A Visitor's Guide to Jane Austen's England cover art

A Visitor's Guide to Jane Austen's England

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About this listen

Immerse yourself in the vanished world inhabited by Jane Austen's contemporaries. Packed with detail and anecdotes, this is an intimate exploration of how the middle and upper classes lived from 1775, the year of Austen's birth, to the coronation of George IV in 1820. Sue Wilkes skillfully conjures up all aspects of daily life within the period, drawing on contemporary diaries, illustrations, letters, novels, travel literature, and archives.

  • Were all unmarried affluent men really "in want of a wife"?
  • Where would a young lady seek adventure?
  • Would "taking the waters" at Bath and other spas kill or cure you?
  • Was Lizzy Bennet bitten by bed-bugs while traveling?
  • What would you wear to a country ball or a dance at Almack's?
  • Would Mr. Darcy have worn a corset?
  • What hidden horrors lurked in elegant Regency houses?
©2014 Sue Wilkes (P)2021 Tantor Europe Great Britain
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I found this book to be really well researched and full of small bits of information that relate directly to Jane Austen stories. However the narration is quite off putting, almost as if the narrator is reading to five year olds. Shame because the narrator spoilt the book for me and I couldn't finish it

Well researched, weird narration though

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I really wanted to listen to this book so decided to go ahead despite not liking the sound of the narrator in the sample. But gosh it got a lot worse. She is totally unnatural - I am sure it is AI. Makes it very hard to actually concentrate on the content bc you become so wrapped up in listening to the weird voice. It’s also so slow you have to set the speed at 1.2x which feels both fast and yet still at times too slow as the narrator speeds up then slows right down, separating out each individual word with ridiculous and unnatural pauses between each word. Like. Reading. A. Sentence. Like. . . This.

Surely the narrator is AI

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I don't feel like I learned a lot. It often felt like the fictional excerpts were providing the "history" rather than a historical analysis providing a contextual understanding of Austen's novels. Easy enough to listen to if you want a reminder of Austen storytelling but that's about it.

Fictional anecdotes

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Overall recommend. I couldn’t work out if the reader was an AI program or human - nice voice but weirdly robotic intonation and pace!

Fascinating insight into Austen’s World

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Although interesting book is a little clunky in places, not helped by the narrator who seems to struggle with pronunciations does not help the flow and meaning of the text

Interesting, but a different narrator needed

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