Roman Lives

This excellent abridgment makes plain why these particular lives--Coriolanus, Pompey, Caesar, Cicero, Brutus, and Mark Antony--have exerted so powerful a fascination over historians and playwrights, including Shakespeare, over the centuries. Here, history is determined by personal destiny, and the political drama is an outgrowth of individual ambition, folly, and mischance. These elements are perfectly matched by Nicholas Farrell's measured delivery, which passes easily over the tangles of classical rhetoric and conveys effectively the dramatic force of Plutarch's restraint and impartiality. This production heightens the subtle Faulknerian interplay and overlap of the separate histories, as the same events are differently emphasized in the individual histories. With capsule introductions by Steve Hodson and musical transitions of suitable solemnity, these six lives come together into one compelling, rueful, and all-too-human story. D.A.W. (c) AudioFile 2005, Portland, Maine