Faces and Places


Read by Ruth Golding

(4.5 stars; 34 reviews)

Faces and Places is a collection of articles on nineteenth century travel, events and personalities by the British journalist Henry Lucy, who wrote for the Daily News, a London newspaper. His open letter To Those About to Become Journalists rings as true today as when it was written.

The first article, "Fred" Burnaby, includes a lively account of a balloon trip, while Night and Day on the Cars in Canada and Easter on Les Avants relate Lucy's experiences of rail travel at that time. Other travel tales (A Night on a Mountain, Mosquitoes and Monaco, and Oysters and Arcachon) provide an insight into the Victorian Englishman's attitude to Europe.

Three of the pieces, With Peggotty and Ham, A Cinque Port and Christmas Eve at Watts's, concern the county of Kent, where Lucy had a country house. Christmas Eve at Watts's contains an interesting exposé of Dickens' short story The Seven Poor Travellers.

Other articles are of historical interest: A Wreck in the North Sea is an account of the wreck of the ship "Deutschland" in 1875; A Historic Crowd describes the massive popular interest in the 1871 trial of the Tichborne Claimant; The Battle of Merthyr contains an eye-witness account of the Merthyr Riots of 1831; The Prince of Wales paints a portrait of the future King Edward VII.

Lucy, who also wrote as "Toby, M.P." for the satirical magazine Punch, loved to poke gentle fun, particularly at the establishment, and this is especially evident in A Peep at an Old House of Commons and Some Preachers I Have Known.

This eclectic collection, mostly affectionately humorous, but with moments of great pathos, was originally published in 1892 in The Whitefriars Library of Wit & Humour.(Summary by Ruth Golding) (6 hr 59 min)

Chapters

Chapter I - "Fred" Burnaby 43:42 Read by Ruth Golding
Chapter II - A Night on a Mountain 26:46 Read by Ruth Golding
Chapter III - The Prince of Wales 11:23 Read by Ruth Golding
Chapter IV - A Historic Crowd 22:28 Read by Ruth Golding
Chapter V - With Peggotty and Ham 19:50 Read by Ruth Golding
Chapter VI - To Those about to Become Journalists 14:36 Read by Ruth Golding
Chapter VII - A Cinque Port 16:09 Read by Ruth Golding
Chapter VIII - Oysters and Arcachon 20:09 Read by Ruth Golding
Chapter IX - Christmas Eve at Watts's 25:45 Read by Ruth Golding
Chapter X - Night and Day on the Cars in Canada 16:43 Read by Ruth Golding
Chapter XI - Easter on Les Avants 37:16 Read by Ruth Golding
Chapter XII - The Battle of Merthyr 23:11 Read by Ruth Golding
Chapter XIII - Mosquitoes and Monaco 17:16 Read by Ruth Golding
Chapter XIV - A Wreck in the North Sea 14:54 Read by Ruth Golding
Chapter XV - A Peep at an Old House of Commons 39:23 Read by Ruth Golding
Chapter XVI - Some Preachers I Have Known (Part 1) 30:54 Read by Ruth Golding
Chapter XVI - Some Preachers I Have Known (Part 2) 38:46 Read by Ruth Golding

Reviews

Reader's response


(0 stars)

Thank you, Philippe. I felt I ought to say that this was my first solo recording, and the sound quality is not up to my usual standard. I am partly through re-recording this, and will note in the description when I have uploaded the better version. Ruth <b>Added 18 Feb 2010:</b> Now re-recorded in full. And I enjoyed it just as much second time round.

I loved listening to this book!


(5 stars)

A delightful recording. Many thanks to Ruth Golding!

enjoyable, recommended to anglophile history fans


(5 stars)

The reminisces of the great tichborne trial were interesting, having just read on the same in the wonderful LibriVox work SURVIVORS' TALES OF FAMOUS CRIMES. I've had this crossover experience a lot on LibriVox... wonderful!! thanks for the great reading, perfection.

enjoyable


(5 stars)

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. A fascinating window on the past, read brilliantly as usual, by Ruth Golding. Well done and thank you.

intwrestimg!


(5 stars)

enjoyed the stories very much...even more so because of the reader.