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Work · 6 recordings

Crime and Punishment

Fyodor Dostoevsky · read by George Guidall

It tells a story. Hardcover files this book as fiction, and its readers there call it reflective, tense and dark. Facts, not factors: neither plays any part in our call.

Read it

Every book we have judged on how far the recording outruns the page: 201 of them, the page's answer at the left-hand end and the recording's at the right. Marked for scale: All the Light We Cannot See, To Kill a Mockingbird and Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone. This one sits in the bottom 6% of our shelf of books for how far the recording outruns the page. −0.40, where we start backing the page; 0.40, where we start backing the recording.Crime and Punishment
emphatic · 1.63 clear of the line where this would stop being a read

Audio is doing this one no favours: 44 readers call it slow and 13% of the reviews we read called it demanding. That is a book that wants a page you can turn back to.

Length does not decide this

25h 01m to listen, at 1×20h 01m to listen, at 1.25×16h 41m to listen, at 1.5×14h 18m to listen, at 1.75×12h 31m to listen, at 2×about 22 hours to readabout 17 hours to readabout 13 hours to readabout 10 hours to readabout 8 hours to read

The runtime is Audible’s own, shown at the speed beside it. The reading time is our estimate: 671 pages at 30 pages an hour, the pace you told us. Ours is 50, about 300 words a page, read at 250 a minute.The runtime is Audible’s own, shown at the speed beside it. The reading time is our estimate: 671 pages at 40 pages an hour, the pace you told us. Ours is 50, about 300 words a page, read at 250 a minute.The runtime is Audible’s own, shown at the speed beside it. The reading time is our estimate: 671 pages at 50 pages an hour, which is about 300 words a page, read at 250 a minute.The runtime is Audible’s own, shown at the speed beside it. The reading time is our estimate: 671 pages at 65 pages an hour, the pace you told us. Ours is 50, about 300 words a page, read at 250 a minute.The runtime is Audible’s own, shown at the speed beside it. The reading time is our estimate: 671 pages at 80 pages an hour, the pace you told us. Ours is 50, about 300 words a page, read at 250 a minute.

If you must listen → dedicated listening only

Harder work in audio than The Handmaid's Tale.

All the books we hold · 222

Harder work in audio than 96% of the books we hold.

Fiction · 176

Harder work in audio than 95% of the fiction we hold.

Doorstoppers · 54

Harder work in audio than 89% of the doorstoppers we hold.

Reading load against listening load

Every book we hold placed by how much work it asks on the page, left to right, against how much it asks in your ears, bottom to top: 222 of them. Easy both ways is the bottom left corner, hard both ways the top right; above the dashed line the ears work harder, below it the page does. Marked for scale: Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, To Kill a Mockingbird and The Diary of a Young Girl. This one is in the top 18% of our shelf of books for effort on the page and in the top 11% of our shelf of books for effort in your ears.
The dashed line is where a book would be same effort either way. This one sits above that line (audio asks more of you here than the page does), in the top 3% of our shelf of books for extra work in audio.
On the page0.57
In your ears1.34
Audio disadvantage1.97

Where that puts this one among the books we hold: in the top 18% of our shelf of books for effort on the page and in the top 11% of our shelf of books for effort in your ears. The middle of the scale is not the middle of the shelf (most books sit below the average on both), so a book at 0.00 is already in the top 43% for effort on the page. Each of the three is measured against the whole shelf separately, so the bottom figure is not the top two subtracted. It is this book’s own distance from the middle.

What the audio disadvantage is made of. Two things and no others: how fast readers say this one moves, and how demanding the reviews we read found it. There is no third: the structural one has no data source, so it contributes nothing rather than being guessed at. Both directions are declared priors we have never fitted against a real verdict, which is the weakest-evidenced part of the whole model.

Every book we could measure both features on placed by pace, fast to slow, against how demanding the reviews we read found it, plain to demanding: 166 of them. The easiest listens are the bottom left corner and the hardest the top right, which is the shaded one. Marked for scale: Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, To Kill a Mockingbird and The Diary of a Young Girl. This one reads slower than most books we hold and more demanding than most, which is what leaves the format leaning towards the page.
This one reads slower than most books we hold and more demanding than most, which is what leaves the format leaning towards the page.

How the call was made

Where a bar carries ticks, the grey one is the middle of our shelf and a coloured one is a line we publish, cool where we start backing the page, warm where we start backing the recording. The evidence squares at the foot are a different thing: how far each of our four sources went, hatched where there was nothing to measure at all.

The audio case
−2.03It sits in the bottom 6% of our shelf of books for how far the recording outruns the page. Past the line where we start backing the page.
Narration payoff
−0.07George Guidall’s reading and the book are received about equally well: in the middle 40% of our shelf of books, on 1,951 ratings of the narration. This is a difference, not a score: it sets the reading against its own book, so a much-loved book with a merely good reading sits low on this shelf even where nobody disliked either. Asked the other way (how the reading stands against what the book’s own readers made of it, which is a different crowd rating a different thing), it comes out −0.96. We report that one and never score it: two crowds that do not overlap are held together by nothing but the standardising, which is a cost the figure above does not pay.
What is at stake
0.54It sits in the top 33% of our shelf of books for how well the print crowds think of a book: well enough regarded that a wasted first encounter costs more, so we lean towards protecting the page. Blended across 1,158,396 Goodreads ratings and 2,026 on Hardcover, each scored inside its own population first, and never added together.

For the page

  • A hard text to follow by ear
  • The print crowds think highly of it

For the recording

  • The voice and the book are received about level
  • 1,951 listeners behind it

So the case for the page won it clearly.

A bigger dot counted for more: the voice and the ear are sized by their share of the sum above, the other two by how much stands behind them. A hatched square is a reason that did not apply here, which is not the same as one that counted for little.

Evidence
1.00How much of the picture we actually have, out of 1.00: four questions, each answered as far as the source could answer it, less anything taken off for reading fewer reviews than we aim to.The reading1,951 people have rated this reading: as good as it getsThe second sourceHardcover knows this book, with 2,026 readers there: as good as it getsThe matchHow sure we are that the recording we scored is this book: as good as it getsThe reviewsWe read 300 reviews to judge how demanding it is: as good as it gets

What each crowd complains about

We would need 40 reviews from each crowd before setting the two side by side, and only 32 of the reviews we read said they listened to it. So we are not drawing this one.

What the two crowds said

Showing the stars as each shop prints them. The two crowds are not measured from the same place: on our shelf Audible’s listeners average 0.35 of a star above Goodreads’ readers, so a recording that is ordinary for Audible can still out-star a book that is genuinely well liked for Goodreads. Switch the toggle to take that difference off.Showing each figure as its distance from its own crowd’s middle on our shelf, in standard deviations, so 0 is a typical book for that crowd. Listeners start 0.35 of a star up, partly because anyone who finishes a twenty-five-hour recording chose it deliberately, and this takes that off. It is not a claim that audio is better, the story figure is still Audible’s own (people rating a story they heard), and none of it moves the verdict above.

4.29·Audible
overallAudible
overall, pooled by the shop, so we hold no ruler for it
57%5 stars: 57 per cent, 1,691 ratings
24%4 stars: 24 per cent, 713 ratings
12%3 stars: 12 per cent, 343 ratings
4%2 stars: 4 per cent, 109 ratings
3%1 stars: 3 per cent, 95 ratings

2,951 ratings · performance and story, as the shop pools them

4.51−0.48 sdAudible
the performanceAudible
the performance, against Audible’s own crowd
69%5 stars: 69 per cent, 1,347 ratings
20%4 stars: 20 per cent, 386 ratings
8%3 stars: 8 per cent, 153 ratings
2%2 stars: 2 per cent, 34 ratings
2%1 stars: 2 per cent, 41 ratings

How often this goes badly3.8% of the people who rated the performance gave it one or two stars. More than most recordings here. The middle of our shelf is 2.0%, and half of it falls between 1.0% and 3.1%.

75 of 1,961 listeners gave the performance one or two stars

The shape of the room

  • United
  • Warm, this one
  • Split
  • Lukewarm

A warm room: most listeners are happy with the performance, and a small group are not.

1,961 ratings

4.37−0.67 sdAudible
the story, as heardAudible
the story, as heard, against Audible’s own crowd
62%5 stars: 62 per cent, 1,210 ratings
21%4 stars: 21 per cent, 415 ratings
11%3 stars: 11 per cent, 209 ratings
4%2 stars: 4 per cent, 71 ratings
2%1 stars: 2 per cent, 46 ratings

1,951 ratings

4.29+0.48 sdGoodreads
the book itselfGoodreads
the book itself, against Goodreads’ own crowd
53%5 stars: 53 per cent, 616,773 ratings
30%4 stars: 30 per cent, 343,120 ratings
12%3 stars: 12 per cent, 138,551 ratings
4%2 stars: 4 per cent, 40,636 ratings
2%1 stars: 2 per cent, 19,316 ratings

1,158,396 ratings

Every reading we hold

6 complete readings of it, and one call above for the book: the verdict is a claim about format, not about a voice. Which voice to press play on is the next question, and this is our answer to it. Below 250 ratings of the reading we name a recording and decline to rank it.

  • George Guidallour pick25h 01m20h 01m16h 41m14h 18m12h 31m · One voice · Audible UK and US

    Performance 4.51 · Story 4.37 · 1,951 rated the reading · 3.8% of the people who rated the performance gave it one or two stars

    Hear it · Audible’s clip, its length read from them on load

  • Bill Homewoodtoo few ratings to judge28h 04m22h 27m18h 43m16h 02m14h 02m · One voice · Audible UK

    Only 2 people have rated this reading, short of our published bar of 250, so we name it and print no scores for it.

    Hear it · Audible’s clip, its length read from them on load

  • Anthony Healdtoo few ratings to judge20h 28m16h 22m13h 39m11h 42m10h 14m · One voice · Audible UK

    Only 243 people have rated this reading, short of our published bar of 250, so we name it and print no scores for it.

    Hear it · Audible’s clip, its length read from them on load

  • Charlton Griffintoo few ratings to judge24h 19m19h 27m16h 13m13h 54m12h 10m · One voice · Audible UK

    Only 99 people have rated this reading, short of our published bar of 250, so we name it and print no scores for it.

    Hear it · Audible’s clip, its length read from them on load

  • Mary J.too few ratings to judge21h 05m16h 52m14h 03m12h 03m10h 33m · One voice · Audible UK

    Nobody has rated this one in either shop, so we have nothing to go on.

    Hear it · Audible’s clip, its length read from them on load

  • Arthur Lanetoo few ratings to judge21h 08m16h 54m14h 05m12h 05m10h 34m · One voice · Audible UK

    Nobody has rated this one in either shop, so we have nothing to go on.

    Hear it · Audible’s clip, its length read from them on load

1 other listing we set aside, listed with the reason for eacheach one is sold as this book and is not a complete reading of it
  • Michael Sheen3h 43m2h 58m2h 29m2h 07m1h 52m · 46 ratingsAbridged: it runs 16% of the full reading

The recording we mean

Runtime
25h 01m at 1×
Read by
George Guidall
Kind
One voice
ASIN
B004FU7XNS · Audible UK
Rated in
Audible UK and US · 168 + 1,793 ratings of the performance
Judged on
1,951 ratings of the narration
Published
Recorded Books · 2000

Audible sorts a search by newest, so ours may not be the first one you are offered. The runtime is the check: if the one in front of you says 25h 01m, that is the reading these numbers describe. “Judged on” is the crowd behind every judgement we make about this reading: the smaller of the performance and story counts, which is why it is a little under the two shop counts added. We do not link out to a shop, and we take nothing if you buy there.