AudioFile Magazine, the #1 source globally of audiobook reviews, announces that the third season of the popular Audiobook Break podcast will feature Jane Austen’s universally-acknowledged Pride and Prejudice as narrated by the gifted comedienne, Alison Larkin. The magazine is notable for its reviews and recommendations of top-notch performances that create dynamic listening experiences; while Austen needs no introduction or sales pitch, her indelible words get the royal treatment in this stellar interpretation. New episodes will be available every Tuesday and Thursday for all 61 chapters of the beloved classic novel.
BookTrib is pleased to bring readers this in-depth question-and-answer article all about Austen, audiobooks, Alison and more.
Q: What is this listening experience like for Austen fans who are already familiar with the story? What is it like for a reader/listener who will be listening to Pride & Prejudice for the first time?
Robin Whitten: Listening to a book you are familiar with but have read only with your eyes is quite a different experience. Nuances and details, and just the language taken in aurally, often make a very different impression on a reader than a print experience. And while many listeners may be familiar with the story — they may have read it, or watched it some time ago — listening to the audiobook, and to Alison’s performance, is going to be new. For someone new to the story, the listening experience will sweep them away.
Alison Larkin: I was thrilled when Robin and the Audiobook Break Podcast team said they would like to serialize our audiobook production of Pride and Prejudice. Austen fans are an imaginative, intelligent bunch, who live all over the world; and they will LOVE the novelty of listening to this timeless story in a serialized podcast, whether they’re in the UK, the US or anywhere! I also suspect the podcast format will entice people who may not have listened to Jane Austen before.
Q: Tell us about the podcast concept of breaking audiobooks up into chapter-by-chapter sections. For avid audiobook listeners, how might that change the experience?
RW: Serialized, or chapter-by-chapter books, is not new. Dickens released his novels in this form, and even Stephen King has experimented with it; do you remember The Green Mile? Releasing segments of a story is exactly what is going on with podcasts like Serial and streaming series like Outlander. Avid audio fans will likely embrace and love the serial form because unless you are on a super-long road trip, we’re all always trying to grab time in our busy lives to listen. I’m particularly interested in reaching the podcast listener who has not tried many audiobooks. We’re taking audiobooks to podcast home turf, and it is very exciting!
Q: Elaborate on the idea theme of taking a “break” by listening to the audiobook. How do listeners maximize this “break time”? How does this strategy relate to, and compare to, the instant gratification that media consumers are used to receiving?
RW: You could think of this ‘audiobook break’ as a break from screen time, or a diversion from our ongoing weeks of isolation, or a leave-it-all-behind break from a stressful day. A chapter of Pride and Prejudice IS instant gratification, isn’t it?
AL: What better way to soothe the modern soul than to visit Jane Austen’s England? The themes are as relevant today as they were when they were written – and the story is pure delight.
Q: Tell us more about the “Songs from Regency England.”
RW: Alison has all the details on this! But I’ll say that, personally, I love the occasional use of music between chapters. The addition of the songs is fun.
AL: I wanted to add a scene at the end, “Songs from Regency England,” to give listeners a sense of what it would be like to be sitting in a drawing-room like the Bennett’s, listening to members of the household sing and play after dinner. The bookish Mary Bennett who is so earnest about her piano-playing is a brilliant comic creation and one of my favourite characters in the novel.
I chose three songs that would have been popular at the time, “The Lonely Ash Grove,” “Ye Banks and Braes and Down” by the Salley Gardens, and wrote a short after-dinner scene complete with clinking glasses to give a sense of what it might be like listening to a young lady like Mary Bennett making up in vocal enthusiasm what she lacks in polish. That’s the beauty of audio! You can take your listener anywhere with just a few sound effects and a song. And the comedy writer in me could not resist adding a TINY bit of dialogue as the audience is sitting down.
Q: What does this wonderful narrator add to the experience?
RW: Alison is a gifted narrator, and she knows Jane Austen’s novels inside and out. She has recorded all six of Austen’s novels as full-length audiobooks. She has a very specific approach that colors the satire and helps listeners understand Austen’s universality. Our AudioFile reviewer said, “She sounds as if she can’t wait to tell this delicious story, and she doesn’t disappoint.” Alison’s gifts with performance make our listening experience exceptional. There are many audiobook versions of Pride and Prejudice, but just like hearing a performance of a favorite piece of music, some just stay with you as memorable.
AL: As a comedienne, I felt duty-bound to bring out all the humor and wit in this brilliantly written novel.
Q: What do you hope listeners will be left with after encountering this version of the classic?
RW: I hope new listeners think differently about audiobooks and, whether it’s a classic or a bestseller, try another one. I hope Austen fans savor this performance that is both lively and smart.
AL: I hope it will introduce listeners who may have fallen in love with Keira Knightly or Colin Firth in big and small screen adaptations of Pride and Prejudice to the original novel in an exciting new way. It is a romantic story, and as deep as it is funny. It also has a “what’s going to happen next?” quality that I think lends itself beautifully to the serialized podcast format.
Listen/download Audiobook Break Season 3 – Pride and Prejudice:
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/audiobook-break-with-audiofile-magazine/id1552266652
Watch the trailer:
Bonus Episode: Alison Larkin Introduces Season 3:
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/celebrating-pride-and-prejudice/id1552266652?i=1000551017616
Listen to Episode One:
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About Robin Whitten:
Robin Whitten is the founder and editor of AudioFile Magazine. Started in 1992, AudioFile reviews and recommends audiobooks as a multi-platform resource, publishing in print, e-newsletters, the AudioFileMagazine.com web site, and seasonal programs like AudiobookSYNC for teen audiences. AudioFile also maintains the Talent & Industry Guide, the sourcebook for audiobook professionals. Robin has served on the board of directors of the Audio Publishers Association, and as an Audie Awards judge.
Robin is passionate about audiobooks. After 30 years of talking about what’s good and what’s happening in the audiobook space, she continues to delight in the changes and evolution of formats and the forms audio storytelling takes. Beyond the “field education” of starting a magazine, Robin attended Stanford’s Publishing Program and is a graduate of Vassar College. She lives in Portland, Maine with her husband, Rob and too many gardens.
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About Alison Larkin:
Alison Larkin is a writer, producer, stand-up comedienne and actress who has appeared on and off Broadway. She is also the award-winning narrator of over 200 audiobooks and the bestselling author of The English American, a novel which sprang from her hit autobiographical one-woman show of the same name, about an adopted English woman who finds her birth parents in the USA. Her audiobook company Alison Larkin Presents is based in the Berkshires and has received 13 AudioFile Earphones awards for Alison herself and many of narrators she has produced or directed, who include Golden Voice narrator Simon Jones, Virginia McKenna and Tina Packer. Her recent production of Moby Dick, read by Jonathan Epstein is a 2022 Audie award finalist in Literary Fiction and Classics. In addition to The Complete Novels of Jane Austen, Larkin’s most recent narrations include Winnie-the Pooh by A. A. Milne, The Secret life of Fungi by Aliye Whitely and The King’s Painter – the Life and Times of Hans Holbein by Francis Moyle for Blackstone. Her new one-woman show, “Grief, The Musical – A Tragic Comedy About Love” written and performed by Alison Larkin with music by Gary Schriener will premiere in June 2022.
