New Reviews: Classics

Narrator Edoardo Ballerini tackles this 1818 classic novel written by Mary Shelley when, at age 18, she was challenged to write a ghost story. Framing the story as a recollection of past events, Dr. Victor Frankenstein tells Arctic Sea captain Robert Walton of his childhood in Geneva, his creation of a monster while he was a student in Ingolstadt, and the tragedies that... Read More

Three early stories by Virginia Woolf are rich in phrases and imagery. Narrator Amy Scanlon lets Woolf's legendary way with words and syntax shine. While the sentences meander as broadly as the scenes they construct, diction is front and center throughout the audiobook. Scanlon's performance suggests a similar affection for the written word. Her energetic delivery fairly... Read More

Lucy Scott never disappoints with her pitch-perfect narration of this classic novel from the renowned Victorian author known as Mrs. Oliphant. Lucilla Marjoribanks has been described as the literary link between Austen's Emma and Eliot's Dorothea. In this story of small-town gossip, romance, and intrigue, Scott copes admirably with a range of voices--male and female, young and... Read More

David Timson performs Juvenal's 16 verse satires with energy, clarity, and precision. These works from the 2nd century CE are usually harsh, often personalized, diatribes against Roman--or simply human--venality and corruption. Timson's resonant voice and oratorical tones fit the rhetoric well. Occasionally, tirades are rife with homophobia, xenophobia, or misogyny and larded... Read More

Combining his unpretentious style with the rhythms and tones of 1940s radio, actor Paul Giamatti smoothly creates the uniquely American feel of Ray Bradbury's 1962 classic dark fantasy. It's a week before Halloween, ominous clouds have gathered, and The Cooger and Dark's Pandemonium Shadow Show has come to town. Only Will Halloway and Jim Nightshade, two 13-year-old best... Read More

David Horovitch's performance has a professorial quality that suits this novel well. It's the early 20th century, and Razumov, a Russian student, becomes a revolutionary, reluctantly turning to life as a spy. Horovitch's deep voice and regal phrasing make Conrad's complex syntax accessible to listeners. Themes of betrayal, identity, and freedom all take part in the development... Read More

British actor Matt Addis whisks listeners off to a star system 37 light years away. There, a gentleman explorer who is guided by a number of mystical women travels through several deserted surreal landscapes to better understand himself and his relationship to the world around him. This novel, first published in 1920, is a deep and demanding dive. A serious allegory, it caught... Read More