MYSTERIOUS STRANGER AND OTHER STORIES

[Editor's Note: The following is a combined review with THE INNOCENTS ABROAD.]--These two Twain titles were recorded in the mid 1980s. INNOCENTS is an early Twain work, expanding on a jocular series of travel articles he wrote on a Grand Tour of Europe and the Holy Land. Without trying to imitate Twain, narrator Prichard, who has recorded a number of titles by the same author, nicely plays the vigor, lightness, and wit of the original. He has a distinctly middle-aged sound, and the sharpish register of his voice cuts through the technical muddiness of the recording. Kent's voice does not. In STRANGER, we hear almost every edit, and there are many in his rendition of eight Twain short stories. The selection represents the author's entire career from the early, ironic "Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County" to the late, bitter "Man That Corrupted Hadleyburg." Kent's excellent diction ensures that we miss not a word; on the down side, his reading is dry. Y.R. (c) AudioFile 2002, Portland, Maine [Published: APR/MAY 02]