Which Pride and Prejudice recording should you buy?
The complete solo readings here all run to a similar length, and the table shows it. That single fact settles most of what is confusing about this listing, which mixes them with a starry dramatisation, a listing marked Unabridged that is far shorter than them, an abridgement by one of the same readers, a six-novel box set that is not this book on its own, and a reader for English learners.
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Jane Austen · 11 Audible UK recordings compared
Short answer
Rosamund Pike, Lindsay Duncan or Emilia Fox — all three are complete, all three are solo, and choosing between them is genuinely a matter of taste rather than content. Juliet Stevenson's 14 hour 2 minute reading is complete and solo too, but her name is also on a 2 hour 47 minute abridgement sold under the same title, so check the runtime, not the reader. What is worth knowing is what the short entries are. The Lulu Raczka production at 4h34 with Marisa Abela and Glenn Close is an original dramatisation with a score, not a reading. The Christian Neale listing is marked Unabridged at 4h37, far shorter than every complete reading in the table; we cannot reconcile that. And the 81-hour Alison Larkin entry is a six-novel collection — excellent value, but you are not buying this book. The Judy Bennett listing at 3h13 is an Oxford Bookworms reader for learners of English, and its title says Adaptation.
The recordings, compared
| Narrator | Length | Type | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Rosamund Pike Our pick | 11 hrs 35 mins | Unabridged | Complete and solo. |
| Lindsay Duncan | 12 hrs 3 mins | Unabridged | Complete and solo, an Audible Studios recording. |
| Emilia Fox | 13 hrs 2 mins | Unabridged | Complete and solo. |
| Stevie Zimmerman | 12 hrs 14 mins | Unabridged | Complete and solo. |
| B. J. Harrison | 12 hrs 30 mins | Unabridged | Complete and solo. |
| Juliet Stevenson | 14 hrs 2 mins | Unabridged | Complete and solo, from Naxos AudioBooks (2021) — the long one. The same reader has an abridgement under the same title below, and her name is also on a longer Pride and Prejudice (Educational Edition), which its description says contains the unabridged audiobook plus a study guide. |
| Juliet Stevenson | 2 hrs 47 mins | Abridged | ABRIDGED: the same reader and the same plain title as the complete Naxos reading above, at a fraction of its length. Audible's listing data marks it abridged; the description does not say so. |
| Judy Bennett | 3 hrs 13 mins | Oxford Bookworms graded reader | Not the book: "An Oxford Bookworms Library reader for learners of English", in Audible's own description. The title carries (Adaptation), so this one is labelled. |
| Marisa Abela, Harris Dickinson, Glenn Close and others | 4 hrs 34 mins | Full-cast dramatisation | An original adaptation by Lulu Raczka with an original score. A good listen; not the novel. |
| Christian Neale | 4 hrs 37 mins | Unabridged | Marked Unabridged at 40% of the length of the shortest complete reading here. The label and the runtime cannot both be right. |
| Alison Larkin | 81 hrs 2 mins | Unabridged, six-novel collection | The complete Austen, not Pride and Prejudice alone. Fine if that is what you want. |