The World I Live In
Helen Keller
Read by Laura Caldwell
The World I Live In by Helen Keller is a collection of essays that poignantly tells of her impressions of the world, through her sense of touch, smell, her imagination and dreams.
My hand is to me what your hearing and sight together are to you. In large measure we travel the same highways, read the same books, speak the same language, yet our experiences are different. All my comings and goings turn on the hand as on a pivot. It is the hand that binds me to the world of men and women. The hand is my feeler with which I reach through isolation and darkness and seize every pleasure, every activity that my fingers encounter. With the dropping of a little word from another's hand into mine, a slight flutter of the fingers, began the intelligence, the joy, the fullness of my life. Helen Keller, quoted from her essay, The Seeing Hand (Summary from text and Laura Caldwell) (2 hr 49 min)
Chapters
Preface | 2:25 | Read by Laura Caldwell |
The Seeing Hand | 12:03 | Read by Laura Caldwell |
The Hands of Others | 9:46 | Read by Laura Caldwell |
The Hand of the Race | 8:51 | Read by Laura Caldwell |
The Power of Touch | 12:35 | Read by Laura Caldwell |
The Finer Vibrations | 10:19 | Read by Laura Caldwell |
Smell, the Fallen Angel | 11:48 | Read by Laura Caldwell |
Relative Values of the Senses | 5:20 | Read by Laura Caldwell |
The Five-Sensed World | 7:29 | Read by Laura Caldwell |
Inward Visions | 9:08 | Read by Laura Caldwell |
Analogies in Sense Perception | 8:10 | Read by Laura Caldwell |
Before the Soul Dawn | 7:47 | Read by Laura Caldwell |
The Larger Sanctions | 10:37 | Read by Laura Caldwell |
The Dream World | 19:17 | Read by Laura Caldwell |
Dreams and Reality | 8:38 | Read by Laura Caldwell |
A Walking Dream | 14:39 | Read by Laura Caldwell |
A Chant of Darkness | 10:18 | Read by Laura Caldwell |
Reviews
Very thought provoking way to look at without seeing
ListeninginChicago
Having never known what it is not to see, how can I imagine what it is to dream without the pictures that seem to flood my mind at night? Yet Helen Keller certainly dreams, and when she tells me what her dreaming experience is like, it opens my mind to think about sight and experience in new ways. It's the same with her tactile experience of things - I may see it and quickly pass by, but in "seeing" she knows it so much more intimately because her mental picture is formed by touching it all around until she can piece together the parts into a whole. And yet, in this life she can never grasp the aspects of that same object which are only visual. I have always know that Ms. Keller was an articulate and talented woman. This is the first I have read of her writing. While she does not specifically focus on the spiritual, her Christian faith shines through in how she sees the world she lives in and in her hope for the next. Christians believe in the resurrection - and so I believe that one day Helen Keller will have a new physical body with perfect sight and hearing. I am so thankful that Helen had the opportunity to learn, and to write, and by writing to open our eyes and minds to life without sight or hearing. It helps me to understand how it is that we can understand the things of heaven while hear on earth, and how marvelous it will be to one day open our eyes and "see" what till then we have only been able to picture dimly. As St. Paul said, "For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known." I Corinthians 13:12 Laura Caldwell does an excellent job of reading this book for Librivox. Her diction is clear and her reading steady, with enough variety to maintain interest while leaving the words themselves to provide emotional content to these wonderful essays.
This book is spectacular
A LibriVox Listener
I had read several of Helen Keller's other books like The Story of My Life. Midstream, and Optimism. In this fascinating exploration of how Helen Keller sees and how she interprets the world. she speaks as though she had perfect vision. Anne Sullivan was probably the greatest teacher who ever lived. Helen Keller had a linguistic talent unlike any other, and I shared the link to this book on my two blogs Totally Inspired Mind and Children Are our Future Now. every family should listen to this together and expand your world. Anyone who reads or listens to this audio book will have a greater appreciation for the world around them afterwards. Paulette Motzko
A LibriVox Listener
Just plain inspiring, encouraging, and a good example of Written English, and creative writing.
the book as well as the reader were entertaining.
ready to read
Cynthia Sigsworth
Beautiful writing and so well read, thankyou.
Excellent writing. Very thought-provoking. Pleasant voice.
Wendy L