Joyce Audio – Audiobooks: Portrait
- At October 07, 2022
- By Great Quail
- In Joyce
0
Joyce Audio: A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
This page profiles professional and commercial recordings of A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man. Most links take you Amazon, where you may listen to samples and download digital “aax” files for your Audible-enabled device. Other media such as LP, cassette, CD, MP3, and FLAC are listed separately. And in case you were wondering—yes, this selection does feature some pretty dreadful covers.
Recommendations
For visitors daunted by the sheer number of Portrait recordings, and just want a quick recommendation, my favorite two unabridged recordings are those read by Frederick Davidson and Tadgh Hynes. However, if you want a “celebrity” Portrait, Colin Farrell’s reading is definitely worth hearing.
Joyce Audio
[Main Page | His Own Voice | Collections | Dubliners | Portrait | Ulysses | Finnegans Wake | Drama & Poetry | Biography & Criticism | Miscellany]
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (Radio Play)
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (Radio Play)
Performed by Dan O’Herlihy, Norma Varden, Doris Lloyd, et. al.
NBC Radio, 1950
Deadtree Publishing, 2019
Also available as MP3
Abridged; 1 hour
This NBC Theater radio broadcast aired on 23 April 1950, and features a dramatization of Portrait with a full cast, music, and sound effects. The actors include Dan O’Herlihy (1919-2005), who’d go on to play Robinson Crusoe for Luis Buñuel and Andrew Packard for David Lynch. He was also Mr. Browne in John Huston’s The Dead. (Not to mention the CEO of Silver Shamrock in the woefully-underrated Halloween III: Season of the Witch!) While the hour-long production is for sale on Audible, many MP3 versions are freely available on the Web.
Publisher’s Description: NBC University Theater initially started in Chicago with a remit to bring adaptations of classic novels, usually Anglo-American, to a radio audience. Additionally, if listeners signed up, they received college credit to a radio-assisted correspondence course. A study guide, The Handbook of the World’s Great Novels, was available for 25 cents. In its later years, it also included short stories and plays and went on to win the distinguished Peabody award. Unlike many other radio shows, University Theater did not pursue glamorous stars for its productions but instead relied on excellent distillations of the novels and first-class acting alongside high production values.
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (Excerpts)
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (Excerpts)
Read by Cyril Cusack
Caedmon, 1959
Also available as: LP | Brazen Head MP3 | Internet Archive FLAC | Amazon MP3
Also available as a bundle: James Joyce Audio Collection
Abridged; 47 minutes, 50 seconds.
The history of Caedmon’s impressive Joyce recordings may be found under “Joyce Audio Collections.” Dating from 1959, this LP features Irish actor Cyril Cusack (1910-1993), a member of the Royal Shakespeare Company and renown for his fluency in Gaelic. Cusack is a brilliant interpreter of Portrait, sensitive to the text’s abundant lyricism and stream-of-consciousness cadence. The readings are also well-chosen, giving Cusack the ability to show off his considerable range, from the childlike “tear out his eyes” mantra to the breathless excitement of Stephen’s “swooning soul.”
Contents:
1. “Once upon a time and a very good time it was…” Chapter I, The Beginning
2. “A great fire, banked high and red…” Chapter I, The Christmas Dinner
3. “He could wait no longer.” Chapter IV, Part 2
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
Read by Jim Killavey
Jimcin Recordings, 1991
Unabridged; 9 hours, 50 minutes
Jimcin Recordings was founded in 1977 in Rhode Island, an early “books on tape” company that produced dozens of audiobooks, including several cassettes of local favorite H.P. Lovecraft. Their star reader was American actor James R. Killavey. (In fact, some Internet sources list Killavey as Jimcin’s director.) Although Jimcin is no longer a going concern, most of their catalog has been acquired by Audible. While Killavey is certainly an experienced narrator, Portrait is not his best work. Killavey has a broad, East Coast accent and tends to fall into a sing-song rhythm that sounds suspiciously like boredom. He occasionally pronounces words in a way that suggests he’s not familiar with their precise meaning. The Jimcin Portrait may have filled a necessary gap in the early days of audiobooks, but better alternatives are available today—avoid it.
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
Read by Donal Donnelly
Recorded Books, 1991
Also available as: CD
Unabridged; 11 hours, 17 minutes
Recorded Books was founded in 1978 by Henry Trentman, a salesman who grew weary of listening to single-cassette abridged books on his car stereo. Devoted to the production of massive, unabridged sets which consumers could rent instead of purchase, Recorded Books grew from a small Maryland company to a million-dollar concern, gobbling up numerous competitors such as HighBridge Audio (Garrison Keillor’s old home) and Tantor Media. Recorded in 1991, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man features the Irish actor Donal Donnelly (1931-2010), celebrated for his work with the playwright Brian Friel. He also starred as Freddy Malins in John Huston’s The Dead. Donnelly narrates Portrait in a husky tenor, offering a theatrical reading that avoids showiness and smartly emphasizes dialogue.
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
Read by John Lynch
Durkin Hayes, 1993
Only available as: Cassette
Abridged; 4 hours
This 2-cassette abridgment was released by the Canadian company Durkin Hayes. It’s read by Irish actor John Lynch, who played the “dramatized” version of Stephen Dedalus in the “James Joyce Ulysses” episode of the 1988 TV documentary, Ten Great Writers of the Modern World. Unfortunately, no digital recordings of this set are available. Here’s a contemporary review from AudioFile magazine:
A masterpiece of subjectivity, a fictionalized memoir, a coming-of-age prose-poem, this brilliant novella introduces Joyce’s alter ego, Stephen Dedalus, the hero of Ulysses, and begins the narrative experimentation that would help change the concept of literary narrative forever. It describes Stephen’s formative years in Dublin; as Stephen matures, so does the writing, until it sparkles with clarity. The style presents numerous, almost insurmountable, problems for the oral interpreter, particularly one with the limited vocal range of John Lynch. But Lynch pays no attention to the problems. Instead, he identifies so completely with Dedalus, throws himself so lustily into the book, that it is as if the passionate young artist himself is bursting out of your speakers.
And who wouldn’t want Stephen Dedalus bursting from one’s speakers?
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
Read by Flo Gibson
Audio Book Contractors, 1994
Also available as Cassette | CD
Unabridged; 8 hours, 1 minutes
In the early 1980s, retired radio actress Flo Gibson (1924-2011) began reading unabridged classics for Henry Trentman’s Recorded Books. Enthused by the potential for unabridged “books on tape,” in 1983 she constructed a recording studio in the basement of her Maryland Home and launched Audio Book Contractors. Intended to facilitate her recordings for other companies, ABC became a growing business of its own, with members of the D.C. theater community helping Gibson edit and distribute over 650 unabridged recordings on her ABC label. One of those was A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, released in 1994. Gibson reads Portrait in her characteristically brisk pace, but her diction is perfect, and her characterizations have a charming individuality.
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
Read by Frederick Davidson
Blackstone Audio, 1993
Also available as: Cassette | CD
Unabridged; 9 hours, 15 minutes
Blackstone Audio was founded in 1987 as “Classics on Tape,” and used actors from the nearby Oregon Shakespeare Festival as narrators. One out-of-state actor that came recommended was David Frederick Case (1932-2005), a British actor, director, and antiques dealer living in San Fransisco. Introduced to the world of audiobooks by an associate, Case went on to narrate countless works for Books on Tape and Blackstone Audio. (He used a different name for each company, which is why his recordings sometimes appear as David Case and sometimes as Frederick Davidson.) One of the most famous audiobook narrators of the 80s and 90s, Case was renown for his rich, plummy voice and theatrical delivery—he possesses one of those English accents that draws out monosyllabic words, each elongated vowel charged with subtle undercurrents ranging from bemusement to contempt. (Davidson’s detractors have called his voice “snooty,” and they’re not wrong!) While his reading of Portrait is certainly more “English” than most, it’s wonderfully dramatic, and comes highly recommended.
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
Read by Jim Norton
Naxos, 1995
Also available as: CD
Unabridged; 8 hours, 21 minutes
The Naxos Portrait is read by Irish actor Jim Norton, whose association with Joyce spans a long and distinguished career. As with all Norton’s Joyce recordings, his reading of Portrait is tasteful, sensitive, and melodious, featuring the perfect amount of vocal affectations and theatrics. The set was produced by the composer Roger Marsh, who included musical cues ranging from medieval carols to traditional Irish ballads. The digital download includes a PDF of the original accompanying booklet.
Review from AudioFile: This masterpiece presents a provocative challenge to the audiobook producer and narrator. As the title suggests, it portrays an Irish poet, Stephen Dedalus, as a youth at the turn of the last century. It progresses from his earliest memories to the present. Its narrative matures as the character, the author in disguise, matures. Just how does one present that orally? Multiple narrators of various ages? One narrator altering his voice as the subject grows up? Naxos has cast a single voice, Jim Norton, who delivers the entire narrative in a single tone of gentle, god-like detachment. In dialogue passages, the characters roar to life in all their stormy Celtic vigor. Thus, Norton takes us inside the soul of the sensitive protagonist while amplifying the color and beauty of Joyce’s writing.
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
Read by John Lee
Tantor Audio, 2008
Also available as: CD | CD-MP3
Unabridged; 8 hours, 17 minutes
Founded in 2000, Tantor was a California audiobook company acquired by Recorded Books in 2015. Their unabridged Portrait is narrated by John Rafter Lee, an English playwright with Irish heritage. Named a “Golden Voice” actor by AudioFile, the magazine editors remarked, “his trademark rich, smooth voice with a hint of a growl turns the word into a seduction.” Lee’s reading of Portrait is uniformly excellent, delivered with a believable Irish accent and attention to detail. Recommended.
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
Read by Michael Orenstein
Trout Lake Media, 2013
Unabridged; 7 hours, 48 minutes
American actor and comedian Michael Orenstein affects a broad Irish accent for this reading of Portrait, taking the text at a brisk pace but clearly enjoying himself. It’s a decent reading, but with so many better alternatives, not a first choice.
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
Read by Gerry O’Brien
Punch Audio/SAGA Egmont, 2016
Unabridged; 8 hours, 17 minutes
Gerry O’Brien is an Irish actor with experience on stage and screen, and has a thriving career as a voiceover artist. His reading of Portrait is solid—as theatrical as his reading of Dubliners, but with more attention to the text.
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
Read by David McCallion
A.R.N. Publications, 2016
Unabridged; 8 hours, 16 minutes
David McCallion is a Scottish voiceover artist and audiobook narrator. While his accent is mild, it’s a bit disorienting to hear Portrait read with a Scottish accent, and there’s nothing particularly compelling about his interpretation to recommend it over the pack. And yes, the cover uses all-capital Papyrus font. Pull out my eyes!
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
Read by Tadhg Hynes
Victorian Classic, 2017
Unabridged; 9 hours, 12 minutes
Tadgh Hynes is an Irish narrator who specializes in Victorian fiction. Hynes has a wonderful Dublin accent, and clearly enjoys reading Joyce’s multi-layered prose, breaking into song where appropriate and investing the characters with unique personalities. (It’s a shame about the DIY-cover!) Highly recommended.
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
Read by Alan Smyth
Brilliance Audio, 2018
Unabridged; 11 hours
Founded in Michigan in 1984, Brilliance Audio was acquired by Amazon in 2007. This is a lively reading by Irish actor Alan Smyth, whose dramatic delivery highlights the urgency of Joyce’s experimental prose. Smyth feels at home with the novel, and his rough-around-the-edges, I’m-currently-thinking-about-having-a-pint demeanor feels better suited for Portrait than the melancholic nuances of Dubliners, which he recorded for Brilliance the same year. Recommended.
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
Read by Colin Farrell
Audible Studios, 2019
Unabridged; 8 hours, 17 minutes
Although Colin Farrell walks the line between “actor” and “movie star,” he offers a restrained and tasteful reading that avoids Hollywood excess or undue sentimentalization. Recommended!
Publisher’s Description: Golden Globe winning actor and Dublin native Colin Farrell revisits his home country with a moving, authentic performance of one of Irish icon James Joyce’s masterworks, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man. Joyce’s first work to experiment with stream of consciousness style—a technique that he and his contemporaries developed—A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man evokes both the pains and complexities of growing up and the furious optimism that accompanies youth. Pulling from events from his own past, Joyce weaves a semi-autobiographical recount of life in nineteenth century Ireland, crafting a narrative that is at once tender and sharply satirical. When combined with Farrell’s gentle brogue, Joyce’s tale soars, as much a portrait of the artist as it is a portrait of Ireland itself.
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
Read by Drew Dillon
Dreamscape Media, 2019
Unabridged; 8 hours, 20 minutes
Born in County Antrim, Drew Dillon is a Belfast actor with extensive stage experience. His reading of Portrait is sharp and youthful, and delivered with a Northern accent. Fans of Derry Girls may like this version! (But that cover! Why?)
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
Read by Stewart Crank
Museum Audiobooks, 2020
Also available as a bundle: The Ultimate James Joyce Collection
Unabridged; 10 hours, 7 minutes
This Audible-only version is read by British voiceover artist Stewart Crank. He has a pleasant English accent and the flair of a storyteller—nothing is overdone, and everything feels lucid and distinct, with just the right amount of “acting.” Visitors interested in Crank’s Portrait are recommended to purchase The Ultimate James Joyce Collection, which includes Crank’s Dubliners, Portrait, and Ulysses bundled together for 1 Audible credit.
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
Read by David George
Author’s Republic, 2020
Unabridged; 11 hours, 15 minutes
Author’s Republic is an independent audiobook distributor established in 2011. Produced for Calm Radio—a subscriber station devoted to ambient soundtracks and “nature sounds”—this recording of Portrait is read by LA voice actor David George. With a run-time nearly two hours above average, George’s Portrait is indeed “calm!” He approaches the text slowly, carefully, his raspy voice savoring each syllable. Narrated in a neutral American accent by a middle-aged Angeleno, this idiosyncratic Portrait may not be everyone’s first choice, but it’s definitely interesting. (But that lens flare on the cover, sigh.)
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
Read by Jonathan Waters
InAudio, 2020
Unabridged; 8 hours, 15 minutes
InAudio is a company that provides royalty-free music for film and YouTube, along with audiobooks of works in the public domain. Their version of Portrait is read by American voice actor Jon Waters—sadly, not that John Waters!—in a calm American accent. (And again with the double-faced cover! Why are the covers of audiobooks so unremittingly awful?)
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
Read by Peter Bobbe
Sheba Blake Publishing, 2021
Unabridged; 9 hours, 1 minutes
Based in Brooklyn, Sheba Blake is a small, independent publisher that records works in the public domain. With a cover that looks like a needlepoint of everything Stephen holds in contempt, their Portrait is read by American schoolteacher Peter Bobbe, whose loving rendition affects an almost imperceptible Irish accent.
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man: Stephen Dedalus
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man: Stephen Dedalus
Read by Geoffrey Giuliano and the Icon Ensemble
Author’s Republic, 2021
Unabridged; 9 hours, 8 minutes
Another release distributed through Author’s Republic, this Portrait is read by American actor and controversial Beatles biographer Geoffrey Giuliano, who founded Icon Editions in 2010 to self-publish rock biographies. He reads Portrait in his normal speaking voice, affecting Irish accents for some of the characters and clearly enjoying the more musical aspects of the text—his “pull out your eyes!” is worth a click on the “Play Sample” button.
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
Read by Trevor Kaneswaran
Penguin Audio, 2022
Unabridged; 9 hours, 26 minutes
Known for his roles in Riches and Bad Sisters, Trevor Kaneswaran is a Dublin-born television actor. His reading of Portrait is youthful, narrated in a light Dublin accent. It’s a solid reading, but lacks panache.
Collections
The James Joyce BBC Radio Drama Collection
The James Joyce BBC Radio Drama Collection
Read by Andrew Scott, Frances Barber, Henry Goodman, Jim Norton, Niamh Cusack, Stephen Rea
BBC Digital Audio, 2019
Also available as: CD
Abridged; 13 hours, 12 minutes
This collection contains several previously-released audio works by the BBC. The following description is from the publisher:
Ulysses
In this full-cast dramatisation of Joyce’s epic modernist novel, the stories of Stephen Dedalus and Leopold Bloom combine as they meander through Dublin in the course of one day, 16 June 1904. Andrew Scott stars as Stephen, with Henry Goodman as Bloom, Niamh Cusack as Molly Bloom and Stephen Rea as the Narrator.
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
An abridged reading of James Joyce’s autobiographical masterpiece portraying the adolescence of Stephen Dedalus, who must question the culture and religion of his native land before he can break free to become an artist. Read by Andrew Scott.
Dubliners
This abridged collection of 15 naturalistic tales depicts an array of characters from childhood through adolescence to maturity. Stories of love, loss, friendship, marriage, politics and family combine to create a unified world and a celebration of a city. Read by Stephen Rea.
James Joyce—A Biography
Gordon Bowker’s comprehensive study explores Joyce’s years spent in exile in Europe and examines how his life shaped his genius. Read by Jim Norton, with Andrew Scott as the voice of Joyce.
James Joyce Collection
James Joyce Collection
Read by Rory Young
Montgomery Providence Publishing, 2021
Unabridged; 43 hours, 2 minutes
This collection is read by Canadian voice actor Rory Young, and is listed here because Young’s reading of Portrait is not available as a separate edition. His narration is pleasant enough, but his neutral, North American accent and lackluster delivery are more suited to a corporate video than Joyce’s multivalent prose. If you’re in the mood for a Joyce bundle, the Stewart Crank set is a better option.
Joyce Audio
[Main Page | His Own Voice | Collections | Dubliners | Portrait | Ulysses | Finnegans Wake | Drama & Poetry | Biography & Criticism | Miscellany]
Author: Allen B. Ruch
Last Modified: 15 June 2024
Main Joyce Page: The Brazen Head
Contact: quail(at)shipwrecklibrary(dot)com