This essay of a cultured observer, for many years United States consul in Rome, appeared in Harper's New Monthly Magazine, vol 10, issue 59, April, 1855, pp 577 - 600. (Summary by David Wales)...

This is a collection of broadsides from London. Broadsides are short, popular publications, a precursor to today's tabloid journalism. The collection contains sensationalist and sometimes comical stories about criminal conduct, love, the Royal...

The Mysteries of London was a best-selling novel in mid-Victorian England, published in four volumes. This is the third volume. Initially serialized in weekly installments, they were the forerunners of today's soap operas. Known as "Penny...

The Mysteries of London was a best-selling novel in mid-Victorian England, published in four volumes. This is the second volume. Initially serialized in weekly installments, they were the forerunners of today's soap operas. Known as "Penny...

Writing under the pseudonym, Geoffrey Crayon, Washington Irving chronicled his travels through Europe in the early 1820’s. He wrote of people he met, places he saw and stories he was told. In fact, much of the work is recounting tales told to him by...

A collection of sparkling gossipy biographical pieces of Aubrey's contemporaries, including Bacon, Jonson and Shakespeare, Brief Lives' glimpses into the unofficial side of these towering figures has won it an undying popularity, with Ruth Scurr's...

A collection of poetry by Thomas Hardy, some of which were previously published or adapted into his prose works. - Summary by Libby Gohn...

[The Native American] story tellers of the camp related, with dramatic gestures, stories of the Days of the Grandfathers, in the beginning of the Newness of Things. Nothing was too large or too small to come within the bounds of their beliefs, or...

A short and gentle overview of mediaeval life in a large city. It lightly covers the class structure of society, local government, guilds, pageantry and punishment. The author has an easy, rhythmic style which leaves the reader wanting to find out...

LibriVox’s Short Story Collection 051: a collection of 20 short works of fiction in the public domain read by a group of LibriVox members....

A romantic comedy, written in 1918, but with a modern feel to it. Patricia Brent one day overhears two fellow-boarders pitying her because she "never has a nice young man to take her out". In a thoughtless moment of anger she announces that the...

William Matthew Flinders Petrie – the father of Egyptian Archaeology – developed and applied statistical analysis to pottery from prehistoric sites and by this established seriation as a relative dating method as a major contribution to Egyptian...

This is a short story about a shy, quiet little girl living in a big city. When her parents are offered the opportunity to take care of a house in the suburbs for the summer she meets another little girl in the house and they become playmates....

"The Challenge of Waste" examines the wasteful nature of the competitive market system, particularly from a Veblenian point of view. He also praises World War I era planning by the Fuel Administration and other government wartime agencies. (Summary...

This is a collection of 50 poems read in English by LibriVox volunteers for May 2018....

A scathing criticism of social climbing underlies this unsettling story by Frances Eleanor Trollope, sister-in-law to Anthony and daughter-in-law to Frances Milton Trollope. Published in 1876, A Charming Fellow is a serious exploration of a bitterly...

James desperately needs someone to help him keep his farm going, but has failure after colossal failure finding a good housekeeper. Alida marries a man only to find out he's already married. She's so undone when she finds out that she just wants to...

A Short Account of the Destruction of the Indies (Spanish: Brevísima relación de la destrucción de las Indias) is an account written by the Spanish Dominican friar Bartolomé de las Casas in 1542 (published in 1552) about the mistreatment of the...

The Autobiography of Charles Darwin is the autobiography of the British naturalist Charles Darwin which was published in 1887, five years after his death. Darwin wrote the book, which he entitled Recollections of the Development of my Mind and...

Taking place in the heart of Africa, “The Tale of Three Lions” is one more thrilling adventure from the eventful life of old hunter Quatermain, the famous hero of “King Solomons Mines”. This time, though there are no bloodthirsty people for the old...