Don Juan cover art

Don Juan

Preview

£0.00 for first 30 days

Try for £0.00
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Don Juan

By: Lord Byron
Narrated by: Frederick Davidson
Try for £0.00

£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Buy Now for £16.99

Buy Now for £16.99

Confirm Purchase
Pay using card ending in
By completing your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and authorise Audible to charge your designated card or any other card on file. Please see our Privacy Notice, Cookies Notice and Interest-based Ads Notice.
Cancel

About this listen

Byron's exuberant masterpiece tells of the adventures of Don Juan, a handsome and charming young man naturally gifted with the ladies. After his first illicit love affair at the age of 16 in his native Spain, he is exiled to Italy. Following a dramatic shipwreck, his exploits take him to Greece, where he is sold as a slave, and to Russia, where he becomes a favorite of the Empress Catherine, who sends him on to England.

Written in ottava rima stanza form, Byron's Don Juan blends high drama with outrageous farce. Sprinkled with digressions on wealth, power, society, chastity, poets, and England, Don Juan is a poetical novel of satirical fervor and wit.

(P)1996 Blackstone Audio Inc.
European Literary Fiction Literary History & Criticism Poetry Fiction Witty Italy England
activate_Holiday_promo_in_buybox_DT_T2

Listeners also enjoyed...

Alfred Tennyson cover art
The Divine Comedy cover art
Poems by Lord Byron cover art
Great Poets of the Romantic Age cover art
Robert Browning: Selected Poems cover art
Poems by Gerard Manley Hopkins cover art
The Divine Comedy cover art
War and Peace cover art
Edgar Allan Poe: The Complete Poems cover art
The Poetry of Browning cover art
She And Allan cover art
The Great Poets: John Donne cover art
The Poetry of Tennyson cover art
Childe Harold's Pilgrimage cover art
The Satyricon cover art
Possessed by Memory cover art

What listeners say about Don Juan

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 3 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    0
  • 4 Stars
    2
  • 3 Stars
    0
  • 2 Stars
    2
  • 1 Stars
    0
Performance
  • 1.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    0
  • 4 Stars
    0
  • 3 Stars
    1
  • 2 Stars
    0
  • 1 Stars
    2
Story
  • 3.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    1
  • 4 Stars
    1
  • 3 Stars
    0
  • 2 Stars
    1
  • 1 Stars
    0

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

Sort by:
Filter by:
  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Appalling reading - what a complete waste of time

Any additional comments?

It's a bad start when the reader mispronounces the name of the title character - Byron's character is not 'hwan', he is 'joo-an', and there are several other mispronunciations of names. But that can be ignored. What can't be ignored is that the reader breaks up the poem by giving the number of the stanza before reading each one - It makes the whole thing feel like an extraordinarily long shopping list rather than an epic poem. Added to that, the rustling of paper, a speaking style that is very old-fashioned (how old is the recording?!) and a complete lack of awareness of the inherent rhyme and rhythm of the poem.

Unfortunately it seems to be the only full recording of this poem available, but I have to say it would be better not to bother with it.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

4 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    2 out of 5 stars

500 pages of snark

It isn't fair to give such a low rating to the performance of this excruciatingly long, ineffably annoying lyric journey. I think the snarky drawl fits the poem with great fidelity. I found listening to it for more than an hour to be a serious trial, and made me dislike the piece with an intensity that surprised me. So, well done Frederick Davidson, and I'll never listen to another performance of yours ever.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful