The Other Place and Other Stories of the Same Sort
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The Other Place and Other Stories of the Same Sort
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Narrated by:
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David Sweeney-Bear
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By:
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J. B. Priestley
About this listen
"These stories say something meaningful, as well as relate an anecdote. They are not only examples of narrative skill, but exhibitions of social truth." (Saturday Review)
"Priestley is one of the finest and most popular storytellers of the last hundred years. We are now aware many of his stories have a prophetic quality." (Dame Margaret Drabble)
"[H]ighly readable and provocative." [Sunday Herald (Sydney)]
J. B. Priestley (1894-1984) was a versatile and prolific novelist and playwright, but in The Other Place (1953), he shows an unexpected talent, proving himself a master of the weird tale. In "The Grey Ones", Mr. Patson visits a psychiatrist after he becomes convinced that a race of demons masquerading as men are plotting the overthrow of the human race...but what if he's not insane? In "Guest of Honour", a banquet speech becomes a horrifying affair when the keynote speaker realizes his audience is made up of monstrous and menacing creatures. "The Leadington Incident" recounts the disturbing experience of a cabinet minister who suddenly perceives that though the people around him move and talk as though alive, they are all actually just animated corpses or sleepwalking zombies. The nine tales in this collection are strange, fantastic, and often unsettling, and they represent Priestley at his best.
©1953 J. B. Priestley (P)2019 Valancourt Books LLCListeners also enjoyed...
Fascinating strange tales
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Absorbing
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As such, the audiobook requires a voice actor able to bring Priestley's characterful speech to life. I'm pleased to say that 'The Other Place, and other stories of the same sort' is one of the most delightful audiobook experiences I've had. Sometimes I find audiobook narration sleep-inducingly robotic, sometimes overdone. Here, David Sweeney-Bear achieves the perfect balance: distinctive character voices without sacrificing clear diction and well-paced delivery, and a perfectly realised sense of drama. The first five stories were as compelling as any television drama I've seen recently.
My only gripe is the inclusion of both 'Guest of Honour' and 'The Leadington Incident' which cover such similar ground (it almost seems like one is a reworking of the other) that featuring both in the same collection feels wrong.
Still, this audio introduction to a likely unexamined aspect of Priestley's canon is highly recommended if you, like me, have acquired the taste for 'strange stories' in the vein of Robert Aickman, L P Hartley, H G Wells et al.
Although the stories could broadly be considered works of speculative fiction, the author's preoccupations with class, dissatisfaction, and societal decline (the arrival of a television set in a working class home in 'Uncle Phil on TV' is an amusing slice of social history) are to the fore. And, though they deal with life in post-war Britain, the stories anticipate contemporary concerns. For example, again, 'The Grey Ones' with its sense of a pervasive dominating force demanding banal conformity (while also suggesting H P Lovecraft transported to the English suburbs).
An engaging, thought-provoking collection.
Be transported to The Other Place...
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Just right for those long winter evenings
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