Promoting the good work of others

The IP Critical Edition series are classic texts that are paired with intelligent critical essays.  This alone is a crucial move in publishing.  For literary criticism has taken such a turn for the worse in the past generation or so, that the folks at Ignatius realized the need for both a revival of literary classics, along with a return to sanity when it comes to reading and assessing these classics.  Thus, each work in the IP Critical Edition series features the text of the work along with a dozen or so essays by critics who are fair to the material, and who are not deconstructing it from a purely subjective agenda-driven point of view.  Joseph Pearce serves as general editor for the series, as well as particular editor for many of the works.

 

But that’s not all!  It’s New and Improved, as we say in show biz.  For not only can you buy the printed or electronic versions of each volume in the series, you can also get audio book versions for hours of entertaining listening. 

 

Here’s where the self-promotion comes in.  I have been blessed with having recorded almost two dozen audio books for Ignatius Press, including one which was awarded a ForeWord Audio
Book award as one of the Best Audio Books of 2009.  The list of all of my audio books is here: http://thwordinc.blogspot.com/search/label/AUDIO .

 

Many of these audio books are part of the IP Critical Edition Series.  In fact, if you click on the link below you will hear a sample recording, my performance of Act I, Scene 1 of “Macbeth” (the creepy scene with the witches): http://www.thewordinc.org/audio/macbeth.wav.  (Yes, I must trumpet my own horn here as holding the distinction of being the only person in the history of the world to play every part in a Shakespeare play – and I did it twice – the audio version of “Macbeth” and the audio version of “The Merchant of Venice”.)

 

And for Inklings Fans, here’s a sample chapter of David C. Downing’s book “Looking for the King” http://www.thewordinc.org/lk.mp3 in which I have taken great pains to imitate the voices of C. S. Lewis, J. R. R. Tolkien, and Charles Williams.

 

(You may find that it takes a long time for these samples to open on your computer, as the files are quite large.  You can always right-click and save the file on your computer to listen at a later time.)

 

So if you check out these audio performances you will not only be honoring me and the work I do with The Theater of the Word Incorporated, but also the greatest writers of all time, including Shakespeare, Charles Dickens, Harriet Beecher Stowe, and more.  Let’s keep the revival alive!  Be sure to read or listen to the classics from Ignatius Press.