I am not normally a lover of audio books, no matter how well they are read, somehow the voices never match up to my ideas of how the characters sound, but on Sunday and Monday, I felt so depressed and fed up and found I was in a weepy state, so I slobbed around all day and decided to make no effort to do ANYTHING at all, and that included reading a book.
So out came this gem - Georgette Heyer's The Convenient Marriage read by, wait for it, wait for it, Richard Armitage. Yes the unnutterablysexygorgeoussmouldering Richard Armitage for whom I nurture a deep passion. He has such a gorgeous, husky speaking voice (looks ok too) and I had heard that he had done a few of these for Naxos so decided to give it a whirl.
The Convenient Marriage is one of Heyer's wittiest and most delightful novels. Set before her Regency period so that the heroes wear plum velvet coats with embroidered waistcoats and cascading frills down their front, shoes with buckles etc. Heroines have plumes in their hair and patches and it is all great fun. Tells the story of Horatia WInwood aged 17 who, on hearing that the Earl of Rule has offered for her elder sister which will save the family fortunes, decides to rescue Elizabeth from this fate (as she loves another) and goes and proposes to the Earl herself.
On paper this is a singularly ill matched couple, but this is a Heyer after all and they fall in love with one another but don't discover this till the final page when we have read through kidnapping, seduction, gambling etc etc and it rattles along at a great pace. I have read all of Heyer's books so often that I more or less know them off by heart and could recognise which bits had been left out in this abridged edition. However, it has been done very well and I can see that the loss of some of the dialogue and characterisation makes little difference to an audio book, though enhancing the reading experience.
So I sat and listened to the unnutterablysexygorgeoussmouldering Richard Armitage reading and what did I think? Well, he was excellent. Accents spot on, the drunken irresponsible Pelham, his brother in law and his friend Pomeroy, the effeminate and spiteful Drelincourt, cousin to Rule, Lord Lethbridge who harbours a long held grudge against Rule and decides to seduce his wife - all great. My only problem was with his voice for Horatia. OK, difficult for a man to do a woman's voice I know (and some audio books I have heard when a woman attempts to be gruff and masculine can be embarrassing), and for me this was the weakest spot of the reading.
BUT this is far outweighed by the rest. Just sit back for a moment, close your eyes, and imagine Richard Armitage reading this with a sensual throb in his voice which has lowered by about two octaves:
"When I married you Horry, there was another woman in my life. She is not there now my darling, and in my heart she never had a place"
"Oh Marcus put me there" Horatia said on a sob
"You are there" he answered and caught her up in his arms and kissed her, not gently at all, but ruthlessly, crushing all the breath out of her body
All together now - Swooooooooooooooooooooooooon...............
