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Daddy-Long-Legs full cast audiobook

by Jean Webster

Released · Updated · 3h 18m · 15 voices

The story (no spoilers)

Seventeen-year-old Jerusha Abbott, the eldest orphan at the John Grier Home, learns that a wealthy Trustee she has seen only as a long, lurching shadow on the wall will pay for her to attend college. The terms are strange. She must never know his name, and he will never write back. In return, she must send him a letter every month, addressed to a "Mr. John Smith," describing her studies and her days. Jerusha, who has never set foot inside an ordinary house, arrives at college with a modest wardrobe, a generous allowance, and a sharp, funny pen. Among girls who have families, holidays, and opinions about everything, she must learn what the world expects of her and what she wants for herself. Her letters to the silent stranger she nicknames Daddy-Long-Legs follow her through lectures, friendships, mistakes, and discoveries, while the question grows of who he is and why he chose her.

The cast

7 speaking roles are listed; walk-on parts are not. Each voice was designed, or chosen from our library of designed voices, to fit how the book describes the character, and it stays with them from the first chapter to the last. Portraits are illustrated impressions of each character.

  • Illustrated portrait of Jerusha Abbott: about 18, dark brown, wind-tossed loose waves falling across face, a faded gingham orphanage dress with a cornflower-blue collar

    Jerusha Abbott

    Female, about eighteen years old, an imaginative scholarship student at a women's college in New England in the 1910s, from a poor background. She speaks with a light General American accent. She speaks brightly and chattily, eager and playful.

  • Illustrated portrait of Jervie: about 36, black, short and neatly side-parted with grey at the temples, a rust-brown tweed jacket with a deep-green knitted tie

    Jervie

    Male, about thirty-five years old, a wealthy American gentleman of old New York family in the 1910s, a well-off businessman. He speaks with a refined educated Northeastern American accent, in a warm, easy baritone, tall and relaxed. His pace is unhurried and direct, with a ready laugh. He is blunt, kind, playful and affectionate.

  • Illustrated portrait of Mrs. Lippett: about 52, greying brown, pinned in a tight bun, a plum-purple silk dress with a high lace neckline

    Mrs. Lippett

    Female, about fifty-five years old, an American matron of a charity orphanage in the 1910s, a stout middle-class institutional woman. She speaks with a stiff, formal Northeastern American accent, in a firm, rather nasal mezzo with a hard edge. Her pace is measured and lecturing, with pompous emphasis. She is dignified, officious and moralizing, nervous beneath.

  • Illustrated portrait of Mrs. Semple: about 60, white, parted and pinned in a low bun, a navy-and-white print apron over a lavender blouse

    Mrs. Semple

    Female, about sixty-two years old, a Pennsylvania farm housekeeper in the 1910s, a working-class countrywoman. She speaks with a homely rural Pennsylvanian accent, in a warm, slightly quavering, lower-middle alto. Her pace is quick and fluttery, with anxious little exclamations. She is fussy, motherly and caring, easily flustered.

  • Illustrated portrait of Elmer H. Griggs: about 48, thinning sandy hair, balding on top and combed flat, a mustard-yellow waistcoat under a brown suit

    Elmer H. Griggs

    Male, about forty-five years old, an American secretary to a wealthy man in New York in the 1910s, a middle-class office clerk. He speaks with a crisp, businesslike New York accent, in a dry, thin tenor. His pace is brisk and tidy, polite and impersonal. He is formal, reserved and punctilious.

  • Illustrated portrait of Julia: about 19, glossy black, sleek bob with a side wave, a teal silk blouse with a pearl-trimmed collar

    Julia

    Female, about eighteen years old, a wealthy New Yorker in the 1910s, a college freshman from a first family. She speaks with a drawling upper-class New York finishing-school accent, in a cool, tall-sounding, nasal mezzo. Her pace is slow and languid, with a faintly condescending lift. She is bored, aloof and socially proud.

  • Illustrated portrait of Sallie McBride: about 18, bright copper-red, loosely pinned up with curls, a sunny-yellow sweater over a white blouse

    Sallie McBride

    Female, about eighteen years old, a middle-class New England college freshman in the 1910s. She speaks with a friendly, open General American accent, in a light, bubbly, higher soprano with an easy laugh. Her pace is rapid and tumbling, candid and cheerful. She is good-humored, friendly and finds nearly everything funny.

Chapters

13 chapter markers; each link opens the video on YouTube at that point.

  1. “Blue Wednesday”
  2. The Letters of Miss Jerusha Abbott
  3. December 19th
  4. April 2d
  5. June 9th
  6. October 17th
  7. March 24th
  8. June 2d
  9. September 10th
  10. Dear Comrade
  11. August 19th
  12. Lock Willow
  13. October 6th

About this recording

Narrator
Told in Jerusha Abbott's own character voice
Runtime
3h 18m (complete and unabridged)
Voices
15
Channel
Cozy Audiobooks on YouTube
Released
Updated
Author
Jean Webster
First published
1912
Kind
novel
Source edition
Project Gutenberg eBook #40426
Public domain (US)
Daddy-Long-Legs by Jean Webster is in the public domain in the United States; text from Project Gutenberg.