Unabridged Audiobook
The book is wonderful, but this narration actually obscured that fact a bit. I never thought I'd give Simon Vance less than a top rating-- I've heard him on dozens of books, mainly murder mysteries, and he is simply excellent. However, his talents are not suited to reading Wodehouse, and I hate typing that! His delivery is just not theatrical enough. I found myself re-narrating line after line as Jonathan Cecil would've read them-- and line after line, realizing the Cecil delivery would have made them hilarious, rather than merely factual-sounding. Just because a voice actor is British, it doesn't guarantee that he's an apt comic actor-- and Wodehouse requires a special touch which even an experienced comic actor may not possess (and Mr. Vance, while perfect in countless other genres, is not a comic actor). In the absence of that late Wodehouse-narrating genius, I'd love to see Stephen Fry get the assignment to read EVERY non-Cecil-narrated bit of Wodehouse, cost be damned.
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