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Facades
- Narrated by: Frazer Douglas
- Length: 28 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged Audiobook
- Categories: Biographies & Memoirs, Art & Literature
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Summary
Edith, Osbert and Sacheverell Sitwell were the children of possibly the most selfish and mismatched couple in the annals of the British aristocracy. They became in the 1920s, in Cyril Connolly's words, 'a dazzling monument to the English scene... had they not been there a whole area of life would have been missing.'
John Pearson describes the public and private life of this strangest and most flamboyant of literary families.
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What listeners say about Facades
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Mary
- 07-11-18
Absolutely fascinating
This is really good listen, long but enthralling. I knew little about the Sitwells and what I did know did not endear them to me. This book, based on detailed research, puts them into the literary context of the first half of the twentieth century and transforms them into real and almost likeable personailities. In order to produce a definitive biography of the famiy, the author has taken a year by year approach, which is necessarily repetitive and accounts for the length of the book.
The reading by Frazer Douglas is vigorous and helps to overcome the repetitiveness and length. It's a great shame though that Douglas was so badly let down by the producer (this is an Audible production 2012) who evidently did not brief him before or edit him during the read. To mispronounce Sacheverell would be be entirely forgiveable were it not for the fact that he is one of the chief chracters in the book and his name is mentioned countless times. There are many other mistakes and not just on proper names.
1 person found this helpful
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- Alison St Pierre
- 11-03-14
A restrained insight into indulgent eccentricity.
The introduction is far too long and far too guarded, apologising to everyone alive and dead before it begins. This sets the tone for the entire book. Fascinating in parts, hinting at the promise of entertaining anecdotes without offering the all important detail and falling short of delivering the goods on occasion . Far too reverent in its approach, teasing the reader with the vaguest details of the families most extreme behaviour . Here lies the dry facts for a gifted and fearless writer to turn into a best seller with film rights. The writer shields the family from any suggestion of impertinence and in so doing so, misses opportunities. A good read none the less!
1 person found this helpful
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- Mr. B. Martin
- 04-04-18
A Riveting tale, brilliantly told and read!
Would you listen to Facades again? Why?
Yes and I have done, many times. A fascinating story of the Sitwells' (mainly Edith and Osbert) and extremely well read by Frazer Douglas.
What other book might you compare Facades to, and why?
Agatha Christie: An Autobiography. About the same length (28 hours) and once again the story is consistently engaging. Brilliantly read by Judith Boyd. In both cases the readers are totally in tune with the tone of the author.
Which scene did you most enjoy?
Any where Edith dresses down somebody for "impertinence" - a frequent occurrence!
Did you have an emotional reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?
It is extremely funny as both Osbert and Edith were very witty, in particular when sending up their eccentric Father, Sir George. It is also very sad in relation to how Edith was treated as a child and how this affects the rest of her life.
Any additional comments?
John Pearson is a brilliant writer and Frazer Douglas' narration could not be bettered.
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- Victoria Leslie
- 05-08-18
wow
Fantastic! Absolutely worth the time. The research is amazing and the voice is impeccable. And, the narration gives it life.
1 person found this helpful
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- Robyn
- 26-06-13
well written, badly read
This is a beautifully written book. The subjects' lives and their times are presented in fascinating detail, and Pearson has a masterful command of the language so the characters and the era come to life beautifully.
But by about halfway through, I was finding the Sitwells excruciatingly boring. They might have made important contributions to the arts but, really, they were a tedious and snobbish trio. I did feel sorry for poor Edith, but my sympathy couldn't carry to the end of the book. For anyone who doesn't have at least a basic knowledge of English poetry and poets and the arts in general, it would probably be a waste of time.
The really outstanding thing about this book is the dreadful narration. I can see why Mr Douglas got the job. He has a really nice voice and enunciates very well, so he would be very easy to listen to for 22 hours EXCEPT for the oh-so-frequent mispronunciations - even in English. I started to list them for this review, but there were so many I didn't have time to go to my notebook each time my ears were offended. It's odd, because he obviously has some knowledge of French and Italian and a reasonable accent in both languages, so how does he mispronounce things like Commedia dell'arte, San Gimignano, Ballets Russes - the list goes on. German too - Bayreuth. Even in English - executor (of a will) pronounced executor (as in hangman); antecedents pronounced an-tessa-dents - again, the list goes on.
Mr Douglas has an idiosyncratic way of punctuating sentences - I doubt Mr Pearson wrote in all those commas and full stops. And sometimes he seems to be speaking as though he's keeping time with a metronome at his side.
Doesn't Audible audition people before entrusting them with a book? Doesn't anyone check before it goes on sale? If a book has foreign words, surely the reader should know enough to be able to pronounce them correctly, or to check out any of which s/he is uncertain. For a finely written book to be mangled in the narration like this is a shame.
2 people found this helpful