Classic Audiobook Collection

The Boys Life of Mark Twain by Albert Bigelow Paine audiobook. Genre: biography In The Boys Life of Mark Twain, Albert Bigelow Paine tells the true story of how Samuel Langhorne Clemens became the writer the world would later know as Mark Twain. Written with young listeners in mind, this brisk biography follows Clemens from his boyhood on the Mississippi River frontier through the hard knocks and...

The Emancipation Proclamation by Abraham Lincoln audiobook. Genre: speeches After having written and released an initial draft of this proclamation in September of 1862, minor changes were made and Lincoln signed it on January 1st, 1863. It declared free the slaves in 10 states not then under Union control, with exemptions specified for areas already under Union control in two states. Lincoln spen...

The Gettysburg Address by Abraham Lincoln audiobook. Genre: speeches It was a cloudy November day in 1863 when thousands gathered to hear renowned orator Edward Everett dedicate a national cemetery at the site of a pivotal battle early in July of that year. Also present to deliver 'a few appropriate remarks' was the President of the United States, Abraham Lincoln. Lincoln spoke but 278 words; Ever...

Chancellorsville and Gettysburg by Abner Doubleday audiobook. Genre: history Abner Doubleday began the Civil War as a Union officer and aimed the first cannon shot in response to the bombardment opened on Ft. Sumter in 1861. Two years later, after a series of battles (including Antietam, where he was wounded), Doubleday took over a division in the Army of the Potomac's 1st Corps. These are his mem...

The Taming of the Shrew by William Shakespeare audiobook. Genre: comedy The Taming of the Shrew is one of Shakespeare's earliest comedies, and was inspired by classical Roman comedy and the Italian commedia dell'arte. Baptista Minola, a rich gentleman of Padua, has two daughters: Katherina, renowned for her sharp tongue, and Bianca, who is sought after by multiple suitors. Baptista decides that Bi...

Othello by William Shakespeare audiobook. Genre: tragedy In the glittering, volatile world of Venetian power and military prestige, Othello, a celebrated Moorish general, has risen through skill and courage to command respect. But his private life becomes the talk of the city when he secretly marries Desdemona, the daughter of a prominent senator. Summoned to defend Venice against a looming threat...

The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins audiobook. Genre: mystery The story concerns a young woman called Rachel Verinder who inherits a large Indian diamond, the Moonstone, on her eighteenth birthday. The book is widely regarded as the precursor of the modern mystery and suspense novels. T. S. Eliot called it 'the first, the longest, and the best of modern English detective novels'. It contains a number...

Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman audiobook. Genre: poetry American poet Walt Whitman’s Leaves of Grass, is a collection of poems notable for its frank delight in and praise of the senses, during a time when such candid displays were considered immoral. Where much previous poetry, especially English, relied on symbolism, allegory, and meditation on the religious and spiritual, Leaves of Grass exalte...

The Adventures of Maya the Bee by Waldemar Bonsels audiobook. Genre: adventure In The Adventures of Maya the Bee, Waldemar Bonsels invites listeners into a bright and bustling world where every flower hides a secret and every flight beyond the hive brings a new lesson. Maya is a curious young honeybee who cannot resist exploring what lies past the familiar order of her home. Restless and independe...

Universal Declaration of Human Rights by United Nations General Assembly audiobook. Genre: history Adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in 1948, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights is a landmark statement of the principles meant to guide how people and governments treat one another. Written in the wake of global conflict and mass atrocities, it sets out a shared moral and political...

The History of the Peloponnesian War by Thucydides audiobook. Genre: history Written by the Athenian historian and general Thucydides, The History of the Peloponnesian War is a firsthand-driven account of the long, brutal struggle between Athens and Sparta and their allies in the late fifth century BCE. Opening with the mounting tensions that make conflict inevitable, Thucydides follows the war's...

The Adventures of Danny Meadow Mouse by Thornton W. Burgess audiobook. Genre: family In The Adventures of Danny Meadow Mouse, Thornton W. Burgess invites listeners into the sunlit fields and shadowy thickets of the Green Meadows, where a small, curious mouse learns that the world is both wondrous and dangerous. Danny is quick and eager, but his love of exploring often puts him in the path of hungr...

Utopia by Thomas More audiobook. Genre: philosophy This book is all about the fictional country called Utopia. It is a country with an ‘ideal’ form of communism, in which everything really does belong to everybody, everyone does the work they want to, and everyone is alright with that. This country uses gold for chamber pots and prison chains, pearls and diamonds for children’s playthings, and req...

Common Sense by Thomas Paine audiobook. Genre: history First published in January 1776, Thomas Paine's Common Sense is the fiery pamphlet that helped turn colonial frustration into a direct argument for American independence. Written for ordinary readers rather than lawmakers, it lays out, in plain language, why reconciliation with Britain is neither practical nor desirable, and why a new nation s...

The Return of the Native by Thomas Hardy audiobook. Genre: tragedy Like all of Hardy's work, The Return of the Native (1878) is passionate and controversial, with themes and sympathies beyond what a good Victorian would ever admit. A modern and honest novel of chance and choice, faith and infidelities, this dark story asks what is free will and what is fate? What is the true nature of nature, and...

Confessions by St. Augustine of Hippo audiobook. Genre: religion The Confessions outlines Augustine's sinful youth and his conversion to Christianity. It is widely seen as the first Western autobiography ever written, and was an influential model for Christian writers throughout the following 1,000 years, through the Middle Ages. It is not a complete autobiography, as it was written in his early 4...

The White Company by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle audiobook. Genre: adventure Set during the Hundred Years' War with France, The White Company tells the story of a young Saxon man who is learning what it is to be a knight. Raised by Cistercian Monks and rejected by a violent elder brother, Alleyn Edricson takes service with one of the foremost knights in the country. When Alleyn falls in love with the k...

The Hound of the Baskervilles by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle audiobook. Genre: mystery When Sir Charles Baskerville is found dead on the lonely moor near his ancestral home, the whispered legend of a supernatural hound returns to haunt the Baskerville family. With the young heir, Sir Henry Baskerville, newly arrived from London and marked as the next possible victim, Dr. James Mortimer turns to the onl...

The Story of the Middle Ages by Samuel B. Harding audiobook. Genre: history In The Story of the Middle Ages, historian Samuel B. Harding guides listeners through the long, dramatic centuries that bridged the ancient world and the modern age. Beginning with the fragmentation of the Roman world and the rise of new kingdoms, Harding traces how Europe slowly reorganized itself around the competing for...

The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll & Mr Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson audiobook. Genre: mystery In fog-bound Victorian London, reputable lawyer Gabriel John Utterson becomes troubled by an unsettling name that keeps surfacing in connection with his longtime friend, the brilliant and charitable Dr Henry Jekyll. The name is Edward Hyde - a violent, secretive figure who seems to possess an uncanny claim...

More William by Richmal Crompton audiobook. Genre: comedy The second of Crompton's series of 39 books about William Brown, our cheeky 11 year-old protagonist. A hero to some, a dastardly villain to others, this book is structured round a year in his life. Starting with William waking up on Christmas morning and ending with him going to sleep the following Christmas Eve, there are the usual round o...

And Then the Town Took Off by Richard Wilson audiobook. Genre: scifi The town of Superior, Ohio, certainly was living up to its name! In what was undoubtedly the most spectacular feat of the century, it simply picked itself up one night and rose two full miles above Earth! Radio messages stated simply that Superior had seceded from Earth. But Don Cort, stranded on that rising town, was beginning t...

Scaramouche by Rafael Sabatini audiobook. Genre: adventure Set in pre-revolutionary France, Scaramouche follows Andre-Louis Moreau, a sharp-tongued young lawyer of uncertain birth who believes he can stay above politics - until injustice forces him into the widening conflict between privilege and the people. When a nobleman kills Andre-Louis' friend and the courts offer no remedy, Andre-Louis is d...

Captain Blood by Rafael Sabatini audiobook. Genre: adventure In late 17th-century England, Dr. Peter Blood is a skilled Irish physician who wants nothing more than a quiet life of duty and reason. But when he offers medical aid to a wounded rebel after the failed Monmouth Rebellion, Blood is swept up in the Crown's vengeance. Wrongly condemned as a traitor, he is shipped across the Atlantic and so...

Happy Prince and Other Tales by Oscar Wilde audiobook. Genre: folklore Oscar Wilde's Happy Prince and Other Tales gathers a set of luminous fairy stories that look like bedtime favorites but speak with sharp tenderness to readers of any age. In the city where a jewel-studded statue of the Happy Prince stands high above the streets, the Prince can finally see the poverty and sorrow around him, and...