Review copy was received from Purchased. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
Emma : An Audible Original by Jane Austen Narrator: Emma Thompson, Joanne Froggatt, Isabella Inchbald, Aisling Loftus, Joseph Millson, Morgana Robinson
Published by Audible on September 4, 2018
Genres: Historical Mystery
Length: 8 hours, 21 minutes
Format: Audiobook
Source: Purchased
Goodreads
Audible
This Audible Original production of Jane Austen's Emma is narrated by Emma Thompson (Academy Award, Golden Globe, Emmy and BAFTA winner, Love Actually, Harry Potter, Sense and Sensibility), with a full supporting cast including Joanne Froggatt (Downton Abbey, Liar), Morgana Robinson (The Windsors, Walliams & Friend, Morgana Robinson's the Agency), Aisling Loftus (Mr Selfridge, War & Peace), Joseph Millson (Casino Royale, The Sarah Jane Adventures), Alexa Davies (Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again) and rising star Isabella Inchbald as our eponymous heroine.
Before she began writing, Jane Austen wrote, 'I am going to take a heroine whom no-one but myself will much like' and thus introduces the handsome, clever, rich - and flawed - Emma Woodhouse. Emma is perfectly content with her life and sees no need for either love or marriage; nothing, however, 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.
Each year, I read or listen to at least one of Jane Austen‘s novels, novellas, or letters. It had been some time since I picked up Emma so I was pleased to catch the Audible Original Dramatized version narrated by Emma Thompson among other voices for this latest stint. This was a large cast of voice actors since all dialogue parts were voiced by the assigned narrators and there were even some sound effects and musical interludes. All around fabulous production.
Emma is a wonderful novel set in a Regency-Era English village. The plot is utterly character-driven and centers around a young, beautiful, woman of the gentry class who takes up matchmaking and improving an impoverished girl of obscure connections against the advice of family friend George Knightley all to rather interesting results.
Jane Austen said that Emma is a character that only she would love. That has always struck me since I know Emma happens to be liked by many. Unfortunately, I have always been one of the crowd Austen was talking about who has never been enamored with Emma. I have read Emma a few times and loved the overall novel and some aspects of Emma the heroine, but I couldn’t get past her treating Harriet Martin like a project to alleviate her ennui.
But she has grown on me over the years. In fact, like all of Austen‘s heroines, I can see a little of myself in her particularly when I was her young age with mostly my wants and desires ruling my actions.
Emma has pleasing manners, and comes from wealth and status. She’s lived in a village all her life and doesn’t travel to broaden her mind and experience so there’s a big fish in a small pond thing going on.
It is over the course of the novel that Emma realizes her folly when the miserable results of her schemes push her out of complacency and this brings changes showing she is not hopeless and comes to see the worth of Mr. Knightley, who quietly waits for her to come into her own while worrying she will have her head turned by the charms of Frank Churchill.
So, I had another enjoyable time with Austen’s classic and learned to appreciate more about her writing through these characters going about their lives in the village of Highbury. I enjoyed seeing a young, promising heroine grow and appreciating the magnificence of Austen’s gentle hero, Mr. George Knightley. And, I must recommend highly this dramatized audio version for visiting Emma.
Narration:
The dramatic reading team led by Emma Thompson was amazing. I was unfamiliar with the voice work of Joanne Froggatt, Isabella Inchbald, Aisling Loftus, Joseph Millson, and Morgana Robinson, but I felt they matched well with what I imagined all the characters would sound like. They kept the tone and comedic lightness of the novel and made it really shine.
Listen to a clip: HERE
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As a lifelong reader, it was inevitable that Sophia would discover book blogs and the joy of blog reviewing.Sophia is a prolific reader and audiobook listener which allows her to experience so many wonderful books, authors, and narrators.Few genres are outside her reading tastes, but her true love is fiction particularly history, mystery, sci-fi, and romance.Though, sorry, no horror or she will run like Shaggy and Scooby.
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I’m glad it was good. I know you like these types of books.
Oh yeah! You said it, Mary. 🙂
What a great cast! This sounds wonderful and I just hopped over to my Audible account and it’s part of my membership so yay!
Yeah, the cast is what caught my eye, too.
Woohoo, its already available for you.
Wait… Emma’s not a mystery (as listed in the genre)? I love the Clueless adaptation! *as if*
Ha, no, not a mystery. She’s the only one who’s oblivious like her contemporary counterpart Cher. 😉
Clueless was my first intro into an adaption of Austin’s work. I have never read the actual book though just seen various adaptations to it. Probably a good time to put it on my tbr.
Clueless was fun and that 2020 adaption was another fun one. This dramatic production is a great way to experience the classic. 🙂
I should re-read this. I haven’t done an Emma read through in a LONG time.
This was an entertaining edition of Emma. Hope you get the shot at it.