Great Audiobooks

Great Literature
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Oct 7, 2024 • 2h 29min

The History of Tom Jones, A Foundling, by Henry Fielding. Part I.

Tom Jones is considered one of the first prose works describable as a novel. The novel is divided into 18 smaller books. Tom Jones is a foundling discovered on the property of a very kind, wealthy landowner, Squire Allworthy. Tom grows into a vigorous and lusty, yet honest and kind-hearted, youth. He develops affection for his neighbor's daughter, Sophia Western. On one hand, their love reflects the romantic comedy genre popular in 18th-century Britain. However, Tom's status as a bastard causes Sophia's father and Allworthy to oppose their love; this criticism of class friction in society acted as a biting social commentary. The inclusion of prostitution and sexual promiscuity in the plot was also original for its time, and also acted as the foundation for criticism of the book's "lowness." (From Wikipedia.)This is a collaborative reading.
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Oct 3, 2024 • 1h 42min

Tales of Hearsay, by Joseph Conrad. Part II.

In the time of Napoleon, a thoughtful and romantic young Russian officer finds himself asked to do something unthinkable. In 1868, a Polish boy of eight encounters a real life prince and finds him to be nothing like what he had imagined a prince to be. The captain of a British ship patrolling the North Sea during the Great War comes upon small craft from a neutral country whose captain denies giving aid to the enemy — but is he telling the truth? In the 1880s, an officer in a sailing ship with a very dark secret finds himself under the thumb of a nasty, opinionated captain who believes strongly in the possibility of communicating with the dead. Even at his most anecdotal, Conrad understood well how to hold an audience, and these four tales, collected in book form soon after his death, certainly do that.
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Oct 3, 2024 • 1h 37min

Tales of Hearsay, by Joseph Conrad. Part I.

In the time of Napoleon, a thoughtful and romantic young Russian officer finds himself asked to do something unthinkable. In 1868, a Polish boy of eight encounters a real life prince and finds him to be nothing like what he had imagined a prince to be. The captain of a British ship patrolling the North Sea during the Great War comes upon small craft from a neutral country whose captain denies giving aid to the enemy — but is he telling the truth? In the 1880s, an officer in a sailing ship with a very dark secret finds himself under the thumb of a nasty, opinionated captain who believes strongly in the possibility of communicating with the dead. Even at his most anecdotal, Conrad understood well how to hold an audience, and these four tales, collected in book form soon after his death, certainly do that.
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Oct 3, 2024 • 1h 28min

The Hollow Needle: Further Adventures of Arsène Lupin, by Maurice Leblanc. Part V.

Arsène Lupin returns in a wonderful story of disguises, love, and of course treasure. Once again, Lupin crosses paths with the famous Holmlock Shears. But this time Arsène matches wits with Isidore Beautrelet, Sixth-form Schoolboy.Every step that Lupin takes has Beautrelet right on his heels. Has Lupin finally met his match? Will Beautrelet discover the secret of the Hollow Needle? And has the gentleman burglar met another match as well, one who will lead him away from his life of crime forever?Translated by Alexander Teixeira de Mattos.This is a collaborative reading.
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Oct 3, 2024 • 1h 19min

The Hollow Needle: Further Adventures of Arsène Lupin, by Maurice Leblanc. Part IV.

Arsène Lupin returns in a wonderful story of disguises, love, and of course treasure. Once again, Lupin crosses paths with the famous Holmlock Shears. But this time Arsène matches wits with Isidore Beautrelet, Sixth-form Schoolboy.Every step that Lupin takes has Beautrelet right on his heels. Has Lupin finally met his match? Will Beautrelet discover the secret of the Hollow Needle? And has the gentleman burglar met another match as well, one who will lead him away from his life of crime forever?Translated by Alexander Teixeira de Mattos.This is a collaborative reading.
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Oct 3, 2024 • 1h 5min

The Hollow Needle: Further Adventures of Arsène Lupin, by Maurice Leblanc. Part III.

Arsène Lupin returns in a wonderful story of disguises, love, and of course treasure. Once again, Lupin crosses paths with the famous Holmlock Shears. But this time Arsène matches wits with Isidore Beautrelet, Sixth-form Schoolboy.Every step that Lupin takes has Beautrelet right on his heels. Has Lupin finally met his match? Will Beautrelet discover the secret of the Hollow Needle? And has the gentleman burglar met another match as well, one who will lead him away from his life of crime forever?Translated by Alexander Teixeira de Mattos.This is a collaborative reading.
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Oct 3, 2024 • 1h 30min

The Hollow Needle: Further Adventures of Arsène Lupin, by Maurice Leblanc. Part II.

Arsène Lupin returns in a wonderful story of disguises, love, and of course treasure. Once again, Lupin crosses paths with the famous Holmlock Shears. But this time Arsène matches wits with Isidore Beautrelet, Sixth-form Schoolboy.Every step that Lupin takes has Beautrelet right on his heels. Has Lupin finally met his match? Will Beautrelet discover the secret of the Hollow Needle? And has the gentleman burglar met another match as well, one who will lead him away from his life of crime forever?Translated by Alexander Teixeira de Mattos.This is a collaborative reading.
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Oct 3, 2024 • 1h 37min

The Hollow Needle: Further Adventures of Arsène Lupin, by Maurice Leblanc. Part I.

Arsène Lupin returns in a wonderful story of disguises, love, and of course treasure. Once again, Lupin crosses paths with the famous Holmlock Shears. But this time Arsène matches wits with Isidore Beautrelet, Sixth-form Schoolboy.Every step that Lupin takes has Beautrelet right on his heels. Has Lupin finally met his match? Will Beautrelet discover the secret of the Hollow Needle? And has the gentleman burglar met another match as well, one who will lead him away from his life of crime forever?Translated by Alexander Teixeira de Mattos.This is a collaborative reading.
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Sep 30, 2024 • 1h 18min

The Joyful Wisdom, by Friedrich Nietzsche. Part VIII.

"The Joyful Wisdom," written in 1882, just before "Zarathustra," is rightly judged to be one of Nietzsche's best books. Here the essentially grave and masculine face of the poet-philosopher is seen to light up and suddenly break into a delightful smile. The warmth and kindness that beam from his features will astonish those hasty psychologists who have never divined that behind the destroyer is the creator, and behind the blasphemer the lover of life. In the retrospective valuation of his work which appears in "Ecce Homo" the author himself observes with truth that the fourth book, "Sanctus Januarius," deserves especial attention: "The whole book is a gift from the Saint, and the introductory verses express my gratitude for the most wonderful month of January that I have ever spent." Book fifth "We Fearless Ones," the Appendix "Songs of Prince Free-as-a-Bird," and the Preface, were added to the second edition in 1887. Translated by Thomas Common.
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Sep 30, 2024 • 1h 10min

The Joyful Wisdom, by Friedrich Nietzsche. Part VII.

"The Joyful Wisdom," written in 1882, just before "Zarathustra," is rightly judged to be one of Nietzsche's best books. Here the essentially grave and masculine face of the poet-philosopher is seen to light up and suddenly break into a delightful smile. The warmth and kindness that beam from his features will astonish those hasty psychologists who have never divined that behind the destroyer is the creator, and behind the blasphemer the lover of life. In the retrospective valuation of his work which appears in "Ecce Homo" the author himself observes with truth that the fourth book, "Sanctus Januarius," deserves especial attention: "The whole book is a gift from the Saint, and the introductory verses express my gratitude for the most wonderful month of January that I have ever spent." Book fifth "We Fearless Ones," the Appendix "Songs of Prince Free-as-a-Bird," and the Preface, were added to the second edition in 1887. Translated by Thomas Common.

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