To Calais, in Ordinary Time
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To Calais, in Ordinary Time
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Narrated by:
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Matthew Houston
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Louise Williams
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Andrew Cullum
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By:
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James Meek
About this listen
Three journeys. One road.
England, 1348. A gentlewoman flees an odious arranged marriage, a Scots proctor sets out for Avignon and a young ploughman in search of freedom is on his way to volunteer with a company of archers. All come together on the road to Calais.
Coming in their direction from across the Channel is the Black Death, the plague that will wipe out half of the population of Northern Europe. As the journey unfolds, overshadowed by the archers' past misdeeds and clerical warnings of the imminent end of the world, the wayfarers must confront the nature of their loves and desires.
A tremendous feat of language and empathy, it summons a medieval world that is at once uncannily plausible, utterly alien and eerily reflective of our own. James Meek's extraordinary To Calais, in Ordinary Time is a novel about love, class, faith, loss, gender and desire - set against one of the biggest cataclysms of human history.
©2019 James Meek (P)2020 W. F. HowesListeners also enjoyed...
What listeners say about To Calais, in Ordinary Time
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- V
- 21-02-23
Worth listening to
Enjoyable and unusual story, weaving together themes of love, sexuality, war and morality and told in an approximation of Middle English.
Generally well read, given the difficulty of the language, although I found the depiction of Bernadine’s words quite annoying. Fortunately that was toned down as the book progressed.
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance1 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Amazon Customer
- 21-12-20
Interesting book, disappointing performances
This book is interesting, a neat piece of medievalism ambitious in its depictions of so many different cultural corners of c14th England. I get what meek is going for with the different tones between characters (low old English, high courtly French, clerkly Latin) but it gets a bit laboured. The performances on this really disappointed me. The pace is rushed, all of them inflect in ways that diminish interest or even obscure certain meanings, and one of them gasps really loudly and distranctingly at the end of each sentence. It's just confusing to hear sex scenes narrated with less sensuality than the evening news.
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5 people found this helpful
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance3 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Johnny Grey Ltd
- 11-12-20
Gripping story let down a bit by poor reading
It seems mean to complain but my pleasure on listening to this excellent book was marred by mispronunciations and poor emphasis on some words. I do understand it’s hard to get these things consistently right but mistakes break the spell of the story. From listening to quite a few Audible books I’ve found the quality of the reader so important that I’ll look for familiar actors’ names and if missing will probably not download the book.
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7 people found this helpful
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance2 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Anonymous User
- 13-10-22
original storyline which evoked the medieval perio
very authentic storyline which immersed you in the period and the characters. The readers were not good - monotonous tones.
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Overall2 out of 5 stars
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Performance1 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- R A Allen
- 26-08-21
Strange and irritating performance
It was a challenge to listen to whole story because of the affected and strange narration of the character of Bernadine. The distracting gasping at the end of every sentence made me concerned for her well-being! The character of Will was occasionally narrated so fast I had to change the speed to 0.8 to understand what he was saying. Altogether disappointing. I would recommend reading the actual book, rather than this lamentable audio performance. The story was quite enjoyable and interesting.
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1 person found this helpful