Venetia

By: Georgette Heyer

Narrated by: Gemma Whelan

Brought to you by Penguin.

In all her 25 years, Venetia Lanyon has never been further than Harrogate.

Nor has she enjoyed the attentions of any man aside from her two wearisomely persistent suitors.

Then, in one extraordinary encounter, she meets a neighbour she knew only by reputation - the infamous Jasper Damerel.

Before she realises it, Venetia is encouraging a man whose way of life has scandalised the North Riding for years.

©1958 Penguin Audio (P)2021 Penguin Audio

Critic reviews

"One of my perennial comfort authors. Heyer's books are as incisively witty and quietly subversive as any of Jane Austen's." (Joanne Harris)

"Absolutely delicious tales of Regency heroes.... Utter, immersive escapism." (Sophie Kinsella)

"Rapturously romantic." (Katie Fforde)

Excellent narration!

I’m a new Heyer reader and this was my first. I really enjoyed the story, but I have to say it was the narrator who is the star. Gemma Whelan is just excellent. I have listened to some of my favorite books narrated by popular actors who did such a wretched job I couldn’t enjoy the listen. Narration is another skill set entirely apart from acting, and I am glad to report that Whelan passes with flying colors. I’m now searching all books narrated by Gemma Whelan in great hopes that she’s done many more Heyer books!

If we can’t have…

To my mind the perfect casting for this superlative story would have been young Jean Simmons and Stewart Granger in the late 1940s when they did the British film Adam and Evelyn. But this reader does wonderfully. Can’t wait to listen again.

Outstanding!

One of my favorite GH novels and was surprised by the excellent narration. The narrator was very good and understood the story and characters.

One of my favorite GH novels and I have read them all.

love this story. Both characters are likeable and original. Their story is fun with a number of unexpected twists and turns. The narrator does a wonderful job of interpretation. One of my favorite GH novels.

Only The Grand Sophie is Better!

Delightful story. No idea how true to period it would be, but certainly fun. I just wonder if all regency era men just assumed they would marry someone and just started trying to interfere in their lives.

One of Heyer’s best!

VENETIA is one of Heyer’s best and funniest novels. While I’m glad to see it return in a new print and audio edition, it deserves a better narrator than this one—someone who’s fully conversant with pronunciation and early 19th century terminology. Still worth a listen!

My favourite Georgette Heyer's book yet

so far this has been my favourite book, love the characters and story.
laughed out loud so many times.

Love it!

Georgette Heyer is my favorite, well one of them. And the narrator did justice to this masterpiece.

Narrator ruined it for me - too robotic

The narrative sounded good at first but then so robotic in the second half of the book that it hurt my ears. The story itself was pretty boring and perhaps the narrator got bored, too. Venetia sounded like she was read by AI in second half of the book.

Narrator Ruins It

This was such a frustrating experience. I've never read this Georgette Heyer before and loved the story from the start. I really, really, really wanted to continue and I was able to make it through about four chapters before I just had to stop. This is one of the worst narrators ever and I'm so PO'ed she ruined a great book for me. I simply could not torture myself. She does not know WHAT she is doing. She races along from one sentence to the next oblivious of diction, pausing, dramatic effect and simple readability. It's like it's all simply one long unbroken paragraph of text on a page. Her voice is grating and characters sound all the same with exaggerated shouty voices.

It is SO disappointing that we finally, finally have Heyer on Audible and yet I still can't enjoy them. This is not the first time an actor has ruined an audiobook for me. I wish someone would explain to the powers that be that just because you can act on film does not mean you will be able to narrate a book!