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4 out of 5 stars
By
Mr,
on
18-03-13
General Gordon in Khartoum fighting the Mahdi.
Khartoum in 1884. Very descriptive and enjoyable, you can almost feel the sun and sand on your skin, a bit gruesome in parts. Khartoum 1884 General Gordon has vowed to fight the Mahdi to the death. Approaching with the Camel Corp. is a young doctor who has joined the expedition to rescue Gordon - story switches from John Clark the doctor to his wife left behind in London struggling with a Laudanum addiction that takes her into Victorian London's shady parts.
The whole story was brought to life for me by Peter Kenny's reading, the different voices are so well done and gives each character life. Peter Kenny is an outstanding reader, and I will certainly look for audio books narrated by him again.
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2 of 2 people found this review helpful
Customer Reviews
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4 out of 5 stars
By
connie
on
06-02-12
inside/outside; suffering/goodness
Instead of an Upstairs/Downstairs view, this gives us the dichotomy between the inside life of a middle class Victorian lady, "an angel of the hearth," versus the outside life of the honourable gentlemen -- all set to the background of a good historical tale.
This is no comedy of manners or Victorian potboiler: It shows the darkness of the Empire and of patriarchy, for both oppressor and oppressed -- The characters are isolated by gender, class, Empire, and all suffer, but can still make honourable/good decisions, or not.
Not a light listen, but it puts some meat on the bones of the contempory written, VIctorian set novel, and asks big questions that transcend the setting.
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2 of 2 people found this review helpful