(written at a previous date, and also being a continuation of the previous post)
Dear Harriet Walter,
I hate that Audible's selection of Wimsey stuff is almost entirely Ian Carmichael-centric. They've got, like, ONE Petherbridge-narrated book, and it's the effing Attenbury Emeralds. Come on.
My library has Strong Poison and Have His Carcase as done by Mr Peth on tape. I've listened to both of them. They're abridged. In Strong Poison, among other things Charles and Mary's romance is completely cut out, poor dears, much like in the miniseries, which makes the end of the book rather abrupt. (Something about Sylvia or Eiluned saying how Lord Peter's too much of a gentlemen to present himself to be thanked and Harriet will have to go to him herself, and Harriet is like, "Oh, I won't do that," and then silence and the listener goes "wait wut".)
The Have His Carcase audiobook is a bit anxiety-making when one can tell that lots of things are being left out but one can't remember quite what. (I've only read the book through once, as it's long and difficult and I've only been a Wimsey convert for about a year.) Though there's a very amusing bit, I remember, in the middle or near the end, when Lord Peter receives a prettified copy of the coded letter found on the body from the police, and he takes it to Harriet, and talks to her a little teeny bit about what sort of code he thinks it might be...and then he
takes off to go see a man about a horse or something, and he
comes back the next day and
Harriet has cracked the fucking thing by herself. She sits on the floor and reads the decoded letter to Lord Peter. It's amazing.
I love Edward Petherbridge's rendition of Harriet. It's so soft and husky and just a little bit breathy. Deeper than his Peter-voice.
What was I going to say? Oh, yes. I haven't heard any audiobooks of Gaudy Night. I can't listen to Ian Carmichael be involved with Gaudy Night. He's just not romantically appealing in the least, and Gaudy Night is a special special thing to me. (I almost recall something about the Carmichael version having Joanna David involved? Was it dramatised? Sigh, my memory, she is barely civil to me.)
I haven't heard the Petherbridge version either, partly because it's gosh-derned difficult to get one's hands on and partly because apparently it lasts
two hours.
Two hours.
Gaudy Night.
Gaudy Night in two hours.
I don't even....how? Not even the miniseries managed to cut it down that bad. I mean, what did they
do to get it that short? What could be
left? What is even the point?
I'll probably still find it sometime, though. What time I do devote to morbidity and literary masochism, to be sure.
I'm sorry this letter/post is so jerky and wandering. I have a cold. I think I mentioned that earlier. I need somebody to make me tea and everyone is either off grocery shopping, at work or useless at teamaking. Sigh.
