Pride & Prejudice is one of the most loved and widely adapted of Austen’s works. Since it was first published in 1813, Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice has sold over 20 million copies, and is now one of the most recognizable names in British literature. Though it was written over 200 years ago, it remains relevant. Not only is it a beautifully written love story with a happy ending, but it contains timeless insights about human nature that reminds readers that first impressions can often be wrong.

I recently re-read Pride and Prejudice and have come to the shocking realization that I am Mr. Darcy. Besides the fact that he is the big book collector of the story, (What a delightful library you have at Pemberley, Mr. Darcy!”), I identified a lot with the mental health struggles his character face. After this new look at the text, I noticed a lot of details that made me view Darcy’s character less as prideful and more as socially anxious.

Mr. Darcy has definitely been conditioned to take pride in his riches and status, and he comes off as arrogant, standoffish, and cold. But the more Elizabeth learns about Darcy’s life and family, the more she hears people singing his praises. His sister adores him, his cousin admires him over anyone else in the world, Bingley trusts him implicitly, and even the housekeeper at Pemberley refers to him as “the sweetest, most generous-hearted boy in the world.” As the story progresses, it becomes less believable that he is the cold, pretentious character that his previous public appearances made him seem. I think this is pretty common for people with social anxiety, especially those who hide it well.

The word “anxiety” is used 19 times in the text, and “anxious” is used 28 times. (For anyone curious, Pride is used 48 times, and prejudice is used just 7 times!)

Social anxiety is a mental health condition characterized by fear and self-consciousness in social settings. People with social anxiety are often afraid that others are judging them and consistently worry about potential embarrassment. These extreme fears are often irrational, but to those with social anxiety they feel painfully real. Social anxiety can hinder sufferers’ ability to interact with new people, participate in social functions, or speak up in large group settings. According to the National Institute of Mental Health, about 7% of Americans suffer from social anxiety. Though the condition is not uncommon, it doesn’t receive a lot of attention, which can leave people with social anxiety feeling lonely and misunderstood.

The reader is introduced to Darcy’s social anxiety the moment we meet him. At the ball, he refuses to dance, saying: “I certainly shall not. You know how I detest it, unless I am particularly acquainted with my partner.” As someone who can recognize anxiety, this sounds like a defense mechanism. Darcy is not comfortable dancing, or even communicating, with the guests he doesn’t know. For Lizzy, she misunderstands and thinks Darcy is just really rude, but for someone with social anxiety, I understand where he is coming from because it does sound like the ninth circle of hell.

“I certainly have not the talent which some people possess,” said Darcy, “of conversing easily with those I have never seen before. I cannot catch their tone of conversation, or appear interested in their concerns, as I often see done.”

Later in the book, Darcy admits to Lizzy that he struggles to “converse easily” with people he doesn’t know yet. This is a massive moment of growth for Darcy—he’s letting his walls down and admitting to Lizzy that he struggles, and it shows how much Darcy trusts Lizzy already. For Darcy to verbalize that he struggles with this is a momentous thing: In this era, social anxiety wouldn’t have been discussed, and probably wasn’t very accepted. We see this in Lizzy’s dismissive tease about how he should just ‘practice’ more when it comes to speaking to strangers—today, we know more about anxiety and understand that it doesn’t really work like that, Elizabeth.

After this re-reading of Pride and Prejudice, I am seeing Mr. Darcy as someone who struggles with anxiety. While he is prideful in some ways, I cant help but think that maybe the reason he is so quiet and dismissive is actually due to an anxiety disorder, rather than cut-and-dry pridefulness..

DNF at 20%

This is so frustrating. I'm not really bored per se.
The narrator does a good job narrating. Mrs. Bennett's voice is done real shrilly and its like nails on a chalkboard.
I can suffer through that for the sake of this story. Pride and Prejudice has been on my TBR for years and I love the movie with Kiera Knightly and Matthew McFadden.

The main reason for this DNF is the malfunctioning of my NetGalley Shelf. The audio stops playing in between chapters, Sometimes in the middle of the chapters and I have to relaunch. I've just had enough.

Thank you so much for a copy of this audiobook for review! Pride and Prejudice is one of my all time favourite books and I absolutely loved this narration! It was so great to reread and revisit some of my favourite characters. I definitely recommend listening to this edition!
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*will post link when posted!

I am a huge fan of Pride and Prejudice and have listened, read and watched the story numerous times. When I saw this title advertised on Netgalley as a new recording I was eager to listen to it again. I won't bore you with a review of the book as it is a classic, but more a review the narrator.

Adjoa Andoh (Narrator) is best known as a British film, television, stage and radio actress. On stage, she has played lead roles with the Royal Shakespeare Company, the National Theatre, and most recently played Lady Danbury in the Bridgerton series on Netflix, in which she did an amazing job.

She has a very nice tone to her voice, , however I felt a lot of the time she spoke very quickly, so had I not already known the story, I would have easily lost track. Also sometimes when portraying Mrs Bennett her voice got a little screechy, which was annoying. But again if you know the character well, she can be a little like marmite so maybe it was artistic licence she was using and that's the point. I wouldn't choose to listen to this version again there were too many things that irked me but it was enjoyable to refresh myself with the book again.

Thank you to Netgalley and the published for a copy of this audiobook in exchange for an honest reviews. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

I had already loved and adored Pride and Prejudice when I first read it physically. Adding this audio in, though, added life into the story and I loved it even more.

Adjoa Andoh gives a solid and enjoyable performance of Pride and Prejudice in this audiobook. Most of the voices were distinct, making it was easy to follow the story and easy to listen to. The choices for those voices were a bit surprising at times (Bingley and Darcy sound…Scottish? I’m not sure.) but easy enough to adjust to. The most jarring choice was for Elizabeth, and it threw me each time I heard it. Elizabeth sounded very old, and her voice nearly matched that of her father’s. Some readers may find this choice hard to get through, and I recommend sampling the narration to determine if that will be the case for you.

Not being a fan of Jane Austen, and deciding I should retry to enjoy her work, I requested this title because I love Adjoa Andoh. Her narration was wonderful and I enjoyed the story. Well done Adjoa!

Thanks to #NetGalley for the opportunity to listen to this audiobook in exchange for an honest review

Pride and Prejudice is a delightful story ahead of its time. Written over two centuries ago, its hate-to-love storyline was as entertaining then as it is now. With all the additional drama of various ridiculous relations, love triangles, and several secondary romances.

The narrator’s enactment easily identified each character. Their acting was lively enough to embody the characters and move the story along without overdramatic Which could have easily happened due to the frequent hysterics several secondary characters express and experience. The accent and tone were “light British” as in it was not as prim and forceful sounding in diction as some of the other audio recordings of this book I have listened to (I honestly have no idea how do describe this and intend no disrespect to anyone). And not a straightforward “American” accent, which would be weird and unappealing for England.

If one is unfamiliar with this writing style, I would recommend particularly. And if you are, this is an enjoyable listen, so I would to that person too.

Revisiting your favorite classics is one of the best feeling. And having it done with audiobook made it all the more enjoyable and easy🙊🙈.

The narration was smooth as butter, the story is one my second favorite works of Jane Austen (the best remains to be Emma).

Would recommend it to people who want to enter classic works and want something lite to read.

5 stars

Pride and Prejudice has long been my favourite classic story. I’ve read (and watched) it multiple times in various editions, but this was my first audiobook interpretation of the text. The narrator is great (her voice for Mrs. Bennet was a bit grating, but I’m pretty sure that was the point!), and when I saw that it was set to release on my birthday, I knew I needed to check it out. This was a really fun version of a story that I’ve pretty much always loved, and I enjoyed this time with it as much as ever before. I would definitely recommend it. Off to extend the joy by watching one of the TV or film adaptations again now, I think!

This audiobook is masterfully narrated by actress Adjoa Andoh ('Bridgerton', 'Doctor Who'). The narration has good pace and flow,and the narrators voices seemed right for the characters they were portraying. I listened to this as an audio book and felt the narrators really helped bring the story to life. Simply gorgeous.

There isn't much to say on the book itself - a beloved classic of literature. So this review is on the audio book narrated by Bridgerton actress Adjoa Andoh.

Andoh is an excellent actress and did her role as Lady Danbury on Bridgerton well. However, I did not find the same enjoyment of this audio book narration. Her read is very fast, often hard to distinguish characters from each other, and her smooth and mellow voice did feel a bit too mature for Jane, Lizzie, et all. All the emotional characters like Mrs. Bennett and Lydia sounded overwrought and screechy to the point that it hurt my ears at times. Odd accents crept in all the time (Irish? Scottish?) that did not sound like how I would imagine a posh Regency noble would. Too often, I could not understand what was being said and it felt like I was missing so much nuance as a result. To be fair, this is highly subjective and issues I had with the narration would not necessarily be the experiences of others. It's always best to sample first.

I always appreciate and respect the personality a narrator gives to an audiobook. Although this particular instance did not resonate with me, I imagine others will be delighted with the read. Reviewed from an advance reader copy provided by the publisher.

Jane Austen's novels are always a welcome treat, and most of them have been read more than once!

This particular audiobook edition of "Pride and Prejudice" was a delight.
(I absolutely love the Lady Danbury character from the Bridgerton series on Netflix. And I must admit that I was so excited for the chance to listen to "Pride and Prejudice" narrated by Lady Danbury herself aka Adjoa Andoh.)

It did not disappoint - I did not know one person could have so many different voices within her...
I loved this edition!

It’s always a lovely surprise when I find an audiobook that I’m ready to order after hearing just a few minutes. This was one of those times. I’ve read and listened to P&P in so many iterations that I’ve lost count. Yet, I’m always hesitant to use it in class because I find the language is just outside most of my students abilities and language acumen and frequently the narration is overly slow or so heavily accented that it adds to the confusion. But this version is the perfect combination. Lovely narration that is fast paced, and the voice actor admirably fluctuates among the various characters making each unique and taking away a lot of the confusion often associated with an audiobook.
The British accent transports the listener to the proper setting and mindset.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an ALC iN exchange for my honest opinion.

No one is doubting Adjoa's acting (and voice acting) abilities, but I just don't think her voice quite suits this story. The main characters are not so old, and you can definitely hear age in voice. Also, her voice for Mrs. Bennet was positively ear grating, I just couldn't bear listening to it.

I'm sure plenty will love this audiobook, but the Elizabeth Bennet voice is just not captured for me, which really dampens my enjoyment.

Pride and prejudice, is one of my all time favourites and I read it approximately once a year, sometimes as a book/ebook and other times in audiobook format. As such, I am always on the lookout for different narrations to bring something new to my experience.

However, though the story is as engrossing as always, I found the narration in this version a little jarring to my ears, and had a kind of metallic echo ( I don’t know if its an issue with only my copy) which greatly hindered my enjoyment of the book.

Long story short, I had to dnf it midways. Just couldn’t take it any longer. But it could be just me.

A beautiful classic made even better by a very fun narrator!! I hope to hear more narrations of classics, from this narrator in the future! Well done and very entertaining!

Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen is a classic for a reason. Austen's work is timeless and perfect place to start when delving into classics. Pride and Prejudice is tied for my second favorite work by Austen and is the ultimate hate-to-love romance story.

Pride and Prejudice follows Elizabeth Bennet as she first meets eligible bachelor Fitzwilliam Darcy. Upon their first meeting, she thinks him arrogant and conceited, while he he is indifferent to her good looks and lively mind. When she later discovers that Darcy has involved himself in the troubled relationship between his friend Bingley and her beloved sister Jane, she is determined to dislike him more than ever.

The is a beautiful edition of the timeless love story and a great way to engage in this timeless classic. I highly recommend this!

I received this book free from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Pride & Prejudice is a favorite classic that I return to often, so I was quite excited to listen to this new recording. Adjoa Andoh has a lovely voice and this performance was mostly enjoyable. However, the character voices were very grating, to the point that I would not want to revisit this particular audiobook.
I do think Andoh has the perfect voice for narrating a mystery or thriller.

Pros: Pride and Prejudice is a well-known classic and one of my personal favorites. I was curious to listen to this new audio version of the book because I've listened to several other narrations in the past. I thought this narrator did a wonderful job performing this much-loved book.

Cons: None!

Thank you to NetGalley and Saga Egmont Audio for the opportunity to listen to this book.