PRIDE AND PREJUDICE

In this well-produced audio version of Austen's classic, narrator Rosamund Pike elegantly delivers the engaging prose, barbed wit, and social subtleties. She portrays a Bennet family with all their controlled chaos intact. Elizabeth is appropriately snarky, Darcy is prideful and prejudiced, long-suffering Mr. Bennet is stoic, and Mrs. B. is amusingly crass as she attempts to find husbands for their five daughters. Pike's presentation of the sophisticated subtext adds sparkle and color to the conversations, whether coarse or refined. As the satire turns romantic, Pike reveals Elizabeth and Darcy as they grow and change in their spoken and unspoken feelings for each other. Pike's intelligent, nuanced performance of this classic will endear the Bennets to faithful Austen fans and those new to the story. S.J.H. © AudioFile 2016, Portland, Maine [Published: DECEMBER 2016]