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The Legend of Sleepy Hollow

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The Legend of Sleepy Hollow

By: Washington Irving
Narrated by: David Ian Davies
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About this listen

Tall, gangling schoolmaster Ichabod Crane, both educated and highly superstitious, comes to live and teach in the quiet, rural town known as Sleepy Hollow in the Catskill Mountains of New York. There, he falls in love with the daughter of wealthy farmer Van Tassel. But he must compete with the much admired, waggish ruffian Brom Bones, whom he encounters - with absolute terror and belief - in the guise of the much storied and feared specter... The Headless Horseman.

Public Domain (P)2009 One Voice Recordings Anthologies Anthologies & Short Stories Classics

Editor reviews

In Washington Irving's classic ghost tale first published in 1820, the superstitious schoolmaster Ichabod Crane moves to small, isolated, and haunted Sleepy Hollow, where he competes with a local ruffian for the hand of Katrina Van Tassel, the daughter of a wealthy farmer. Until, one night, riding alone, Crane encounters a cloaked rider whose head is not on his shoulders, but in his saddle - the feared specter of the Headless Horseman. Renowned Shakespearean actor David Ian Davies brings ample suspense to this nuanced performance which is sure to leave listeners with goose bumps.
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The story is a classic, but this recording is sub-par. The voice artist sounds like a text-to-speech program, not a real person. The audio quality isn't great and the edits are very obvious in many places. Glad it was only 1 hour (and free!)

Was that a robot?

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It was just starting to get somewhere and it was over, just the first chapter, can't really review that!

Can't Be full Book

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Obviously many film/TV productions embellish their source materials, but I want expecting such a dull story. Beautiful description but underwhelming story imo. I guess that's on me not researching before 🤷

Performance was good generally, but there where a few bits where audio had been obviously clipped in in post.

Fine

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just didn't really understand a lot of the things going on and not really my thing

idk

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sometimes I feel audible can do better with their narrators and they most definitely need to run quality control more often too.

narrator literally put me to sleep

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I thought this would be a lovely quick listen, especially as it was free, but I found the cadence of the narrator too distracting. Unfortunately he didn’t seem to pause at natural points in the narrative. It did get better towards the end and I’m not sure if it is due to the narrators style or if the recording had been edited badly but I think I would have asked for a refund had I paid for it.

Love the story but found the narrator distracting

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Most old stories start slow to build the scene before horror elements set in. This one takes this too far. It is a very short story but 2/3 is all waffle.
The narrator has old English academic voice with odd inflections that do not help matters.

Surprisingly dull

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I like the movies and cartoons of this but I'm not sure about the written story as the narration by David Ian Davies was so boring and uninteresting. I'll find another narrator and try again.

Boring narration.

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As a fan of classic literature it is understood and expected that the prose will be flowery and long by modern standards. However when compared with classic novels of the same genre: Dracula, Camilla, Frankenstein etc. this story falls sorrowfully short of expectations.

90% of the book is an unnecessarily detailed description of the various villagers who play little to no role in the story, followed by an incredibly brief scene at the end that encapsulates the entirety of the actual progression of the story.

Thankfully it was short, but even so I found myself losing interest throughout.

It’s a shame as the concept is an interesting one poorly executed.

The voice actor has a handsome voice, though it is equally calming and adds to the boring tone of the story.

Dull, meandering and overall underwhelming

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due to it only being the first chapter and not all of the book, I'm giving it one star.

it's only the first chapter

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