WALDEN

Walden is organized like a conversation. Thoreau moves from topic to topic in an easy flow, touching on politics, economics, and spirituality. William Hope's performance of the work brings out this quality wonderfully. Reading slowly, with regular pauses, as if engaged in a conversation with a close friend, Hope allows readers to hear the rhythms of Thoreau's prose. But however it rambles, WALDEN always returns to the loving descriptions of nature and insightful reflections on personal identity that Thoreau developed in his cabin by Walden Pond. This is an accessible adaptation of an American classic. G.T.B. (c) AudioFile 2002, Portland, Maine [Published: AUG/SEP 02]