MAD ENCHANTMENT Claude Monet and the Painting of the Water Lilies

Some topics make the case for audiobooks, and art history is among them. The tumultuous history of Monet's paintings of water lilies, undertaken in his 70s and 80s, unfolds in dramatic contrast to the sublime, timeless beauty of the paintings. Serious audio histories generally employ a cultivated British narrator, but storyteller Joel Taylor's reading is solid USA, consolidating without homogenizing his background in Utah and Tennessee, and travels around the 50 states. Whether that voice entirely matches a Canadian author's history of a quintessentially French painter may depend on taste. But his brisk, expressive narration wears well and captures the turmoil that attended these great paintings. This audiobook is a part of the larger work JUDGMENT OF PARIS, King's stellar history of French Impressionism in the 1860s, an audiobook classic expertly narrated by Tristan Layton. D.A.W. © AudioFile 2016, Portland, Maine [Published: AUGUST 2016]