The History of Mr. Polly cover art

The History of Mr. Polly

 Preview

£0.00 for first 30 days

Try for £0.00
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

The History of Mr. Polly

By: H. G. Wells
Narrated by: Susan Iannucci
Try for £0.00

£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Buy Now for £19.99

Buy Now for £19.99

Confirm Purchase
Pay using card ending in
Switch payment method
By completing your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and authorise Audible to charge your designated card or any other card on file. Please see our Privacy Notice, Cookies Notice and Interest-based Ads Notice.
Cancel

About this listen

Based on H. G. Wells’s own life experience in the drapery trade, this comic novel presents our anti-hero, Alfred Polly, miserable, timid, and without direction, but with a gift for creating incomprehensible conversational “epithets” to express himself. No one quite understands what he has just said to them … Was it a compliment? An insult? Was it profound or absurd?

The novel opens by telling us, “He hated Foxbourne, he hated Foxbourne High Street, he hated his shop and his wife and his neighbours—every blessed neighbour—and with indescribable bitterness he hated himself.” The story unfolds from Mr. Polly’s early education, his courtship and marriage, to his eventual discovery of purpose in life.

Originally published in 1910.

Public Domain (P)2023 Voices of Today Classics Marriage
activate_Holiday_promo_in_buybox_DT_T2

Listeners also enjoyed...

 The History of Mr. Polly (Annotated) cover art
Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens & Peter and Wendy cover art
H.G. Wells Fiction Collection cover art
Anna of the Five Towns cover art
Sorrell and Son cover art
David Copperfield cover art
The Old Wives Tale cover art
Three Men in a Boat (AmazonClassics Edition) cover art
A Child of the Jago cover art
The Fair Miss Fortune cover art
Under the Greenwood Tree cover art
Cold Comfort Farm cover art
South Riding cover art
Sons and Lovers cover art
Keep the Aspidistra Flying cover art
Dubliners cover art

What listeners say about The History of Mr. Polly

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 3 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    1
  • 4 Stars
    0
  • 3 Stars
    0
  • 2 Stars
    0
  • 1 Stars
    1
Performance
  • 1 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    0
  • 4 Stars
    0
  • 3 Stars
    0
  • 2 Stars
    0
  • 1 Stars
    1
Story
  • 5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    1
  • 4 Stars
    0
  • 3 Stars
    0
  • 2 Stars
    0
  • 1 Stars
    0

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

Audible.co.uk reviews

Amazon reviews
Sort by:
Filter by:
  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars
Profile Image for R. T. Cassidy

Awful performance

I don’t know who decided on who the narrator would be but they made a right balls up. The narrator is a North American lady, who I’m sure is a great narrator, but was simply the wrong one for this book. Her version of Southern English sounded Swedish. It was so bad I had to stop listening as I couldn’t take it anymore. I have read the book a couple of times and it really is a magical story, capturing a world long gone, but with the same anguish and problems we experience now.

Report this

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!