While you’re travelling between Two Cities, popping into an Old Curiosity Shop, or visiting a Mutual Friend, you might have an audiobook on.
Audiobooks are a brilliant way to devour a book when you don’t have the time to sit down and read a physical one, as audiobooks can be consumed while you’re doing your weekly shop, on a jog, washing the pots, and just generally doing bits and bobs.
The Amazon-owned audiobook service, Audible, is considered by some the Disney+ of audiobook services as it has some fantastic perks: signing up to Audible gets you unlimited listening to thousands of Audible Originals, podcasts, and audiobooks — alongside one new audiobook every month.
Now, Academy Award-winning director Sam Mendes is throwing his hat into the audiobook ring and has partnered with Audible to produce exclusive audio dramas of three of Charles Dickens’ classic tales.
We have Great Expectations about this collaboration.
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Which Charles Dickens books is Sam Mendes adapting for Audible?
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British director Sam Mendes, who is responsible for iconic movies such as 1917 and Spectre, is collaborating with Audible to produce audio dramas of Charles Dickens’ most popular books.
‘What’s an audio drama?’ we hear you ask. It’s a drama with no visual component, so it relies on dialogue, music and sound effects to help the listener imagine the characters and story.
The first instalment in the collection is a reimagining of Oliver Twist. It will be released exclusively on Audible in November 2022, and a further two titles will follow in 2023.
The series will be brought to life by an all-star British cast, and will be recorded in the city that inspired a lot of the author’s work: London.
Speaking about the audio drama’s location, Sam Mendes said: “The London headquarters of Audible sit on the very streets where Charles Dickens walked, and from which he drew many of his astonishing array of characters.
“It seems like a perfect marriage – the most prolific storytellers of our age, with the greatest storyteller of all time. I’m delighted to be working with Audible to bring some of my favourite Dickens novels to life, using the vibrant sounds of London to create an immersive sense of the city, and a fantastic collection of actors to create the timeless characters who inhabit it.
“This will truly be a cinema for the ears — a chance to experience the extraordinary and kaleidoscopic world of Dickens in a whole new way.”
If you’re not yet an Audible subscriber, then do we have a treat for you. Check out our best Audible deals guide to bag yourself a free 30-day trial or get 50% off your membership for four months, if you know you’ll need more than a month.
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Which Charles Dickens books are on Audible?
Although November isn’t too far away to wait for Sam Mendes’ reimagining of Oliver Twist, there are plenty of Charles Dickens audiobooks available on Audible to sink your teeth into right now. Here’s a list of the titles and who they’re narrated by:
- Great Expectations, narrated by Eddie Izzard
- A Christmas Carol, narrated by Hugh Grant
- Bleak House, narrated by Miriam Margolyes
- A Tale of Two Cities, narrated by Simon Callow
- The Old Curiosity Shop, narrated by George Hagan
- Hard Times, narrated by Alistair Maydon
- Dombey and Son, narrated by John Richmond
- Oliver Twist, narrated by Peter Wickham
- Bleak House, narrated by Sean Barrett and Teresa Gallagher
- A Christmas Carol, narrated by Tom Baker
- Little Dorrit, narrated by Anton Lesser
- Great Expectations, narrated by Martin Jarvis
- Our Mutual Friend, narrated by David Timson
- The Old Curiosity Shop, narrated by Anton Lesser
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Fancy walking in Charles Dickens’ footsteps? Check out our best London walking tours recommendations. For more savings, head over to our best Kindle deals and Sky Sports offers pages.