Audiobook · read by volunteers
Emma
Jane Austen (1775–1817)
Read by Sherry Crowther · 55 chapters · 18 h 02
About the book
Emma Woodhouse is handsome, clever and rich, and she is convinced that she knows best. Having successfully arranged a match for her former governess, she turns her attention to her new friend Harriet Smith and to the marriage prospects of everyone else in the village of Highbury. Her fussing father worries, the talkative Miss Bates chatters on, and the sensible Mr Knightley watches with a mixture of amusement and concern.
Jane Austen’s comedy of manners is a masterpiece of wit and gentle irony, in which a heroine’s misunderstandings drive a plot full of small surprises. Read throughout by a single reader, Sherry, this recording brings the characters to life with vivacity and humour. In fifty-five chapters and about eighteen hours, this recording is a perfect companion for a long, pleasant stretch of listening.
Introduction
Jane Austen (1775–1817) published six major novels, four of them in her lifetime and anonymously. Emma appeared at the end of 1815. It is the last of the novels she saw published, and many critics regard it as among the most technically accomplished.
The story is set in the village of Highbury and follows a young woman who is secure in her wealth and position and who enjoys managing the lives of others. Austen tells us at the outset that Emma has lived nearly twenty-one years with very little to distress or vex her, and the story is largely about how that changes. The plot turns on her mistaken ideas about matchmaking and about her own feelings. Austen’s narration stays close to Emma’s perspective, so that we, like her, are sometimes misled by appearances and only later see what has been going on. The humour comes from character: Mr Woodhouse’s anxieties, Miss Bates’s endless flow of talk, and Emma’s well-meant interference are all drawn with great skill. Beneath the comedy there is a serious interest in self-knowledge, class and kindness.
This recording is read throughout by a single reader, Sherry, who brings the characters to life. It consists of 55 sections and lasts about eighteen hours, a good length for a book that rewards unhurried attention.
Why listen now? Because Emma is one of the most enjoyable novels in English, and because it offers a remarkable lesson in how to see through your own blind spots. Austen’s sentences are meant to be heard, and a good reader makes them sparkle. If you know the novel already, it will feel like meeting old friends; if you do not, it is a treat.
Public domain
Jane Austen died in 1817: the work is in the public domain in Switzerland, more than 70 years after the author’s death.
The LibriVox volunteers dedicated this recording to the public domain.
Sources : LibriVox page · Files at the Internet Archive · Original text