[poohbear_nc]

I'm at 48% - no spoilers.

Disclosure - this is my first reading of DD, and I'm having mixed responses to it. It's one of the most oddly structured novel I've encountered written and set in Victorian England. The intermixing of the 2 story lines (Gwendolyn and Daniel) feels forced so far; subsequent events may change this observation. The early Gwendolyn narrative reads much like a Trollope romance. The early Daniel narrative seems much more forced and labored, and slightly Dickensian. The Gwendolyn sections tell a story of her life; the Daniel sections are more of an explanation of how his character was formed.

The long interjected descriptive or explanatory prose sections outside the 2 narratives bring the book's flow to a crashing halt -- I can't imagine listening to a narrator droning through these sections, although Juliet Stevenson's voice could deal well with them.