Short Stories

The Thoroughly Modern Collection

By: Doris Lessing, Haruki Murakami, A. S. Byatt

Narrated by: Harriet Walter, Walter Lewis, Roslaind Eyres

23 stories, all unabridged, from a diverse group of star writers and readers. A truly memorable collection with a wide appeal.

The stories in this superb collection are as follows:

Mothers and Fathers - Angela Huth, Read by Janet McTeer
Shared Credit - Frederic Raphael, Read by Martin Jarvis
The Year�s Midnight - Helen Simpson, Read by Harriet Walter
A Place for Everything - Barry Unsworth, Read by Janet McTeer
The Ghost of the Rain Forest - Barry Unsworth, Read by Rosalind Ayres
A Feeling for Birds - Lisa St Aubin de Teran, Read by Janet McTeer
Battlefields - Alan Sillitoe, Read by Janet McTeer
Who? - Fay Weldon, Read by Julie Christie
Mrs Alcott Dances Naked in the Rain - Rosie Thomas, Read by Janet McTeer
Presto Barbaro - Ronald Frame, Read by Janet McTeer
Sea Lion - Douglas Hurd, Read by Martin Jarvis
The Sons of Upland Farm - George Mackay Brown, Read by Martin Jarvis
Dressing Up - Angela Huth, Read by Rosalind Ayres
Twenty Years - Doris Lessing, Read by Rosalind Ayres
Humphrey's Mother - Penelope Mortimer, Read by Martin Jarvis
The Hero - Joanna Trollope, Read by Martin Jarvis
Shreds and Slivers - Ruth Rendell, Read by Martin Jarvis
Brut Millésimé - Ludovic Kennedy, Read by Rosalind Ayres
On Seeing the 100% Perfect Girl One Beautiful April Morning - Haruki Murakami, Read by Walter Lewis
Baglady - A.S. Byatt, Read by Rosalind Ayres
Hotel des Voyageurs - William Boyd, Read by Martin Jarvis
Toy Boy - Edwina Currie, Read by Rosalind Ayres
Simon - Patrick O�Brian, Read by Martin Jarvis

Public Domain © and (P)2006 CSA Telltapes Ltd.

Critic reviews

"A different league...The readers grab your attention at the start of every tale and never let go." ( The Guardian)

Very annoying?

This performance was marred by each story merging into the next one without a break. It was so immediate that words were incomplete at the end a chapter and cut again in the new story. Extremely frustrating! I hope it does not happen with all short stories? Thank you.

Bland and poorly spliced

The only story I really liked was Haruki Murakami's. The rest were all British authors writing blandly about infidelity and divorce. Any chance each story had of leaving me with the spine-tingle of insight at the end was mercilessly squashed by splicing the next story's title immediately on top of the finishing line of the last. Not worth the time.

Mixed

Most stories worth listening to--some better skipped. Most performances are neutrally competent.
Poor production: all stories are simply run together end-on-end, without even a second's pause (very disconcerting);
there are no notes whatsoever on stories, authors or performers.

Excellent collection of contemporary stories

These stories are well written and interesting despite being light years apart in theme, characterizations and story telling. Very enjoyable.

Not very modern collection

Most of these stories seem to have been written at least 20 years ago, perhaps even longer. They were mostly a type of entertainment that you used to find in the Saturday Evening Post back in the 50's and 60's - breezy, light and eminently forgettable. With so many excellent stories being written within the last 10-15 years, it's really a shame.
But it's hard to tell much about them because of the way Audible (or whoever produced this audio collection) presents the stories. There's no table of contents available, so you don't know what's coming next or even what the authors or titles are, except for the major names advertised (Lessing and Murikami). When you're listening, there is no way to skip from one story to the next - and final insult - no gap between the readings. I would at least like a slight pause to ponder the final line before hearing the title and author of the next story, but it's like some idiot technician just spliced the stories together just to save space. Shameful!