The Memoirs of Barry Lyndon, Esq. (Unabridged)

W.M. Thackeray

Jan 2000 · RNIB · Narrated by John Cormack

About this audiobook

Set in the second half of the eighteenth century, Barry Lyndon is the fictional autobiography of an adventurer and rogue. Born into the petty Irish gentry, and outmanoeuvred in his first love-affair, a ruined Barry volunteers for the British army. After seeing service in Germany he deserts and, after a brief spell as a spy, pursues the career of a gambler in the dissolute clubs and courts of Europe. In a determined effort to enter fashionable society he marries a titled heiress but is finally outwitted by her and ends his days in a debtors' prison.

Ratings and reviews

With respect for Thackaray as an author and an acknowledgement that this is a product of its time, there is a prolonged and sinister depiction of domestic violence in the second half of the book which deserves a content warning. The protagonist sadistically stalks and then physically and psychologically abuses his wife and stepson in a manner that is an uncomfortable read. On the plus side, it is otherwise well written, does contain a few humorous encounters earlier on, and at the end the revolting man gets his comeuppance.