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    Captain Corelli's Mandolin
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    Captain Corelli's Mandolin
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    Captain Corelli's Mandolin
    Audiobook17 hours

    Captain Corelli's Mandolin

    Written by Louis de Bernieres

    Narrated by Michael Maloney

    4/5

    ()

    Unavailable in your country

    Unavailable in your country

    About this audiobook

    It is 1941 and Captain Antonio Corelli, a young Italian officer, is posted to the Greek island of Cephallonia as part of the occupying forces. At first he is ostracised by the locals, but as a conscientious but far from fanatical soldier, whose main aim is to have a peaceful war, he proves in time to be civilised, humorous - and a consumate musician.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherW. F. Howes Ltd
    Release dateMay 7, 2015
    ISBN9781471293450
    Unavailable
    Captain Corelli's Mandolin
    Author

    Louis de Bernieres

    Louis de Bernières, who lives in Norfolk, published his first novel in 1990 and was selected by Granta magazine as one of the twenty Best of Young British Novelists in 1993. Since then he has become well known internationally as a writer, with his novel Captain Corelli's Mandolin winning the Commonwealth Writers' Prize for Best Novel in 1994. As well as writing, de Bernières plays the flute, mandolin and guitar. He was born in London in 1954.

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    Reviews for Captain Corelli's Mandolin

    4/5

    2,034 ratings87 reviews

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    • 5/5
      This was a very touching story that was a mixture of romance and history and I enjoyed it very much. The characters are the type that will stay with you for a long time. I thought it was very well written and I learned a lot of Mussolini and World War II. It's a type of book that you hate for it to end. I would recommend to anyone who enjoys love stories and history.
    • 5/5
      A wonderful book which combines romance and love with the brutalities and hardship of war.
    • 5/5
      This is a book I’d tried to get into several times in the past. The audiobook’s beautiful narration was exactly the companion I needed to read along and finally read/hear this funny, heartbreaking story.
    • 4/5
      This book was very slow to get going but once it did I was sucked into the story and towards the end could not put it down. I am not keen on war or history as a rule but I actually feel I may have learnt a little on the way through this one. Stunningly written with some sentences that make you go back and re-read them such is their beauty.
    • 4/5
      Captain Corelli’s Mandolin is a sweeping narrative set in equal parts war, love, history, and philosophy. The story takes place on the Ionian island of Cephalonia from before its invasion by Italy during World War II, through the tragic earthquake of 1953, and ultimately to the 1990s. Author de Bernières masterfully applied tried-and-true techniques to build strong, rememberable characters and set illustrious scenes. Like a song that changes chord, Captain Corelli’s Mandolin seamlessly shifts forms between chapters at once epistole, to first-person narrative, and third-person narrative. Generally recommended for anyone looking for a well-written, immersive, and moving story.
    • 4/5
       Good book, good movie, good read.
    • 4/5
      Historical fiction set on the Greek island of Cephalonia during the Axis powers’ occupation in WWII. The first part focuses on a young Greek woman, Pelagia, and her widowed physician father, Dr. Iannis. Pelagia learns medical techniques by watching her father, and she is educated beyond the typical level (especially for a woman of the time) due to being the doctor’s only child. She and a local fisherman, Mandras, fall in love and get engaged. He goes off to fight the war on the Albanian front. During his absence, Pelagia writes to him but never receives a reply. Meanwhile, Captain Antonio Corelli, the leader of the Italian occupying forces, is housed with Dr. Iannis and Pelagia. He is no zealot – his goal is to have “a peaceful war.” At first Pelagia is determined to resist the occupiers, but she gradually begins to admire Corelli, especially when he plays his mandolin. Mandras returns and Pelagia must decide what to do.

      The author gradually develops the romantic liaison between Corelli and Pelagia. In fact, this entire story is gradually layered. All of these characters are complex and come across as authentic, with both strengths and flaws. There are a number of secondary characters that complement the primary storylines, and they are beautifully rendered. For example, the (gay) relationship between Carlo and Francesco is both sweet and tragic. There is also a wayward priest and a strongman. They are eccentric and memorable characters, and they add depth to the narrative.

      One of the primary themes is the adverse effects of ideologies on ordinary people. It includes real historical figures such as Mussolini, Hitler, and Metaxas. We follow Mandras from happy-go-lucky fisherman to vindictive soldier. Another main theme is the different types of love – brotherly, religious, romantic, familial, and sacrificial. This novel is a condemnation of totalitarianism. The author employs musical themes to offset some of the horrors of war.

      This is a five-star read for the first three-quarters. The author took time in developing details and layers of setting and characters during the war. The last quarter takes large leaps in time and feels rushed in comparison. As a warning, war-time atrocities are vividly depicted.

      4.5
    • 4/5
      Pelagia lives with her father Dr. Iannis on the Greek Island of Cephalonia. They have a relatively idyllic existence until WWII begins, taking Pelagia's fiance to the front, and until the Italian and German occupation of the island starts in 1941. Pelagia and her father are initially suspect when they are required to host an Italian captain, Antonio Corelli, but over the course of his stay, the captain manages to win them over with his gentle charm and beautiful mandolin playing, and eventually, he and Pelagia fall in love. But the war rages on and when Antonio and Pelagia are separated, they do not know when or if they will meet again.I wasn't sure I would enjoy this; I had lumped it in my head with The English Patient (both acclaimed literary war novels that I bought at the same time from a library book sale with movie tie-in covers, I guess?) which didn't really work for me when I read it last year. But I really enjoyed this one! The setting is gorgeous and Bernieres does a good job of balancing the parts that dive into the atrocities of war with the less gruesome but still difficult aspects of the war's effect on normal people. I also appreciated that this book didn't end with the war ending, but instead gave us closure. 4 stars.
    • 4/5
      I read this book in my late teens / early twenties, and adored it. So with war in Europe again, I went back to see if the suck fairy had visited... And was pleasantly surprised! It remains lyrical, entrancing, heartbreaking and stirring, staying with your heart like the last chords of mandolin music echoing over the hills. It is such an odd book. de Bernieres' ridiculously over the top prose isn't even trying to be literary, but somehow the florid and convoluted sentences are just right for drawing out the personalities of his characters and the world they live in. And it is the carefully drawn personalities that make this book. It is so easy to fall in love with Psipsina the pine marten, the gentle Doctor with his rambling history, and of course Pelagia and her handsome captain. Even the baddies are drawn sympathetically and complexly. Bits remind me of Ulysses, that very stream-of-conscious intimate insight into people's minds. When I was younger I read it for the love triangle - betrothed to a man she can no longer love, Pelagia falls for an Italian captain, and must hide her love or be branded a collaborator. Now I am older, the themes of PTSD and being broken by tragedy are so much clearer - Mandras, broken by the horrors of war, Dr Iannis who never speaks again after the earthquake, Pelagia nursing her father's grave... The war in this book is horrific and traumatic, flesh sloughing off from frostbite, doomed marches with little reason or hope...There are a few things that are more uncomfortable to me now though. At the time, the book was one of the first I had encountered with a sympathetic gay character. Now the story of 'gay man stays closetted his entire life and dies heroically saving the man he loves' is more uncomfortable than it was then,. And Corelli's homophobia, while realistic, is so sad: 'I wish you hadn't shown me these. I've just realised that I'm more old fashioned than I thought'. Also, for all Pelagia is painted as So Awesome and going to be a female doctor, she is surprisingly passive in much of the main storyline, and the lengths the book goes to to have her still pure and virginal and making sure we all know this is slightly uncomfortable. 'She is going to bring up a child! But definitely not Her Child!' 'She is going to get raped by her ex fiance! But definitely Not Enough to make her Damaged Goods!' The way she waits around for Corelli forever, but never actually does any kind of research on Italian mandarin players, would be amazingly annoying, if it wasn't contrasted with the supremely ridiculous 'I came all this way to see you but ran away because you were holding a baby' behaviour of Corelli.Then again, maybe that's what I love about this book, the characters are full of human foibles and ridiculousness, and that's what makes them lovable even as we roll our eyes at them.
    • 4/5
      This was a book of two halves and the first half I loved; indeed Captain Corelli's Mandolin was lining up to my favourite novel of all time by about half way through. I mean, I don't know if the bit about the German captain so upset to be captured in an embarrassing way that his British captor had to tach him how to play Ludo to cheer him up is a piece of history de Bernieres plucked out to include in his story but if it's not it should be. So, I was somewhat disappointed to read the second half and find, to my growing disquiet, that I hated it. Absolutely despised it. I have never read a book which has two halves so unlike each other that I'm tempted to believe they were originally two different books inexpertly grafted on to each other like a less amusing The Thing With Two Heads.
    • 3/5
      3.25 starsDuring World War II, Greece is occupied by Italian soldiers. Captain Corelli stays at a house with Dr. Iannis and his daughter, Pelagia. Although Pelagia is betrothed to a Greek boy who has gone to fight, she and Corelli fall in love. I could have done without the entire first third of the book or so. It was a lot of background/setup, and the story really didn't get interesting to me until Corelli entered the picture (a third of the way into the book). That storyline held my attention. I liked Corelli, Pelagia and her father. Other chapters that focused more on the war and on Pelagia's betrothed really weren't interesting to me in the least. I did like that there were plenty of humourous bits in the story. I also loved Pelagia's pet pine martin, Psipsina. Once the war ended, and the focus was back on Pelagia, it was, once again, much more interesting to me.
    • 5/5
      One of the finest romance, adventure, war, and literary novels that I have come across. The characters permeate with truth and meaning. The story is not beset by borders, rather it defines them. A truly remarkable book-- one for the ages.5 stars. No contest.
    • 3/5
      A great, sweeping summer read. Wonderfully funny in parts, touching in others, and well written throughout.
    • 4/5
      Largely a WWII novel set on the Greek island of Cephalonia during the occupation by the Italians told from a wide variety of perspectives but largely orbiting the lives of Pelagia, a local girl, and the charming Italian Captain Antonio Corelli who comes to the island as part of the occupying forces. I picked up this novel after seeing the film as amidst the terrible accents and overstrung moments of the adaptation I saw the great narrative possibilities of the source material. And while it took some getting into, the novel does deliver. Getting through the initial chapters which are densely written and filled with five dollar words there is a beautiful narrative of life on a small, old island which is completely shattered by war and modernity. Worth picking up if you like historical fiction set during WWII or liked the film and wished for a version without Nicholas Cage's abominable Italian accent.
    • 4/5
      I saw the movie and it was beautiful!
    • 5/5
      What a beautifully written book! I wept; I laughed out loud; I was furious; I was anxious and worried; I gasped in horror; I smiled secret smiles; I rejoiced; I LOVED. All the characters, even the minor ones, come to life. I did think a few chapters could have been edited, as they didn't serve the plot (but DID provide background history of WW II), and I found the ending unsatisfactory. But still, after borrowing it from the library I RAN out and bought it - High praise indeed.

      I read it first in April 2001, and then recommended it to one of my book clubs and re-read it in Oct 2001.

      BTW - The movie was absolutely horrible. Forget the movie! READ the book!
    • 5/5
      Six-word review: Much more than romantic wartime drama.Extended review:Things I loved about this book:
      1. The drama of intertwined lives and how the consequences of one's choices cascade across other people and future generations.
      2. The theme of history rooted in place--the way a sense of place informs the lives of those who live in it and links them to their collective past. The residents of Cephallonia (Kephalonia) draw a strong sense of identity from their ties to fabled Ithaca, Odysseus, and the ancient gods of Greece.
      3. The idea of roots growing together.
      4. The character of Corelli.
      5. The narrative scope and depth. The penetration of character. The breadth of characters. The journeys of the imagination into inner lives, including those of known historic figures such as Mussolini.
      6. The depiction of characters coping with loss, injustice, and simple dumb error, as everyone must who lives in the world.
      7. Using virtually unintelligible old English in dialogue to convey the effect of an educated officer trying to communicate with the inhabitants by speaking ancient Greek.
      8. The Anvil Chorus in the latrine.
      Somewhere in the second hundred pages, I bogged down and nearly gave up. But I was led on by the promise of something fine, and I wasn't disappointed. The ending has something of the same poignancy that I found at the end of A.S. Byatt's Possession, which, after all the breadth and complexity of the plot and the multitudinous characters, was the part that stayed with me: a satisfying payoff for the investment of my time and attention, and a place that we couldn't have arrived at by a shorter route.I was bothered by a few little things--little, but perhaps not trivial--including a surprising misquotation of the famous Schubert Lied, "Gretchen am Spinnrade." And the present translation, alas, failed the biceps test on page 17. But rather than enumerating the lapses I wish someone had caught, which I tend to do only with books that tip my balance scale too far toward the don't-like side, I'll share a few of my favorite quotes:•    [Concerning a young woman named Lulu, daughter of Metaxas, whose family concerns are on a par with matters of state] God knows, one is only young once, but in her case it was once too often. (page 26)•    Moreover, the captain was possessed of a deep curiosity, so that he could sit with unnerving patience watching Pelagia's hands doing the formal dance of the crochet, until it seemed to her that his eyes were radiating some strange and potent force that would give her fingers the cramps and cause her to lose a stitch. 'I'm wondering,' he said one day, 'what a piece of music would be like if it sounded the way your fingers look.' She was deeply puzzled by this apparently nonsensical remark, and when he said that he did not like a certain tune because it was a particularly vile shade of puce, she surmised either that he had an extra sense or that the wires of his brain were connected amiss. The idea that he was slightly mad left her feeling protective towards him, and it was this that probably eroded her scruples of principle. The unfortunate truth was that, Italian invader or not, he made life more various, rich and strange. (page 207; I recognize this as a description of synesthesia)•    [Dr Iannis, speaking of Italian invaders] One can only forgive a sin after the sinner has finished committing it, because we cannot allow ourselves to condone it whilst it is still being perpetrated. (page 281)•    'Very well,' said Weber, and he closed his eyes and prayed. It was a prayer that had no words, addressed to an apathetic God. (page 324)•    There was always the sea, the source of Cephallonia's being, but also the source of all its turbid past and the strategic significance which was now a curious memory, the same sea that in future times would cause new invasions of Italians and Germans who would be roasting on the sands together and leaving films of moisturizing oil upon the water, tourists puzzled by the empty and surmising gaze of elderly Greeks in black who passed without acknowledgment or a word. (page 343)This was a beautiful read, costing a little bit of effort, perhaps, but worth it.
    • 5/5
      More later, but for now I'll say I loved this book, though it breaks my heart
    • 2/5
      Lekker vlot lezend, breed uitgeschreven werk tegen de achtergrond van de (rampzalige) Italiaanse bezetting van Griekenland in de Tweede Wereldoorlog. Uitgewaaierd over heel wat figuren en invalshoeken (waarvan enkele echte historische personages zoals Mussolini) en met een portie wreedheid van de oorlog en een mooie liefdesgeschiedenis. Leuke vakantielectuur dus, maar ik had het niet zo voor de lyrische-Marqueziaanse stijl; net voor halfweg dichtgeslagen.
    • 5/5
      What a fantastic story! So many funny scenes I can't mention them all, but I think the stand out moment for me was Captain Corelli's erection. I was hooked from the first scene; I temporarily lost my hearing a few years ago and when it came back it was just as Stamatis describes it: "My head feels empty... it feels as though my whole head has filled up with water...". I particularly enjoyed the amount of time that passes during the narrative. Don't quite know why but I've always liked that kind of thing. That jump cut in 2001 gets me right here every time.
    • 1/5
      Sentimental.
    • 4/5
      To say the least, Corelli’s Mandolin is a very ambitious book. Across its sprawling scope, it can simultaneously be viewed as a love story (several love stories, in fact), a war story, a multi-generational family saga, a work of historical fiction, and a non-so-thinly veiled political diatribe against “isms” of all kinds—Nazism, Fascism, Imperialism, Communism. It is also, in alternating measures, a book that is funny, wise, heartbreakingly sad, harrowing, and life-affirming. Finally, it is a celebration of the enduring beauty that can be found in music, whether in the form of operatic arias sung by home-sick soldiers or tremolos played on the mandolin.The center of de Bernières’ story involves Pelagia, a young Greek woman, and Antonio Corelli, a captain in the Italian Army, who fall in love during the early stages of World War II. Under Mussolini’s orders, the Italian militia has come to occupy much of Greece, including Pelagia’s island home of Cephallonia. This puts the Italians in direct conflict with the Nazi occupying force, but also places Corelli into the home where Pelagia lives with her father, Dr. Iannis, the island’s physician and unofficial historian. Despite the deprivation going on around them—and the fact that she is already betrothed to Mandras, a local fisherman—the affection between Pelagia and Corelli deepens during the relatively idyllic days before reality sets in. Indeed, it is when the war comes in full force to their small corner of the world that these two find out just how star-crossed their love actually is.I enjoyed reading Corelli’s Mandolin quite a bit and learned a lot of specific history that I had not known before. That said, though, the novel really felt like three distinct works fused together: an initial part involving life on Cephallonia before and shortly after the invasion, which was singularly charming and consumed most of the book; a brief middle part involving the brutality and inhumanity of the war; and another short final segment spanning the island’s post-war period over the subsequent 40 years. Only the first two of these sections worked for me; in fact, the last part felt far too rushed and the way in which the author chose to end the novel was both implausible and a little disappointing. Nevertheless, this is a novel that can be savored on a number of levels and it is one that I have no hesitance in recommending.
    • 4/5
      2012, AudioGO Ltd, Read by Michael Maloney“I am not a cynic, but I do know that history is the propaganda of the victors.” (Ch 6)Captain Corelli’s Mandolin is a vast, sprawling narrative, the main thread of which focuses on Pelagia and her father Dr Iannis, who live on the beautiful Greek island of Cephallonia. Against the backdrop of WWII and the Italian and German occupation of Cephallonia, Pelagia and Captain Corelli, an Italian officer who is a gifted musician, fall deeply in love. Various narrators include an omniscient voice, secret letters, the historical writings of Iannis, and the imagined megalomaniacal ravings of Mussolini. Many of the images of war are graphic; de Bernières himself described this as a novel about "what happens to the little people when megalomaniacs get busy."In beautiful, poetic prose, de Bernières delivers memorable characters, including Palagia’s goat and her “cat.” Themes include the many forms of love, music, study and literacy, the devastation of war. This is a novel rich in historical description. Truthfully, I found the breadth and depth of it almost too ambitious for a single novel and occasionally found myself losing track in the sheer sprawl of it. (By the mid 1960s, I was beginning to wonder if de Bernières was planning on a history of the world, or whether the conclusion was in sight). And I found the ending, in terms of Palagia and Corelli, stretched believability to the point of convenience.I read this now because it is in [1001 Books] and because I was curious. While I loved the writing, this one is guardedly recommended for the reasons expressed above. Michael Maloney, on the other hand, is highly, highly recommended. Extraordinary narrator!
    • 5/5
      This book is a work of art. Everything about it is wonderful. It has everything in it that makes a great story. Even if the romance between the two main characters had been the only focus of the book it would still have been a brilliant story.
      I watched the film before I read the book and hoped that it wouldn't spoil it and it didn't. Despite the little differences - and Nicholas Cage's dodgy Italian accent ;)- the film, I feel, does the book justice. If you've read the book and not watched the film, watch it! And vise versa. Beautiful story that makes you feel good.
    • 4/5
      moving story of greek island in WW2. wonderful characters, well written
    • 3/5
      Beautifully written but I couldn't cope with the very graphic war details - didn't finish it. Watched the movie with bookclub group but it wasn't that great - those who had read the book hated the changed ending.
    • 4/5
      really enjoyed this book written about Greece during WWII and the post war years. The author wrote in very short chapters and from different points of view. The second chapter, Duce, was in stream of consciousness in such a fashion as to paint the picture of his insanity. Most of all this is an anti-war book and author did not favor any country or political ideology. War was all a product of megalomaniacs. War hurts nature and people. It is also a love story and a story about love. It is a story about music and because I don't know music, I missed a lot here but a lover of music would appreciate this book and it should be tagged music. It is also a story of history. I don't know why it is 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die, what did it contribute to the development of the novel, but I loved it.
    • 5/5
      Utterly brilliant. Made me laugh, made me cry.
    • 4/5
      95% percent, no question, hands down 5 stars. I love the writing, love the style, love the balance of tragedy and comedy, love the epic nature of the tale (and that's not something I often enjoy), love the way the story wavers between international and personal history, intermingled with nods to Greek myth, and love the characters... except towards the end where some of the behaviour of the main characters did not, to my mind, ring true, hence the missing star.I wasn't sure what to expect, having only really heard bad things about the film and knowing that this was a "best-seller", which I've often found is pseudonym for "frightful dross", but I picked the book up for $3 at an op shop and a quick glance at the text had had me intrigued so I felt I didn't have much to lose. From the first page I was hooked, literally not wanting to put the book down. I carried it around the house, snatching moments to read. The historical setting was brought vividly to life as the backdrop to a set of wonderfully engaging and well-drawn characters. Four days later, I finished reading and was a little deflated.I agree with other reviewers here on Goodreads who say that the ending is unsatisfying. It's not that it's not "Hollywood" happy -- that would have pissed me off infinitely. De Bernières apparently suffers from the affliction of many other very, very good writers: the inability to bring a rich, complex and enthralling narrative to a worthy conclusion. That made the last section terribly disappointing compared with the rest of the book.Still, it has to stay on the "keeper" shelves. After all, a 95% brilliant book is better than a 100% so-so book any day.
    • 4/5
      A fine bit of historical fiction, with very lyrical description and was very well done for the majority of the book. The whole thing seemed to fall apart in the last 50 pages, though, and might have been better without them.