Which Prince Caspian recording should you buy?
Under the same name: the book read in full, an abridged reading, and a BBC radio play. For once the listing titles say which is which, so read them before you buy.
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C.S. Lewis · 3 Audible UK recordings compared
Short answer
Lynn Redgrave for the book: the complete text, solo, from the set in which each Narnia book has its own reader. Her listing is titled "Prince Caspian: Unabridged". Sir Michael Hordern's is titled "Prince Caspian: Abridged" and is exactly that. The BBC Radio 4 production with Maurice Denham and Sylvester McCoy is a play with a cast, a good companion to the book and no substitute for it. One thing to ignore: the read edition's description calls this "the fourth in the series", which is the publisher's story-order numbering and not the order the books were written in.
The recordings, compared
| Narrator | Length | Type | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lynn Redgrave Our pick | 4 hrs 40 mins | Unabridged | Complete and solo. Listed as "Prince Caspian: Unabridged". |
| Sir Michael Hordern | 2 hrs 14 mins | Abridged | Abridged, and labelled so in the title: 48% of the length of the shortest complete reading here. |
| Maurice Denham, Sylvester McCoy, Richard Griffiths, Tom Wilkinson and a full cast | 2 hrs 7 mins | BBC full-cast dramatisation | A radio play, not a reading. Listed as "The Chronicles Of Narnia: Prince Caspian", with the words "A BBC Radio 4 Full-Cast Dramatisation" on the line beneath. |
