Speaking of Harriet Walter, as I was the other night, I see she's getting raves for a new audiobook reading of Hard Times. This has me torn. On the one hand, I'd love to hear her performance; on the other hand, I loathe abridgments (as you may have gathered from this anecdote). What to do, what to do . . . ?
It's like the time I found out that Hugh Laurie had done an (abridged) audiobook of Great Expectations. My inner conversation went something like this:
It's Hugh Laurie reading Dickens!
But it's abridged!
But it's Hugh Laurie reading Dickens!
But it's abridged!
But it's Hugh Laurie reading Dickens!
. . . and so on. So I finally bought it, and listened, and winced at every abridgment like a car with bad shock absorbers hitting a pothole. But still . . . it was Hugh Laurie reading Dickens. So in the end I wasn't sorry — but I still dug out the book and savored several of the cut passages to recompense myself for having missed them.
(I have a problem, don't I?)
All I'm really saying is this — Ms. Walter, if I go for it, you'd better make it worth it!
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