I reviewed the new edition of JRR Tolkien's selected letters earlier this year; and I saw at the time that the whole thing was also available as an audiobook - which was a mammoth twenty-nine hours yet cost me just one "Audible" credit to buy (less than five pounds).
So, strangely, the audiobook of Letters is much cheaper than the paper copy! (So long as you are an Audible member.)
Listening to these letters was a tremendously enjoyable experience - probably more so than reading them. Also I felt that I was taking in more of the meaning aurally, than when reading to myself - perhaps due its being easier to concentrate.
...For which much of the credit must go to Samuel West; who is "the voice of Tolkien" in this production.
Samuel West is a very experienced Tolkien audiobook reader of the Silmarillion and broadly Legendarium material, typically reading Tolkien's text - and has often made a team with his father Timothy - who plays the "editorial role" of Christopher's voice.
But these letters represent SW's greatest challenge yet; since there are so many of them and they lack an over-arching dramatic structure, and because they are letters rather than fictions, and were not intended for publication.
Yet West does a simply superb job! What greatly impressed me was his sustained focus on the reading; on the precise meanings of the sentences. He also made the letters dramatic - full of light and shade; with a wide range of emotions - happiness, anger, tragedy, irritation, the sublime... So that each letter becomes a structured exposition of some aspect of Tolkien the man.
I think this convincing interpretation of Tolkien as a character is made possible by Samuel West's unusually high intelligence for an actor - so that he pronounces extremely wide vocabulary of the words correctly, phrases the complex sentences grammatically, accurately inflects their meanings.
An unreserved recommendation from me - I anticipate relistening many times.
1 comment:
Comment from Joel:
"Having just finished the letters audiobook myself, I echo every one of the comments here. It is a perfect success. I can't wait to listen again. And I wonder when Lewis's (much more compendious) correspondence will get the same treatment.
"There is a mystery in the letter where Tolkien discusses a set of essays (posthumous, I think) about Lewis. Tolkien makes the mysterious statement that none of them touch on the really central point of Lewis's character, though Barfield's essay comes closest. And Tolkien goes on to say that unfortunately, he doesn't have space or time just then to say what that point of character is...
"I have a guess about it though, that I may as well put down here. A friend talked to me recently about a colleague who had also been an academic colleague of Lewis. He said that you could never make a single unguarded statement around Lewis, no matter how simple. Everything would always be thoroughly cross-examined. He was apparently as, or more, Kirkian than Kirk""
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