In recent years, mostly walking around Lake Harriet, I’ve listened to quite a few books that volunteers have recorded for LibriVox—all of them safely out of copyright, all free, all “classics” of one sort or another. Some have been collaborative projects, involving many readers, and some solo projects, accomplished by a single reader. I remember these, which are all worth hearing:
Ludovico Ariosto, Orlando Furioso (1516, completed 1532), translated by John Harington (1591), read by Thomas A. Copeland
Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, Don Quixote, Part One (1605), translated by John Ormsby (1885), collaborative
Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, Don Quixote, Part Two (1615), translated by John Ormsby (1885), collaborative
Fanny Burney, Evelina (1778), collaborative
Edward Gibbon, The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1789), collaborative
Jane Austen, Mansfield Park (1814), read by Karen Savage
George Gordon, Lord Byron, Don Juan, canto 1 (1819), read by Peter Gallagher
Charles Dickens, Sketches by Boz (1836), collaborative
Charles Dickens, Oliver Twist (1838), collaborative
Charles Dickens, The Life and Adventure of Nicholas Nickleby (1839), read by Mil Nicholson
Thomas Babington Macaulay, Lord Clive (1840), read by Nicholas Clifford
Charles Dickens, Barnaby Rudge (1841), read by Mil Nicholson
Charles Dickens, The Old Curiosity Shop (1841), read by Mil Nicholson
Thomas Babington Macaulay, Warren Hastings (1842), read by Nicholas Clifford
Charles Dickens, American Notes for General Circulation (1842), collaborative
Charles Dickens, The Life and Adventures of Martin Chuzzlewit (1844), read by Peter John Keble
Benjamin Disraeli, Coningsby, or The New Generation (1844), read by Nicholas Clifford
Benjamin Disraeli, Sybil, or The Two Nations (1845), read by Nicholas Clifford
Charles Dickens, Dombey and Son (1848), read by Mil Nicholson
Thomas Babington Macaulay, The History of England (1848), collaborative
Elizabeth Gaskell, Cranford (1853), read by Sibella Denton
Charles Dickens, Little Dorritt (1857), read by Mil Nicholson
Thomas Hughes, Tom Brown’s School Days (1857), read by icyjumbo
Anthony Trollope, Doctor Thorne (1858), read by Nicholas Clifford
Anthony Trollope, Castle Richmond (1860), read by Simon Evers
Mary Elizabeth Braddon, Lady Audley’s Secret (1862), read by Elizabeth Klett
Mary Elizabeth Braddon, John Marchmont's Legacy (1862–63), read by Cate Barratt
Mary Elizabeth Braddon, Aurora Floyd (1863), collaborative
Anthony Trollope, The Small House at Allington (1864), collaborative
Anthony Trollope, Can You Forgive Her? (1864–65), collaborative
Charles Dickens, Our Mutual Friend (1865), read by Mil Nicholson
Wilkie Collins, The Moonstone (1868), collaborative
Anthony Trollope, Phineas Finn (1869), collaborative
Charles Dickens, The Mystery of Edwin Drood (1870), read by Alan Chant
George Eliot, Middlemarch (1872), read by Margaret Espaillat
Anthony Trollope, The Eustace Diamonds (1872), collaborative
Anthony Trollope, Lady Anna (1874), read by Simon Evers
Anthony Trollope, Phineas Redux (1874), collaborative
Anthony Trollope, The Prime Minister (1878), collaborative
Henry James, An International Episode (1879), collaborative
Anthony Trollope, The Duke’s Children (1880), collaborative
William Dean Howells, Indian Summer (1881), read by Nicholas Clifford
Mark Twain, Life on the Mississippi (1883), read by John Greenman
Arthur Conan Doyle, A Study in Scarlet (1887), read by David Clarke
Henry James, The Aspern Papers (1888), read by Nicholas Clifford
Henry James, The Reverberator (1888), read by Nicholas Clifford
Arthur Conan Doyle, The Sign of the Four (1890), read by David Clarke
Henry James, The Pupil (1891), read by Nicholas Clifford
Henry James, Sir Edmund Orme (1891), read by Nicholas Clifford
Arthur Conan Doyle, The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (1892), read by David Clarke
Henry James, The Real Thing (1892), read by Nicholas Clifford
Henry James, Sir Dominic Ferrand (1892), read by Nicholas Clifford
Arthur Conan Doyle, The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, read by David Clarke
Henry James, The Death of the Lion (1894), read by Christine Dufour
Edith Wharton, The House of Mirth (1895), read by Elizabeth Klett
Henry James, The Altar of the Dead (1895), collaborative
H. G. Wells, The Time Machine (1895), read by Mark F. Smith
Henry James, The Figure in the Carpet (1896), read by Nicholas Clifford
Henry James, The Spoils of Poynton (1897), read by Nicholas Clifford
Henry James, What Maisie Knew (1897), read by Elizabeth Klett
Henry James, The Turn of the Screw (1898), read by Elizabeth Klett
Rudyard Kipling, Kim (1901), read by Adrian Praetzellis
Edith Wharton, Crucial Instances (1901), collaborative
Arthur Conan Doyle, The Hound of the Baskervilles (1902), read by David Clarke
Henry James, The Ambassadors (1903), read by Nicholas Clifford
Henry James, The Jolly Corner (1908), read by Nicholas Clifford
P. G. Wodehouse, Psmith in the City (1910), collaborative
Edith Wharton, The Custom of the Country (1913), read by Elizabeth Klett
P. G. Wodehouse, Three Men and a Maid (1922), read by Tim Bulkeley
P. G. Wodehouse, Right Ho, Jeeves (1934), read by Mark Nelson
At the start of “Learning from LibriVox,” the chapter that I contributed to Audiobooks, Literature, and Sound Studies, ed. Matthew Rubery (New York: Routledge, 2011), 199–215, I noted that the practice of reading aloud had begun to disappear late in the nineteenth century, and that the recent vogue for audiobooks may partly repair that loss. Richard Grant White lamented the decline of communal reading in 1880:
Reading aloud has fallen into disuse in families and in the social circle, because we read so much. The newspaper and the cheap novel have combined to bring this about. We rise from the table, we seize each of us a newspaper or a new paper-covered novel, and we plunge into their pages, and sit unsociably silent. We even resent the reading of anything aloud to us, because it interrupts our own selfish solitary pleasure, and because we think that we could have read the passage so much more quickly by ourselves. The pleasure of a common enjoyment is disregarded in favor of our own greedy devouring of our silent, solitary mental meal; the charm of the sound of the human voice, conveying to us shades of meaning and points of emphasis, is undervalued, and seems to be passing away as one of the delights of life. (Every-day English, 108)
An audiobook reading, whether published by LibriVox or another agency, offers to restore something of that “charm of the sound of the human voice,” at least partly “conveying to us shades of meaning, and points of emphasis”—if not actually freeing us from our solitariness and restoring the pleasures of “the social circle.”
For an account of the recent boom in commercial audio books see Jennifer Maloney, "The Stars Align for Audiobooks," Wall Street Journal July 22, 2016: D1-D2, which notes that "smartphones have propelled the rise of audiobooks" (D2).
Michael Hancher ● July 24, 2016; updated June 27, 2021
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