Audiobook · read by volunteers
Anyhow Stories: Moral and otherwise
Lucy Clifford (1846–1929)
Read by Anna Simon, Charlie Blakemore, Cori Samuel, Tammy Sanders, Eliza Horne, Val Grimm, R. Robertson, Ashe Prescott, Scott Sherris · 14 chapters · 3 h 09
About the book
Anyhow Stories gathers tales and verses written for children by Lucy Clifford, a British novelist, journalist and playwright. The book promises to be moral and otherwise, and it keeps both promises with a light, mischievous touch. You will meet the children of a cobbler, a family of ragamuffins, a baby with a surprising pair of legs, a paper ship that sets out on a voyage, a queen of buttercups and a lovely lady in a porch. Some pieces are gentle and playful, others have a stranger, more haunting edge that has kept them in memory long after the nursery door closed. Fourteen short recordings, shared among nine voices, run for just over three hours. They suit a quiet evening, a long car journey or any moment when a young listener asks for one more story, and they reward grown-ups who remember how odd and wonderful old children's books could be.
Introduction
Lucy Clifford, born in 1846 and died in 1929, was a British writer who published novels, stories for children, journalism and plays. In her lifetime she was usually known as Mrs W. K. Clifford, after her husband, the mathematician William Kingdon Clifford. The couple were celebrated for the Sunday gatherings they hosted, which drew scientists and literary people together under one roof.
Anyhow Stories appeared in 1892 and mixes prose tales with poems. Its title announces a moral purpose, but the book is never as tidy as that promise suggests. Children's literature of the late Victorian years often balanced instruction with fancy, and Clifford's pages show an author who enjoyed the fancy and trusted her young readers with a little shadow. Titles such as The New Mother and Wooden Tony hint at the range, from nursery comedy to unsettling fable.
This recording offers fourteen items in about three hours, read by a group of nine LibriVox volunteers. Because each story is short and self-contained, you can listen in any order and stop wherever you like. Today the collection is worth hearing for its period flavour, for the rhythm of its sentences when spoken aloud, and for the reminder that stories for the young have never been only sweet. Reading the stories aloud has its own charm, because Clifford often uses repetition, rhyme and a conversational voice that seems made for the ear. With nine different volunteers taking part, the recording also has a pleasing variety of tones, from the playful to the grave. Families can share it, and so can adults who enjoy the strange corners of Victorian children's literature and want to hear how those pages sounded.
Public domain
Lucy Clifford died in 1929: the work is in the public domain in Switzerland, more than 70 years after the author’s death.
The LibriVox volunteers dedicated this recording to the public domain.
Sources : LibriVox page · Files at the Internet Archive · Original text