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How can the Tortoise run faster than the Hare? What happens when the dog growls at its image? Or when the Country Mouse goes to supper with the Town Mouse? These wonderful stories have delighted adults and children for centuries, with their witty observations on animals and humans too. In the Fox, in the Crow, in the Lion, in the Ass who puts on a wolf's skin, we see human kind with all its foibles. The stories are told with the enduring magic of a master story-teller, and set against the bright sounds of Vivaldi's Four Seasons and sound effects. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Fabulous!
Aesop lived in the 500s BC. His name was known to Aristotle, Plato, and Aristophanes, but we don't have anything actually written by Aesop. His fables have survived in retellings by others, so that the term Aesop's Fables is really a generic designation. No doubt many stories told as Aesop's Fables were created by others. Many seem to be traditional wisdom stories.

As another reviewer remarked, the fables are short. Those expecting longish stories like cartoons of the race between the hare and the tortoise may be disappointed with these versions. Having said that, however, I find this collection charming, thought provoking, and often amusing.

Anton Lesser is a well known stage actor who has read classics like Homer's Iliad and Milton's Paradise Lost for Naxos recordings. His way with these fables is subtle and elegant. The fables themselves in this version are well told, and Lesser uses distinctive voices for each of the animals, gruff for the lion, sophisticated for the fox, innocent for the lamb, and so forth. The stories run from about 30 seconds to 90 seconds, and each ends with a pithy moral that generalizes the lesson of the story. In collections of Aesop's Fables, these morals are sometimes off the mark, or windy, or preachy. Not here.

The music is from Vivaldi's Four Seasons and flute concertos, and is well played, though the music is really filler intended to vary the fare and remind listeners that Aesop might well have told his stories to the accompaniment of a harp or lyre, as bards did in Ancient Greece. The performances are quite good, but they are snippets that fade in and out at the endings and beginnings of the fable narrations. Occasionally the music is louder than it should be and you have to listen carefully for a few words.

Overall, I recommend this to children and adults (I'm an AARP member and listened to this recording several times while walking on a treadmill). These retellings of the fables are sophisticated and use fairly simple language. Children capable of learning words in Harry Potter or Lemony Snicket will quickly learn any new words in these stories, particularly if they listen to them several times, as children often do.

The fables attributed to Aesop are widely known throughout the Western World, and some of them are similar to stories told in India and Asia. My guess is that many people would find this collection of fables entertaining, instructive, and worth their while.

I love this CD and so does my 8 year old
We are listening to this while driving around town.The brief stories are perfect for those "running errand days" when we are in and out of the van.

I absolutely love the language, and so does my 8 year old son.My 7 year old son likes some of them, but is disinterested in others.I love the narrator's voice, and the music between stories is beautiful!

The annunciation of the individual fable titles could be better, though.Perhaps the music is too loud at that point.

Not what I was Wanting
I bought this on cassette to entertain my 4-year-old during our 30-minute ride to school in the mornings. It was a complete failure, but to be fair the fault is probably my own ignorance of Aesop's Fables.The stories are VERY brief-- just enough to set up the moral at the end, not enough to set up any drama or catch my 4-year-old's interest. The morals themselves are worded in old-fashioned and/or very sophisticated language and are pretty much incomprehensible to this age child.I could perhaps see having this in book format and reading one or two stories at bed time, but for my needs the cassette at least is pretty useless.We'll be going back to the Jim Weiss stories on tape (which we've quite enjoyed). ... Read more

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Customer Reviews (17)

Prison gruel compared to his past fare!
I'm not suggesting for a second that Sir Jeffrey Archer shouldn't have been in prison or that he didn't deserve his all expenses paid vacation courtesy of the UK taxpayer. But, on the other hand, if he felt he was served some lemons then you have to give him credit for preparing some lemonade that he could sell to his remaining fans after he was released.

CAT O'NINE TALES includes twelve short stories, nine of which were borrowed (stolen?) and then embellished from his fellow inmate cronies and three of which were original (and, if I do say so, the least interesting of the twelve). While they do have a certain ring of truth and are interesting, in the sense that they have ironic and sometimes mildly humorous endings, the story-telling is, to say the least, pedestrian. Especially when it's compared to the work that Archer produced when in such stellar novels as Kane and Abel.

Had this collection been "pure" fiction, tales such as "Maestro" which regaled us with the escapades of an Italian restaurateur, busted for evading a spectacular chunk of tax, might have struck the reader as picaresque, perhaps humorous portrayals of almost impish rogues. But, since we now know the story is based on a true-life criminal who sought to extensively line his own pockets at the expense of his fellow citizens and more honest taxpayers, it's tough to generate any sympathy for the character. As a result, it's also difficult to feel any real enjoyment in reading the story. The same comment about his characters generating any real interest or sympathy might be levelled at virtually every story in the collection.

Only moderately enjoyable and mercifully short and easy to read, CAT O'NINE TALES is probably the output of an author past his prime who should retire gracefully. I wonder if he's getting a pension from the British government in spite of his stint behind bars?

Paul Weiss

Cat of a dozen tales?
"Cat O-Nine Tales" nominally consists of >9 crime stories (tales) related to Archer by fellow prisoners, during Archer's year in prison for perjury in the 1980s.Some or most of these stories are acknowledged to be at least third hand, if not apocryphal.Indeed, I've read the story of the greedy divorcee before (albeit, I don't know where)--it has obviously passed into urban legend, albeit I do not know whether before or after recorded by Archer.

Archer's versions of the stories are competent and enjoyable light reading.Even so, they are short stories, often cliched, and with limited character development.Archer skillfully weaves in the setting (prison life) in which he acquired the stories, but says little about himself and nothing of why he was imprisioned.

The last three stories appear to be Archer's own original stories tacked on to increase the page count (and increasing the story count beyond the specified 9).While pleasant stories, they are of a different genre.They are not "criminal", and lack the sharp irony.The storiesends with the reader still waiting for the punch lines.The stories are variously sweet, poignant, or entertaining by themselves---they are just misplaced in this collection.

Below par, but this isn't golf
Having just finished Cat, I have to agree with the contrary opinion writer. I have read all of his previous short story collections, and liked them. I have also read 3 or 4 of his novels, as well. Cat is definitely sub standard Archer, by comparison. I did not find even one of the 12 to be on the level with the prior works. Go and read ANY of his other work and you will be much more rewarded than spending your time on this one.

Not as good as his older works.
Not overly impressed by this. Nice readable almost intriguing tales but for the most part very predictable. The twist at the end was uninspired for the most part.

Jeffry Archer
Cat O'Nine Tales (And Other Stories) (Large Print)
Archer is a master at writing. I always enjoy his books. Look forward to more in the future. ... Read more

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Customer Reviews (10)

names changed to protect the guilty?
Really not her best novel: kind of slow and somewhat artificial.
Of Human Bondage (Signet Classics) is about a fellow with a club foot,
so the playwright here isn't alone. In 1940 club feet were all the rage as
Boris Karloff as a fictitious club-footed executioner Mord in "Tower of London".
The botched plastic surgery that forms the main plot device is still
taking place today. The estate entail is still active in England and Wales,
so that first sons get the land which in many cases is the basis of
the family fortunes.
I thought that this mystery was kind of long and somewhat boring
compared to an earlier novel by this author
that took place in her home New Zealand.
The upper class snob effect is very much in evidence here,
and I think the early novel was better because
it was more realistic and less contrived.

excellent
This is a wonderful, classic British mystery.It has an interesting cast of characters and great atmosphere.The snowbound party at a country estate provides the perfect backdrop for old fashioned murder. If you like Christie, this is worth a read.

Not quite Agatha Christie but it satisfied my mystery cravings
I am an absolute sucker for the old fashioned English whodunnit murder mystery style.I have read all of Christie's works and thought never would I read her equal.I still haven't but Marsh makes the closet bid I've seen yet in this novel.
The stage for murder is set when a bored and mischevious rich Englishmen invites several guests with dangerous secrets and obvious dislike for each other to his house for the weekend.
Tempers fly when the characters are thrown together and the result is attempted murder.Snowbound, the characters are unable to leave the situation even after the the murderer finally succeeds.
Ireally kind of chuckled at the host as he got far more than he bargined for out of his little psychological soiree'.The book was very amusing and kept me guessing up until the very end.I narrowed my list of suspects to two but still wasn't sure which one it was when the story ended.The detective doesn't play a large role here so don't expect Poirot.Alleyn comes in late in the novel and just wraps things up.The book was a little too long...I think that's one of the things I found that seperated her from Christie was that she tended to ramble and stall a bit.I grew quite inpatient to find out who the killer was as the book really had a lull in between the last murder and the solution.Otherwise though it was really a fun little romp.If you're a Christie fan give it a shot...you won't regret it.

Generic but Entertaining
Seven guests are chosen by their fiend-like host by reason of their mutual enmity and are imprisoned in a snow-bound country house to see what results from their tension and mounting hysteria; which is, of course, murder.Throughout, one is conscious of straining for effect, and, until the murder, the reader will find this one of the author's most tedious and uninspired jobs since the early books.The matter is not helped by a particularly irritating hero, a snobbish and precious aesthete, nor by Alleyn's late appearance, after which he does little except talk to witnesses.After the murder, if one can accept the large doses of hysteria, both masculine and feminine, the book becomes quite solid, and there is a novel twist on the alibi by wireless gimmick.

Thoroughly Enjoyable
Wealthy, self-indulgent Jonathan Royal has decided to amuse himself by hosting a houseparty--but not so much for the pleasure of his visitors as for the satisfaction of his own sense of mischief: his guests have been selected for their antagonism toward each other!Needless to say, a number of kettles soon begin to boil...And murder is the result!

Well read mystery fans will probably spot the killer on the basis of previous experience, but DEATH AND THE DANCING FOOTMAN offers one of Marsh's better plots--and as usual she creates a vividly drawn cast of characters and presents her tale with considerable style and plenty of wit.Long standing fans will enjoy it and newcomers will be converted!Recommended. ... Read more

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"It takes a disciplined author to hide secrets within secrets. . . . And it takes ambition to apply such intricate storytelling to a sweeping plot."
— The NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW

When her grandfather dies, Tamar inherits a box containing clues and coded messages. Out of the past another Tamar emerges, a man involved in the terrifying world of resistance fi ghters in Nazi-occupied Holland. His story is one of passion, love, jealousy, and tragedy, and unraveling it will transform Tamar's life. Mal Peet’s acclaimed novel is readby Anton Lesser, one of Britain's leading classical actors, andBATA-winning British actress Anna Maxwell Martin. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Enjoyable, intense and passionate...
This is a good tale... the author(s) not only spin a great legend, they weave a web of deception and trickery that when it is finally reveled seems logical, but almost totally hidden until the appropriate time...

In recent years this is one of the better tales I've enjoyed as far as being able to entwine multiple personalities and time periods together into a persuasive and coherent tale.The main story of WW II espionage behind enemy lines, and far from help grows and grows, but the more it expands the more is seems to obscure another entire line of the narrative which awaits the reader's attention...

Very enjoyable - a unique work to be sure, but well worth the reader's time...
... Read more

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Classic Hamlet Spoiled by Recording Technique
This disc is recorded like a theater performance, with a full cast, while many audio books are read aloud by one or two narrators.This recording has two primary faults.Number one the volume of the voices varies dramatically... which equates to: one moment it's too loud, and the next moment it's too quiet to make out what is being said.Number two, the character of King Hamlet's ghost speaks in an intentioanlly "ghostlike" manner, and therefore his speech is unintelligible much of the time.I was very disappointed. ... Read more

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The eighth novel in Naxos AudioBooks' series of the great works of Charles Dickens. Oliver Twist is Dickens' second novel. Coming shortly after 'The Pickwick Papers', it is a thrilling study of childhood innocence thrust into the darkly comic world of Fagin, his apprentice the Artful Dodger and their gang of child thieves. Who will help the orphaned Oliver to escape from their clutches and discover his true history? The original story is even more powerful than the musical that popularised it. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

ok
this is an abridge edition and did not follow the book. It skipped parts and chapters. would not recommend for school

Does the job!
Bought this to help my teenage son who is studying the text at school. He found it very good and it certainly did its job of getting him through the text and of conveying the meaning, which can sometimes be a bit obscure to the modern kid. ... Read more

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Poverty-stricken Raskolnikov commits murder and tries to justify the crime to himself, but is tortured by his conscience. ... Read more

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Dickens' classic study of childhood innocence. Young Oliver Twist is thrust into the darkly comic world of Fagin, his apprentice the Artful Dodger and their gang of child thieves. Can Oliver escape from their clutches and discover his true history. ... Read more