Classic Audiobook Collection

The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer audiobook. Genre: poetryThe Canterbury Tales is a collection of stories written in Middle English by Geoffrey Chaucer in the 14th century (two of them in prose, the rest in verse). The tales, some of which are originals and others not, are contained inside a frame tale and told by a group of pilgrims on their way from Southwark to Canterbury to visit the shrine of Saint Thomas Becket at Canterbury Cathedral.The themes of the tales vary, and include topics such as courtly love, treachery, and avarice. The genres also vary, and include romance, Breton lai, sermon, beast fable, and fabliau. The characters, introduced in the General Prologue of the book, tell tales of great cultural relevance.The version read here was edited by D. Laing Purves (1838-1873) “for popular perusal” and the language is mostly updated.For ad-free listening try our premium subscription Chapters (Approximate)(00:00:00) Chapter 01(00:06:22) Chapter 02(01:04:49) Chapter 03(01:43:55) Chapter 1(02:50:25) Chapter 2(04:10:28) Chapter 05(05:05:18) Chapter 06(05:28:48) Chapter 07(05:36:40) Chapter 08(06:56:42) Chapter 09(08:00:14) Chapter 10(08:23:07) Chapter 11(09:06:16) Chapter 12(10:26:33) Chapter 13(11:48:10) Chapter 14(12:19:49) Chapter 15(13:03:36) Chapter 16(13:20:40) Chapter 17(14:00:48) Chapter 18(14:28:28) Chapter 19(14:43:37) Chapter 20(14:53:51) Chapter 21(15:29:57) Chapter 22(16:17:33) Chapter 23(17:04:47) Chapter 24(17:32:34) Chapter 25(18:10:08) Chapter 26(18:27:14) Chapter 27(19:22:20) Chapter 28 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Secret of the Night by Gaston Leroux audiobook. Genre: mysteryGaston Leroux, perhaps best known as the author of The Phantom of the Opera in its novel form, was also the author of a popular series of mystery novels featuring a young journalist cum detective named Joseph Rouletabille. It is most likely that Leroux styled his hero after himself. Rouletabille was in the tradition of other great detectives who solved their cases by pure deductive reasoning. Much as Sherlock Holmes, who eliminated the impossible and concluded that whatever remained, however improbable must be the truth, Rouletabille included the known facts about the case and eliminated everything that was not a known fact, no matter how much it appeared to relate to the case. In The Secret of the Night, the names of the characters are often challengingly Russian and the plot involves, appropriately, both the Czar and the Nihilists. For ad-free listening try our premium subscription Chapters (Approximate)(00:00:00) Chapter 01(00:24:37) Chapter 02(01:01:36) Chapter 03(01:24:47) Chapter 04(01:44:45) Chapter 05(02:32:30) Chapter 06(03:01:24) Chapter 07(03:38:12) Chapter 08(04:03:00) Chapter 09(05:01:47) Chapter 10(05:44:41) Chapter 11(06:07:59) Chapter 12(06:28:09) Chapter 13(07:06:43) Chapter 14(07:36:43) Chapter 15(07:54:56) Chapter 16(08:07:38) Chapter 17(08:21:05) Chapter 18(08:27:57) Chapter 19 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Man Who Knew Too Much by G. K. Chesterton audiobook. Genre: mysteryGilbert Keith Chesterton (1874-1936) was an influential and prolific English writer of the early 20th century. He was a journalist, a poet and a novelist. He wrote 80 books and 200 short stories in addition to his other work. He is perhaps best remembered for his ‘Father Brown’ stories; two collections of which are available at Librivox.org.‘The Man Who Knew Too Much’ has some similarities to the Father Brown stories: Horne Fisher the eponymous hero is connected and indeed related to many of the high-ranking politicians of his age and thus ‘knows too much’ about the background of the mysteries in which he becomes embroiled and which he unravels.For ad-free listening try our premium subscription Chapters (Approximate)(00:00:00) Chapter 1(00:42:56) Chapter 2(01:25:39) Chapter 3(01:56:47) Chapter 4(02:33:18) Chapter 5(03:14:32) Chapter 6(04:08:21) Chapter 7(05:03:52) Chapter 8 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Man Who Was Thursday by G. K. Chesterton audiobook. Genre: thrillerIn a surreal turn-of-the-century London, Gabriel Syme, a poet, is recruited to a secret anti-anarchist task force at Scotland Yard. Lucian Gregory, an anarchist poet, is the only poet in Saffron Park, until he loses his temper in an argument over the purpose of poetry with Gabriel Syme, who takes the opposite view. After some time, the frustrated Gregory finds Syme and leads him to a local anarchist meeting-place to prove that he is a true anarchist. Instead of the anarchist Gregory getting elected, the officer Syme uses his wits and is elected as the local representative to the worldwide Central Council of Anarchists. The Council consisting of seven men, each using the name of a day of the week as a code name; Syme is given the name of Thursday...For ad-free listening try our premium subscription Chapters (Approximate)(00:00:00) Chapter 1(00:04:14) Chapter 2(00:27:12) Chapter 3(00:44:57) Chapter 4(01:08:57) Chapter 5(01:30:49) Chapter 6(01:51:20) Chapter 7(02:10:15) Chapter 8(02:29:47) Chapter 9(02:57:06) Chapter 10(03:31:09) Chapter 11(04:05:33) Chapter 12(04:24:04) Chapter 13(04:55:04) Chapter 14(05:16:45) Chapter 15(05:41:06) Chapter 16 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass by Frederick Douglass audiobook. Genre: biographyIn Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, Frederick Douglass recounts his early years in bondage and his emergence as one of the 19th century's most powerful voices against slavery. Born into a system designed to erase identity and deny education, Douglass pieces together the story of his childhood on Maryland plantations, the constant threat of separation from family, and the everyday violence used to enforce obedience. As he grows older, he becomes determined to understand the world that enslaves him, pursuing literacy despite harsh prohibitions and learning how knowledge can be both dangerous and liberating. Douglass also confronts the psychological machinery of slavery: how it distorts religion, corrodes relationships, and rewards cruelty. Moving from one owner to another, he faces escalating tests of endurance and self-possession, including moments that force him to decide what kind of man he will be under relentless oppression. Clear-eyed, urgent, and fiercely humane, this memoir is not only a personal account of survival and awakening, but a direct challenge to a nation built on contradiction, demanding that listeners reckon with freedom, dignity, and the cost of injustice.For ad-free listening try our premium subscription Chapters (Approximate)(00:00:00) Chapter 1(00:20:24) Chapter 2(00:27:26) Chapter 01(00:39:18) Chapter 02(00:51:15) Chapter 03(00:59:52) Chapter 04(01:09:13) Chapter 05(01:18:38) Chapter 06(01:26:20) Chapter 07(01:40:40) Chapter 08(01:52:37) Chapter 09(02:05:24) Chapter 10(03:19:29) Chapter 3(03:50:27) Chapter 4 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Story of the Treasure Seekers by Edith Nesbit audiobook. Genre: familyWhen the once-comfortable Bastable family falls on hard times, six lively brothers and sisters decide they will not simply wait for grown-ups to fix everything. Led by imaginative Oswald, with practical Dora, stubborn Dicky, sensitive Noel, fearless H.O., and the youngest, clever Alice, the children form the Bastable Society of Treasure Seekers. Their mission is straightforward: find treasure, restore the family fortune, and make their father happy again. What follows is a chain of schemes that veer from bold to absurd - digging for buried riches, attempting business ventures, courting wealthy benefactors, and chasing romantic legends of hidden gold. Each plan brings new friends and unexpected complications, and the children must learn what honesty, loyalty, and real courage look like when their best intentions collide with the messy rules of the adult world. Warm, witty, and full of everyday wonder, Edith Nesbit's classic captures the thrill of adventure in ordinary places and the fierce love that holds a family together, even when money is scarce and hope feels like the rarest treasure of all.For ad-free listening try our premium subscription Chapters (Approximate)(00:00:00) Chapter 01(00:11:38) Chapter 02(00:22:20) Chapter 03(00:39:58) Chapter 04(00:50:04) Chapter 05(01:00:37) Chapter 06(01:13:46) Chapter 07(01:27:32) Chapter 08(01:45:27) Chapter 09(02:02:40) Chapter 10(02:14:47) Chapter 11(02:38:47) Chapter 12(02:59:45) Chapter 13(03:25:55) Chapter 14(03:39:28) Chapter 15(03:53:25) Chapter 16 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka audiobook. Genre: dramaOne morning, traveling salesman Gregor Samsa wakes to find his body inexplicably transformed into a giant insect. Trapped in his bedroom and struggling to communicate, Gregor must navigate the immediate terror of his new existence and the practical realities of a life that can no longer conform to work schedules, family expectations, or ordinary human routines. As his worried sister Grete and their beleaguered parents react in fear, shame, and reluctant responsibility, the Samsa household begins to unravel under financial strain and emotional pressure. Gregor, once the family's primary breadwinner, becomes an unsettling secret behind a locked door, forced to listen as decisions are made about survival, duty, and what it means to belong. With stark, dreamlike logic and darkly comic precision, Franz Kafka explores alienation, guilt, and the fragile bonds of love when confronted by the grotesque and the inexplicable. The story follows Gregor's attempt to find dignity and purpose in isolation while the people closest to him are tested by a change they cannot understand and do not know how to accept.For ad-free listening try our premium subscription Chapters (Approximate)(00:00:00) Chapter 1(00:49:59) Chapter 2(01:43:58) Chapter 3 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Rosary by Florence L. Barclay audiobook. Genre: romanceAt Overdene, the country estate of the formidable and delightfully unpredictable Duchess of Meldrum, her niece Jane Champion has settled into a life of capable independence. Jane is thirty, practical, and quietly gifted, yet she has spent years watching others take the place she secretly longs for: to be chosen first, without reservation. When Garth Dalmain, a celebrated artist with a passionate devotion to beauty, suddenly singles Jane out and asks her to marry him, her world tilts. She cares for him more than she will admit, but she cannot believe a man who lives by appearances could remain faithful to a woman the world calls plain. Jane's refusal sets off a chain of consequences that neither of them can control. After a devastating accident leaves Garth blinded, the meaning of love, companionship, and true perception is tested in painful, intimate ways. As friends, doctors, and an unusual household orbit their struggle, Barclay threads the story with the image of a rosary: hours counted like pearls, prayers shaped out of endurance, and devotion proved in the dark. The Rosary is a tender, emotionally charged romance about self-worth, sacrifice, and learning what it really means to see.For ad-free listening try our premium subscription Chapters (Approximate)(00:00:00) Chapter 1(00:09:17) Chapter 2(00:18:30) Chapter 3(00:29:12) Chapter 4(00:50:30) Chapter 5(01:21:25) Chapter 6(01:34:04) Chapter 7(01:49:58) Chapter 8(01:59:51) Chapter 9(02:35:24) Chapter 10(03:18:04) Chapter 11(03:34:13) Chapter 12(04:01:29) Chapter 13(04:13:08) Chapter 14(04:25:00) Chapter 15(05:16:42) Chapter 16(05:24:40) Chapter 17(05:34:06) Chapter 18(05:49:18) Chapter 19(06:13:20) Chapter 20(06:28:21) Chapter 21(06:42:42) Chapter 22(07:03:10) Chapter 23(07:22:08) Chapter 24(07:49:38) Chapter 25(08:11:21) Chapter 26(08:32:50) Chapter 27(08:47:32) Chapter 28(08:52:33) Chapter 29(09:06:02) Chapter 30(09:13:47) Chapter 31(09:24:44) Chapter 32(09:29:39) Chapter 33(09:49:57) Chapter 34(10:08:34) Chapter 35(10:25:02) Chapter 36(10:35:23) Chapter 37(10:49:41) Chapter 38 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This Side of Paradise by F. Scott Fitzgerald audiobook. Genre: dramaF. Scott Fitzgerald's debut novel follows Amory Blaine, a sharp, restless Midwesterner who grows up believing his life will be extraordinary. From a privileged childhood through elite schools and the glittering social world of the early 20th century, Amory chases admiration, romance, and a sense of identity that always seems just out of reach. As he moves among ambitious classmates, magnetic friends, and women who challenge and attract him, his confidence is tested by shifting loyalties, money troubles, and the moral confusion of a generation coming of age in the shadow of war. Told with a mix of traditional storytelling and experimental touches, the book captures the excitement and emptiness of status, the ache of first love, and the slow realization that talent and charm do not guarantee purpose. Amory's central struggle is to decide what kind of man he will become when the promises he inherited begin to collapse, and when the world around him no longer rewards certainty. This Side of Paradise is a portrait of youth, ambition, and disillusionment at the dawn of the Jazz Age.For ad-free listening try our premium subscription Chapters (Approximate)(00:00:00) Chapter 01(00:29:05) Chapter 02(00:53:47) Chapter 03(01:12:55) Chapter 04(01:42:48) Chapter 05(02:17:32) Chapter 06(02:56:17) Chapter 07(03:12:13) Chapter 08(03:33:42) Chapter 09(03:55:13) Chapter 10(04:21:01) Chapter 11(04:48:36) Chapter 12(05:16:04) Chapter 13(05:47:35) Chapter 14(05:56:28) Chapter 15(06:09:01) Chapter 16(06:29:54) Chapter 17(06:55:23) Chapter 18(07:22:41) Chapter 19(07:41:59) Chapter 20(08:01:13) Chapter 21(08:27:13) Chapter 22 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Four Max Carrados Detective Stories by Ernest Bramah audiobook. Genre: mysteryIn Four Max Carrados Detective Stories, Ernest Bramah introduces a sleuth unlike any other in Edwardian England: Max Carrados, a gentleman investigator who is blind, yet uncannily alert to the details most people overlook. Narrated by his friend and occasional collaborator Louis Carlyle, these four cases open doors into London drawing rooms, private clubs, and shadowy back streets, where a missing object, an ingenious fraud, or a seemingly simple crime quickly reveals deeper layers of motive and method. Carrados does not rely on sight, but on a disciplined command of sound, touch, timing, and human behavior, turning social assumptions about disability into a quiet advantage. As Carlyle struggles to keep pace, the reader is invited to watch ordinary clues become extraordinary through Carrados' calm reasoning and understated wit. Each story blends clever puzzles with character-driven tension, exploring how appearances mislead, how greed and pride unravel, and how true detection depends on noticing what others dismiss. Elegant, sharp, and quietly suspenseful, this collection showcases Bramah's distinctive voice and one of classic detective fiction's most memorable minds.For ad-free listening try our premium subscription Chapters (Approximate)(00:00:00) Chapter 1(00:34:14) Chapter 2(01:34:17) Chapter 3(02:24:01) Chapter 4 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices