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Work · 8 recordings

The Metamorphosis

Franz Kafka · read by Ralph Cosham

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

Listen to 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 top 16% 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.The Metamorphosis
ordinary · 0.68 clear of the line where this would stop being a listen

Audio has the easy job on this one: only 6% of the reviews we read called it demanding, so nothing in it needs a page you can flick back through. The recording and the book are received about equally well: Ralph Cosham’s reading sits in the middle 40% of our shelf of books, on 4,052 ratings of the narration. So the format is doing all the work here.

Length does not decide this

2h 03m to listen, at 1×1h 38m to listen, at 1.25×1h 22m to listen, at 1.5×1h 10m to listen, at 1.75×1h 01m to listen, at 2×about 3½ hours to readabout 2½ hours to readabout 2 hours to readabout 1½ hours to readabout 1 hour to read

The runtime is Audible’s own, shown at the speed beside it. The reading time is our estimate: 98 pages at 30 pages an hour, the pace you told us. Ours is 50, about 300 words a page, read at 250 a minute. Treat the reading estimate as a ceiling on this one: this one runs 1.3 minutes of narration a page against a shelf median of 1.9, so its pages are lighter than the average we divide by (verse, dialogue, wide margins), and it will go quicker than we say.The runtime is Audible’s own, shown at the speed beside it. The reading time is our estimate: 98 pages at 40 pages an hour, the pace you told us. Ours is 50, about 300 words a page, read at 250 a minute. Treat the reading estimate as a ceiling on this one: this one runs 1.3 minutes of narration a page against a shelf median of 1.9, so its pages are lighter than the average we divide by (verse, dialogue, wide margins), and it will go quicker than we say.The runtime is Audible’s own, shown at the speed beside it. The reading time is our estimate: 98 pages at 50 pages an hour, which is about 300 words a page, read at 250 a minute. Treat the reading estimate as a ceiling on this one: this one runs 1.3 minutes of narration a page against a shelf median of 1.9, so its pages are lighter than the average we divide by (verse, dialogue, wide margins), and it will go quicker than we say.The runtime is Audible’s own, shown at the speed beside it. The reading time is our estimate: 98 pages at 65 pages an hour, the pace you told us. Ours is 50, about 300 words a page, read at 250 a minute. Treat the reading estimate as a ceiling on this one: this one runs 1.3 minutes of narration a page against a shelf median of 1.9, so its pages are lighter than the average we divide by (verse, dialogue, wide margins), and it will go quicker than we say.The runtime is Audible’s own, shown at the speed beside it. The reading time is our estimate: 98 pages at 80 pages an hour, the pace you told us. Ours is 50, about 300 words a page, read at 250 a minute. Treat the reading estimate as a ceiling on this one: this one runs 1.3 minutes of narration a page against a shelf median of 1.9, so its pages are lighter than the average we divide by (verse, dialogue, wide margins), and it will go quicker than we say.

Slot → chore-safe

Harder work in audio than The Little Prince.

All the books we hold · 222

Easier to hear than 87% of the books we hold.

Fiction · 176

Easier to hear than 85% of the fiction we hold.

Short books · 57

Easier to hear than 81% of the short books 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 bottom 27% of our shelf of books for effort on the page and in the bottom 21% 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 below that line (the page asks more of you here than audio does), in the bottom 13% of our shelf of books for extra work in audio.
On the page−0.55
In your ears−1.01
Audio disadvantage−1.07

Where that puts this one among the books we hold: in the bottom 27% of our shelf of books for effort on the page and in the bottom 21% 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 at about the pace of most books we hold and easier going than most, which is what leaves the format leaning towards the recording.
This one reads at about the pace of most books we hold and easier going than most, which is what leaves the format leaning towards the recording.

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
1.08It sits in the top 16% of our shelf of books for how far the recording outruns the page. Past the line where we start backing the recording.
Narration payoff
0.01Ralph Cosham’s reading and the book are received about equally well: in the middle 40% of our shelf of books, on 4,052 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 0.21. 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
−1.09It sits in the bottom 11% of our shelf of books for how well the print crowds think of a book: not a book the crowds are precious about, so there is less to protect and we can be relaxed about it. Blended across 1,560,571 Goodreads ratings and 2,896 on Hardcover, each scored inside its own population first, and never added together.

For the page

  • The crowds’ regard did not reach the line where we protect a first read, this reason did not apply

For the recording

  • The voice and the book are received about level
  • An easy listen anyway
  • 4,052 listeners behind it

So the case for the recording won it.

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 reading4,052 people have rated this reading: as good as it getsThe second sourceHardcover knows this book, with 2,896 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 34 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.

4.19·Audible
overallAudible
overall, pooled by the shop, so we hold no ruler for it
48%5 stars: 48 per cent, 2,259 ratings
30%4 stars: 30 per cent, 1,412 ratings
17%3 stars: 17 per cent, 799 ratings
4%2 stars: 4 per cent, 194 ratings
1%1 stars: 1 per cent, 63 ratings

4,727 ratings · performance and story, as the shop pools them

4.39−0.99 sdAudible
the performanceAudible
the performance, against Audible’s own crowd
58%5 stars: 58 per cent, 2,339 ratings
28%4 stars: 28 per cent, 1,123 ratings
12%3 stars: 12 per cent, 485 ratings
2%2 stars: 2 per cent, 82 ratings
1%1 stars: 1 per cent, 33 ratings

How often this goes badly2.8% of the people who rated the performance gave it one or two stars. About typical for the shelf. The middle of our shelf is 2.0%, and half of it falls between 1.0% and 3.1%.

115 of 4,062 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.

4,062 ratings

4.15−1.54 sdAudible
the story, as heardAudible
the story, as heard, against Audible’s own crowd
49%5 stars: 49 per cent, 1,982 ratings
27%4 stars: 27 per cent, 1,075 ratings
18%3 stars: 18 per cent, 712 ratings
5%2 stars: 5 per cent, 196 ratings
2%1 stars: 2 per cent, 87 ratings

4,052 ratings

3.91−1.21 sdGoodreads
the book itselfGoodreads
the book itself, against Goodreads’ own crowd
33%5 stars: 33 per cent, 515,771 ratings
37%4 stars: 37 per cent, 570,005 ratings
22%3 stars: 22 per cent, 338,716 ratings
6%2 stars: 6 per cent, 95,690 ratings
3%1 stars: 3 per cent, 40,389 ratings

1,560,571 ratings

Every reading we hold

8 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.

  • Ralph Coshamour pick2h 03m1h 38m1h 22m1h 10m1h 01m · One voice · Audible UK and US

    Performance 4.39 · Story 4.15 · 4,052 rated the reading · 2.8% 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

  • Richard Attleetoo few ratings to judge2h 19m1h 51m1h 33m1h 19m1h 10m · One voice · Audible UK

    One person has 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

  • Martin Jarvistoo few ratings to judge2h 11m1h 45m1h 27m1h 15m1h 06m · One voice · Audible UK

    Only 16 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

  • Edoardo Ballerini, Victor Bevine, Christa Lewistoo few ratings to judge2h 33m2h 02m1h 42m1h 27m1h 17m · Read by 3 voices · Audible UK

    Only 31 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

  • Luke Danielstoo few ratings to judge2h 14m1h 47m1h 29m1h 17m1h 07m · One voice · Audible UK

    Only 57 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

  • Patrick Shannontoo few ratings to judge1h 49m1h 27m1h 13m1h 02m55 min · One voice · Audible UK

    Only 15 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

  • B.J. Harrisontoo few ratings to judge2h 14m1h 47m1h 29m1h 17m1h 07m · One voice · Audible UK

    Only 3 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

  • Noel Jarmaine, The Lanterntoo few ratings to judge2h 28m1h 58m1h 39m1h 25m1h 14m · Two voices · 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

The recording we mean

Runtime
2h 03m at 1×
Read by
Ralph Cosham
Kind
One voice
ASIN
B004Y0OG5M · Audible UK
Rated in
Audible UK and US · 914 + 3,148 ratings of the performance
Judged on
4,052 ratings of the narration
Published
Blackstone Audio, Inc. · 2011

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 2h 03m, 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.