ALICE'S ADVENTURES IN WONDERLAND & THROUGH THE LOOKING GLASS

Ralph Cosham's achievement here is his tone. Without a trace of condescension, he delivers these four children's classics like a bachelor uncle reading delightedly to his favorite niece. And if he misses some of the devilish cleverness, darkness and wonder of the author's voice, he gives us all the humor and adventure. There's something in his understatement that contributes mightily to the absurdity. On the other hand, he's somewhat cold and almost stuffy, like the elegantly somber packaging, where Carroll is warm and informal. Perhaps the series of Timeless Treasures, of which this is a part, is striving to be overly reverential, marketing the prestige of its titles rather than the qualities that make them living literature. Y.R. ©AudioFile, Portland, Maine [Published: MAY 98]