Summary from Wikimedia: The Birth Mark is a romantic short story which examines obsession with human perfection.
Thanatopsis by William Cullen Bryant
Summary: The title is from the Greek thanatos (“death”) and the suffix -opsis (literally, “sight”); it has often been translated as “Meditation upon Death”.
Due to the unusual quality of the verse and Bryant’s age when the poem was first published in 1817 by the North American Review, Richard Henry Dana, Sr., then associate editor at the Review, initially doubted its authenticity, saying to another editor, “No one, on this side of the Atlantic, is capable of writing such verses.”
The Iliad by Homer, translated by Samuel Butler
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Total running time: 14 hours, 30 minutes
# 01 – The Quarrel between Achilles and Agamemnon
# 03 – Paris Challenges Menelaus
# 08 – The Victory of the Trojans
# 09 – The Embassy to Achilles
# 10 – Ulysses and Diomed go out as Spies
# 11 – Agamemnon’s Day of Glory
# 12 – The Trojans Break the Wall
# 13 – Neptune helps the Achaeans
# 14 – Agamemnon Proposes that the Achaeans Should Sail Home
# 16 – Patroclus fights in the armor of Achilles
# 17 – The Light around the Body of Patroclus
# 19 – Achilles Goes Out to Fight
# 21 – Achilles Drives the Trojans Back
Lord Jim by Joseph Conrad
Summary: A classic of early literary modernism, Lord Jim tells the story of a young “simple and sensitive character” who loses his honor in a display of cowardice at sea — and of his expiation of that sin against his own “shadowy ideal of conduct” on the remote island of Patusan. The novel, written by Conrad for magazine serialization during an intense and chaotic ten months in 1899 and 1900, has, in the words of Thomas C. Moser, “the rare distinction of being a masterpiece in two separate genres. It is at once an exotic adventure story of the Eastern seas in the popular tradition of Kipling and Stevenson and a complexly wrought ‘art novel’ in the tradition of Flaubert and James. (Summary by Stewart Wills for Librivox)
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Total running time: 14 hours, 25 minutes
Silas Marner by George Eliot
Summary: Silas Marner (originally published in 1861): Betrayed by a beloved friend and accused of a crime he didn’t commit, awkward Silas Marner is expelled from his beloved religious community — the only community he has ever known. He exiles himself in the remote village of Raveloe. Friendless and without family, set apart from the villagers by their superstition and fear of him, he plies his weaving trade day after day, storing up gold which becomes his idol. When his gold is stolen, he is rescued from despair by the arrival on his lonely hearth of a beautiful little girl, whom he adopts, and through whom he and the other people of the village learn that loving relationships are more fulfilling than material wealth. (Summary by rachelellen for Librivox)
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Total running time: 6 hours, 47 minutes
selected short stories and poems
Walter de la Mare, selected poems
The Mayor of Casterbridge by Thomas Hardy
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Total running time: 11 hours, 40 minutes
Summary: A poor, disgruntled, drunken young man sells his wife and child to the highest bidder. When he awakens, sober, the next day he regrets his rash act and vows to give up drink and find his family and bring them home. Eventually he is forced to give up the search and move on with his life. He does this quite successfully until, nearly 20 years later, his past comes back to haunt him. (Summary by DebraLynn for Librivox)
Robert Browning, selected poetry
Samuel Taylor Coleridge, selected poetry
Percy Bysshe Shelley, selected poems
U. S. Historical Documents
Washington Irving short stories
Read The Legend of Sleepy Hollow online, on your Kindle or on another e-reader device
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This Country of Ours part 5: Stories of the French in America by H. E. Marshall
This is Part 5: Stories of the French in America, from chapter 45 (How the Mississippi was Discovered) to chapter 50 (The Rebellion of Pontiac).
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45 How the Mississippi was Discovered – 00:13:14
46 King William’s War and Queen Anne’s War – 00:10:54
47 The Mississippi Bubble – 00:15:37
48 How a Terrible Disaster Befell the British Army – 00:17:38
49 The End of French Rule in America – 00:12:07
50 The Rebellion of Pontiac – 00:12:20
Other parts of this book can be found here:
The Story of Doctor Dolittle
Internet archive file for this book
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Book summary from Librivox: In The Story of Doctor Dolittle (1920), the first of Hugh Lofting’s Doctor Dolittle books, we are introduced to the good doctor who gives up treating people after Polynesia, his parrot, teaches him animal languages. His fame in the animal kingdom spreads throughout the world and soon he sets off to cure a monkey epidemic in Africa, finding all sorts of exciting adventures on the way.
This recording is of the original edition, which is in the public domain. Later editions, which are still under copyright, changed some language and plot elements that are considered racially derogatory.
(Summary adapted from wikipedia.org by Annie Coleman)
Author’s Note and Dedication ; Introduction – 00:08:55
The First Chapter – Puddleby – 00:06:10
The Second Chapter – Animal Language – 00:13:08
The Third Chapter – More Money Troubles – 00:07:28
The Fourth Chapter – A Message From Africa – 00:06:19
The Fifth Chapter – The Great Journey – 00:06:24
The Sixth Chapter – Polynesia and the King – 00:06:07
The Seventh Chapter – The Bridge of Apes – 00:11:04
The Eighth Chapter – The Leader of the Lions – 00:07:07
The Ninth Chapter – The Monkeys’ Council – 00:06:20
The Tenth Chapter – The Rarest Animal of All – 00:09:13
The Eleventh Chapter – The Black Prince – 00:10:33
The Twelfth Chapter – Medicine and Magic – 00:15:07
The Thirteenth Chapter – Red Sails and Blue Wings – 00:07:27
The Fourteenth Chapter – The Rats’ Warning – 00:08:21
The Fifteenth Chapter – The Barbary Dragon – 00:10:37
The Sixteenth Chapter – Too-Too the Listener – 00:07:58
The Seventeenth Chapter – The Ocean Gossips – 00:07:28
The Eighteenth Chapter – Smells – 00:12:19
The Nineteenth Chapter – The Rock – 00:08:29
Hamlet by William Shakespeare
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Summary from Librivox: Hamlet is commonly regarded as one of the greatest plays ever written. Drawing on Danish chronicles and the Elizabethan vogue for revenge tragedy, Shakespeare created a play that is at once a philosophic treatise, a family drama, and a supernatural thriller. In the wake of his father’s death, Prince Hamlet finds that his Uncle Claudius has swiftly taken the throne and married his mother, Queen Gertrude. The ghost of the dead king then appears and charges Claudius with ‘murder most foul.’ Hamlet is called to revenge his father’s death: but will he be able to act before it is too late?
This Country of Ours, Part 4: Stories of the Middle and Southern Colonies, by H. E. Marshall
This is Part 4: Stories of the Middle and Southern Colonies, from chapter 35 (The Founding of Maryland) to chapter 44 (The Founding of Georgia).
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Chapter 35 The Founding of Maryland 00:08:55
Chapter 36 How New Amsterdam became New York 00:16:35
Chapter 37 How a German Ruled New York 00:07:29
Chapter 39 The Founding of New Jersey 00:03:40
Chapter 40 The Founding of Pennsylvania 00:13:24
Chapter 41 How Benjamin Franklin came to Philadelphia 00:04:29
Chapter 42 The Founding of North and South Carolina 00:07:11
Chapter 43 War with the Indians in North and South Carolina 00:10:19
Chapter 44 The Founding of Georgia 00:18:04
There are 5 other parts to this book:
This Country of Ours part 1, chapters 1-12
This Country of Ours part 2, Chapters 13-21
This Country of Ours, part 3, chapters 22-34
Plato’s Republic by Plato
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Summary: The Republic is a Socratic dialogue by Plato, written in approximately 380 BC. It is one of the most influential works of philosophy and political theory, and arguably Plato’s best known work. In it, Socrates and various other Athenians and foreigners discuss the meaning of justice and whether the just man is happier than the unjust man by constructing an imaginary city ruled by philosopher-kings. The dialogue also discusses the nature of the philosopher, Plato’s Theory of Forms, the conflict between philosophy and poetry, and the immortality of the soul. (Summary from Wikipedia)
The Little Duke by Charlotte Yonge
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Running time: 3 hours, 57 minutes
The Little Duke by Charlotte M. Yonge is historical fiction based on the the life of Richard, Duke of Normandy. He assumes the title of Duke at only 8 years of age, after his father is murdered. The story first appeared in her magazine, The Monthly Packet, as a serial. (summary by Laura Caldwell on Librivox)
Running time: 3 hours 57 minutes
Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, chapter by chapter
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Run time: 4 hours, 3 minutes
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