Which Villette recording should you buy?
The complete readings of Villette that we list run 19 hrs 37 mins to 22 hrs 39 mins. A reader of one of them also has an abridgement under the same title, and a dramatisation with a cast is sold beside them.
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Short answer
Charlotte Ritchie: complete and solo, the Penguin Classics edition. Davina Porter, Mandy Weston, Karen Cass and the other complete readings in the table run 19 hrs 37 mins to 22 hrs 39 mins, so choose on voice. Watch Mandy Weston's name: it is on a complete reading and on an abridgement, both under the plain title Villette. Carole Boyd's recording is a much shorter abridgement. And the edition with Catherine McCormack, Joseph Fiennes and Harriet Walter has "Dramatised" in its title, although the listing also says unabridged: it is a play with a cast, not the novel read aloud.
The recordings, compared
| Narrator | Length | Type | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Charlotte Ritchie Our pick | 21 hrs 20 mins | Unabridged | Complete and solo, the Penguin Classics edition. |
| Davina Porter | 22 hrs 39 mins | Unabridged | Complete and solo. |
| Mandy Weston | 20 hrs 3 mins | Unabridged | Complete and solo. The same reader has an abridgement under the same title, below. |
| Karen Cass | 19 hrs 37 mins | Unabridged | Complete and solo. |
| Justine Eyre | 20 hrs 48 mins | Unabridged | Complete and solo. Listed as the AmazonClassics Edition. |
| Wanda McCaddon | 20 hrs 7 mins | Unabridged | Complete and solo. |
| Mandy Weston | 7 hrs 13 mins | Abridged | ABRIDGED: the same reader and the same plain title as her complete reading above. |
| Carole Boyd | 2 hrs 22 mins | Abridged | Abridged. |
| Catherine McCormack, Joseph Fiennes, Harriet Walter and a cast | 2 hrs 57 mins | Full-cast dramatisation | A dramatisation: its title says so, although the listing also says unabridged. |