Posted by Cori on June 25th, 2009 — Posted in * My Recordings, Book Reviews, Fiction
Esther Waters is a book I saw recommended somewhere online a long time ago, bought in hard copy from the dingy basement of a London bookshop a year ago, and have now contributed two chapters to its audiobook incarnation. It’s a realist novel about a housemaid whose virtue is lost – outside the sanctity of marriage – to a roguish young man and the consequences of that action. It’s unusual for the period in that the world doesn’t end with a woman’s fall … things go on, and they are Victorianly grim, but also quite vivid and imaginable. It’s a long listen, at 14 hrs, but I reckon well worth it.
Download individual files or the whole thing in a zipped folder from:
http://librivox.org/esther-waters-by-george-moore/
Listen to me starting off the book:
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(17:07)
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Posted by Cori on June 1st, 2009 — Posted in * My Recordings, Drama and Poetry, Miscellaneous Audio
I’ve just found that a poem I recorded a long time ago, by Julia Ward Howe, has been used as part of a history podcast. The segment starts off with a lovely combined voice recording of her Mother’s Day Proclamation, and then continues with my own recording of her inspired Mother Mind. The show was released on 7th May, which I think fits in with the US Mother’s Day celebration … though we in Britain did it somewhat earlier on 22nd March.
I must confess, I hadn’t read this poem in a “Mothering Sunday” light at all, nor had I realised the poet had written “The Battle Hymn of the Republic.” I am now better informed and have thought about the poem further. I like her idea of a Mothers’ Peace Day observance far more than the commercial orgy of flowers and chocolates. Nothing says “Happy Mother’s Day” like your children being alive, safe and happy, rather than wounded or killed in any kind of war.
More information about the Talking History podcast here. Or listen:
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(03:44)
(Howe is Segment 2, Segments 1 and 3 are titled “The Good Mother: A History of American Motherhood.”)
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