Classic Audiobook Collection

Latest Episodes:

Campaigns of Curiosity - Journalistic Adventures of an American Girl in London by Elizabeth L. Banks ~ Full Audiobook [biography] Dec 16, 2025

Show notes

Campaigns of Curiosity - Journalistic Adventures of an American Girl in London by Elizabeth L. Banks audiobook.

Genre: biography

In Campaigns of Curiosity, American journalist Elizabeth L. Banks arrives in London in the 1890s with ambition, nerve, and little patience for the rules of a rigid class system. Determined to break into British journalism, she turns herself into the story, adopting disguises and taking on a string of roles that place her on both sides of Victorian society. One assignment drops her into the exhausting routines and tight quarters of domestic service; another pushes her into the precarious hustle of street work; still others test what it takes to survive on low wages where respectability is a luxury. Then Banks flips the experiment, presenting herself as a wealthy American and probing how easily money, titles, and connections can purchase entry into polite circles. With sharp observation, humor, and a reporter's instinct for telling detail, she exposes the hidden labor that keeps London running while challenging assumptions about women, work, and social rank. Part personal chronicle and part investigative experiment, this pioneering account captures the daring spirit of early undercover journalism and the questions it raised about empathy, power, and who gets believed.

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Chapters (Approximate)

(00:00:00) Chapter 00

(00:15:04) Chapter 01

(00:29:42) Chapter 02

(00:52:35) Chapter 03

(01:11:24) Chapter 04

(01:33:15) Chapter 05

(01:57:52) Chapter 06

(02:20:53) Chapter 07

(02:42:33) Chapter 08

(03:04:16) Chapter 09

(03:13:55) Chapter 10

(03:23:20) Chapter 11

(03:32:16) Chapter 12

(03:38:16) Chapter 13

(04:02:57) Chapter 14

(04:19:24) Chapter 15

(04:41:24) Chapter 16

(05:03:38) Chapter 17

(05:20:51) Chapter 18

(05:38:49) Chapter 19

(05:57:55) Chapter 20

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Weather Influences by Edwin Grant Dexter ~ Full Audiobook [science] Dec 15, 2025

Show notes

Weather Influences by Edwin Grant Dexter audiobook.

Genre: science

First published in the early 1900s, Edwin Grant Dexter's Weather Influences sets out to test a question most people think they already understand: how much do day-to-day meteorological conditions shape what we feel and what we do? Dexter begins by surveying the rich tradition of weather lore - proverbs, folk beliefs, and literary portraits of 'skyey influences' - then pivots to a rigorously empirical challenge. Using meteorological records for temperature, humidity, wind, barometric pressure, and seasonal changes, he compares shifts in the atmosphere to real-world human outcomes drawn from schools, courts, police records, financial activity, and public health statistics. Chapter by chapter, Dexter follows weather's possible fingerprints across attention and classroom behavior, crime, mental illness, suicide, drunkenness, and other social indicators, always wrestling with a central problem: how to separate coincidence and cultural storytelling from patterns that can be measured. Written in a clear, methodical style, Weather Influences offers an early model of data-driven behavioral science, inviting listeners to question their assumptions, examine evidence, and consider how subtle environmental forces might nudge individuals and societies alike.

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Chapters (Approximate)

(00:00:00) Chapter 00

(00:38:59) Chapter 01

(00:52:19) Chapter 02

(01:15:48) Chapter 03

(01:34:17) Chapter 04

(02:01:15) Chapter 05

(02:35:47) Chapter 06

(03:01:18) Chapter 07

(03:37:38) Chapter 08

(04:18:35) Chapter 09

(04:54:33) Chapter 10

(05:10:12) Chapter 11

(05:40:48) Chapter 12

(06:10:14) Chapter 13

(06:28:27) Chapter 14

(06:49:37) Chapter 15

(07:20:50) Chapter 16

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Highways and Byways in Sussex by E. V. Lucas ~ Full Audiobook [history] Dec 13, 2025

Show notes

Highways and Byways in Sussex by E. V. Lucas audiobook.

Genre: history

Highways and Byways in Sussex is E. V. Lucas's warm, observant journey through an English county of chalk downs, market towns, seaside resorts, and quiet lanes where history seems to press close to the present. Framed as a wanderer's progress shaped largely by railway lines, Lucas enters Sussex in the west at Midhurst and zig-zags eastward through places such as Chichester, Arundel, Petworth, Horsham, Brighton, Lewes, Eastbourne, Hastings, and Rye, pausing wherever a church tower, castle wall, inn sign, or stretch of heath sparks a story. This is not a strict guidebook of timetables and practicalities, but a literary bouquet: a blend of local legend and literary echoes, architecture and antiquities, countryside character and coastal bustle, and the small, telling details of everyday life. Along the way Lucas introduces the reader to Sussex's shifting landscapes and long memory, from Roman roads and medieval strongholds to village customs and the natural life of fields and forests. Frederick L. Griggs's illustrations, paired with the book's roaming curiosity, make the county feel both intimate and freshly discovered.

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Chapters (Approximate)

(00:00:00) Chapter 01

(00:20:47) Chapter 02

(00:48:52) Chapter 03

(00:59:27) Chapter 04

(01:18:21) Chapter 05

(01:46:19) Chapter 06

(02:16:41) Chapter 07

(02:28:50) Chapter 08

(02:48:18) Chapter 09

(03:01:14) Chapter 10

(03:24:37) Chapter 11

(03:34:26) Chapter 12

(03:55:10) Chapter 13

(04:10:19) Chapter 14

(04:21:18) Chapter 15

(04:37:50) Chapter 16

(05:03:02) Chapter 17

(05:41:23) Chapter 18

(05:55:43) Chapter 19

(06:07:58) Chapter 20

(06:35:50) Chapter 21

(06:41:10) Chapter 22

(06:59:18) Chapter 23

(07:09:31) Chapter 24

(07:18:14) Chapter 25

(07:30:42) Chapter 26

(07:59:26) Chapter 27

(08:12:37) Chapter 28

(08:31:14) Chapter 29

(08:45:05) Chapter 30

(09:06:27) Chapter 31

(09:21:50) Chapter 32

(09:34:17) Chapter 33

(09:58:26) Chapter 34

(10:17:02) Chapter 35

(10:37:13) Chapter 36

(10:53:09) Chapter 37

(11:10:07) Chapter 38

(11:42:18) Chapter 39

(12:12:46) Chapter 40

(12:41:59) Chapter 41

(13:09:47) Chapter 42

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Salome and the Head by E. Nesbit ~ Full Audiobook [thriller] Dec 12, 2025

Show notes

Salome and the Head by E. Nesbit audiobook.

Genre: thriller

Edmund Templar, a young Englishman on the verge of shipping out to the South African War, takes refuge with relatives and wanders the New Forest to steady his nerves. There, in a sunlit clearing, he witnesses an unforgettable scene: a wild, spellbinding girl dancing as a crippled boy plays a penny whistle, the two of them seeming to belong to some older, stranger story than his own. Years later, returned to civilian life and still haunted by that encounter, Edmund sets out to find them again - and is drawn into the limelight world of London performance, where beauty is a commodity, reputations are manufactured, and desire can be engineered as expertly as any stage effect. As the dancer is remade into a modern Salome for a hungry audience, Edmund begins to sense that the drama is not confined to the theatre. A secret refuge, a web of dependence, and hints of coercion and unnatural influence tighten around the principals, until the line between a prop and a reality becomes dangerously uncertain. Darkly romantic and sharply aware of the traps laid for women, Nesbit builds a macabre melodrama of obsession, artifice, and the price of being watched.

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Chapters (Approximate)

(00:00:00) Chapter 01

(00:24:24) Chapter 02

(00:47:27) Chapter 03

(01:10:25) Chapter 04

(01:27:10) Chapter 05

(01:54:00) Chapter 06

(02:18:50) Chapter 07

(02:41:21) Chapter 08

(03:06:04) Chapter 09

(03:37:05) Chapter 10

(03:56:59) Chapter 11

(04:25:20) Chapter 12

(04:57:07) Chapter 13

(05:24:32) Chapter 14

(05:42:30) Chapter 15

(06:05:39) Chapter 16

(06:41:19) Chapter 17

(07:05:51) Chapter 18

(07:29:50) Chapter 19

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Man and Maid by E. Nesbit ~ Full Audiobook [horror] Dec 11, 2025

Show notes

Man and Maid by E. Nesbit audiobook.

Genre: horror

Man and Maid is a sharp, atmospheric collection of adult short fiction by E. Nesbit, moving from drawing-room comedy to quiet dread with the turn of a page. Across thirteen tales, Nesbit tests the fragile boundary between what society expects and what the heart, and sometimes something far stranger, demands. In one story, a newly inherited country house offers comfort, status, and a whispering legend of haunting; in another, chance encounters and small deceptions set romance and reputation on a collision course. Elsewhere, a wealthy woman's freedom becomes its own trap, an editor and an aunt wage a subtle battle of wills, and ordinary streetside errands lead to unsettling revelations. Whether the setting is a manor with a past, a cramped London room, or a railway carriage where a stranger's gaze lingers too long, Nesbit keeps the focus on people: their bargains, their blind spots, and the moments when love and fear look uncomfortably alike. Witty, eerie, and surprisingly tender, these stories invite listeners to savor both the charm of Edwardian manners and the shadow that falls just behind them.

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Chapters (Approximate)

(00:00:00) Chapter 01

(00:36:34) Chapter 02

(01:12:10) Chapter 03

(01:41:24) Chapter 04

(02:05:23) Chapter 05

(02:42:54) Chapter 06

(03:12:21) Chapter 07

(03:37:46) Chapter 08

(04:07:27) Chapter 09

(04:36:56) Chapter 10

(05:03:46) Chapter 11

(05:31:17) Chapter 12

(05:54:35) Chapter 13

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Grim Tales by E. Nesbit ~ Full Audiobook [horror] Dec 10, 2025

Show notes

Grim Tales by E. Nesbit audiobook.

Genre: horror

Grim Tales by E. Nesbit is a collection of short Victorian-era stories that take the familiar comforts of drawing rooms, seaside holidays, and country houses and tilt them into the uncanny. Instead of a single hero, Nesbit presents a parade of ordinary people - curious visitors, complacent householders, and practical-minded skeptics - who find that a casual choice, a private wish, or a small act of selfishness can open the door to something coldly inexplicable. Each tale builds with Nesbit's trademark clarity and wit, balancing eerie atmosphere with a sharp eye for human weakness: vanity, greed, jealousy, and the desire to control what should not be controlled. Shadows lengthen in corridors, objects refuse to stay harmless, and the past proves far less settled than anyone would like to believe. Written with brisk pacing and a storyteller's relish for tension, these stories explore the price of temptation and the thin line between the everyday and the supernatural - leaving listeners to wonder what might be waiting just beyond the lamplight.

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Chapters (Approximate)

(00:00:00) Chapter 1

(00:29:23) Chapter 2

(00:46:52) Chapter 3

(00:55:22) Chapter 4

(01:03:55) Chapter 5

(01:20:26) Chapter 6

(01:29:23) Chapter 7

(01:38:00) Chapter 8

(02:12:15) Chapter 9

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Food Values by Dr. Albert Sy ~ Full Audiobook [science] Dec 09, 2025

Show notes

Food Values by Dr. Albert Sy audiobook.

Genre: science

Written during the World War I era, Food Values is Dr. Albert Philip Sy's brisk, practical guide to understanding what everyday foods contribute to the body. Part primer and part reference booklet, it begins by laying out the basics of nutrition in plain language: how the body uses protein, fat, and carbohydrates, why energy (calories) matters, and what to keep in mind when choosing foods for health, work, and economy. From there, Sy turns the book into a usable handbook, organizing common foods into categories and comparing them by chemical composition and food value, including figures for calories and amounts of protein, fat, carbohydrates, water, and mineral residue (listed as ash). Along the way he discusses prices and tradeoffs, showing how different choices can stretch a budget without sacrificing nourishment. Chapters move through staples such as milk products, eggs and cheese, meats and fish, cereal grains and bread, sugars, vegetables and beans, fruits, nuts, and simple dietary standards. Read today, the book also offers a window into early 20th century nutrition thinking, before modern vitamin science and later debates about types of fats reshaped dietary advice.

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Chapters (Approximate)

(00:00:00) Chapter 1

(00:13:26) Chapter 2

(00:24:11) Chapter 3

(00:30:46) Chapter 4

(00:40:49) Chapter 5

(00:49:10) Chapter 6

(00:59:06) Chapter 7

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Unicorns by James Huneker ~ Full Audiobook [speeches] Dec 08, 2025

Show notes

Unicorns by James Huneker audiobook.

Genre: speeches

Unicorns (1917) is James Huneker's sharp, wide-ranging collection of essays on the arts - a roaming conversation about what happens when imagination collides with reality. Taking the unicorn as his opening emblem of the unattainable and the necessary dream, Huneker moves from concert hall to studio to library, weighing the claims of modern taste against classical standards and asking what makes an artist, a masterpiece, or a movement endure. Along the way he sketches vivid portraits and arguments around composers, writers, and painters such as Edward MacDowell, Brahms, Chopin, Richard Wagner, Remy de Gourmont, J.-K. Huysmans, Henry James, James Joyce, and Paul Cezanne, while also pausing over style, rhythm in prose, and the shifting currents of French and Anglo-American culture. By turns witty, combative, and lyrical, Huneker writes as a critic who loves the heat of opinion and the thrill of discovery - and who insists that sincerity, craft, and daring matter more than fashion. Unicorns is both a time-capsule of early modernism and a spirited defense of art's power to remake the everyday.

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Chapters (Approximate)

(00:00:00) Chapter 01

(00:06:32) Chapter 02

(00:27:07) Chapter 03

(00:51:15) Chapter 04

(01:36:27) Chapter 05

(02:07:23) Chapter 06

(02:42:18) Chapter 07

(03:03:13) Chapter 08

(03:18:52) Chapter 09

(03:28:03) Chapter 10

(03:43:26) Chapter 11

(04:12:09) Chapter 12

(04:31:51) Chapter 13

(04:45:50) Chapter 14

(05:00:14) Chapter 15

(05:25:38) Chapter 16

(05:38:10) Chapter 17

(05:51:41) Chapter 18

(06:05:15) Chapter 19

(06:18:41) Chapter 20

(06:34:29) Chapter 21

(06:57:05) Chapter 22

(07:28:18) Chapter 23

(07:50:59) Chapter 24

(07:59:43) Chapter 25

(08:25:35) Chapter 26

(08:49:47) Chapter 27

(09:00:19) Chapter 28

(09:28:58) Chapter 29

(09:48:57) Chapter 30

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Food Preparedness by Dr. Albert Sy ~ Full Audiobook [history] Dec 06, 2025

Show notes

Food Preparedness by Dr. Albert Sy audiobook.

Genre: history

Written as a wartime bulletin in the World War I era, Food Preparedness is a brisk, practical guide to eating well when supplies are uncertain. Dr. Albert Philip Sy, a Ph.D. chemist and professor at the University of Buffalo, begins by grounding the listener in the fundamentals of nutrition as his generation understood them, then turns to the urgent, everyday question families faced: how do you stretch a food budget, conserve staples, and still protect health? With a clear, instructional voice, Sy lays out how to think about food as fuel and building material, how to avoid waste, and how to plan sensible meals even when familiar ingredients are scarce. The heart of the book is substitution: which foods can stand in for others without sacrificing nutritional value, and how to make those swaps wisely across grains, fats, proteins, and sweets. Part historical snapshot and part household handbook, Food Preparedness captures the intersection of science, civic duty, and kitchen reality, offering listeners both a window into an earlier America and a set of principles that remain relevant whenever scarcity, rationing, or disruption forces tough choices at the table.

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Chapters (Approximate)

(00:00:00) Chapter 0

(00:01:39) Chapter 1

(00:09:39) Chapter 2

(00:19:09) Chapter 3

(00:26:33) Chapter 4

(00:39:12) Chapter 5

(00:49:58) Chapter 6

(00:54:08) Chapter 7

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The Outermost House by Henry Beston ~ Full Audiobook [history] Dec 05, 2025

Show notes

The Outermost House by Henry Beston audiobook.

Genre: history

Written from a solitary cottage on Cape Cod's Great Beach, The Outermost House is Henry Beston's luminous record of a year spent living at the edge of land and sea. Through the turning seasons, Beston watches the Atlantic's moods, the shifting dunes, and the night sky, learning the beach's daily rhythms and the larger cycles that govern weather, tides, and migration. His closest neighbors are the creatures that share this narrow margin - shorebirds riding the wind, foxes tracing the sand, and the restless life of the surf - and his prose invites the listener to see them not as scenery, but as fellow inhabitants of a complex, ancient world. As storms threaten the fragile house and winter isolates the shore, Beston confronts the hard beauty of coastal life and the questions it raises about solitude, stewardship, and humanity's place in nature. Part field journal, part meditation, and part love letter to the wild, this classic work offers a bracing, attentive way of looking that still feels urgent today.

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Chapters (Approximate)

(00:00:00) Chapter 00

(00:05:02) Chapter 01

(00:33:15) Chapter 02

(01:06:47) Chapter 03

(01:34:42) Chapter 04

(02:22:15) Chapter 05

(03:04:45) Chapter 06

(03:42:14) Chapter 07

(04:20:55) Chapter 08

(04:53:43) Chapter 09