The Odyssey
By: Homer / Translated By: Robert Fagles / Narrated By: Ian McKellen
Length: 13 hrs and 18 mins
DISMAL production of a STELLAR performance…!
O Penguin, Penguin—how could you send such a dismal audio production as this out into the world? And after Ian McKellen poured his heart and soul into the narration! What were you thinking? Did you not listen to it before making it part of Audible?
To be fair, the reviews pointed the production flaws out before I purchased this from Audible, but I was CERTAIN, I tell you, that Audible/Penguin would’ve fixed concerns in a jiffy.
Ahem! They did not. Here you’ll find the brilliant McKellen booming in one section, incredibly muted in the next. There are sections where it seems that he was recorded at .75 speed (I had to listen at x2 to get something like normal tones). There are times when there’s a most definite echo resounding in the background so that you feel you’re listening to the text twice, three times.
And the weird interstitial music: Oh so grating, so loud, so… weeeeird! I mean, I couldn’t listen to this overnight because the volume went all over the place.
Okay, I’ll shut up about all of that now (but it’s MAJOR), and get to the good part; namely Ian McKellen’s performance is completely and unutterably top-notch. Granted, this is The Odyssey in prose, but no matter what, it’s an ancient text that could conceivably be rather twitchy to catch the rhythm of. But with McKellen, one is immediately immersed in the story of Odysseus and his incredible vim, incredible verve. Hell, his incredible libido (although he always weeps before falling into the bed of this woman here, that Immortal there. As a matter of fact, there’s a lot of men weeping EVERYwhere!). McKellen delivers a master performance of a master classic, and it’s too die for!
And what an odd hero. Our definition of what makes a hero has changed through the ages, and with Odysseus we have a man who’s totally fine with raping and pillaging, with jeering in jest and in anger. A man who veritably leers at every female he comes across (always, always, ALWAYS, commenting on the comeliness of their curves and of the braids in their hair. He has a weird thing with a woman’s braids. And he has a tendency to see braids in the dawn of the morning, the twilight of the evening. Yes, a truly weeeeird thing about BRAIDS!). He also is a real turd about poor, hapless Penelope not being immediately accepting of him after his rather LENGTHY absence. Poor, poor hapless Penelope: She just can’t do anything right.
I dunno. I s’pose I should now go listen to Anthony Heald’s narration of the WHD Rouse translation of The Iliad & The Odyssey—Homer Box Set, to see if I’m moved as much without the woeful production problems. But, well, I think not. Despite this version’s incredible problems, Ian McKellen’s performance just made it a rollicking good time!!!
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