Vanity Fair

Timothy West is the voice of Thackeray himself--author, storyteller, social critic. Crusty, witty and observant, he talks directly to the listener as he follows the lives of that ultimate social climber, Becky Sharp, and her contemporaries in early nineteenth-century England. We see the characters as caricatures through his eyes; we aren't allowed to get too close, so it's appropriate that they aren't individually portrayed in a vocal sense. The abridgment makes it difficult to keep track of minor players and some plot lines, but the essential flavor of Thackeray's satiric masterpiece is retained. This is another of the excellent Highbridge Classics series. J.B.G. (c) AudioFile 2000, Portland, Maine