Sometimes when listening to Edgar Allan Poe's blood curdling narratives,
you notice how this author was totally ahead of his time. 'The Tell-Tale
Heart' is a classic study in paranoia and the well-enunciated delivery of
Dermot Kerrigan is beyond reproach. This fascinating actor is even more inspired
in Maupassant's 'Modern Ghosts' another thriller with a touch of the sensational
about it.
This package has something of the Indian about it with two savage tales set
in that mysterious subcontinent. Sredni Vashtar is full of the customary
English snobbery whilst Rudyard Kipling's racially despicable 'The Mark of
the Beast' carries all the prejudice and stupid beliefs of the English colonial
times in India. I would single out o" Henry's marvellous 'The Furnished Room'
for its markedly singular horror, indeed after listening to Kerrigan's
charatcterful narrative, I was at pains to look behind me!
Naxos have brought out their usual sound effects department and with a pot-pourri
of Lizst, Janacek and Glazunov you may be sure that all these stories thrill
to the bone. But just who was that beast in the Indian jungle?
Reviewer
Gerald Fenech
Reading:
Effects:
Stories by Edgar Allen
Poe, O' Henry, Guy de Maupassant, Saki, M.R. James and Rudyard
Kipling 
