The Complete Letters of Pliny the Younger

Read by Russell Bentley with Ben Onwukwe

unabridged

The extant letters of Pliny, written between AD 97 and 112, give us a unique insight into Imperial Rome under the early Antonine emperors. Organised into 10 books, the letters reflect a wide range of topics, mirroring Pliny’s own public and private interests. Among many other subjects, the letters also include an eye-witness account of the eruption of Vesuvius in AD 79, with the final book containing the exchange of letters between the writer (whose career culminated as Governor of Bithynia) and the emperor Trajan.

A fascinating document of the career and interests of a politician and imperial official.

Running Time: 14 h 25 m

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More product details

Digital ISBN:	978-1-78198-415-4
Cat. no.:	NA0551
Produced by:	Chris Barstow for Tall Story Audiobooks at The Perfumery
Translated by:	J.B. Firth (updated)
BISAC:	HIS002020
BIC:	HBJD, HBLA1
Released:	September 22

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Russell Bentley

Russell Bentley trained as an actor at the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama. His stage work includes Three Sisters at the Hampstead Theatre, Death of a Salesman at the West Yorkshire Playhouse and Six Characters in Search of an Author at the Bristol Old Vic. His Film and TV credits include Kick Ass, Proof, Lost Battalion, Spy Catcher, Watergate and Doctor Who. His radio work includes The Whore of Mensa for BBC Radio 3 and Ring Round the Bath for Radio 4. His audiobook credits include the Naxos AudioBooks production of No Name, an AudioFile Earphones Award winner and an Audie Awards Finalist.

Titles read by Russell Bentley

Titles read by Russell Bentley: The Complete Letters of Pliny the Younger (unabridged); No Name (unabridged)

Ben Onwukwe

Ben Onwukwe has worked extensively in TV, film and theatre (including seasons at the RSC, Royal Court, Almeida, Old Vic and Young Vic, and a nationwide tour in a hugely popular production of The Shawshank Redemption in the iconic role of Red). A stint with the BBC Radio Drama Company consolidated his passion for audio drama. He recorded his first audiobook in 2009 and has since featured in well over a hundred. He recently performed in the The 47th, which played to sell-out audiences at London’s Old Vic Theatre, and Professor T, a quirkily entertaining detective drama on ITV.

Titles read by Ben Onwukwe

Titles read by Ben Onwukwe: The Complete Letters of Pliny the Younger (unabridged); The Tempest (unabridged)

Reviews

Pliny’s 240-odd letters reveal the Roman world of roughly 100 CE in all its complexity and sophistication. Russell Bentley enters into Pliny’s many roles – lawyer, judge, landowner, poet, government official – not only by expressing the sense of the letters clearly, but also by illuminating Pliny’s varied moods and emotions, often implicit and only subtly indicated. Bentley’s voice and British accent are likable and his pacing good. His tone becomes notably deferential in the last section, when Pliny corresponds with his emperor, Trajan. Ben Onwukwe’s deep, incisive-sounding voice is suitably authoritative in Trajan’s responses, and his narration is illuminatingly sensitive to the text. The two adept actors give an intelligent, expressive rendering of these historically important and, to the patient listener, fascinating documents.

W.M., AudioFile

Pliny