Carmen Acevedo Butcher Audiobooks

The Cloud of Unknowing: a modern rendering of the medieval contemplative classic

1 audiobook reviewed

★ 4.7/5 average

476 listener ratings

Who is Carmen Acevedo Butcher?

The Cloud of Unknowing is one of the strange treasures of medieval English writing, an anonymous fourteenth-century guide to contemplative prayer whose central instruction is to set knowledge aside. Carmen Acevedo Butcher comes to our catalogue as the modern voice of that text, paired here with its companion piece, The Book of Privy Counsel.

A project like this asks for stewardship rather than authorship, and the qualities it demands are patience and restraint. The English on offer is plain and current without flattening the original’s odd, gentle humour, which is the whole difficulty of the job. Get it wrong and the book turns into either a museum piece or a self-help pamphlet.

What the listener meets is an old book made newly usable, addressed as the original was to a beginner rather than to an expert.

Carmen Acevedo Butcher in audiobooks

The audio edition, read by James Patrick Cronin, runs to five and a half hours and holds a strong rating from several hundred listeners, which is unusual for a work of contemplative writing and says something about how well the reading lands. Cronin takes it slowly and without pulpit inflection, exactly right for a text meant to be sat with.

Begin at the beginning and resist the urge to treat it as information; the book itself recommends short passages and long pauses. It suits early mornings, quiet commutes and anyone curious about the roots of Christian mysticism. The audiobook is below whenever you are ready for it.