OSCAR WILDE

Frank Harris's famous four-volume autobiography, MY LIFE AND LOVES, fascinated and amused even though the sexual braggadocio strained one's credibility. Arrogant, opinionated, inclined to invent facts to suit his purposes, Harris makes an equally diverting, quirky and unreliable biographer of his friend Oscar Wilde, whose achievements he belittles to puff himself up. Narrator Whitfield does a workmanlike, if uninspired, job with the text. Considering the author's strong literary personality and the celebrated wit of the subject, Whitfield's delivery is curiously dry, yet easy on the ear. Y.R. © AudioFile, Portland, Maine [Published: FEB/MAR 00]