GULLIVER'S TRAVELS

In this abridgment, Hugh Laurie brings us a Lemuel Gulliver unamazed by his matchless adventures. Swift's satire is pointed, as always, but this narrator's world-weary delivery dulls many of the writer's barbs. All the familiar scenes are here: Gulliver immobilized by the cords of the Lilliputians, putting out the palace fire with his unconventional hose, humbled by the gigantic Brobdingnags, cowed by the horsey Houyhnhnms. Sometimes the listener is grateful for Laurie's transparency: When Gulliver is kidnapped and force-fed by one of the Brobdingnag's pet monkeys, the prose is sufficiently horrifying and nauseating without an actor's gloss. However, in more charming moments, such as Gulliver piloting a tiny ship across a basin of water, propelled by the giant children's breath, one wishes for just the slightest trace of narrative awe to indicate that Gulliver doesn't travel this way every day. T.M. ©AudioFile, Portland, Maine [Published: JAN 98]