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On Audiobooks and the Great Actresses… Dear Ones — Some of you have very…
On Audiobooks and the Great Actresses…
Dear Ones —
Some of you have very nicely been asking me lately if I'm going to be reading the audiobook for my new novel "The Signature of All Things". As some of you know, I did read the audiobooks for "Eat Pray Love" and "Committed" — which was a really funny and surreal experience, both times. (Ten days in each case, locked in a tiny booth with my own words, asking myself sometimes — when stumbling over a difficult passage or a particularly long paragraph — "Give me a break, man, who WROTE this unreadable garble???" And then starting over, and reading it again…and again…and again…until my head almost rolled off in a weary daze.)
I didn't want read the audiobooks for my earlier books (admirable actors did the job) but I insisted on reading EPL and Committed — because those stories were so intimately my own, and I just thought it would be odd to hear somebody else's voice essentially reading my diary.
But with "The Signature of All Things"…well, I never even considered doing it. First of all, I can't do the accents that this novel requires (which range from an 18th century British Baron, to a 19th-century Bostonian scholar, to a cheerful Cornish sailor, to a drunken Italian astronomer, to a dangerous Yorkshireman, to a Philadelphia coquette, to a stern Dutch-born housekeeper, to a refined native-born Polynesian missionary…and many more beyond.)
Also, it's 500 pages long, and I think my vocal chords would collapse and my brains would turn to custard.
But most importantly, I could hear a voice in my head the entire time I was writing this novel…and that voice wasn't my own. That voice was Juliet Stevenson's.
Those of you who are audiobook junkies probably know Ms. Stevenson already. She's read most of the Jane Austen novels, a good deal of Virginia Woolf, and I keep her exquisite version of "Middlemarch" on my iPhone forever, listening to it when I have trouble falling asleep at night. It always soothes and delights me.
For those of you who don't know Juliet Stevenson…oh, you're in for a treasure. She's a gorgeously trained British actress of stage and screen — one of the greats — with a voice that is intelligent, calm and supple. She just SOUNDS like an omniscient narrator — and a compassionate one, too. From the beginning, she was only person I ever wanted to read "The Signature of All Things" but I never thought I would be lucky enough to get her.
Guys, I got her.
So this is a dream for me. She's actually doing it. I am so thrilled and honored. I cannot wait to hear how she sees my world.
So that's that…and if anyone wants to check out her complete collection of audiobooks on iTunes, here it is. Her Jane Austens are superb. You can hear some small samples:
https://itunes.apple.com/us/artist/juliet-stevenson/id2024416?mt=11
Happy listening, and thank you, Juliet Stevenson!
Heart,
LG
This is wonderful…thank you, Lyndsey!
This is wonderful…thank you, Lyndsey!
Photos of Elizabeth Gilbert
Hi, Liz! I'm a longtime fan, and thought I'd share this moment from a recent hike in Great Falls, MD. While crossing a bridge, we caught sight of our shadows on the side of the mountain, and couldn't resist waving to them. It immediately brought a phrase from EPL to mind: “Never forget that once upon a time, in an unguarded moment, you recognized yourself as a friend.” Thank you for helping us to recognize those moments!
Dear Kind Friends — The book I’ve been working on for four years is going to be…
Dear Kind Friends —
The book I've been working on for four years is going to be published in SIX WEEKS…!
Holy moly.
Guys, I've got gotta tell you — "The Signature of All Things" is the most joyous thing I've ever made. I feel like it's the culmination of my entire life as a writer. And I can't wait for you all to see it, with hopes that you will love it.
Today, I wanted to share with you these three excerpts of early reviews, from "the big three" (Kirkus, Booklist and Library Journal) who are always the first critics in America to look at new works.
Here goes:
Praise for The Signature of All Things…
“Gilbert’s sweeping saga of Henry Whittaker and his daughter Alma offers an allegory for the great, rampant heart of the 19th century…The dense, descriptive writing seems lifted from pages written two centuries past, yet it’s laced with spare ironical touches and elegant phrasing…Characters leap into life, visible and vibrant… Multiple narrative threads weave seamlessly into a saga reminiscent of T. C. Boyle’s Water Music…A brilliant exercise of intellect and imagination.”
—Kirkus Reviews (Starred Review)
“Gilbert returns to fiction with her first novel in 13 years, and what a novel it is! Taking her sweet time and digressing at will into areas ranging from botany to spiritualism to illustration, she tells the rich, highly satisfying story of scholar Alma Whittaker…Gilbert, in supreme command of her material, effortlessly invokes the questing spirit of the nineteenth century, when amateur explorers, naturalists, and enthusiasts were making major contributions to progress. Beautifully written and imbued with a reverence for science and for learning, this is a must-read.”
—Booklist (Starred Review)
“After 13 years as a memoirist, Elizabeth Gilbert has returned to fiction, and clearly she’s reveling in all its pleasures and possibilities. THE SIGNATURE OF ALL THINGS is a big, old-fashioned story that spans continents and a century…there is much pleasure in this unhurried, sympathetic, intelligent novel by an author confident in her material and her form.”
—Publishers Weekly (Starred Review)
🙂
Dear Ones, if you want to pre-order your copy of my book, you may do so right here:
https://www.elizabethgilbert.com/books/the-signature-of-all-things/
Thank you for all the years of support and love,
ONWARD,
Liz
The Signature of All Things | Elizabeth Gilbert – The Official Website | ElizabethGilbert.com
www.elizabethgilbert.com
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An old favorite… 🙂
Eat Pray Love back home in BALI… 🙂
Eat Pray Love back home in BALI…
🙂
Photos of Elizabeth Gilbert
Eat Pray Love, traveled all the way from New Zealand to Ubud.