The Jane Austen Collection

An Audible Original Drama

De: Jane Austen

Narrado por: Claire Foy, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Billie Piper, Florence Pugh, Emma Thompson

Sense and Sensibility - narrated by Gugu Mbatha-Raw.

Austen introduces us to the Dashwood sisters who upon the death of their father are left with little money, status or their family home. Marianne wears her heart on her sleeve and when she falls in love with the dashing but unsuitable John Willoughby she ignores her sister Elinor's warning that her impulsive behaviour leaves her open to gossip and innuendo. Meanwhile Elinor, always sensitive to social convention, is struggling to conceal her own romantic disappointment.

Directed by Celia de Wolff. Adapted by Anna Lea. With Bessie Carter, Anya Chalotra, Josh Dylan, Robert Glenister, Paterson Joseph, Emma Mackey, Hattie Morahan, Carl Prekopp, Blake Ritson, Lesley Sharp, Fenella Woolgar, Nicolas Armfield, Pippa Bennett-Warner, Lily Cooper and Tom Glenister.

Pride and Prejudice - narrated by Claire Foy.

Centred around the Bennet family, their five unmarried daughters and their mother’s desperation for at least one of them to make a wealthy match to save the family from destitution. When Charles Bingley moves into nearby Netherfield, it seems that Jane, the eldest, may have found her match, but it also introduces Elizabeth to Bingley’s friend, the aloof Mr Darcy.

Directed by Nicolette Chin. Adapted by Sian Owen, script edited by Anna Lea. With Tarrick Benham, Nicole Davis, Barnaby Edwards, Billie Fulford-Brown, Rebecca Front, Emma Gregory, Ferdinand Kingsley, Chris Lew Kum Hoi, Tim McInnerny, Heather Nicol, Sarah Ovens, Janet Prince, Jenny Rainsford, Jennifer Saayeng, Sam Stafford, Katy Sobey, Homer Todiwala, Patience Tomlinson and Simon Yadoo.

Mansfield Park - narrated by Billie Piper.

Adopted into the household of her uncle, Sir Thomas Bertram, Fanny Price grows up a meek outsider among her cousins in the unaccustomed elegance of Mansfield Park. Soon after Sir Thomas leaves on business, Mary Crawford and her brother, Henry, arrive at Mansfield, bringing with them London glamour and the seductive taste for flirtation and theatre that precipitates a crisis.

Directed by Tamsin Collison. Adapted by Catherine Dyson, script edited by Anna Lea. With Matt Addis, Lucy Briers, James Corrigan, Scarlett Courtney, Rosalind Eleazar, Jennifer English, Emma Fielding, Ash Hunter, Joel MacCormack, Harry Myers, Esme Scarborough, Lucy Scott, Bert Seymour and Natalie Simpson.

Emma - narrated by Emma Thompson.

Emma is perfectly content with her life and sees no need for either love or marriage; nothing delights her more than matchmaking her fellow residents of Highbury. But when she ignores the warnings of her good friend Mr. Knightley and attempts to arrange a suitable match for her protegee Harriet Smith, her carefully laid plans soon unravel and have consequences that she never expected.

Directed by Katherine Thompson. Adapted by Anna Lea.

Isabella Inchbald played Emma Woodhouse, and Joseph Millson played George Knightley.

With Alexa Davies, Joanne Froggatt, Adam Gillen, Rupert Holliday-Evans, Isabella Inchbald, Aisling Loftus, Anjella Mackintosh, Joseph Millson, Ukweli Roach, Morgana Robinson, Nicholas Rowe, Benjamin Wainwright, Eve Webster and Ria Zmitrowicz.

Northanger Abbey - narrated by Emma Thompson.

A coming-of-age tale for naïve 17-year-old Catherine Morland, Northanger Abbey takes a comical look at themes of class, family, love and literature. Revelling in the sensationalist - and extremely popular - Gothic fiction of the day, the story follows Catherine out of Bath to the lofty manor of the Tilneys, where her overactive imagination gets to work constructing an absurd and melodramatic explanation for the death of Mrs Tilney, which threatens to jeopardise her newly forged friendships.

Directed by Katherine Thompson. Adapted by Anna Lea.

With Douglas Booth, Robin Brown, Gunnar Cauthery, Anna Chancellor, Lily Cole, Beth Goddard, Nickolas Grace, Jeremy Irvine, Carla Mendonca, Ella Purnell, George Rainsford, Simon Shepherd, Emma Thompson, Eleanor Tomlinson, Lorraine Ansell, Naomi Felton, Bethan Rose Young as Anne Thorpe and Joanna Ruiz.

Persuasion - narrated by Florence Pugh.

Anne Elliot, daughter of the snobbish Sir Walter, is woman of quiet charm and deep feelings. Eight years before our story begins, she is happily betrothed to naval officer Frederick Wentworth, but she breaks off the engagement when persuaded by her friend Lady Russell that such a match is unworthy. The breakup produces in Anne a deep and long-lasting regret.

Directed by Emma Hearn. Adapted by Anna Lea. With Annabel Baldwin, Michael Fox, Julian Wadham, Laure Stockley, Lizzie Stables, Oscar Batterham, Ewan Bailey, Samantha Béart, Andrew Wheildon-Dennis, Al Weaver, Tom Andrew, Molly Harris, Martha Mackintosh, Vineeta Rishi, Isabel Adomakoh Young and Sophie Aldred.

Public Domain (P)2020 Audible, Ltd

Great, but some heads up..

I'm sure you already know if you like Jane Austen or not, so I'm just going talk about the presentation:

1st, you should know is that this more like listening to a play with a narrator than a traditional audiobook. I like Jane Austen novels, movies, traditional audiobooks, movies, miniseries & embarrassingly even fan fiction (don't judge me). Personally, I enjoyed this format. Only you can know if this is your style.

2, There are no chapter numbers or names, so of you're usual voice control, like via Amazon Alexa, you won't know which chapter you are on. The breaks between chapters is 20 seconds of music. That's a annoy to me, but I'm not removing a star for personal preference.

I hope this helps! happy listening!

Like going to a play!

I really enjoyed the various characters with narration, music, and sound effects. It made it like listening to a play. The stories are great and well narrated/acted. My biggest complaint is it was obviously recorded during the pandemic and in Pride and Prejudice one actress was using a laptop microphone or a very poor quality microphone so it is obvious these characters are not speaking together. I found that surprisingly poor production from an Audible Original. I get it is a pandemic and it wasn't enough for me to stop listening...but let's not accept lower standards for quantity. I would have been happy with 2 books of Audible quality, instead of 2 and 1 mediocre.

Truly enjoyed it

If you like Jane Austen, these audio renditions are definitely worth listening to. After you read the books, that is. These are well done adaptations, but not perfect.

The actors were superb. The voices gave life to the characters better than any movie, and the narrators were fantastic. Emma Thompson in Mansfield Park was so much fun; she made me laugh with her purposeful overdramatization of a young girl’s fantastical feelings and perceptions.

My greatest quibble was with the music. It was good music, but after listening to the same tune between each chapter, it seemed like the blessed music went on for an unbelievably long time before we got back to the story. Not well done.

My second, slighter quibble was with the writing. I love Jane Austen’s subtlety. She makes you understand her characters so you don’t need to be told outright a lot of what goes on in her stories. These adaptations were a bit in your face for me. Maybe that’s because it was as much dialogue as narration, but it took away some of my delight. Of course, I am a huge fan, and know her books well, so it probably won’t be noticed by others. The language and style was (mostly) spot on, though.

So,
5 star performances
4 1/2 star adaptations
2 star for use of (admittedly good) music

Totally recommend.

Wonderful

I absolutely adore Jane Austen. This collection brought me such enjoyment. I highly recommend this book to anyone who loves Jane Austen.

Prejudice has been around forever.

I enjoyed the stories and the narration. I had to reread many parts of the stories. Especially Persuasion. I needed a family tree to keep the characters straight. So many morals in the stories yet they were very prejudice. We have come far but have a long way to go. God forbid you weren’t pretty and had no money.