TEST
Narrated by Richard Armitage
This past spring, in the early days of the pandemic, I read the complete works of Jane Austen, which, I thought, made me rather suited to taking on a review of the audiobook version of The Jane Austen Society, a gentle, quiet, sincere story that is an homage to the work of the author.
In Chawton, England in 1945, lives Adeline Lewis-Grover, an unapologetically modern former schoolteacher dealing with the death of her soldier husband, and subsequently her unborn child (who dies early in the book), Dr. Benjamin Gray is trying to survive both his grief at his widowhood and his subsequent pining for Adeline, and Frances Knight is on the verge of disinheritance by her dying father, who controls the estate where Jane Austen lived. An addition to Chawton is Mimi Harrison, a Hollywood starlet in town for a film shoot with her compellingly sexy but “devoid of a soul” producer fiancé. This group, along with a few other secondary characters, eventually form the Jane Austen Society. Their goal is to keep the material remnants of Austen’s legacy, from letters to writing desk to physical abode, in the care of those who love her work, and make them available to the public.
Jenner wisely doesn’t attempt to imitate Austen’s style – there are no verbal acrobatics here. And she views the fictional inhabitants of her small-town setting with a great deal more affection than Austen ever viewed hers. Jenner also mercifully avoids the surface-level homage that many a romcom has attempted to pay: there are no desperate single women in their twenties here, making lists of WHICH AUSTEN HERO IS HOTTEST. There are, however, an abundance of low-key romances that pay tribute to Austen’s famous couples: Adeline and Dr. Gray are an obvious Mr. Knightley/Emma, Frances and her family’s lawyer, Andrew, are Captain Wentworth and Anne, and Mimi and Jack are Elizabeth/Wickham. A theme of the story is the ability of Austen’s works to alleviate grief, and it plays a twofold role; Austen’s writing acts as a consolation to the characters of The Jane Austen Society, and Jenner’s book in turn is a lovely bit of solace itself. That said, I did find the first third a little over dark in places – when Adeline loses her baby and Dr. Grey observes it’s “too much to bear”, I agreed. And flitting references to possible drug addiction by both Adeline and Dr. Grey as a result of their various griefs are unnecessary.
The characters discuss the books in a thoughtful but refreshingly unpretentious manner; you could read this book without knowledge of Austen’s works, but I wouldn’t suggest it because all the little allusions and analysis add a richness to the experience – and really, what more delightful a prerequisite could you ask for than to read some of the wittiest, cleverest books ever written?
The actual formation and activities of the Jane Austen Society are left until extremely late in the book – they’re only on meeting #2 by the last third of the story. For much of the time before, the storylines of the characters are more loosely connected, with one or two characters clustered together, and sometimes a number of chapters go by without returning to one particular storyline. This isn’t a terrible thing – all the storylines are individually viable – but it’s still odd considering the title touts the society as the core of the book.
While this is an exceptionally easy listen, it also is a little too easy to stop listening. The narrative’s lazy river, low drama tone is both comforting and lacking in propulsion, and so there aren’t many chapters that leave you with an insistent need to keep going.
Richard Armitage’s narration is superb – so superb I think I wouldn’t have enjoyed the book nearly as much had I encountered it in print, which is a reason why I did not award the story itself an A. He does male voices, female voices, Scottish accents, English professional and working-class accents, and Jack’s rumbly American showbusiness tycoon accent that’s too delicious to ever be a parody.
The book format also complicates the narration; there’s lot of month-to-month time-jumping in the span of a few years at the beginning and Armitage’s pauses to mark breaks within chapters are often not long enough to delineate the end of one scene and the start of another.
If you’re looking for something to knit, color, or simply listen to in the upcoming ‘bleak midwinter’, The Jane Austen Society will fill your house with a number of good companions.
Breakdown of Grade: Narration – A- Story – B+
Running time: 9 hours 55 minutes
Buy it at: Amazon, Audible, or your local independent bookstore
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Grade: B+
Book Type: Audiobook
Sensuality: N/A
Review Date: 10/11/20
Publication Date: 05/2020
Recent Comments …
Yep
This sounds delightful! I’m grabbing it, thanks
excellent book: interesting, funny dialogs, deep understanding of each character, interesting secondary characters, and also sexy.
I don’t think anyone expects you to post UK prices – it’s just a shame that such a great sale…
I’m sorry about that. We don’t have any way to post British prices as an American based site.
I have several of her books on my TBR and after reading this am moving them up the pile.
Part-time cowgirl, part-time city girl. Always working on converting all my friends into romance readers ("Charlotte, that was the raunchiest thing I have ever read!").
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I loved this book! I listened to the audiobook version and thought it was outstanding!!
I’ve tried to read this several times and just can’t get through it. So slow and boring!!
Not related to the book but related to Jane Austen, so I will go ahead and mention it. This morning I met with two friends (outside and socially distanced). One of my friends talked about an exhibit she’d seen at the Pierpont Morgan Library in NYC. I said it’s one of my favorite museums and mentioned that I’d once seen an exhibit there about Jane Austen, which was interesting in and of itself, but one of the most memorable bits was a video of people talking about how Austen had influenced their work. One of the artists in the video was Spike Lee. I’ve liked some of his work, but if you’d asked me whether he and Jane Austen had anything in common, I don’t think I would have said yes until I heard him talk a bit about what he’d got from her.
My mom and I just had a discussion about what it means to call someone the greatest writer in the English language. (An NYT article said it was Dickens.) I said it really depends on how you define greatest. It’s tough to beat Shakespeare but he didn’t write novels. But for novelists, in today’s world and for the past century, I’d bet far more people have read and enjoyed Austen and her stories.
It’s like apples and oranges though – I love both Austen and Dickens (and Trollope, who doesn’t get enough love, IMO!) but they feel so very different when I read them. As you say, it depends on the judgment criteria.
I started listening to this last week and I have found it slow going. I will usually listen to anything Richard Armitage reads. I often listen while I fold laundry, cook, color etc. but have been switching to The Spymaster series.
Thank you for this review. I love Richard Armitage’s narrations, and the book sounds promising.
Oh, I could not get into the book at all, but the audio sounds like it might be worth a second try!
We read this for our book club several weeks ago. Mixed reactions to it; I also couldn’t get into it and I didn’t like the way the author sometimes planted thoughts and feelings and reactions that weren’t supported by the actual events in the story. Characters seemed to know a lot about how other characters felt at any given time.
The “surprise!” gay relationship was underdeveloped and seemingly thrown in simply to ‘add’ something to the story. It didn’t. I found it almost offensive – two single men, one of whom is gay and one who simply seems lonely, should probably end up together. Um. No. Nothing in the story supported this development.
Regardless, several of my friends also very much enjoyed this story. I will recommend your review & the audio to them!
This, by the way, is a very highly rated movie!
I couldn’t find it in movie format, just the Jane Austen Book Club. I remember reading the latter several years ago, although I don’t remember much about it. Will have to keep looking for JAS as a movie cause it definitely sounds like my cuppa.
I enjoyed the Jane Austen Book Club movie. It has enough depth and humor not be silly, and the acting is great.
I think you are maybe thinking of The Jane Austen Book Club?
I read this earlier this fall. I did find the beginning a little slow and sad but I persevered and was so glad I did. I would give it a B+ in print as well. It will be too slow for some but I think that the pace matched the villagers’ lives well.