Unamused

There's an impressive number of stories here, but good luck finding them. The stories do not show up with their titles when downloaded on your iPod. When played, the narrator identifies the title and author of the first story. But the narration for the second story starts within the heading of "Chapter 1." The third story starts in "Chapter 2." In most cases, when you try to advance to the next chapter, you end up in the middle of a story. You don't know what you're listening to. In most cases it's impossible to skip ahead and select a specific story.
Stephanye Dussud is a pleasant enough narrator. She's best doing a French accent and worst when attempting a Southern dialect. But there's a sameness to her performance. There's also a sameness to the stories. The title of the collection would lead you to believe they span the breadth of American humor. But most were written in late 19th century. Aside from the work of Mark Twain, many are (very) light comedies of manners that haven't aged well.

12 persone l'hanno trovata utile

Some delightful stories spoiled by the narration.

What could have made this a 4 or 5-star listening experience for you?

Different narrator.

Who was your favorite character and why?

Having difficulty staying with the audiobook due to the narrator. I will finish it but it will take a lot of work.

How did the narrator detract from the book?

No levity or personality to her reading.

Any additional comments?

While the narrator's voice is pleasant I am not convinced she enjoyed reading the book aloud. She needs much more life in her performance to make the characters come to life.

4 persone l'hanno trovata utile

Outdated rip off

Though some of these storiesay be classics they certainly aren't America's best humor. Infact some of the stories like "titbottoms Spectacles" are down right sad. Though the title promised humor. ( it was about a man who could see the true nature of people with some special eye glasses.).
Other stories were down right offensive, but not in a funny way. Like "Giddeon," a story about a former slave who becomes a new york performer, only to ruaway back south where he abducts a young girl to make her his wife.
In general these stories are to outdated too outdated and contextual to be really funny. For example "the callers" is about the nervous trials two young boys face while attempting to "call" on some neighbor girls.
The only really good stories in this collection were those by Mark Twain and O'Henry. You are much better off buying a collection of there stories and skipping this one.

2 persone l'hanno trovata utile

Horribly read.

Just horribly read, wrong narrator.
These stories needed a gruff old man voice, not a well annunciated proper English voice.

KINDLE perfect - Great VALUE - Dated stories.

A previous reviewer complained about this Audiobook because his IPOD didnt play it well.
The EXACT OPPOSITE is true with KINDLE. Every Story is a Chapter. The list of stories is read out at beginning of chapter 1 and then every title is introduced by narrator, at beginning of each chapter. AUDIBLE and KINDLE a perfect match.

As for content, I think the title misleading. These surely ARE NOT the 18 BEST American short stories - they might be 18 stories for which no royalties had to be paid to the Author, but that is an issue for another time and place.

Priced at less than $5 they are good value indeed.