Piccadilly A Fragment of Contemporary Biography


Read by LibriVox Volunteers

(0.5 stars; 1 reviews)

Laurence Oliphant, author, international traveller, diplomatist and mystic, who spent a decade in later life under the influence of the spiritualist prophet Thomas Lake Harris, writes here under the amusing guise of Lord Frank Vanecourt, bringing us a veritable pot-pourri of events from everyday life in 1865 as he moves amongst the great, the good, and not so good who reside in the exclusive area of London's Piccadilly W1 and its surroundings. (Introduction by Nigel Carrington) (7 hr 54 min)

Chapters

01 - Preface and Part I: Love 44:09 Read by TRUEBRIT
02 - Part IIa: Madness 32:18 Read by TRUEBRIT
03 - Part IIb: Madness 28:41 Read by TRUEBRIT
04 - Part IIIa: Suicide 32:52 Read by TRUEBRIT
05 - Part IIIb: Suicide 35:52 Read by Marian Cervassi
06 - Part IVa: The World 36:31 Read by Malcolm Cameron
07 - Part IVb: The World 38:04 Read by Malcolm Cameron
08 - Part Va: The Flesh 30:46 Read by David Wales
09 - Part Vb: The Flesh 42:55 Read by David Wales
10 - Part VIa: The ____ 48:31 Read by Lucretia B.
11 - Part VIb: The ____ 38:31 Read by Lucretia B.
12 - Conclusion 27:52 Read by David Wales
13 - Conclusion 37:46 Read by David Wales

Reviews

A Boring Slog of a Book


(0.5 stars)

Maybe the book has lost much in "translation" - 1865 upper crust British to 21st century American, but I found this book to be a rambling incomprehensible mess and as such unable to finish it. The description implied that the book is an amusing view of the great, good, and the not so great. But aside from the characters' names it was hard to tell who was who. So unless you you roar with laughter over the stereotyping of American millionaires or subcontinental Indians or tirades against missionaries buying horses, I would suggest skipping this book and trying Charles Dickens or any of a dozen other mid nineteenth authors.