Oh excellent. I grew up having Thurber stories read to me; this is wonderful.
posted by PussKillian at 11:27 AM on September 14 [2 favorites]

Same.
"Many Moons" is another favourite. And of course, "The Wonderful O" and "The White Deer".
posted by Zumbador at 11:38 AM on September 14 [2 favorites]

He was six feet four and forty-six and even colder than he thought he was!
posted by Frowner at 11:49 AM on September 14 [1 favorite]

I have long passages of this book memorized. Such a great one to read aloud.
posted by potrzebie at 12:00 PM on September 14 [1 favorite]

I was just thinking about Princess Saralinda a couple hours ago, and how she could only say, "I wish him well," when a suitor came calling.

One of my all time favourite books.
posted by seanmpuckett at 12:03 PM on September 14 [2 favorites]

I came across this link because I was sad that my print copy of The Thirteen Clocks is falling apart. It's the one with illustrations by Ronald Searle. I spent the afternoon formatting it as an Ebook with the illustrations and everything. Not sure what the copyright status is of this, but I've got it now.
posted by Zumbador at 12:17 PM on September 14 [8 favorites]

This is great. What a voice.

Thank you for this, Zumbador!
posted by kristi at 1:57 PM on September 14 [1 favorite]

Unfortunately this seems to be only disc 1, side 1. Disc 1, side 2 is also available if you go up a level in the directory, but disc 2 is MIA as far as i can tell. Now i'm looking for a complete copy!
posted by adrienneleigh at 2:42 PM on September 14 [2 favorites]

Archive.org does have an archive entry for the second disc, but the audio is not downloadable.
posted by adrienneleigh at 2:48 PM on September 14 [1 favorite]

Ah I didn't realise it wasn't the full version!
This was the page with all the formats - maybe there's a volume 2 in here
Or in this zip.
posted by Zumbador at 3:24 AM on September 15

Nope my previous links don't have the final bit of the recording...
posted by Zumbador at 3:42 AM on September 15

He'd have been the first to admit he was no Lauren Bacall, but there does seem to be a complete reading here: The 13 Clocks read by Peter Ustinov.

Even though my dad was pretty much Thurber-obsessive, I'd never heard of this before. Thinking back, there weren't any Thurber tales that my dad could relate that were after the mid 1940s. My dad would have been too old for bedtime stories when The Thirteen Clocks came out in 1950. So it's highly likely that we only heard the Thurber stories that my grandfather (who passed in 1956, long before I was born) read to my dad.
posted by scruss at 10:08 AM on September 15 [3 favorites]

This was and is my absolute favorite book both as a child and now as an elder. The Marc Simont illustrations are the perfect match for the prose. "I am the Golux, the only Golux in the world and not a mere device."
posted by agatha_magatha at 10:30 AM on September 15 [2 favorites]

Thank you scruss! Ustinov is one of my favourite narrators. There's a recording of him reading The Hobbit that's just sublime, but I've been unable to find it anywhere.
posted by Zumbador at 9:35 AM on September 17 [2 favorites]

Somehow, somehow, I have managed to miss reading The Thirteen Clocks in all my long reading life.

I listened to the Ustinov recording with amazement and delight. Oh my, it was one of the most wonderful things I've read/listened to in like... forever!

Thank you, scruss, for that link!!!!
posted by Archer25 at 11:13 AM on September 17 [3 favorites]

I'm glad people like it. Played the Ustinov reading all the way through yesterday, and it's rather good.
posted by scruss at 11:39 AM on September 18 [2 favorites]

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