Listen free for 30 days

Listen with offer

Offer ends May 1st, 2024 11:59PM GMT. Terms and conditions apply.
£7.99/month after 3 months. Renews automatically.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
Odd Girl Out cover art

Odd Girl Out

By: Elizabeth Jane Howard
Narrated by: Eleanor Bron
Get this deal Try for £0.00

Pay £99p/month. After 3 months pay £7.99/month. Renews automatically. See terms for eligibility.

£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Buy Now for £14.99

Buy Now for £14.99

Pay using card ending in
By completing your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and authorise Audible to charge your designated card or any other card on file. Please see our Privacy Notice, Cookies Notice and Interest-based Ads Notice.

Listeners also enjoyed...

Something in Disguise cover art
The Long View cover art
The Beautiful Visit cover art
Elizabeth Jane Howard cover art
The Light Years cover art
The Cazalets cover art
Killing Helen cover art
The Men and the Girls cover art
An Imaginative Experience cover art
Someone at a Distance cover art
Alfie cover art
The Garden Party cover art
Mums on the Run cover art
Love and Other Secrets cover art
Next of Kin cover art
The Colour cover art

Summary

Anne and Edmund Cornhill have a happy marriage and a charming house. They are content, complete, absorbed in their private idyll. Arabella, who comes to stay one lazy summer, is rich, rootless and amoral - and, as they find out, beautiful and loving.

With her elegant prose the author traces the web of love and desire that entangles these three; but it is Arabella who finally loses out.

©1972 Elizabeth Jane Howard (P)2014 Audible, Inc.

What listeners say about Odd Girl Out

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    59
  • 4 Stars
    24
  • 3 Stars
    11
  • 2 Stars
    0
  • 1 Stars
    2
Performance
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    68
  • 4 Stars
    14
  • 3 Stars
    5
  • 2 Stars
    0
  • 1 Stars
    1
Story
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    50
  • 4 Stars
    24
  • 3 Stars
    10
  • 2 Stars
    2
  • 1 Stars
    2

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

Sort by:
Filter by:
  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Nothing much happens but unputdownable

Would you consider the audio edition of Odd Girl Out to be better than the print version?

Yes. There is a lot of minutiae in Elizabeth Howard books, which give great richness in an audiobook but might be tempted to skip in print.

Who was your favorite character and why?

Most interested in the husband

Which character – as performed by Eleanor Bron – was your favourite?

The odd girl out. I had expected to find her very irritating but the narrator brought empathy to her role

Did you have an emotional reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

Not so much emotional as stimulating. Very interesting 'read'.

Any additional comments?

Eleanor Bron is a fantastic narrator. I often find women narrators have dreadful hissing or whistling 'S's which drives me up the wall. Eleanor Bron both knows how to talk properly and brings great depth to the characters and description.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

10 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

Shallow and dated

I found all the characters in this book pretty shallow, selfish and mannered. I'm not sure when it was written but it's very dated without being classical. I've enjoyed other books by this author but this one is a turkey.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

7 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

What a delicious freeze frame of the 70''s, Joy!

I dithered over getting this for a long time due to negative reviews but finally took the plunge and can safely say "Come on in the water is delicious!"
I thoroughly enjoyed this trip in the time machine to a completely different age where one day seemed to last about a week with the amount of things people got done - picking raspberries, cracking crab, aspicing things with a basil (I think) leaf. Wow it was such a journey to a gentler time.
For those people who reviewed saying how could a happy couple be open to distraction?
Obviously you have never been in a long time relationship, happy or otherwise!
I found this to be such a tender story and so beautifully written in any age but all that delicious seventies style pizazz - the trouser suits, the hair styling, the endless food prep all pure gold.
The dark backstory and the careless business trip all counterbalanced the domesticity to perfection and I drank it all like a fabulous retro cocktail.
I think this is one of the few audiobooks which I will listen to again as such a delicious trip to another world and the intriguing psychology of a relationship and the cracks one never knows are there until they are tested by temptation.
A very modern tale set in the gorgeous glamour of yesteryear.
Total vibe - I loved it!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

6 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

A disappointing story

Eleanor Bron is a brilliant narrator and brings the best it is possible to the story the story is a huge disappointment especially after just reading the five Cazalet Chronicles.

It starts well, bringing the characters to life in her inimitable way. Then it appears to become a platform for a debate between the equality of the sexes and uses this to break apart a perfectly functional and extremely happy marriage. This marriage would’ve been a case of what you’ve never experienced you’ve never missed, but the odd girl out has made sure both parties know the physical pleasures that are available to them and what their life could be like if they continued in a totally selfish vein, rather than respecting each other’s boundaries and routines as they always had. If they’d been unhappy in the first place this could have been acceptable, but the fact they weren’t makes the whole premise of the story ridiculous. Extremely disappointing!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Captivating Story!

Although not set in the modern day, this is a very contemporary and artful tale of loyalties challenged and relationships entangled in interesting ways. Eleanor Bron has the most delicious voice and, the combination of this with the great writing, makes for hours of enjoyment. I thoroughly recommend this audiobook.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

Different

I’m undecided on this. Half vacuous characters. I’ve listened twice and still don’t really understand the value of the sun story. Not bad, not one of her best.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Wonderful

As always with E J Howard the story is enthralling and the writing first class I love books written in the time and style they are set in The reading was also excellent I shed a few tears and am so pleased that women's lives are better in the present

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

In favour of this Odd Girl!

Thoroughly enjoyed this story by one of my favourite authors. It was enhanced by Eleanor Bron’s intelligent and sympathetic delivery. An unusual plot and vividly-drawn characters and settings. The novel is entertaining, absorbing and thought-provoking.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Bedside manners

Thoughtful take on habitation versus desire and the presumptions existing in male female relationships.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Brilliant

Beautifully read & a gripping story. I wish there was sequel so I would know what happened to the people in the story

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful