The Ladies of Missalonghi (1978) - Colleen McCullough Audiobook

Written by Colleen McCullough
Read by Davina Porter
Format: MP3
Bitrate: 32 Kbps
Unabridged

Publisher: Recorded Books, Inc.
Release date: August 1, 2014
Duration: 05:13:28

In 1900s Australia, in the hill town of Byron, Missy’s future stretched drearily in front of her with no particular direction and no man in view. It was hardly wise, then, for the local librarian, with a taste for purple prose, to suggest Missy consult a wildly romantic novel for the answer to her plight. But it was certainly effective.

Like a box of chocolates, this short novel by McCullough is seductive and satisfying; readers will want to devour it in one sitting. Set in the early 1900s in the tiny town of Byron, nestled in the Australia’s Blue Mountains, it tells of the blossoming of Missy Wright, 33-year-old spinster and poor relation of the town’s ruling family, the Hurlingfords.

Missy, her widowed mother and crippled aunt live in genteel poverty, victims of the Hurlingford inheritance policy that gives riches and power to the male members of the family, who heartlessly abuse the women they dominate. Plain, painfully thin and doomed to dress always in serviceable brown, shockingly dark-haired in a clan of luminous blondes, Missy seems fated for da dreary future until a distant cousin, a divorcee, arrives from Sydney. Under her tutelage, Missy acquires spunk, hope and the means to a happy ending.

This is an endearing tale, exuding an old-fashioned sentimentality, yet wittily told. McCullough indulges in gentle social satire, even as she uses the stock character of a mysterious stranger to introduce suspense and romance. As miniaturized in scale as The Thornbirds was vast, this short novel again demonstrates the author’s narrative skill.

This is the only copy to which I have access. Not the best sound and 32k.