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The Jane Austen Collection

By: Jane Austen
Narrated by: Claire Foy, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Billie Piper, Florence Pugh, Emma Thompson
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Summary

Sense and Sensibility - narrated by Gugu Mbatha-Raw.

Austen introduces us to the Dashwood sisters who upon the death of their father are left with little money, status or their family home. Marianne wears her heart on her sleeve and when she falls in love with the dashing but unsuitable John Willoughby she ignores her sister Elinor's warning that her impulsive behaviour leaves her open to gossip and innuendo. Meanwhile Elinor, always sensitive to social convention, is struggling to conceal her own romantic disappointment.

Directed by Celia de Wolff. Adapted by Anna Lea. With Bessie Carter, Anya Chalotra, Josh Dylan, Robert Glenister, Paterson Joseph, Emma Mackey, Hattie Morahan, Carl Prekopp, Blake Ritson, Lesley Sharp, Fenella Woolgar, Nicolas Armfield, Pippa Bennett-Warner, Lily Cooper and Tom Glenister.

Pride and Prejudice - narrated by Claire Foy.

Centred around the Bennet family, their five unmarried daughters and their mother’s desperation for at least one of them to make a wealthy match to save the family from destitution. When Charles Bingley moves into nearby Netherfield, it seems that Jane, the eldest, may have found her match, but it also introduces Elizabeth to Bingley’s friend, the aloof Mr Darcy.

Directed by Nicolette Chin. Adapted by Sian Owen, script edited by Anna Lea. With Tarrick Benham, Nicole Davis, Barnaby Edwards, Billie Fulford-Brown, Rebecca Front, Emma Gregory, Ferdinand Kingsley, Chris Lew Kum Hoi, Tim McInnerny, Heather Nicol, Sarah Ovens, Janet Prince, Jenny Rainsford, Jennifer Saayeng, Sam Stafford, Katy Sobey, Homer Todiwala, Patience Tomlinson and Simon Yadoo.

Mansfield Park - narrated by Billie Piper.

Adopted into the household of her uncle, Sir Thomas Bertram, Fanny Price grows up a meek outsider among her cousins in the unaccustomed elegance of Mansfield Park. Soon after Sir Thomas leaves on business, Mary Crawford and her brother, Henry, arrive at Mansfield, bringing with them London glamour and the seductive taste for flirtation and theatre that precipitates a crisis.

Directed by Tamsin Collison. Adapted by Catherine Dyson, script edited by Anna Lea. With Matt Addis, Lucy Briers, James Corrigan, Scarlett Courtney, Rosalind Eleazar, Jennifer English, Emma Fielding, Ash Hunter, Joel MacCormack, Harry Myers, Esme Scarborough, Lucy Scott, Bert Seymour and Natalie Simpson.

Emma - narrated by Emma Thompson.

Emma is perfectly content with her life and sees no need for either love or marriage; nothing delights her more than matchmaking her fellow residents of Highbury. But when she ignores the warnings of her good friend Mr. Knightley and attempts to arrange a suitable match for her protegee Harriet Smith, her carefully laid plans soon unravel and have consequences that she never expected.

Directed by Katherine Thompson. Adapted by Anna Lea.

Isabella Inchbald played Emma Woodhouse, and Joseph Millson played George Knightley.

With Alexa Davies, Joanne Froggatt, Adam Gillen, Rupert Holliday-Evans, Isabella Inchbald, Aisling Loftus, Anjella Mackintosh, Joseph Millson, Ukweli Roach, Morgana Robinson, Nicholas Rowe, Benjamin Wainwright, Eve Webster and Ria Zmitrowicz.

Northanger Abbey - narrated by Emma Thompson.

A coming-of-age tale for naïve 17-year-old Catherine Morland, Northanger Abbey takes a comical look at themes of class, family, love and literature. Revelling in the sensationalist - and extremely popular - Gothic fiction of the day, the story follows Catherine out of Bath to the lofty manor of the Tilneys, where her overactive imagination gets to work constructing an absurd and melodramatic explanation for the death of Mrs Tilney, which threatens to jeopardise her newly forged friendships.

Directed by Katherine Thompson. Adapted by Anna Lea.

With Douglas Booth, Robin Brown, Gunnar Cauthery, Anna Chancellor, Lily Cole, Beth Goddard, Nickolas Grace, Jeremy Irvine, Carla Mendonca, Ella Purnell, George Rainsford, Simon Shepherd, Emma Thompson, Eleanor Tomlinson, Lorraine Ansell, Naomi Felton, Bethan Rose Young as Anne Thorpe and Joanna Ruiz.

Persuasion - narrated by Florence Pugh.

Anne Elliot, daughter of the snobbish Sir Walter, is woman of quiet charm and deep feelings. Eight years before our story begins, she is happily betrothed to naval officer Frederick Wentworth, but she breaks off the engagement when persuaded by her friend Lady Russell that such a match is unworthy. The breakup produces in Anne a deep and long-lasting regret.

Directed by Emma Hearn. Adapted by Anna Lea. With Annabel Baldwin, Michael Fox, Julian Wadham, Laure Stockley, Lizzie Stables, Oscar Batterham, Ewan Bailey, Samantha Béart, Andrew Wheildon-Dennis, Al Weaver, Tom Andrew, Molly Harris, Martha Mackintosh, Vineeta Rishi, Isabel Adomakoh Young and Sophie Aldred.

Public Domain (P)2020 Audible, Ltd
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Listen to clips from the collection

<i>The Jane Austen Collection</i>
Enter the world of Austen with our immersive audio trailer
Emma Thompson introduces Emma
Billie Piper welcomes you to Mansfield Park
  • The Jane Austen Collection
  • Enter the world of Austen with our immersive audio trailer
  • Emma Thompson introduces Emma
  • Billie Piper welcomes you to Mansfield Park

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About the Performer

Since her screen debut in the 2008 supernatural comedy series Being Human, actress Claire Foy has gone on to win numerous awards, including a Golden Globe and a Primetime Emmy. Her starring roles on stage and screen include her iconic turn as the young Queen Elizabeth II in the acclaimed Netflix series The Crown and Janet Shearon, wife of astronaut Neil Armstrong, in Damien Chazelle’s biopic First Man. Claire also works extensively as an ambassador for UNICEF.

About the Performer

In 2020, Gugu Mbatha-Raw starred in the British comedy-drama Misbehaviour alongside Keira Knightley and in Jessica Swale’s Summerland with Gemma Arterton. Her previous film and TV credits include the acclaimed Apple TV+ series The Morning Show, Warner Bros Motherless Brooklyn, Beyond The Lights and the Emmy award winning episode of Black Mirror “San Junipero”. Gugu has worked on a number of Disney productions, including the smash hit Beauty and the Beast, Ava DuVernay's A Wrinkle in Time and the forthcoming Loki for Disney +. Gugu has also received multiple award nominations throughout her career, winning the BIFA Award for Best Actress in 2013 for her role in Belle directed by Amma Asante.

About the Performer

In 2020, Billie Piper starred in Sky Atlantic’s I Hate Suzie which she also co-created with Lucy Prebble. The previous year, she was BAFTA nominated for her performance in David Hare’s Collateral for the BBC and Netflix and before that won The Best Actress at the Olivier, Evening Standard, Critics Circle and Drama Desk awards for her role in the Young Vic’s Yerma. Rare Beasts, her feature directorial debut which she wrote and also stars in, premiered at the Venice Film Festival with a cinema release in Spring 2021.

About the Performer

Florence Pugh received both BAFTA and Oscar nominations for her performance as ‘Amy’ in Greta Gerwig’s Little Women, which received rave reviews across the board. In the same year, she starred in Ari Aster’s terrifying cult hit Midsommar and in Stephen Merchant’s Fighting with My Family, playing the lead alongside Dwayne Johnson, Lena Headey, Nick Frost and Jack Lowden. Florence will next be seen in Marvel’s highly anticipated Black Widow and Olivia Wilde’s latest directorial outing, Don’t Worry Darling. Her other film and TV credits include Outlaw King, Lady Macbeth, The Little Drummer Girl and King Lear.

About the Performer

Dame Emma Thompson is a British actress and screenwriter known for her sophisticated, skilful performances and her arch wit. Born in London into a family of actors, she launched her acting career with Cambridge University’s Footlights Dramatic Club, where members of Monty Python first met. Moving from comedy, she found her niche in period drama. In 1993, she won the Academy Award for Best Actress for Howards End. She went on to gain acclaim for her roles in The Remains of the Day and Sense and Sensibility, for which she also wrote the screenplay, winning her a second Academy Award. Thompson’s other notable screen credits include Wit, Love Actually, Saving Mr. Banks and The Children Act.

Behind the scenes

Watch our exclusive interview with the cast of The Jane Austen Collection as they discuss why the author's iconic work has stood the test of time.
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What listeners say about The Jane Austen Collection

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Great value for money.

I liked the interaction as a play amongst the narration. Music interlude was too long though.
Some great acting and narration. Apart from Persuasion- the narrator was quite stilted and the person playing Anne had trouble with diction. Shame to go to great lengths to speak perfect old English and then say nothink and anythink and everythink. These words end with a letter g. And the slang of using a ‘k’ on the end would never ever have occurred in Jane Austin’s day.

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7 people found this helpful

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    4 out of 5 stars
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volume let's it down

the only thing that let's this down is the difference in volume between narration and dialogue. if you have it loud enough to hear the dialogue then the narration is too loud!

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6 people found this helpful

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    4 out of 5 stars
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OK

The pronunciation of some of the performers leaves a lot to be desired. Jane Austen would not be impressed

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2 people found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars
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Terrific!

Great to listen to all 6 novels with stella casts and readers. Would recommend to all Austin readers.

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1 person found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars
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Take it for what it is

I love Jane Austen's novels and have read them many times. I really like this audiobook collection because these are dramatisations, but they do not stray too far from the books and don't cut out huge swathes (as TV/film adaptations have to do, due to time constraints).
I would say take them for what they are, they are not meant to be the unabridged text. I see some reviewers mention the music as being distracting - I do think some of it is a little too long in between chapters but it's not too overbearing.
Emma Thompson's narrations (Emma and Northanger Abbey) are absolutely perfect and she adds a wonderful layer to the story. I was disappointed by the Persuasion adaptation because the sound balance was off at times, some of the actors' paralinguistics were distracting on occasion, and as much as it pains me to say, because I think Florence Pugh is a fantastic actress, the narration was flat with some odd inflections in places (listen to Juliet Stevenson's narration of the book, you won't need dramatisation!)
All in all a wonderful collection, but as a companion to the original unabridged texts.

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Really good production

I really enjoyed this throughout. Some stories more than others but that's just personal preference. The narration, acting, adaptation and production is excellent, and to my mind the music added to the experience. Really great listening, I am just sorry that it's over!

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Great cast recording

A really great range of voice actors and a light touch from the directors on adapting these novels into a more radio-play style format. Really brings the wit of Jane Austen to life.

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Well can't review a classic story in itself....

The books are classics, so I think the stories are what they are. The performances are strong, different styles for each book. All are well narrated and entertaining. As a woman I'm very pleased that I don't don't have to pin my entire life on waiting for a man!

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Very enjoyable

I have throughly enjoyed this set of Jane Austen books. They are not unabridged versions but part narrative and part dramatised adaptations and were an excellent alternative for me as I already have the unabridged versions.
Influenced by some of the previous reviews I hesitated in purchasing this Jane Austen collection due to comments as to the background music which plays through the audiobooks but I am glad I changed my mind. At first I was quite aware of the music and it was very noticeable but I believe this was possibly more enhanced as I had read the reviews. The more I listened the less the music was any kind of issue, in fact I think in these adaptations of the Jane Austen books it added to the storytelling.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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Fantastic stories, well told

All the stories are great and the background soundscape is lovely giving a real sense of being in countryside. All the actors play their parts very well. My favourites are Emma, Sense and Sensibility and Persuasion, followed by Mansfield Park and Northanger Abbey.

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