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Emma

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Emma

By: Jane Austen
Narrated by: Jenny Agutter
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About this listen

Exclusively from Audible

Emma can be enjoyed as a charming love story, a detective story, and a comic and lively picture of English life 200 years ago.

Austen's beautiful, clever, wilful but fallible heroine Emma Woodhouse believes she knows best. Perfectly content with her life she sees no need for either love or marriage, yet nothing pleases her more than meddling in the romantic lives of others. But when she fails to heed the warnings of her good friend Mr. Knightley and schemes to arrange a suitable match for her protégée, Harriet Smith, her carefully laid plans soon unravel and have consequences that she never expected. She discovers that she understands the feelings of others as little as she does her own heart.

With a cast of unforgettable characters, it is a lively comedy of manners that explores the concerns of genteel women living in Regency times.

Jane Austen was an English writer known primarily for her six major novels which focused on the British landed gentry at the end of the 18th century. Her plots often explore women's dependence on marriage in the pursuit of favourable social standing and economic security.

Narrator Biography

Jenny Agutter began her acting career as a child in 1964's East of Sudan and is well known for appearing in three adaptations of The Railway Children. She starred in the critically acclaimed 1971 film Walkabout as well as receiving a string of Hollywood roles. She won an Emmy for her role in The Snow Goose (1971), as well as a BAFTA for her role in Equus (1997).

More recently she has appeared in several television dramas, including Spooks (2002-2003), and Call the Midwife since 2012. She has performed in numerous theatre productions, including roles with the National Theatre and the Royal Shakespeare Company. She has also narrated audiobooks like Dodie Smith’s I Capture the Castle, and featured in the Doctor Who audio dramas inThe Bride of Peladon, and The Minister of Chance. In 2012 she was appointed OBE for her charity work.

Public Domain (P)2014 Audible, Inc.
Classics Fiction Literary Fiction Heartfelt Inspiring Funny Feel-Good
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What listeners say about Emma

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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

Poor narration spoilt it for me

Jenny Agutter is a great actress but she should not do this kind of work. I gave up listening as I felt she just wasn't doing justice to the text.

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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Disappointed

I love Jane Austen, I love Emma and I admire Jenny Agutter; but I was disappointed by her narration. The novel is very dialogue-heavy, with lots of quick-fire wit, and I didn’t think the voices of the characters were sufficiently distinct. At times the read felt laboured and I lost concentration. The Audible versions of Pride & Prejudice and Persuasion were far superior in my view.

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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Emma- arrangement of chapters

The performance was excellent except if you did not know exactly where you were in the story, because there were quite a lot of different characters interacting, you did not know who the story was referring to without going back. Because the chapters 1-12 bore very little resemblance to the 55 chapters referred to in the text, it was very difficult to know how far to go back to get the context of what you were listening to.

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

Great read

Loved the narration. Loved the book. This is so good. Highly recommend! 👗 🪭 It was really lovely.

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

Great storytelling from Austen

The narrator didn’t do this story justice. It was difficult to tell the difference between characters, especially if more than 2 characters were conversing. I felt I missed out on a lot of the book because of this.

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

Witty, captivating story, beautifully read

It has been a delight listening to the Jane Austin stories and this one didn’t disappoint

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

Lovely

A wonderful, timeless story. So we’ll observed, and still so relevant. A little long winded in places, but it does not spoil anything. Jenny Agutter’s reading was perfect.

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

I really wanted to enjoy this one

However, I just didn’t. Perhaps a combination of classics not being my favourite genre and not enjoying the narration. I started skipping moments just to get on with it.

My main problem with the performance was that the narrator sounded a lot older than Emma would have, and it's especially noticeable as Harriet does sound younger. Sometimes the narration was jarring where certain intonations were louder and sharper than others that sounded harsh on speakers.

I personally would probably have enjoyed reading the book further, but the story is good and if youve liked other Jane Austen pieces then it'd be worse reading.

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

The narrator was excellent

I’m not sure why people were complaining about the narrator, she did an amazing job! She brought the characters to life in a way that made it so much more engaging, I just love listening to her voice

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

A triumph of narration

Jenny Agutter presents Austen’s Emma in glorious detail. The nuances of wit and vivacity hit every note perfectly.

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