Sense & Sensibility

By: Jane Austen

Narrated by: Susannah Harker

Length: 11 hrs and 55 mins

Publisher's summary

When two sisters, Elinor and Marianne, and their mother are left to the financial mercies of John Dashwood and his wife, they find themselves in drastically reduced circumstances.

Public Domain (P)2014 Audible Ltd

Excellent narration

I chose this version after listening to the audio samples of the many unabridged versions of Sense and Sensibility that Audible offers. I just finished listening to it and I am impressed. Susannah Harker does a fantastic job narrating and the audio quality is excellent as well. If you've only seen the Sense and Sensibility movies, then you need to read the book. The ending is much more fulfilling (as is the entire book) and Jane Austen's writing is full of wit, irony and genius.

You can find a review of the actual book in many places so I won't waste time. I highly recommend this audiobook version though.

A good listen

Except for some overlong pauses between chapters, I thoroughly enjoyed the quality of Susannah Harker's reading and interpretation of the characters. I remember her from the 1995 production of Pride & Prejudice and enjoyed her performance then.

Does it get any better than this ?

Although I had read the book many years ago, I bought this audiobook while undergoing chemotherapy. Good choice !! There is nothing more relaxing than listening to the soothing voice of the narrator reading a well-written romance, a classic love story of redemption and the triumph of true love. Romance will never get any better than this.

Susannah Harker was amazing...

I listened to the audiobook version of Sense and Sensibility read by Susannah Harker and it was possibly the best audiobook I have ever heard! Yes better than Jim Dale reading Harry Potter (which I also really enjoyed)! If you get a chance to pick up this audiobook version, you should. She is very good at making each character unique and keeping you engaged the whole book. It is unabridged so 14 hours long but well worth it.

Graceful, if at times FAST, reading

Susannah Harker performs a gentle but spirited performance; does justice to the voices of the characters by making no one sound ridiculous (or more than they should, anyway!). I exchanged for this version after trying the Juliet Stevenson. I love Stevenson, but she sounded overly heavyhanded in that recording. Harker is extremely even keeled, yet manages to emote quite a lot, especially Lucy Steel's wonderful spite.

My only criticism is that the producers must have sped up some exchanges of dialogue. I doubt it was Harker, because I can't imagine someone reading so fast without needing to draw breath. I imagine compressing the recording time saved money, but it's too bad that about 1 in 4 exchanges go by very, very quickly.

Good reader

While Sense and Sensibility might not be quite as entertaining as Pride and Prejudice, it's still a good listen.

Very well done

I very much enjoyed the narration. Of course the story was excellent, it was written by Jane Austin.

love this audiobook

Of course, S&S is a great piece of British Literature, I will not waste your time in exclaiming about that. The narrator is such a professional in her art. She was not in a rush to complete the story and did not lag on either. Her voice was smooth amd sure. I appreciated that she was about the right sounding age. I'm not sure why that makes a difference in my mind but when I hear a story of a young woman like Jane Eyre told by a woman in her 50s or 60s I can't bare to finish the audiobook. Definitely a personal preference but an important one to me. The narrator's accent and inflection of her words were enchanting. This has now become my new favorite audiobook.

love it as much as book

it's so well done that I feel so much part of the story simply wonderful

Very pleasant.

A wonderful enjoyable listen. Susannah Harker is a narrator to whom it is eady to listen. One thing I wpuld wish would be to have her read the characters in different voices.

Harker does an excellent job

I am not quite sure why I selected this version, read by Susannah Harker, but it turned out to be a highly fortunate choise. Miss Harker's reading is superb throughout. She manages to impersonate all the male and female characters with great subtlety and without the ridiculous changes of pitch and volume employed by some audio book readers. This is an absolute joy to listen to. And at a good price, too. Let's have some more from this reader.

Sense and sensablitiy

Superbly read by Susanah Harker..I am just loving it.

Entertaining and good feel of the book

Read very well. I found it entertaining, good use of voices.

Loved this full version

Susannah Harker perfect voice and tempo. One of best Jane Austen novels in all its full glory

Brilliant performance

Susannah Harker is the perfect narrator for Jane Austen. Wonderful. I wish she could read all of them and will look out for other writers she may have ‘performed’ / narrated.

Excellent

This is not my favorite Austen Novel. But they are all worth listening to and enjoying. Susanna Harker reads beautifully. I think she reads in such a way as to draw you completely into the story and forget who is reading it. She is never distracting. I've listened to part of this novel read by a couple of other narrators and this is my favorite.

Excellent Narration!

Susannah Harker is an excellent narrator and really increased my enjoyment of the novel. Although not my favorite inovel by Jane Austen it is beyond doubt wonderful writing. There are some characters that Austen portrays that are so vibrant for instance Sir John Middleton and his character is excellently shown when asked about Willougby states,
“'Upon my soul,' said he, 'I do not know much about him as to all that. But he is a pleasant, good humoured fellow, and has got the nicest little black bitch of a pointer I ever saw. '”
I do find Marianne and her mothers so called passionate nature a little grating but that is no doubt peculiar to me. And it is a wonderful performance of a delightful book.

susannah Harker is a pleasure to listen to

Susannah Harker made this reading of Sense and sensibility on so many levels, her voice is so easy to listen to, she bought the characters to life and it was like hearing Jane Bingley read to her children at Netherfield

Perfection

Austen’s perfect prose and sharply observed characters beautifully read by Susannah Harker; I listen to this endlessly with enormous pleasure.

A Reading Which Doesn't Disappoint

I have heard Suzannah Harker in two BBC dramatisations and both times she was excellent, especially as Mary Sutherland in A Case Of Identity (The Adventures Of Sherlock Holmes) so when I noticed this reading I was really looking forward to it.

I certainly wasn't disappointed. She narrated the book excellently and you need a good narrator for this book especially when you reach the crescendo of the Marianne/Willoughby thread. I now have two narrations of this book and I'll certainly be getting more.