ORLANDO

Woolf's vivid fantasy spins out in dulcet tones as Swinton brings the beautiful, 300-year-old Orlando to life. Wealthy and elegant, he stumbles through the Elizabethan age, then transmutes into the cheroot-smoking lady of the Victorian era and thence to Thursday, October 11, 1928. All the while, Orlando carefully preserves and improves upon the manuscript that represents the paths of English literature. Being prose in its most grandiloquent dress, this book graciously renders itself to reading aloud. The sentences are a joy, and Swinton presents them as such, delicately phrasing and warmly caressing the wit and soul of each. S.B.S. ©AudioFile, Portland, Maine [Published: NOV/DEC 97]