THE PROFESSOR AND THE MADMAN

The cover displays a sepia daguerreotype of an older man with a white flowing beard and a pillbox skullcap, leaning back thoughtfully in a garden chair. This is Dr. William Chester Minor, the schizophrenic physician-murderer who helped write the Oxford English Dictionary while an inmate at the Broadmoor Asylum for the Criminally Insane. Simon Jones narrates this bizarre but true story with a rich mahogany baritone and an appropriately snooty English accent. His wide dramatic range is well adapted to this tale, which spans the extremes of reason and sanity. Though abridged, the transitions are seamless and lushly orchestrated with strains of imperial Brittania. Here's a Victorian mystery in which the truth is stranger than fiction. J.W. ©AudioFile, Portland, Maine [Published: FEB/MAR 99]