Librivox

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…

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

Othello

Othello is the story of a cross-cultural romance between the title character, a noble moor who is a general in the Venetian army, and Desdemona, a beautiful and virtuous Venetian lady. The newly-married couple fall prey to the machinations of Iago, Othello's jealous ensign, who plots to destroy their union…

22 May 2014 6 episodes English Read by Various Arts · Arts

Cymbeline

Cymbeline is one of Shakespeare's late romances, which (like The Tempest and The Winter's Tale) combines comedy and tragedy. Imogen, the daughter of King Cymbeline of Britain, angers her father when she marries Posthumus, a worthy but penniless gentleman. The King banishes Posthumus, who goes to Rome, where he falls…

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

Heart of Darkness

Heart of Darkness is a novella written by Joseph Conrad. Before its 1903 publication, it appeared as a three-part series (1899) in Blackwood's Magazine. It was classified by the Modern Library website editors as one of the "100 best novels" and part of the Western canon. The story centres on…

31 Jan 2013 6 episodes English Read by Bob Neufeld Arts

The Legend of Sleepy Hollow

"The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" is a short story by Washington Irving contained in his collection The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent., written while he was living in Birmingham, England, and first published in 1820. It was based on a German folktale set in the Dutch culture of Post-Revolutionary…

24 Oct 2012 2 episodes English Read by Bob Neufeld Arts · Arts

Midsummer Night's dream

Shakespeare's festive comedy combines classical Athenian characters (Duke Theseus and his conquered Amazonian bride Hippolyta) with four contentious lovers, a forest full of quarreling and mischievous fairies and adds a dose of amateur theatre for good measure. (Summary by Elizabeth Klett)

8 Jul 2014 5 episodes English Read by Various Readers Comedy · Arts · Arts

Twelfth Night

Shakespeare's great festive comedy, probably written and first performed around 1601, follows the adventures of twins Viola and Sebastian, who are separated from each other by a shipwreck. Viola, believing her brother dead, disguises herself as a page in order to serve the lovesick Duke Orsino, who has been rejected…

8 Jul 2014 5 episodes English Read by Various Readers Comedy · Arts

When I have fears that I may cease to be

John Keats, one of the greatest English poets and a major figure in the Romantic movement, was born in 1795 in Moorfields, London. His father died when he was eight and his mother when he was fourteen; these sad circumstances drew him particularly close to his two brothers, George and…

23 May 2014 1 episodes English Read by Nomenphile Arts

Sonnet 30

Shakespeare's Sonnet 30, one of his most famous, is a reflection on sad memories reconciled by the realization of the gift he has in his friend.

4 Jul 2014 1 episodes English Read by Shengzhi Li Arts