TOP 100 Audiobooks

Science fiction from the 50s by one of the masters, Alfred Bester. Society has committed itself to complete stability. Nothing is allowed to upset this stability, nothing that is not planned and approved and accounted for in advance. Yes, this is...

She came among us without flourish of trumpets. She just slipped into her place, almost unnoticed, but once she was settled there it seemed as if we had got something we had wanted all our lives, and we should have missed her as you would miss the...

The Conferences were written by John Cassian at the request of Pope Leo. They document the conversations that Cassian had with the elders living in Scetis (the desert of Egypt), and about principles of the spiritual and ascetic life. The work would...

While examining a golden ring under a microscope, a chemist discovers a sub-atomic world. During his examination of this world he sees a beautiful young girl. After developing chemicals that will allow him to either shrink or grow larger in size, he...

A romance set in Prague between a Catholic and a Jew. In this short novel, Trollope moves away from his usual milieu to explore a theme which has universal resonance. - Summary by Anthony Ogus...

The poems of St John of the Cross, with their mystic depth and spiritual ecstasy, stand among the world's great poems of Divine Love in all traditions. St John is one of the Roman Catholic Doctors of the Church, was a reformer of the Carmelite...

The electric telegraph, together with the railway-train and the steamship, constituted the three most conspicuous features of late 19th century civilization. Indeed, it may be truly said that the harnessing electricity to the service of man for...

LibriVox volunteers bring you 13 recordings of Sonnet IX by Hartley Coleridge. This was a Weekly Poetry project for September 20, 2020. ------ Hartley Coleridge, was an English poet, biographer, essayist, and teacher. He was the eldest son of the...

Basil Kent marries Jenny Bush, because he believes that is the honourable thing to do after getting her pregnant, but he realizes that he is really in love with Hilda Murray. Grace Castillyon, an established married woman of position, has fallen...

Hester Dowden, who wrote under the name Hester Travers Smith, was an Irish spiritualist medium. She claimed to have communicated with the spirits of various celebrities. In Oscar Wilde from Purgatory, she reproduces the text of her "conversations"...

Nina Salaman was a noted scholar, translator and columnist. As well as translating medieval Hebrew poetry, she was a poet in her own right. This collection, first published in 1910, shows her remarkable grace. ( Newgatenovelist)...

There are so many questions that Kipling answered for us, and this is one of the most interesting - how rhinoceroses became so wrinkly and so bad tempered. Read by Richard Scott. HOW THE RHINOCEROS GOT HIS SKIN Hello, This is Richard, and I’m here...

Kipling’s ‘Just So story from when the world was very new tells how the grumpy, idle camel turned his ‘humph’ into a ‘hump.’ The moral of the story is that not having enough to do makes people (and animals) grumpy. As we mention in the introduction,...

Eight sketches by one of the pioneers of applied psychology, which highlight the mind of the witness on the witness stand, and how one can be an unreliable eyewitness. The last essay, on the prevention of crime, takes another direction. - Summary by...

Miss Meredith is not the most talented of her sisters. In fact, she considers herself the typical of them. She has the adventure of a life time when she is offered the post of governess to an ancient noble Italian family. Things become even more...

This is the tenth volume of the 15-volume series of The World’s Story: a history of the World in story, song and art, edited by Eva March Tappan. Each book is a compilation of selections from prose literature, poetry and pictures and offers a...

LibriVox volunteers bring you 26 recordings of A Canadian Song by Susanna Moodie.. This was the Weekly Poetry project for October 25, 2020. ------ Susanna Moodie was an English-born Canadian author who wrote about her experiences as a settler in...

Following a move to a new town, Marjorie Dean must make new friends during her freshman year at high school. To her dismay, she makes a few enemies along the way too. She has to learn to deal with the unkind acts of her enemies whilst making sure...

“The Christmas Tales Of Flanders presented in this volume are popular fables and legends current in Flanders and Brabant, which have for centuries been told to children throughout Belgium. Their origin is doubtful, as all literature handed down by...

Seven chapters involving Christmas from different books. Plus part 8 which is twelve verses about Christmas and part 9 which is four Christmas carols by Christina Rossetti. - Summary by David Wales...

This wonderful collection of poems showcases the incredible talent of the some of the greatest poets in the world. These creative masterpieces are truly the best of the best, the crème de la crème, one hundred of the most awe inspiring and...

The Markovian Nucleus was once an existential threat to the council worlds, but then, in the space of only 70-80 years, their culture completely changed. They became model galactic citizens and everyone was too relieved to question their good...

Maria Edgeworth was one of the most popular writers of her time, a sharp and witty observer of society manners, and a favorite author for Jane Austen. “Ormond,” published in 1817, is a “coming-of-age” novel, tracing a young man’s development as he...

This is an essay providing an extended analysis of the works of Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen and of Ibsen's critical reception in England. Shaw uses this "exposition of Ibsenism" to illustrate the imperfections of British society, using the...

Originally published in 1904, “The Master’s Violin” is the seventh novel by Myrtle Reed. It is set in a German town of Pennsylvania, East Lancaster, giving two characters fairly difficult accents to perform. The story entails a widow, Margaret...

This is a collection of verses by British poet, critic and magazine editor Arthur Symons, which, as some reviewers assure us, was "'unwholesome," because, he said, they had "a faint smell of Patchouli about them."' Modern readers may value the...

A set of twin brothers have spent every waking moment of their lives together and are terrified of separating. However, when both men set their desires upon a mysterious young woman, the deep bonds of their relationship become marred. (Summary by...

Simon's new source of power promised a new era for Mankind. But what happens to world economy when anyone can manufacture it in the kitchen oven?... Here's one answer! and it isn't pretty - Summary by The publisher...

Reading this book, I had a vision of a land, heretofore sunk in the mists of muteness, suddenly rising up into the eminence of song. Innumerable books have been written about the South; some good books have been written in the South. This book is...

Praised by Oscar Wilde amongst other contemporaries, Amy Levy's first novel tells the story of the four Lorimer sisters, who decide to open their own photography business after the death of their father which has left them in poverty. The novel...

This is the first book of a trilogy (A Child of the Jago, To London Town) set in the harsh world of London's East End. Violence and poverty are everywhere, but the universal human emotions prevail despite the rawness of life. We come to love the...

Covering some of the plot of Shakespeare's Richard III, Jane Shore focuses on the mistress of the late Edward IV, also known as "The White Queen". In this short tragedy, Jane tries to thwart Richard's rise to power while experiencing love, betrayal,...

The title says it all: stories about dogs. - Summary by david wales...

The adventures and perils of Happy Jack the Squirrel in the Green Forest, co-starring Happy Jack's cousins Chatterer the Red Squirrel and Striped Chipmunk, friends Sammy Jay, Tommy Tit, Whitefoot the Wood Mouse, and Shadow the Weasel as Happy Jack's...

First published in Space Science Fiction May 1953. "The claws were bad enough in the first place—nasty, crawling little death-robots. But when they began to imitate their creators, it was time for the human race to make peace—if it could!" When...

"The Chaos" is a poem which demonstrates the irregularity of English spelling and pronunciation, written by Gerard Nolst Trenité (1870-1946), also known under the pseudonym Charivarius. It first appeared in an appendix to the author's 1920 textbook...

Librivox’s One-Act Play Collection 008 includes one-act plays in the public domain read by a variety of LibriVox members. Project BC: Michele Eaton At A Garden Party Narrator:Zames Curran Mr Demure: Anna Simon Mrs Pattallon: Availle Mr Tablett: Algy...

A plant hunter, Karl Linden, and his brother Caspar are on their way to the Himalayas to collect the plants of that region. Many adventures befell the brothers and their guides, all of which led to their being trapped in the mountains. This is a...

Mairi Chisholm and Elsie Knocker were two British nurses and ambulance drivers whose staggeringly heroic efforts during World War I saved countless lives and earned them life-long honor. They were especially known for their determination to treat...

This 1854 narration of a trip upon the Ohio River in a steamboat from Cincinnati to Pittsburg gives a picture of travel in a different time and almost a different United States. The author was well-known in his time and wrote prolifically. - Summary...

"The Worshipper of the Image," by Richard Le Galliene first published in 1900. The protagonist Antony, a poet buys a death mask in an antique shop and soon realizes it resembles his wife Beatrice. The death mask, Antony names "Silencieux," becomes...

A collection of short stories set in the American West at the end of the 19th century. (Summary by Nick Bulka)...

One must have a little pinch of seasoning in this dull, heavy life of ours; one should never look to have all the troubles, the labors, and the cares, with never a whit of innocent jollity and mirth. Yes, one must smile now and then, if for nothing...

Naden's sonnets have topics as diverse as astronomy, classical mythology and Shakespeare's birthplace. This collection is taken from Naden's complete poems, and whether listeners enjoy French history or the natural world, there are subjects to...

The Ingoldsby Legends are a collection of myths, legends, ghost stories and poetry supposedly written by Thomas Ingoldsby of Tappington Manor, actually a pen-name of Richard Harris Barham. The legends were first printed in 1837 as a regular series...

This is the story of a daring college student's quest to win the icy heart of a beautiful girl. Unfortunately, the girl is the daughter of a cunning and sadistic master artist, who takes the student as an apprentice with the express intent of...

This is a volume of poetry by English poet Richard Middleton. While hardly known to readers anymore today, Middleton's poems, stories, and essays were all very highly regarded during his lifetime and after his untimely death, having won the...

Ibn Battuta (1304 – ca. 1369), was a Moroccan explorer. Over a period of thirty years, Ibn Battuta visited most of the known Islamic world as well as many non-Muslim lands. His journeys included trips to North Africa, West Africa, the Horn of...

D’Artagnan, son of a poor Gascon aristocrat, travels to Paris to seek his fortune. His family connections enable him to obtain a position in a Guard regiment. His provincial ingenuousness and his hot-headed sense of honor earn him three duels in as...

This 1903 book is a tongue-in-cheek send-up of English people and subjects. Within the humor (or humour), the listener may be surprised by some diamond-hard observations. The listener is also alerted to some attitudes of a different time that would...

Published in 1812, “The Absentee” by Maria Edgeworth examines social injustice in 19th-century Britain. At that time, the management of many Irish estates suffered from the absenteeism of their Anglo-Irish landlords. We meet Lord and Lady Clonbrony....

In this, the second book of the Ruth Fielding series, Ruth goes to boarding school with her best friend Helen. When they get there, Ruth starts her own sorority called the SweetBriars for the new girls. Her sweet group of girls conflicts with the...

A Dream Play (Swedish: Ett drömspel) was written in 1901 by the Swedish playwright August Strindberg. It was first performed in Stockholm on 17 April 1907. It remains one of Strindberg's most admired and influential dramas, seen as an important...

A framing story is told in the first person by Darrell Standing, a university professor serving life imprisonment in San Quentin State Prison for murder. Prison officials try to break his spirit by means of a torture device called "the jacket," a...

'Adult' Science Fiction? Well, why not? Science Fiction deals imaginatively with odd and unsettling subjects, why not sex? In this novel, the The Gods and Goddesses of Ancient Greece and Rome had returned to Earth—with all their awesome powers...

An approachable explanation of the main parables used by Jesus Christ to teach His disciples how to live. Notably, this discussion highlights how the spiritual truths of Jesus' teaching were illustrated by everyday occurrences which would have been...

The book is intended to ground beginners in Structural Botany and the principles of vegetable life, mainly as concerns Flowering or Phanerogamous plants, with which botanical instruction should always begin; also to be a companion and interpreter to...

This is a history of mathematics from antiquity to the turn of the 20th century. (Summary by Paul King)...

Jungle Tales of Tarzan is a collection of twelve loosely-connected short stories written by Edgar Rice Burroughs, comprising the sixth book in order of publication in his series about the title character Tarzan. Chronologically, the events recounted...

To take you back to your childhood, LibriVox volunteers bring you 28 recordings of The Star by Jane Taylor. This was the Weekly Poetry project for March 24, 2013....

J.B. Bury wrote his “History of Greece” before World War I, but it was such a good overview of classical Greek history that the third edition was still being used as a college textbook in the late 1960′s. In the newer editions, a co-author rewrote...

This is an Alice in Wonderland-like story by German classical author Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. It is taken from his Autobiography "Dichtung und Wahrheit" and recounts a story which Goethe says to have made up for the amusement of his friends. -...

This is a short novel published in 1895 and based vaguely on the battle of Chancellorsville of the American Civil War. Unlike other works on the subject, Crane's novel does not concentrate on the big picture or the glory of war but on the psychology...

Thomas Henry Hux­ley was an English biologist (comparative anatomist). He was the most effective supporter of Darwin's Theory of Evolution and had a strong interest in scientific education - in schools, universities, and for the general public . He...

Layard was a curiosity to sociologists. The planet supported thriving tribes of natives but they were genderless. How could tribes form without families? But Gavin Duncan didn’t care. He had come to Layard to farm vua plants. Their berries cured...

This is what people were reading in 1903, short stories, poetry, and non-fiction articles. (Summary by BellonaTimes)...

Calculus Made Easy: Being a Very-Simplest Introduction to Those Beautiful Methods of Reckoning which Are Generally Called by the Terrifying Names of the Differential Calculus and the Integral Calculus is is a book on infinitesimal calculus...

Arthur Ransome is best known for his Swallows and Amazons series of children’s books. This is the only example of his fiction in the public domain. These stories are all from Russian folklore, some comparatively well-known, others less so. Ransome...

The novel takes place 10 years after the Battle of the Plains of Abraham in 1759 when Quebec becomes a British colony. Written as a collection of letters, the story follows the relationships between Edward Rivers (a British soldier), his friend,...

The first entry in A Little Girl series, a series of historical fiction books for young girls, A Little Girl in Old New York chronices the adventures of Hannah Ann as she moves and settles into life in New York with her family. - Summary by Elsie...

A compilation of 80 short stories by the author of "Anne of Green Gables" that were not previously published in a book or in one of Project Gutenberg's short stories collections for this author. The subjects range from children's stories, to...

After a night of drinking and gambling, John Ferguson has a terrifying dream of his neighbor being violently torn to shreds by an unknown attacker. When he wakes up, he sees a strange and bloodied woman climbing through his window, suffering from...

Two related addresses occasioned by the unexpected death of Ambrose's brother Satyrus: On the Death of a Brother (De excessu fratris Satyri) and On the Belief in the Resurrection. - Summary by InTheDesert...

Brought to us by notable reporter and writer, James Creelman, this story of Abraham Lincoln is a more personal and simple portrait of the most popular U.S. President. This account is told in an easy flowing style giving many insights into the spirt...

Volume 2 begins as our hero winds up his story. But the question remains, what happened to the other boat? Hugh and Helga have been picked up by a small boat, which is, apparently, headed for Australia against all seafaring wisdom. Too far from the...

This fourth volume covers the final battles and the peace conditions of the war, Washington at home, Washington as first President, and the internal battles to hammer out a new and heretofore unseen government....

Miss Cora Parkhurst is an irresponsible and flighty Sunday school teacher for a group of young ladies. She has simply no time to prepare the lessons, nor any knowledge of what it means to be a sincere Christian. Mr. Robert Hammond is an earnest,...

In a little town of Buckskin, population 100, or 200 depending on who did the counting, all kinds of trouble is brewing. See, there was a rivalry going on between Buckskin and a nearby town, Perry's Bend. That rivalry had turned sour, and involved...

Sylvester Graham, also known as the "Father of Vegetarianism", was a Presbyterian minister who emphasized clean eating. Graham endorsed the consumption of unprocessed foods, as close in kind as possible to those consumed by our wild ancestors....

Mansiche, the ruler of ancient Northern Peru was believed to have buried a huge treasure. But he cast a curse on, whoever, divulged the whereabouts of the treasure and those who might discover it. A Peruvian dagger is stolen from the Museum from...

Joseph Rogers (1821-1889) was an English physician, medical officer, and health care reformer in London. The system of poor-law dispensaries and separate sick wards, with proper staffs of medical attendants and nurses, was due to the efforts of...

Global Trends 2030: Alternative Worlds is the fifth installment (published in 2012) in the National Intelligence Council’s series aimed at providing a framework for thinking about the future. As with previous editions, this report will stimulate...

This is a collection of 48 poems read in English by LibriVox volunteers for December 2020....

This is the first edition of Hemingway's in our time, published in a very small run in France in 1924. And American edition was released the following year. There are 18 brief short stories---one might say vignettes---that demonstrate the author's...

LibriVox volunteers bring you 19 recordings of The Circus by Edwin C Ranck. This was the Weekly Poetry project for June 14, 2020. ------ This little volume was written for no reason on earth and with no earthly reason. It just simply happened, on...

Rudolf Virchow (1821-1902), professor of medicine and pathology at the Charité Hospital in Berlin, published more than 2000 papers and dozens of books. His investigation of the 1847-1848 typhus epidemic in Upper Silesia laid the foundations of...

This book collects seven short stories by some of England's best turn-of-the-(last)-century's writers. The collection begins with the humor of J. M. Barrie, of Peter Pan fame. A later and equally humorous story is by Israel Zangwill, also widely...

From Lewis Carroll's Jabberwocky to limericks written by Anonymous, some of the crankiest, most logical and lyrical people turn common sense upside-down. May they inspire the child inside of you to find your way through the most challenging...

Commander John Hanson recounts his harrowing adventure with the Electites of space. Beings of Ether who don't want your blood, they want your soul and eat your entire ship along with it. Listen as Commander Hanson and his men face certain death but...

LibriVox volunteers bring you 28 recordings of Quiet by Madison Cawein. This was the Weekly Poetry project for May 17, 2020. ------ Cawein's description of "A log-hut in the solitude", taken from The Poems of Madison Cawein, Volume 3, Nature Poems....

This famous work is a collection of poetic essays that are philosophical, spiritual, and inspirational. They delve deep into our condition and give insight into what it means to be human and a member of society. - Summary by phil chenevert...

Little Pictorial Lives of the Saints : with reflections for every day in the year : compiled from "Butler's Lives" and other approved sources : to which are added lives of the American saints : placed on the calendar for the United States by special...

In this suspensful whodunit a mean-spirited and wealthy dowager is found murdered in her boudoir supposedly killed once by poison and also by a blow to the head. Most bizarre is the fact that she is found sitting in front of her mirror lavishly...

Philemon is a letter written by the Apostle Paul to the man of the same name, a leader in the church at Colossae, upon the return of his runaway slave, Onesimus. In it, Paul tells Philemon that Onesimus has become a Christian, mentions that he would...

"This account of the Way trodden by the pilgrims of the Middle Ages through the South of England to the shrine of St. Thomas of Canterbury originally appeared in the Art Journal for 1892, with illustrations by Mr. A. Quinton. It was published in the...

"Chremes and Demipho are two aged Athenians, brothers. Nausistrata, the wife of Chremes, is a wealthy woman, possessed of large estates in the island of Lemnos. Chremes, who goes thither yearly to receive the rents, meets with a poor woman there,...

The stories of the ten kittens told in this book are true to life. They have been gathered from here and there over the country. All the kittens have lived and played their little parts in the life history as told in each chapter. The purpose of...

This is a collection of 80 poems read in English by LibriVox volunteers for July 2020....

A portrait of Americas many social groups with the chief interest centered on a university professor and his family - Summary by Publishers Weekly September 5 1925...

Who knows what might be going on in Miss Buzby's boarding house, where she accepts (shudder!) theatrical types? - Summary by ToddHW Cast list: Jerome Townsend, a lover somewhat in the background: Tommy Hersant Felix Marden, who is not afraid to come...