THANDIE NEWTON’S PERFORMANCE OF CHARLOTTE BRONTË’S JANE EYRENOW AVAILABLE AS AN AUDIO DOWNLOAD AT AUDIBLE

THANDIE NEWTON’S PERFORMANCE OF CHARLOTTE BRONTË’S JANE EYRENOW AVAILABLE AS AN AUDIO DOWNLOAD AT AUDIBLE

NEW RECORDING OF BRONTË’S MASTERPIECE CELEBRATES THE BICENTENARY OF HER BIRTH

21st April 2016 – Audible Studios, a production arm of Audible.com, today announced the release of acclaimed stage and screen actress Thandie Newton’s audio interpretation of Charlotte Brontë’s beloved novel Jane Eyre. Two centuries after Brontë was born, this intimate enactment of her most enduring work is now available for download at audible.co.uk/JaneEyre.

"Jane Eyre is in a class of its own. It’s romantic, dramatic, spiritual, and it remains extremely relevant today” said Newton, the star of The Pursuit of Happyness, Crash, Mission Impossible:II and the upcoming HBO series Westworld.“The book brilliantly mirrors the reality of being a human being. I loved using my voice to bring these characters to life. I gave myself over to the story completely, breathing the book in and then gently exhaling it for the listener in what became a very personal and intimate interpretation. There is a special magic in audiobook performance, being read to is one of the most comforting and nourishing bits of stimulus that exists. It’s a luxury and a pleasure. It feels like I’ll be sending the gift of the book out to a lot of people I don’t even know, and that is such a privilege.”



Newton recorded Jane Eyre in Audible’s London studios.

“Jane Eyre has been interpreted so many times over the years, but you haven’t quite experienced it until you’ve heard the extremely talented Thandie Newton read it to you,” said Audible EVP and Publisher Beth Anderson. “Her astonishing performance really calls attention to how ahead-of-her-time Brontë was, and how vibrant Jane’s character remains even centuries after the novel’s publication. I can’t think of a better way to celebrate Charlotte Brontë’s bicentennial than by experiencing her greatest creation anew with this remarkable recording.”

With a 30-day membership trial at Audible, new listeners can enjoy any one audiobook, including Newton’s performance of Jane Eyre, for free.



In addition to Newton, among the acclaimed performers who have recently narrated works of literature for Audible are Emma Thompson, Rosamund Pike, Dan Stevens, James Franco, Jesse Eisenberg, Jake Gyllenhaal, Kate Winslet and Tim Robbins. In 2013, Audible Studios won its first Grammy Award, for its production of Janis Ian’s memoir Society’s Child, and also won the Audie Award for Audiobook of the Year, for Colin Firth’s performance of Graham Greene’s The End of the Affair.

Audible, the world’s largest seller and producer of downloadable audiobooks and other spoken-word content, invented and commercialized the first digital audio player in 1997, and has since been at the forefront of the explosively growing audiobook download segment. In 2015, listeners around the world downloaded 1.6 billion hours of audio from Audible.com outlets; Audible members downloaded an average of more than 17 books over the course of the year. Two thirds of new Audible members are first-time audiobook buyers.

ABOUT AUDIBLE, INC.

Audible, Inc., an Amazon.com, Inc. subsidiary (NASDAQ:AMZN), is the leading provider of premium digital spoken audio information and entertainment, offering customers a new way to enhance and enrich their lives every day. Audible was created to unleash the emotive music in language and the habituating power and utility of verbal expression. Audible content includes more than 250,000 audio programs from leading audiobook publishers, broadcasters, entertainers, magazine and newspaper publishers, and business information providers. Audible is also the preeminent provider of spoken-word audio products for Apple’s iTunes Store.