The Ordeal of Richard Feverel
George Meredith
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After his wife's desertion, Sir Austin wants to bring up his son according to a strict educational system governing every aspect of his life. However Richard has to make his own mistakes, fall in love, and generally live his own life. This book tells about the clashes between Richard's wish to govern his own life to his father's constant interference. This book was very influential. The leading libraries of the day considered it too frank and sexually explicit and refused to buy it. Later authors including E. M. Forster, Oscar Wilde and Virginia Woolf admired and respected it. - Summary by Stav Nisser and Wikipedia (18 hr 42 min)
Chapters
Reviews
Alison
This was a good, solid Victorian novel with an interesting premise - an experiment in how to raise a child. Unfortunately it was totally ruined by one of the readers to the extent that I had to abandon listening before the end and switch to the printed word for the last 8 chapters. His voice was monotonal (almost robotic), it was impossible to detect any difference between description and dialogue, it was impossible to distinguish between characters. I don’t expect dramatic renditions when I listen to audio books but some variation and emotion would be good. The other readers were fine but after listening to Chapter 38 I simply didn’t know what had happened which is why I gave up. What a shame, but a clear reminder that reading aloud is much more than just knowing the words.