English History, Dickens-style
Ah, it’s lovely to have archive.org behaving again … all sorts of long-ago recordings of mine are finding their way home, finally. Like my contribution to A Child’s History of England by Charles Dickens … I read the chapters England Under Richard the Second and England Under Henry the Fourth, Called Bolingbroke last June. Most of it is fairly straightforward prose, but Dickens does have occasional really splendid turns of phrase which remind me of the Horrible History books now … such as here, on greeting an unwanted visitor:
‘Fair cousin of Lancaster,’ said the King, ‘you are very welcome’ (very welcome, no doubt; but he would have been more so, in chains or without a head).
Get edumacated here: http://librivox.org/a-childs-history-of-england-by-charles-dickens/
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It IS a fun book, Todd, I enjoyed contributing to the free audio version linked in my original post. It’s good for people to have alternatives to LibriVox recordings; although Renee’s version costs $45 and I can’t find a way to hear her voice before buying, I know not everyone likes the narrator-changes for different chapters in the our version.
Sounds like Renee had a hard time finding a copy … if people don’t mind using an online source, I’d recommend the full (free) text at: http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/699
Our audio version is free as well … it would be an amazing homeschool project for kids to record their own reading of the chapter of their favourite monarch — and if their parents were willing, they could submit it and start a new version at LibriVox, too. Or mebbe it could be the base for a remix project, perhaps adding pictures and video to make a neat presentation! The imagination’s the limit when it comes to using our recordings …
Dicken’s Child’s History of England is lively writing indeed! It’s as much geared toward adults as children — maybe more so! Renee Ellison has read it aloud, so you can listen to it on a long trip. For info see homeschoolhowtos.com – online store (12 audio CDs: nearly 14 listening hours).