TOM JONES

Fielding is the father of the modern novel, and The History of Tom Jones, A Foundling is his lusty comic masterpiece--as funny and original now as the day it first came off the press. That was a time when a sentence could gallop on for pages. Reading such constructions aloud is an Olympic event. Distinguished actor Robert Lindsay here goes for the gold, abetted by a manly, mellifluous "instrument." This judge grants him a silver medal for his achievement in communicating the beauty of the eighteenth-century language. He frequently lets lines get away from him, gives hackneyed impersonations of the characters and lacks the timing to fully render the wit of the narrative. A worthy, but not a championship, performance. Y.R. ©AudioFile, Portland, Maine [Published: MAY 98]