Audiobook Download Information
- Edition:
- Abridged (Naxos AudioBooks)
- Abridged (Penguin Audio)
- Length:
- 3 hours, 55 minutes
- File Size:
- 107 MB (29 files)
- Published:
- June 1996
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Review by Sarah Weinman, eMusic
160 years after it was first published, Jane Eyre may still be the standard against which most contemporary romantic fiction is held. The penniless orphan's struggle to overcome an emotionally barren childhood home, a cruel boarding school setting and other financial indignities afford Jane a sense of dignity and inner strength — and eventually leads her to the house of Mr. Rochester, the brooding, mysterious man who will become Jane's great love and greatest tragedy.
With such a well-read, much argued classic, the reader will likely bring preconceived notions to a first listen, but veteran British actress Emma Fielding manages the neat trick of keeping the novel fresh and alive. With a variety of accents at her disposal, Fielding takes the on-the-page tension between Jane and her tormentors and the smoldering chemistry between heroine and anti-hero on the page and creates extra layers of depth that hold the listener in new thrall. Occasionally Fielding's vocalizing leads to a clash between how a character should sound and does sound (her Mr. Rochester, for example, is not as spot-on as her Jane) but it's clear the actress is enjoying her rendition of the novel — and her enthusiasm transmits itself clearly.
Quotes from the Critics
"Talk about respect for the feminine! Which, it turns out, is simply respect for the soul. That this author was sent by Providence...to show me the difference between convention and morality, I count as one of the great blessings of a blessed life." - O (The Oprah Magazine)
"The most immediate surprise of 'Jane Eyre' for today's readers is the directness, even bluntness, of the young heroine's voice. Here is no prissy little-girl sensibility, but a startlingly independent, even skeptical perspective....Another surprise of 'Jane Eyre' is the seemingly 'real--that is, non-romantic--nature of the lovers-to-be....Why does 'Jane Eyre' retain its appeal after so many decades, and so many intervening novels of virginal young heroines, Byronic moody mysterious elder men, and melodramatic disclosures? One answer is, simply, the quality of Jane's and Rochester's characters. They are believable. They are intelligent, yet emotional, superior beings who are human, even flawed; as the 19th-century reader would have discerned, they are models for us all." - Salon
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