Support our work: https://libri-vox.org/donate This book tells the story of Hester Prynne, a young woman who conceives a child while her husband is missing at sea. The Puritan Elders of the New England settlement of Boston, where she lives, condemn her to wear a scarlet letter A to signify her adultery. She refuses to name her lover, and he too keeps his silence, but with a terrible cost. The tale is prefaced with an account of the Salem Custom-house where Nathaniel Hawthorne was working when he...
Oct 30, 2023•9 hr 26 min
Support our work: https://libri-vox.org/donate The Republic is a Socratic dialogue written by Plato around 380 BC concerning the definition of justice and the order and character of the just city-state and the just man. It is Plato's best-known work and has proven to be one of the most intellectually and historically influential works of philosophy and political theory. In it, Socrates along with various Athenians and foreigners discuss the meaning of justice and examine whether or not the just ...
Oct 29, 2023•12 hr 27 min
Support our work: https://libri-vox.org/donateThis book is a five hundred year old manual for how to run a kingdom or principality. Written in 1513 but not published until 1532, "The Prince" generated controversy even before it got into print. Unlike the many previous "how-to" manuals for new rulers, "The Prince" only judged actions by their effectiveness and did not consider morals or ethics at all. Some of the suggestions were so brutal and amoral that many critics in the 18th century consider...
Oct 28, 2023•3 hr 17 min
Support our work: https://libri-vox.org/donate "The Metamorphosis" is a novella by Franz Kafka, first published in 1915 and one of his best known works. The story begins with a traveling salesman, Gregor Samsa, waking to find himself transformed into a horrible verminous creature. Terrifying in its banal simplicity, it became one of the seminal works of the twentieth century. This Translation is by Ian Johnston. (Summary by David Richardson) Support Us And Donate Here: https://libri-vox.org/...
Oct 27, 2023•2 hr 15 min
Support our work: https://libri-vox.org/donate Everyone knows the story of the Headless Horseman but perhaps you, like me, did not remember what a marvelous story teller Washington Irving was. He observed human nature closely and like any good humorist, lets us laugh at our own silly and superstitious sides through the joy of having strangers be the ones to display them. If you, like me, have only vague and muddy memories of this story, you owe it to yourself to listen and laugh along with the r...
Oct 26, 2023•1 hr 25 min
Support our work: https://libri-vox.org/donate Best known for the 'Mowgli' stories, Rudyard Kipling's The Jungle Book expertly interweaves myth, morals, adventure and powerful story-telling. Set in Central India, Mowgli is raised by a pack of wolves. Along the way he encounters memorable characters such as the foreboding tiger Shere Kahn, Bagheera the panther and Baloo the bear. Including other stories such as that of Rikki-Tikki-Tavi, a heroic mongoose and Toomai, a young elephant handler, Kipl...
Oct 25, 2023•5 hr 45 min
Support our work: https://libri-vox.org/donate/ Oscar Fingal O’Flahertie Wills Wilde (1854 – 1900) was an Irish playwright, novelist, poet, and author of short stories. Known for his barbed wit, he was one of the most successful playwrights of late Victorian London, and one of the greatest celebrities of his day. In Wilde’s classic play The Importance of Being Earnest, Jack Worthing and Algernon Moncrieff discover the perils of love, assumed identities, and telling the truth. (Summary by Toby Pa...
Oct 24, 2023•1 hr 48 min
Support our Podcasts: https://libri-vox.org/donateThe Hound of the Baskervilles is the third of the four crime novels written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle featuring the detective Sherlock Holmes. Originally serialised in The Strand Magazine from August 1901 to April 1902, it is set largely on Dartmoor in Devon in England's West Country and tells the story of an attempted murder inspired by the legend of a fearsome, diabolical hound of supernatural origin. Sherlock Holmes and his companion Dr. Watso...
Oct 23, 2023•6 hr 11 min
The Kybalion: Hermetic Philosophy is a 1908 book claiming to be the essence of the teachings of Hermes Trismegistus, published anonymously by a group or person under the pseudonym of "the Three Initiates".
Oct 21, 2023•3 hr 44 min
Support our Podcasts: https://libri-vox.org/donate Kate Chopin's 1899 novella The Awakening is about the personal, sexual, and artistic awakening of a young wife and mother, Edna Pontellier. While on vacation at Grand Isle, an island in the Gulf of Mexico, Edna befriends the talented pianist Mlle. Reisz and the sympathetic Robert Lebrun, both of whom will influence her startling life choices. Chopin's novel created a scandal upon its original publication and effectively destroyed her writing car...
Oct 20, 2023•4 hr 38 min
Support our Podcasts: https://libri-vox.org/donate Romeo and Juliet is an early tragedy by William Shakespeare about two teenage "star-cross'd lovers" whose "untimely deaths" ultimately unite their feuding households. The play has been highly praised by literary critics for its language and dramatic effect. It was among Shakespeare's most popular plays during his lifetime and, along with Hamlet, is one of his most frequently performed plays. Its influence is still seen today, with the two main c...
Oct 19, 2023•3 hr 15 min
Support our Podcasts: https://libri-vox.org/donateShipwrecked and castaway, Daniel DeFoe’s hard-luck character is still the standard for “growing where you’re planted.” Captured by pirates, he makes his break in a small boat and undergoes desperate adventures before winning his way back to civilization. But Crusoe proves willing to chance his luck a second time when, after sweating his way to prosperity as a planter in Brazil, he undertakes a voyage that isn’t needful… and is marooned on a small...
Oct 18, 2023•11 hr 25 min
King Lear is widely held as the greatest of Shakespeare's tragedies; to some, it is the greatest play ever written. King Lear abdicates the British throne, to divide his kingdom among his three daughters in proportion to their professed love of him. His plan misfires when Cordelia, his youngest and favourite daughter, refuses to flatter her father; she is disinherited and banished. This LibriVox recording marks the 400th anniversary of the first performance of the play, on December 26th 1606. (S...
Oct 17, 2023•3 hr 23 min
Support our Podcasts: https://libri-vox.org/donateMore than eight years before the novel opens, Anne Elliot, then a lovely, thoughtful, warm-hearted 19 year old, accepted a proposal of marriage from the handsome young naval officer Frederick Wentworth. He was clever, confident, and ambitious, but poor and with no particular family connections to recommend him. Sir Walter, Anne's fatuous, snobbish father and her equally self-involved older sister Elizabeth were dissatisfied with her choice, maint...
Oct 16, 2023•8 hr 24 min
Support our Podcasts: https://libri-vox.org/donate Oliver Twist; or, The Parish Boy's Progress is the second novel by Charles Dickens. The story is about an orphan Oliver Twist, who endures a miserable existence in a workhouse and then is placed with an undertaker. He escapes and travels to London where he meets the Artful Dodger, leader of a gang of juvenile pickpockets. Oliver is led to the lair of their elderly criminal trainer Fagin, naively unaware of their unlawful activities. Packed with ...
Oct 15, 2023•15 hr
Support our Podcasts: https://libri-vox.org/donate Pride and Prejudice, first published on 28 January 1813, is the most famous of Jane Austen's novels. It is one of the first romantic comedies in the history of the novel and its opening is one of the most famous lines in English literature —"It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife." [From Wikipedia]
Oct 14, 2023•14 hr 27 min
Support Us And Donate Here: https://libri-vox.org/donate/ Northanger Abbey follows seventeen-year-old Gothic novel aficionado Catherine Morland and family friends Mr. and Mrs. Allen as they visit Bath. It is Catherine's first visit there. She meets new friends, such as Isabella Thorpe, and goes to balls. Catherine finds herself pursued by Isabella's brother, the rough-mannered, slovenly John Thorpe, and by her real love interest, Henry Tilney. She also becomes friends with Eleanor Tilney, He...
Oct 13, 2023•7 hr 29 min
Charlotte Bronte's classic novel Jane Eyre is narrated by the title character, an orphan who survives neglect and abuse to become a governess at the remote Thornfield Hall. She finds a kindred spirit in her employer, the mysterious and brooding Mr. Rochester, but he hides a terrible secret that threatens their chances of happiness. (Summary by Elizabeth Klett)
Oct 12, 2023•18 hr 37 min
Support Us And Donate Here: https://libri-vox.org/donate/ Heart of Darkness is a novella written by Joseph Conrad. Before its 1903 publication, it appeared as a three-part series (1899) in Blackwood's Magazine. It was classified by the Modern Library website editors as one of the "100 best novels" and part of the Western canon. The story centres on Charles Marlow, who narrates most of the book. He is an Englishman who takes a foreign assignment from a Belgian trading company as a river-boat ...
Oct 11, 2023•4 hr 39 min
Orison Swett Marden was well-known at the turn of the 20th century for his inspirational and spiritual books of self-help. This one deals with the importance of a man developing his own will-power. Swett Marden here offers advice on how to achieve success and how to overcome disappointments through self-belief, persistence and determination, all within a spiritual and moral framework. (
Oct 08, 2023•1 hr 36 min
Support Us And Donate Here: https://libri-vox.org/donate/ An Ideal Husband is an 1895 comedy by Oscar Wilde which revolves around blackmail and political corruption, and touches on the themes of public and private honor. The action is set in London, in "the present", and takes place within a single day. "Sooner or later," Wilde notes, "we shall all have to pay for what we do." But he adds that, "No one should be entirely judged by their past." (Summary from Wikipedia) Characters: Narrator – ...
Oct 06, 2023•3 hr 18 min
Written in 1903, just sixty years after the word 'hypnotism' was coined, this book explores the contemporary understanding of the nature, uses and dangers of the technique. Hypnotism has been practiced for many centuries, but it was in the mid-to-late nineteenth century that it became a particularly fashionable way to explore the human mind. Although understanding of the subject has evolved considerably over subsequent years, this book remains a fascinating insight into a technique once thought ...
Oct 05, 2023•3 hr 49 min
I address myself to the man or woman of talent—those people who have writing ability, but who need instruction in the manipulation of characters, the formation of plots, and a host of other points with which I shall deal hereafter. Although no school could turn out novelists to order there is yet enough common material in all art-work to be mapped out in a course of lessons. I shall show that the two great requisites of novel-writing are (1) a good story to tell, and (2) ability to tell it effec...
Oct 03, 2023•2 hr 40 min
Support Us And Donate Here: https://libri-vox.org/donate/ A book written by an American education philosopher in which he proposed “This scientific attitude of mind might, conceivably, be quite irrelevant to teaching children and youth. But this book also represents the conviction that such is not the case; that the native and unspoiled attitude of childhood, marked by ardent curiosity, fertile imagination, and love of experimental inquiry, is near, very near, to the attitude of the scientifi...
Oct 02, 2023•8 hr 54 min
This is a 1910 guide for those who wish to learn how to correctly (though maybe not "properly") create sentences, use figures of speech, write letters, and more, all while choosing the right words and doing it with style. Joseph Devlin's words may not all be relevant still today, but at least it sounds good when it's read aloud!
Oct 01, 2023•5 hr 42 min
Lilli Lehmann (1848 - 1929) Translated by Richard Aldrich (1863 - 1937) Lilli Lehmann, born Elisabeth Maria Lehmann, was a German operatic soprano of phenomenal versatility. She was also a voice teacher. She wrote: "Every serious artist has a sincere desire to help others reach the goal—the goal toward which all singers are striving: to sing well and beautifully." This is the 1915 second (expanded) edition of her book, and the accompanying online book scan includes many illustrations and diagram...
Sep 30, 2023•5 hr 24 min
Support Us And Donate Here: https://libri-vox.org/donate/ The Holy War is perhaps John Bunyan's second most popular work, after The Pilgrim's Progress. It tells the story of a fierce battle to take control of a city from its rightful ruler....
Sep 29, 2023•9 hr 55 min
Support Us And Donate Here: https://libri-vox.org/donate/ This is a very readable scientific account of Swearing and Cursing in the English Language. Not only is an enlightening historical account given, but also several excursions are made into other languages and certain historical periods. - Summary by CarolinSupport Us And Donate Here: https://libri-vox.org/donate/...
Sep 28, 2023•4 hr 53 min
A biography of the famous and popular poet-naturalist, author, philosopher, historian, written by a family friend who spent time with Thoreau almost daily during the last seven years of his life and who knew and talked with members of his family. Written shortly after his death, it was immediately popular and this later edition gained a new audience.
Sep 27, 2023•6 hr 56 min
Jonathan Swift (1667 - 1745) Translated by Antonio Manuel (1900 - 1930) Tämä on Jonathan Swiftin kirjoittama ja Samuli Suomalaisen kääntämä versio kirjasta "Gulliverin matkat kaukaisilla mailla". Se on suunnattu nuorille ja sisältää vain kaksi ensimmäistä osaa, kun täydessä versiossa osia on neljä. Ensimmäisessä osassa Gulliver-niminen matkamies haaksirikkoutuu mini-ihmisten asuttamaan maahan, jonka nimi on Lilliput. Toisessa osassa hän puolestaan joutuu seikkailuihin jättiläisten valtakuntaan B...
Sep 24, 2023•5 hr 5 min
