THE RIME OF THE ANCIENT MARINER & THE HUNTING OF THE SNARK

The late James Mason chillingly renders Coleridge's 1798 verse fable, THE RIME OF THE ANCIENT MARINER. In rhyming couplets, an old salt tells a passing stranger of how his killing an albatross on a sea voyage led to the deaths of his crew mates and other supernatural horrors. Aside from its mystical significance and poetic brilliance, the mariner's tale is something to scare Boy Scouts with at a late night camp-out. Mason delivers that scary yarn aspect as well as other virtues in the sonorous tones for which he is justly famous. Likewise, Roy Dotrice throws himself into Lewis Carroll's mock heroic HUNTING OF THE SNARK (1867), a perfect complement--or antidote--to MARINER. Dotrice possessed some of the same skills as Mason--a beautiful voice, elegance, and a seemingly effortless skill. As exhibited here, he also can let loose with plenty of delightful silliness. This volume, like the poems themselves, will engage both children and adults. Y.R. (c) AudioFile 2002, Portland, Maine [Published: DEC 02/ JAN 03]