GREAT RUSSIAN SHORT STORIES

Eight of the most justly celebrated stories from nineteenth- and early twentieth-century Russia are read with intelligence, verve and sensitivity by three accomplished British actors. The tape is thin on earthy Slavic flavor; Gogol's humor falls flat in "The Overcoat" due to clumsy translation; the elusive tone of clinical irony that makes Chekhov's plays so difficult to perform eludes narrator Susan Jameson in her essay of "The Party." Yet the power and poignancy so characteristic of Russian tales are present in force. Even though you may have read them before, Gorky's "Twenty-six Men and a Girl" and Dostoevsky's "Strange Man's Dream" will transport you. Y.R. ©AudioFile, Portland, Maine [Published: NOV/DEC 97]