Spring 2020 (April/audible);

Another of the ten free Audible Originals released for April. I didn't really like this one. I found the point of view character incredibly vapid and unreliable. I, too, was hoping for more about Emily, just like the main character's daughter. ( )

This was a surprise. It was a very weird story, but for some odd reason, I loved it. I particularly enjoyed the narrator's take on it. ( )

While the author is entertaining and a great conversationalist, I found that this book wasn't what I was expecting. The book was interesting, but interesting in the way that every woman's life is strange and interesting. ( )

The Real Not-So-Likeable Mabel Loomis Todd
Review of the Audible Original audio production (April 2020) of the original stage play (Oct. 2019)

Mabel Loomis Todd (1856-1932) became the notorious first posthumous editor of [author:Emily Dickinson|7440] (1830-1886) when she gained access to the manuscripts through her lover who was Dickinson's brother. The resulting first volume Poems by Emily Dickinson (1890) was followed by others which were all subjected to Todd's heavy handed corrections and updating.

Rebecca Gilman's stage play A Woman of the World imagines Todd giving her standard "The Real Emily Dickinson" talk to an audience on Hog Island, Maine in 1931. During the course of the evening we actually learn very little about Emily Dickinson, but instead are introduced to "The Real Mabel Loomis Todd" who initially is self-satisfied and self-aggrandizing about her life and career but gradually begins to reveal more and more of the actual truth about herself and her relationship to Emily Dickinson.

The performance by Kathleen Chalfant, who premiered the play on stage in Oct. - Nov. 2019 is excellent in this studio audio production. It is wonderful as well that Chalfant's age is very close to what Todd's would have been in 1931 i.e. some people do actually write terrific parts for senior actors.

A Woman of the World is one of the Audible Originals made freely available to members for the month of April 2020. It is available to everyone for a standard price.

See a photo of Kathleen Chalfant as Mabel Loomis Todd at https://www.broadwayworld.com/ezoimgfmt/cloudimages.broadwayworld.com/upload13/1...
Photo Credit: Carol Rosegg, sourced from Broadway World. ( )