THE EVIL GENIUS The Novel and the Play

The husband-and-wife narrating team of Stefan Rudnicki and Gabrielle de Cuir are perfect at navigating Wilkie Collins's elaborate nineteenth-century prose. They also illuminate the work's very contemporary empathy for its female characters. It all begins when an English noble returns home with a young governess for his daughter in tow. The husband falls in love. His wife is devastated. And his mother-in-law plots revenge. The staged reading of the play, performed only once before in 1885 to secure copyright, is a revelation showing how Collins emphasized voice and character to retell the novel. It features an energetic de Cuir in multiple roles. Of course, it's left to the listener to decide who the "evil genius" truly was. B.P. © AudioFile 2022, Portland, Maine [Published: SEPTEMBER 2022]