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Don Juan

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Don Juan

By: Lord Byron
Narrated by: Frederick Davidson
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About this listen

 Byron's exuberant masterpiece tells of the adventures of Don Juan, a handsome and charming young man naturally gifted with the ladies. After his first illicit love affair at the age of 16 in his native Spain, he is exiled to Italy. Following a dramatic shipwreck, his exploits take him to Greece, where he is sold as a slave, and to Russia, where he becomes a favorite of the Empress Catherine, who sends him on to England.

Written in ottava rima stanza form, Byron's Don Juan blends high drama with outrageous farce. Sprinkled with digressions on wealth, power, society, chastity, poets, and England, Don Juan is a poetical novel of satirical fervor and wit.

(P)1996 Blackstone Audio Inc. European Genre Fiction Literary Fiction Literary History & Criticism Poetry World Literature Fiction Witty Italy England

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It's a bad start when the reader mispronounces the name of the title character - Byron's character is not 'hwan', he is 'joo-an', and there are several other mispronunciations of names. But that can be ignored. What can't be ignored is that the reader breaks up the poem by giving the number of the stanza before reading each one - It makes the whole thing feel like an extraordinarily long shopping list rather than an epic poem. Added to that, the rustling of paper, a speaking style that is very old-fashioned (how old is the recording?!) and a complete lack of awareness of the inherent rhyme and rhythm of the poem.

Unfortunately it seems to be the only full recording of this poem available, but I have to say it would be better not to bother with it.

Appalling reading - what a complete waste of time

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It isn't fair to give such a low rating to the performance of this excruciatingly long, ineffably annoying lyric journey. I think the snarky drawl fits the poem with great fidelity. I found listening to it for more than an hour to be a serious trial, and made me dislike the piece with an intensity that surprised me. So, well done Frederick Davidson, and I'll never listen to another performance of yours ever.

500 pages of snark

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