Learn English with the classics
|
English Audiobooks
Learn English listening and reading Audiobooks, or if you know the language, just enjoy our catalog.
English Grammar
Use these English grammar lessons for self study or to consolidate your lessons with your teacher.
Mobile Apps
Download the best mobile apps for learning English, available for Android, iPhone, iPad and MAC.
War and Peace, Book 15: 1812-1813
War and Peace is an epic novel by Leo Tolstoy, first published from 1865 to 1869 in Russki Vestnik, which tells the story of Russian society during the Napoleonic Era. It is usually described as one of Tolstoy's two major masterpieces (the other being Anna Karenina) as well as one of the world's greatest novels.
War and Peace offered a new kind of fiction, with a great many characters caught up in a plot that covered nothing less than the grand subjects indicated by the title, combined with the equally large topics of youth, age and marriage. While today it is considered a novel, it broke so many novelistic conventions of its day that many critics of Tolstoy's time did not consider it as such. Tolstoy himself considered Anna Karenina (1878) to be his first attempt at a novel in the European sense.
Prince, The (Version 2)
The Prince (Italian: Il Principe) is a political treatise by the Italian diplomat, historian and political theorist Niccolò Machiavelli. The descriptions within The Prince have the general theme of accepting that ends of princes, such as glory, and indeed survival, can justify the use of immoral means to achieve those ends.
12 Creepy Tales
This is a collection of 12 creepy stories by that master of creepiness, Poe. The Black Cat; The Fall of the House of Usher, The Raven; The Tell Tale Heart, The Masque of the Red Death, the Premature Burial and six others that are a shuddering delight to read and listen to. Turn off the lights, settle down and hear these stories read to you as only readers can perform them.
Legend of Sleepy Hollow, The Version 2
"The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" is a short story by Washington Irving contained in his collection The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent., written while he was living in Birmingham, England, and first published in 1820. It was based on a German folktale set in the Dutch culture of Post-Revolutionary War in New York State. With Irving's companion piece "Rip Van Winkle", it is among the earliest examples of American fiction still read today.
Three Men in a Boat (To Say Nothing of the Dog) (version 2)
Three Men in a Boat (To Say Nothing of the Dog), published in 1889, is a humorous account by Jerome K. Jerome of a boating holiday on the Thames between Kingston and Oxford.
The book was initially intended to be a serious travel guide, with accounts of local history along the route, but the humorous elements took over to the point where the serious and somewhat sentimental passages seem a distraction to the comic novel. One of the most praised things about Three Men in a Boat is how undated it appears to modern readers — the jokes seem fresh and witty even today.
Wealth of Nations, Book 5, The
An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations is the magnum opus of the Scottish economist Adam Smith, published on March 9, 1776 during the Scottish Enlightenment. It is a clearly written account of political economy at the dawn of the Industrial Revolution, and is widely considered to be the first modern work in the field of economics.
White Fang
White Fang (1906) was written as a companion to Jack London’s successful Call of the Wild (1903). It is the tale of a wild dog born in the wild and eventually brought to civilization. The story is viewed primarily through the eyes of its canine protagonist and deals with themes of morality and redemption.
Erotica Romana
Also known as the "Roman Elegies," Erotica Romana is von Goethe's literary tribute to human sexuality and eroticism. Written in 24 elegies to emulate classical Roman elegy writers such as Tibullus, Propertius, and Catullus, von Goethe creates a lyrical work of art that has often been subject to censorship.
Five Beloved Stories by O. Henry
O. Henry wrote over 600 short stories. Naturally I have my personal top 20 stories that just seem to stand out because of their form, writing style and ability to convey real personalities in a very few words. From these 20 I've chosen five that seem outstanding examples of the short story art form. Stories like The Gift of the Magi; The Cop and the Anthem; Man about Town; A Cosmopolite in a Cafe and Mammon and the Archer. So this is a collection of just five O.Henry stories that many people, including me, have loved and remembered over the years. And this time, thanks to LibriVox, I have the enormous pleasure of not just reading them to myself, but also the joy of reading them aloud! What fun, eh?
My Man Jeeves
Bertram Wooster is an English gentleman living in New York, who seems to get himself into all sorts of jams. It’s up to his manservant Jeeves to come up with the plan to save the day from unpleasant houseguests, stingy uncles, broken hearts, and hard-partying aunts.
$30,000 Bequest and Other Stories, The
The $30,000 Bequest and Other Stories is a 1906 collection of 30 comic short stories by American humorist and writer Mark Twain. Published just 4 years before his death, this was the last time he chose works from throughout his career, in an effort to show the diversity of his style and the breadth and depth of his interests.
Secret Chambers and Hiding Places
“Secret Chambers and Hiding Places” is a collection of concealments and their uses, almost all within England, although a very few passages and chambers in continental Europe are mentioned, Jacobite hidey holes in Scotland, while the final chapter of the book covers Bonnie Prince Charlie’s wanderings around Scotland, among caves and other hiding places. Most chapters are devoted to historical events; such as the the seventeenth century persecution of roman catholics (with many large houses having specially constructed “priests’ holes”), or various unpopular monarchs and their hiding places. The text is scattered with legends and true stories, with occasional skeletons found, still hiding, long centuries after the searchers have left. The author describes hidden doors, passages, rooms and pits with enormous enthusiasm … and with considerable regret when he has to describe secret places lost to demolition or modernisation. You’ll wish you could wander the country, poking into the darkest recesses of every old house you find!
Foolish Dictionary, The
"The Foolish Dictionary" was written by "Gideon Wurdz" and was published in 1904. According to the beginning of the book, it is "An exhausting work of reference to un-certain English words, their origin, meaning, legitimate and illegitimate use..."
This a a short but amusing dictionary which "redefines" words in some interesting ways. Funny and sometimes bizarre observations are sprinkled throughout. In keeping with LibriVox policy to read, rather than attempt to rewrite, books - even those with offensive content - nothing has been omitted. While many of the definitions may just seem confusing or "corny" to modern readers, there are a couple that also might be considered "objectionable," particularly in section 10, which contains offensive content of a racial nature.
Sex
The happiness of all human beings, men and women, depends largely on their rational solution of the sexual problem. Sex and the part it plays in human life cannot be ignored.
Love Conquers All
Robert Benchley, 1889-1945, was a writer, humorist and actor of note during the 1920s through the early 1940s. Born in Massachusetts, he spent his early literary career in New York City as an editor, critic and columnist for many of the major magazines of the day.
Along with George Kaufman, Dorothy Parker and Harpo Marx, he was an original "member" of the Algonquin Round Table. His popularity led him to a side career in radio and film, which took him to California in his later years. Writers as diverse as James Thurber, Woody Allen and Dave Barry have credited Benchley as an influence.
Love Conquers All, originally published in 1922 is the second collection (of fifteen) gathering together Benchley's humorous essays and reviews. Some references are dated, of course, but the surreal and mundane targets of Benchley's wit will be familiar to everyone. This volume collects 63 excellent gems from his early professional work, when Benchley's enthusiasm and style were approaching their peak.