An unusual business arrangement between two audio-book companies has resulted in some cheaper alternatives for listeners.
Listening Library, a company that aims for the education market, offers
”Star Quality: A Collection of Short Stores” (8 1/2 hours, $44.95), an excellent package of five Noel Coward stories. It includes the bitingly sarcastic ”Star Quality,” about a clash of egos among the cast and others associated with a stage play. The readers are two veteran theater actors, Denholm Elliott and Julia McKenzie, both of whom do stand-up jobs.
Now Audio Partners, a company geared to the mass market whose titles are sold in bookstores, is re-releasing portions of some Listening Library recordings at lower prices. This month, Audio Partners is releasing Elliott`s reading of ”Star Quality.” It`s still unabridged, but with only one story, the time comes down to 2 1/2 hours, the price to $15.95.
Ditto for James Thurber and Robert Benchley releases, which are available from Audio Partners now, and a Robertson Davies release, due later this year. From Listening Library comes ”The World of James Thurber” (99 minutes, $15.95), filled with Thurber`s unique humor, plus comments by the author, E.B. White, Marc Connelly, Dorothy Parker and others.
The Audio Partners version (75 minutes, $9.95) eliminates the commentary but includes all the stories-cheaper per minute, but you do miss some good stuff.
The 10 selections include some fable-like tales in which a lemming questions human behavior and a ”proper gander” becomes the victim of spreading hysteria about communists. There also are essays on the use of the word ”which,” split infinitives, adverbs and ”you know.”
Thurber (1894-1961) was a force at the New Yorker magazine in its early days, when he created Walter Mitty and illustrated many of his pieces with distinctive drawings.
Connelly, a playwright, said Thurber ”wrote the way a child skips rope, the way a mouse dances.”
