Catriona cover art

Catriona

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Catriona

By: Robert Louis Stevenson
Narrated by: Frederick Davidson
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About this listen

 Catriona, first published in 1893, is the sequel to Kidnapped and continues the adventures of David Balfour and his friend Alan Breck. Balfour returns to the city in order to defend Breck against false charges in the Appin murder. In so doing, he becomes a pawn in a game between feuding Scottish clans; he also sets eyes on a young woman whose involvement in the same matter becomes as central to his actions as his desire to vindicate his comrade in arms.(P)1997 Blackstone Audiobooks Action & Adventure Classics Historical Historical Fiction Romance World Literature Fiction

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Critic reviews

"Frederick Davidson delivers the text of this nineteenth-century novel with a thoroughly convincing variety of Scottish brogues and English accents." ( AudioFile)
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I was astonished to read, on Wikipedia, the history of the narrator, Frederick Davidson. Apparently one of the most sought after readers of audio books. His voice is mellifluous, yes, but his accent and pronunciation of Scots and Gaelic words is lamentable. The story is, obviously, fantastic. This and Kidnapoed (also crucified by Davidson) are two of my favourite of Stevenson’s works, and two of my all time favourite tales. But his reading… oooft, could it not have been ‘proof listened’?

Has he ever heard a Scots accent?

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The story is a good sequel to Kidnapped but the narration was so awful that it was hard going to get to the end. The narrator simply hadn’t bothered to find out how to pronounce place names or surnames and his attempts at them were ludicrously wrong. The voices he chose for the Scottish characters were likewise dreadful. The contrast with David Rintoul’s excellent reading of Kidnapped was acute. What a waste of effort.

Good story. Terrible narration

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Wasn't too keen on this title but not for the same reason as the other reviews. There's a lot of complaints about the narrator, but I've listened to his narration of Kidnapped and if you read the reviews of that everyone is singing his praises and he has won lots of awards for his narrations. Being Scottish I didn't mind the fact he's English, probably makes it more accessible to non-Scottish listeners and I didn't find it inferior to his narration of Kidnapped. However I didn't find the story anywhere near as exciting as Robert Louis Stevensons other more popular novels. And it would mean nothing if you haven't read Kidnapped. If you haven't read Kidnapped, Treasure Island or Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde then would recommend them first.

Not As Exciting As Kidnapped

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This narrator can make the most exciting stories as tedious as listening to last year’s weather forecast in Basque (if you aren’t Basque). He can’t even pronounce Catriona properly, so I can’t think he was remotely interested in the story or the listener. One day I’ll find a better version.

A good story, spoiled by narrator

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Oh for David Rintoul ! please find his depiction of Kidnapped if you want to hear how a book should be read.The narrator was awful with a peculiar strangulation of the Scottish accent which made it impossible to enjoy the book.

Oh for David Rintoul !

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You will need to have read Kidnapped before reading this book. It is the conclusion of the life of David Balfour after he returns from his escapades. Some parts of this dragged slightly and I didn't fully understand the character of Catriona, despite being female. Shall I conclude that RLS didn't understand women's characters, or perhaps I'm a female oddity? Otherwise it was all good and satisfying, the conclusion had a good pace to it, and it finished well. I would have preferred a native Scottish narrator as sometimes his accent veered into Irish or home counties.

Satisfying conclusion

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This is surely the best of Robert Louis Stevenson enjoyable whitty dialogue

catrionaa

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Such a pity about the narration. It is very hard for the English and Americans to get Scottish accents right. Compared with David Rintoul’s reading of Kidnapped this is awful. I had to stop listening.

Why not read by a Scot?

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Catriona follows on from Kidnapped. Not quite as fast-paced in areas as its predecessor, it is still overall a great read. The narrator’s Scottish accent wasn’t great, but I had grown accustomed to him reading Kidnapped, so it didn’t, for me, detract from a well written story.

Enjoyable

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The first warning that this was not going to be well read was the mispronounciation of the title. As this was the name of a main character I was not going to be able to be listening to this book for long.
The second was the ridiculous voice given to David Balfour. He did not go to a public school in Edinburgh.
Seriously, who decided that this reader would do the story any justice. Just as well it came free with my membership of Audible. The rendition is quite probably why it is free.
I gave up.

Shocking rendition

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