JANE EYRE

Orphaned nearly at birth, young Jane Eyre endures cruelty and coldness in the home of her aunt and cousins, then austere servitude at a welfare boarding school. On her own, she finds and loses great love, and she discovers long-lost family. Josephine Bailey’s somber rendition of the classic captures the story’s pathos and warmth, as she portrays the child’s fears and the young woman’s hidden emotion. Bailey speaks entirely as Jane, in keeping with the book’s first-person voice, only performing other characters as Jane would in relating her story aloud. Bailey’s soft yet strong voice conveys the author’s strength of purpose and vulnerability of spirit, compelling the listener by its force rather than by its volume or artful performance. R.P.L. © AudioFile 2002, Portland, Maine [Published: DEC 02/ JAN 03]