Binge Reading James

I've been binge-reading Henry James' lesser known novels in the past few months.  The "reading" I'm referring to here is more involved than merely I eye-balling the texts.  It involved a collective effort, freely given, of many people from the LibriVox community to record and produce these novels as audiobooks.  In case you don't know, LibriVox is a volunteer organization which produces free public domain audiobooks.   

As you may or may not know I'm a devoted Henry James fan.  I delight in his circuitous and laborious way of rendering a character, scene, or a situation.  I admire his ability to spin a yarn out of a tiny germ of a situation that he perceives to contain dramatic potential.  I envy his characters' ability to say much by saying little.  

In July I chanced upon a recording project at LibriVox for a novel by Henry James called The Tragic Muse.  I had read the book before but didn't think much of it; I didn't like the central character, Miriam Rooth, an ambitious "drama queen" kind of person.  However, I was surprised to find that this project had been languishing in the "Readers Wanted" forum at LibriVox for a while.  Usually works by such an established writer like James are snatched up in no time.  Anyhow, I volunteered to record this book starting from the Preface and ended up recording 10 sections for it.  It was definitely not easy-going for me, especially in trying to parse his prose for the Preface, but I struggled on.  Along the way I met a few enthusiastic and responsible readers.  After we finished recording the book, it dawned on me that there might still be other books by James that have yet been "done" at LibriVox and wouldn't it be nice if I could launch these books myself and get them recorded. 

So to make the story short, I managed to launch three projects for LibriVox of three lesser known novels, Confidence, the Outcry, and the Other House, by Henry James in a short span of time, and with the help of several dedicated volunteers got the projects completed in three months.  For me being a BC (Book Coordinator) for LibriVox is a lot easier than being a Reader.  It takes a lot more time and effort to record and edit one's own recordings.  The best part of this experience was that I invited Kirk to record several chapters of these three books.  Kirk, in his obsessive compulsive way of doing everything, spent a considerable amount of effort to make his recordings as best as he could.  So without further ado, please check out the following free audiobooks at LibriVox --

the Other House

The Tragic Mus

the Outcry

Confidence