GREAT CLASSIC HAUNTINGS

This mixed bag of classic horror features some remarkable writing and some so dated that they're more musty than "classic." Reader Geraint Wyn Davies shines in "The Body Snatchers" by Robert Louis Stevenson--capturing perfectly the regional accents and the gripping horror of two doctors deep in a plot that threatens their sanity. His rendition of Edgar Allen Poe's "The Fall of the House of Usher" is melodramatic and overwrought, and a poor choice for this collection. His delicate handling of Washington Irving's "Adventure of the German Student," a brief but memorable piece, is ideal for the genre. Ambrose Bierce's "A Watcher by the Dead" is a masterful classic that will raise an appropriate number of goose bumps. D.J.B. (c) AudioFile 2003, Portland, Maine [Published: AUG/SEP 03]