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David_Umstattd t1_it9l4qx wrote

You might be listening to the wrong Audio Book. You want the one with Tim Curry in it.

As for old Abe, VH speaks broken English, and when heard it sounds very characterful but when read it’s hard I imagine.

During the era most people HEARD books not read them (as books were usually read aloud to groups) thus the writing style is very different before the invention of pulp printing allowed the mass distribution of books at remarkably cheap prices made private reading the main way people experienced books.

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FriendoftheDork t1_itcj8yo wrote

Yeah I listened to this one as well. Funny thing, when it's VH PoV he speaks fairly good English, but when the other actors are citing him in their memories they put on thick accents.

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David_Umstattd t1_itdhpht wrote

Because nobody thinks THEY have an accent. It’s when other people recall their voice that an accent is given.

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FriendoftheDork t1_itduvwi wrote

Or perhaps the voice actors had different ideas on what kind of accent the character would have - thick foreign one, or a well educated professor who had lived in England for some time one.

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David_Umstattd t1_itgl2z3 wrote

In the audio book I read the accent is consistent across the narrators. But just with a twinge of that characters narration flair.

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