A Tale of Two Cities

Simon Prebble is the perfect narrator for Charles Dickens's complex saga of love, betrayal, and self-sacrifice during the French Revolution. Beginning in 1775 and continuing through the storming of the Bastille by French peasants to its inevitable outcomes, the story of Charles Darnay, Sydney Carton, and Lucie Manette is given new life in Prebble's truthful characterizations. Leaving no doubt which person is speaking, Prebble's vocal artistry provides each character with ingenious quirks and idiosyncrasies, allowing listeners to picture real people in a full range of economic conditions. From the infamous Madame Defarge to the villainous Marquis EvrÄmonde, Prebble heightens tensions, making even lengthy descriptive passages as vital as the social inequities and romantic entanglements. Here's an undisputed classic given a fresh performance by a master audio-actor. S.J.H. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award (c) AudioFile 2012, Portland, Maine


Anton Lesser reads Dickens's historical romance about a French-English family caught up in the French Revolution in a voice fraught with incipient emotion, acting out roles with intensity but without becoming tiresome. A one-man ensemble, he distinguishes characters clearly yet effortlessly, without crudely broad strokes. He renders moments of quiet emotion with delicacy, perhaps even more effectively than big emotions, though he gives rioting Parisians their due. He manages, almost without faltering, to keep the novel vivid and intimate, pressing it into the listener's heart and mind, though at times Dickens's sentimentality and melodrama are hard to take. This is as fine a performance as one can reasonably expect from a narrator. W.M. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award, 2006 Audie Award Finalist (c) AudioFile 2006, Portland, Maine