A Stephen Fry Fan

I have been waiting to listen to an audiobook copy of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows for over seven months. As soon as I downloaded the Boston Public Libraries app for auditory content I immediately tried to snatch up the seventh Harry Potter novel. I had been listening to the series for over a year through my high school’s audio library and was saddened to see that my departure from the school meant I was barred from accessing anymore of their books. When I attempted to check out the text once in Boston I was shocked to see that I was number 26 in the queue. I mean I know Harry Potter is a world phenomenon but come on!

At the start of this week, the special day I had been waiting for had finally come. I checked my inbox and was thrilled to see an email with the subject: “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Available Now”. I whipped out my phone, opened the app as fast as possible and downloaded all 38 parts. I clicked on the introduction eager to dive back into the story and to my horror heard a different voice than the one I had been listening to for the past six books. I skimmed over the description of the book noticing that instead of Stephen Fry the book was narrated by Jim Dale. I was so shocked and uncomfortable with the change in the character's voices that I returned the book within five minutes. 

I think this is a pretty dramatic reaction to something so minor as a change in narrator but for some reason, I couldn’t stand hearing Dale read the last book after being so familiar with Fry. The way that Harry, Hermione, and Ron sounded coming from Dale was just so odd and changed the way I proceed the story despite the fact that I’ve already read the novel. The two narrators gave life to the work individually, whether through emphasizing words differently or recognizing peculiar points of intonation there was something that just made Dale’s reading seem off. 

As someone who has read the Harry Potter books on numerous occasions and watched the movies enough times to recite most scenes word by word, it took a long time to accept the changes Fry made to the way the characters spoke. Listening to audiobooks for books that you love can change how you view the story and Fry’s interpretation felt like it added to my understanding. I have nothing against Jim Dale and I am almost 100% sure that if I had come across Dale’s reading first I would feel the exact opposite way I do at present. Though based on my current opinion I guess I won’t be finishing the last Harry Potter book until I come across a version narrated by Fry. Whoops! 

Also sorry to add in a weird tangent at the end but I thought it was kind of amusing that one of the emails I got from Publishers Weekly last Friday was an advertisement for Kiera Cass’ new book. I read her Selection Trilogy in middle school so when I saw an announcement for her upcoming novel on The Publishers Marketplace a few weeks ago I took note. It found it interesting to then see the same work publicized in a newsletter a short time later.