Feature

GREAT ROMANTIC MOMENTS ON AUDIO

From classy to the classics, these choices offer lasting satisfactions

When we asked six of our reviewers to write about their favorite romantic audios, they delighted us with a wide range of titles. Here, they lovingly describe what moved them about these great stories and the narrators who perform them. As a bonus, we’ve featured a new compendium of romantic excerpts from literature. Even if you “hate romances,” you’ll find something here to love.

LOVE UNFORGETTABLE

LEAP OF FAITH by Queen Noor of Jordan, read by Suzanne Toren
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It takes a lot for a book to make me cry these days, but I can tell you exactly where I was when King Hussein of Jordan flew home for the last time. I was on Greenwich Street in lower Manhattan with my iPod in 2003, bringing my dog home from her run. Hussein was at the controls of his plane in 1999, after specialists had done all they could for the cancer that would soon kill him. From London he was escorted by RAF fighter planes until French planes took over, then Italian, and finally Israeli fighters scrambled to escort their longtime adversary across Israeli airspace to Jordan. It happens sometimes, that a powerful moment in a powerful book, perfectly read, hits you in a way that sharpens the sights and sounds around you at that moment and becomes part of what you know about the world rather than entertainment passively received, soon forgotten. LEAP OF FAITH is such a book, especially in Suzanne Toren’s elegant reading. The measure of that is that Toren becomes invisible. You don’t get distracted by false emotional notes or pronunciations; you feel that Queen Noor herself is telling you the story. And you won’t forget it.--Beth Gutcheon

CAUTIONARY TALES FROM INSIDE MARRIAGE

ALL IS VANITY by Christina Schwarz
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THE AMATEUR MARRIAGE by Anne Tyler
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both read by Blair Brown

Every month or two--we might be riding in the car or eating dinner--my husband will suddenly remind me not to “store things up”--words which have become almost synonymous with “I love you.” And we can recall Blair Brown’s inflections in THE AMATEUR MARRIAGE as Pauline stores up her husband’s insensitive acts. This marriage was a mistake, Pauline having pledged her love to a soldier near the end of WWII, mainly because she looked good on his arm. Ten years and three children later, she wonders without irony if all women marry the wrong man.

Another bit of memoir: On the night of our 15th anniversary, as the clock struck midnight, I was on the phone. “Margaret,” was the first word my husband said as I walked back to the living room. Margaret is the central character in ALL IS VANITY--the amateur writer who feeds off her friend’s life and is constantly on the phone when she should be writing. This novel, too, is one which we long ago deemed “special” and “personal.” The uncomprehending husband attempting to be supportive of his wife’s writing efforts is so like our relationship, and yet so unlike. I’m not that writer, he’s not that husband, but watch out, around the next corner . . .

For both of these novels, Blair Brown’s spirited narration, with just the right amount of deadpan irony and ego, is so perfectly suited that it’s hard to imagine them read by anyone else. Pauline and Margaret sound so sweet, so deviously innocent, so proud of their ability to love. That two novels which present the ultimate tour de force of troubled marriages should be held up as romantic icons might appear strange at first. But would we have done better to recall the romance novels of Nora Roberts? Or the nineteenth-century novels of Jane Austen? Think about it. Laugh about it.--Rochelle Ratner

AUTHENTIC PASSIONS SKILLFULLY NUANCED

THE PERFECT LOVER
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THE PROMISE IN A KISS
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THE TRUTH ABOUT LOVE
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by Stephanie Laurens, read by Simon Prebble

I don’t even like romantic novels, but in this case, both author and narrator have mastered the mystery of love--the delicate balance in the physical, emotional, and intellectual dance that weaves lovers together through the music of life. One book in this audio series left me yearning for more. In THE PERFECT LOVER, a refined English house party sets out to be a hunting ground for a young woman seeking marriage. THE PROMISE IN A KISS brings a rogue and a virgin together in court intrigue. THE TRUTH ABOUT LOVE mates a painter and his subject, literally. On the surface, all these appear to be typical Regency era romances. But Laurens’s writing offers a grace and sophistication rare in the genre, and Prebble’s expertly seductive voice highlights every nuance with a skill that justifies the seducers’ successes. His heroines sound strong, yet feminine, with clear opinions of their own. His heroes are the very definition of masculinity. Prebble provides a breath of a pause here, a slight hardening of tone there, that lovers of either gender will recognize as authentic. When I first heard Prebble’s rough voice in a romantic scene, the shock of it brought me back to my first true taste of passion, the one a woman always remembers, the one whose flavor never leaves the heart. As in real-life love, Prebble’s mastery of the subject can make the lightest kiss a cause for celebration.--Ruth Lind


A REUNION TO REMEMBER

THE ODYSSEY by Homer, read by Ian McKellen
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Only one love story has managed to penetrate my coal-black flinty heart. It was originally transmitted orally and therefore perfect for audio. The romance occurs as an incident in the penultimate chapter, Book XXIII, of Homer’s Odyssey, when Odysseus reveals himself to his long-suffering wife, Penelope.

An anxious moment: There stands a stranger claiming to be the husband who’s been missing for 20 years. He’s just slain all one hundred young nobles, suitors for her hand, who have been menacing the palace. How does she know he’s not some imposter--some god, maybe, magically disguised? She hangs aloof, not accepting him, but not denying him either.

“For now, let our ‘guest’ sleep on the porch,” she orders. “Bring down some of our best linen and Odysseus’s bed.”

At this, the stranger explodes. You see, when he was first married, Odysseus found a stout oak tree and built his palace around it. Then he carved a bed for him and his new bride right out of the tree. That his wife has had the nuptial bed cut away wrenches his heart. At his reaction of anger and hurt, Penelope falls into his arms. Some god may know the secret of the bed, but no god could understand, much less feign, the anguish of a human’s heart. Thus, Penelope not only confirms Odysseus’s identity, but his enduring love as well, while showing us that she’s a worthy mate for her wily husband.

Two of Britain’s finest actors have read this story in unabridged audiobooks. Gentle Derek Jacobi, reciting the faithful Mandelbaum translation, is laid-back and lyrical. Ian McKellen’s robust rendering of the beautiful Fagles version sings not as sweetly, but is much richer dramatically. Therefore, his “trial of the bed” reunion scene is the more satisfying.--Yuri Rasovsky


A HERO WHO STANDS THE TEST OF TIME

PRIDE AND PREJUDICE by Jane Austen, read by Emilia Fox
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In recent years, Jane Austen has been given the cinematic star treatment, with her most popular work, PRIDE AND PREJUDICE, inspiring everything from a television miniseries to a Bollywood musical. A great admirer of all of the films, I approached listening to Emilia Fox’s recording with some trepidation. I needn’t have worried; her fresh, inventive interpretations of Elizabeth Bennet and her eccentric family (particularly Mrs. Bennet and Elizabeth’s amorous cousin, the smarmy Mr. Collins) are excellent. Even the smallish characters (such as Louisa and Caroline Bingley) are given loving attention. But it was her take on the proud, misunderstood Mr. Darcy that served to remind me why I adored the story to begin with. My favorite romance since the first time I read it as a teenager, P&P’s elegantly simple prose still speaks to me in a way that today’s books seldom do. Frankly, so does Mr. Darcy, in my estimation as wonderful a hero as Austen or the Brontës ever created. My friends preferred Heathcliff and Mr. Rochester, but Darcy was my ideal. Even today, when I’m a mature woman, he remains a fixture in my imagination. And now, thanks to Emilia Fox, I can share a luxurious soak in scented bubbles and a glass of good wine with him anytime I choose.--Catherine Witmer

FEISTY HEROINES AND THEIR SOUL MATES

THE WITCH OF BLACKBIRD POND by Elizabeth George Speare, read by Mary Beth Hurt;
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THE BEEKEEPER’S APPRENTICE by Laurie R. King, read by Jenny Sterlin
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Haughty, stubborn, independent, arrogant, opinionated, smart as any man and perfectly willing to make sure he knows it--young women like Kit Tyler (THE WITCH OF BLACKBIRD POND) and Mary Russell (THE BEEKEEPER’S APPRENTICE) tend to repel men, not attract them, outside the world of books. No matter. I’m a sucker for stories that feature women who would do perfectly well on their own, thank you very much, but who manage to attract soul mates who truly value them. When Kit Tyler dives from a rowboat into the Atlantic (in April) to retrieve a child’s doll, Nat Eaton, ship captain’s son, dives in after her. But she’s from Barbados--“Everyone there can swim!” The one who can’t, it turns out, is Nat. Narrator Mary Beth Hurt expresses every nuance of Kit’s and Nat’s outrage. It doesn’t look promising, but listeners with romantic sensibilities suspect otherwise. As Kit experiences her first brutal winter in Puritan New England, time and again Nat takes significant risks to come to her rescue, including defending her against a charge of witchcraft. Upon hearing the story’s final scene, in which Nat asks Kit to marry him and sail with him, the listener knows that a lifetime partnership is being born.

In THE BEEKEEPER’S APPRENTICE, young Mary Russell meets the great Sherlock Holmes, now older and semi-retired, by stumbling over him in a Sussex field. (A girl after my own heart--she had her nose in a book.) An argument develops over who is at fault. Further, Holmes thinks she’s a boy! Then she makes some perspicacious observations about bees . . . and another partnership is born--first a mentoring relationship, then when “Russell” has graduated from Oxford, a wedded one. As King’s sterling series takes the pair on adventures from London to the moors of England, from India to Palestine to San Francisco, narrator Jenny Sterlin captures a true marriage of minds.--Elizabeth K. Dodge

FEB/MAR 07
© AudioFile 2007, Portland, Maine

Photo © Lynda Susan Hennigan, www.lyndasusanhennigan.com