Jane Austen's World

Dear Readers,

Once again I found myself traveling between Richmond and Baltimore to visit family. In theory, the route over I-95 should take only 2 hours and 45 minutes. Hah! This time the trip took 5 hours due to heavy traffic and a thunderstorm or two. While driving, I love to listen to my favorite news, comedy, and satire shows. I had forgotten to load my iPod with new podcasts and had nothing of interest on the radio, but I did have a back-up plan.

Jane Austen to the rescue!

I am never far away from listening to my favorite author, whether walking, driving, reading, or working and have listened to all of the following:

Naxos Audio Books:

Naxos CDs are beautifully packaged and produced. Mine came as a gift from the company over 10 years ago, and I am proud to advertise these great products.

Image @ Vic Sanborn

Most of Jane Austen’s books for Naxos are read by the incomparable Juliet Stevenson, whose voice acting is as good as her characterizations on film. I listened to the first half of the unabridged version of Persuasion and was transported by Juliet’s voice as Anne Elliot, Captain Wentworth, Sir Walter Elliot, and all the other beloved characters in this book. Each time I listen to Jane’s prose, I learn something new. Her descriptions of Lyme were so vivid that I just knew she wrote them from memory. I could “see” the street leading straight down to the water, and the waves breaking up over the lower cobb.

Jane’s love for the navy and Mrs. Croft’s characterizations of life at sea must have come from the many tales her two sailor brothers told her or wrote to her in their letters. Her characters are so familiar by now that I felt that I was visiting family as I traveled to see my family.

Juliet Stevenson, if you recall, played Mrs. Elton in 1996’s Emma with Gwynneth Paltrow. Watch her introductory scene in these two YouTube clips:

Emma, The New Bride, Mrs. Elton (Juliet Stevenson

You can listen to an audio sample of Juliet reading Persuasion in this link: https://www.naxosaudiobooks.com/persuasion-unabridged/

Juliet did not read Pride and Prejudice, however. Emilia Fox, who played Georgiana Darcy in 1995’s Pride and Prejudice, was given this honor. Her voice is somewhat lighter than Julia’s, but her voice acting is equally as impressive. Listen to an audio sample by her in this link: https://www.naxosaudiobooks.com/pride-and-prejudice-unabridged/

Another exception includes Lady Susan, a 2 CD, 2 ½ hour unabridged novel read by Nigel Anthony, Carole Boyd, Kim Hicks, Jonathan Keeble, Ruth Sillers, Patience Tomlinson, and Harriet Walter (who played Fanny Dashwood in 1995’s Sense and Sensibility and reflected on Jane Austen in a Morgan Library film in 2009. https://www.naxos.com/catalogue/item.asp?item_code=NA222812

As an aside, fans of Richard Armitage will be delighted with his Naxos reading of Sylvester by Georgette Heyer (Listen to a sample in this 9 minute clip: http://richardarmitageonline.com/sylvester/Sylvester-Sample.mp3).

Richard Armitage reads Sylvester. Image @ Vic Sanborn

If you’ve ever heard his voice overs for the Winter Olympics on BBC (listen to ski jumping: http://richardarmitageonline.com/olympics/BBCWinterOlympics2010-trailer-SkiJumping.mp3) you know that Richard is as delightful to listen to as look at! (Listen to all trailers here: http://richardarmitageonline.com/olympics/olympics-introduction.html.

But I digress.

Naxos is not the only audible way to listen to Jane Austen.

Amazon:

The Jane Austen BBC Radio Drama Collection: Six BBC Radio Full-Cast Dramatisations – Abridged, Audiobook, CD by Jane Austen (Author), Benedict Cumberbatch, David Tennant, & Julia Stevenson, Jenny Agutter, Julia McKenzie, and Eve Best (Readers) has received 4 ½ stars out of 5 from reviewers. These dramatizations cost around $35.00. You can listen to an excerpt of Mansfield Park in an audio clip on this page, then click on listen.

The reviewers love this collection, except in the way it is boxed. All the CDs are boxed together and it is hard to find individual novels. As one listener puts it: “each disk is on top of the next; to use the last one all the other disks need to be handled.”

In addition, Amazon prime offers customers free movies (many Jane Austen related) and Kindle ebooks specials.

The local library – online:

From my armchair, hotel room, or any place with an internet connection, I am able to borrow eBooks, audiobooks and streaming videos using the OverDrive app. The website states: “Available 24/7, now the library comes to you.” After some practice, I am able to check out any e-item that is available.

Librivox:

This nonprofit project for providing free audio books of the classics has been one of my favorites for a long time. Back in 2008, I wrote a post about some of my favorite readers, such as Karen Savage, whose recordings have a professional quality. One has to be aware with librivox, since many recordings are performed by amateurs (think of authors who read their own novels – most are squirmingly awful). But librivox offers ALL the classics for free. I demonstrate this site to teachers who work with ESL students or adults who are improving their literacy skills. It is so much easier for them to improve their reading, comprehension, and fluency skills when listening to the words while reading them.

Playaway:

These stand-alone pre-loaded devices (one audio book each) are ready to use after inserting one battery. One does not need the internet or other devices to listen to the tapes. I own Mansfield Park. My only complaint is the earbuds, which are hard and distort the sound..

Favorite Podcasts on Player.fm

This is such an interesting site! It aggregates all the podcasts on a particular topic and allows you to listen either on your computer or laptop, and device by downloading an app. The player.fm topic I chose was Jane-Austen. Click on the link to view all the offerings. Many are from librivox, but others come from a variety of sources.

Ah, 21^st century technology! Thank you for making Jane Austen available in any format any way that I want to be with her. I feel blessed for spending so many worthwhile hours listening to her novels, reading her books, viewing videos based on her books, and looking for images of her life and family.