Horridly excellent!

Northanger Abbey is the most deliciously light of all of Austen’s books, filled with humour as Austen pokes gentle fun at her own class and gender. Catherine Morland is our naïve 17-year-old heroine, leaving her country parsonage home for the first time to visit the bright lights of Bath in the company of her generous neighbours, the Allens. Starry-eyed and romantic, and with an obsessive love of the Gothic sensation fiction of the day, Catherine is ready to be thrilled by everything and everyone she meets. Having reviewed the book before, I'm concentrating here on the production and performances in Audible's new dramatisation of it.

This is done as half narration and half dramatisation. The narration is done superbly by Emma Thompson, someone who truly 'gets' Austen as anyone who has watched her performance in the wonderful 1995 version of Sense and Sensibility will know – a film for which she also wrote the script. In this one, she goes all out to bring out the humour in the script, and her affectionately ridiculing tone and excellent comic timing had me laughing aloud time and time again. It truly feels to me as if she's channelling Austen – I suspect if Jane read her manuscript aloud to her family, she'd have delivered it just like this, with the same fond teasing of our delightful Catherine and the same gasping drama over the Gothic horror elements, played strictly for laughs. Thompson verges perilously close to going over the top at points, but is far too masterful to actually do so. Part of me wished this was a straight narration – and I really would like her to narrate all the Austen novels, please, when she has a moment to spare.

That's not to suggest I didn't enjoy the dramatised elements too – I did, very much. The young cast were largely unknown to me, since I don't watch much TV or film, but several of them have impressive lists of credits to their names already. Each turned in a fine performance here with no weak links in the chain.

The role of Catherine is vital, and Ella Purnell does an excellent job in portraying the youthful naivety that sometimes leads her into foolish behaviour. She brings great charm to the role, with the same infectious good humour that makes Catherine such a likeable heroine on the page. Henry, I always feel, is a harder role to pull off, since frankly he's so patronising to our lovely Catherine and his sister Eleanor that I often have an uncontrollable desire to hit him over the head with a well-filled reticule. So I was very impressed with the way Jeremy Irvine was able to navigate that aspect with such a degree of warmth in his tone that I found it easy to forgive him and to understand Catherine's attraction to him. (And bear in mind, girls, that I didn't even have the advantage of being able to see him... except perhaps in my mind's eye... ;) )

Douglas Booth and Lily Cole are both nicely unlikeable as the baddies John and Isabella Thorpe (Boo! Hiss!), Booth managing with aplomb all John's boastful silliness about his horses and so on, while Cole drips delicious insincerity with every word. As the sensible one, Eleanor Tilney can tend to be somewhat dull as a character, but Eleanor Tomlinson gives her some much needed vivacity, while in the big dramatic scene near the end, she brings out beautifully all her distress and embarrassment. My other favourite is Mrs Allen, played by Anna Chancellor. Again she can be a tricky character; her rather silly empty-headedness and obsession with clothes could easily be annoying in the wrong hands, but Chancellor brings out her affectionate nature and the true warmth of her feelings towards Catherine, and the script is very humorous at showing how she allows her husband to form all her opinions for her.

Directed by Catherine Thompson, the production itself is fun with all the appropriate sound effects of carriages rattling along the roads, dramatic music for the Abbey horror scenes and delightful dance music during all the various balls. The balance between narration and dramatisation is good and I find this format works particularly well for audio – better than either alone for me. The bursts of dramatisation hold my attention in a way that an unbroken narration, however good, sometimes doesn't; while the narration gives an opportunity to hear the author's voice and fill out the background that's sometimes missed when a book is reduced completely to dialogue. The script too, by Anna Lea, is excellent, sticking as it should entirely to Austen's own words. I felt it had been a little abridged, not just for the linking parts in the dialogue to make it work as a dramatisation, but also in some of the narrated parts. But if so, the abridgement is done smoothly and none of the important elements have been cut.

So another excellent audio drama from Audible, who seem to be producing more and more of these, and casting them with some of our top performers. Keep them coming, I say! And as for this one – highly recommended!

NB This audio drama was provided for review by Audible UK via MidasPR.

25 people found this helpful

Austen's best work brought to life

Northanger Abbey is often overshadowed by Jane Austen's other greats such as Pride and Prejudice or Sense and Sensibility. However I think that it is some of her best work, bringing just the right amount of drama, romance and heartache into a brilliant story.

The cast is absolutely fantastic, with once again the amazing Emma Thompson perfectly capturing Austen's dry sense of humour and wit within the text. Ella Purnell really brings to life the innocence and naivety of Catherine and Jeremy Irvine makes Henry a lovable bachelor.

I'd highly recommend this to anyone, it's a really enjoyable listen with a great cast to match.

25 people found this helpful

Joyfully Done.

i first read this as a teenager and was swept up in the romance, totally missing the slight silliness of the heroine.
This adaptation looks at her squarely, but with great affection, for what she is, a very young, very naive girl, oblivious to other people's schemes.
I don't remember the gentle humour at her overblown, over-dramatic gushiyness but I thoroughly enjoyed it.
I don't understand the criticisms of other reviewers for the narrator, and the idea that she is an American is hysterical!
Emma Thompson plays the part of Jane Austin brilliantly. Her love for her heroine is clear but she is not blind to her failings. The pace of the narration moves with the pace of the narrative and I adored it.
I'm off now to read the book to compare it to this adaptation and see what I missed as a girl.

15 people found this helpful

Dramatised Northanger Abbey

Any additional comments?

Lovely adaptation and Emma Thompson as the narrator/Jane is superb. However this was my first dramatised audible book and it took a bit of getting used to. The background noises were very off putting and sometimes it was a little difficult to understand which character was speaking. Having said all that, it was very enjoyable!

12 people found this helpful

Oh dear, could only take 36 minutes of this

Was looking forward to listening to this star-studded Audible release, but found it unbearable.

Am quite happy for audio-dramas to be part-narration, like ‘The Forsytes sage’ which is excellent, but Emma Thompson’s narration was too long and far too fast. It just wasn’t a relaxing listen so kept zoning out. Needed more drama, less narration.

In all the many books I have bought from Audible, this is only the second I’m sending back. Such a shame.

12 people found this helpful

Lovely dramatisation of a favourite Austen

Would you consider the audio edition of Northanger Abbey to be better than the print version?

I think if you're an Austen fan you need to own the print, the wonderful unabridged audio version narrated by Juliet Stevenson, AND this great dramatisation for your life to be complete.

Have you listened to any of the narrators’s other performances? How does this one compare?

Emma Thompson is brilliant as the arch and sympathetic narrator. Eleanor Tomlinson in particular is wonderful as Miss Tilney and I would love to listen to other books read by her. The other characters are all very well performed though Isabella isn't exactly how I imagined her.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

Yes, definitely. I'm sure I'd listen to it again.

Any additional comments?

So satisfying having a leisurely adaptation that gives a pretty much unabridged version of this Austen rather than a brief 2- or 3-hour version. Hope Audible Studios will give all the other Austens this treatment, and a few other classics too!

9 people found this helpful

Great Listening

Would you listen to Northanger Abbey again? Why?

Yes I will definitely listen again. This was great entertainment, I couldn't settle to anything else until I'd heard it till the end. How well Austen knew people's minds! The piano music in this is beautiful as well.

What about the narrators’s performance did you like?

Emma Thompson as Jane - could not be better. She brings all the wit and humour perfectly, and is well paced. The rest of the cast was very good, especially Catherine and John Thorpe. Isabella was suitably odious, and the Tilneys were perfect. I loved hearing Anna Chancellor as Mrs Allen!

5 people found this helpful

Almost did not finish

I was really struggling with this book. As a fan of Jane Austen I expected more. Perhaps this was my mistake. The plot is boring. Also I didn't like the drama part about the reading. It had to many voices and sound effects. It was really distracting for me.

3 people found this helpful

poor old Jane Austen.

I absolutely love the book, so I thought this would be great. all those good actors!!OMG! dreadful.. I thought initially that I had accidentally pressed the narration speed button.. but no! they galloped through the story as though they had to catch a bus. it was ridiculous.. frentic, almost manic. sorry about that but it was really awful. another refund for that one. I could hear Jane swivelling in her grave.

3 people found this helpful

Another nothing happened classic

I never understand how these older books are so classic. Nothing happens in them. The cast are good but it is certainly not the story the blurb suggests...

3 people found this helpful