Herodotus's histories run 700 pages unabridged, and this excellent rendering by Bill Kelsey is a full season's undertaking. Kelsey's calmly erudite delivery captures the subtle thread of skepticism that runs throughout Herodotus's narrative--which has a voice and style often similar to Mark Twain's. Herodotus was a great compiler of the oral history of the Mediterranean world, and its notions about the workings of the natural world. His account is rich in anecdotes, tall tales, kings who misread prophesies and paid, misinformation about crocodiles, arguments for and against the superiority of one ancient language or another--an amazing richness of detail and insight into how the ancient world lived, behaved, thought. Herodotus was a great traveler as well, and he writes both as tour guide and chronicler. The sly charm of his style is best experienced through the ear. Wise and learned, keen of sight and not easily swayed--his is a distinctive sensibility and voice, which Kelsey captures in this impressively sustained reading.
Pub Date: Jan. 22, 2001
Duration: 30 hrs
Publisher: Books on Tape
Review Posted Online: Jan. 22, 2026
This is history for the modern listener, clear, efficient, and reliable.
There’s something calming about listening to ancient history, as this well-researched audiobook amply demonstrates. Mark Elstob’s polished, quietly nuanced narration maintains distance and balance while giving full weight to the narrative’s many fine details. Elstob has narrated two of Goldsworthy’s previous audiobooks, companion histories of the long competition between Rome and Persia. He perfectly matches this prolific popular historian’s lucid and impartial narrative style and his knack for balancing a panoramic view with a close recreation of place and action. The long, contentious rivalry between Athens and Sparta turned victory over Persia into division and civil strife.
This is history for the modern listener, clear, efficient, and reliable.Pub Date: May 12, 2026
Duration: 20 hrs, 15 mins
DD ISBN: 9781549135439
Publisher: Hachette Audio
Review Posted Online: May 12, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2026
Author/narrator William Dalrymple shares his fascination with the remarkable history of India's profound worldwide intellectual influence. His idiosyncratic and charming British speech and manner, along with his amiability and intelligence, are engaging throughout. His pacing and phrasing are natural, unaffected, and dictated by the material. He varies longish pauses--which allow the listener to absorb the sometimes complex details--with shorter sentences expressing excitement. His emphasis and shading of words, and his occasional deeply felt reactions, mirror the sense of the text and, therefore, illuminate it. The clear, unpretentious narration that takes the listener through this wide-ranging story of the spread of Indian religion, art, philosophy, mathematics, and science makes for an educational pleasure.
Pub Date: April 29, 2025
Duration: 13 hrs, 45 mins
DD ISBN: 9781639734689
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: Jan. 22, 2026
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