Creative Evolution

By: Henri Bergson

Narrated by: Ellis Freeman

Length: 12 hrs and 52 mins

Publisher's summary

Creative Evolution is a 1907 book by the French philosopher Henri Bergson. The work proposes a version of orthogenesis in place of Darwin's mechanism of evolution, suggesting that evolution is motivated by the “élan vital”, a vital impetus that may also be understood as a natural creative impulse. The book also developed concepts of time which influenced writers like Marcel Proust and Thomas Mann. Bergson's term "duration", for example, refers to an individual, subjective experience of time, as opposed to the mathematical, objectively measurable clock time. Bergson suggests that the experience of time as "duration" can best be understood through intuition. This theory of evolution makes possible the free emergence of individual intelligence. It is totally distinct from the deterministic hypotheses that are either mechanistic or teleological. Bergson argues by means of striking metaphor and analogy. He compares life to a wave spreading outward toward a circumference that is broken down at one point only and to an artillery shell from which new shells emerge when it bursts.

Public Domain (P)2020 Museum Audiobooks

painfully narrated

I adore bergson's thought but this narrator's cadence is so choppy every sentence sounds awkwardly broken and it's extremely difficult to listen to. it's like trying to take in a beautiful view through a broken mirror. a serious disservice to the source material, and the author's philosophy.

Bergson’s treatise is wonderful, despite the reading

Bergson is best absorbed in repetition, and so audiobook is a great medium for this grand treatise on the metaphysics of science, life, and time. The reading itself is spirited if also clumsy. Some of the mispronunciations, repeated throughout, are cringe-worthy, such as “Arostalian” for Aristotelian and “annie-low-juss” for analogous.

Good book, tough listen

For about the first hour I was frustrated at the narrator but as the book progressed I got used to shouting the correct pronunciations at my stereo and ended up being thankful that the narrator took the time to read this book. The ideas in this book are dense and even with a degree in philosophy I had to do some additional homework to keep up with what the author was saying. Unfortunately this is made more challenging by the fact that the narrator mispronounces a lot of words and often puts the emphasis on the wrong part of the sentence. A little bit of editing or directing or simply a discussion with someone familiar with the words used would have gone a long way. All in all I give a lot a credit to Ellis for powering through.

Brilliant!

Great book. Great job narrating it. I will listen to it a few more times. Thanks again!

Narration 1/5 , Book 5/5

Narrators voice is made for the deep space vacuum.


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There's a free audio recording of this book on Youtube with a proper narration.

I agree with the other reviewers

I agree with the other reviewers that this is a wonderful book with a narrator's performance that is among the worst I have heard on Audible.

I particularly agree with Joshua I Fesi's comment, "The reading itself is spirited if also clumsy. Some of the mispronunciations, repeated throughout, are cringe-worthy, such as “Arostalian” for Aristotelian and “annie-low-juss” for analogous."

I also agree with Gavin Weinrich's comment "All in all I give a lot a credit to Ellis for powering through." Probably the kindest thing to say about the performance is that the recording is clear and spirited.

I owned this book before and returned it. Well, I really want to have it as an audiobook. So, I will be keeping it and listening to it multiple times. So, the reading is usable,. That is something. However, I will never buy or listen to any other recordings done by this narrator in the future.

The worst narration ever!!!

I listen to a lot of books using Audible and NEVER have I heard the narration as poorly performed as this one. I’m sure that narrators will occasionally make mistakes of which I am unaware; however, I was reading this book and listening to this recording simultaneously and was distributed by the mispronunciations and word omissions or replacements, which occurred MORE THAN TWICE A PAGE!!! This narrator needs to find a new job. I am greatly disappointed that Audible considers this recording good enough to charge members for its purchase.