The Essential Dylan Thomas
Written by Dylan Thomas
Narrated by Richard Burton, Philip Madoc, Jason Hughes and Richard Bebb
4.5/5
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Currently unavailable
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About this audiobook
This varied, well-chosen selection brings the best of Dylan Thomas. Here is the legendary recording of Under Milk Wood, with Richard Burton and Richard Bebb as narrators; but here also are two radio productions he wrote before that great classic, and though interesting in their own right, they show how Under Milk Wood grew gradually in his imagination. Thomas was a charismatic if idiosyncratic performer of his own poetry and stories and here is a representative selection. Performances of Dylan Thomas have since moved on and the greatness of the writer as a poet and storyteller are perhaps best heard in new recordings by actors of our own time. Here Bebb, Madoc, and Hughes share some of Thomas’s finest, most challenging and endearing works.
Dylan Thomas
Dylan Thomas, born in 1914, began his career as a journalist in his native Swansea, Wales. He then moved to London where he worked in broadcasting and wrote film scripts, prose and drama to earn enough money to enable him to write what he most wanted to—poetry. He lived colorfully, even recklessly, until his untimely death in New York City in 1953. One of the 20th century’s most treasured writers, Dylan Thomas was a master craftsman of poetic complexity and richly obscure imagery. Thomas’s genius is made clear in this landmark recording through the everlasting gift he has given the word—his voice.
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Reviews for The Essential Dylan Thomas
12 ratings3 reviews
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5This audio collection contains Dylan Thomas’s play Under Milk Wood along with several of his poems and short stories. Under Milk Wood is read by a full cast headed by Richard Burton, and the poems and short stories represent recordings by modern actors as well as historic ones by Dylan Thomas himself.This was my second go at Under Milk Wood (the first time was purely textual reading) and I’m not quite sure what to make of it. It’s definitely beautifully written with such a lyrical style, although it’s probably one of the least plotted plays I’ve ever read or seen. Dylan Thomas called it “a play for voices” and it’s more about hearing language spoken than anything else. The play follows the lives of various people in a small Welsh town, starting with their morning dreams and ending at that night. Mostly, we are just hearing what people are remembering from their past, what gossip is going around, etc. There is very little action, which makes me wonder how this play would actually work in production. (I’ve occasionally heard of Under Milk Wood being put on by such-and-such theater but never anywhere in my area.) The audio version was actually a bit hard to follow at first, so I took out my text copy and followed along until I got into the rhythm of it. Still, like I said above, I’m not sure what to make of it and that’s the reason I give this audio collection an only so-so rating.The short stories and poems were all amazing. I’m not the hugest fans of short stories as a general rule because I always find their endings a bit abrupt and that was still the case here, but they were so wonderfully rich in language that I thoroughly enjoyed them. Dylan Thomas was an extraordinarily talented writer, and I’ll be sure to read other works by him in the future.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Burton reading Under Milk Wood will set fire to your heart. Phenomenal collection. And free. Based on the diminishing returns of the service, I imagine this must be some kind of oversight - so gedit while its hawt.
1 person found this helpful
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Exceptional!
1 person found this helpful