DANIEL DERONDA

In her lifetime, Marian Evans (1819-80) was celebrated under her pen name of George Eliot as England's greatest living novelist. Today, she is known primarily as the bane of school kids who, having SILAS MARNER thrust down their throats, learn to despise the written word. Dove seeks to make palatable this dreaded tome, about an idealistic orphan who discovers his Jewish heritage in the course of rescuing a Jewish singer and giving succor to the beautiful Gwendolen, who is trapped in a bad marriage. Like Beacham, Bron negotiates the author's difficult locutions with comprehension and aplomb. Unfortunately her Masterpiece Theaterish delivery loses some of Eliot's personality. However, she so masterfully and assuredly puts across the text and so insightfully presents the characters that we can forgive her the lapse into the prevailing fashion. If you're a former school kid wondering just what the heck makes this novel living literature, you may find out by picking up this audiobook. Y.R. ©AudioFile, Portland, Maine [Published: MAY 98]