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Lady Susan  By  cover art

Lady Susan

By: Jane Austen
Narrated by: Laurelle Westaway,David Thorn,Susan McCarthy
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Publisher's summary

After Jane Austen's earliest known writings, she began a more serious work, Lady Susan, in 1793 or 1794. It is a short, epistolary novel that portrays a woman bent on the exercise of her own powerful mind and personality to the point of social self-destruction.

Lady Susan, a clever and ruthless widow, determines that her daughter is going to marry a man whom both detest. Lady Susan sets her own sights on her sister-in-law's brother, all the while keeping an old affair simmering on the back burner. But people refuse to play the roles assigned them, and in the end her daughter gets the sister-in-law's brother, the old affair runs out of steam, and all that is left for Lady Susan is the man intended for her daughter, the one neither can abide.

Jane Austen ended this work abruptly with the comment: "This correspondence...could not, to the great detriment of the Post Office revenue, be continued any longer."

(P)2005 Blackstone Audiobooks

Critic reviews

"Character is revealed, plot unfolds, suspense builds - all through the device of letters exchanged amongst Lady Susan, her family, friends, and enemies." (AudioFile)

What listeners say about Lady Susan

Average customer ratings
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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

Three cheers for multi voice readers

For years I have been waiting for audiobooks with multiple readers, which I believe, are much more convincing than a single reader production. Enter Lady Susan, I am glad my waiting isn't in vain.

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11 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

Narration, ugh!

What on earth, the narration is downright irksome. I forced myself to finish! Why is the storyteller British and characters all talk with American accents. Some of the voices are like nails on the chalkboard! Save your 3 hours and listen to something else!

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4 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

TERRIBLE NARRATION!!!

Drawn out and overly emotive narration!!! WHO ARE THESE PEOPLE??!! The person voicing Lady Susan's dialog is the worst. Can't bear to listen.

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3 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

nothing special

it's fine. it's not Jane Austen's best work. to be fair, the voice acting was often over the top - even so much as to incite annoyance.

Lady Susan herself is a masterful manipulator and infinitely dislikable. the dissonance between wanting to root for her as the main character and generally despising her for her complete lack of regard for the feelings of others or the ethics of her own behavior is at least interesting to explore.

it's short enough that I don't regret reading it, but I don't need to read it again.

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2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Narration is irksome

I can’t get past the narration. Will read the book instead. American voices for an English story. Confuses the listener... is this set in England or early America? No thanks! I like my Austen stories read by British narrators.

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2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

Terrible narration, accents were all over the place

Half the time the characters were given Southern accents and half a bad attempt at midlands or Yorkshire accents. Dreadful.

All of the tongue-in-cheek aspects of this novel are lost to poor narration.

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Yikes!

The narration! Wow. I'm an American and it bothered me so much. I can't imagine what someone British would think. You know what though? It was free. Like my mom always said, you get what you pay for. ;)

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Funny

A story written in letters may not always be entertaining, but this one certainly is. It's probably because Jane Austen was a genius. I love all the "tea" that was spilled. haha

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Worth a listen

Cute story, not as engaging as Austen’s better loved books, but everyone should read Lady Susan.

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

So good!

So good!
I can honestly say that this is probably one of favorite Jane Austen books, even though the ending is rather abrupt. The multi-voice reading truly added to the audiobook and it was really good! Thank you! If you’re in the fence, READ IT!

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