Sugar's accent


For someone born in the East End I find her way of speaking and accent quite refined.
That she found the time to educate herself in her situation is quite a challenge, but where on earth did she get this accent ?

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Maybe it's my imagination, but I thought that her accent was not so refined when she was living in the East End, but when she moved into William's home, she sounded more well spoken. I guess she had met quite a few well spoken men when she was working as a prostitute (William's friends for example obviously used prostitutes regularly) so she knew how to speak.

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That might be an explanation. Thank you for your reply !

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In the book, Sugar also thinks back to earlier times when she was still working for Mrs. Castaway. She would amuse her friends with impersonations of fancy people and read stories in these voices, so we can assume she knew how to speak that way and would have adopted it when living with William.

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Well, she's extremely gifted then. Impersonating someone is one thing, speaking with a refined accent day in day out, when you come from the East-End, is another matter.

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She wasn't from the East End, she was from St Giles, more or less where Oxford Street meets Tottenham Court Road. Back then, that area was a notorious slum, but it wasn't in the East End of London. Sure, her accent was more refined than you'd expect for someone brought up in a rough area (despite it not being the East End), but she was meant to be an exception to her surroundings (ability to read, write, teach and had an imagination to go with it), with the ability to change her accent at will.

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