Audio books can take forever to listen to and can be hard to
follow. These are great because there are different voices for different characters,
rather than one person doing all the voices. So it’s a radio play rather than
straight audio book.
I started to listen to them when I’ve had migraines. Horrible as
they are, terrible as the pain is, and sick as you feel, I can handle all that,
I just can’t stand the boredom. I wasn’t built for doing nothing, or using all
my concentration to stop myself from throwing up.
I’ve lost count of the hours I’ve spent staring at the ceiling
or wishing that if I could shut my eyes tighter so that I might feel a little
less sick. And when it’s all over you can’t rush back into everything because
you feel like you’ve had all the energy drained out of you. The one good thing
is the shower at the end of it all that washes the whole thing off you. And if
like me you’ve take medication you get the best sleep afterwards. Who knows if
it is the medication or because the world has gone quiet now that the hammering
in your head has stopped?
So when I’m lying there, too ill to move but well enough that my
mind is working again, audio books are, at that moment, the best invention!
But back to
Jane Austen.
In the collection are:
• Sense and Sensibility
• Pride and Prejudice
• Emma
• Persuasion
• Northanger Abbey
• Mansfield Park
Lady Susan is missing as is Love and Friendship. The thing with
Austen is that you can spend all day discussing the merits of your fave or what
you love most about your fave character. So if you have all day comment below and let me know your
thoughts.
For me Sense and Sensibility is by far the best. Followed
closely by Persuasion. What clinches it for me though is Willoughby. If you’ve
not read Austen’s novels before or don’t know the stories then skip to the last
paragraph.
I love Willoughby. He is the most believable character in the
collection. Even more so than Wickham. His speech to Eleanor when Marianne was
ill had so much feeling in it. You could feel the tearing in Willoughby’s soul.
Which is maybe why I like Sense and Sensibility so much, because the characters
express so much.
Northanger Abbey, although excellent, makes me cringe too much.
It’s the kind of book that makes me want to shout at it because of the poor
decisions made by the main character. Thus it doesn’t make it to the top of my
list. Emma is also on the cringe part of the list because of all the
interference in other people’s lives etc that goes on. Just glad it all ended
well!
Persuasion is high up there because of the brilliant portrayal
of characters. I mean it cannot be denied that Austen nailed human nature in
all her novels but I feel Persuasion gets overlooked and sort of lives in the
shadow of Pride and Prejudice. I put forward the character of Captain Benwick as evidence
for my case.
Speaking of P&P it’s about mid-way up the list for me. Yes
it does have incredible lines from the Bennet’s and Darcy, but the character
that stole the show for me was Mr Collins. What a guy. I remember writing an
essay for my GCSEs about his marriage proposals and I, like I’m supposed to,
felt so sorry for Charlotte Lucas. Sometimes I don’t think we know that we’re
born.
Mansfield Park is down the bottom of the list. Partly for cringe
factors - not a fan of the Crawfords and then by association Edward. But I do
find the backstory interesting, or rather the social context of the slave trade
that I missed picking up on when I read these in my teens.
Anyway would definitely recommend listening to these. If you’ve
read the books they are great just to enjoy the stories again. And if Austen
has intimidated you and put you off reading them then let the tones of David
Tennent and Benedict Cumberbatch bring them to life.
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