Pride and Prejudice

Jane Austen · Comedy · 61 chapters · 11h 0m · 13 voices

Elizabeth Bennet meets the proud, wealthy Mr. Darcy — and immediately dislikes him. Austen's most beloved comedy of manners follows five sisters navigating love, money, and the insufferable Mr. Collins in Regency England.

Austen is filed here under comedy and the recording treats her that way. The novel is built out of conversations in which what is said and what is meant are different things, and the comedy is in the gap — Mr Bennet amusing himself at his wife's expense, Mr Collins proposing at length to a woman who has already refused, Lady Catherine interrogating someone who declines to be intimidated. None of that depends on a narrator doing voices; it depends on two people being audibly different while speaking with perfect politeness. Sixty-one chapters, about eleven hours, and an unusually large cast for a domestic novel.

The voices that carry it

Mr Collins is the part everyone waits for, and he is cast earnest rather than buffoonish, because Austen's joke is that he means all of it. Mr Bennet is the opposite: everything he says is a joke and nobody around him notices.

Chapter one plays without an account. Start listening to Pride and Prejudice.

Voice cast

12 characters plus the narrator, each with their own voice. All the voices of Pride and Prejudice.

Elizabeth Bennet — The second Bennet daughter — witty, spirited, quick-minded, and dangerously certain of her own judgement. Her initial dislike of Darcy is deliciously wrong.
Mr. Darcy — The wealthy, proud, taciturn master of Pemberley. His manner reads as contempt but conceals intense feeling. Gradually revealed to be honourable and deeply loyal.
Mrs. Bennet — The Bennet matriarch, entirely consumed by the project of marrying off her five daughters. Neurotic, silly, easily delighted, easily wounded.
Mr. Bennet — The Bennet patriarch — sardonic, witty, detached. He retreats to his library and delivers cutting observations from behind irony. His failure to manage his family is a serious flaw beneath the comedy.
Jane Bennet — The eldest and most beautiful Bennet daughter. Gentle, sweet, and constitutionally incapable of thinking ill of anyone — which makes her both lovable and frustrating.
Mr. Bingley — The cheerful, wealthy newcomer to Netherfield who falls immediately for Jane. Genuinely amiable, easily influenced, altogether pleasant.
Mr. Collins — The Bennet heir and clergyman — absurdly pompous, sycophantic toward Lady Catherine, and oblivious to his own ridiculousness. Proposes to Elizabeth with hilarious self-importance.
Miss Bingley — Charles Bingley's snobbish sister Caroline — elegantly dressed, perpetually condescending, jealous of Elizabeth's hold on Darcy.
Lydia Bennet — The youngest and loudest Bennet daughter — flirtatious, silly, completely self-absorbed. Her elopement with Wickham threatens the whole family.
Wickham — A charming, handsome militia officer whose false account of Darcy's conduct deceives everyone, including Elizabeth. A plausible liar with a gambling debt and no principles.

Chapters

Chapter I 4m
Chapter II 4m
Chapter III 9m
Chapter IV 6m
Chapter V 5m
Chapter VI 13m
Chapter VII 11m
Chapter VIII 11m
Chapter IX 9m
Chapter X 12m
Chapter XI 9m
Chapter XII 4m
Chapter XIII 9m
Chapter XIV 7m
Chapter XV 9m
Chapter XVI 18m
Chapter XVII 7m
Chapter XVIII 28m
Chapter XIX 11m
Chapter XX 9m
Chapter XXI 11m
Chapter XXII 9m
Chapter XXIII 9m
Chapter XXIV 11m
Chapter XXV 8m
Chapter XXVI 12m
Chapter XXVII 7m
Chapter XXVIII 8m
Chapter XXIX 14m
Chapter XXX 7m
Chapter XXXI 9m
Chapter XXXII 8m
Chapter XXXIII 10m
Chapter XXXIV 11m
Chapter XXXV 16m
Chapter XXXVI 11m
Chapter XXXVII 8m
Chapter XXXVIII 6m
Chapter XXXIX 8m
Chapter XL 9m
Chapter XLI 12m
Chapter XLII 10m
Chapter XLIII 26m
Chapter XLIV 13m
Chapter XLV 10m
Chapter XLVI 17m
Chapter XLVII 21m
Chapter XLVIII 12m
Chapter XLIX 12m
Chapter L 12m
Chapter LI 11m
Chapter LII 15m
Chapter LIII 15m
Chapter LIV 9m
Chapter LV 13m
Chapter LVI 16m
Chapter LVII 9m
Chapter LVIII 13m
Chapter LIX 13m
Chapter LX 8m
Chapter LXI 7m

About this recording

Why is Pride and Prejudice listed as comedy?

It is a comedy of manners, and the catalogue genre reflects what the book does rather than how it is usually marketed — the plot is romantic but the writing is satirical throughout.

How many characters have their own voices?

Thirteen, including all five of the Bennet family who speak, Darcy, Bingley, Wickham, Mr Collins and Lady Catherine. The full cast is listed on the voices page for this book.