THE LEGEND OF SLEEPY HOLLOW

Narrator Anthony Heald transforms this classic story by Washington Irving into an enduring work of art, worth hearing many times. He deploys Irving’s use of literary devices—alliteration and onomatopoeia—to skillful effect in the building of the characters and suspense. Heald employs American Theater Standard speech to render an aged patina the 1822 story deserves. As he employs the author’s words to paint the images of the few dramatis personae, one can appreciate the days gone by when authors spent great energy in making their principals come into the imagination’s focus. Using the familiar device of two suitors courting the same girl, Irving chooses every word to build the tension that leads to the terrifying chase by the renowned headless horseman. J.A.H. © AudioFile 2010, Portland, Maine [Published: OCTOBER 2010]