Literary Criticism
My Life
A provincial youth of wealth and noble status refuses to employ himself in the typical occupations of the higher classes, thus acquiring a r…
Better Angel
In 1933, Forman Brown wrote, under the pseudonym Richard Meeker, a controversial novel called Better Angel, about a young man coming to term…
The Duel
The plot centres around Laevsky, who is living in a small seaside town in the Caucasus after running away with another man's wife, Nadyezhda…
Dead Souls
Dead Souls (Russian: Мёртвые души) by Nikolai Gogol, Russian writer, was first published in 1842, and is one of the most prominent works of …
Greek Literature
"The Greeks were the most intellectual people of the old world. … The study of Greek literature is therefore a proper element in a libe…
The Hungry Stones
The Hungry Stones is a captivating collection of short stories by Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore, exploring the depths of human emotion …
Sanctuary
Kate Orme, shocked by the discovery of her fiance's complicity in a tragedy, and by society's willingness to overlook such transgressions, n…
Prejudices
Mencken sharpens his pen and in a collection of short essays delivers acerbic opinions on issues and persons of the time. Among his targets…
The Portrait of a Lady
The Portrait of a Lady is a novel by Henry James, first published as a serial in The Atlantic Monthly and Macmillan's Magazine in 1880-1881 …
The Figure in the Carpet
The story ostensibly concerns a young literary critics who greatly admires the writer Hugh Vereker. A meeting with Vereker, however, shows h…
The Awakening
Owing to its highly personal content focused on feminine sexuality, this LibriVox edition was recorded by eight female readers. The Modern L…
Within a Budding Grove
In Search of Lost Time or Remembrance of Things Past (French: À la recherche du temps perdu) is a semi-autobiographical novel in seve…
The Liar
The Liar by Henry James explores the intricate dynamics of love, deception, and the complexities of human relationships. Set against the bac…
The Art of Fiction
A lecture on the art of fiction, given by the English critic Walter Besant on April 25, 1884, and an answer to the lecture by American write…
An Anonymous Story
In "An Anonymous Story," Chekhov continues to explore his favorite themes of superfluous men, ironic rakes, exploited women, and t…
Agnes Grey
The novel tells the story of Agnes Grey, the daughter of a minister, whose family comes to financial ruin. Desperate to earn the money to ca…
The Bertrams
This is a massive effort, taking place in England and the Middle East, with a cast of thousands... Well, not thousands, fortunately, but cer…
The Idiot
The extraordinary child-adult Prince Myshkin, confined for several years in a Swiss sanatorium suffering from severe epilepsy, returns to Ru…
Just Sweethearts
“Clearly he was one of those rare beings who can radiate energy standing still and convey the impression of impetuous force without motion, …
Tolstoy on Shakespeare
In this thought-provoking essay, Leo Tolstoy presents a critical examination of William Shakespeare's works, exploring the playwright's them…