A beautiful reading

The reader of this edition of Northanger Abbey is Juliet Stevenson, whose voice is perfect for Jane Austen. She brings out the character of each personality in the book and beautifully and subtly conveys Jane Austen's gentle irony. However this version is spoiled for me by the intrusive music at the end of each chapter, which breaks up the flow of the story. The music itself is beautiful and appropriate to the period of the book, but if I want to listen to music I will listen to a CD, and if I want to listen to a book I do not want to have the flow constantly and artificially interrupted.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

2 people found this helpful

Northanger Abbey

Never read this book but thoroughly enjoyed hearing it. The narrator was just perfect and I shall enjoy listening to it several times more.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful

superb reading

I didn't enjoy reading this book myself, but this version is wonderfully read and really brought to life Jane Austen's superb dialogue and social commentary - this is now one of my favourites 😀

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

perfect

I loved reading Jane Austen's Pride & Prejudice while at uni but I definitely enjoyed listening to all her works thanks to audible. I had never read this one and it's already one of my favourite 😉

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

Playful and super fun

This seems like Austen's sassiest book in many ways, especially in the chapters set in Bath, and the actor narrating really brings that out well.

Catherine is a relatable woman whose imagination leads her into a couple of hilarious scrapes and whose naïvete means she is completely oblivious in certain social situations. She is the perfect contrast to the narrator voice who is wiser, more cynical and playfully sarcastic.

Is it the most exciting story ever? No. Is it more relatable though? Yes I think so. And Austen seems to play with that idea quite a bit too, with some light mocking of her own works and about her heroine not fitting with more dramatic expectations, and with reference to other novels throughout the book which contrast nicely.

That all said, I've never got so angry with an Austen character as with one of the jerks in here. Maybe because his behaviours were also, extremely annoyingly, more realistic - I've met jerks like him :/ (This added to the interest of the novel though.)

It wrapped up a bit too quick, I was sad to see it end.

Overall, the novel brings out some of the genuine magic in just a fairly typical falling in love tale.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

very different!

being addressed directly by Jane Austen is wild. this novel is very conscious of its being a novel, and includes the author's musings on the subject. the main character is not as likeable as her other heroines, and though much more eventful, the frequent asides to the reader sort of stalls the action.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

A self aware Austen

The novel is a pleasure, and lives up to her defence of the genre.

I find the narrator a bit grating through. In normal narration, she’s fine, but the voice actors enjoys reducing the Thorpes into nasal cartoons, which breaks the immersive quality of the audiobook.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

Narrator was fantastic 😃

Classic story. Always worth revisiting. Great lines. It is dated but that does not stop it being enjoyable. Narrator was one of the best.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

Jane Austen!!!

At once, the relief at returning to Jane Austen! This may be an early, or unusual work of hers, but her genius shines through from the first paragraph: the consummate stylist in whom one word says more than a paragraph penned by a lesser writer.

What could be harder than to choose as your heroine a young woman of seventeen years, who is good-natured, yet bland and vapid, with no discernible talents. Yet for Austen, it works… . No, this is not her best work, and there are a few “gaps”: the General’s character for example, the apparent failure of Henry to really pay court, or even the very fact of the romantic culmination of the novel (how WILL Catherine manage?). Otherwise, the novel is extraordinarily plotted and the characters memorable (particularly her first female soul-mate in Bath, beautifully memorable in her shallowness and eventual mendacity).

Not-to-forget the skit on the Gothic Novel, all the rage at the time. What is interesting here is not so much Catherine quaking in her room as the sober judgement of Jane Austen on the craze (just as a classic writer of Science Fiction, like Ursula Le Guin , or Arthur C. Clarke might judge the plethora of “to order” titles in this popular genre of our day).

Listen to, or even read Northanger Abbey!. You won’t regret it!!

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

Good listening

very lovely story , well read, worthy of listening to, I liked the story well enough.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!