Persuasion
By: Jane Austen / Narrated By: Juliet Stevenson
Length: 8 hrs and 43 mins
My absolute favorite production of our beloved Austen!
I had the misfortune of starting my hunt for a good audio production of Persuasion by Jane Austen with one where the astounding Michael Page narrates… Gasp! What a travesty that was! He’s blown me away with his work on other audiobooks, but I don’t think Austen can be done by a man, any man (nothing personal, Michael!).
Persuasion is my favorite of all of Austen’s novels, as Anne Elliot is a good and steady character whose mind, heart, manners are true throughout the whole book, no matter the situation, no matter the other people she’s around.
Forced into limited circumstances by her father’s penchant for spending mightily, she’s ever-shunted into the background, though she’s the person with the levelest of heads, the ability to make the hardest of choices with a cool and even temperament.
That makes her sound cold, and do forgive me for that because Anne is anything but. She has the warmest of hearts and is filled with compassion and love without becoming a sickly sentimental character. I just love her! And with Juliet Stevenson narrating, Persuasion delivers all the comedy of manners, the comedy of errors that we know and love from Jane Austen. Stevenson can handle each character with great skill, none of the men are growly, and though some of the women are flighty and flaky, they still are delivered so that we feel the sense of compassion that overrides Anne’s desire to throttle them at times. It’s a really fun, sometimes funny book.
Anne Elliot and her Captain Wentworth, along with her admiring cousin play up the twists and turns that make a Jane Austen dance so fun. And though I have many, many other productions of Persuasion, at one time you could get the companion audiobook for $1.99 if you had the kindle ebook, Juliet Stevenson is my favorite.
If you love All Things Austen, or if you love a decent and good-hearted heroine, especially one who is older, coming into an unexpected second-bloom in these, her later years (her late 20s for crying out loud! What was the world like in Austen’s day?!?), give Persuasion a try. You’re in for not quite 9 hours of chuckles, white-knuckles, love to beat the band!
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