Night Stand", "Broken Routine", "Henry's Hiccup";
this former MP's a real wheeler-dealer; now serving a prison sentence for fraud;
there are technical glitches in some of the stories, such as repeated sections;
and most stories don't have much of an ending; yet "One Night Stand"
was reasonably interesting. (AC) PR6051.R28 Q5 1987 2 tapes (124 min.).
2. Chesterton, G. K. The Napoleon of Notting
Hill. Read by Paul Scofield. Male, RP. Excellent reading and characterizations,
some in dialect, of a very contrived and tedious story. I take the point of this
piece to be that patriotism gets wrong-mindedly taken seriously by many of those
who truly believe in it and fight for it, when it is used only 'as a joke' by
the politicians who trot it out to attain their personal ends. My personal opinion:
although there is lots of cleverness to be found in this piece, it is way too
long; it took me weeks to finish listening to two tapes! (AC) PR4553 C4A6/1983
2 tapes
3. Joseph Conrad. Youth.
(AC) PR6005.O4 Y6 1 tape (66 min.).
4.
Joseph Conrad. Heart of Darkness. (AC) PR6005.O4 A6 1982 2 tapes (169 min.).
5. Theodor Dostoyevski. The Crocodile.
(AC) PR6013.R44 V57 1 tape (42 min.).
6.
Graham Greene. "Dream of a Strange Land". Read by Hugh Burden. 1 tape,
both sides, 36 minutes; male reader, old-fashioned RP. 1981. London, Talking Tape
Co. A retired doctor tells a patient with leprosy that he must get hospital treatment;
the doctor cannot continue to treat him privately; it is the law. But then the
same doctor reluctantly agrees to a different kind of bending of the letter of
the law, which is discovered by the patient, and seriously disorients both doctor
and patient. PR6013 R44D73 1 tape.
7. Graham
Greene. "Cheap in August". A young woman bored with her marriage seeks
adventure during a Caribbean holiday. She does finally find it towards the end
of her stay, but it is not quite what she'd imagined. (AC) PR6013.R44 C43 1981
1 tape (60 min.).
8. Graham Greene. "A
Visit to Morin". (AC) PR6013.R.44 V57 1 tape (42 min.).
9
. Thomas Hardy."The Fiddler of the Reels". (AC) PR4750 F52 1 tape (47
min.).
10. Thomas Hardy. "An Imaginative
Woman". (AC) PR4750 I42 1 tape (57 min.)
11.
Thomas Hardy. "Barbara of the House of Grebe". (AC) PR4750 B37 1 tape
(77 min.).
12. Thomas Hardy. "The
Withered Arm". Read by Paul Rogers. (AC) PR4750 W5ca.1 1 tape (52 min).
13. Thomas Hardy. "Fellow Townsmen",
part I. Read by Jack Watling. (AC) PR4750 W5/ ca.2 1 tape (52 min.).
14. Nathaniel Hawthorne's Greatest Short Stories:
"Young Goodman Brown", "Dr. Heidegger's Experiment", "Mr.
Higginbotham's Catastrophe". (AC)PS1852 / L585 1 tape (67 min.)
15. Henry James. Daisy Miller, The Turn
of the Screw.
16. Katherine Mansfield.
The Garden Party; 2 cassettes, cover-to-cover; read by Dame Peggy Ashcroft;
RP, female; (1) "The Daughters of the Late Colonel"; excellent, almost
too rich to let slip by orally on tape; two sisters, whose mother died when they
were very young, and who are now pushing middle age, must come to terms with their
father's death, and with the choices they have made in their lives ¡V letting themselves
be dominated by and looking after their father, hardly socializing, and not marrying.
Side B (2) "Her First Ball" is just what the title suggests; (3) "The
Singing Lesson" A music teacher's spirits fall and rise ¡V and she lets it
show in her teaching ¡V with the vagaries of her love life. Good. (4) "The
Stranger" A man awaits his wife's return by boat from a 10-month visit to
their newly-married daughter. He is anxious to have her alone with him, and shows
himself to be possessive and unsure of her love for him. The wife, Janey, tells
of an incident on the ship that forever changes how the husband feels about Janey.
It is hard to know whether the title refers to man on the ship that Janey had
something to do with, or with Janey herself, in the eyes of her husband, after
she has returned from Europe. Each of these stories is a study of minute emotions,
and of the idea of finding fulfillment in a relationship with someone of the opposite
sex. (AC) PR6025.A57 G3 2 tapes (83 min.).
17.
W. Somerset Maugham. "Gigolo and Gigolette". Unusual subject matter.
(AC) PR6025.A86 G5 1 tape (44 min.).
18.
W. Somerset Maugham. "The Colonel's Lady". Unexpected twist. (AC) PR6025.A86
C6 1 tape (45 min.)
19. W. Somerset Maugham.
"The Facts of Life", (AC) PR6025.A86 F3 1 tape (46 min)
20.
W. Somerset Maugham. "Lord Mountdrago" (AC) PR6025.A86 L6 1 tape. (58
min.).
21. The Best of Saki: (1)
"The Story Teller", "The Jesting of Arlington Stringham",
"Sredni Vashtar", "The Unrest Cure", "Morlvera",
"The Reticence of Lady Anne"; (2) "The She Wolf", "The
Music on the Hill", "The Open Window", "The Stalled Ox",
"The Forbidden Buzzards"; (3) "The Lull", "Gabriel Ernest",
"Mrs. Packletide's Tiger", "The Story of St. Vespaluus"; (4)
"The Byzantine Omelette", "The Woman Who Always Told the Truth",
"The Interlopers", "Tobermory" ¡V about a talking cat ¡V my
favorite of the lot (available online);
"The Schartz-Metterklume Method"; (5) "The Romancers", "The
Hounds of Fate", "The Mouse", "The Secret Sin of Septimus
Brope"; (6) "The Brogue", "The Philanthropist and the Happy
Cat", "Laura", "The Remoulding of Groby Lington", "The
Lumber Room". (AC) PR6025.U675 B4 6 tapes (383 min.).
22.
Saki: The Playboy of the Weekend World. Chosen and read by Emlyn Williams.
BBC Study Tapes. Male, RP. Listen to this single cassette if you don't have time
for the six-tape 'Best of Saki' set. Hear a representative sample of Saki and
his mischief. The opening poem won't tell you what the H.H. in his real name stands
for (the tape's title card will), but it will give one version, in verse, of why
the author changed his name to 'Saki'. Stories included on this tape: "Reginald
on House Parties"; "The Disappearance of Chrispina Umberleigh";
"Gabriel Ernest"; "Image of the Lost Soul" ¡V a nice story
about outsiders;" The Lumber Room"; "Reginald on Christmas Presents";
"The Open Window"; "Laura"; "Sredni Vashtar"; "Birds
on the Western Front" ¡V a scathing and rather moving piece on the devastation
of war. (AC) PR6025.U675 M926 1 tape (57 min.).
23.
Katherine Anne Porter. The Collected Stories of Katherine Anne Porter.
"The Cracked Looking-Glass". (AC) PS648.S5 P677z 1985 2 tapes (170 min.).
24. Anthony Trollope. Christmas Day at Kirkby
Cottage. BBC Study Tapes. Female, RP. A trite and stereotypical Trollope love
story with no depth, but worth a listen as a seasonal work or just for fun. Or
use it to get a feel for Trollope's style. (AC) PN6071 C6T748 1 tape
25. Short Stories of Mark Twain (1835-1910).
Humorous and entertaining. (AC) PS1302 Sh55 ca. 1.
26.
Mark Twain Stories (1835-1910). Spoken Arts Library for Intermediate Listeners.
(AC) PS1302 Sh55 ca.2
27. Ivan Turgenev.
First Love. Great story. (AC) PG3421 F5 2 tapes (85 min.).
28.
Herbert George Wells. The Time Machine. Mildly interesting science fiction;
not really my kind of thing.
29. Edgar
Wallace. The Mind of Mr. J. G. Reeder. These are stories of an amateur
detective who irritates the police by solving cases they can't. (1) "The
Poetical Policeman"; (2) "The Treasure Hunt"; (3) "The Troupe";
(4) "The Stealer of Marble". (AC) PR6045.A327 A6 1984 2 tapes (142 min.).
30. Edgar Wallace. Sheer Melodrama
and Other Stories from the Mind of Mr. J. G. Reeder (1) "Sheer Melodrama";
(2) "The Green Mamba"; (3) "The Strange Case"; (4) "The
Investors". (AC) PR6045.A327 A61 1984 2 tapes (143 min.).
31.
Oscar Wilde. "Lord Arthur Savile's Crime". London Talking Tape, John
Standing. Macabre, but enjoyable. (AC) PR5818 L6 1981 1 tape (71 min.).
32. Oscar Wilde. "The Canterville Ghost".
London Talking Tape, John Standing. A classic; very entertaining, with fun imitations
of US accents by a Brit. Available online
(AC) PR5818 C3 1981 1 tape (68 min.).
33.
P.G. Wodehouse. "Anselm gets his chance". Read by Timothy Carlton. London:
The Talking Tape. Typical Wodehouse: wry British humour in high-flown language.
Light and entertaining, though the language is relatively high-level. Decide for
yourself after listening whether honesty is really the best policy! (AC) PR6045.O53
A57 1 tape (50 min.).
34. P.G. Wodehouse.
"The Clicking of Cuthbert". Read by Timothy Carlton. London: The Talking
Tape. 1980. Learn about the true value of golf ¡V and the consequences of following
the crowd. (AC) PR6045.O53 C54 1 tape (42 min.).
35.
P.G. Wodehouse. "Jeeves and the Yuletide Spirit". Read by Timothy Carlton.
London: The Talking Tape. 1980. Jeeves always manages to set things up just as
he wants them, including holidays in Monte Carlo. (AC) PR6045.O53 J43 1 tape (52
min.).
36. P.G. Wodehouse. "Mulliner's
Buck U Uppo". Read by Timothy Carlton. London: The Talking Tape. 1980. A
mousy Brit learns assertiveness, with a little help out of a bottle. (AC) PR6045.O53
M84 1 tape (44 min.).
37. P.G. Wodehouse.
"Ukrdige's accident syndicate". Read by Timothy Carlton. London: The
Talking Tape. 1980. Fine reading as usual by Timothy Carlton, who you'd swear
was at least seven different people. A group of friends hatches a scheme to make
some quick quid by having one of them have an accident, then collect on insurance
that they bought by subscribing to several newspapers. Not the best of the Wodehouse
tapes, but entertaining. (AC) PR6045.O53 U37 1 tape (52 min.).
38.
P.G. Wodehouse. "Lord Emsworth and the Girlfriend". Read by Timothy
Carlton. London: The Talking Tape. 1980. Another henpecked British aristocrat
asserts himself and ends up the happier for it. (AC) PR6045.O53 L67 1 tape (48
min.).
1.
American Short Stories in Regular English (VOA): These are locked away
in cabinets in the back of the library, so you will have to make a special request
if you want them. "Thou Art the Man", Edgar Allan Poe; "The Ledge",
Lawrence Sargent Hall; "The Only Rose", Sarah Orne Jewett; "There
Ought to be a Law", Emily Johnson; "Diamond Lens", James O'Brien;
"Tennessee's Partner", Bret Harte; "The Four Guardians of Lagrange",
Bret Harte; "Uncle Jim and Uncle Billy", Bret Harte; "Young Man
Axelbrod", Sinclair Lewis; "The Golden Key", James Street; "The
Legend of Sleepy Hollow", Washington Irving; "Country Doctor",
Don Marquis; "The Split Cherry Tree", Jessy Stuart; "The Devil
and Daniel Webster", Stephen Benet; "The Peach Stone", Paul Hargan;
"All on a Winter's Night", Austen Strong; "The Indian Well",
Walter Van Tiber Clark; "The Blue Hotel", Stephen Crane; "The Tell-Tale
Heart", Edgar Allan Poe; "Summer is Another Country", Christina
Westin; "Miss Tapet's Watchers", Sarah Hotne; "Old Bill",
Jay Frank Boby; "Life and Death of a Western Gladiator", Charles G.
Filley; "Footnote to American History", Roderick Lowell; "The Murders
in Rue Morgue", Edgar Allen Poe; "A Tree, A Rock, A Cloud". Carson
McCullers. This last one is my very favorite of this series ¡V a lovely story about
learning how to love. PS648.S5 Un3v
2.
The D'Aulaire's book of Greek myths. By Ingri and Edgar Parin d'Aulaire.
New York: Airplay, Inc. 1996. 4 cassettes: (1) a. Introduction, the Titans, Zeus
and his family, In the gleaming halls, Hera, Hephaestus, Aphrodite, Ares, Athena,
b. Poseidon, Apollo, Artemis, Orion, Hermes, Hades, Persephone, Demeter; (2) a.
Dionysus, Minor gods, Prometheus, Pandora, Deucalion, Eos, Helios & Phaethon,
Selene, Pan. b. Echo, Syrinx, the Centaurs, Asclepius, the nine muses, Propheus,
the muses, Europa and Cadmus, Tantalus and Pelops. (3) a. Danaus, Perseus and
the Gorgon, Clever and vainglorious kings, King Midas, Sisyphus, Bellerophon,
Melampus. b. Heracles, Theseus. (4) a. Theseus, Oedipus, the Golden Fleece. b.
the Golden Fleece, Calydonian, Boar Hunt, the Apple of Discord, Everything must
come to an end. (AC) BL304 D385z 1996 4 tapes (4 hrs.).
3.
Bring Me the Head of Anne Boleyn: Historical Mysteries. "No Room at
the Inn"; "Busted Blossoms"; "Bring Me the Head of Anne Boleyn";
"The Blackmailer"; "The Poison Peach";
O. Henry: "The Ransom of Red Chief"; "The Sun-Dog Trail" Jack
London "The Dancing Bear" "A Black Death" "Tom Chist
and the Treasure Box" "The Hudson Chain". (AC) PN3448.D4 B74z 1999
4 tapes (6 hrs.).
4. Great American
Stories. (AC) PS648.S5 G743z 1994 4 tapes (330 min.).
5.
Great American writers: Side A. I, Voluptuary, by Peter DeVries. The father
of a boy caught fooling around with someone's daughter gets him off the hook by
a clever reversal of the 'double standard'; Back Home in 1919, by John Dos Pasos;
Side B: The Misfits, by Arthur Miller; two wild horse catchers eke out a living
at their calling. (AC) PS648.S5 G75z 1988 6 tapes (7 hrs., 20 min.).
6. Heroes, gods and monsters of the Greek myths.
Written by Bernard Evslin, read by Julie Harris and Richard Kiley. These tapes
cover about the same ground as the D'Aulaire's tapes (above), but you get rather
different versions of lots of the stories, so it's worthwhile to listen to both
sets ¡V that will help reinforce the stories in your mind, too. Nicely read by
noted actors, though Kiley is a bit overdramatic in parts, in my opinion. Tape
One, Side One: Zeus, Hera, Hades, Demeter, Birth of the Twins; Side Two: Athene,
Poseidon, Hephaestus, Aphrodite. Tape Two, Side One: Artemis, Apollo, Sons of
Apollo, Aphrodite; Side Two: The Story of Phaethon. (AC) BL781 Ev78 part 1 (volume
1, 2) 2 tapes.
7. 21 unabridged stories.
Langston Hughes, "On the Road"; a homeless black man has trouble finding
a place to eat and sleep; F. Scott Fitzgerald, "An Author's Mother";
describes how the mother sees her son, the writer, and her death; Jack Kerouac,
"Ronnie on the Mound"; a good pick if you want to learn how to talk
and write about baseball; James Jones, "The Tennis Game"; an imaginative
and touching reconstruction of a child's fantasy play life.
1.
An Informal Hour with J. B. Priestley (1894- ). Spoken Arts Library for
Intermediate Listeners. Selections from Priestley's renowned "Delight"
collection of essays. Personal favorite: delight in hearing a symphony orchestra
tuning up. (AC) GR109 / D653 1 tape (49 min.).
2.
Samuel Pepys. People past & present: Samuel Pepys. The diaries. Argo.
1971. Entertaining and illuminating excerpts from Pepys' famous diaries; includes
lots of lute songs from Pepys' time. Nice details about the average day in the
life of a 17th century English public servant, his marriage, his relationship
with his employer, his social life, what he ate and drank. (AC) PR3618.P2 C236
1 tape (34 min.).
3. Mark Twain's library
of humor. Chosen by Mark Twain. 3 cassettes. 1996. These tapes offer a selection
of humorous essays supposedly chosen by Mark Twain; a couple are by him as well.
All are more or less in a Twainian style. I found most entertaining (tape 1) "How
We Astonished the Rivermouthians'. Twain's Abelard and Heloise was an interesting
take on a love story that has captured imaginations for centuries. (2) I was impatient
with more ditzy female stereotypes in Bailey's "The Female Base Ball Nine",
which described the total incompetence of a group of women at playing baseball,
how they worry more about their hair than anything else, and how they ultimately
give up something they obviously hadn't seriously tried to learn well in the first
place. What is the point of writing like this? To prove that men are better at
sports and take it more seriously? Another ditzy female, a wife this time, is
featured in Twain's "The Experience of the McWilliamses with Membranous Croup".
"Plumbers" was tedious. Twain's "European Diet" lists a lot
of heavy unhealthy food, but it certainly offers a glimpse into what foods were
eaten in America in the late 19th/early 20th century, and what hotel service was
like in Europe. The Tar Baby (also on (4)) was better, with good dialect readings.
My favorite on this tape was Sam Davis' "The First Piano in a Mining Camp"
¡V this is an O. Henry-type story with a surprise ending, and warm descriptions
about how music can touch people's souls. (3) The first two pieces on this volume
are not humor but a thoughtful and realistic examination of developing romance.
Well worth listening to. These are probably my favorite pieces in the whole series,
in fact, together with a delightful story of late love, entitled "Captain
Ben's Choice". It's read in dialectish speech in parts, but shouldn't be
too difficult for an advanced ESL learner to follow. Touching surprise ending.
You could just as well skip "Fourth of July Oration", unless you need
an example of an inane speech for some reason; and I found "The Parson's
Race" and "Wrecked in Port" quite forgettable. Tape (4) is a collection
of essays that try very hard to be funny, but in my view fall quite flat. The
piece I liked least was Katherine Kent Child Walker's "The Total Depravity
of Inanimate Things"; I found it pompous and empty of worthwhile content.
The others I feel are pretty much skippable as well. There are other good tapes
in the library to choose from. (AC) PS507 M37z 1996 4 tapes (6 hrs.).
4. James Thurber. James Thurber's My world
¡V and welcome to it. 4 cassettes. Read by John Cullum. Audio Partners.
Nasal American English, but a good reading. Some of these essays are sure to make
you laugh!
(I) 1. What do you mean it "was"
brillig? Linguistically interesting piece on modern malapropisms, i.e. phonetically
close but wrong words, purportedly used by Thurber's black cook Della, e.g. reeve
for wreath, Armitage for armistice. 2. Courtship through
the ages. Thurber bemoans the arduous process of courting females that must be
conducted and endured by the male of many species. 3. The Whip-poor-will. The
strident call of a bird prevents the narrator from sleeping and nearly drives
him mad while it doesn't seem to bother anyone else. 4. The Macbeth Murder Mystery.
A woman buys a copy of Macbeth by mistake and attempts to explicate it like an
Agatha Christie novel. The narrator makes an inconsistent attempt at a British
accent; parts sound good. 5. The Preoccupation of Mr. Peffifoss. A silly satire
on hard-to-remember changed phone numbers.
(II)
1. Backward and downward with Mr. Punch. Comments on old Punch magazines, i.e.
on what used to be considered humorous. Interesting notes on early uses of expressions
like 'to be nuts for s.t.' 2. The man who hated Moonbaum. I didn't enjoy this
much, even once I was able to follow it. It had to do with developing a story
for a movie. 3. Death in the zoo. A polar bear's woman troubles. 4. The secret
life of Walter Mitty. Thurber at his best ¡V a favorite of my father's that he
introduced me to when I was a kid. A classic on the refuge in fantasy of henpecked
husbands, and anyone else.
(III) 1. The gentleman
in 916. A satire on the little phantoms we all experience in life. 2. A good man.
A revised obituary on a deceased relative with nearly superhuman physical prowess
and a hot temper but a purportedly kind heart. 3. The letters of James Thurber.
A piece on how boring anybody's collected correspondence is. 4. A friend to Alexander.
A wife tries to help and calm her husband when he is tormented by recurring dreams
that someone is going to kill him ¡V and it eventually does happen. 5. The vengeance
of 3902090. Silliness about government bureaucracy. 6. The story of sailing. Satire
on how complicated sailing and its terminology has become.
(IV)
1. Here lies Miss Groby. A complaining remembrance of a high school English teacher
more into identifying metaphors and metonymy than getting the sense of the whole
novel or poem; 2. A sort of genius. A long story about a murder case, which ends
up being about the man who wasn't convicted in the case. It's more interesting
if you imagine it as a true story. 3. Helpful hints and the Hoveys. Silliness
about advise on how to relax and sleep better and the extremes these 'hints' could
be carried to. 4. Memorial. To Thurber's dear departed poodle. (AC) PS3539.H94
M95z 1998 4 tapes (4 hrs., 34 min.).
Drama/plays
and one-person performances
1.
Brief Lives. With Roy Dotrice as John Aubrey. Favorite story: "The
forgotten fart". Decca; (AC) PN2598 A937 2 tapes (115 min.).
2.
Samuel Beckett. Krapp's Last Tape. Very Beckett, quite repetitive and depressing.
(AC) PR6003.E282 K7 1 tape (60 min.).
3.
Vinie Burrows in Walk Together Children ¡V the Black Scene in Prose, Poetry
and Song. Touching collection of literature and song on the black experience in
America. Articulate, informative, moving ¡V good singing, excellent readings of
poetry and storytelling, with some black dialect. Speech by Sojourner Truth on
women's and black rights; Robert Hayden, "Runagate Runagate"; poem about
soul food (including 'possum) and dance by Paul Laurence Dunbar: "The Party";
Carl Wendell Hines: "Jazz Poem"; Dudley Randall, Richard Wright, "Between
the World and Me"; Langston Hughes "Let American be America Again".
Recommended. (AC) PS310.N4 V76 1 tape (52 min.).
4.
Noel Coward. Present Laughter. Very fast-talking, witty, humorous and perhaps
quite realistic drama on relationships. (AC) PR6005.O85 P7 1 tape (85 min.).
5. Sir John Gielgud in his greatest roles,
introduced by Sir Ralph Richardson. BBC cassettes. Enjoyable history of John Gielgud
as an actor, with many examples of his best work. (AC) PN1689 S57 1 tape (56 min).
6. Oliver Goldsmith. She Stoops to Conquer.
Classic Restoration drama. (AC) PR3488 A2 2 tapes (98 min.).
7.
Henrik Ibsen. A Doll's House. Directed by Hillard Elkins. 2 cassettes.
NewYork: Caedmon. 2 hours. 1971. The script sounds very much like a translation
and the dialogue feels artificial, but once the play gets to the point, that of
deception, self-suppression, morals, and self-realization, it seems to go much
more smoothly. The similarity between the final scene of this play and the beginning
of the film Kramer vs. Kramer is so uncanny as to suggest that the scriptwriter
of Kramer must have been somewhat influenced by Ibsen. Overall I found this performance
enjoyable and thought-provoking. (AC) PT8861 E44 2 tapes (117 min.).
8. Christopher Marlowe. Edward II. The Prospect
Theatre Company. Directed by Toby Robertson. Ian McKellan, Timothy West, Diane
Fletcher, James Laurenson. I can't say I really enjoyed this – it contained
more violence than I could easily stomach. And the action in the first part moves
slowly, centering mainly on how the hopelessly incompetent Edward II (1284-1327)
showers love and attention on his homosexual lover, Piers de Gaveston, while ignoring
almost everything else. Expressions of the hate nearly everyone harbors for the
unworthy favorite get very repetitive. And at the end you will hear a very convincing
enactment of a 14th century king being tortured to death, after which his assassin
is murdered. The action moves more quickly at this point; the underage and originally
timid Edward III resolves to take matters into his own hands by having Mortimer,
his mother's lover and plotter against his father, executed, and his mother imprisoned
in the Tower of London. The performance is excellent, and after looking up some
background information on Edward II, I found the play does seem to follow actual
events fairly closely, though the manner of Edward's murder seems to be portrayed
a bit differently in the play from what I read elsewhere. But the historical value
of the play reconciled me a bit more to it. PR2665 A35 1983 2 tapes
9. Arthur Miller. The Crucible. Performed
by The Repertory Theater of Lincoln Center, directed by Jules Irving, directed
by John Berry. Caedmon tapes. A powerful performance that may make you squirm.
It is the story of a witch hunt in Salem, Massachusetts, but in fact exposes the
devastating abuses of the McCarthy era in the US. It is also a story of power
struggle in a broader sense. It took me 1-1/2 listenings to get the characters
well sorted out. The second time around it sounded more like well-structured literary
drama rather than lots of hysterical screaming and ravings, even though I'd read
and seen the play performed before. No wonder it's a classic. Old tapes. (AC)
PS3525.I5156 C78 4 tapes (141 min.).
10.
Arthur Miller. The Death of a Salesman. 2 cassettes. 2 hr., 30 min. Audio
Theatre. Directed by Ulu Grosbard. Lee J. Cobb: Willy; Mildred Dunnock: Linda;
Michael Tolan: Biff; Gene Williams: Happy; Ralph Bell: Charley; Royal Beal: Uncle
Ben; Dustin Hoffman is entertaining as Bernard ¡V he goes from a tattle-tale kid
to a successful young man, and does better on the latter. Listening to Arthur
Miller and Tennessee Williams plays reminds you why they are performed and watched
so often ¡V they all play hardball with your emotions. This is a dazzling performance
bound to leave you pensive and melancholy for a good while. The music is well
chosen. Unfortunately, the sound quality isn't that wonderful ¡V the volume goes
up and down quite a bit. But it's something every English major should listen
to. (AC) PS3525.I5156 D4 1987 2 tapes (2 hrs., 30 min).
11.
Eugene O'Neill. Ah, Wilderness! 3 cassettes. Circle in the Square. If you're
bracing yourself for yet another heavy and depressing play from O'Neill, you can
breathe a sigh of relief with this one. This is O'Neill's one comedy, albeit one
with substance; it's mainly about his own coming of age. Good acting. I enjoyed
it. Tommy Miller: Frank Coleman IV; Mildred Miller: Lucy Saroyan; Arthur Miller:
Alex Wipf; Essie Miller: Geraldine Fitzgerald; Lily Miller: Laurinda Barrett;
Sid Davis: Stefan Gierasch; Richard Miller: Tony Schwab; Muriel McComber: Belle:
Peggy Pope; Brenda Currin. (AC) PS3529.N5 A7 3 tapes (132 min.).
12.
Eugene O'Neill. The Emperor Jones. A surprising and powerful piece, with
James Earl Jones playing a black ex-con who dupes the villagers of a Caribbean
island into accepting him as their emperor, but only temporarily. The play concludes
on side B and is followed by a discussion between the actors and director regarding
the play and its production. (AC) PS3529.N5 A6 2 tapes (93 min.).
13.
Eugene O'Neill. Mourning Becomes Electra. 4 cassettes. The American Shakespeare
Festival Theatre. Jane Alexander, Lee Richardson, Peter Thompson, Sada Thompson,
directed by Michael Kahn. PS3529 N5M6. This is long and heavy, full of deception,
adultery, emotional incest, murder, and suicide. There's lots in it, though, for
example an examination of some of the dysfunctional ways people go about trying
to get love, or even the hope of it. The acting is quite good; I especially liked
Peter Thompson's portrayal of Orin. The action did bog down a bit at the end,
after so much repetition and the resulting predictability. It is somewhat difficult
to really care what happens to members of a family that is so rotten to the core,
but O'Neill somehow manages to win audience sympathy, or at least curiosity as
to the fate of the characters. (AC) PS3529.N5 M6 4 tapes (168 min.).
14. Terrence Rattigan. The Winslow Boy. Did
he do it or not?
15. George Bernard Shaw.
Major Barbara. RP. 1972. Barbara is a 'major' in the Salvation Army, and
is out to feed the poor and save souls – until idealism collides with unpalatable
reality, and the latter wins hands down. Interesting plot, witty repartee, good
acting. (AC) PR5363 M3 1972 4 tapes.
16.
George Bernard Shaw. Saint Joan. 1966, directed by Shirley Butler.
17. George Bernard Shaw. Arms and the Man,
a play in three acts. Excellent; highly entertaining, humorous, insightful. (AC)
PR5364 A75 1 tape (80 min.).
18. Richard
Brinsley Sheridan. The Rivals. 2 cassettes, Caedmon Records, 1960 Directed
by Howard Sackler. Cast: Alan Bates (Fag), Vanessa Redgrave (Julia); Dame Edith
Evans (Mrs. Malaprop), Pamela Brown (Lydia), Micheal MacLiammoir (Lucias O'Trigger)
and (Joe Acres); James Donald (Captain Absolute), Sir Anthony Absolute (John Laurie);
Robert Eddison (Faulkland); Laurence Hardy (Thomas); Pauline Jamieson (Judy);
Gerald James (David); Alec McCowen (Joe Acres). Exquisite performance, though
I didn't find all the accents that convincing. (AC) PR3682 R5 1963 2 tapes (122
min.).
19. Tom Stoppard. Artist Descending
a Staircase. (AC) PR6069.T6 St73 1 tape (73 min.) .
20.
Tom Stoppard. Professional Foul and Stoppard interviewed and Where are
they now? (2 cassettes) The events and dialogue in Professional Foul
are the most realistic I've run into among Stoppard plays so far; the story is
about philosophical ideals, social and personal morals, and political oppression
in East Europe before the fall of Communism there. The interview with Stoppard
is revealing ¡V he was Czech, but went to England for his education at a young
age. He considers himself more English than most English people, and he is remarkably
articulate in English; yet he speaks with a slight Czech accent; tape 2 side B
is Where are they now?, a play about a class reunion that brings out the darker
side of schoolboy life, how schools can suffocate young people. There's a nice
bit on how a French teacher succeeds in making the students too afraid of French
to like the subject or to learn it properly. I guess this piece along with Professional
Foul are my favorite Stoppard. (AC) PR6069.T6 P7 2 tapes.
21.
Tom Stoppard. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead. The play that, according
to one description, makes the audience members think they are very clever. (AC)
PR6069.T6 R6 2 tapes (105 min.).
22. Tom
Stoppard. The Dog it was that Died; The Dissolution of Dominic Boot. 1984.
Neither of these is up to Rosencrantz; Dog tries to confuse you
with the mechanics of being a double agent; this play is full of cynicism about
how people treat each other. Boot is about a man who makes one poor decision
(taking a taxi in the rain when he doesn't have enough money to pay for it) and
how it snowballs and gets totally out of hand. Both are farces I didn't much enjoy.
(AC) PR6069 T6 1984 1 tape (79 min.).
23.
John Willington Synge. The Playboy of the Western World.
24.
Fredd Wayne. Benjamin Franklin, Citizen. A very human and comprehensive
look at this remarkable man. (AC) E302.6.F8 W385z 1995 1 tape.
25.
John Webster. The Duchess of Malfi. Well done but gruesome. Gratuitous
violence. (AC) PR3184 D3 1980 3 tapes (150 min.).
26.
Emlyn Williams as Charles Dickens. A solo performance of scenes from the
novels and stories by the Welsh writer, director, performer; previously performed
on Broadway. Quite enjoyable, but I feel Williams overdramatizes quite a bit;
not all his characterizations are equally successful. But this is still good and
worth listening to. Selections from The Pickwick Papers, Christmas Stories,
A Tale of Two Cities, more. (AC) PR4553 W67 2 tapes
27.
Tennessee Williams. The Glass Menagerie. 2 cassettes. Caedmon. Directed
by Howard Sackler. Montgomery Clift, Jessica Tandy, Julie Harris, David Wayne.
Fine performance of a tender and moving play. Tape is old and badly deteriorated;
squeaks and clogs magnetic head. (AC) PS3545.I5365 G5 2 tapes (110 min.).
28. Tennessee Williams. A Streetcar Named
Desire. 3 cassettes. Caedmon. Lincoln Center Repertory Theater Production
Company. Directed by Ellis Rabb. Produced by Jules Irving. Rosemary Harris, James
Farentino. I found Blanche's (Rosemary Harris) accent inconsistent and unconvincing,
and her part overacted, and Stella's (Patricia Conolly) interpretation a bit so-so;
Stanley (James Farentino) had a totally natural brash New York City accent and
manner, but it seemed more modern than the southern characters, who sounded like
they were from an earlier age. The collector (Brian Brownlee) was just right,
and Harold Mitchell (Mitch; Philip Bosco) was good too. This play is bizarre,
powerful, human (if not always realistic especially as regards dialogue) and cuts
to the quick. (AC) PS3545.I5365 S7 3 tapes (134 min.).
1.
William Shakespeare. The Tempest. Discussion, readings from Act I, scene
ii. David Daiches, L. D. Knights. (AC) PR2833 D38 1 tape.
2.
William Shakespeare. Julius Caesar. Spoken Arts Library for Intermediate
Listeners. Dublin Gate Theatre Production with Hilton Edwards and Micheal MacLammoir.
Abridged ¡V not simplified ¡V from original. (AC) PR2808.A2 Ed96 1 tape (55 min.).
3. William Shakespeare. Antony and Cleopatra.
This is one of the easier plays to follow on tape. (AC) PR2802.A2 W694 4 tapes
(185 min.).
1.
Dannie Abse. Canto Modern Poets. Canto Publications. Male, RP. Charming
poems and prose-poems read by Welsh poet and doctor Dannie Abse ['æb
si] (1923- ), apparently live from an actual poetry reading. My favorite
is an allegorical one about 'losing one's face'. Side B ends with an engaging
interview with the poet. (AC) PR6001 C4A17 1 tape
2. Beowulf and Selections from the Canterbury Tales; Spoken Arts; read
by Nevil Coghill & Norman Davis. Excellent introduction to Old and Middle
English poetry. It covers the sounds of Old and Middle English, explains the rhyme
and prosody of the two representative works, and gives very good sample readings
of each in the original language. Also worked very well for the high school English
lit class I taught 2002-3. (AC) PR1583 C393 1 tape (58 min.).
3.
John Betjeman reads John Betjeman (tape damaged, couldn't finish it)
4. John Betjeman. Late Flowering Love.
Light, humorous, insightful poems. (AC) PR6003.E77 L37 1 tape (84 min.).
5. George Gordon Noel Byron. Don Juan. BBC
study tapes. 3 cassettes; abridged by Martin Remes. Remes does full justice to
the poem, bringing out Byron's brilliance and wry wit. Easily understandable;
it sounds almost like doggerel. Action-packed and fast-moving, with world-wise
asides on human nature and life in this world. Highly recommended. (AC) PR4359
A37 3 tapes (182 min.).
6. Geoffrey Chaucer.
"The Franklin's Tale". Read by Karl Schmidt. (AC) PR1868 C366 1 tape
(60 min.).
7. Geoffrey Chaucer. The
Canterbury Tales: "The Prologue and The Pardoner's Prologue and Tale".
Read in Middle English. Decca. This 2-tape set was an excellent reading in Middle
English of just the parts of Chaucer's work that I covered in a History of English
lit class I taught to high school girls. You actually start to understand
Middle English (as rendered by modern readers) after a while. And there are a
number of different readers who serve to dramatize the tale nicely. Recommended.
(AC) PR1867 C367 2 tapes (163 min.).
8.
Geoffrey Chaucer. Troilus and Criseyde. Read in Middle English. Gary Watson,
Prunella Scales, Richard Marquand, Derek Brewer, Peter Orr. Argo. This is a beautiful,
confident, fluent, and convincing reading in Middle English. I knew the story
beforehand, and so was able to follow the reading in a general way, but it was
difficult. I mostly found myself understanding snatches here and there rather
than a coherent narrative, somewhat how I might understand running spoken Taiwanese!
The poem is nicely dramatized by several different, and equally skilled, readers.
Their expressiveness moved me in parts even when I couldn't understand all the
words. Knowing a few equivalents of modern to Middle English pronunciation helps,
e.g. the gh in words like night is pronounced as a velar fricative;
ou is [u], and so on. An enjoyable listening experience that can help connect
a modern reader with earlier literature and times. (AC) PR1895 T76 2 tapes.
9. Samuel Taylor Coleridge. The Ancient
mariner and other poems. Read by Richard Burton. Male, RP. 1982. London: Decca.
Magnificent reading by Richard Burton. It's easy to get emotionally caught up
in this reading even if you don't follow all the words! If Burton is really the
only reader I am amzed at his many voices. The slipcover is missing so there's
no list of poems read, but the Amazon site lists these: "Kubla Khan,"
"Christabel," 20 other sonnets, lyrics, odes: "Sonnet: To a Friend
who asked how I felt when the Nurse first presented my Infant to me," "Frost
at Midnight," "The Nightingale," "The Pains of Sleep,"
"To William Wordsworth," "Youth and Age," many more. Additional
information on this recording is available here.
(AC) PR4478 C275 2 tapes
10. John Dryden,
read by William Devlin, Freda Dowie, David King, Richard Pasco. From "Absalom
and Achitophel", From "MacFlecknoe", "To the Memory of Mr.
Oldham", and many others. Dryden is not a genius, but he's very witty in
places, with some good insights. This requires concentration to follow, but it's
not as difficult as I imagined to follow just by listening.
11.
The Poetry of John Dryden by John Dryden; directed by Howard D. Sacklers;
read by Paul Scofield; song: The Zambre Dance (fun!), Prologue from An Evening's
Love; Epilogue to the Man of Mode; To the Memory of Mr. Oldham; Song: I feed a
flame within; Song: Whilst Alexis Lay Press'd; Alexander's Feats, or, The power
of music; An Ode in Honor of St. Cecilia's Day; long reading from Absalom and
Achitophel; this is a longer selection than on the other tape; it is full of incisive
commentary on politics and politicians; I'm not generally fond of long poems,
but this is a very fine one.
12.
T. S. Eliot. Murder in the Cathedral. 2 cassettes; on 1170 martyrdom of
Thomas à Becket; impressive performance of declaiming and singing, but
not enthralling. (AC) PS3509.L43 A6 2 tapes (115 min.).
13.
Jeremy Hooker. Canto Modern Poets. Male, RP. Hooker's poems are interesting,
but much more difficult to follow than Frances Horowitz's. His explanations are
clear and helpful, but you have to listen closely to the poems themselves, replay
them several times, and do a lot of thinking to get at what he seems to be saying.
(AC) PR6058.O70 A17 1 tape (58 min.).
14.
Four Modern Poets: T. S. Eliot "Prelude"; W. H. Auden "The
Shield of Achilles"; W. B. Yeats "Lapis Lazuli"; Wallace Stevens
"Of Heaven Considered as a Tomb". Laurence Lerner. Sussex 1972. Background
on four poets and poems; brings with it an approach to reading, understanding
and analyzing poetry. (AC) PR67 L47 1 tape.
15.
Four Poets of the 20th Century: T. S. Eliot, David Jones, Robert Graves,
Philip Larkin. Cassette 1: Side A: T. S. Eliot reads "Cats"; both the
poems and the reading are delightful. Side B: David Jones has the vocabulary of
a Spenser and uses allusions like Milton ¡V and I find him quite hard to understand
and uninteresting. His paintings and drawings appealed to me more than his poems.
Cassette 2: Side A: Robert Graves is interesting and rhythmic at times; Side B:
Philip Larkin has a bit of a smart-alec voice, though not irritatingly so, and
he uses sometimes rough language for effect; his poems are mostly thoughtful and
enjoyable to listen to. (AC) PR1173 F687 2 tapes (169 min.).
16. Four 20th Century Poets: Louis MacNeice,
C. Day Lewis, Stephen Spender, W. H. Auden reading their own works. The Poet
Speaks. Cassette 1. MacNeice was new for me, and I enjoyed his works a lot,
especially the singsongey ones that poke fun at things like bagpipe music (he
himself was Irish). It's almost always a surprise when he stops reading since
he generally ends with a rising intonation. I liked the other tape of C. D.
Lewis better than this one; some pieces were OK; and the little narrations between
some of the poems I often found more engaging than the poems themselves. The
poems struck me as a bit pompous and lacking a shattering quality on this reading.
I didn't much like Stephen Spender. I enjoyed hearing what W. H. Auden actually
sounded like ¡V he has short a's, but I can't tell if his accent is northern
English or US-influenced. Auden can get tedious at times but his good poems
are very good. (AC) PR1173 F688 2 tapes (177 min.).
17. Frances Horovitz. Canto Modern Poets.
Engaging poems about places and objects; she has some moving poems about her relationship
with her father and his death. She gives explanations of each poem before reading
it. Horovitz reads her poems in beautiful RP ¡V it shows that she trained to be
an actress. Sad that she succumbed to cancer at age 45. (AC) PR6058.O69 A17 1
tape (55 min.).
18. C. Day Lewis Reads
a Selection of his Poems. The Talking Tape, London. 1981. 1 cassette. Engaging
poems that remind me a bit of John Betjeman; live reading with lots of audience
noise, especially coughing; sound quality not wonderful but reading is clear;
some poems about memories of the home of the poet's childhood, the aunt that brought
him up and her subsequent senility. (AC) PR6007.A95 A17 1 tape (49 min.).
19. On Ludgate Hill: The Poetry People.
With John Pine, Maria Perry, Haydn Davies, Constance Heaven, Kay Clayton, Dallas
Cavell, Oliver Cox. Blurb on the label: It is 1674 ¡V eight years after
the Great Fire of London and before the rebuilding of St. Paul's. We invite you
to the home of an ordinary London family. They live on Ludgate Hill, a vantage
point from which The Poetry People peep into their household. As they pray, make
love, throw parties, argue about language and taste the bawdy thrills of Restoration
Theatre, their whole life is distilled from the verse of the period.
Fun collection of often bawdy poems read in a lively,
conversational way, with lots of background sounds to transport you to Restoration
England. Lovely lute and other music too, and interesting reminiscences of the
Great Fire of London from Pepys' diary. Featured poets and writers: Ben Jonson,
Michael Drayton, Edmund Waller, Sir John Beaumont, Robert Herrick, Thomas Carew,
Francis Quarles, William Cartwrigtht, Robert Heath, Henry Vaughan, John Dryden,
Samuel Pepys, William Shakespeare, Richard Crashaw, John Milton, John Donne, George
Herbert, Andrew Marvell, George Wither, John Wilmot, Thomas Randolph, Richard
Corbet, Sir Charles Sedley. The tape got eaten up by the player a bit ¡V be careful.
(AC) PN6101 O5 1 tape (62 min.).
20. Excerpts
from The Faerie Queene and Epithalamion, Edmund Spenser. Read by Michael MacMiammoir.
One cassette. Didn't follow it much, but definitely got a feel for the works rendered
in a dramatic, Scottish-accented reading.
21.
Take My Youth, by Robert Hardy and Martin Jarvis; London: The Talking Tape.
1982. 42 minutes. An anthology of poetry from "The Great War". Excellent
war poetry. They don't read the titles or poets' names, or provide them on the
case insert (it's not in the original case), and I couldn't find them online either,
so you're on your own. Some are familiar, like Yeats' "An Irish Airman Foresees
His Death" and Wilfred Owen's "Dulce et decorum est", Canadian
poet John McCrae's "In Flanders Fields"; also Rupert Brooke, Siegfried
Sassoon, Robert Graves, and Vera Brittain. Read in a variety of UK accents. (AC)
PR6015.A72 T34 1 tape (42 min.).
22. Dylan
Thomas (1914-1953) BBC Study Tapes. Includes background on his life, a song
from Under Milk Wood, and lots of readings of his poems and poetry. Male,
UK. (AC) PR6039.H52 F417 1 tape (57 min.).
23.
Dylan Thomas. Under Milk Wood. Get a feel for Dylan Thomas with this dramatic
reading. (AC) PR6039.H52 U5 2 tapes (90 min.).
Discussions
on authors, works and genres
1.
Frank C. Baxter. The Nature of Poetry. This is a good introduction to
what poetry is, with several examples. He makes a minor error in one place,
and there is something slightly irritating about his voice and tone. Yet it
is a well-thought out and very accessible introduction to poetry ¡V a literary
form that takes the reader only 5/8 of the way. (AC) PS1079 B334 1 tape (51
min.).
2. Emily Bronte. Miriam Allot, Barbara
Hardy. Sussex discussion tape. 1975. Wuthering Heights: Morality and
technique; Natural and supernatural. Devizes: 1 cassette, 2 sides.
3. Chaucer and the Difficulty of Medieval Poetry;
E. Salter, Derek Pearsall (Chaucer: Problems and Rewards; The Realism of Chaucer)
(AC) PR1940 S24 1 tape.
4. James Fenimore Cooper. Sussex discussion
tape. Quentin Anderson, James Grossman. A. The Growth of a Novelist. B. Editor's
note. I found this tape worthwhile for the background it gave on Cooper and
his works, but it did drag a bit for me. (AC) PS1438 A52 1 tape.
5. Crane and James. Sussex discussion tape.
George Monteiro, Robert Stamman. 1973. Monteiro fumbles for words, stutters,
interrupts and explodes with bursts of points he wants to make. The content
is OK, not the deepest, but the discourse style is quite distracting. There
is lots of interesting information on Stephen Crane and his writing that was
new to me. (AC) PS1449.C85 M65 1 tape.
6. Daniel Defoe. Sussex discussion tape.
Colin Brooks (Male, RP), Angus Ross (Male, Scottish English).1975. Side A: Versatility
and Imagination. Side B: Robinson Crusoe and Moll Flanders. This
is probably my favorite of all the Sussex discussion tapes so far. Robinson
Crusoe really captured my imagination as a child, and it was revealing to
learn more about its author. A comparison is made between Robinson Crusoe
and the real-life account of Alexander Selkirk. Ross calls Defoe's writing 'slipshod',
but full of 'carefully worked-out patterns and method'. Nice quote on Moll
Flanders from Pepys's diary at the end. A good sample of Scottish English.
(AC) PR3406 B76 1 tape
7. Dickens. Sussex Discussion tape. Angus
Wilson and A.E. Dyson. 1971. 1. Dickens and Society; 2. Dickens and the novel.
Overall interesting discussion of Dickens and his work, his Christianity and
morality, his humor, his depth. The accents and speaking styles of the two discussants
are even more notable than the content, though, I found. If you want a model
for a hyperposh British accent with a bit of a lisp, and someone speaking at
lightning speed who often interrupts his partner, try this tape. (AC) PR4588
W54 1 tape.
8. T. S. Eliot. Sussex discussion tape.
A. D. Moody and Alan Sinfield conduct a relatively interesting discussion of
Eliot's Murder in the Cathedral on side A, and The Family Reunion
and The Cocktail Party on side B. The tape is old and squeaky and you'll
probably need to clean the magnetic head of your machine after listening to
this.
9. Fiction in the twenties. Sussex discussion
tape. Alfred Lazom, Bob Lucid. Side A: The lost generation: Ernest Hemingway;
side B: The American dream: F. Scott Fitzgerald. These two discussions are illuminating
pictures of the burst of creativity in the 1920s, and about two great American
novelists. Holds interest; recommended. (AC) PS379 K39 1 tape.
10. Henry Fielding. Sussex discussion tape.
Colin brooks (Male, RP), Angus Ross (Male, Scotthish English). 1975. These are
the same two who discuss Daniel Defoe (above). The discussion of Fielding's
life and Tom Jones is enlightening, but I got the feeling they like Defoe
better; or maybe it's just that I do. There is too often someone who
'just can't help it' and goes to bed with someone else casually in Fielding's
books, and while it may be realistic, I find it tiring and hard to identify
with. (AC) PR3456 B76 1 tape.
11. E. M. Forster. Sussex discussion tape.
Side A: general discussion of the man and his work; side B: discussion of Howard's
End and A Passage to India. Arnold Kettle, Richard Hoggart; 1975.
So Forster was gay too. Forster's place in literary history: 19th century liberalism,
or 20th century innovation? (AC) PR6011.O58 K46 1 tape.
12. Albert Schweitzer, Goethe: His personality
and work. (83 min.) Audio-forum sound seminars. Jeffrey Norton. This is
an amazing historical recording from 1949 by Albert Schweitzer himself in his
rustic-sounding (to me) native Alsatian German, with consecutive translation
into English. The sound quality is scratchy and the words are not always easily
understandable, but it is worth bearing with. The talk offers a sympathetic
look at Goethe the man, his scientific studies, his philosophy, his religion,
and of course his poetry and other writing. (AC) PT2054 S38 1 tape (83 min.).
13. William Golding: discussion by Bernard
Bergonzi, J. S. Whitely; Sussex discussion tape. 1972. 'Golding's Style and
Symbolism'; seems to have same discussion on both sides of tape; on the use
of 'gimmick' endings in Golding. (AC) PR6013.O35 A5 1972 1 tape.
14. The Novels of Graham Greene. Ian Gregor,
David Lodge. Sussex discussion tape. 1972. A discussion of Greene, his background,
his Catholicism, his novels, movies on his novels and his own interest in film
¡V not so much gossip about his personal life as other sources, more about the
structure of and strategies behind Graham¡¦s works. As is often true of discussion
tapes, I found the interpersonal interactions between the two discussants almost
as interesting as the content of the talk. (AC) PR6013. R44 G73 1 tape.
15. The Heroic Villains. G.K. Hunter, Martin
Wright; Sussex discussion tape. Warrick University. Mildly interesting discussions
about the villain-heros of Macbeth, The Jew of Malta, and Richard
III. (AC) PR2992.V5 H86 1 tape.
16. Ben Jonson. Sussex discussion tape.
Ann Barton (combination of RP and Irish English? mostly RP vowels and prosody,
occasionally an Irish diphtthong, e.g. [aI], and fully rhotic), Alan Sinfield
(very standard RP). 1972. 1. Volpone and The Alchemist. 2. Jonson's
character's - Bartholomew Fair. I'm not familiar with the works discussed,
and probably won't read them, especially after Barton's clever comment on how
Jonson's 'mind was filled with unrelated details, which he delighted in for
their own sake.' The speech by Mammon from The Alchemist didn't much
appeal to me. Barton sounds defensively assertive of her power, using many clever
turns of phrases, Sinfield sounds almost meek at points as though he is a bit
taken with her - or maybe it's just his personality and this is all in my imagination!
(AC) PR2638 B37 1 tape.
17. James Joyce. Sussex discussion tape.
Prof. R. Ellmann. 60 min. Side A is a discussion of A Portrait of the Artist
as a Young Man, including an interesting developmental history of
the work; side B addresses Joyce's views on religion, politics, and language.
Interviewer speaks RP, speaker, US English. The speaker is articulate and interesting
¡V this tape gives some good background on the novelist and his work. (AC) PR6019
O9E44 1 tape.
18. Can Literature Compete? BBC Study Tapes.
An intelligent and fast-moving discussion between George Steiner, Julian Mitchell,
and Andrew Schonfield on the past, present and future of literature in people's
lives; lit as opposed to movies, tapes, music; US vs. UK and other countries.
Listening to this made me feel happy that I know English and can be part of
the intellectual life in this world that takes place in English. (AC) PN45 St35
1 tape. (56 min.).
19. Canetti on Kafka and Rupert Brooke
as I remember him. BBC Study Tapes. This must be my very favorite in this
series; side 1 in particular ended much too soon for me. Writer Elias Canetti
became fascinated with and later wrote about the letters of Franz Kafka, in
particular his correspondence with the woman who eventually became his fiancée,
but then with whom he broke off relations, more than once. Canetti literally
bubbles over with the story he has to tell: that Kafka's The Trial in
particular seems to be about how Kafka was put 'on trial' by his fiancée's
family when they learned that he felt he wasn't suited for marriage. This illuminates
a big part of Kafka's character and writing. Side 2 is a remembrance of poet
Rupert Brooke by actress Cathleen Nesbitt, who Rupert loved for many years ¡V
but according to the speaker they never consummated that love. Nesbitt discussed
their relationship publicly for the first time 50 years after Brooke's death
in WWI. A spellbinding story. (AC) PT2621.A26 C162 1 tape.
20. The Two Kiplings. Phillip Mason, Martin
Jarvis. (AC) PR4856 T8 1 tape (156 min.).
21. D. H. Lawrence: discussion by Gamini
Salgado, Jeff Hemstedt; Sussex discussion tape. Side A is on characters and
relationships in Lawrence; side B is on Sons and Lovers. I enjoyed these
discussions much more than Lawrence's books. (AC) PR6023.A93 S24 1 tape.
22. Approach to poetry criticism. Laurence
Lerner. Sussex lecture. Discusses identifying characteristics of metaphysical,
Augustan, and post-Romantic poetry. Analyzes and compares various poems, e.g.
Tennyson's "In Memoriam". (AC) PR65.P6 L47 1 tape.
23. Edward Lear. Charles Lewsen. 1971 (London)
(AC)
24. Discussion on George Orwell, by Orwell
biographer Bernard Crick, and Patrick Parrinder, University of Reading. Sussex
discussion tape. Side A: Orwell as a writer for the people; his passion for
political writing; how truthful are the accounts in his writing? Side B: A discussion
and comparison of Animal Farm and 1984; also his essays. Not bad;
reasonably short; get to know Orwell the man a bit better. (AC) PR6029.R8 C74
1 tape.
25. Nineteen Eighty-Four, Julia Glover,
Isla Blair, Peter Wilson. Intermediate level, targeted at students; tells a
bit about Orwell's life, and about how London of 1948/49 is reflected in the
novel 1984. Better listened to after reading the novel, to help you understand
it better; they also ask questions, and use dramatized scenes of similar incidents
to some in the book, placed in a different context, to illustrate what the book
is trying to say. (AC) PR6029.R8 N5 1 tape.
26. Harold Pinter. Katherine Worth, Alan
Sinfied. Sussex discussion tape. 1972. This is a reasonably informative and
interesting introduction to Harold Pinter and his absurdist theatre. The two
speakers seem to be in a battle for supremacy, sometimes using strong agreement
with the other as a strategy. But you'll learn a lot about Pinter, especially
if you started out not too familiar with him. (AC) PR6066.I53 / W67 1 tape.
27. The Poetic Revolution: Pound and Eliot
by M. L. Rosenthal. Sussex discussion tape. 1973. This is an interesting
introduction to Pound, Eliot and William Carlos Williams. The speaker concentrates
on interpretations of several representative works of each poet rather than
the poets' bios. Some nice thoughts on Williams' 'dancing naked in front of
a mirror' poem. (AC) PS324 R67 1 tape.
28. Sheridan. by Kenneth Muir, Alan Sinfield.
Sussex discussion tape. (1) Sentiment and Morality; (2) The Screen Scene: Sheridan's
stagecraft. Includes scene from The School for Scandal. Interesting discussion
of Sheridan and restoration drama; mostly about Scandal and The Rivals.
(AC) PR3684 M84 1 tape.
29. Tom Stoppard. Sussex discussion tape.
1972. Martin Banham, C.W.E. Bigsby. Delightfully articulate and intelligent
discussion of the absurdist playwright Tom Stoppard, who was originally Czech.
Side A is illustrated with several examples from Stoppard's Rosencrantz and
Guildenstern Are Dead, which amply demonstrate how Stoppard plays with language
for its own sake rather than just for the meaning it conveys. Side B is entitled
"The development of Stoppard's moral stance", but it also touches
on Stoddard's politics. (AC) PR6069.T6 B36 1 tape.
30. The Poetry of Dylan Thomas. Sussex
Publications. 1975. Side 1: Dylan Thomas and the Anglo-Welsh Tradition; side
2: Form, language and imagery. Overall I'm not fond of Thomas's poetry, but
this tape will give you an informed idea of his life and art ¡V actually this
tape is probably more engaging than an average Thomas poem (personal opinion
only!). Various readers, UK. (AC) PR6039.H52 W34 1 tape.
31.
Interviews with Tolkien and Basil Bunting. BBC study tapes. Strong female
interviewer gives the feeling of bullying and cowing an elfish Tolkien, but still
offers insight into the man behind The Lord of the Rings; very interesting
interview with Northumbrian poet Basil Bunting; he'll tell you a bit about his
views on fellow poets and ideas on poetry, such as: Compose aloud; poetry is a
sound; Put your poem away till you forget it, then: cut out every word you dare.
Do it again a week later, and again. (AC) PR6039.O32 T577 1 tape (53 min.).
32. Tolstoy's View of Art and Morality and
Edmund Wilson 1895-1972. BBC Study Tapes. The discussion on Tolstoy is
by Sir Isaiah Berlin (1909-1997), a Russian Jew who later lived in England and
taught at Oxford, and who speaks in Russian-accented RP. Berlin explains Tolstoy's
view that art should be simple and direct, totally of the people, and accessible
to peasants and Cossacks, rather than 'complicated' and 'contrived'. He strongly
criticizes Shakespeare for his improbable plots and difficult language, and attacks
Beethoven and Wagner for similar reasons. Tolstoy thus defines beauty as 'clarity'.
Yet he admitted that he himself had 'decadent', patrician tastes himself –
he confessed to being enchanted with Mozart's works. He said one shouldn't write
unless absolutely compelled to, if it were something one simply had to do, couldn't
help but doing. And Berlin points out that Tolstoy couldn't help but observe and
write in minute detail about every tiny perceived bit of his experience of living
in the world. Ultimately, he could not reconcile his sympathy for the underprivileged
and downtrodden, who he felt were somehow closer to his ideal of simplicity and
forthrightness, with the idea that they should be helped to rise above their difficult
life through education – which would in turn cause them to lose their idealized
simplicity and replace it with 'contrivance'. Berlin says Tolstoy died (he simply
collapsed outside of a train station) a broken man, unable to solve this basic
problem of humanity over which he obsessed so much of his life. Berlin sounds
high-strung and nervous, and he speaks in rapid torrents, parts of which are not
always clear; but his strong content more than makes up for this. The discussion
on Edmund Wilson (the speaker is unidentified) was an unexpected bonus. I had
learned a bit about Wilson in Nancy Milford's biography of Edna St. Vincent Millay,
Savage Beauty. Wilson was a spurned lover of Millay's, but they were lifelong
friends. Overall one gets the impression that Wilson was a bit mediocre, but I
found the discussion, which includes interviews with a number of people familiar
with Wilson and his work, interesting nevertheless. (AC) PG3415 B445 1 tape
33. The Transcendentalists. Quentin
Anderson, Robert Spiller. Sussex discussion tape. 1972. Enlightening discussion
between two Emerson scholars, one of whom had just finished editing Emerson's
works. The focus is on Emerson, though the development of transcendentalism in
general is discussed. (AC) PS1638 A52 1 tape.
34.
Graham Greene on Evelyn Waugh. (AC) PR6045.A97 Gr76 1 tape (56 min.).
35. Evelyn Waugh. Sussex discussion
tape. Discussion with Malcolm Bradbury and Martin Fagg. This is a very enlightening
and engaging discussion of Waugh's life and writing. Central to Waugh's writing
is a clash between civilization and barbarism, e.g. between the older 'civilization'
of Europe and the emerging one of Africa. Waugh was apparently a very harsh and
unpleasant person. The discussants suggest that one reason for his deep involvement
in Catholicism was because of the opportunities for polemic it provided. Waugh's
shortcomings as a person are contrasted with his outstanding writing, incredible
mastery of syntax, and his deeply cynical humor, often built on a cold disregard
for danger and death. (AC) PR6045.A97 B72 1 tape.
36.
John Webster and Jacobean Tragedy. Sussex discussion tape. Nicholas Brooks,
Alan Sinfield. A: Character and coherence; B: Action and death. I was mainly curious
to hear how a scholar would deal with the inexplicable and gratuitous violence
in Webster's works. They same to agree with me at least somewhat that it is indeed
thus. (AC) PR3187 B76 1 tape.
37. Walt
Whitman. Gay Wilson Allen, Arthur Golden. Sussex discussion tape. 1972. The
focus is on Whitman's Leaves of Grass; informative discussion, though it drags
a bit at the end and concludes rather abruptly. (AC) PS3201 A44 1 tape.
37. Virginia Wolfe. Hermione Lee, Stella
McMichol. Sussex discussion tape. 1980. Learn a little about the author's family
background, her writing, especially Mrs. Dalloway, and her madness. Note use of
nasalization for emphasis. (AC) PR6045.O72 L43 1 tape.
top
home
Communication
skills, vocabulary, pronunciation
1.
Rick Brinkman and Rick Kirschner, How to Deal with Difficult People. 2
cassettes. Strategies for dealing with 'difficult' people in sticky situations.
(AC) BF637.I48 K577z 1998 2 tapes (3 hrs.)
2.
Carol Fleming. The Sound of Your Voice. New York, NY: Simon & Schuster
Sound Ideas, 1992 ((AC) PN4162 S68z 1992 Publication blurb: Speak with ease, confidence,
and clarity. Learn how to analyze your voice image and correct problems that undermine
your message. You'll develop a more authoritative style, speak more clearly, and
eliminate accents. These are really useful for effectively diagnosing your particular
weaknesses in speaking and correcting them. 4 cassettes. (AC) PN4162 S68z 1992
4 tapes.
3. Patrick Fraley. Creating
Character Voices for Fun & Profit: A Professional Guide. Male, US. 2 cassettes
(available from Audio Editions and
Amazon). This one isn't in the AV library,
but it's a very tight, interesting, and effective short course on how to develop
character voices for telling jokes and stories and doing voice-overs. Fraley has
lots of cleverly-designed exercises to help you do all kinds of things with your
voice you never imagined.
4. Milo O. Frank.
How to Get Your Point Across in 30 Seconds or Less. Punchy. Just what the
title says: don't waste your and other people's time ¡V get right to the point,
increase your chances of being heard and getting what you want. (AC) HF5718 F743z
1985 1 tape (45 min.)
5. Peter and Mary
Funk. Dynamic Vocabulary! Learn in Your Car Discovery Series. Peniton Overseas,
Inc. Series 1 and 2, 2 cassettes each. I borrowed this for my son (age 22) to
help him prepare for the vocabulary portion of the GRE exam. The pace is fast,
the structure tight, and the words fairly advanced and useful. Clear explanations
and examples. I knew most of the words myself, but there were some new ones, like
scree. PE1449 P8z/1991
6. Harriet
Lerner. The Dance of Connection: How to talk to someone when you're mad, hurt,
scared, frustrated, insulted, betrayed or desperate. Harper Audio. US, female.
A therapist reads from her book on how to better interact with others, especially
those we have a close relationship with, and how to try and fix things when they
go wrong. She speaks v e r y, v e r y s l o w l y, and I never
completely stopped being conscious of this. You'd think a producer would have
coached her better on this. At least this should make the recording easier for
EFL learners to follow. I especially liked the anecdotes she told to illustrate
her points, e.g. the family history behind why her father never clashed with her
mother outwardly, and the story about her friend who experienced a rude awakening
regarding her previous failure to listen to others. (AC) BF637.C45 L4z 2001 3
tapes. (4 hrs., 30 min.)
7. Renee E. Mazer.
Not Too Scary Vocabulary. High Score. 6 cassettes. These tapes are specifically
designed to help with SAT vocabulary words. I borrowed them for my daughter (age
17), who at the time of this writing is preparing for the SAT. The narrator speaks
teenage English, but you later find out that she's married, has two kids, and
has been to law school! An Amazon review says she's been an SAT tutor for 15 years.
(Why hasn't she learned to talk like a grown-up? I wondered.) But the teenagey
style appealed to my daughter, who said that the Dynamic Vocabulary! tapes
put her to sleep. In this set, in contrast to Dynamic Vocabulary!, the
narrator spends considerable time on each word, defining it (with lots of repetition
of the same information in the same words!), giving example sentences, offering
mnemonic tricks to remember the work (some etymological, most not), and very often
performing a silly poem or song that she wrote to help fix the word in the listener's
mind. Some of these are quite clever and might be helpful, though I tend (fortunately)
to remember the word and forget the doggerel. She admits she can't sing, and she
really can't carry a tune, so I would have preferred it if she had just read all
the little verses. And I feel she should have checked the pronunciation of each
word before teaching it on tape (she admits she's not sure about e.g. chimerical,
and she doesn't voice the th in lithe; but at least she's honest
about it!). But my daughter is taking the tapes seriously, to the point of carrying
around a Walkman to listen to them these days, so they must be effective for the
right audience. PE1449 M3z/2000
8. Douglas
Stone, Bruce Patton, Sheila Heen, Difficult Conversations: How to Discuss What
Matters Most. New York: Random. BDD Audio. Abridged. This is an excellent
5-CD recording of the book, offering a systematic program for improving your skills
in confronting tough issues with other people in a constructive way; solve the
problem instead of assigning blame, running away, or losing your temper. A wonderful
set, full of sound advice on how to interact and get along better with others.
Full of interesting anecdotes used to illustrate each point. (AL BF37.C45 S782z
1999 5 CDs (6 hrs.)
9. Jane Wellborn.
Accent Reduction Made Easy: Drills for a Standard American Accent. 2 cassettes.
Penton Overseas. This set is OK, though not terribly exciting or creative. The
speaker follows a book (apparently) and introduces each phoneme of American English
¡V she has them numbered ¡V one by one, then gives several word and sentence examples.
The sentences are contrived to contain several examples of the sound in question,
and are quite unlikely ever to occur in natural speech ("Was Ethel's thesis
on an atheist with arthritis?"). And the speaker has a couple of her own
pronunciation quirks, just as Carol Fleming (The Sound of your Voice) does,
for example, she tells you to use a long 'e' ([i]) sound in the before words that
begin with a vowel, but she herself usually uses a schwa and begins the next vowel
with a glottal stop. She offers useful bits of information, such as the difference
between clear and dark /l/ (her own /l/ sound is sometimes strangely long, e.g.
in her 'welcome'), and alerts native speakers of certain languages or from certain
regions of the world to pay special attention to specific sounds, including native
English speakers sometimes; she advises southerners not to make words like 'am'
into two syllables: ae-yam. The plot leaves something to be desired, but if you
just want to practice individual phonemes and word examples of them, this may
be useful to you. (AC) PE1137 W375z 1997. 2 tapes.
10.
J.C. Wells. Accents of English. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,
1982. (AC) PE1137 W44. This is a fun collection of various accents and dialects
of English, introduced by UCL phonetician and lexicographer J.C. Wells. (AC) PE1137
W44 1 tape. (54 min.)
11. Video: Speechmasters
North American Spoken English: Feeling Phonics; Tape #3 Neutral Vowels. This
series (I've only watched this one tape), in my opinion, is done by hacks and
is boring to boot. Stay away ¡V try something else, anything else. I don't agree
with this guy's ideas about 'neutral and parent vowels'; I also can't stand the
way he walks around with an untied tie slung around his neck, and that ditzy suit
jacket and pony tail. I'm sorry ¡V this one just hit me all wrong. (VC) PE1128
N672z 9 VHS
12. Video: Writers on Writing Series. Pt. 4 -
Writing for Radio. Educational Film Series. NTSC. This is a series of interviews
with radio script writers who participated in a workshop for film, television
and radio writers in Australia in 1988. Some speakers (they're all men) are more
dynamic than others, but all have useful advice for aspiring radio writers, for
example: you can't make a living on just radio writing; you do it only
because you have to, you can't help but write; you need talent and also a strong
ability to listen and pick up on the way people really speak in conversation;
sound effects must be somehow identified in the dialogue; don't use too many characters
or the listeners won't be able to follow the story; don't try to impress people
with lots of different dialects or accents in one story; radio is the medium which
requires the greatest amount of audience participation; beginners might do well
to start the story a few pages into their script - often there is too much detailed
information at the beginning; you must usually write for a very set length of
air time, e.g. 29 or 58 minutes, and so on. LB1631 W74A3 VT cm01550 (44 min.)
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Linguistics
resources
1.
John Laver. The phonetic description of voice quality. Cambridge, [UK]:
Cambridge University Press, 1980. In this recording the author and narrator gives
many examples of speech with different supralaryngeal settings, like nasality,
and laryngeal settings, like creaky and whispery voice, and overall tension settings,
like tense voice. Detailed and impressive. Good if you're interested in phonetics
or voice acting. 1 tape. (AC) P221 L38 (49 min.)
2. The
Talk Show. Hosted by Jay Ingram; produced by Ira Basen. This is a 4-tape
set produced by CBC, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, in Toronto. It covers
all kinds of topics of the kind you're bound to meet in an Introduction to Linguistics
course. It's narrated by Jay Ingram, who has a very representative Canadian accent
complete with 'Canadian raising', which he in fact discusses in tape 4. A lot
of the information in the program is speculative but not always clearly treated
as such. The series is introduced with an audio montage of the word 'talk' and
related words with sound effects. This didn't much appeal to me (except for the
little boy's clear reading of the word 'talk' - that's quite striking; and repetitions
of the word 'talk' worked into the rhythm aren't bad), but this is a small detail.
Tape 1 is entitled 'Born to talk', and revisits the debate about whether there
is a specific 'grammar organ' in the brain as Chomsky claims, or not. The opposition
is given relatively fair representation; linguist Elizabeth Bates offers clear
and cogent arguments on why she disagrees with Chomsky. There is a clear account
of the 'wild child' Genie and her attempts to learn to speak; there are even a
few recordings of Genie speaking. On tape 2, 'The search for the mother tongue',
a linguist offers his reconstruction of the 'mother tongue', supposedly spoken
by early man about 100,000 years ago. This kind of reconstruction is necessarily
highly speculative to say the least, and is treated a little too much as a given
rather than as someone's foray into fancy. The question is also raised whether
chimpanzees who learn some limited sign language and to communicate with plastic
tokens really have 'language' ability or not. Chomsky thinks not; Steven Pinker
thinks it foolish to try to teach animals human language, and that studying animals'
own natural communication systems is much more meaningful. And did we evolve speech
so as to be able to gossip about other people? Tape 3 is about 'Native tongues',
the controversies surrounding how they arose, and the alarming rate at which languages
are becoming extinct in our generation. It also discusses efforts to revive and
maintain native languages, e.g. native American ones. Peter Ladefoged is interviewed
and he expresses his view that the decision on whether or how to preserve a dying
language belongs to the speakers of that language, not to outsiders. He cites
the example of isolated peoples not getting needed medical care for a child because
of their inability to speak the majority language. Tape 4 is entitled 'Talk of
tomorrow' and contains a number of predicted trends in the language of the future,
e.g. that the number of languages will be vastly reduced; English will survive,
but will exist in many different varieties used for special purposes. There is
a further discussion on language change and prescriptivism, and on Canadian regionalisms,
e.g. the declining use of the word chesterfield for 'sofa'. There is an
interesting interview with the inventor of 'Klingon', which has achieved status
as a subject of scholarly inquiry. Well worth a close listening. P118 153T3z 1993.
4 tapes.
1.
Are Hierarchies Necessary? BBC. (AC) HT609 Ar31 4 tapes (206 min.)
2. Are Mothers Necessary? BBC. Male,
RP, with invited speakers who speak various dialects, especially US English. This
series explores the function of mothers, how important they are in the development
of a human. Is there really a connection between lack of a caring mother in early
childhood and criminal behavior? Under what circumstances and how does the absence
of the mother most affect an infant? Actually a better title for the series might
have been "All About Babies". The host is Dr. Martin Bax, a pediatrician.
One part that impressed me described an experiment with white and with East Asian
babies: if you put a tissue on the face of a white baby, he or she will struggle
to remove it; an East Asian baby tends to just lie there and not do anything about
the tissue. The last tape contains an interview with Dr. Benjamin Spock (1903-1998),
who I discover had non-rhotic a Boston accent. (AC) BF723.I6 Ar31 5 tapes (221
min.).
3. Calls of the Bushveld.
Hugh Rouse. Johannesburg. Neat hyena call. Afrikaans songs. Corny.
4. Lectures on Science. Black Holes,
Quasars, E-coli genetic mapping, Almost an Echo... 2 sets.
5.
Man in Society. Brian Foss, Peter Warr, BBC. 6 cassettes. (AC) HM51 M311
4 tapes.
6. Mechanics of the Mind.
Reith Lectures 1976. Colin Blakemore. Male, RP. These three tapes contain six
lectures on the brain, how it works, and related functions. Before listening to
this set, I had just read two recent books on the brain, Rita Carter's Mapping
the Mind, and V. S. Ramachandran's Phantoms
in the Brain. Many of the case histories, along with their interpretations,
that were cited in these books are included in these talks. This was a surprise,
since I keep hearing how much has been learned about the brain in the past few
years; it seems we in fact knew quite a bit in the 70s. The speaker is extremely
eloquent, and his content and organization are utterly intelligent. The topics:
1. The divinest part of us: The development of man's ideas on the location and
function of the mind; 2. Chuang Tzu and the butterfly: Dr. Blakemore argues that
there is no reason to believe that science will fail to account for the phenomenon
of human consciousness (the only flaw in this reading: the speaker tensed up when
reading 'Taoist' and 'Chuang Tzu' and pronounced them in a very strange way);
3. An image of the truth: Dr. Blakemore argues that the brain cells which miraculously
transform the light images in the eye into what we see have knowledge and intelligence;
4. A child of the moment: An account of the phenomenon of memory; 5. A burning
fire: Dr. Blakemore examines the language of man
¡V and that of apes;
he discusses Washoe and Lucy, chimps who learned sign language from their human
keepers, and asks if this qualifies as 'language' in the human sense; he also
discusses Chomsky's theory of Universal Grammar, and Broca's discovery of a part
of the brain crucial for human language ability; 6. Madness and morality: Theories
of left and right brain dominance and the uses made of brain research. Highly
recommended. (AC) BF171 B583 3 tapes.
7.
Microtechnology. (1) Silicon chips, optical fibres, computer memories,
LCDs; (2) word processing (3) satellite communications; air traffic control, etc.;
BBC. (AC) TK7874 M583 3 tapes (54 min. each)
8.
Speaking of Science: Conversations with Outstanding Scientists, vol. II:
(1) 1. The Dilemma of Prisons, 2. Science and Sociology of Weather Modification;
(2) 3. New Dimensions in Human Genetics, 4. Children and Environment: A New View;
(3); 5. Energy; 6.? (4) 7. Environment and Cancer; 8. Patterns of Discovery; (5)
9. The Limits to Growth 10. Tragedy of the Commons Revisited; (6) 11. Understanding
Perception; 12. Exploring the Universe. American Association for the Advancement
of Science. (AC) Q113 Am35 9 tapes.
9.
Thoughts on the Cosmology of Copernicus. London. Prof. Plaf Anderson et
al. (AC) QB981 T399 1 tape (46 min.)
10.
Voyage Round a Twentieth-Century Skull. Dr. Jacob Bronowski in conversation
with George Steedman. BBC English courses. 3 cassettes.Tape 1, Side 1: 1. The
Skull's Inheritance. 2. Trouble about Light. Side 2. 3. Pattern and Growth. 4.
The Structure of Energy. Discussion of development of modern science. Tape 2,
Side 1: 5. Physics, Poetry and Revolution. 6. The Structure of Matter. Side 2:
7. Nuclear Explosion, Unclear Responsibility. 8. The Structure of Life. Tape 3,
Side 1: 9. Evolution in Progress. 10. The Most Successful Mammal. Side 2: 11.
The Importance of Being High-Browed. 12. Knowledge Plus or Minus Western Man.
Bronowski is his usual erudite self, with impeccable delivery and RP
¡V except for his distracting
'r's, which are often either uvular or sound like 'w's. Bronowski's English sentences
otherwise are works of art
¡V he crafts each one
meticulously. The tapes were really very engaging and I got through them quickly.
Recommended, if you enjoy talks on pop science. (AC) Q171 V948 3 tapes.
11. The World of Plants: Do You Know? Alan
Gemmell. (AC) QK641 W893 1 tape (45 min.)
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History,
art, philosophy lectures
1.
Background to History. 2 cassettes. Rather interesting lectures on various
unrelated topics; second time to borrow and listen
¡V inadvertently:
I: (1) Greeks in search of happiness, W. B. Stanford; (2) Medicine in Ancient
Rome, Dr. Bernard Knight; (3) When Morals Lay in Lumps (The rise and fall of
phrenology), Philip Collins; (4) The Great Strike of 1926, Harry Young; II:
(5) The popes as money men, Peter Partner; (6) Venice, Amsterdam and comparative
history, Peter Burke; (7) Life in an Elizabethan mansion, Mark Girouard; (8)
Charles Waterton, eccentric & naturalist, Gilbert Phelps. All pretty interesting,
though not very interrelated. Charles Waterton was indeed eccentric,
but his wildlife park sounds quite amazing. (AC) D16 B126 2 tapes (106 min.).
2. Lady Violet Bonham-Carter, "The Impact
of Personality in Politics"; The Romanes Lectures. 1 cassette. 1963. (AC)
3. The lute songs of Thomas Campion. Robin
Headlam Wells. Sussex Publications. Nice poetry, singing, lovely lute playing.
Explanations of the poems. (AC)
4. Critic's Choice. (7 tapes of interviews
with artists; VOA) Dancers and such. (AC)
5. Current Trends in Philosophy. BBC Study
Tapes. There is one talk per side on varied topics. Tape 1 side A: "Logic
and language" by Gilbert Harman (Male, US; Princeton U.) considers the
development of a logic that is more like natural human language in that it admits
adverbs and verbal tense, and the emergence of Chomsky's generative-transformational
grammar, which analyzes language in a way that brings it closer to classical
logic. Relatively interesting. Side B, "The revival of materialism"
J. J. C. Smart (Male, Australian, La Trobe U.) discusses the material basis
of all processes, including mental and emotional ones. I found this talk rather
dull and unfocused; fortunately it was also short. Tape 2 Side A: "Possible
worlds" by Alvin Plantigna (male, US); a discussion about logic and possible
worlds; I found this dull. Side B: "The scene in Germany" by Anthony
Kenny (male, RP); a discussion of the importance of four nineteenth-century
German philosophers. Tape 3 Side A: "The French Tradition" by Alan
Montefiore (male, RP); how French schools of philosophy broke off from the German
and grew ever further apart from them; Side B: "Political Philosophy"
by Bernard Williams (male, RP); where and how political science and philosophy
overlap, focuses on work of John Rawls and Robert Noziak; Tape 4 Side A: "A
Radical Future" by Jonathan Ree (mal