Audiobook · read by volunteers
Drums of Jeopardy
Harold MacGrath (1871–1932)
Read by Mark Nelson, Lucy Burgoyne (1950-2014), J. M. Smallheer, Nathalie J., Christine Blachford, Vin Reilly, Roger Melin, RK Wilcox, Katie Gibboney · 33 chapters · 9 h 52
About the book
The Drums of Jeopardy begins in the world of the early twentieth century, where danger and mystery are never far away. Harold MacGrath, a popular American writer, built his novel around suspense: strangers with secrets, a dangerous pursuit and the sense that the ordinary world may hide something sinister. The story was serialised in The Saturday Evening Post in 1920, and its success was such that it was soon adapted for the stage and for film. It is a book written to keep the reader turning pages, with short chapters and a quick pace. Thirty-three recordings, nearly ten hours, for lovers of old-fashioned thrillers and melodrama. Expect secrets, sudden turns and plenty of period atmosphere, read by many voices who share the telling between them.
Introduction
Harold MacGrath (1871-1932) was an American novelist who wrote many popular adventure stories and romances in the early twentieth century. The Drums of Jeopardy is a 1920 novel, serialised in The Saturday Evening Post beginning in January of that year. It was made into a Broadway play in 1922 and into a motion picture the following year, and a second film version appeared in 1931.
That history says something about the position of the book in its own time. Magazine serials of this kind were designed to hold readers from one issue to the next, and MacGrath wrote in a manner suited to it: short chapters, strong hooks and a cast of characters who are quickly established. Some listeners come to it expecting horror, but it is best approached as a thriller of its period, with a sinister scientist and a good deal of melodrama, rather than as horror as it is now understood.
Part of the pleasure of listening to such a book is its atmosphere. It shows what a mass readership found exciting in the years just after the First World War, and its style is a reminder of how popular fiction used to be written and consumed.
The recording was made by LibriVox volunteers and has thirty-three files, one for each chapter, lasting about ten hours. It is a good choice for those who like vintage melodrama and want a story that moves along briskly. The early film and stage versions show how widely the story was known, and the recording lets a modern listener experience what drew its first audience.
Public domain
Harold MacGrath died in 1932: 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