Emma
An Audible Original Drama
By: Jane Austen, Anna Lea-adaptation / Narrated By: Emma Thompson, Full Cast
Length: 8 hrs and 21 mins
Production woes outmatch the venerable Emma Thompson!
I’ll just say it: While I’m an Austen-freak and even gleefully wallow in Austen spin-offs and variations, I can’t help it. Emma is not my favorite of hers. After all, Emma is sooooo calculating, and she’s been so pampered that it’s no fun listening to hours of her wagging her tongue without a care and being all wily.
But there are decent versions of Emma, and there are even downright good ones.
This Audible Original is not one of the good ones.
Sure, it has Emma Thompson, and she rocks, but it also has Emma, our heroine, coming off as snippy, cold, spoiled, and even cruel and slighting. There. Did I scare you off?
Add to that, this audiobook is more of a radio drama, with clinking of silverware that drowns out the dialogue of the characters and makes it seem they’re more at a noisy diner than at the dinner table. And there’s loud, grating, gravel-crunching that shows they’re yes! walking along a garden path! Like you could’ve thought anything else.
Emma Thompson rocks her bit: the narrative parts, and you can just feel Jane Austen rolling around in her grave in sheer delight. Thompson’s cultured tones carry the story, but the voice actors and the sound effects ruin it all. I truly wanted to throttle Emma a few times, and I reveled in each and every setback she suffered. Plus, Mr. Knightley comes off as a domineering and harshly judgmental person (which, yeh, yeh, yeh, he IS), and I really thought the two of them were meant for each other. With this audiobook, I couldn’t wait to finish the story and trundle out of the “pages”, shaking the dust from my feet as I went.
It’s too bad that the venerable Ms. Thompson wasn’t commissioned to do the whole thing. I would’ve LOVED to listen to 14+ hours of her rendition. Alas, if you want a decent Emma, go for Juliet Stevenson’s version (which, actually, I stay away from as to me, she’s the only voice I can accept for Persuasion. And I don’t like to mix my heroines; still, Ms. Stevenson rocks Austen). Or go for Jenny Agutter’s performance. I didn’t want to throttle Emma so much in her version either.
Emma Thompson? Yes! Audible Original Drama with sound effects? No! Fix the production flaws first, and get different actors for Emma and Mr. Knightley!!!
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