Letters of Love and Sensibility

By: Jane Austen

Narrated by: Flo Gibson

Laura confronts many difficulties and disappointments with fainting spells and delirium. Other romantic epistolary short stories add to the fun and the joy of this remarkable collection.Public Domain (P)2007 Audio Book Contractors, Inc.

Pre Austen, Austen

The best way to describe this little work is say it is pre-Austen. It seems to be a parody of the style of novel writing common in this time. Everything about it is overdone. Since this is Jane Austen and if you decide like I did to go ahead and listen to this audio book, may I suggest that you go to Gutenberg.org and get a copy of Samuel Richardson's Pamela and skim through it reading a chapter here and there to get a taste of the style Austen satirizes here. Perhaps an even better choice would be Ann Ward Radcliffe's The Mysteries of Udolpho which would serve a double purpose of acquainting oneself with the style and reading a novel which played such a prominent role in Austen's Northanger Abbey. Her own body of work especially Sense and Sensibility thankfully helped to obliterate this style of novel writing. I admit I struggled mightily to get through Uldopho and as much Pamela as I could stand for the sake of reading what Austen read.

I can't finish this without saying something about Flo Gibson's narration. As a rule, I don't care for her style. In this case, she is perfect for the material.

PS It wounds me to the quick to rate anything written by Jane Austen as less than five stars.