Mrs. Ames cover art

Mrs. Ames

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Mrs. Ames

By: E. F. Benson
Narrated by: Nathalie Boltt
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About this listen

E. F. Benson, best known for his irresistible Mapp and Lucia novels set in the fictional town of Tilling, England, was a prolific and beloved novelist. Though the Mapp and Lucia books remain popular to this day, this kindred book will be back in print for the first time since its initial publication.

The son of E. W. Benson, archbishop of Canterbury from 1883 to 1896, the young E. F. Benson was educated at Marlborough School and at King's College, Cambridge. After graduation he worked in Athens for the British School of Archaeology from 1892 to 1895, and later in Egypt for the Society for the Promotion of Hellenic Studies. In 1893 he published Dodo, a novel that attracted wide attention. It was followed by a number of other successful novels, including his hugely popular Mapp and Lucia series. In 1938 he was made an honorary fellow of Magdalene College, Cambridge. He died in February 1940.

Public Domain (P)2013 Audible, Inc. Classics Fiction Genre Fiction Historical Fiction Literary Fiction

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Critic reviews

"An extraordinary study in comedy and quite the best thing artistically that Mr. Benson has done." ( New York Times)
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I didn’t always understand the use of the vocabulary and although the story was pleasant, it wasn’t interesting enough for me.

It was difficult to get interested in the story.

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The mispronunciation of common words was very annoying. How is it possible to not know how to say Lumbago correctly, for example?

Pleased to have access to this early novel

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Thoroughly enjoyed this story. The eponymous heroine has slightly more depth, I thought, than Mapp or Lucia, probably because her concerns are the more mundane concerns of an ordinary mortal of a certain age. Only slightly spoiled by some very curious pronunciation of some very common words - claret pronounced “clarr-ay” for example. Also the early chapters give me the impression that the narrator didn’t read the book before she started. It certainly improves though, and was an enjoyable listen.

Curious narration

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I found it hard to emerse in the story as the enslaught of strangely pronounced words and phrases jarred continuously.

The odd pronunciation

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I felt the story was a bit too meandering and not as pithy as the Mapp and Lucia books. The narration was a bit grating after a while although the character performances were good. I had to relisten to certain chapters as I just zoned out a few times. Ok for a freebie.

A build up to Lucia

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Delightful novel, EF Benson at his most charming.

Somewhat irritatingly read with ordinary vocabulary seemingly deliberately mis-pronounced - WHY?

Interesting novel irritatingly read

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Well observed comedy of manners. The narration was disappointing - stilted and peppered with distracting and unaccountable mispronunciations.
One short spell of making a mispronunciation list produced
Inclement, lumbago, Mayor!, inexorable, placarded, irrevocable……

Ok for an “included” book

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full of nonsense. I tried hard to listen to it but I just could not

not my cup of tea

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Audible, please re-record this using a narrator who doesn't mangle the English language, and who brings the characters to life!
(I recommend Nadia May, narrator of other free E.F. Benson novels)
This is almost unlistenable

Death by narrator

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Had to give up on a very fine writer because the narrator couldn’t pronounce the simplest of words correctly. Wrong intonation. Appears to not even understand or have previously read the work at all?? Where do they find such dreadful narrators?!

Completely mangled by narrator

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