Which Sense and Sensibility recording should you buy?
The complete readings of Sense and Sensibility that we list run 11 hrs 25 mins to 14 hrs 2 mins. Beside them are abridgements, a BBC radio play, an AI voice, and a Glenda Jackson recording that Audible's catalogue marks unabridged at a fraction of their length.
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Short answer
Rosamund Pike: complete and solo, from Audible Studios, and our pick for Pride and Prejudice too. Juliet Stevenson, Nicola Coughlan, Rachel Atkins and the other complete readings in the table run 11 hrs 25 mins to 14 hrs 2 mins; choose on voice. Stevenson's name is also on a Naxos abridgement under the same title, so check the runtime. The listing we cannot explain is Glenda Jackson's: Audible's catalogue marks it unabridged, at a fraction of the length of the complete readings, and her Persuasion from the same publisher is marked abridged. Until we have read its description it is not a complete reading on this page. The BBC production with Olivia Hallinan is a full-cast play, and AI Voice Bob is a synthetic voice.
The recordings, compared
| Narrator | Length | Type | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Rosamund Pike Our pick | 11 hrs 25 mins | Unabridged | Complete and solo, from Audible Studios. |
| Juliet Stevenson | 12 hrs 43 mins | Unabridged | Complete and solo, from Naxos. The same reader has a Naxos abridgement under the same title, below. |
| Nicola Coughlan | 13 hrs 45 mins | Unabridged | Complete and solo, the Penguin Classics edition. |
| Rachel Atkins | 12 hrs 41 mins | Unabridged | Complete and solo. |
| Rosalyn Landor | 12 hrs 29 mins | Unabridged | Complete and solo. |
| Wanda McCaddon | 11 hrs 34 mins | Unabridged | Complete and solo. |
| Jan Cramer | 12 hrs 29 mins | Unabridged | Complete and solo. Listed as the AmazonClassics Edition. |
| Eva Pope | 13 hrs 58 mins | Unabridged | Complete and solo. Listed as a Seasons Edition. |
| Alison Larkin | 14 hrs 2 mins | Unabridged | Complete and solo. Listed as a 200th anniversary audio edition. |
| Glenda Jackson | 6 hrs 13 mins | Marked unabridged, runtime unexplained | Marked unabridged in Audible's catalogue, at 54% of the shortest complete reading here. Her Persuasion from the same publisher is marked abridged. Its description does not explain the gap, so we do not count it as complete. |
| AI Voice Bob | 13 hrs 52 mins | AI narration (Virtual Voice) | The text read by a synthetic voice: Audible's catalogue flags it as a Virtual Voice title. |
| Olivia Hallinan, Blake Ritson, Amanda Hale and a full cast | 1 hr 53 mins | BBC full-cast dramatisation | A radio play, subtitled "A full-cast dramatisation", although Audible's catalogue marks it unabridged. |
| Annette Crosbie | 3 hrs 22 mins | Abridged | Abridged, listed as "A BBC Radio 4 Reading". |
| Juliet Stevenson | 3 hrs 45 mins | Abridged | ABRIDGED: the same reader and publisher as the complete Naxos reading above. |
| Kate Winslet | 3 hrs 4 mins | Abridged | Abridged. |
| Prunella Scales | 2 hrs 52 mins | Abridged | Abridged, an Argo Classics recording. |
| Anna Massey | 2 hrs 13 mins | Abridged | Abridged. |