Throughly enjoyed

I am now in my seventies and did not read fiction growing up as I am dyslexic. I read for knowledge and my education only.
I am like a child now, loving literature since discovering audio books and would highly recommend Thomas Hardy to any age group.
For myself, who loves the English language, I find Hardy’s stories bring to life so many words that are fading from popular use. I am both enthralled and enlightened and in search of my next book.

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Another wonder of a book!

loved it! Thomas hardy as always - wonderful. never wanted it to end, next book please!

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Thomas Hardy never fails to please

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

Thomas Hardy brings alive the characters in his story. They are some ways very modern and one feels for their trials and tribulations as if they were neigbours. A wonderful and moving tale exceptionally well read.

Who was your favorite character and why?

Tess - a girl of action and decision. She makes choices. However, we are continually frustrated with the choices she makes. She is quite young so we shouldn't be surprised at this. However, part of the great entertainment afforded by this novel is pondering what her alternative choices were and whether those might have resulted in any better an outcome for her.

What does Simon Vance bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you had only read the book?

Simon reads the book with sympathy and portays each of the characters with vivacity.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

I would quite happily have listened to this book in one sitting. It is an excellent story well read.

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so happy I finally read it

loved it. couldn't wait to come back to it every time. can't believe I waited this long to read it

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classic

one of the best books ive read in a long time, beautifully written and historically interesting

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the accents and rhythm was disappointing

I wasn't the biggest fan of this story, but I may well have liked it more if the narrator's accents hadn't been so awful and his rhythm so repetative to the point that once I noticed he said everything in the same way I got very irritated. with the addition of none of the characters being particularly likable I aslo struggled to finish this book. However, it was not entirely without merit as a story itself and does highlight the difficulties of the times, particularly for women.

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not Hardy at his best - woeful narration

I love Thomas Hrady, but had never read this book, though I knew the story. I found it lacked the lyricism of his other works, and the characters were not as well-formed - aside from Tess and Angel, the characters are almost caricatures of West Country bumpkins, though that may have been down to the narrator. I didn't feel Tess was as fully-formed a character as some of Hardy's other heroines, and Angel is not sympathetic at all, so hard to feel Tess's love for him. I struggled at times to stay interested, and found myself listening just to try to get it over and done with.

Ultimately, though, it was the narration that spoiled this. Simon Vance puts on such terrible women's voices it is farcical, so it's hard to take Tess seriously. His portrayal of the country folk is too far-fetched and comical. Hardy writes tragic, moving novels, not bawdy comedies. And most unforgivable of all - he cannot do a West Country accent, and his attempt drifts further and further west throughout the book, so Tess in turn becomes Welsh and eventually Irish by the end of the book. Appalling.

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2 people found this helpful