Revolutionizing Jane Austen’s Most Beloved Novel in Audio

One day last year, if you looked inside the windows of a particular manor house in the English countryside, you would have seen a group of men in Regency dresses, holding recording equipment while twirling in a lively dance. That’s how far our sound designers were willing to go in order to authentically reproduce Jane Austen’s world, right down to the swish of historically accurate fabrics, for Audible’s Pride and Prejudice, a global release with adaptations in several languages, each with its own local cast.

Widely considered Jane Austen’s most famous and best-loved novel, Pride and Prejudice has been adapted many times for film, television and audio, worldwide. But never before has there been “a major audio dramatization to the level I knew we could pull off,” says Robin Morgan-Bentley, Audible’s director of scripted drama and original fiction in the UK. The team had just completed production on the Audible Original George Orwell's 1984, and Morgan-Bentley was pondering what to tackle next. He thought, “What if we bring this same powerful experience to something quieter? How can we do immersive tenderness?”

It was on a train filled with Taylor Swift fans of every age on their way to her London concert that he realized the perfect project: Jane Austen. The two women are often compared as romantic cultural icons whose work transcends generations. He brought the idea to Mariele Runacre-Temple, who looks after casting and production for drama for Audible UK, and they began discussing the “why,” or, as Morgan-Bentley puts it, “what could you get from listening to our Pride and Prejudice that you couldn’t get from reading or watching it?”

The team explored ideas with Lulu Raczka, an award-winning writer whose female-centered historical plays and TV credits made her a perfect fit for the project. The answer, they decided, lay with the book’s beloved, quick-witted heroine, Elizabeth (“Lizzy”) Bennet. Screen adaptations can only convey what she says out loud or what nuances play across her face, but as Morgan-Bentley points out, the audio format “offers privileged access to Lizzy’s thoughts — in Pride and Prejudice, there's quite a gulf between what Lizzy says out loud and what she thinks; between what she wants and what society expects of her.”

In Audible’s adaptation, listeners hear the familiar dialogue that fans can quote verbatim, but also a new voice: the one in Lizzy’s head as these scenes unfold. Marisa Abela (HBO’s Industry), as Lizzy, modulates her tone to distinguish between her polite, public persona and her more private thoughts. Runacre-Temple is excited about the casting of Abela alongside Harris Dickinson (Babygirl) as Mr. Darcy, two of literature’s most famous characters. “Their chemistry is so important, and we really wanted a pairing that would set the internet alight,” she says. It worked: the casting announcement sent the internet buzzing, as did the casting of such luminaries as Bill Nighy as Mr. Bennet, Marianne Jean-Baptiste as Mrs. Bennet, and Glenn Close as Lady Catherine de Bourgh.

For the sound design, Runacre-Temple put together “a bespoke super team” of top UK production companies, some of whom spent a week in the Devon country house, recording a realistic nineteenth-century domestic life, right down to the buttering of toast. The sound design, coupled with a stirring original score by Grammy-nominated composer Morgan Kibby that includes a haunting remake of “I Think We’re Alone Now,” creates an experience so effective that it feels like you could turn your head and see the scenes playing out around you.

That’s thanks largely to the Dolby Atmos mix, which places all the sounds in relation to Lizzy’s perspective. When Darcy slams a massive door shut after a spat, it’s mixed to sound far away on the other side of a large room because that’s how Lizzy experiences it. And Lizzy’s “thinking” voice is placed closer to the listener than her speaking voice, making it feel truly intimate.

The sound design also makes a huge impact on mood even when no one is speaking. “So much happens in Pride and Prejudice in the moments of silence,” says Morgan-Bentley. For instance, there’s that iconic moment in the BBC’s 1995 adaptation where Colin Firth, as Mr. Darcy, surprises Lizzy while wearing a wet, see-through shirt. Morgan-Bentley says he told Raczka, “We need a ‘wet shirt’ moment. How do we do that without visuals?”

The result is a new scene, something not in the book or the screen adaptations, which uses the sound of Lizzy’s breath and heartbeat, and the sudden nearness of Darcy’s murmuring voice, to convey that same lusty intensity — we won’t spoil it, but the team is calling it the “sexy twig moment.”

Abela and Dickinson create that crucial magic in all of their scenes, which they recorded together in person under the direction of Dionne Edwards (Pretty Red Dress). “Dionne and the team really understood how to highlight their chemistry and the importance of getting natural, realistic performances” from the cast, says Runacre-Temple.

To help listeners expand their experience of classics like Pride and Prejudice that are in the public domain, US customers can now tap a button in the Audible player and type questions relating to the plot or historical context — for instance “What is the cultural significance of Mr. Darcy denying Elizabeth Bennet a dance?” — and receive immediate answers through our new AI-powered feature in beta testing, “Ask a Question.”

Listeners will also be treated to something fans have long been dying for: a glimpse of Lizzy and Mr. Darcy after their wedding. “We leave them on a Sunday morning…in bed,” teases Morgan-Bentley. “I love the way it ends.” It’s a 2025 nod to something that perhaps Jane Austen would have included in the novel, had she been at liberty. “She was a very progressive woman who defied a lot of societal expectations,” he says. “I hope some of the spirit of her rebelliousness comes across in this adaptation.”

Just as Morgan-Bentley observed multiple generations united by a love of Taylor Swift, he hopes that someone can listen to Audible’s Pride and Prejudice, having never read the book or experienced any other adaptation before, and discover a love for Jane Austen, even 250 years after her birth. To make that even easier, the Audible blog offers a rundown of all the characters in the novel.

The English language version of Audible’s Pride and Prejudice is now available for our listeners in the US, the UK, Canada and Australia. Adaptations in German, Italian, French, Brazilian Portuguese and Castilian Spanish are available for our listeners in Germany, France and French Canada as of September 9, and for our listeners in Spain, Brazil, Italy, and for Spanish-language listeners in the US on October 6.