New Reviews: Classics

Like an autocrat of a nineteenth-century drawing room, Daniel Henning captures the pedantic wit of Edith Wharton's keenly observant masterpiece about a "long vanished America," which won a 1921 Pulitzer Prize. It's the Gilded Age of the 1870s, and a young scion of one of New York's finest and most influential families is about to marry the girl of his dreams, also a member of... Read More

A poet, performance artist, and devotee of Harlem Renaissance poet Langston Hughes presents a selection of Hughes's early poems, songs, and other writings, created from 1921 to 1927. Danez Smith is extraordinary at performing their stirring introduction to Hughes's early creative output. With their clear baritone voice and extraordinary vocal talent, Smith's performance is... Read More

George Washington Carver was one of the greatest scientists of his era, a period that included Einstein, Curie, and Pasteur. This audiobook revives a biography that was first published in the year of Carver's death, 1943. While it feels dated in some ways, it introduces a new generation to the life of a man who did much to shape our world and its agriculture. Karl T. Wright's... Read More

In a tone equal parts naïve and urbane, Matt Bomer brings an authentic and absolutely American middle-class voice to James Baldwin's 1956 bestseller. The story, controversial at the time, is about a white New Yorker living in Paris who has a fiery and ultimately tragic love affair with a young, gay Italian bartender while his fiancée is on holiday in Spain. In his fine... Read More

This audiobook begins with a thoughtful foreword, written and narrated by Idra Novey, and a comprehensive introduction that provides essential historical and linguistic context, narrated by translator Gwendolyn Harper. Then, Vico Ortiz vividly narrates the selection of crónicas (short chronicles) written by Chilean queer activist and artist Pedro Lemebel. These essays are a... Read More

While most would not consider a Kafka work to be a pleasant listening experience, Pugh does a splendid job at narrating Kafka's account of the (mis)adventures of one Karl Rossman in a post-World War America. The plot is not as surreal as the author's METAMORPHOSIS or some of his fables such as "Before the Law," but it is nevertheless a somewhat surreal set of adventures,... Read More

Maya Hawke performs this classic collection superbly. She pays attention to Joan Didion's exquisite prose and captures her careful observations--such as a 5-year-old on acid in San Francisco and the evolution of her native Sacramento once aerospace engineers arrived, among other topics. Hawke gets Didion's measured pace and thoughtful tone just right as she conveys the... Read More

The oral presentation of St. Thomas's complex series of logical arguments on religious premises requires clarity and accuracy, and Martyn Swain's admirable performance provides both. His voice is strong and a bit astringent but likable, and his pacing--another essential--is good, if at times somewhat quick for the more difficult material. Frequent minor hesitations, as if he is... Read More