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    Great Historical Shakespeare Recordings
    Great Historical Shakespeare Recordings
    Great Historical Shakespeare Recordings
    Audiobook2 hours

    Great Historical Shakespeare Recordings

    Written by William Shakespeare

    Narrated by Full Cast

    3/5

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    About this audiobook

    Historical recordings of actors from the beginning of the recording era. 1: Historical Shakespeare performances by Ainley, John Barrymore, Bourchier, Casson, Forbes-Robertson, John Geilgud (1920s and 1940s). 2: A miscellany. Some startling historical performances in a wide range of works from Edith Evans, Charles Laughton, Noel Coward, Sarah Bernhardt, Fred Terry, Laurel and Hardy, Edwin Booth, Bransby Williams, Jean Cocteau, Feodor Chaliapin and others.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherNaxos Audiobooks
    Release dateAug 22, 2000
    ISBN9789629546960
    Great Historical Shakespeare Recordings
    Author

    William Shakespeare

    William Shakespeare was an English poet, playwright, and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest dramatist in the English language. Shakespeare is often called England’s national poet and the “Bard of Avon.”  

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    Reviews for Great Historical Shakespeare Recordings

    3/5

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    • 1/5
      Reading Herman Melville's book for the second time, I found that it made an interesting perspective on the law and human judgment, and how they sometimes come into conflict.Throughout life and history, laws have been around to define the boundaries between right and wrong, and providing appropriate punishment for those who overstep these boundaries. Most would say that the definitions for these boundaries are reasonable and easy to abide to. Sometimes, though, these definitions come into question. In Billy Budd the law defining the firm criteria of what constituted mutiny--the martial law--was contested by one of the ship's officers, the virtuous and seemingly flawless Billy Budd. The punishment facing him was death by hanging.Billy Budd was well-loved by all his workmates (except Master-at-Arms Claggart) and was called the "Handsome Sailor". On the ship, the Bellipotent Billy finds himself in an interesting situation as an envious Claggar is intent on framing Billy for treason.What makes Billy's breaking of the law different is the unique circumstances surrounding it. One of the characters, Captain Vere, makes no apology for this and instead justifies the punishment by saying that law can sometimes contradict human nature, and one must always show allegiance to the king and their duties as crew members. Though he mentions human nature, established law takes precedence in conflicts. Still, because humans make these laws, there is the possibly of human error and judgment. The law in this novel shows how the leaders keep order in society. Crew members made half-hearted attempts to refute him, but none could deny the existence of that law, so plain in existence and so straightforward in content.As with all of Melville's work, this was not an easy reading. There are the author's distinctive character descriptions and his digressions, but that does not mean that the book is entirely inaccessible. Some editions of this book have other stories included, as well as readers' supplements and bibliographies. There are a couple of movie editions of this book, including one with Terence Stamp and Peter Ustinov, as well as an opera.
    • 2/5
      The first half of the book was very very slow. *Everything* had to be explained with a long allegory, it seemed. And then, sometimes the allegory needed explaining. But after the half-way point, things got a bit better. Their was some more action.
    • 4/5
      Billy Budd tells the story of an impressed sailor wrongfully accused of mutiny. I don't want to spoil what happens from there, but Melville examines themes of whether morality is a matter of intentions rather than consequences and whether the law can take this into account and fully serve justice, and whether innocence is enough to guarantee happiness in this life or whether hatred and envy can triumph over goodness. It's not as obscure as Moby Dick, though Melville does end it on that note, and while it doesn't have as much humor or grandeur (of a sort) as Moby Dick it fares pretty well in that regard considering its much shorter length. It's also not as polished, since it was an unfinished manuscript rather than a final draft, but I thought it was a powerful and well-told story, and on the whole I personally enjoyed it more than Moby Dick.
    • 3/5
      'Moby Dick' is one of the most intense, amazing books I've ever read, but until recently it was the only thing of Melville's that I'd worked through. 'Billy Budd' appears on the 1001 list, and I found a copy, so I thought, why not?It was a struggle at times to see the plot for the words, so to speak; Melville's prose is not the refined English that one would expect from a more modern writer. It's full of excuses for why the story is being written, why characters are introduced, why places and scenes were chosen or visited. Nowadays this is all extraneous, and rightly so.The stories themselves were interesting though, and once I got used to Melville's style again I did quite enjoy myself.
    • 2/5
      I disliked this flatly written, inexpressive book. Every description and event seems very removed, and is recounted in a far off, stiffly written style. I also disliked Melville's depiction of the main character, Billy Budd "The Handsome Sailor" as painstakingly perfect. He is described as if the paragon of human nature and physical appearance. Billy's only flaw is that he develops a stutter when alarmed. I have never liked main characters like this, partly because they are boring to read about, and also partly because they always seem amazingly unrealistic.The storyline is about a perfectly honorable sailor - the hero Billy Budd - falsely accused of betraying his beloved captain, which ultimately ends in his execution.That was another thing I did not like about the plot - the evil character of Claggart is victorious in the end.I suppose that if you don't mind the haughtily excessive wording of needless descriptions, Melville's writing is admittedly detailed and well worded.It is very short - but don't expect on being able to breeze through it. Difficult reading due to a lack of dialogue and, as said, endless description and old fashioned wording.I would not recommend this book - read "Moby Dick" instead!
    • 5/5
      A classic of homosexual writing that exhibits how Melville idealized the youthful Christian sailor Billy Budd as a Christ figure and abhorred the sodomite Claggert.
    • 3/5
      I felt ambivalent about Moby Dick; I loved the grandeur of some of the language and beauty of some of the prose, but hated the lengthy digressions. With Billy Budd, a novella published after Melville's death, I also feel ambivalent, but here my problems are more integral, not just a matter of cutting away what I see as blubber. I've seen this described as allegory: like allegory, it often can come across as all too heavy handed. Billy Budd is the Christ-figure of almost pure good; Claggart is painted very much as a Satanic figure who hates Billy for his virtues. Captain Vere is a more complex figure. Given his position in this drama it would be easy to see him as Jehovah, as God the father, yet Melville speaks of his "mental disturbance." The narrator is intrusive--and he does things like say "for a literary sin then divergence will be"--and then goes on digressing. The narrator has a tone of omniscience, relates things only an omniscient narrator would know--then demurs he has complete knowledge and presents things as his guesses. The narration often struck me as ponderous, high-strung, melodramatic, and in describing Billy (described every several paragraphs as the "Handsome Sailor") so very, very gay. And yet there are some piercing psychological insights--and some really beautiful touches. (In the context of what was happening, the simple sentence "Billy ascended" was powerful and chilling.) Not a story I'd call a favorite, but worth reading.
    • 2/5
      I know it's a classic. I don't care. Melville is just not to my taste. There's nothing wrong with the themes of the novel, nor the plot. I just don't like the writing.
    • 3/5
      I wasn't familiar with the story of Billy Budd, and not being much of a classics reader, I think the abridged audiobooks are good enough to give the reader an idea of what the story's about. But the reader of this particular very abridged version read fast, which makes following the story a little difficult. I haven't read Moby Dick either, but I'm not sure I truly appreciate the prose of Melville. I found him rather wordy, especially near the beginning, & it wasn't until midway through the story that I felt like I was becoming engaged. And then near the end, my interest waned again. Maybe it was the abridgement -- I don't know. It didn't end as I'd expected, which took me by surprise, & wasn't particularly an uplifting note to end a book on.
    • 4/5
      A good friend introduced me to an alternative reading of this novel, in which the narrator is obsessed with upholding the heroic myth of Billy Budd. Every incident is spun out by the narrator to show Billy in the most positive light possible, and Claggart as his evil opposite. If you look closely at the text for the 'facts' of the story though there's not a shred of evidence to support this romantic view of Billy.In fact, reading between the lines, it's possible to read Claggart as a basically decent man stuck in an impossible situation, and Billy as a charismatic psychopath with a tyrannical grip on his shipmates.A benefit of this interpretation is that it makes sense of the circumlocutions of the narrator's dialogue, as he turns somersaults trying to maintain the myth of The Handsome Sailor.It's also an appropriately cynical response from an author near the end of his life, looking back at the success of his earlier, more romantic, adventure stories.
    • 5/5
      Although well know for Moby Dick, the truth is that Melville left us a few minor materworks such as Billy Budd. An allegory about Jesus? Or just a rant against physical punishment in the Navy? Just like his whale, it is possible to find different meanings in this book.