Library of the World's Best Literature, Ancient and Modern, volume 04
Various
Read by LibriVox Volunteers
The Library of the World's Best Literature, Ancient and Modern, is a work of enormous proportions. Setting out with the simple goal of offering "American households a mass of good reading", the editors drew from literature of all times and all kinds what they considered the best pieces of human writing, and compiled an ambitious collection of 45 volumes (with a 46th being an index-guide). Besides the selection and translation of a huge number of poems, letters, short stories and sections of books, the collection offers, before each chapter, a short essay about the author or subject in question. In many cases, chapters contemplate not one author, but certain groups of works, organized by nationality, subject or period; there is, thus, a chapter on Accadian-Babylonian literature, one on the Holy Grail, and one on Chansons, for example.
The result is a collection that holds the interest, for the variety of subjects and forms, but also as a means of first contact with such famous and important authors that many people have heard of, but never read, such as Abelard, Dante or Lord Byron. According to the editor Charles Dudley Warner, this collection "is not a library of reference only, but a library to be read."This fourth volume contains chapters from "Banim" to "Birrell". (Summary by Leni) (21 hr 59 min)
Chapters
The Publican's Dream | 41:28 | Read by Cynthia Moyer |
Selected poems | 6:00 | Read by ravenotation |
Selected works | 18:02 | Read by Bellona Times |
Against Inconsistency in Our Expectations | 18:30 | Read by CaprishaPage |
A Dialogue of the Dead | 10:59 | Read by Pamela Krantz |
Selected poems | 3:29 | Read by Libby Gohn |
The Courtier's Life (Second Eclogue) | 27:49 | Read by Cynthia Moyer |
As I Laye A-Thynkynge | 22:45 | Read by Patti Cunningham |
The Lay of St. Cuthbert | 30:40 | Read by James E. Carson |
A Lay of St. Nicholas | 16:24 | Read by Phil Chenevert |
Selected excerpts | 34:38 | Read by Andy Minter (1934-2017) |
Selected excerpts | 42:53 | Read by James E. Carson |
A Feast | 20:38 | Read by Cynthia Moyer |
Selected works | 16:33 | Read by rookieblue |
Selected works | 51:08 | Read by MaryAnn |
The Courtin' of T'nowhead's Bell | 38:56 | Read by MaryAnn |
Selected excerpts | 27:08 | Read by Bruce Pirie |
Essay on Charles Baudelaire | 24:57 | Read by Bruce Pirie |
Selected poems | 7:44 | Read by CaprishaPage |
The Painter of Modern Life | 9:38 | Read by Leni |
Selected excerpts | 8:20 | Read by CaprishaPage |
Essay on Lord Beaconsfield | 16:34 | Read by Bruce Pirie |
A Day at Ems | 10:01 | Read by Dan Darbandi |
Excerpts from The Young Duke | 28:33 | Read by Patti Cunningham |
Lothair in Palestine | 14:26 | Read by JamesMcAndrew |
Selected excerpts | 32:55 | Read by Alan Weyman |
Essay on Francis Beaumont and John Fletcher | 20:19 | Read by Bruce Pirie |
Selected excerpts | 52:26 | Read by Cynthia Moyer |
Selected excerpts | 42:28 | Read by Alan Weyman |
Essay on Henry Ward Beecher | 20:48 | Read by MaryAnn |
Selected excerpts | 16:21 | Read by MaryAnn |
Sermon: Poverty and the Gospel | 37:35 | Read by MaryAnn |
A New England Sunday | 29:08 | Read by MaryAnn |
Letters | 33:40 | Read by Pamela Krantz |
Selected poems | 27:53 | Read by Leonard Wilson (1930-2024) |
Selected excerpts | 28:47 | Read by Loveday |
Selected poems | 40:11 | Read by Bruce Pirie |
Selected excerpts | 20:39 | Read by Steven Reynolds |
Selected excerpts | 29:00 | Read by Zarlino |
Selected excerpts | 27:09 | Read by Leonard Wilson (1930-2024) |
Brief Life Is Here Our Portion | 15:24 | Read by Cynthia Moyer |
The Treatyse of Fyssbynge with an Angle | 11:38 | Read by Martin Geeson |
Old-Time London | 23:16 | Read by Bellona Times |
The Synagogue | 20:12 | Read by Bellona Times |
Bestiaries and Lapidaries | 25:02 | Read by Cynthia Moyer |
Essay on Marie-Henri Beyle (Stendhal) | 28:24 | Read by Bruce Pirie |
Princess Sanseverina's Interview | 27:33 | Read by Malone |
Clélia Aids Fabrice to Escape | 19:06 | Read by JamesMcAndrew |
Selected poems | 27:56 | Read by Leonard Wilson (1930-2024) |
Selected poems | 16:40 | Read by Cynthia Moyer |
Essay on Augustine Birrell | 8:14 | Read by rookieblue |
Selected excerpts, part 1 | 37:53 | Read by Leonard Wilson (1930-2024) |
Selected excerpts, part 2 | 26:36 | Read by Leonard Wilson (1930-2024) |
Selected excerpts, part 3 | 23:58 | Read by Leonard Wilson (1930-2024) |