Which Wuthering Heights recording should you buy?
A neat illustration of why a narrator name is not enough to go on: Juliet Stevenson appears twice, once at 13 hours 24 and once at 2 hours 41. Same book, same reader, and the shorter one is an abridgement.
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Emily Bronte · 10 Audible UK recordings compared
Short answer
Juliet Stevenson at 13 hours 24 — but check the runtime, because her name is on two different products and the other one is a 2h41 abridgement. That is the whole lesson of this page in a single listing: recognising the narrator tells you nothing about whether you are getting the book. Michael Kitchen, Patricia Routledge and Janet McTeer are all complete if you prefer another voice. Worth a second look before you buy: the Moira Quirk and Dan Stevens edition is marked unabridged at 7 hours 41, where the complete readings here run 11 hrs 38 mins to 14 hrs 15 mins. We have not established why it is so much shorter. The Ishia Bennison listing at 3h17 is an Oxford Bookworms reader for learners of English, marked Adaptation in its title.
The recordings, compared
| Narrator | Length | Type | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Juliet Stevenson Our pick | 13 hrs 24 mins | Unabridged | Complete and solo. Not to be confused with her own abridgement below. |
| Patricia Routledge | 14 hrs 15 mins | Unabridged | Complete, and the longest reading here. |
| Janet McTeer and David Timson | 13 hrs 8 mins | Unabridged | Complete, with the two narrators split between the frame narrators. |
| Michael Kitchen | 11 hrs 38 mins | Unabridged | Complete and solo. |
| Aimee Lou Wood and Kristin Atherton | 13 hrs 58 mins | Unabridged | Complete. |
| Joanne Froggatt and Rachel Atkins | 12 hrs 32 mins | Unabridged | Complete. |
| Moira Quirk and Dan Stevens | 7 hrs 41 mins | Unabridged | Marked unabridged, but 3 hrs 57 mins shorter than the shortest complete reading here, and 66% of it. That is a large gap and we have not established the cause. |
| Juliet Stevenson | 2 hrs 41 mins | Abridged | ABRIDGED, to 23% of the length of the shortest complete reading here. The same narrator as the complete recording at the top of this table, which is exactly how this one gets bought by mistake. |
| Ishia Bennison | 3 hrs 17 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. |
| Ben Batt, Chloe Pirrie, Emma Fielding and a full cast | 2 hrs 17 mins | Full-cast dramatisation | A radio adaptation rather than a reading. |