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Lady Susan

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Lady Susan

By: Jane Austen
Narrated by: Laurelle Westaway, David Thorn, Susan McCarthy
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About this listen

 After Jane Austen's earliest known writings, she began a more serious work, Lady Susan, in 1793 or 1794. It is a short, epistolary novel that portrays a woman bent on the exercise of her own powerful mind and personality to the point of social self-destruction.

Lady Susan, a clever and ruthless widow, determines that her daughter is going to marry a man whom both detest. Lady Susan sets her own sights on her sister-in-law's brother, all the while keeping an old affair simmering on the back burner. But people refuse to play the roles assigned them, and in the end her daughter gets the sister-in-law's brother, the old affair runs out of steam, and all that is left for Lady Susan is the man intended for her daughter, the one neither can abide.

Jane Austen ended this work abruptly with the comment: "This correspondence...could not, to the great detriment of the Post Office revenue, be continued any longer."

(P)2005 Blackstone Audiobooks Genre Fiction Literary Fiction Fiction

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Critic reviews

"Character is revealed, plot unfolds, suspense builds all through the device of letters exchanged amongst Lady Susan, her family, friends, and enemies." (AudioFile)
All stars
Most relevant  
Who allowed this delivery? And I'm not even talking about the American accents. In places it sounds like the narrators are making fun of the material, are choking, or having a stroke.... Over the top and unnecessary.

What is this delivery!?

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Doesn't really work for a period drama for me, I struggled to finish it

American accents were a bit off-putting

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What could have made this a 4 or 5-star listening experience for you?

English voices and proper pronounciation

What did you like best about this story?

only the author, I have just read this in book form - totally preferable

Would you be willing to try another one of the narrators’s performances?

Not if they are attempting English accents

You didn’t love this book--but did it have any redeeming qualities?

No, apart from the male narrator, even the actors had different american regional accents which really grate - some try to sound a little English, in patches, but without much success.

Any additional comments?

The pronunciation is dire Main Wairing for the anglicised Mannering. Churchill for ChurchHIll.

Oh dear, oh dear oh Dear!!!

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Jane Austen's genius for character development is clearly evident in this early work. How she inspires disgust of the odious Lady Susan and her poisonous correspondent and sympathy for her put upon daughter... Genius.
Why on EARTH the story is narrated in heavily accented American, I simply can't imagine. The de Courcy father put me strongly in mind of Dick van Dyke's more woeful cockney homages in Mary Poppins. And for the love of God, it's Mainwaring, pronounced Mannering!
Are the pages of Austen to be thus polluted?!
Egads!

Early Austen Gem, worth enduring the dreadful choice of narrator

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As a British listener hearing this read with American accents was very off putting! The quality of some of the characterisation was also disappointing.

Unfortunate choice of narrators

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I didn't think I had heard of this Jane Austin book but on listening to it realised that it had been made into a film in 2016 called Love and Friendship with Kate Beckinsale as Lady Susan. I loved this book and narration, with its letters read by the writers of them. It might have been her first book but you could definitely tell it was her work. At only 2 hrs and some long, it is an enjoyable interlude.

An enjoyable interlude.

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I really tried to get into this book. But was ever put off by the irritating American accent. At times I could forget it, then the reader would say something like ‘Mart’n’ for Martin, it’s got an i in it! American narrators for American literature perfect. But native English narrators for British classics at least.
Trying to get past that it’s amazing that this was written by a 16 year old Jane Austin, very imaginative. I wonder how much was taken from her life experiences

Aargh! Jarring American accent.

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I love Jane Austen's writing and the story is entertaining and easy. Interesting format of telling a story - all in letter correspondence. Sadly, narration was dreadful. Ladies were voiced with very strong American accent (nothing against Americans, just doesn't suit Jane Austen's story). It was as though it was read by Ruby Wax (I love Ruby Wax, just, again, not in a middle of Jane Austen's book). Audiobook was so irritating I nearly gave up on it.

Dreadful narration

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I generally agree with the other reviews. Plodding delivery. Poor pronunciation. Tedious listening despite this being a very entertaining early work.

Entertaining early Austen mangled by delivery.

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Jane Austen wit and observation here, not refined or distilled, but enjoyable nonetheless. The letter format was novel (to me, anyway). I am American, so no automatically predisposed against the American accent, yet it grated with me that the voices - apart from the narrator, were from an American voice. That is my only criticism, a small one.
I’m going to change the rating from 3 stars to 4!

Yes, a youthful, simplistic plot, but good dialogue, not good accents.

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