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Lady Susan
- Narrated by: Laurelle Westaway, David Thorn, Susan McCarthy
- Length: 2 hrs and 55 mins
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Lady Susan
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Summary
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."
Critic reviews
What listeners say about Lady Susan
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance1 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Lumiya
- 04-11-23
What is this delivery!?
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.
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance3 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Rachel Price
- 26-10-23
American accents were a bit off-putting
Doesn't really work for a period drama for me, I struggled to finish it
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall2 out of 5 stars
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Performance1 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Avril
- 18-05-14
Oh dear, oh dear oh Dear!!!
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.
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2 people found this helpful
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance1 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- laura davey
- 07-05-24
Early Austen Gem, worth enduring the dreadful choice of narrator
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!
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Overall2 out of 5 stars
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Performance2 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Lesley Howard
- 11-01-22
Unfortunate choice of narrators
As a British listener hearing this read with American accents was very off putting! The quality of some of the characterisation was also disappointing.
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- W. King
- 26-10-21
An enjoyable interlude.
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.
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance2 out of 5 stars
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Story3 out of 5 stars
- edward botheras
- 16-01-22
Aargh! Jarring American accent.
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
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Overall2 out of 5 stars
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Performance1 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Mamalina
- 18-08-22
Dreadful narration
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.
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance2 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- ISAAC
- 03-09-23
I have never known so many of the English gentry to have American accents
The story is classic Austen (albeit in an epistolary form) and is very enjoyable. I would, however, suggest finding a different recording as all of the characters in this one have a mid-Atlantic drawl which is most offputting.
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance2 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Mrs Nel Eyre
- 22-01-24
American accents ruin an average story
This is the writing of Jane Austin aged 20, and it lacks the depth and breadth of her later writing, though there are some glimpses of later characterisations. I could enjoy the story more if it were not for the affectations of the readers. I could forgive the American accents had they not tried so hard to caricature the dramatis personae. Add to that mispronunciations of some of the names: Main-warning for Mainwaring for example: it should be Mannering, and everything just grates, I’m afraid. This Title is free, and as such it serves its purpose: to read the book for people to listen to; but I shall be looking out for a better, English, version for any repeated listening.
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