THE ODYSSEY

Years ago, when this reviewer was casting his own radio dramatization of THE ODYSSEY, he asked the classicists who were advising him how the narrator, who was to represent the voice of Homer, should sound. "Like the setting sun," they said cryptically. Your humble servant had no idea what they were talking about. Then. Now I know because Derek Jacobi does sound like the setting sun. And, in spite of some Briticisms that may jar American ears, Mandelbaum's translation wonderfully communicates the swift, simple, virile dignity of the original. The beauty, the drama--they come from the unhurried, masterful Jacobi. Isn't it fitting that the greatest living actor of the English-speaking world should spellbind listeners with the greatest yarn ever told? Y.R. Winner of AUDIOFILE Earphones Award ©AudioFile, Portland, Maine [Published: NOV/DEC 96]