Ferdinand Cesarano

fine work; error-filled performance

Revisado: 07-07-24

The author handles the book's broad subject very skillfully.

But the narration is sloppy, making frequent errors on the pronunciation of people's names:

• Lazzeri (properly stressed on second syllable; pronounced in this book with stress on the first)

• Grantland (properly pronounced with a schwa in second syllable, as in Maryland; pronounced in this book with the full vowel value in the second syllable)

• Reiser (properly pronounced REE-zer; pronounced in this book as RYE-zer)

• Labine (properly pronounced with the vowel in "bind"; pronounced in this book with the vowel in "bean")

• Bragan (properly pronounced BRAY-gan; pronounced in this book as BRAH-gan)

There are also errors in the pronunciations of names of locations:

• Hinchliffe (mispronounced as "Hinchcliffe")

• Wilkes-Barre (the second word is properly pronounced as "barry"; pronounced in this book as "bare")

• Cape Verde (the second word is properly pronounced with two syllables; pronounced in this book with one syllable, as "verd")

There are other mispronunciations not of names, but of ordinary words:

• sachem (properly pronounced with the CH sound, SAY-chem; pronounced in this book with a K sound, SAY-kem)

• biopic (properly pronounced "bio pic"; bizzarely pronounced in this this book to rhyme with "myopic")

One irritating mispronunciation shows a total lack of understanding of the subject matter:

• Sym-Phony (properly pronounced as two words, so as to highlight the humorous use of the word "phony"; pronounced in this book as the normal word "symphony")

The fact that none of these mispronunciations were caught either by the narrator himself or by the director shows a startling level of negligence.

(The strange and ironic thing, given these many errors, is that the narrator gets right one particular name that is mispronounced in the audiobook of the epic work The Power Broker: that of architect Calvert Vaux, pronounced in this book properly as "vawks", but mispronounced in The Power Broker as "vo".)

These frequent errors significantly harm an otherwise good performance.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

Bob and Ray are masters.

Revisado: 05-16-23

The dry humour of the brilliant Bob and Ray is absolutely timeless. They are true masters.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

Valuable expert analysis. Top-quality narration.

Revisado: 01-21-23

This book contains valuable analysis by a longstanding expert in the coverage of air disasters and near-disasters.

Also, the narration is superb. Listeners tend to adjust their expectations of a book narrated by its author, rather than by a professional voice actor or narrator. In this case you may throw away those lowered expectations, as the narration work here is of the highest quality.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

esto le resultó útil a 1 persona

Worthy of Wodehouse

Revisado: 04-25-21

With "Jeeves and the Leap of Faith", Ben Schott has somehow improved on his previous Jeeves novel, "Jeeves and the King of Clubs". The language in this book is absolutely beautiful, capturing perfectly the feel of the Wodehouse style. What's more, the characterisations are perfectly on-key.

The performance by the narrator is superb, as Daniel Ings does an impressive array of accents, from plummy public school, to dignified RP, to Cockney, to West Country, to Scottish.

However, the director let the actor down by not catching a few mispronunciations. For example, the surname of Barmy Fotheringhay-Phipps is meant to be pronounced "fungy-phipps"; but in this performance the name is pronounced as spelt. Also, the name of Aunt Dahlia's chef Anatole is mispronounced as "Anatoly".

The failure of the publisher Hachette to hire a director who is steeped the Wodehouse œuvre shows a lack of respect towards the subject matter, and constitutes an insult to the author and his audience.

Fortunately, the instances of these mispronunciations are few, and so they do not significantly mar an otherwise excellent performance of this beautiful work. Notwithstanding the directorial errors, anyone who has become accustomed to the performances of Martin Jarvis and Jonathan Cecil as narrators will be impressed with Ings's performance here.

Wodehouse fans will love this book, as will anyone who is tickled by a dexterous use of the English language. Schott has succeeded, and gloriously so.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

esto le resultó útil a 3 personas

Ricky, Steve, and Karl are hilarious

Revisado: 08-31-20

The podcasts were amazing. Then Ricky moved on to this series in which he and Steve tried (mostly futilely) to teach Karl about various topics.

Karl is a simpleton who is nevertheless profound. His reactions to things sometimes baffle Ricky and Steve. Ricky's joyous laughter is infectious.

This series is an outstanding listen.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

esto le resultó útil a 9 personas

Magnificent

Revisado: 01-19-20

A work of Wodehouse's genius, masterfully performed by the incomparable Jonathan Cecil — this is the stuff that dreams are made of, an aesthetic delight bereft of equal.

There is no use of language more beautiful than that which is found in Wodehouse. I daresay that not even the chef Anatole could create a more luxurious delight to the senses.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

A delightful look into the mind of a great genius.

Revisado: 05-27-19

This is an important historical document from a giant of the culture. (Not a reference to Cleese's gargantuan height.) This book is informative and also personally revealing.

And Cleese's powers of expression are second to none. Listening to this man speak is a sensory delight of the highest order.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

Great analysis marred by poor narration

Revisado: 04-28-19

Mitchell's analysis is superb. But the narrator's performance was inadequate. He mispronounces words — not only baseball names such as "Bouton" and "Henrich", but also regular words such as "mores" (meaning "moral norms", correctly pronounced as "MOR-ayz") and "panoply". This provided an unwelcome distraction.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

almost no info about Esperanto; poor pronunciation

Revisado: 12-29-15

As an Esperantist of more than 25 years, I was not looking to learn any Esperanto from this book. I was, however, hoping that it would present some basics about the language.

I found instead that this book consists mainly of a series of bland generalisations about Esperanto and about the culture of Esperantists, but contains virtually no information about the language. And, on the rare occasion when an Esperanto word is actually uttered, it is in every case pronounced very poorly.

If this book didn't cost only two dollars, I would return it. I strongly recommend not buying it. This book will do nothing to inform anyone about the facts of Esperanto, or to induce anyone with a curiosity about the language to learn it. And that is a shame, because Esperanto is a truly remarkable phenomenon. The language's small set of exception-free grammatical rules could indeed have been presented in a manner that is likely to spur further interest.

So I must say that the author, James Nugent, did a very poor job with his subject matter. And the narrator, Stan Jenson, did an utterly horrendous job in rendering the few Esperanto words which he was asked to pronounce. Mr. Jenson could easily have researched the proper pronunciation of that handful of words.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

esto le resultó útil a 10 personas

Avoid this recording.

Revisado: 08-31-15

This recording is not up to professional standards. The reading is terrible; and it has poorly-done drop-ins and even a few audible (with a small A) page turns. Worst of all, the last part of the book is missing. A complete disaster and an embarrassment.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

esto le resultó útil a 24 personas