The Cloak by Nikolai Vasilievich Gogol audiobook. Genre: tragedy In wintry St Petersburg, Akaky Akakievich Bashmachkin is a meek, middle-aged civil servant whose life is reduced to copying documents in silence and being mocked by his colleagues. Threadbare and nearly invisible, he endures the citys cold and the offices casual cruelty with the same dull patience that has shaped him for years. When his old coat finally becomes impossible to patch, Akaky is forced into a choice that feels enormous ...
Sep 26, 2022•1 hr 22 min•Ep. 387
Twice-Told Tales by Nathaniel Hawthorne audiobook. Genre: folklore In Twice-Told Tales, Nathaniel Hawthorne gathers a landmark collection of short fiction that helped define American romanticism and the darkly luminous literature of New England. Moving between village streets, lonely forests, and haunted corners of history, these stories blend everyday detail with the uncanny, revealing how pride, guilt, ambition, and hidden desire can shape a life. Hawthorne returns again and again to communiti...
Sep 26, 2022•17 hr 13 min•Ep. 386
Mosses From An Old Manse by Nathaniel Hawthorne audiobook. Genre: romance 'Mosses from an Old Manse' is a short story collection by Nathaniel Hawthorne, first published in 1846. The collection includes several previously-published short stories and is named in honor of The Old Manse where Hawthorne and his wife lived for the first three years of their marriage. A second edition was published in 1854, which added 'Feathertop,' 'Passages from a Relinquished Work, and 'Sketches from Memory.' Many o...
Sep 26, 2022•19 hr 13 min•Ep. 385
The House of the Seven Gables by Nathaniel Hawthorne audiobook. Genre: drama 'The wrongdoing of one generation lives into the successive ones and... becomes a pure and uncontrollable mischief.' Hawthorne's moral for 'The House of the Seven Gables,' taken from the Preface, accurately presages his story. The full weight of the gloomy mansion of the title seems to sit on the fortunes of the Pyncheon family. An ancestor took advantage of the Salem witch trials to wrest away the land whereon the hous...
Sep 26, 2022•12 hr 16 min•Ep. 384
This World is Taboo by Murray Leinster audiobook. Genre: scifi Calhoun, a field man for the Interstellar Medical Service, expects routine inspections: land, check public health conditions, and leave a world safer than he found it. But when his small Med Ship reaches Weald Three, he finds a prosperous grain planet locked in fear. Nearby Dara, once ravaged by a plague, is under strict quarantine, and its people carry the visible legacy of that sickness - the hated 'blueskins.' On Weald, politician...
Sep 26, 2022•4 hr 10 min•Ep. 383
Conquest Over Time by Michael Shaara audiobook. Genre: scifi Pat Travis has made a career out of being first. As a veteran Contact Man for a powerful Earth company, he races rival operators to newly opened worlds, gambling on speed, nerve, and a reputation for impossible luck. But when Travis reaches the planet the locals call Mert, his winning streak turns instantly sour: according to the planet's rigid astrological code, he has arrived on the worst possible day. Doors close, streets empty, off...
Sep 26, 2022•1 hr 24 min•Ep. 382
Hans Brinker or The Silver Skates by Mary Mapes Dodge audiobook. Genre: family Mary Mapes Dodge created an instant bestseller with 'Hans Brinker or The Silver Skates.' She wanted the book to be partly a book of travels and partly a domestic story. It is a tale written for children that adults also find interesting and uplifting. Dodge writes as if she is sending a series of letters from Holland to children in America, and her you-are-there perspective is aided by a nice attention to detail and v...
Sep 23, 2022•10 hr 12 min•Ep. 381
The Treaty With China by Mark Twain audiobook. Genre: history First published in the New York Tribune on August 28, 1868, The Treaty With China, its Provisions Explained is Mark Twain at his most sharp-eyed and plainspoken, turning a dense diplomatic document into a lively, provocative listening experience. With the newly concluded U.S.-China treaty (often associated with diplomat Anson Burlingame) as his framework, Twain walks the listener article by article through what the agreement actually ...
Sep 23, 2022•50 min•Ep. 380
Tom Sawyer Abroad by Mark Twain audiobook. Genre: adventure When Huckleberry Finn and Tom Sawyer stumble onto a mysterious balloon, they find themselves swept into a journey far beyond the Mississippi River. Narrated in Huck's plainspoken, observant voice, the story launches the boys - along with their loyal friend Jim - into an accidental voyage over the Atlantic and into the deserts and ancient wonders of North Africa and the Middle East. Tom, brimming with confidence and book-learned ideas ab...
Sep 23, 2022•3 hr 15 min•Ep. 379
The Gilded Age, A Tale of Today by Mark Twain audiobook. Genre: drama The Gilded Age: A Tale of Today is an 1873 novel by Mark Twain and Charles Dudley Warner that satirizes greed and political corruption in post-Civil War America. The term gilded age, commonly given to the era, comes from the title of this book. Twain and Warner got the name from Shakespeare's King John (1595): 'To gild refined gold, to paint the lily... is wasteful and ridiculous excess.' Gilding a lily, which is already beaut...
Sep 21, 2022•16 hr 23 min•Ep. 378
The Stolen White Elephant by Mark Twain audiobook. Genre: comedy When a sacred white elephant arrives in America as a diplomatic gift, it is supposed to be the ultimate symbol of goodwill and grandeur. Instead, it becomes the center of a wildly escalating fiasco. Mark Twain frames the tale as an official report, following a conscientious but increasingly bewildered investigator tasked with recovering the missing animal after it vanishes from its secure stable. As newspapers erupt with theories a...
Sep 21, 2022•55 min•Ep. 377
Sketches New and Old by Mark Twain audiobook. Genre: comedy Sketches New and Old is a lively collection that shows Mark Twain at his most sharp-eyed and mischievous, gathering together short pieces that range from tall tales and travel anecdotes to satire, memoir, and moments of surprising tenderness. With his trademark plainspoken voice and perfect sense of timing, Twain turns everyday situations into comedy - a stubborn watch that refuses to behave, a public lecture that veers toward disaster,...
Sep 21, 2022•10 hr 48 min•Ep. 376
Some Rambling Notes of an Idle Excursion by Mark Twain audiobook. Genre: comedy In Some Rambling Notes of an Idle Excursion, Mark Twain turns a short vacation into a comic field report on the art of doing as little as possible. Leaving wintry New York behind, Twain boards a ship bound for Bermuda with a traveling companion known simply as the Reverend, and immediately discovers that even an escape from work comes with its own trials: cramped quarters, talkative fellow passengers, and the stubbor...
Sep 21, 2022•1 hr 47 min•Ep. 375
The Prince and the Pauper by Mark Twain audiobook. Genre: adventure The Prince and the Pauper (1882) represents Mark Twain's first attempt at historical fiction. The book, set in 1547, tells the story of two young boys who are identical in appearance: Tom Canty, a pauper who lives with his abusive father in Offal Court, London, and Prince Edward son of Henry VIII of England. Due to a series of circumstances, the boys accidentally replace each other, and much of the humor in the book originates i...
Sep 21, 2022•7 hr 10 min•Ep. 374
Old Times on the Mississippi by Mark Twain audiobook. Genre: history In Old Times on the Mississippi, Mark Twain returns to the great river that shaped his imagination and his youth, recounting the years when he learned the demanding craft of steamboat piloting. With a newcomer's awe and a veteran's hard-won confidence, Twain takes listeners into the bustling world of river landings, shifting sandbars, fogbound channels, and the strict apprenticeship that could mean the difference between glory ...
Sep 21, 2022•3 hr 47 min•Ep. 373
Mark Twain’s Letters from Hawaii by Mark Twain audiobook. Genre: history In Mark Twains Letters from Hawaii, the young journalist Samuel Clemens - not yet the world famous Mark Twain - turns a brief assignment in the Pacific into a vivid, funny, and sharply observed portrait of the Hawaiian Islands in the 1860s. Writing as a roaming correspondent, Twain moves from bustling Honolulu to rural districts, recording what he sees with an outsiders curiosity and a satirists eye: volcanic landscapes, su...
Sep 21, 2022•8 hr 52 min•Ep. 372
A Horse’s Tale by Mark Twain audiobook. Genre: adventure Told in the proud, observant voice of Soldier Boy, Buffalo Bill's favorite mount, A Horse's Tale carries Mark Twain's wit into a frontier cavalry post where bravery is measured, reputations are made, and animals are expected to serve without complaint. Soldier Boy knows the trails, the bugle calls, and the vanity of the two-legged world, and he watches it all with a mix of humor, loyalty, and hard-won wisdom. Into this rugged routine comes...
Sep 16, 2022•1 hr 58 min•Ep. 371
In Defense of Harriet Shelley by Mark Twain audiobook. Genre: biography In Defense of Harriet Shelley is Mark Twain's sharp, meticulously argued case for a woman history has often treated as a footnote - and a villain. Taking aim at popular biographies of the Romantic poet Percy Bysshe Shelley, Twain reopens the story of Shelley's first marriage to Harriet Westbrook Shelley and challenges the comfortable legends that excuse the famous poet while condemning the young wife he left behind. With a s...
Sep 16, 2022•1 hr 47 min•Ep. 370
Goldsmith’s Friend Abroad Again by Mark Twain audiobook. Genre: comedy In Goldsmith's Friend Abroad Again, Mark Twain delivers a sharp, darkly funny epistolary satire in the form of letters from Ah Song Hi, a Chinese traveler who sets his sights on America, the celebrated land of liberty and equal rights. Writing home with careful politeness and mounting disbelief, Ah Song Hi describes the long journey across the ocean and his arrival in San Francisco, where the grand promises of opportunity col...
Sep 16, 2022•40 min•Ep. 369
Following the Equator by Mark Twain audiobook. Genre: adventure Following the Equator (American English title) or More Tramps Abroad (English title) is a non-fiction travelogue published by American author Mark Twain in 1897. Twain was practically bankrupt in 1894 due to a failed investment into a 'revolutionary' typesetting machine. In an attempt to extricate himself from debt of $100,000 (equivalent of about $2 million in 2005) he undertook a tour of the British Empire in 1895, a route chosen ...
Sep 16, 2022•20 hr 29 min•Ep. 368
Those Extraordinary Twins by Mark Twain audiobook. Genre: comedy In Those Extraordinary Twins, Mark Twain spins a sharp, mischievous tale set in the small river town of Dawson's Landing, Missouri, where reputation is everything and gossip travels faster than the current. The town is shaken up by the arrival of Luigi and Angelo Capello, two Italian brothers who are conjoined twins - distinct in temperament and desires, yet forced to navigate American life as a single public spectacle. As locals a...
Sep 16, 2022•2 hr 21 min•Ep. 367
Europe and Elsewhere by Mark Twain audiobook. Genre: comedy In Europe and Elsewhere, Mark Twain turns his sharp eye and sharper wit on the rituals, pretensions, and everyday oddities he encounters abroad and at home. Drawn from his travel pieces and occasional writings, this collection follows Twain as he sizes up grand monuments and small inconveniences alike, comparing Old World traditions to American habits with a comic sense of proportion that never lets pomposity go unpunished. Whether he i...
Sep 16, 2022•15 hr 13 min•Ep. 366
A Double Barrelled Detetive Story by Mark Twain audiobook. Genre: comedy In A Double Barrelled Detective Story, Mark Twain loads his satire with two interlocking barrels: one aimed at revenge, the other at the smug certainties of detective fiction. The tale begins with a wealthy young woman whose marriage to the resentful Jacob Fuller turns vicious, leaving her humiliated, abandoned, and determined to reclaim her dignity. Years later, she places her hopes in her son, Archy Stillman, a quiet, dri...
Sep 16, 2022•2 hr 5 min•Ep. 365
The Death Disk by Mark Twain audiobook. Genre: drama Mark Twain's 'Death Disk' was inspired by the historical account of the execution of Colonel John Poyer of Pembroke, Wales on April 21, 1649. A small child was given the responsibility of selecting which of three rebel leaders of a civil uprising would receive a death penalty. The unfortunate fate was given to Poyer who was shot in front of a large crowd at Covent Garden. In 1883 Twain read about the child's role in the execution in a copy of ...
Sep 16, 2022•28 min•Ep. 364
Fennimore Cooper’s Literary Offences by Mark Twain audiobook. Genre: comedy In Fennimore Coopers Literary Offences, Mark Twain turns his sharp wit on one of America's early bestselling novelists, James Fenimore Cooper, and invites listeners into a gleefully rigorous takedown of what Twain sees as careless storytelling. Framed as a mock-serious piece of criticism, the essay begins with Twain's bafflement at Cooper's popularity and quickly becomes a tour of the alleged sins of romantic adventure f...
Sep 16, 2022•35 min•Ep. 363
Christian Science by Mark Twain audiobook. Genre: religion Christian Science is a 1907 collection of essays Mark Twain wrote about Christian Science, beginning with an article that was published in Cosmopolitan in 1899. Although Twain was interested in mental healing and the ideas behind Christian Science, he was hostile towards its founder, Mary Baker Eddy (1821–1910). He called her, according to American writer Caroline Fraser, '[g]rasping, sordid, penurious, famishing for everything she sees—...
Sep 15, 2022•8 hr 14 min•Ep. 362
Alonzo Fitz & Other Stories by Mark Twain audiobook. Genre: comedy Alonzo Fitz & Other Stories gathers a handful of Mark Twain's sharpest late-career short pieces - brisk, mischievous, and built to be read aloud. Across these compact tales and sketches, Twain turns everyday American confidence into comedy: earnest people chase grand plans, argue over respectable opinions, and stumble into consequences they never imagined. In the title story, a seemingly ordinary situation swells into a c...
Sep 15, 2022•3 hr 27 min•Ep. 361
Ultima Thule by Mack Reynolds audiobook. Genre: scifi Ronny Bronston has spent his whole life dreaming of an off-world posting with United Planets, the sprawling interstellar authority that promises peace, progress, and a place for ambitious young men to prove themselves. When he finally lands a provisional slot in the Bureau of Investigation, Section G, he expects glamorous diplomacy and clear-cut heroics. Instead, he is dropped into a maze of interviews, procedures, and quiet political pressur...
Sep 15, 2022•2 hr 21 min•Ep. 360
Good Wives by Louisa May Alcott audiobook. Genre: family In Good Wives, Louisa May Alcott returns to the March family as the four sisters step beyond girlhood and into the complicated, exhilarating work of becoming adults. Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy each face choices that test their ideals and reshape their bonds: love that asks for sacrifice, ambition that demands courage, and duty that can both steady and constrain. As they navigate new homes, new responsibilities, and the shifting expectations pl...
Sep 14, 2022•9 hr 25 min•Ep. 359
The Lost Princess of Oz by L. Frank Baum audiobook. Genre: fantasy Who is stealing all the magic in Oz? Dorothy and her friends set out to comb all of Oz, not only for magic stolen from Glinda and the Wizard, but also for the kidnapped princess, Ozma. Along the way, they explore regions never seen in other Oz books, meeting strange and interesting people and animals, and falling into peril more than once. It’s a desperate mission – for if the thefts are all linked, then it means that some magici...
Sep 14, 2022•5 hr 32 min•Ep. 358
