GREAT CLASSIC STORIES

Here we have 22 comic and dramatic short stories. Two are French, a few more American, and the majority are by British Victorian and Edwardian writers. The overall atmosphere of the volume is gothic. (Only F. Scott Fitzgerald’s “Pat Hobby and Orson Welles” seems out of place.) The stories vary in familiarity, from W.W. Jacobs’s relatively obscure “For Better or Worse” to the same author’s overexposed “Monkey’s Paw.” In between are short works by Kipling, Mansfield, Poe, Hawthorne, Maupassant, and other masters. The collection boasts performances by veteran British actors— including such audio luminaries as Derek Jacobi, Martin Jarvis, Rosalind Ayres, Stephen Fry, and the late Sir Nigel Hawthorne. The readings range from fine to superb. Not a dud in the lot. Y.R. © AudioFile 2007, Portland, Maine [Published: FEB/ MAR 07]