HISTORY OF THE CONQUEST OF MEXICO

This audiobook, listed as nonfiction and copyrighted in 2002, was first published as a three-volume work in 1843 by a blind man who never visited Mexico. Considered authoritative at the time, Prescott's artistic prose would be classified as historical fiction today, and no longer politically correct or scientifically accurate. With precise and slow diction, narrator Kerry Shale mispronounces the majority of the abundant Spanish and Náhuatl words, as well as many English terms. These shortcomings of content and performance, further compromised by a choppy abridgment, result in a disappointing production. J.A.H. (c) AudioFile 2003, Portland, Maine [Published: OCT/ NOV 03]