Louise Douglas

I’ve read this book once before a fair few years ago, but since my re-read of Pride and Prejudice, I couldnt resist moving straight on to this. I loved it the first time round (how can you not like Austen?), but since the audio version was free on Kindle, I thought it would make a great commuting book.

I won’t get too much into the plot of the book since I’ve already reviewed this before, but I do love Anne Elliot. The strength of character that she shows even under the burden of such a family who constantly belittle her worth and cast her opinions aside in lieu of vanity and pride is quite admirable.

As much as Mr Darcy will always be my favourite Austen man, I do love Captain Wentworth. His letter written to Anne towards the end of the book professing his love for her remains stuck in my head even hours after I have finished the book.

“I can listen no longer in silence. I must speak to you by such means as are within my reach. You pierce my soul. I am half agony, half hope. Tell me not that I am too late, that such precious feelings are gone for ever. I offer myself to you again with a heart even more your own than when you almost broke it, eight years and a half ago. Dare not say that man forgets sooner than woman, that his love has an earlier death. I have loved none but you. Unjust I may have been, weak and resentful I have been, but never inconstant. You alone have brought me to Bath. For you alone, I think and plan. Have you not seen this? Can you fail to have understood my wishes? I had not waited even these ten days, could I have read your feelings, as I think you must have penetrated mine. I can hardly write. I am every instant hearing something which overpowers me. You sink your voice, but I can distinguish the tones of that voice when they would be lost on others. Too good, too excellent creature! You do us justice, indeed. You do believe that there is true attachment and constancy among men. Believe it to be most fervent, most undeviating, in F. W.”

My one disappointment from this version of the book was again the narrator. I found her voice quite sharp and not at all soothing, which left me unable to enjoy the book as fully as I would have liked, in fact, towards the end I gave up on the audio version and read it for myself instead. The quality of the audio was also not great, the volume was wildly varying and I found myself constantly having to change the volume on the speakers in the car so that I could either hear the words at all or not be deafened by them. But the book was a free kindle book, so maybe I was expecting too much.

But I wont mark down the rating of the book based on a poor narration, so this book gets the 5* that it deserves.

I think it’s no secret that I love love love this book, and as I’ve read it many times before, I won’t be reviewing the actual book. It’s a work of genius and we all know it, I’ve read it so many times that I find myself anticipating the words that are coming.

Rather than reading it again this time, I have been listening to the audio version in my car on the way to and from work. I didn’t know how I’d enjoy this, but since I know the book so well, I really enjoyed it in a different way. When you’re reading, it’s quite easy to skip over bits that you recognise from before, but listening to it means that you get the full experience all over again.

I’ve not listened to this narrator before, but she had a lovely voice. It was like being read to by my grandma which was very soothing. She didn’t do ridiculous accents for the different characters, just normal voices with a different inflection which made it very pleasant to listen to. Her voice for Mrs Bennett was spot on!

It was definitely a brilliant way to keep me entertained through all the roadworks and traffic jams on my commute, and I’m so glad that I got to experience Pride and Prejudice all over again. I might need to see what other Austen books are available as audio versions!