Abandoned
William Clark Russell
Read by LibriVox Volunteers
We meet Miss Lucretia Lane as she is dressing for her marriage to Captain Francis Reynolds of the British Merchant Service. Though he loves her truly, she has severe misgivings. She goes through with the wedding in spite of this, but refuses to live with her new husband, and cannot be enticed or cajoled to do so. Then on the day the Captain is scheduled to ship out, she receives word that he has been gravely injured and his dying request is to see his wife. She flies to his side... and thus begins an adventure spanning eight years - love, loathing, shipwreck, love lost, and redemption. (Summary by P. Cunningham and Nadine Eckert-Boulet) (9 hr 31 min)
Chapters
Chapter I, The Wedding | 28:33 | Read by Patti Cunningham |
Chapter II, The Medical Certificate | 27:58 | Read by Patti Cunningham |
Chapter III, Trapped | 35:40 | Read by TriciaG |
Chapter IV, A Change of Mind | 34:11 | Read by Anna Starzyk |
Chapter V, The Wreck | 41:34 | Read by Terence Taylor |
Chapter VI, The Fisherman | 37:18 | Read by Barbara Derksen |
Chapter VII, The Boat's Crew | 33:20 | Read by Gary Olman |
Chapter VIII, Conversations and Confidences | 32:20 | Read by Gary Olman |
Chapter IX, The Chase | 34:55 | Read by Jacquerie |
Chapter X, Two Graves | 32:01 | Read by Jacquerie |
Chapter XI, The Chanticleer | 39:54 | Read by Thelma Meyer |
Chapter XII, After Eight Years | 33:04 | Read by Gary Olman |
Chapter XIII, At Ramsgate | 34:43 | Read by Joshua |
Chapter XIV, A Rescue | 38:06 | Read by TriciaG |
Chapter XV, Mr. Goodhart Offers Marriage | 48:50 | Read by Ruth Golding |
Chapter XVI, Husband and Wife | 38:42 | Read by Gary Olman |
Reviews
A wonderful tale
A LibriVox Listener
To all the readers thank you. How welcome you would be at my home for cake and coffee. ( or tea and a biscuit). You have no idea the positive impact you all are having on the lives of those you read to. I would not trade Gary Oleman's reading for all the "Proffesional readers" in the world. Do any of us imagine the good Captain's diction would not be rough or all be as perfect as the Author makes him out to be? Consider the implications of that. Enjoy the tale that much more.. The finest perfomance on stage came from a town of 500..The finest readers are here at Librivox. They are all perfect. Thank you again Readers. and all at Librivox
Great story
A LibriVox Listener
the quality of the reading was mostly good except for the one man, that seemed to get tired and confused at times
Abandoned
Rod Arnold
A very good story, well worth reading ! Thank you to the readers for donating your time.
Abandoned,Wm. Clark Russell
Barbarannsos
I know that librivox is open to all readers, and thats very generous, but honestly, its so distractig to switch from a reader with a wonderful voice and gift of luring you ito the story with wonderful accents and voices, that I actually have to stop listening and consider, whether to finish or not. This just happened to me while listening to Abandoned, Wm. Clark Russell. I was so looking forward to the conclusion as Ruth Golding proceeded into Chapter 15, but Gary Oldman took over for the conclusion and I just could not listen another second. I prefer to imagine the ending rather than indure this fellows monosyllabic drone, as nails on a blackboard. Sorry Gary for calling you out but some of us should be listeners.
Great story, less than perfect rendering...
mikezane
Captain Reynolds' wife abandons him on their wedding day. He contrives to try to win her back, but alas, the fates have other plans in mind. I won't say more than that so as to not give the plot away, but this is a very sweet story with a happy ending. Okay, now don't flame me for saying this... As a general rule I give 4 or 5 stars to most books because they are well read and nicely done, but this book had a lot of errors in the PL which was extremely distracting. So 4 stars for the story, but maybe a little more attention to the PL next time.
Randall
Randall Morton
Olsen that red chapter 12 delivered a reading it was absolutely atrocious. he battered the English language, he had no tonal quality and read the script about fourth grade or Lower. please for the sake of future readers replace those readings with someone who can speak the English language on an educated level. the other ratings were fairly well done except one of the female readers had no tonal quality and it was hard to determine who was speaking and what was meant in the reading. Her lack of ability to use tonal quality matched that of Olsen.
Bravo from Borneo
Lord Jim
I am a fan of this famous author and was not disappointed by this book. There is of course a nautical theme...but the story has so much more and deals with unrequited love and the lengths a man will go to capture his loves heart. As always with this author there is great detail and description of both characters...locations and situations...which I found very engaging. Whilst the various narrators were on balance quite competent...the narrator for chapter 12 and the last chapter struggled somewhat. However...don't be put off by this...the book is worth it.
A genius wordsmith's story of love
kbq
I am grateful to the readers who preserved to bring this story to me in audible form! If you love creative, descriptive words and well-turned phrases, if you have a philosopher's mind, if you enjoy thinking, then this writing will charm you! Though the story moves slowly, what happens is unexpected and well worth the wait! A story set in London and the sea, at heart is is an honorable man's love story.