Classic Audiobook Collection

The Two Destinies by Wilkie Collins audiobook. Genre: mysteryIn The Two Destinies, Wilkie Collins blends domestic drama with eerie mystery to follow a love story tested by distance, illness, and the unsettling sense that unseen forces may be at work. The novel centers on George Germaine, a devoted young man whose life becomes bound to the fate of Mary Dermody, the woman he loves. Their hope of a stable future is complicated by separation and by the fragile health of those around them, and George is drawn into a series of anxious journeys and discoveries as he tries to protect what he cherishes. Along the way, Collins introduces a circle of relatives, friends, and medical authorities whose advice and motives do not always align, forcing George to decide whom to trust. Threaded through the human conflicts is a disturbing question: are the lovers connected by coincidence and psychology, or by a deeper, inexplicable bond that can reach across space and time? As ordinary life gives way to suspicion and wonder, George must confront the possibility that destiny has more than one path and that love may demand a reckoning with the unknown.For ad-free listening try our premium subscription Chapters (Approximate)(00:00:00) Chapter 00(00:20:08) Chapter 01(00:30:04) Chapter 02(00:54:13) Chapter 03(01:13:19) Chapter 04(01:18:33) Chapter 05(01:34:55) Chapter 06(01:49:19) Chapter 07(02:04:13) Chapter 08(02:24:35) Chapter 09(02:43:09) Chapter 10(02:59:34) Chapter 11(03:10:44) Chapter 12(03:28:38) Chapter 13(03:45:55) Chapter 14(04:02:08) Chapter 15(04:13:09) Chapter 16(04:20:50) Chapter 17(04:38:48) Chapter 18(04:54:20) Chapter 19(05:10:04) Chapter 20(05:23:27) Chapter 21(05:35:52) Chapter 22(05:53:01) Chapter 23(06:16:31) Chapter 24(06:27:12) Chapter 25(06:38:18) Chapter 26(06:43:17) Chapter 27(06:54:47) Chapter 28(07:03:43) Chapter 29(07:13:04) Chapter 30(07:44:27) Chapter 31(08:05:42) Chapter 32(08:16:43) Chapter 33(08:24:09) Chapter 34(08:46:39) Chapter 35(08:56:06) Chapter 36(09:22:25) Chapter 37(09:58:18) Chapter 38 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Queen of Hearts by Wilkie Collins audiobook. Genre: mysteryIn a lonely corner of South Wales, three aging brothers have settled into a quiet, rule-bound life at the bleak old Glen Tower - until a visit from their young ward, Jessie Yelverton, turns their household upside down. Spirited, curious, and impossible to ignore, Jessie soon earns (and embraces) her nickname: the Queen of Hearts. But her stay is set to be brief, and the brothers have a private reason to keep her under their roof a little longer: Griffith's son, George, is expected home soon, and his hopes for Jessie depend on time. Their solution is both simple and dangerous - they will hold Jessie night after night with stories. What begins as a domestic comedy of manners becomes a chain of gripping fireside narratives: tales of hidden motives, uncanny warnings, sudden violence, and everyday lives pushed into extraordinary corners. As each storyteller reveals another secret, the frame story tightens too, and Jessie must decide what to believe about the men around her, and what kind of future she will accept.For ad-free listening try our premium subscription Chapters (Approximate)(00:00:00) Chapter 00(00:02:38) Chapter 01(00:14:26) Chapter 02(00:29:04) Chapter 03(00:53:09) Chapter 04(01:07:59) Chapter 05(01:22:16) Chapter 06(01:45:14) Chapter 07(02:04:02) Chapter 08(02:27:05) Chapter 09(02:45:48) Chapter 10(02:58:17) Chapter 11(03:16:53) Chapter 12(03:23:37) Chapter 13(03:40:01) Chapter 14(03:58:54) Chapter 15(04:21:09) Chapter 16(04:35:43) Chapter 17(04:53:35) Chapter 18(05:14:14) Chapter 19(05:44:24) Chapter 20(06:23:43) Chapter 21(06:53:21) Chapter 22(07:11:41) Chapter 23(07:39:20) Chapter 24(08:11:05) Chapter 25(08:31:28) Chapter 26(09:03:41) Chapter 27(09:22:41) Chapter 28(09:43:52) Chapter 29(10:24:47) Chapter 30(10:56:18) Chapter 31(11:19:38) Chapter 32(11:37:52) Chapter 33(11:50:50) Chapter 34(12:15:25) Chapter 35(12:28:03) Chapter 36(12:51:50) Chapter 37(13:04:11) Chapter 38(13:44:43) Chapter 39(14:42:13) Chapter 40(15:12:30) Chapter 41(15:28:05) Chapter 42 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A Rogue’s Life by Wilkie Collins audiobook. Genre: adventure'The story offers the faithful reflection of a very happy time in my past life. It was written at Paris, when I had Charles Dickens for a near neighbor and a daily companion, and when my leisure hours were joyously passed with many other friends, all associated with literature and art, of whom the admirable comedian, Regnier, is now the only survivor. The revising of these pages has been to me a melancholy task. I can only hope that they may cheer the sad moments of others. The Rogue may surely claim two merits, at least, in the eyes of the new generation—he is never serious for two moments together; and he 'doesn't take long to read.'For ad-free listening try our premium subscription Chapters (Approximate)(00:00:00) Chapter 01(00:19:22) Chapter 02(00:38:47) Chapter 03(00:55:42) Chapter 04(01:08:11) Chapter 05(01:24:07) Chapter 06(02:09:57) Chapter 07(02:25:17) Chapter 08(02:48:38) Chapter 09(03:04:45) Chapter 10(03:14:30) Chapter 11(03:33:27) Chapter 12(03:57:34) Chapter 13(04:12:18) Chapter 14(04:32:15) Chapter 15(04:48:10) Chapter 16 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Society as I Have Found It by Ward McAllister audiobook. Genre: biographyMark Twain illustrator Dan Beard recalled discussing McAllister’s book with Twain. “It was before Webster & Company failed that Ward McAllister’s book (Society as I have Found It) appeared, and when he (Twain) sauntered into my studio one day, I said:‘Mr. Clemens, have you read Ward McAllister’s book?’‘Yes; have you?’ he replied.‘Indeed, I have. I have read it through several times, and intend to read it again. It is one of the most humorous books I ever read.’‘That’s so,’ said Mark, ‘that’s so. Now, I will tell you something. I spent three months writing a satire on that book of Ward McAllister’s. And when I got through, I again read McAllister’s book, and then my satire, and then tore the blamed thing up. Some things are complete in themselves and cannot be improved upon, and I take off my hat to Mr. McAllister.’” (ref. A Bibliography of the Work of Mark Twain by Merle Johnson)Wikipedia says: 'McAllister's downfall came when he published a book of memoirs entitled Society as I Have Found It in 1890. The book, and his hunger for media attention, did little to endear him to the old guard, who valued their privacy in an era when millionaires were the equivalent of modern movie stars.'N.B. - NOT included in this recording is the author's extensive collection of period stationery, found at the end of the book.For ad-free listening try our premium subscription Chapters (Approximate)(00:00:00) Chapter 00(00:01:31) Chapter 01(00:10:04) Chapter 02(00:29:36) Chapter 03(00:37:36) Chapter 04(00:50:18) Chapter 05(00:59:45) Chapter 06(01:11:40) Chapter 07(01:22:02) Chapter 08(01:39:43) Chapter 09(01:55:37) Chapter 10(02:12:35) Chapter 11(02:28:09) Chapter 12(02:37:45) Chapter 13(02:53:02) Chapter 14(03:03:10) Chapter 15(03:18:19) Chapter 16(03:31:45) Chapter 17(03:51:33) Chapter 18(04:09:12) Chapter 19(04:22:22) Chapter 20(04:33:02) Chapter 21(04:45:29) Chapter 22(04:59:18) Chapter 23(05:17:15) Chapter 24(05:28:53) Chapter 25(05:40:28) Chapter 26(05:57:09) Chapter 27 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Toilers of the Sea by Victor Hugo audiobook. Genre: adventureSet on the rugged Channel Islands in the early 1800s, Victor Hugo's Toilers of the Sea follows Gilliatt, a solitary, fiercely capable fisherman and handyman whose quiet life is marked by rumor, suspicion, and an unspoken longing to belong. When a revolutionary steamship is wrecked on the treacherous reefs off Guernsey, the disaster becomes more than a financial blow to the island community: it turns into a test of will, ingenuity, and moral courage. Gilliatt seizes a chance to prove himself by attempting an almost impossible salvage operation, driven in part by his deep feelings for Deruchette, the spirited young woman whose future is entangled with the ship's owner, Lethierry. As Gilliatt battles isolation, harsh weather, and the merciless mechanics of the sea, Hugo expands the struggle into something mythic, weaving together suspenseful survival, painstaking labor, and philosophical reflection on fate, love, and society's judgment. Both a romance and an epic of human endurance, the novel asks what a person is worth when no one is watching, and what it costs to win acceptance from those who doubt you.For ad-free listening try our premium subscription Chapters (Approximate)(00:00:00) Chapter 00(00:02:17) Chapter 01(00:07:07) Chapter 02(00:18:14) Chapter 03(00:26:25) Chapter 04(00:47:17) Chapter 05(00:54:35) Chapter 06(01:06:56) Chapter 07(01:14:15) Chapter 08(01:20:40) Chapter 09(01:26:24) Chapter 10(01:31:05) Chapter 11(01:37:20) Chapter 12(01:41:02) Chapter 13(01:49:26) Chapter 14(01:54:31) Chapter 15(02:04:02) Chapter 16(02:09:44) Chapter 17(02:21:43) Chapter 18(02:27:00) Chapter 19(02:32:33) Chapter 20(02:40:58) Chapter 21(02:43:58) Chapter 22(02:50:58) Chapter 23(02:54:10) Chapter 24(03:05:53) Chapter 25(03:09:26) Chapter 26(03:15:51) Chapter 27(03:21:50) Chapter 28(03:25:05) Chapter 29(03:30:25) Chapter 30(03:33:54) Chapter 31(03:39:33) Chapter 32(03:58:00) Chapter 33(04:03:58) Chapter 34(04:10:47) Chapter 35(04:28:54) Chapter 36(04:51:01) Chapter 37(05:08:18) Chapter 38(05:15:47) Chapter 39(05:38:26) Chapter 40(05:48:37) Chapter 41(05:56:50) Chapter 42(06:05:32) Chapter 43(06:22:52) Chapter 44(06:35:51) Chapter 45(06:45:26) Chapter 46(07:06:25) Chapter 47(07:16:11) Chapter 48(07:35:38) Chapter 49(07:46:57) Chapter 50(08:07:36) Chapter 51(08:21:00) Chapter 52(08:28:20) Chapter 53(08:32:14) Chapter 54(08:39:33) Chapter 55(08:49:55) Chapter 56(08:55:49) Chapter 57(09:14:09) Chapter 58(09:19:45) Chapter 59(09:27:46) Chapter 60(09:38:30) Chapter 61(09:48:50) Chapter 62(09:54:23) Chapter 63(10:09:16) Chapter 64(10:16:19) Chapter 65(10:21:01) Chapter 66(10:30:10) Chapter 67(10:45:52) Chapter 68(11:02:42) Chapter 69(11:09:13) Chapter 70(11:17:37) Chapter 71(11:26:25) Chapter 72(11:30:29) Chapter 73(11:38:10) Chapter 74(11:45:16) Chapter 75(11:49:29) Chapter 76(11:58:46) Chapter 77(12:07:37) Chapter 78(12:13:44) Chapter 79(12:16:16) Chapter 80(13:07:36) Chapter 81(13:19:13) Chapter 82(13:40:02) Chapter 83(13:47:15) Chapter 84(13:57:03) Chapter 85(14:05:44) Chapter 86(14:22:40) Chapter 87(14:27:28) Chapter 88(15:05:13) Chapter 89(15:26:28) Chapter 90(15:51:09) Chapter 91Max Character Limit reached Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Tom Swift and His War Tank by Victor Appleton audiobook. Genre: scifiTom Swift, that prolific youthful inventor, is engaged in trying to help the Allies win WWI. After reading newspaper accounts of the British tanks, Tom takes a sheet of paper and sets out to design a better one from scratch. And fortunately, he can throw the whole family business behind his venture.He has two problems: First, his friends and acquaintances are questioning his patriotism because he hasn't enlisted as a rifleman for the front lines. Even his girl is worried his blood isn't true-blue. But that's because he is developing his tank in secret, and they don't know he's concentrating on winning the war the American way, with machines.The second problem is that the German spies have penetrated the secret of what is being built in the high-security shop on the Swift property. And they will stop at nothing to steal its design - not kidnapping Tom, and not kidnapping the tank itself, complete with crew.Tom and his buddies had better work fast, or the American riflemen are going to find the Kaiser's soldiers using American-designed tanks against them!For ad-free listening try our premium subscription Chapters (Approximate)(00:00:00) Chapter 01(00:25:13) Chapter 02(00:46:53) Chapter 03(01:08:42) Chapter 04(01:30:29) Chapter 05(01:50:49) Chapter 06(02:18:05) Chapter 07(02:35:47) Chapter 08(02:56:05) Chapter 09(03:19:16) Chapter 10(03:39:25) Chapter 11(04:00:31) Chapter 12 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Tom Swift and the Electronic Hydrolung by Victor Appleton audiobook. Genre: scifiThe US Government is very smartly letting Tom Swift Jr. handle the recovery of its probe to Jupiter. But a mystery missile suddenly intercepts the probe and splashes it in the South Atlantic.Faced with a huge search task to find the probe on the ocean bottom, Tom soon realizes that the same shadowy group that attacked the probe is competing to find it, and no holds are barred: kidnap, coercion, and lethal force are all in play.Under such circumstances, what can Tom do? What he does every time, of course! He invents some utterly cool device to get the job done! And his Electronic Hydrolung is just the beginning!For ad-free listening try our premium subscription Chapters (Approximate)(00:00:00) Chapter 01(00:11:13) Chapter 02(00:26:15) Chapter 03(00:36:19) Chapter 04(00:49:02) Chapter 05(00:57:27) Chapter 06(01:08:09) Chapter 07(01:17:51) Chapter 08(01:28:43) Chapter 09(01:40:32) Chapter 10(01:52:36) Chapter 11(02:04:39) Chapter 12(02:16:13) Chapter 13(02:29:22) Chapter 14(02:43:14) Chapter 15(02:53:46) Chapter 16(03:03:22) Chapter 17(03:16:44) Chapter 18(03:27:56) Chapter 19(03:36:55) Chapter 20 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Ordeal of Mark Twain by Van Wyck Brooks audiobook. Genre: biographyIn The Ordeal of Mark Twain, literary critic Van Wyck Brooks reexamines the life and work of Samuel Langhorne Clemens, tracing how a riverboat pilot from the Mississippi became the most recognizable American voice of his age - and how that fame carried a private cost. Brooks follows Twain from the shaping forces of boyhood and the frontier to the whirlwind of lectures, publishing triumphs, and celebrity, reading the books alongside the man who wrote them. As Twain grows into a national icon, Brooks highlights the strain between the humor the public demanded and the darker moral intelligence that pressed to be heard: anger at hypocrisy, disillusionment with politics and profit, and a restless search for artistic honesty. Set against the pressures of the Gilded Age, the story brings forward the personal trials, financial risks, and complicated relationships that tested Twain's resilience and sharpened his satire. Both portrait and argument, this is a vivid, provocative account of an American writer wrestling with his country, his conscience, and the shadow behind the laughter.For ad-free listening try our premium subscription Chapters (Approximate)(00:00:00) Chapter 01(01:02:03) Chapter 02(02:05:17) Chapter 03(02:58:32) Chapter 04(04:04:12) Chapter 05(05:14:12) Chapter 06(06:04:04) Chapter 07(07:16:43) Chapter 08(08:05:47) Chapter 09(09:00:00) Chapter 10(10:03:57) Chapter 11 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Burial of the Guns by Thomas Nelson Page audiobook. Genre: historySet in the stunned quiet after Appomattox, The Burial of the Guns follows an aging Confederate artillery commander, known simply as the old Colonel, and the remnants of his veteran battery as they hold a Virginia mountain pass they have defended for years. The war has finally turned, but the battery is still in position, hungry, ragged, and fiercely disciplined, bound not only to one another but to the six beloved cannon they have hauled through campaign after campaign and christened with nicknames like old comrades. When word arrives that Lee has surrendered, the Colonel faces a wrenching dilemma: how to obey his orders, protect his men, and preserve the dignity of a unit that prides itself on never having lost a gun. Around dwindling campfires, the survivors take stock of their dead, their scars, and the homeward road that suddenly feels unfamiliar. As night falls, the battery prepares a last, solemn act part military procedure, part ritual of grief and defiance, meant to mark what they were and what they can no longer be. Thomas Nelson Page blends battlefield memory with postwar uncertainty in a story about honor, loyalty, and the cost of letting go.For ad-free listening try our premium subscription Chapters (Approximate)(00:00:00) Chapter 01(00:31:14) Chapter 02(00:58:09) Chapter 03(01:29:51) Chapter 04(02:00:13) Chapter 05(02:43:43) Chapter 06(03:16:23) Chapter 07(03:53:30) Chapter 08(04:26:33) Chapter 09(04:57:26) Chapter 10(05:27:06) Chapter 11 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Nightmare Abbey by Thomas Love Peacock audiobook. Genre: comedyDeep in the fens of the British coast sits the gloomy mansion that goes by the name Nightmare Abbey. It is inhabited by persons of very low opinion of the human race, and in fact they pride themselves in the depths of their detestation. Others of its denizens believe the ultimate exercise and product of the human mind ought to be chaos.Now let the young master of the house get snared by the wiles of a beautiful young lady. And for good measure, toss in another beautiful young lady. Now Scythrop (named in honor of an ancestor who became bored with life and hanged himself) is about to find that two such make too much of a good thing!Peacock wrote Nightmare Abbey as a satire, and he has folded in allusions to or quotations from literally dozens of other works. He makes use of many long, impressive-sounding words (some of which he very possibly made up!). Ignore these and his occasional Latin phrase, treat the rest as a farce, and you're on track for a fun listen!For ad-free listening try our premium subscription Chapters (Approximate)(00:00:00) Chapter 01(00:17:39) Chapter 02(00:25:16) Chapter 03(00:35:55) Chapter 04(00:46:43) Chapter 05(00:59:42) Chapter 06(01:17:35) Chapter 07(01:39:27) Chapter 08(01:51:31) Chapter 09(02:02:33) Chapter 10(02:18:45) Chapter 11(02:38:28) Chapter 12(02:51:11) Chapter 13(03:07:37) Chapter 14(03:15:45) Chapter 15 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices