VANITY FAIR

AUDIOFILE's Golden Voice Wanda McCaddon ignites Thackeray's classic with her apt rendition of the characters' wit, gentle sarcasm, irony, and naïveté. VANITY FAIR features two early-nineteenth-century heroines and their dizzying attempts to create their destinies. McCaddon's pitch and accents capture the subtle nuances of British culture, class, education, sex, age, and social status in the satirical panorama of upper-middle-class life and manners. While never approaching the biting edge of ridicule, McCaddon lends just the right modulation to alert the listener to Thackeray's sardonic intent. As Becky Sharp's station in society evolves, McCaddon clearly articulates the upper class’s shallow values, duplicity, and hypocritical morals. Even the practical and mundane are cloaked in truths of human nature. An endearing classic. A.W. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2008, Portland, Maine [Published: NOVEMBER 2008]