Derek Jacobi Books

I have to agree with a previous review, this is a FANTASTIC Audio production. The actors reading the books do a superb job: to the point that at times I don't believe it is the same person reading the different parts. They put such enthusiasm and character in to the voices and the readings that it makes the book come alive. Also a previous review recommended a different order in the reading of the books and I have to agree that the following order worked well for me.
1. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
2. Prince Caspian
3. The Voyage of the Dawn Treader (Lewis planned on stopping the series here, but apparently it took on a life of its own)
4. The Silver Chair (Actually written after, but published before "The Horse and His Boy")
5. The Horse and his Boy
6. The Magician's Nephew (Could be read first but I am glad I read (The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe) first.
7. The Last Battle.
Note: I bought this series for my grand children and I have really enjoyed each and every book.

We had seen the movies and heard of the series but never read them. We decided to purchase the complete seris on CD for a trip and they are awesome. I recommend these books for anyone wanting a good family friendly story. These were never boring and they are filled with good lessons; but not preachy.

The Complete Chronicles of Narnia is a wonderful addition to any family's entertainment collection. Even the boxes and discs are beautifully illustrated. More importantly, each of the seven novels is masterfully read by a talented actor who breathes life into the stories and characters. We listened to several books while moving across country and it certainly helped the miles go by!

A favorite series since I was young, but seems to get better with age! I find the lessons and characters erupting --like magic-- into my own life. Though generally considered Christian-based, it stands alone.

The performances are all wonderful, but Kenneth Branagh is truly inspired in "The Magician's Nephew". He is a brilliant (as the Brits would say) story teller. It makes me laugh out loud just to think of his voices for the talking animals (the bulldog, she elephant, leopard...)

Chronicles of Narnia is one of those rare set of books that everyone should read at least once. Through this well done cd box set, even those who aren't readers can enjoy the story. Great.

This is the quintessence of Tolkien's work and my favorite short story. There are writers that craft a good tale and then there are others who have actually been there. This book proves that Tolkien is among the latter.

In the little town of Wootton Major, they have a wonderful tradition where a special cake is baked every twenty four years, and eaten by twenty four good children. But, when a magical Faery star is slipped into this year's cake, it is eaten by the local smith's son. And so the life of the younger smith is changed beyond anyone's imagination - he is marked by beauty of face and voice, and (unbeknownst to anyone) he can even visit the land of Faery whenever he likes. It is a life of magic and giving.

I have long been familiar with J.R.R. Tolkein's famous books - The Hobbit and The Lord Of The Rings - but, this cute little book shows that just about everything that he put his hand to he did beautifully! This is a most wonderful little book, one that is sure to charm anyone who believes in beauty and wonder...and maybe hopes just a little that that land of Faery is a real place after all!

This new extended edition, edited by the estimable Verlyn Flieger, is a must-have for students and admirers of Tolkien. Of course, most of you will already have Smith of Wootton Major on your bookshelves, either in its own volume or in one of the several collections in which it has been reprinted -- so why get another copy?

Because Verlyn Flieger has included several additional (and essential) pieces to the Smith puzzle that have never been available before. These include: Flieger's introduction and afterword on Smith; Tolkien's Note to Clyde Kilby on the Genesis of Smith; his draft preface to a proposed new edition of George MacDonald's The Golden Key, from which kindling the story of Smith was struck -- though the preface was abandoned and the edition of The Golden Key never published; a long essay by Tolkien on the internals of Smith; a timetable and cast of characters with never-before-published details; and most interestingly, the entire draft of Smith, in both typescript and manuscript, reproduced in facsimile.

This is invaluable material for anybody interested in the development and meaning of Smith of Wootton Major. Prior to this edition, Verlyn Flieger quoted from some of these unpublished pieces in her 1997 volume A Question of Time: J.R.R. Tolkien's Road to Faërie, and even Tom Shippey (in The Road to Middle-earth) acknowledged the advantage she had in having seen this material. Now, it's available to all of us.

My one complaint about the book is that it is poorly produced (by HarperCollins, Tolkien's British publisher). The production quality -- and sadly, this is typical of British-made books of the past several decades -- is rather low. The spine is glued, rather than sewn, and it creaks and cracks, threatening to break any time the book is opened. The paper is like stiff newsprint and has a tendency to smudge. Terrible. But unfortunately, this volume has not been printed in the U.S., and the content is important enough to overcome the lackluster production quality.

J.R.R. Tolkien's short work, "Smith of Wooten Major," which he wrote late in life, has already appeared in several fine editions, both by itself and in combination with other pieces by Tolkien, and most of us Tolkien enthusiasts already have it on our shelves. So why another one now, and why should we buy it? There are several compelling things about this book that make it highly attractive to those seeking a deeper understanding of Tolkien as a writer and thinker, and I'll only mention four here. First, this extended edition includes an important never-before-published essay by Tolkien on the story and on Tolkien's views of the nature of Faery, of its importance to him, of faery tales, and of the role of allegory in stories of this kind. It is a fascinating piece that provides new insight into Tolkien's thought as an artist trying to capture glimpses of Faery in his writing. The essay is in some ways an echoing companion piece for his famous earlier essay "On Fairy Stories," in which, among other things, Tolkien outlines his theory of sub-creation that he executed so successfully in "The Lord of the Rings." Second, the book contains never-before-published early notes and draft manuscripts for Smith, several pages of which are reproduced in the book itself in their original hand-written form with helpful transcriptions on the opposite page. These papers not only show Tolkien actively creating and revising his story and the history of its characters, but they also show Tolkien's working methods as a writer and so demonstrate, in a microcosm, the methods he used on such a large scale for "The Lord of the Rings." Third, Flieger's editorial contributions are very helpful. She provides an afterword that discusses the critical treatement of Smith, its genesis as a story, and outlines the new material which, as she says, allow the reader to follow "the authorial progression from explanation to inspiration to formulation to painstaking revision." Flieger's notes are also very helpful, for she points us to relevant matters in Tolkien's other works and illuminates puzzling aspects of Smith. And fourth, this is perhaps the first edition of Smith that takes Tolkien's statements that it is not a children's story seriously. He called Smith "an old man's book, already weighted with the presage of bereavement." Previous editions of Smith have ignored this statement and dressed the tale up as a children's book, presumably based on the unquestioned assumption (which Tolkien questioned very sharply in "On Fairy Stories") that because this is a faery tale, and because it is short, it must be for children. This edition honors Tolkien's view not only of Smith but of the importance of Faery and faery stories in general by beautifully reproducing the tale and the lovely Pauline Baynes illustrations, which were made for the first edition, and by setting them within a handsome hardcover text that Tolkien readers will prize very highly. This is a must have.

People who know anything about the mind of J.R.R. Tolkien know that he disliked allegory. That makes "Smith of Wootton Major" a bit of an oddity among his writings, but not an unwelcome one. It's a sweetly fantastical little fable that drips over with Tolkien's love of real, deep fairy tales.

It takes place in a little town "not very long ago for those with long memories, not very far away fro those with long legs." The Master Cook of that village takes a vacation, and returns with an apprentice in tow. But something odd happens at the Feast of the Cake -- the cook stirs in a "fay-star" with little trinkets in the cake, and it's accidently swallowed by a boy there.

The boy (later called Smith) is changed by the fay-star, which sparkles on his forehead. When he grows up Smith ventures into Faery itself, and even meets the Faery Queen herself. The message she gives him is for her mysterious, missing husband, the King -- who turns out to be the last person anybody in Wootton Major would have expected.

"Smith" is a fairy tale in the best sense. Don't expect cackling witches or convenient loopholes in spells here; Tolkien was too skilled for that. Instead we have majestic fey and sparkling magic, woven with a tidy medieval town. (Not to mention the custom of naming people after their jobs -- Smith, a smith, capisce?) Never once does it become precious or cutesy.

It's among Tolkien's simpler writings. In fact, it's so simple that it barely has a plot -- the vanishing King is the closest thing it has. But Tolkien's writing sparkles with little details of the fey, with only a minimum of description. His glimpses of Faerieland are too brief, but they're also reminiscent of a few passages from "Lord of the Rings."

A sweet, fantastical little story, this is one of Tolkien's lesser-known but still deserving stories. Charmingly symbolic.

The fifth book in the series finds Lucy, Edmund, and Eustace joining Prince caspian on a ship called The Dawn Treader, which is setting sail to little known Narnian territories where Caspians uncles have been exiled. Each island explores a different sin by which an uncle fell, and a different magical encounter for the voyagers to face and resolve.
The developement of the mighty mouse Reepicheep is an especially welcome treat for children, and the scene in which Eustace becomes a dragon and embodies his own foul heart, so gaining a sort of enlightenment and a definite change of character, is a particularly skillful use of symbolism.
The reaching of Aslan's kingdom is also a symbol of enlightenment, with the Kingdom of Aslan invoking the Kingdom of Heaven in the reader's mind. The islands can be seen as steps in the path to heaven, and the character developement along the way can be seen as an outline to the steps towards righteousness and spirituality. As a fantasy or as a religious writing, this is a hugely important book!

J. Lyon Layden
The Other Side of Yore

All the books in the series were great fun.

So begins this story, in which Edmund and Lucy - the two youngest of the Pevensies, the only two still young enough to be allowed to enter Narnia - have had the bad luck to be sent for the summer to stay with Eustace's parents, and put up with Eustace's teasing about their "imaginary" country. Eustace's position at the beginning of this book is something like Edmund's at the beginning of THE LION, THE WITCH AND THE WARDROBE - he's bad company and untrustworthy, though his specific flaws are different from Edmund's.

Naturally, he is the fly in the ointment when Edmund and Lucy are drawn back into the Narnian world - he comes along too. As he's been raised reading all the wrong books and has a sad lack of imagination, he makes quite a fool of himself at first. Fortunately for us, he doesn't take center stage much until he comes into his first great adventure about a third of the way through the book, which more than makes up for things. The book is otherwise largely told from Lucy's point of view.

From the Pevensies' point of view, it's been a year since they were last in Narnia - and in fact, even once they are in the Narnian world, they aren't in Narnia itself this time. Caspian (for whom three years have passed) is fulfilling an oath he took at his coronation to sail for a year and a day eastward to find and if need be rescue the seven lords who were disposed of by his usurping uncle Miraz years ago by being sent to explore the unknown eastern seas beyond the Lone Islands - a Narnian possession that we've previously heard of but never seen. When the Pevensies and Eustace join the ship, the Dawn Treader is nearing the Lone Islands, where the ship's company meets one of a series of adventures, this being their last landfall before striking out into uncharted seas eastward. And one of the ship's company - Reepicheep the Talking Mouse, most valiant of the knights of Narnia - has an even greater ambition than to rescue the seven lords; he hopes to find Aslan's own country, that mysterious place to the east from which Aslan has always come into Narnia.

THE VOYAGE OF THE DAWN TREADER, in fact, is a long ocean voyage in a world where "here be dragons" on a map may not be an idle warning, and even the Pevensies encounter magics and strange truths about the Narnian world that they had never guessed at. As well as more mundane dangers - great storms, supplies running short between islands - the ship's company encounters many of the legendary dangers attributed to the unknown in our world in the days of chivalry, both in and on the sea itself and on the various islands they discover. Their dragon, when he comes along, turns out to be an unexpected kind of problem. In the tradition of one of Lewis' own favourite fantasy writers, George MacDonald, the dragon is Eustace himself, who finally stumbles into a bit of magic that transforms him into a shape that more accurately reflects the state of his heart than does his human shape, giving him the much-needed shock of his life. The problem, of course, is how to transform him - and how to bring him along with the ship if they can't. For me, "The Adventures of Eustace" are where the book moves into high gear.

This book is where I particularly notice the difference between Lewis' original UK editions of the series - which are now those in print in the US and used for the audio editions - and his later text, which was used for the US editions that I first read, for which Lewis rewrote (and improved) the ending of the episode of "The Dark Island". Apart from that detail, the unabridged recording by Derek Jacobi is very well done. Of the narrators of the three books in which Reepicheep appears, Jacobi is the best at interpreting his character, giving him a strong, high-pitched voice that doesn't in the least sound fragile. Jacobi can also give a good reading of Aslan's deep growl.

As a child who grew up listening to the Chronicles of Narnia, it has been a pleasure all over again to introduce them to my children. We bought the CD to listen to in the car. My kids loved this one especially since it was set on a ship. We vacationed at the ocean this year so it was very timely. They ask to hear it over and over again. In a video age it is nice to offer my children an alternative, a real oppportunity to excerise their imaginations! Planning on collecting all 7 books on CD.

There are certain people who, after creating a role on television based on a character in literature, make such an impression as that character that the mere mention of that character brings that actor or actress's name and face to mind ... and Sir Derek Jacobi's portrayal of Tiberius Claudius Drusus Nero Germanicus "this-that-and-the-other" in the BBC TV series I, CLAUDIUS based on the two novels I, CLAUDIUS and CLAUDIUS THE GOD by Robert Graves is in the forefront of such portrayals. In 1980, Dove Audio decided to bring the Graves novels to audio book form, and the absolutely best idea they had for the narrator was to ask Sir Derek to recreate his role as "Claudius", which he did magnificently in the audio book I, CLAUDIUS and now returns (again even remembering to include Claudius' stammer) to complete Claudius' autobiography from his unwilling election (courtesy of the Roman Army!) to become the fourth Emperor of Rome to just before his death in 54 A.D. (at the hands of his fourth wife, although this historical fact is NOT contained in the audio book!), which he tells his audience that he expects at any moment. Sir Derek's wonderful voice and vocal inflections bring Claudius to life as he recounts all the details of the history of Rome behind the history ... all the things that the official historians either never knew, overlooked or deliberately buried! But Claudius, who managed to cleverly survive THREE reigns before he got stuck with the job, is deliberately writing for US, the people of future posterity, sees no need for secrecy and takes us the reader/listener step by step through the Roman military campaigns, the private lives of the Roman aristocracy, and the various plots and murders of those men (and women too!) trying to claw their way to the Imperial throne AND those who were already there trying to keep themselves there!

The only thing I have to complain about this audio version is that while it is extremely satisfying to listen to, it is an Abridged version, but in the slightly-more-than-two hours that the recording lasts you the listener will never be bored! You may miss the overtly sexual scenes and acts that the TV series showed, but Claudius never glosses over that part in his narrative, and Sir Derek's voice expertly conveys not only the professional historian that Claudius was (in the novels, anyway!) but also a great deal of Claudius' emotion, especially in this half of his story when he is faced with the ultimate betrayals by those nearest and dearest to him. Definitely a MUST for any audio book collection!

This book is the sequel to "I Claudius" which is my all-time favorite book. Though not quite up to that first book in intrigue and overall flow, it is still a great book in its own right.

There is a lot of rich descriptions of battles undertaken by the now Emperor Claudius that stretch for many pages. Also, Claudius has to deal with the betrayal of his friend Herod as well as his scheming wife Messalina (along with her debaucheries) while Claudius' advisor Pallus is also trying to usurp him.

Claudius' grand scheme to eliminate the monarchy and restore the Republic spawns the evil Nero (though he is not quite as evil as Caligula). Should not be missed!

This novel, like its antecedent I, Claudius, will mesmerize those who love classical history, although casual readers may find it tedious. The two works together form a fictional autobiography of the Roman emperor Claudius, who - at least in this literary incarnation - is both an astute observer of first century Roman political society and an extraordinary character in his own right. Born into the Roman imperial family but repelled by the violence and treachery surrounding it, Claudius retreats from power for much of his adult life. He buries himself in obscure academic pursuits and hides, for what he believes to be his own safety, behind array of weird physical disabilities. When his nephew, the mad emperor Caligula, meets his just reward, the middle-aged Claudius is literally dragged against his will onto the Imperial throne. I, Claudius ends with this bizarre scene and Claudius the God takes up from there with the improbable emperor's own account of his reign up to point of his death. Much to everyone's surprise, Claudius emerges into the public eye as an energetic, able and just ruler. And while the great pride he takes in his enterprise is evident, both the style of his rule and the tone of his narrative is characterized by a wry and self-deprecating humor. Much of the book consists of a detailed recounting of the administrative, judicial and military minutia in which Claudius immersed himself. However, there is a deeper theme at work too, which is the inevitability that innocence in a corrupt world will be betrayed. Claudius's closest friend for much of his life is Herod Agrippa, the grandson of the biblical Herod the Great. Herod Agrippa is a charming rogue and schemer who, while genuinely fond of Claudius, teases him mercilessly for being a fool and warns him, as it turns out in all seriousness, to "trust no one". The irony in the admonition is apparent when Herod himself betrays Claudius, plotting militarily against him and almost succeeding. This is only a side story, however. The thematic climax of the book occurs when it comes to light that Claudius's beautiful wife Messalina, whom he adores with the intense innocence of a teenager in love, has been using him all along for the fool, taking lovers and mocking Claudius behind his back. He finally discovers the truth when she is found to be conspiring with one of these paramours to seize the throne. She is executed for her treachery, but Claudius's spirit dies with her. He re-marries, but to a woman he cares nothing about and who, with his knowledge and acquiescence - for his death has been foretold by augury - begins amassing power on her own and conspiring to make way for her own son by a previous marriage. This son is later to enter history as the decadent fiddler Nero. The book closes with actual historical accounts by Tacitus and Dio Cassius of the real-life emperor's death at the hands of his ambitious wife, who poisons him. The last pages give us the final degradation, a bitterly satirical account Seneca, depicting Claudius - in death, once again the fool - trying to enter Olympus as the deified emperor but being banished mockingly to Hades by the other gods. The book is cynical and deeply sad. It's beautifully written and I recommend it, although it won't be to everyone's taste.

"Farmer Giles of Ham" is vintage Tolkien encapsulated. Ham is a farmer who owns a cowardly dog named Gorm. The two of them set out to dispose of a dragon named Chrysophylax who is terrorizing the shire. They do defeat Chrysophylax, but how? Well, you have to listen to Sir Derek Jacobi (best known in the USA as the stammering Emperor Claudius in the Masterpiece Theatre series of the '70s; also as Brother Cadfael in The Cadfael Mysteries) read you the story, as he does with the same elegance he brings to all his performances. Sir Derek is a true master of the spoken word. The combination of a writer like Professor Tolkien and a reader like Sir Derek is truly rare and wonderful. And the delight does not stop with "Farmer Giles"; the stories in this little book abound with imagination and excellence.

The first of the three stories in this collection is a delightful fairy tale set in the days when giants and dragons were the enemies and twonspeople like Farmer Giles were the heroes. Derek Jacobi does a superb job performing not only as the farmer himself and his wife, but also the couple's dog and the rest of the characters. One would not also not expect to find a dragon with as colorful a name as Chrysopholax, since the last time I met a dragon in one of Tolkein's stories, it was Smaug, and he casually remarked to hobbit Bilbo Baggins,''I don't remember smelling you before!'' The other two tales in this collection are Smith of Wooton Major,and Leaf by Niggle. Knowing what a magnificent job Derek Jacobi has done bringing Shakespeare to life and proving to most of us that Shakespeare was meant to be enjoyed by everyone, you can rest assured in the thought that he has done a similar, exemplary feat with Tolkein! I own, by the way, two other stories written by Tolkein and narrated by Jacobi himself--Letters From Father Christmas and Roverandom. Do yourself a favor and indulge your inner child with these stories!

I love this book. I think about my time in high school listening to dreadful lectures on English literature, theater, and the great books. How things would have been different if I had listened to this glorious audiobook. Not only is it sharply written, but Sir Derek Jacobi narrates the story of literature with a sardonic edge, so that you can't wait to hear what he has to say next. He draws you into the story of the literature...what makes these great books or poems distinguished...what makes them interesting...what makes them new and exciting. Of course, we hear samples from the 1300's - Canterbury Tales (and) Sir Gawain and the Green Knight...to the present, over 100 samples to be exact. I want to go back and read these wonderful books he talks about. After experiencing this wonderful book, I want to sing about English literature. Truly, if you have a high school student who thinks that literature is dead or boring, look no further than this audio CD. I cannot give it enough praise.

The History of English Literature is an audio documentary presenting the finest authors England has to offer. From Chaucer to the present the narrator guides the listener on an audio journey telling him all about the different authors and styles of writing. In addition historical foot notes are given as well to give the listener an idea of what influnced a particular author during the time he or she was writing. In brief politics, the church and royalty not to mention social change all played major parts throughout the centuries to give each period a unique prospective. Dozens of authors and poets are covered here although in breif. Eliot, Austen, Dickens, Wolf, Wells, Blake, Woodsworth and so on. The list is quite extensive and it will give the casual listner a great overview of the written word. As stated each author or poet is presented briefly some merely only getting a mention while others are talked about more thoroughly and even have excerpts from their works read out. It is a great listening experience for one who wants to approach the topic casualy and learn as much about it in the least amount of time. I managed to get through the whole book in a matter of three days but I simply loved how it all was executed. So if you found your high school or college lit courses tiresome but still are interested to see how the novel of today was formulated or what the poets of years past had to say and how they shaped the literary landscape I highly recommend this audio book by Naxos. It is something you will want to refer to time and time again. A great audio documentary to add to your library. This audiobook contains four CD's. It is read by a single narrator but the excerpts are read by various other readers. It also has musical breaks between each section of the text.

Ellis Peters has made the medieval mystery novel what it is today, setting high standards not only for historical accuracy but for believable characters, well-thought-out plots, and exquisite writing. Unfortunately, she doesn't always live up to these standards herself.
This package comprises some of the high points of the series: Monk's Hood, St. Peter's Fair (which has a far more satisfying conclusion than the rather simplistic TV movie), The Heretic's Apprentice, and especially The Potter's Field, which begins quietly but turns into a powerful tale of youthful idealism and middle-aged passion.
The Summer of the Danes has memorable characters and a beautifully described excursion outside the confines of Shrewsbury, and Peters cleverly links the fortunes of Cadfael et al. to significant events in Welsh history (which she has also made into a series of novels). But, a couple of chapters into the story, the author forgets that Brother Mark can't speak Welsh and Cadfael is supposed to be there as his interpreter (well, maybe it's a miracle, but in that case she forgot to credit St. Winifrid!).
Likewise, in Brother Cadfael's Penance, our hero unravels a murder using physical evidence plus a fishy explanation offered by the perpetrator; later on he discovers that the murder was avenged by someone who identified the murderer without access to any of the evidence! Again, the characters and the setting are vivid, the "real" history is an integral part of the story, and Brother Cadfael's conflict between his duties as a monk and as a father makes for an engaging tale -- but the implausibility of the "payoff" seriously weakens the novel.
I feel that, in general, this has the highest consistent quality of any contemporary mystery series. All the novels are worth reading, but some require tongue placed firmly in cheek first.

I have always believed that the BBC made the finest adaptations for radio and television, and indeed the BROTHER CADFAEL series is no exception; Bert Coules (who most recently adapted Sherlock Holmes for BBC radio) and the fine actor Philip Madoc brought Cadfael to life in three adaptations which are well worth listening to if you can: MONKS HOOD, THE VIRGIN INN THE ICE and DEAD MAN'S RANSOM. However, Sir Derek Jacobi was an excellent Cadfael for television ... even if some of the teleplays didn't quite follow the plot of the original novels. Acorn Audio did something quite extraordinary when they turned the audio tracks of the four teleplays of the first Cadfael TV series into an audio series, adding a narrator to fill in the gaps and adding some slight commentary on the action which could not be seen on an audiotape; in doing so, they tightened up the narrative to keep the stories moving at a good clip so that the listener would not lose interest, and Stephen Flynn's narration is well-read and well-written. This story, ONE CORPSE TOO MANY, was the first of the TV Cadfael mysteries (despite the fact that the book it was based on was the SECOND in the series), and is a good way to introduce Brother Cadfael, played wonderfully by Derek Jacobi, and his soon-to-be comrade and best friend Hugh Beringar. I am sorry that Acorn Audio hasn't adapted the rest of the televised Cadfael stories into this format, and the only grievance I have is that the cast of characters is not read out at the end of each story (all we get to know is that Sir Derek Jacobi plays Brother Cadfael, when there are some fine actors in each of the stories). This is something entirely new, coming somewhere in between actual radio drama and books-on-tape, and I highly recommend it for anyone interested in the Brother Cadfael series. The listener will not lose anything by not seeing the action on a TV screen, and the acting you will HEAR combined with the narration will definitely provide an ejoyable listening experience.

There are certain people who, after creating a role on television based on a character in literature, make such an impression as that character that the mere mention of that character brings that actor or actress's name and face to mind ... and Sir Derek Jacobi's portrayal of Tiberius Claudius Drusus Nero Germanicus "this-that-and-the-other" in the BBC TV series I, CLAUDIUS based on the two novels I, CLAUDIUS and CLAUDIUS THE GOD by Robert Graves is in the forefront of such portrayals. In 1980, Dove Audio decided to bring the Graves novels to audiobook form, and the absolutely best idea they had for the narrator was to ask Sir Derek to recreate his role as "Claudius", which he does magnificently! Sir Derek has even remembered to include Claudius' stammer as he tells us Claudius' autobiography from his birth during the reign of Augustus Caesar up until the moment when he is elected (against his will) as the fourth Emperor or Rome. Sir Derek's wonderful voice and vocal inflections bring Claudius to life as he recounts all the details of the history of Rome behind the history ... all the things that the official historians either never knew, overlooked or deliberately buried! But Claudius, who managed to cleverly survive THREE reigns before he got stuck with the job, is deliberately writing for US, the people of future posterity, sees no need for secrecy and takes us the reader/listener step by step through the Roman military campaigns, the private lives of the Roman aristocracy, and the various plots and murders of those men (and women too!) trying to claw their way to the Imperial throne AND those who were already there trying to keep themselves there!

The only thing I have to complain about this audio version is that while it is extremely satisfying to listen to, it is an Abridged version, but in the slightly-more-than-two hours that the recording lasts you the listener will never be bored! You may miss the overtly sexual scenes and acts that the TV series showed, but Claudius never glosses over that part in his narrative, and Sir Derek's voice expertly conveys not only the professional historian that Claudius was (in the novels, anyway!) but also a great deal of Claudius' emotion, especially when he speaks of those near and dear to him whose lives end ... well, prematurely. Defintely a MUST for any audiobook collection!

Derek Jacobi is as great a reader as he is an actor (listen, for example, to his readings of the Odyssey, or The Voyage of the Dawn Treader). One hopes that as age diminishes his acting, he will fill his time with many such readings. His rendition of Malory is perfect, and helps the modern listener to appreciate the gems of language embedded within Malory's not always sensible tales. A neglected classic brought to life.