Poor quality from Audible

The story is good and Richard E. Grant's performance is wonderful, however whoever put it together for audible did a pretty poor job - it still reads out 'end of CD 1' etc, and the next chapter starts before Grant has finished saying the last word of the chapter before.

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Wonderful

Thoroughly enjoyable. Especially loved the narration by Richard E Grant. He brought out the dark humour brilliantly.

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great performance by Richard E. Grant

Excellently read by the narrator.
The story is well told and references to money and social norms very relatable. I really enjoyed the book, although cannot say I loved it. Maybe more eye opening for it's time and may have lost it's uniqueness over time.

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A powerful voice

I was infuriated with Gordon on his self destruct mission but found the ending a little unrealistic. Nevertheless Orwell’s powerful prose brilliantly narrated by Grant is enough to overcome any dissatisfaction with plot .

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A New Reason to Love Richard E. Grant

Of all the audiobooks I’ve listened to, R.E.G.‘s reading of this is the most transportive, absorbing, and heartfelt I’ve heard. I absolutely loved this. A performance like this makes the protagonist’s barrage of masochistic self destructive behaviour even harder to bear, but it’s definitely worth sticking with. I’ve since found out that R.E.G. played Comstock in the film adaptation. I’m not surprised, he captured him beautifully.

What a writer Orwell was. I’m inspired to explore his work further.

Highly recommended.

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Poor production quality

The production quality was poor. At times the audio quality was bad and there were announcements in the middle of chapters - "End of CD3. CD4." Terrible.

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Great book, unfortunate quality

This is a fantastic book, and very much characteristic of its time. Fascinating material, great great reading from Richard E Grant.
Unfortunately, this recording is clearly ripped directly from a cd, and includes not just Richard E Grant referencing "END OF CD ONE" etc, but also the honest to goodness sound of the CD skipping! Please someone at Penguin, sort this out! Just find a different, unscratched copy of the CD to rip!

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Keep that Aspidistra Flying...

This is my first encounter with George Orwell. I loved it. Next stop... Wigan Pier!

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Strange book, marvellously narrated

Not a light read this is the fairly depressing story of a failing poet and money obsession.
Richard E Grant does narrate excellently well and does very good vpices

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Nor Orwell's best, but worth a listen.

This is not Orwell best book, in his own opinion, but as a fan of his work it is worth listening to. Poet Gordon Comstock is a struggling writer and social Drop-Out who, like Orwell himself, turns his back on his middle class roots and lives his life in the misery of those at the bottom of the social hierarchy, but has a burning hatred of the values of middle class life.

Very entertainingly read.

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