S&S · Read by Karen Savage · 11 h 0 min
Sense and Sensibility, the audiobook that reads along
Karen Savage’s LibriVox recording of the complete novel — matched to the text page by page in Chromatics. Press play and the page you see is the page you hear, at any speed from 1× to 2×. When the page ends, so does the audio.
Norland Park · Sussex · Ch. I
This page really plays.
The panel on the right is the novel’s first page as the app renders it — the famous cool opening, an estate settling onto the wrong branch of the family in the driest prose Austen ever aimed. The play button works: it plays exactly this page of the recording and stops where the page stops, which is what reading along means here. Ninety seconds, and you will understand why people love this narrator.
With JavaScript off, you still get the page; the recording itself lives at LibriVox either way.
The family of Dashwood had long been settled in Sussex. Their estate was large, and their residence was at Norland Park, in the centre of their property, where, for many generations, they had lived in so respectable a manner as to engage the general good opinion of their surrounding acquaintance.
The late owner of this estate was a single man, who lived to a very advanced age, and who for many years of his life, had a constant companion and housekeeper in his sister.
S&S · The plain facts
What this is, plainly
The recording is Karen Savage’s performance for LibriVox — complete and unabridged, and one of the most listened-to Austen recordings in the project’s catalog. Savage’s Austen is the reason many people finish their first classic audiobook: light, quick, and genuinely funny, with the dialogue timing of someone who is in on every joke. Audible sells fine studio narrations if you want a famous voice. This one is free, and it does something the others do not: it reads along with you — the text on the page, every speaker in their own color, the recording following your place rather than the other way round.
Sense and Sensibility is featured in Chromatics right now, which means the whole experience — colors, scene banner, audio — is free in full. If you lose track of who is scheming while you listen, the characters page sorts the whole cast, film faces included.
S&S · Public domain · Since before Victoria
Why this audiobook is free
No trial, no trick: the novel has been out of copyright for two centuries, and LibriVox recordings are public domain from the day they are made. There are several honest ways to listen free, and only one of them is ours:
| Where | What you get | Reads along with the text? |
|---|---|---|
| Chromatics (this one) | Savage’s recording matched page by page, every speaker in color, 1–2× speed | Yes — that’s the feature |
| LibriVox / Internet Archive | The same recording as MP3 or M4B files to download and keep | No — audio only |
| YouTube & Spotify | Various uploads of public-domain recordings, ads depending | No — audio only |
| Audible & co. | Paid studio narrations, subscription or purchase | No — audio only |
S&S · 50 chapters · 11 h 0 min
The chapters
Fifty short chapters — Austen’s scenes move fast — totalling 11 hours at 1×. The giant of the set is Chapter 44, Willoughby’s midnight confession, at just over half an hour of a man explaining himself to the one person who owes him nothing.
Durations are the actual chapter files, to the second.
| At this speed | The whole novel takes |
|---|---|
| 1× | 11 h 0 min |
| 1.25× | about 8 h 48 min |
| 1.5× | about 7 h 20 min |
| 2× | about 5 h 30 min |
S&S · Asked and answered
Quick answers
Is the Sense and Sensibility audiobook really free?
Yes — the novel has been public domain for two centuries, and LibriVox recordings are public domain from birth. Free to stream, download, or read along with in Chromatics.
How long is it?
11 hours unabridged at 1×; the speed table above does the rest of the arithmetic.
Who narrates it?
Karen Savage, whose Austen recordings are among the most listened-to in LibriVox’s catalog — light, quick, and in on every joke. If you want a celebrity, Audible sells several; they don’t read along.
Is it abridged?
No. The complete 1811 text, all fifty chapters; the durations in the table are the actual files, to the second.
Can I read along while I listen?
In Chromatics, yes — press play and the page you see is the page you hear, every speaker in their own color. The demo above plays the novel’s real first page, right here.
Eleven hours of Karen Savage, the text following along in color, free in full while the book is featured — and the film arrives in October.
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