Classic Audiobook Collection

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Amelia (Vol 1) by Henry Fielding ~ Full Audiobook [drama] Jul 12, 2024

Show notes

Amelia (Vol 1) by Henry Fielding audiobook.

Genre: drama

Set in the bustling, morally tangled streets of 18th-century London, Amelia follows the fortunes of Captain William Booth and his devoted wife, Amelia, as they fight to keep their marriage and dignity intact amid poverty, temptation, and the constant pressure of society's judgments. Booth, brave and affectionate but dangerously impulsive, is pulled between honorable intentions and the allure of gambling, drink, and flattering company. Amelia, steady and compassionate, becomes the heart of their household, striving to protect their children and preserve the love she believes can outlast any hardship. When a sudden run-in with the law thrusts Booth into a world of prisons, scheming lawyers, and predatory creditors, the couple must rely on fragile friendships and uncertain patronage to survive. Along the way, Fielding paints a vivid portrait of fashionable vice and everyday desperation, exposing how easily virtue can be tested when money and reputation are on the line. Rich with humor, sharp observation, and emotional tenderness, Amelia is a story of loyalty under strain and the cost of trying to live well in an unforgiving city.

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Chapters (Approximate)

(00:00:00) Chapter 00

(00:14:14) Chapter 01

(00:17:29) Chapter 02

(00:31:26) Chapter 03

(00:42:17) Chapter 04

(00:51:43) Chapter 05

(01:03:27) Chapter 06

(01:14:56) Chapter 07

(01:26:18) Chapter 08

(01:37:13) Chapter 09

(01:52:07) Chapter 10

(02:02:03) Chapter 11

(02:10:33) Chapter 12

(02:20:52) Chapter 13

(02:29:54) Chapter 14

(02:36:36) Chapter 15

(02:46:23) Chapter 16

(02:59:10) Chapter 17

(03:10:38) Chapter 18

(03:18:12) Chapter 19

(03:27:52) Chapter 20

(03:31:42) Chapter 21

(03:47:39) Chapter 22

(03:56:18) Chapter 23

(04:11:43) Chapter 24

(04:21:26) Chapter 25

(04:29:03) Chapter 26

(04:41:47) Chapter 27

(05:03:50) Chapter 28

(05:17:10) Chapter 29

(05:32:01) Chapter 30

(05:42:31) Chapter 31

(06:01:08) Chapter 32

(06:08:37) Chapter 33

(06:26:34) Chapter 34

(06:43:13) Chapter 35

(06:50:43) Chapter 36

(07:07:16) Chapter 37

(07:19:48) Chapter 38

(07:29:39) Chapter 39

(07:38:03) Chapter 40

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The Journal of Henry David Thoreau Volume 1 - 1837 - 1846 by Henry David Thoreau ~ Full Audiobook [biography] Jul 11, 2024

Show notes

The Journal of Henry David Thoreau Volume 1 - 1837 - 1846 by Henry David Thoreau audiobook.

Genre: biography

Spanning the formative years from 1837 to 1846, The Journal of Henry David Thoreau, Volume 1 invites listeners into the private workshop of one of America's most distinctive minds. In these early entries, Thoreau records the daily texture of New England life around Concord, Massachusetts - long walks through woods and fields, close observations of weather, animals, and plants, and the quiet labor of turning experience into language. As he tests his vocation as a writer and thinker, the journal becomes a place to measure time, sharpen attention, and challenge conventional ideas about work, society, and the proper use of a human life. Alongside sketches of neighbors, books, and local events, Thoreau wrestles with questions that will later shape his essays: how to live deliberately, what freedom requires, and how nature can be both a refuge and a teacher. Intimate, searching, and often lyrical, this volume traces the emergence of Thoreau's voice as he learns to see his world with uncommon precision and to translate that seeing into enduring insight.

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Chapters (Approximate)

(00:00:00) Chapter 01

(00:27:27) Chapter 02

(00:51:38) Chapter 03

(01:21:54) Chapter 04

(01:45:44) Chapter 05

(02:10:53) Chapter 06

(02:38:36) Chapter 07

(02:59:43) Chapter 08

(03:28:26) Chapter 09

(03:52:09) Chapter 10

(04:17:32) Chapter 11

(04:45:04) Chapter 12

(05:11:50) Chapter 13

(05:41:38) Chapter 14

(06:14:53) Chapter 15

(06:39:27) Chapter 16

(07:02:44) Chapter 17

(07:30:39) Chapter 18

(08:05:23) Chapter 19

(08:36:33) Chapter 20

(09:00:58) Chapter 21

(09:29:23) Chapter 22

(10:02:37) Chapter 23

(10:33:15) Chapter 24

(11:01:56) Chapter 25

(11:34:03) Chapter 26

(12:00:04) Chapter 27

(12:23:01) Chapter 28

(12:44:21) Chapter 29

(13:16:48) Chapter 30

(13:44:13) Chapter 31

(14:20:53) Chapter 32

(14:52:17) Chapter 33

(15:26:20) Chapter 34

(15:59:05) Chapter 35

(16:27:15) Chapter 36

(16:45:36) Chapter 37

(17:14:28) Chapter 38

(17:39:09) Chapter 39

(18:02:06) Chapter 40

(18:28:33) Chapter 41

(18:54:28) Chapter 42

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The Story of London by Henry B. Wheatley ~ Full Audiobook [history] Jul 05, 2024

Show notes

The Story of London by Henry B. Wheatley audiobook.

Genre: history

In The Story of London, Victorian scholar Henry B. Wheatley invites listeners on a vivid, street-level journey through the making of one of the world's most influential cities. Moving from Londons earliest beginnings on the Thames to the rise of a sprawling metropolis, Wheatley traces how rulers, merchants, craftsmen, and everyday residents shaped the citys character through centuries of change. Along the way, famous landmarks and vanished neighborhoods come to life as he explains how fires, plagues, political turmoil, and booming trade repeatedly remade the urban landscape. Wheatley also explores the institutions that gave London its distinctive power - from the Citys guilds and governance to the courts, churches, bridges, and markets that organized daily life. Rich in anecdote and observation, the book balances grand events with the practical details of streets, wards, and customs, showing how Londons physical form and civic spirit evolved together. Part historical panorama, part guided walk, this classic account reveals why London became a capital of commerce, culture, and empire, and why its layered past still echoes in the modern city.

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Chapters (Approximate)

(00:00:00) Chapter 01

(00:06:44) Chapter 02

(00:46:39) Chapter 03

(01:24:44) Chapter 04

(02:01:09) Chapter 05

(02:34:53) Chapter 06

(03:12:25) Chapter 07

(03:48:17) Chapter 08

(04:30:50) Chapter 09

(05:01:16) Chapter 10

(05:33:27) Chapter 11

(06:13:03) Chapter 12

(06:44:18) Chapter 13

(07:18:42) Chapter 14

(07:31:46) Chapter 15

(08:00:33) Chapter 16

(08:30:11) Chapter 17

(09:03:16) Chapter 18

(09:22:03) Chapter 19

(09:54:16) Chapter 20

(10:32:13) Chapter 21

(11:07:01) Chapter 22

(11:40:05) Chapter 23

(12:12:38) Chapter 24

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Totem and Taboo by Sigmund Freud ~ Full Audiobook [science] Jul 04, 2024

Show notes

Totem and Taboo by Sigmund Freud audiobook.

Genre: science

In Totem and Taboo, Sigmund Freud turns the tools of psychoanalysis outward, asking how the hidden forces that shape an individual mind might also shape entire societies. Across four connected essays, he explores the strange power of taboos, the emotional logic behind ritual prohibitions, and the recurring patterns he sees linking so-called primitive customs with modern neuroses. Freud examines topics such as fear of the dead, rules around purity and contamination, the avoidance of incest, and the anthropological puzzle of totemism - the symbolic animal or object that becomes a marker of group identity and a focus of reverence and restriction. Threading through the discussion is Freud's provocative attempt to connect family conflict, desire, guilt, and authority with the origins of religion, moral law, and social cohesion. Part cultural critique, part speculative anthropology, and part clinical thought experiment, Totem and Taboo challenges listeners to consider why certain thoughts feel forbidden, how communities enforce shared boundaries, and what we inherit psychologically from the deep past. It is influential, controversial, and designed to spark debate about the roots of belief and behavior.

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Chapters (Approximate)

(00:00:00) Chapter 00

(00:09:56) Chapter 01

(00:50:50) Chapter 02

(01:34:56) Chapter 03

(02:14:28) Chapter 04

(03:06:29) Chapter 05

(04:03:29) Chapter 06

(04:48:44) Chapter 07

(05:37:01) Chapter 08

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Three Contributions to the Theory of Sex by Sigmund Freud ~ Full Audiobook [science] Jul 03, 2024

Show notes

Three Contributions to the Theory of Sex by Sigmund Freud audiobook.

Genre: science

First published in the early twentieth century, Sigmund Freud's Three Contributions to the Theory of Sex is a foundational, provocative work that reshaped how modern readers think about desire, development, and the hidden forces that influence everyday life. In three tightly argued essays, Freud challenges the idea that sexuality begins at puberty or fits neatly into social norms, proposing instead that sexual life develops in stages from childhood onward and that adult preferences, anxieties, and symptoms can be traced to earlier patterns of pleasure, attachment, and conflict. Drawing on clinical observation and the emerging language of psychoanalysis, he examines variations in sexual aims and objects, the role of fantasy, and the ways repression and shame can transform desire into distress. Along the way, Freud introduces concepts that would become central to his broader system, including the dynamics of libido and the psychological significance of so-called perversions and neuroses. Read today, the book is both a historical document and a living argument: controversial, influential, and relentlessly curious about how private experience collides with culture, morality, and medicine.

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Chapters (Approximate)

(00:00:00) Chapter 01

(00:25:24) Chapter 02

(00:43:48) Chapter 03

(00:49:29) Chapter 04

(00:59:22) Chapter 05

(01:10:53) Chapter 06

(01:34:19) Chapter 07

(02:17:48) Chapter 08

(02:38:51) Chapter 09

(03:04:21) Chapter 10

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The Origin and Development of Psychoanalysis by Sigmund Freud ~ Full Audiobook [science] Jul 02, 2024

Show notes

The Origin and Development of Psychoanalysis by Sigmund Freud audiobook.

Genre: science

In The Origin and Development of Psychoanalysis, Sigmund Freud offers a clear, personal account of how a controversial new way of understanding the mind took shape. Speaking as both participant and witness, Freud traces the early clinical puzzles that led him away from conventional nineteenth-century medicine and toward the idea that symptoms can be meaningful expressions of hidden mental conflict. He introduces the listener to the formative cases, collaborators, and intellectual disputes that pushed psychoanalysis from tentative hypothesis to an organized method of inquiry and treatment. Along the way, Freud explains core concepts such as the unconscious, repression, resistance, and the role of dreams and free association, showing how these ideas emerged from work with patients rather than abstract speculation. The book also captures the tensions of founding a movement: skepticism from the medical establishment, disagreements among early adherents, and the challenge of defining what psychoanalysis is and is not. Part intellectual memoir and part scientific manifesto, it invites listeners to consider how new theories are born, why they provoke fierce opposition, and what is at stake when we try to speak honestly about desire, memory, and the forces that shape everyday life.

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Chapters (Approximate)

(00:00:00) Chapter 01

(00:23:55) Chapter 02

(00:41:14) Chapter 03

(01:06:21) Chapter 04

(01:26:22) Chapter 05

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The Interpretation of Dreams by Sigmund Freud ~ Full Audiobook [philosophy] Jul 01, 2024

Show notes

The Interpretation of Dreams by Sigmund Freud audiobook.

Genre: philosophy

Sigmund Freud's The Interpretation of Dreams is a landmark work that invites listeners into the hidden logic of the sleeping mind. Blending case studies, personal recollections, and careful argument, Freud proposes that dreams are not random noise but meaningful productions shaped by wishes, conflicts, and the pressures of everyday life. He introduces core ideas of psychoanalysis through the craft of dream interpretation, explaining how a remembered dream (the manifest content) can be traced to deeper, often concealed thoughts and impulses (the latent content). Along the way, Freud lays out tools for decoding symbolism, wordplay, and emotional distortions, and he demonstrates how childhood experiences, anxiety, and memory can reappear at night in disguised forms. As Freud analyzes dreams from patients and from his own life, a larger struggle comes into focus: the mind's attempt to balance desire with restraint, and truth with self-protection. Provocative, meticulous, and often surprising, this book challenges listeners to reconsider what they think they know about sleep, the unconscious, and the stories the mind tells when it is most unguarded.

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Chapters (Approximate)

(00:00:00) Chapter 00

(00:11:15) Chapter 01

(00:29:21) Chapter 02

(01:00:34) Chapter 03

(01:19:31) Chapter 04

(01:58:11) Chapter 05

(02:12:29) Chapter 06

(03:02:46) Chapter 07

(03:20:47) Chapter 08

(04:03:48) Chapter 09

(04:21:50) Chapter 10

(04:43:26) Chapter 11

(05:21:04) Chapter 12

(05:49:29) Chapter 13

(06:14:54) Chapter 14

(06:48:58) Chapter 15

(06:57:24) Chapter 16

(07:42:03) Chapter 17

(08:18:16) Chapter 18

(08:50:02) Chapter 19

(09:51:25) Chapter 20

(10:09:34) Chapter 21

(10:38:55) Chapter 22

(11:07:37) Chapter 23

(11:13:36) Chapter 24

(11:19:02) Chapter 25

(11:41:36) Chapter 26

(12:17:39) Chapter 27

(12:28:10) Chapter 28

(13:11:10) Chapter 29

(13:36:48) Chapter 30

(13:58:21) Chapter 31

(14:44:24) Chapter 32

(15:24:55) Chapter 33

(16:14:46) Chapter 34

(16:59:57) Chapter 35

(17:54:04) Chapter 36

(18:37:56) Chapter 37

(19:02:45) Chapter 38

(19:43:19) Chapter 39

(20:11:09) Chapter 40

(20:33:41) Chapter 41

(21:06:30) Chapter 42

(21:37:19) Chapter 43

(21:54:14) Chapter 44

(22:24:15) Chapter 45

(23:05:43) Chapter 46

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Psychopathology of Everyday Life by Sigmund Freud ~ Full Audiobook [science] Jun 29, 2024

Show notes

Psychopathology of Everyday Life by Sigmund Freud audiobook.

Genre: science

Professor Freud developed his system of psychoanalysis while studying the so-called borderline cases of mental diseases, such as hysteria and compulsion neurosis. By discarding the old methods of treatment and strictly applying himself to a study of the patient's life he discovered that the hitherto puzzling symptoms had a definite meaning, and that there was nothing arbitrary in any morbid manifestation. Psychoanalysis always showed that they referred to some definite problem or conflict of the person concerned. It was while tracing back the abnormal to the normal state that Professor Freud found how faint the line of demarcation was between the normal and neurotic person, and that the psychopathologic mechanisms so glaringly observed in the psychoneuroses and psychoses could usually be demonstrated in a lesser degree in normal persons.

This led to a study of the faulty actions of everyday life and later to the publication of the Psychopathology of Everyday Life, a book which passed through four editions in Germany and is considered the author's most popular work. With great ingenuity and penetration the author throws much light on the complex problems of human behavior, and clearly demonstrates that the hitherto considered impassable gap between normal and abnormal mental states is more apparent than real.

This translation is made of the fourth German edition, and while the original text was strictly followed, linguistic difficulties often made it necessary to modify or substitute some of the author's cases by examples comprehensible to the English-speaking reader.

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Chapters (Approximate)

(00:00:00) Chapter 01

(00:17:34) Chapter 02

(00:31:57) Chapter 03

(01:08:21) Chapter 04

(01:26:44) Chapter 05

(02:25:11) Chapter 06

(02:47:28) Chapter 07

(03:38:09) Chapter 08

(04:28:02) Chapter 09

(05:09:49) Chapter 10

(05:27:43) Chapter 11

(05:40:24) Chapter 12

(06:21:58) Chapter 13

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Timaeus by Plato ~ Full Audiobook [philosophy] Jun 28, 2024

Show notes

Timaeus by Plato audiobook.

Genre: philosophy

'Our intention is, that Timaeus, who is the most of an astronomer amongst us, and has made the nature of the universe his special study, should speak first, beginning with the generation of the world and going down to the creation of man...'

'Timaeus' is usually regarded as one of Plato's later dialogues, and provides an account of the creation of the universe, with physical, metaphysical and ethical dimensions, which had great influence over philosophers for centuries following. It attributes the order and beauty of the universe to a benevolent demiurge - a 'craftsman' or god - fashioning the physical world after the pattern of an ideal, eternal one.

The dramatic setting of the dialogue is the day after a discussion in which Socrates has described his ideal state - as in the 'Republic'. A conversation between Socrates, Critias, Hermocrates and Timaeus, including Critias' account of Solon's journey to Egypt (where he hears the story of Atlantis), soon gives way to the monologue by Timaeus that forms the bulk of the work.

'Timaeus' is translated by Benjamin Jowett and his comprehensive introduction to and analysis of the work precedes the text itself, which he describes as 'the growth of an age in which philosophy is not wholly separated from poetry and mythology'.

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Chapters (Approximate)

(00:00:00) Chapter 01

(00:23:30) Chapter 02

(01:00:33) Chapter 03

(01:24:57) Chapter 04

(01:58:57) Chapter 05

(02:23:17) Chapter 06

(03:00:47) Chapter 07

(03:15:53) Chapter 08

(03:22:49) Chapter 09

(03:33:24) Chapter 10

(03:39:04) Chapter 11

(03:52:37) Chapter 12

(04:36:58) Chapter 13

(05:04:31) Chapter 14

(05:29:14) Chapter 15

(05:47:48) Chapter 16

(06:14:32) Chapter 17

(06:33:43) Chapter 18

(07:07:43) Chapter 19

(07:32:34) Chapter 20

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Theaetetus by Plato ~ Full Audiobook [philosophy] Jun 27, 2024

Show notes

Theaetetus by Plato audiobook.

Genre: philosophy

In Plato's Theaetetus, Athens is still reeling from war and political upheaval when Socrates meets a gifted young mathematician, Theaetetus, and his teacher Theodorus. Drawn into conversation, Theaetetus is challenged to answer a deceptively simple question that becomes the dialogue's driving force: what is knowledge? Socrates, practicing his famous method of questioning, tests Theaetetus' proposed definitions one by one, pushing the youth to refine his thinking and confront the limits of certainty. As their inquiry ranges from sense perception to true judgment and the role of explanation, the discussion becomes an intense portrait of intellectual formation: a brilliant student learning how to think, not just what to think, under the guidance of a relentless mentor. At the same time, the dialogue offers a vivid glimpse of Socrates near the end of his life, committed to the life of examination even as the city around him grows suspicious of such scrutiny. Both approachable and profound, Theaetetus invites listeners into philosophy's workshop, where hard questions matter more than easy answers.

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Chapters (Approximate)

(00:00:00) Chapter 01

(00:42:07) Chapter 02

(01:23:52) Chapter 03

(02:17:35) Chapter 04

(02:59:31) Chapter 05

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