Classic Tales of Humour!

by Nigel Hawthorne, Mark Twain, Saki

A very amusing collection of stories from yesteryear given the comic touch of The Madness of George film star, sadly now deceased, Nigel Hawthorne with authors such as Mark Twain, O. Henry, Saki and Kipling. CSA have assembled a varied collection of short stories which we are confident will keep the listener constantly amused over its three hour length. So, from Kipling's inebriated duo struggling home to Hammersmith from the City of London docks, one of them pushing the other in a wheelbarrow, via the classic village cricket match played next to The Three Horseshoes pub from England, Their England to Saki's sardonic view of upper middle-class house parties. There's a classic case of mistaken identity in Dickens' The Great Winglebury Duel and Lewis Carroll's tale of a photographer who is obsessed about taking photographs of girls called Amelia! American authors have their say with the short story specialist O. Henry's likeable scoundrels and Mark Twain's compulsive gambler in Jeff Peters as a Personal Magnet and The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County respectively.

Genres: Humor, Audiobook, Fiction, Short Stories, Short Story Collection, Classics

MP3 CD

First published April 1, 1994

About the author

Sir Nigel Hawthorne was born in England, but moved to South Africa when only 4. He returned to England as a young man and began to make his name in such productions as Joan Littlewood's Oh What a Lovely War and Peter Nichols' Privates on Parade. His major TV breakthrough came as Sir Humphrey in Yes, Minister - then Yes, Prime Minister. He won many awards for his role as King George III in Alan Bennett's play at the National Theatre and then in the film Madness of King George. His most recent major role was as King Lear in Japan and at the RSC in l999. Since 2000 he had been battling with cancer and died on December 26, 2001.

Reviews

[Dawn]

Really could not get into these stories. Except for Mark Twain’s celebrated jumping frog of Calaveras County, I don’t think I’d heard the others and I couldn’t really tell you what they were about after listening to them.

[Paul]

Listened to this while driving across Australia. Very funny and highly entertaining short stories. I felt transported back to an earlier time, 19th century England and America. While all the stories are good, the standout for me was the Cricket story. Side splitting funny. Highly recommend this book for the long distance traveller. It will keep you entertained.

[Doug Lewars]

*** Possible Spoilers ***

The only story I didn't care for from this selection was the first. All the rest were good to great. I particularly enjoyed Saki's contribution. It was some of the best satire I've encountered in a long time. I peacock incident cracked me up. The cricket match was also first rate.

[Elizabeth]

The cricket story, like the game itself, was interminable, but the rest were delightful if you're a high Victorian like me.

[Catka]

I have no idea what I have been listening to, the narrator was not doing a great job and my mind kept wandering. Also, I did not laugh or even smile.

[Jack]

Overdrive Audiobook

[TheQueensBooksII]

These are great mood-lifters while also being glimpses into different worlds & times.

[Matilda]

21% DNF. Not particularly funny just old man being insensitive

[Tara]

A couple of these were mildly funny

[Buck]

I got this audiobook because I wanted to hear Mark Twain's The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County. Though it is much celebrated I'd never read it.

These oral stories failed to hold my attention. I found my mind wandering, gathering wool, throughout the listening. There was one story about a cricket match that was completely incomprehensible to me, not having the slightest knowledge of the game of cricket. Aside from that, I can't find a specific criticism of these oral stories, except perhaps that ol' Nigel's voice is so veddy British and I am not properly stuffy enough to appreciated it.

I pointedly paid attention to the The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County. Hawthorne did a pretty good rustic American accent. His pronunciation of Calaveras surprised me, though. He put the accent on the second syllable, so that it rhymed with cadaverous. I, not having ever heard it pronounced I think, would have accented the third syllable. The story itself simply wasn't as good as it's fame would suggest.

[Jksmith]

The audio needed to make better definition between the stories. They all ran together making it hard to tell when the stories ended and the next one started.
I was hoping to laugh out loud, but didn't.

[Jeremy C. Brown]

Couldn't get in it. Drunkenness isn't very funny to me, and I guess that was really funny to everyone back then? Oh well...

[Kristin Emily]

I failed to grasp the humor.

[The Docta]

They were really good. Very funny and entertaining. Upbeat happy stories are refreshing in the older writing.

[Theacrob]

This didn't work for me as an audiobook. I'd recommend a hard copy if you're interested. The stories are good but the media didn't translate.