David

Wayne June reads two of Lovecraft's best-executed stories in the tone of a staid man of common sense, say a business manager or a pedantic scholar, who has been brought unwillingly to believe in strange and terrible things. His approach underlines Lovecraft's strengths while covering his faults. An excellent afternoon's entertainment.

Once again Wayne June makes the transformation of Lovecraft's characters from skeptic to broken - or inspired - believer sound plausible, his dry tone dampening Lovecraft's excesses while underlining his strengths. I especially like his handling of New England dialect.

Audible didn't mention who the translator was but when I input the first line into Google I found it linked to Augustus Taber Murray on Wikipedia.

I have been trying to find for years a version of the Odyssey that I liked as much as I do most translations of the Iliad. In this reading of an obscure translation, which I listened to while I was working, I finally found what I wanted. I love action and fantasy and I had always thought that was the best reason to read this work. This time, I was more impressed by the character of the heroes and their women: their code of honor, their hospitality and generosity, their adaptability to the decrees of fate or the operation of chance, their competitiveness, their cruelty to men, women, and children, their loyalties and betrayals. I've read that the Odyssey was the first great adventure story but I think one could say that it was the first psychological novel.

Charlton Griffin was terrific when he read the narration and the men's voices. I always imagined that Homer's warriors spoke like this. He wasn't at all convincing when doing the women's voices. I wish Audio Connoisseur had used a woman narrator.