The Story and The Voice

A masterful retelling of a classic tale, this adaptation astounds. The fleshing out of a character such as Juliet results in a story which is relatable to this modern generation. The struggles of girls the world over - for autonomy, individuality and freedom - is captured in this one intelligent, headstrong girl.

The pacing of the story ensures that ones imagination is free to soar. Descriptives are kept to a minimum, while being sufficient to act as a spring board.

Narration...well, what can one say?...the rich chocolate voice of Richard Armitage, and the vocal characterizations he presents are a joy to the ear.

Congratulations Mr. Hewson, this is indeed a triumph!

53 people found this helpful

Hewson & Armitage - Romeo & Juliet

What made the experience of listening to Romeo and Juliet: A Novel the most enjoyable?

Richard Armitage's amazing voice, of course!

Which character – as performed by Richard Armitage – was your favorite?

No surprise, probably the nurse. Richard Armitage does such a great job with character voices, and especially quirky older ones!

Any additional comments?

Hewson is an amazing writer, and his Hamlet collaboration with Armitage is one of my very favorite audiobooks. Somehow I was not quite satisfied with the ending, perhaps because the original story is almost archetypal to me - it's probably just me, though as it's quite well written. Knowing it's switched up a bit keeps you on your toes while listening, in a way. I like the way Hewson fleshed out the personalities of Romeo and Juliet, and "modernized" them, if you will. Richard Armitage doesn't "read" audiobooks, he "portrays" them! I can read much faster than I can listen to audiobooks, but the way Armitage performs them makes it an experience! (And I could never speed up his reading, that's heresy!) I highly recommend Romeo and Juliet to you!

24 people found this helpful

Read to me Richard Armitage...

Pleasantly surprised! I did not realize what I was getting myself into when I downloaded this story. It gave some characters I thought I knew so much more depth. I loved that there was historical value thrown in there also. Oh, and most importantly, I could listen to Richard Armitage read about anything...sigh.

12 people found this helpful

Wonderful, Imaginative

This is so very, very good.

A million years ago, when I was a young teenager, I was captivated by the 1968 Zeffirelli film/interpretation of Romeo and Juliet, and very seldom does any production come close to that initial charm. This does. A different forum, I agree, but the combination of Mr. Hewson's interpretation of Shakespeare [he does not follow of the play completely] and Mr. Armitage's superb, wonderful, wonderful narration makes this a five star rating for me.

I've been an Audible customer for almost a decade now, many many books, and more and more I choose the narrator first, the subject second; British narrators first, everybody else second. Add in Shakespearean acting experience for the narrator, and everything comes together.

Highly recommended.

56 people found this helpful

Beautiful Adaptation!

Many of us know the classic tale of Romeo and Juliet, and when I saw this new adaptation, I immediately pre-ordered it. One thing that makes this novel stand out for me is the great amount of detail and historic research that must have gone into it: the politics, description of the towns of Verona, Venice, and Mantua, current state of politics and world events taking place at the time, down to the recipes of food served at the banquet. Since I have read the play in English and Italian, and recently visited many of the places mentioned, it was very easy to go back there in my mind. The author even skillfully lifts a key phrase or oft-quoted line right from the play and weaves it seamlessly into the story.

The only problem I had was that since this is an Italian story, on reflection, I thought there should have been a few expressions or phrases in Italian, such as idioms, or at least some greetings when the characters speak to each other. Instead, there is actually some Cockney slang among some servants, which is working-class London! This felt particularly out of place for an Italian setting. I often found myself pausing the audio to think because the Cockney was jolting simply because it's the wrong place, momentarily putting me out of the story.

For the most part, Richard Armitage's narration was simply spell-binding. I have noticed he narrates many classic English stories, such as by Charles Dickens, and is a great choice for a mostly-male cast of characters, and my God, can this man read poetry! That said, his choice of voicing for some of the characters was a bit jolting and out of place. This probably has something to do with the writing, as noted above. For example, Count Paris is from Florence, and at one point it specifically says he and his guards have "thick Florentine accents," yet they are read with the same British as the rest, and the guards speak with Cockney slang! Again, since this is an Italian story, I feel the characters ought to have Italian accents, though since the play adaptation was by Shakespeare, who (rumors aside) was British, perhaps that's not so out-of-place.

The story has a twist ending, which I at the same time liked, and didn't like (how dare he change Shakespeare? lol).

10 people found this helpful

A 5-star listen

Another wonderful retelling of the Romeo and Juliet story. I heartily applaud the author's decision to raise Juliet's age to 16 (the same age as previous-to-Shakespeare versions of the story), instead of Shakespeare's absurdly youngyoungyoung 13 years. Setting the story in 1499 really added a wonderful historical depth to the issues of the day as well. Hewson used a deft hand to help immerse the reader back into the high hopes, dizzy passions, and the optimistic and ambitious social pursuits of the teenage mind. I enjoyed the ride.

10 people found this helpful

Oh be some other name!

I got this book for two reasons: 1) Richard Armitage’s narration, which I greatly enjoyed and was thankful for; 2) Because it’s Romeo and Juliet and I have been reading/watching many version to see how I would play with the story. This version was not one I enjoyed. The author said he wanted to go back to some of the original source material and try to be more accurate to the times, but I didn’t enjoy some of the changes that were made. It felt too much of a departure from Shakespeare for my liking, but I received it as I would a director’s retelling of any of Shakespeare’s work - enjoyed what I could, and will leave it at the curtain call.

9 people found this helpful

And Shakespeare ... ?

There are many I am certain who have and who will enjoy this very modernist retelling of one of the great bard's most famous tragedies. I must admit I looked forward to a fleshing out of the characters myself and was interested especially as to whether the author would lean toward the romantic, or the failure-of-child-to-be-obedient moral. It seems he took a middle road and leaned to neither, bringing forward the bitter feud of the families as his main object of interest. His characters were all excellently brought to life, except his Juliet, I think; who was far more fit to be a young woman of the late twentieth century than the late fifteenth where he 'set[s his] scene'. She is the only character I find out of place. Indeed I am not certain Shakespeare would have recognized her, nor would he have appreciated the almost without exception negative view of God and the Christian Church the author sometimes subliminally, sometimes openly inserts whenever possible. In the end, and regardless of the author's excellent ability to give the time, place, and each character full telling, I am happy to recall the original will be that version remembered.

17 people found this helpful

Loved it!

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

I'm always a little skeptical of actors narrating a book. But, Mr. Armitage does an EXCELLENT job in his narration. Really liked the book, as well. It's a retelling of Romeo & Juliet, more in depth giving backgrounds on other characters. Written w/ a 3rd party voice, which I really enjoyed. It's also written in "simple" English, not old English (The's and Thow's). Much easier to listen to. Thank you David Hewson for the rewrite and Richard Armitage for fantastic narration.

24 people found this helpful

A Real Love Story

A retelling of arguably the most famous love story in the world, but one that is grounded in the lived truth of its primary actors: adolescents trying to make sense of their own lives in the midst of the swiftly changing world of the early Renaissance.
I thought I knew this story, but its fresh and contextual perspective was like a brand new story. It had my full attention from the first few minutes through to its completion, which I found as satisfying as any of my most favorite tales.
Equally compelling was the narrator's brilliant performance: Armitage Is masterful at every point. The combination of story and performance was so compelling that I began this book late on a Friday afternoon and finished it on the Monday morning commute. This was a joy.

5 people found this helpful