William the Conqueror
Jacob Abbott
Read by LibriVox Volunteers
There are certain names which are familiar, as names, to all mankind; and every person who seeks for any degree of mental cultivation, feels desirous of informing himself of the leading outlines of their history, that he may know, in brief, what it was in their characters or their doings which has given them so widely-extended a fame. Consequently, great historical names alone are selected; and it has been the writer's aim to present the prominent and leading traits in their characters, and all the important events in their lives, in a bold and free manner, and yet in the plain and simple language which is so obviously required in works which aim at permanent and practical usefulness. This volume is dedicated to William the Conqueror. (Summary from the preface of the book) (6 hr 7 min)
Chapters
Preface, Normandy | 25:07 | Read by Kristine Bekere |
Birth of William | 21:06 | Read by Sibella Denton |
The Accession | 30:00 | Read by Lars Rolander (1942-2016) |
William's Reign in Normandy | 30:52 | Read by Lars Rolander (1942-2016) |
The Marriage | 32:54 | Read by Rhonda Federman |
The Lady Emma | 31:13 | Read by Rhonda Federman |
King Harold | 28:33 | Read by Lizzie Driver |
Preparations for the Invasion | 30:49 | Read by Steve Foreman |
Crossing the Channel | 29:05 | Read by Steve Foreman |
The Battle of Hastings | 36:25 | Read by Lizzie Driver |
Prince Robert's Rebellion | 34:10 | Read by Lars Rolander (1942-2016) |
The Conclusion | 37:00 | Read by Lars Rolander (1942-2016) |
Reviews
A LibriVox Listener
Book is fine, but the sing-song reading by one female reader is extremely distracting and completely destroys listeners concentration on the text.
Very good book but would have prefered just one narrator.
Billy Nuttall
A LibriVox Listener
Excellent story. Reading very good. I would recommend librivox.
Pretty good book, decent reading
A guy
Pretty good book and decent reading (definitely better than many). Biggest issue is that some of the readers mispronounce more complicated words often but if your English is strong enough you can figure what they mean. Example from last chapter: the word for tomb normally pronounced sar-coff-uh-gus sounded more like sacker-fog-us.
A LibriVox Listener
Good book. However, the chapters read by the female reader was pretty much impossible to listen to, which made the quality suffer quite a bit.
A LibriVox Listener
Lizzy driver can ruin any good book she's all over librivox with her annoying upward inflection. 5 stars for other readers and content tho
Not a fantacized account of events
claireemilycook
This account of William makes him sound like a person and not a god? So impressed.
A LibriVox Listener
This was a very detailed story. Although there was one female reader who made several mistakes and repeated herself often