Pride and Prejudice

By: Jane Austen

Narrated by: Helen Lisanti

Length: 13 hrs and 1 min

Publisher's Summary

Charles Bingley, a wealthy young gentleman, has moved into Netherfield Park manor, which causes much excitement in the village of Longbourn, especially among the five unmarried daughters of the Bennet household. Despite many romatic complications, the overall tone of this classic novel is, as Jane Austen described it, “light and bright, and sparkling”.

(P)2010 Helen Lisanti

Critic Reviews

"Helen Lisanti is a rising star in audio narration." ( Audiobook News Service)

It's About Time I Read This

I really enjoyed listening to this audio version of the classic novel. It reminded me of a soap opera - much better of course, but I was able to drift in and out of it at times without missing much action, the details of which were soon apparent to me without having to go back and re-listen. That, and I did follow along with the printed book, a totally great way to read!!!

The symbolism in the novel goes much deeper than a soap opera could do. True to its name, it is about the prejudice, the pre-judging that the main characters do which prevents them from understanding one another. It takes the experiences of life to knock off some rough edges, to pull off the masks that these people wear around, to be able to get to the soft middle part that is the true human being hidden within. When that takes place, they realize that they can drop their pride and fall in love. It is a love story, and a philosophical wonder.

I accidentally downloaded two different versions of this book, with two different narrators, Helen Lisanti and Lindsey Duncan. They were both good. I bounced back and forth between the two of them and never did decided which I preferred.

6 of 6 people found this review helpful

An excellent reading of my favourite book....

I originally bought this reading of "Pride and Prejudice" simply because it was the cheapest available and also it was one of my first purchases of an Audible book. However, I have to say I think it was an excellent choice as Helen Lisanti is a first class narrator and I have listened again and again to this well loved classic. She does have some difficulty with the male characterizations but she improves as the book progresses. I have since gone back and sampled the other readings of "Pride and Prejudice" and have only found one reading I think may be better than Helen Lisanti's and that is the one by Josephine Bailey. However, it is a much more expensive version..... This one, I think, is a bargain and I recommend it highly

4 of 4 people found this review helpful

My students prefered Helen Lisanti to me!

Any additional comments?

I often buy audio books to play for my English students. While students usually opt for me to read the book out loud to them, my AP English class consistently voted for Helen Lisanti for Pride and Prejudice rather than me. She voices the characters so well, especially the annoying ones like Lydia, and made the story come alive.

2 of 2 people found this review helpful

Speed reading?

odd that the last book I listened to the narrator read very slowly. This one the narrator is reading so fast there is hardly any emotion or "performance" to the delivery. Reminds me of an excited teenage girl. I wish I had selected another version with another narrator to try and listen to this classic. Perhaps that was why it was on sale? I know I have my favorite narrators (Barbara Caruso is wonderful) but I don't think I'll be able to finish this even as short as it is.

10 of 14 people found this review helpful

Can't Go Wrong With This One

What can I say about this book that hasn't already been said countless times before? All I can add is another endorsement of this performance which is an excellent value. Sample all others of course, but rest assured that this version is a steal. One somewhat odd fact that might be of note is that this book is not broken up; it's one big file. As its chapters are properly indexed, this means for once that your player will actually indicate Chapter 61 when you reach Chapter 61; rather novel I thought....

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

Well worth $ 4.87!

I can't come up with anything new to say about this book - it's a classic. I enjoy Austen and have both read and listened to all her novels. However, I didn't have an audio version of P&P in my library, and a couple of weeks ago when I was suffering from a nasty cold, and with -15C outside, I felt in need of a "comfort" listen. I have a few favourite narrators on audible, and especially for a classic I'd usually go with a tried and trusted one, but I wasn't very familiar with any of the narrators reading the unabridged version. I was initially a little sceptical of this bargain-priced version, but with no credits to spare and being on a "January" budget, I took the chance after listening to the audio sample. I was not disappointed. This is very well read and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Other reviewers have pointed out that the narration is fast-paced - there's not much of a pause after sentences and between paragraphs. It seem almost as if all pauses have been edited out. I also agree with the reviewers who mention especially Mr Bennett sounding a little strange early in the book, but the voices do improve as the narrator gets further along. These issues didn't detract from the story for me, maybe that's because I knew the book well enough already that I could easily follow the story despite any slight distractions.

If you're using a credit anyway, listen to all the versions offerred to find the one you like best, otherwise this is a very good option, whether you already know and love Pride and Prejudice or you never got around to reading Austen and wonder what all the fuss is about. It is a classic, but this really is not a hard read. It's entertaining, light and often very funny, with plenty of human interest and recognizable situations despite having been written 200 years ago.

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

P & P is as Good as Advertised

Not having read many classic works, Audible has given me the opportunity to become familiar with titles that I have often heard about, but never actually read. In fact, my daughter tells me I saw the P & P movie with Kiera Knightly with her, but I must have slept through it, because I remembered nothing. My knowledge of P&P was limited to what I could glean from the movie You've Got Mail, which I knew must have been used as a reference for a reason, but I had never bothered to find out why. But, when Winston Churchill told me in his memoirs that he had read P&P while on holiday during WWII, I decided it would not hurt me to do the same.

WOW! What a wonderfully relevant story about all kinds of relationship, not just romance. Everything about this book was enjoyable to me.

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

good one

This classic is well read and a very good listen. Worth the purchase. Great story and charcters. I like this kind of book and this is a good one.

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

Good book, big file.

This will never be my favorite book, but it is a great audio book. First off it is the cheapest unabridged edition of Pride and Prejudice that I noticed on Audible, second the narrator has a very pleasant voice, and a good delivery. If this is amongst your favorite books you might want to go to a higher end version, but if you are just interested in reading the book, I don't think you can go wrong with this one. The only problem (if you want to call it that) is that this book comes in one big 13 hour section instead of being divided into two smaller sections. This was not a big problem for me, but if you have a slow internet connection it might be.

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

Jane Austen done poorly

This is my favorite book. Unfortunately the reader is bad and has ruined the experience for my. I doubt I will finish listening. Thank goodness it was cheap. Mr. Bennett sounds like he is in set on a slow speed under water and Mrs. Bennett would drive a sane person crazy.

4 of 6 people found this review helpful

Most enjoyable

A classic to be enjoyed for all time. Only Jane Austin is capable of such mastery over the language and period.

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

Love the story, but not the narrator's 'voices'.

Pride and Prejudice with it's tight plotting and wonderful characters never fails to lift my spirits, be it in book or film form, so I was looking forward to the experience of listening to it as an audio book. Unfortunately I often felt irritated by some of the character voices the narrator created. Poor Charlotte Lucas sounded like a country bumpkin, Mr Bingley had an odd kind of Northern-ish accent, and Mr Bennett was a croaky old man instead of an ironic wit; Mrs Bennett and Mr Collins didn't fare any better either! I can't help wishing I had paid a bit more and bought the Juliet Stevenson version, as I would imagine her voice to be perfect for reading Jane Austen.

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

Stunning

Brilliant, this is the first book I have listened to that had been narrated by Helen Lisanti and I was pleasently suprised.

She did both Miss Bennett and Mr Darcy proud!!

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

What a lovely book

I could only describe this book as lovely. It has to be a part of everyone's collection. If you are looking for something that is light hearted, witty and basically - lovely - AND if you have never read it before as I hadn't (I have seen the film(s) and the TV series) then you seriously must do it. You know the beginning, middle and end of this book already, as well as the characters, but complete it by listening to this one.

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

I'm glad it's over

Would you say that listening to this book was time well-spent? Why or why not?

Definitely not. I hardly ever met such a boring book. I had this on my list for 7 years, honesty, I just could not get over 1,5 hour ever. I appreciate that this is something like a jewel of classics, I know that for the time of writing this must have been an enlightening work, I acknowledge that for literary experts this brings up a great insight of 19th century society. For me this was a book about bunch of pretentious and generally stupid (or naive at the best) people who ranted on about silly things in a silly manner. The only likable person in the whole story was Mr. Bennet who as the only one had some wit and humour about him. (Maybe I lost the information within the years of listening, but I cannot understand how such a clever guy could end up with such a stupid wife.)

Has Pride and Prejudice put you off other books in this genre?

Oh, yes! I will never touch Jane Austen again, unless I want to die of boredom. I hope the TV version with Collin Firth will bring up the better things and suppress the worse. I have been avoiding watching it just for sake of listening to the book first.

What does Helen Lisanti bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you had only read the book?

She has quite a comfortable voice for my liking and I felt fine listening to her.

Did Pride and Prejudice inspire you to do anything?

Watching the TV version to compare both.

Any additional comments?

Take my review as a personal opinion. I believe that there are many people who will enjoy the story and love the way it has been described. For me, I know now what to avoid in the future.

1 of 2 people found this review helpful