Mad, Bad, Dangerous to Know
The Fathers of Wilde, Yeats and Joyce
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Mad, Bad, Dangerous to Know
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Narrated by:
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Colm Tóibín
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By:
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Colm Tóibín
About this listen
Penguin presents the audiobook edition of Mad, Bad, Dangerous to Know written and read by Colm Tóibín.
'A father...is a necessary evil.' Stephen Dedalus in Ulysses
In Mad, Bad, Dangerous to Know, Colm Tóibín turns his incisive gaze to three of Ireland's greatest writers, Oscar Wilde, W.B. Yeats and James Joyce, and their earliest influences: their fathers. From Wilde's doctor father, a brilliant statistician and amateur archaeologist, who was taken to court by an obsessed lover in a strange premonition of what would happen to his son; to Yeats' father, an impoverished artist and brilliant letter-writer who could never finish apainting; to John Stanislus Joyce, a singer, drinker and story-teller, a man unwilling to provide for his large family, whom his son James memorialised in his work.
Colm Tóibín illuminates not only the complex relationships between three of the greatest writers in the English language and their fathers, but also illustrates the surprising ways they surface in their work.
If there is a more brilliant writer than Tóibín working today, I don't know who that would be - Karen Joy Fowler
Toibin is a supple, subtle thinker, alive to hints and undertones, wary of absolute truths - New Statesman
A consistently revealing look at how writers' relationships have influenced their work - Sunday Telegraph on 'New Ways to Kill Your Mother'
A wide-ranging and enlightening study of the potentially stifling family and the individual spirit of the writer - Sunday Times on 'New Ways to Kill Your Mother'
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What listeners say about Mad, Bad, Dangerous to Know
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Katie Chapple
- 04-10-19
fantastic book- beautifully narrated
beautifully narrated and a thoroughly interesting and enjoyable read that makes you hungry for more
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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- Rachel Redford
- 26-11-18
Fathers and Sons
The book Mad, Bad, Dangerous to Know is made up of a collection of lectures which Colm Toibin originally gave in Georgia USA. This makes it particularly suitable for audio, especially when read by the writer himself. At first I was rather irritated by Toibin’s gentle, super-reverential, conspiratorial voice, but I became drawn in, mesmerised by the Irish cadences and the feeling of intimacy which his voice creates between author and listener, and between listener and the family dynamics he creates so vividly as he probes the father-son relationships.
The fathers of James Joyce, Oscar Wilde and W.B.Yeats all in their different ways were eccentric, highly creative, gifted, flawed – and, like Byron, ‘mad, bad, dangerous to know’. Toibin’s immersion in James Joyce’s work is total as he explores Joyce’s depiction of his father, mainly in Ulysses and Dubliners, where Joyce recreated an insightful, forgiving version of the pitiful, fearful drunk Joyce senior was in reality.
Oscar Wilde’s father William was a pioneering eye and ear surgeon with a phenomenal hunger for learning. Having been almost ruined by sexual scandal, he was dead at 61 – and in Reading Gaol when Oscar Wilde wrote of his own life in In Profundis, his father was written out of it, despite their obvious similarities.
W.B.Yeats' father, a gifted but largely unrecognised artist, exiled himself to New York in old age in flight from Ireland and his successful son, never to return but spending years exchanging hundreds of love letters with Rosa Butt whom he had known in his youth and whom would never meet again.
The whole download is only six hours and would certainly repay second and even third listenings as it is so densely and rewardingly packed.
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2 people found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Peter
- 15-09-22
Memories of Dublin
Colm is a fine narrator of his own writings. He has the right soft tenor to turn the music of the past into a live recital. Souls cast among the landscapes of Dublin briefly lite up before gliding into the shadow. I learnt more from this moonlight than staring at the sun.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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- Amazon Customer
- 06-08-19
Gorgeous details, tenderly told
Tóibín's narration is conversational and electrifying. The letters of John B Yeats in particular, rendered vividly
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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- Tsarina
- 21-08-19
Read or listen
This is a splendid book, made even better -- in the sense of authentic -- by being read by the author. Strongly recommended.
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance1 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Eamon
- 14-02-19
Narrator awful
While Colm Tóibín is an excellent writer, he should stick to the day job and not try and narrate.
The whole book is spoken in a slow, boring voice.
Please spare me this suffering!!!
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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- Stephanie
- 22-01-22
Brilliant
I loved this book it gives great insights in to the family life of Irelands artists very interesting
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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- John-Paul McMahon
- 13-12-18
Great
Really loved this book, both historical content and the way it was written. Absolutely recommend.
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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- Mr Andrew Rochester
- 14-10-20
It has become a firm favourite
I loved this book..it was enthralling. The stories were fascinating and they have stayed with me..
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