Librivox

The Importance of Being Earnest

Oscar Wilde's The Importance of Being Earnest is subtitled "A Trivial Comedy for Serious People," and has proved immensely popular since its first performance in 1895. The play certainly has its farcical and comic elements, such as the witty banter exchanged by the characters and the flippant attitude towards love…

23 Oct 2012 3 episodes English Read by Various Readers Language Learning · Arts

All's well that ends well

Despite its optimistic title, Shakespeare's All's Well That Ends Well has often been considered a "problem play." Ostensibly a comedy, the play also has fairy tale elements, as it focuses on Helena, a virtuous orphan, who loves Bertram, the haughty son of her protectress, the Countess of Rousillon. When Bertram,…

28 Oct 2014 6 episodes English Read by Various Readers Comedy · Arts

Hamlet

The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark is a tragedy by William Shakespeare. Set in the Kingdom of Denmark, the play dramatizes the revenge Prince Hamlet exacts on his uncle Claudius for murdering King Hamlet, Claudius's brother and Prince Hamlet's father, and then succeeding to the throne and taking as…

11 Jul 2014 5 episodes English Read by Various Readers Arts · Arts

Antony and Cleopatra

Antony and Cleopatra is a tragedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written sometime between 1603 and 1607. It was first printed in the First Folio of 1623. The plot is based on Thomas North's translation of Plutarch's Life of Marcus Antonius and follows the relationship between Cleopatra and…

28 Oct 2014 6 episodes English Read by Various Readers Arts · Arts

The necklace

The French author Guy de Maupassant (1850-1893) was a master of the short story, creating detailed character studies and brief but moving dramas well suited to the genre. The nine stories in this collection provide a vivid portrait gallery of his typical subjects - from simple peasants and prostitutes to…

22 May 2014 1 episodes English Read by Bob Neufeld Arts · Arts

The Awakening

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…

12 Sep 2014 8 episodes English Read by Elizabeth Klett Arts

The Prince

The Prince (Italian: Il Principe) is a political treatise by the Italian diplomat, historian and political theorist Niccolò Machiavelli. From correspondence a version appears to have been distributed in 1513, using a Latin title, De Principatibus (About Principalities). However, the printed version was not published until 1532, five years after…

18 Jan 2013 14 episodes English Read by Paul Adams Arts

The Adventures of Tom Sawyer

The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (published 1876) is a very well-known and popular story concerning American youth. Mark Twain’s lively tale of the scrapes and adventures of boyhood is set in St. Petersburg, Missouri, where Tom Sawyer and his friend Huckleberry Finn have the kinds of adventures many boys can…

24 Oct 2012 17 episodes English Read by John Greenman Arts

A Doll's House

A Doll's House, written two years after The Pillars of Society, was the first of Ibsen's plays to create a sensation and is now perhaps his most famous play, and required reading in many secondary schools and universities. The play was highly controversial when first published, as it is sharply…

9 Nov 2014 3 episodes English Read by Various Reader Arts

Henry V

After the turmoil and uncertainty of Henry IV a new era appears to dawn for England with the accession of the eponymous Henry V. In this sunny pageant Chorus guides us along Henry's glittering carpet ride of success as the new king completes his transformation from rebellious wastrel to a…

7 Nov 2014 5 episodes English Read by Various Readers Arts

The Metamorphosis

"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…

5 Jan 2014 6 episodes English Read by David Richardson Arts

The Comedy of Errors

The Comedy of Errors is one of William Shakespeare's earliest plays, believed to have been written between 1592 and 1594. It is his shortest and one of his most farcical comedies, with a major part of the humour coming from slapstick and mistaken identity, in addition to puns and word…

28 Oct 2014 6 episodes English Read by Various Readers Comedy · Arts

Selected Short Stories

Ranging in tone from humor to sentimentality, these stories by F. Scott Fitzgerald are set against a backdrop of jazz, flappers, and the changing mores of American society. In "Bernice Bobs Her Hair," wallflower Bernice is taken in hand by her more popular cousin, whose motives are not entirely altruistic…

9 May 2014 10 episodes English Read by Laurie Anne Walden Arts

Short Poetry Collection

This is a collection of poems read by LibriVox volunteers for August 2012.

3 Apr 2014 23 episodes English Read by Various Arts

The Tragedy of Macbeth

Macbeth is a play written by William Shakespeare. It is considered one of his darkest and most powerful tragedies. Set in Scotland, the play dramatizes the corroding psychological and political effects produced when its protagonist, the Scottish lord Macbeth, chooses evil as the way to fulfill his ambition for power…

10 Jul 2014 5 episodes English Read by Various Readers Arts

Romeo and Juliet

Romeo and Juliet is Shakespeare's famous tragedy of two "star-crossed lovers" from rival houses. Romeo and Juliet meet at a party and fall instantly in love, realizing too late that their families, the Montagues and the Capulets, are mortal enemies. Braving parental opposition, the teenage lovers marry in secret, with…

24 Jan 2014 6 episodes English Read by Various Readers Arts · Arts

The Picture of Dorian Gray

Dorian Gray, a young man of wealth and stature in late 1800's London, meets Lord Henry Wotton while posing for a portrait by his friend Basil Hallward. Once the painting is complete, Dorian realizes that it will always be young and attractive, while he will be forced to age and…

21 Aug 2014 13 episodes English Read by John Gonzalez Arts

The Secret Agent

The Secret Agent is Conrad's dark, and darkly comic story of a band of spies, anarchists, agents-provocateurs plotting and counter-plotting in the back streets of London in the early 20th Century. The novel centers on Verloc, a shop-owner, phony-anarchist and double-agent, who becomes embroiled in an ambitious terrorist plan to…

9 May 2014 13 episodes English Read by Various Readers Arts

Death be not proud

This week we’re marking the American Memorial Day with eleven readings of a John Donne poem. Memorial Day was conceived as a time to remember military men and women who had lost their lives in war. Kings and presidents come and go and some of the reasons that wars have…

2 Apr 2014 11 episodes English Read by Variuos Arts

King Lear

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…