Emma by Jane Austen

 

Title:  Emma

Author:  Jane Austen

Narrated by:  Juliet Stevenson

Publisher: Naxos Edition

Length: Approximately 16 hours and 39 minutes

Source: Purchased from Amazon.com

 

What books do you like to reread?  What is an old favorite book that you return to?

 I love all of Jane Austen’s novels.  The Kewaunee Library Back to the Classics Book Club July pick was Emma by Jane Austen.  I listened to it on audiobook as I’ve come to realize I love listening to classics like Austen via audiobook.  It is the way they originally would often had been read as a family read them out loud to each other.

 I have read and reviewed Emma many times before so in this review I will talk about what struck me on reading it this time.  I was really struck by how judgmental and snobby Emma was.  I couldn’t believe some of the things she said about Robert Martin.  She couldn’t believe he could write a letter because he was a farmer, etc.  She also had thoughts about the Coles as they from trade, and Miss Bates because she was a poor single woman.  Her judgements were inconsistent as we discussed in book club.  She overlooks that Harriet is most likely illegitimate with no family or that the Westons made their money from trade.  I feel like the 2020 movie captured Emma’s snobbishness perfectly. 

 Frank Churchill was also a topic in book club.  The fact that Miss Fairfax still marries him is amazing.  He flirts with Emma in front of Miss Fairfax and in fact makes fun of Miss Fairfax.  It would have been hard to bear.

 I thought that Mr. Elton was interesting.  In the book he is described as very handsome, but the movie versions never seem to depict it.  Austen always seems to always be picking on the clergy even though her father and brother were clergymen.  Mr. Elton is very proud of his new bride, Mrs. Elton, although she is a braggart and overly proud of herself.  I always wonder what will happen to their marriage in the future.

 Juliet Stevenson played Mrs. Elton in the 1996 film version and she is the perfect audiobook narrator.  She especially narrated the characters of Mrs. Elton and Miss Bates in a most entertaining way.  She is a go to narrator of audiobooks for me.

 I enjoyed listening to this story again.  Austen is such a witty writer and writes great dialogue.  Her characters are all very interesting and have such characteristics that are still true to life for people.  I was just sad when it ended.

North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell

 Title:  North and South

Author: Elizabeth Gaskell

Narrated by:  Juliet Stevenson

Publisher: Audible

Length: Approximately 18 hours and 20 minutes

Source: Purchased from Audible. 

 North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell is a November pick for the JASNA Northwoods Book Club.  I watched the miniseries years ago and was excited to finally read this book.

 Margaret Hale has returned home after growing up with her cousin Edith in London.  Edith has recently married, and Margaret has returned to her country home to live with her parents. Her world is upended when her father announces that he has broken with the Church of England, and they are moving to the northern industrial town of Milton.  While Mr. Hale finds new work as a tutor, Margaret and Mrs. Hale have a hard time adjusting to life in such a different place.  When Margaret meets Mr. Thornton, a mill owner tutored by her father, she does not his gruff ways or the way he treats his mill workers.  As Margaret gets to know some of the workers, she feels for their plight.  As tensions come to a head in Milton, will Margaret and Mr. Thornton find their place in the world?

 I really enjoyed this one.  Margaret is a strong character, but I really enjoyed the discussion of the rights of people.  Is someone a better person because they have money?  Because they are educated?  What exactly is a “lady” or a “gentleman?”  If someone is poorer than a laborer, but is educated, why are they still a “gentlemen?  There were a lot of great questions in this novel to ponder. 

 I have always enjoyed stories and the history of the labor movement.  This was a topic of interest when I was in college that I wrote about in my freshman paper and was explored in the Copper Country history class that I also took.  I was intrigued.  This book seemed related to Shirley by Charlotte Bronte, but it has been a while since I read that book.  It almost seemed like Shirley crossed with Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen.

 North and South is a novel that deals with a lot of loss.  (SPOILER ALERT) Poor Margaret Hale loses her home, parents, her godfather, and her brother.  She has to learn now to deal with these loses and move forward in a world where she doesn’t have independence as a woman.  It’s a sad book, but ultimately, I like to see how Margaret is able to deal with her loss.

 I liked that we also go Thornton’s thoughts on things too. The story is told from his point of view in alternating chapters, and I loved it.  I really loved the love story between Margaret and Thornton.  It was a great tale of pride and prejudice.  I think the story was set up perfectly for both of them to make the changes needed to have a happy ending.

 I listened to the audiobook narrated by Juliet Stevenson and read along in my Norton Critical Edition.  I loved the notes and essays in the Norton Critical Edition.  Juliet Stevenson is an excellent narrator.  I have enjoyed her before and will look for her again with other future audiobooks.

Sense and Sensibility Bicentenary Challenge 2011 Wrap-up

2011 marked the celebration of 200 years since Jane Austen first became a published author with her wonderful novel, Sense and Sensibility. One of my favorite blogs, Austenprose, hosted a year long celebration in the Sense and Sensibility Bicentenary Challenge.  I love Austen challenges and was happy to join.  I aimed for the "Disciple" level with 5-8 Sense and Sensibility inspired entries.  I landed squarely in this level after reviewing seven Sense and Sensibility items in 2011.  These items were as follows:

1.  I Have Found It
2.  Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen, audiobook read by Juliet Stevenson
3.  Sense and Sensibility (2008)
4.  Sense and Sensibility (1995)
5.  The Sense and Sensibility Screenplays and Diaries by Emma Thompson
6.  From Prada to Nada (2011)
7.  Expectations of Happiness:  A Companion Volume to Jane Austen's Sense and Sensibility by Rebecca Ann Collins

Overall, I ended up watching many more of my items than reading.  I somewhat disappointed myself in this regard, but there is only so much time in the day!  It was fun to watch the different versions of Sense and Sensibility and compare (I had also watched the 1981 version in the fall of 2010 right before this challenge).  The 1995 version starring Emma Thompson is still my overall favorite version.  It was enhanced by reading the screenplay and diaries for the first time.

Expectations of Happiness was an excellent follow-up to Sense and Sensibility.  I need to check out more novels by Rebecca Ann Collins in future years.  While I love Pride and Prejudice, I feel overwhelmed by the sheer volume of Mr. Darcy spin-offs.  It was nice to revisit other favorite characters with this Sense and Sensibility challenge.

With that being said, I can't wait until 2013, the two-hundred year anniversary of the publication of Pride and Prejudice.  I can only hope that Austenprose will host another great challenge to celebrate.

2011 Audiobook Challenge Wrap-up and 2012 Audiobook Challenge Sign-up

 This year I joined The 2011 Audio Book Challenge hosted by Teresa's Reading Corner.  My goal for the year was to listen to twelve audiobooks.  I met that goal and listened to a couple of extra for a total of fourteen audio books this for the year 2011.  The audiobooks I listened to were as follows:

1.  Rescue by Anita Shreve
2.  Cleopatra by Stacy Schiff

3.  An Object of Beauty by Steve Martin

4.  The Cinderella Deal by Jennifer Crusie
5.  Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen

6.  The Disappearing Spoon by Sam Kean

7.  Maybe This Time by Jennifer Crusie
8.  A Reliable Wife by Robert Goolrick
9.  The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

10.  Burnt Mountain by Anne Rivers Siddons

11.  Silver Girl by Elin Hilderbrand

12.  The Help by Kathryn Stockett
13.  The End of Normal by Stephanie Madoff Mack
14.  Matched by Ally Condie

I listened to a lot of fantastic audiobooks throughout 2011.  I wanted to pick out a clear favorite, but I enjoyed too many of them in different ways to pick one best audiobook.   I did love learning about the history of the legendary Cleopatra in Stacy Shiff's fantastic biography.  I also loved the light hearted romance in The Cinderella Deal by Jennifer Crusie.   The Madoff scandel was brought to life in the fictional account of a wronged wife in Silver Girl by Eline Hilderbrand, and in the painful, but beautiful memoir The End of Normal by Stephanie Madoff Mack.  I enjoyed starting a new trilogy with Matched by Ally Condie and I'm almost finished with listening to the second book in the series (Crossed) right now.  The Help was a wonderful audiobook.  I loved the actors who read the parts for each of the main charactesr and brought the story to life.  Juliet Stevenson is a marvelous actress and also a wonderful audiobook reader.  Her audiobook reading of Sense and Sensibility is not to be missed. 

What didn't I like?  While The Disappearing Spoon was fascinating subject matter, I think I would have much prefered to read the book rather than listening to it.  I needed a periodic table of elements at hand to go along with a lot of the stories.  Maybe This Time by Jennifer Crusie just didn't have the same magic for me as The Cinderella Deal did.  Burnt Mountain by Anne Rivers Siddons wanted to be a good audiobook, but abrupt changes in genre brought the book to a rather messy conclusion.

Seven of the audiobooks I listened to I check out from the Kewaunee Public Library, five I received as review copies from Hachette Audio, and two I received from Penguin Audio.  Thirteen of the audiobooks I listened to on CD, while one I listened to as a digital audiobook on my droid.  I really liked the digital audiobook experience and hope to check it out more this year.  Unfortunately, while my library does offer digital audio to check out, most of the books I look up have a VERY long waiting list.

I am joining the 2012 Audiobook Challenge once again hosted at Teresa's Reading Corner.  I am going to aim for 12 audiobooks again this year, which is the level "Going Steady."  It looks like it will be a fun challenge again this year with a few new and intriguing features.  I'm currently listening to Crossed by Ally Condie and A Christmas Homecoming by Anne Perry.  What are you listening to or planning to listen to this year?

Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen, Audiobook read by Juliet Stevenson

Over the past two years, I listened to all of Jane Austen’s novels on audiobook and vastly enjoyed them. I discovered that Austen’s books were meant to be listened to aloud, as Austen must have once read them aloud to her family. While I’ll still always enjoy reading them in their original print editions, I also want to explore more audio editions and enjoy listening to them as well. As readers of this blog know, I really can’t get enough of Austen in any type of media.

As part of Austenprose’s Sense and Sensibility Bicentenary Challenge, I decided to listen to a different audiobook version of Sense and Sensibility than the one I listened to two years ago. I chose the Naxos Audiobook version as read by Juliet Stevenson. I listened to Persuasion as read by Juliet Stevenson last fall and enjoyed it greatly.

Juliet Stevenson played Mrs. Elton in the 1996 Emma movie starting Gwyneth Paltrow. I enjoyed listening to this novel read with her great British accent, but more importantly she is able to give a unique voice to all of the characters and bring them to life. It was a pleasure to listen to this novel once again.

This audiobook version is an unabridged edition with eleven CDs for approximately 12 hours and 43 minutes worth of playing time. It was very soothing to me when I listened to it three weeks ago while driving to and from Milwaukee during a nasty sleet storm. It’s also a nice book to listen to when the kids are around as I know that it will contain no “naughty bits.”

For more of my review of Sense and Sensibility in general, please see my 2009 review of the Sense and Sensibility audiobook as read by Wanda McCaddon.

Sense and Sensibility is my second item for the Sense and Sensibility Bicentenary Challenge and my fifth item for the 2011 Audiobook Challenge.

Audiobook Source: The Kewaunee Public Library

Persuasion by Jane Austen (audiobook)

Persuasion is tied with Pride and Prejudice as my favorite Jane Austen novel. I love Persuasion. I’ve read the novel many times in my life and it touches me each and every time. I also love the 1995 movie starring Ciaran Hinds and Amanda Root (Not so much the 2007 version). I’m due for a rewatch of the movie; hopefully I will do it as part of this year’s Everything Austen Challenge.

I had never listened to the audiobook version of Persuasion before, but I did enjoy the audiobooks of several other Austen novels as part of last year’s Everything Austen Challenge. I listened to Persuasion last week mostly while I was working and found it to be a very enjoyable experience. The version I listened to was read by Juliet Stevenson (Mrs. Elton in the 1996 Emma movie starting Gwyneth Paltrow). Ms. Stevenson had a nice British accent and was able to put a unique voice to the different characters.

What is Persuasion about? Persuasion is the story of Anne Eliot. Anne is the middle of three daughters of Sir Walter Eliot. Always overlooked in her family, Anne is a quiet woman, with great sensibility. Eight years previous to the start of the novel, Anne met and fell in love with a young naval officer, Frederick Wentworth. She became engaged to him, but was persuaded to break off the engagement by her friend Lady Russell who felt that the penniless Wentworth was not good enough for Anne. Now eight years later, Captain Wentworth is back in the neighborhood, rich and looking for a bride. To add insult to injury, his sister and her husband, Admiral Croft, are renting Anne’s family estate, Kellynch Hall. Anne’s father, Sir Walter had been forced to “retrench” and rent out his family estate and move to Bath because of his inability to live within his means.

Anne’s sister Mary is married to a young local gentlemen, Charles Musgrove. Anne is forced to witness Captain Wentworth’s flirtation with Mary’s young sister-in-laws Louisa and Henrietta, while she helps Mary with her young sons and “illness.” As the novel progresses, Anne comes into her own and men such as a Captain Benwick and her cousin Mr. William Elliot find her attractive and love her lively mind. Anne only has eyes for Captain Wentworth, and begins to hope that love could bloom between them again.

Listening to Persuasion, I was once again reminded that I love Austen’s characters. They are hilarious and people you could see today on the street or within your own family. It is amazing how people have not really changed in two hundred years. Hearing about the pride of Sir Elliot and Elizabeth, the “illnesses” of Mary, and the general annoyances of every day family living, it made me realize that life as we know it has not really changed. We may now blog about books or text message our friends, but we are still annoyed by a person who thinks they are better than everyone else or another person that constantly talks about their illnesses that don’t seem to exist. I think that one of the reasons that Austen is so beloved is that she was able to capture the essence of personalities that does not change over time. She also had a great wit that makes these characterizations extremely funny, even after two-hundred years.

I think the major reason that I love Persuasion so much is that I LOVE Captain Wentworth’s letter to Anne and the ending of the novel. To read about poor Anne and being thought of as “on the shelf” at 27 to have a second chance at a relationship with her one great love is so romantic and uplifting. Who cannot read the following letter and not think it is romantic?

“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 forever. 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.

I must go, uncertain of my fate; but I shall return hither, or follow your party, as soon as possible. A word, a look, will be enough to decide whether I enter your father’s house this evening or never.”

To have a deep and what you think is unreciprocated love for someone, and then to receive a letter like that . . . wow!! I love the ending of this novel. I like how unlike the 1995 and 2007 movies, it goes into details about how they get together and how all of the main characters fates are tied up.

Persuasion is my fourth item for The Classics Challenge and my third item for the Everything Austen Challenge II. I’m next going to listen to Northanger Abbey!

Audiobook Source: The Kewaunee Public Library