Customer Rating: 

Emma is the one Jane Austen book which I have never actually managed to finish, but, inspired by the recent BBC adaptation I decided to listen instead. I'm afraid that I found Jenny Agutter's rendering rather tedious, lacking in both warmth and characterisation. In all honesty, I couldn't recommend this rather icy version. Such a long book requires a great deal more animation and sparkle from the reader to keep the interest of the listener, no matter how sympathetic they are to the original work.

Customer Rating: 

While admittedly I have not been a particular fan of Jane Austen on previous encounters, I thought an audiobook might be worth a try as they have been known to convert me to books which either didn't really appeal to me or which I couldn't get through otherwise. As everyone else has said, this is the unabridged version (seriously long, just to warn you!), and the narrator is Jenny Agutter. The cover of the CD attempts to cash in on the recent TV adaptation of the story, but this is no radio play, just a straight reading of the novel in its entirety.

Although I must admit that I remain uninspired by the story, the presentation is good (if slightly rushed in parts, but I think I would prefer that to slow reading), and this would make an excellent gift for fans of audiobooks or for those who have difficulty reading.

Customer Rating: 

Can such CDs as these be enjoyed as background noise? For that is what this becomes, unless you sit down and concentrate for long hours like, well, like reading a book.

So unless you have an unlucky affliction that prevents you from picking up the wonderful Emma, there seems no point in paying more for an inferior time listening.

If you are restricted to listening? Jenny Agutter is a very competent reader and even impresses at times, but she has been asked to read too fast and asking her to read all of the characters in an unrelaxed manner cannot do her or the book justice - the resulting sound is not really bland but can seem so. Hence concentration is a must - 'tis no good for driving, nor even pottering about doing the housework.

The book's weaknesses, the proliferation of harmless, worthy and boring old women, Emma's unknowing affinity with them, are only amplified by this reading so that the middle CDs sag and lag greatly. Some dialogue is an almost psychotic twittering, and while a little mild hysteria due to a restricted life is a valid interpretation, it is too much here.

There is no connection with the TV series which is printed as the front cover.

Customer Rating: 

This is a really ambitious project -- an unabridged Emma, read by a single voice. It's half-successful, and if you love Austen and Emma, then I think you'll find great comfort indulging in this.
It would be less successful for new listeners: Jenny Agutter's performance, though appealing, isn't delivered with quite the range of characterisations you might need for such a long listen.
Where you'd hope for clear signposting via the performance, you get similar-sounding characters, with all the air of someone simply reading the words rather than living the performance. Maybe that's often going to be the case in an unabridged version, but I found my mind wandering very quickly, and a 15-hour performance quickly became something closer to 30, for all the skipping back I had to do.

Customer Rating: 

It has always been with a heavy heart that I admit that I am not a massive fan of Jane Austen's work as I almost feel that I should like it. Emma is one of the few that I haven't read but I do know that it is supposed to be a comic work and I didn't get that listening to this version. I really wanted to like it but it fell flat for me.

I got this audio CD on the basis that it came out at the same time as the TV adaptation and shows the female lead on the cover. The two are completely unrelated, however, which I found misleading as I was under the impression that it may be more of a play with several voices involved.

Jenny Agutter does a good job and is a talented actress, however, I found that she spoke too fast and it all ran a little too quickly for my liking.