Audio Podcast Directory - Podcasts with only audio episodes
Librivox: Phantom-Wooer, The by Beddoes, Thomas LovellJoin Now to Follow
LibriVox volunteers bring you 13 different recordings of The Phantom-Wooer by Thomas Lovell Beddoes. This was the weekly poetry project for the week of January 28th, 2007.
By LibriVox
Librivox: Studies in Pessimism by Schopenhauer, ArthurJoin Now to Follow
Arthur Schopenhauer, an early 19th century philosopher, made significant contributions to metaphysics, ethics, and aesthetics. His work also informed theories of evolution and psychology, largely through his theory of the will to power – a concept which Nietzsche famously adopted and developed. Despite this, he is today, as he was during his life, overshadowed by his contemporary, Hegel. Schopenhauer's social/psychological views, put forth in this work and in others, are directly derived from his metaphysics, which was strongly influenced by Eastern thought. His pessimism forms an interesting and perhaps questionable contrast with his obvious joy in self-expression, both in the elegance of his prose and in his practice of playing the flute nightly. His brilliance, poetry, and crushing pessimism can be seen immediately in this work, as for example in this claim from the first chapter: "The pleasure in this world, it has been said, outweighs the pain; or, at any rate, there is an even balance between the two. If the reader wishes to see shortly whether this statement is true, let him compare the respective feelings of two animals, one of which is engaged in eating the other." We see also, in this work, his misogyny, as for example in his claim that "as lions are provided with claws and teeth, and elephants and boars with tusks, . . . so Nature has equipped woman, for her defence and protection, with the arts of dissimulation; and all the power which Nature has conferred upon man in the shape of physical strength and reason, has been bestowed upon women in this form." Given his opening comment, the translator, T.B. Saunders, seems to have been at least somewhat sympathetic to this perspective. - Summary by D.E. Wittkower
By LibriVox
Librivox: Heavenly Life, The by Allen, JamesJoin Now to Follow
James Allen’s most famous work, As A Man Thinketh, has gained almost cult status among those studying spiritual mysticism. He wrote all of his works without copyright for the benefit of man, and this work, The Heavenly Life, one of his more obscure writings, contains the wisdom of the meaning of spiritual oneness with God.
By LibriVox
Librivox: Short Poetry Collection 020 by VariousJoin Now to Follow
Librivox’s Short Poetry Collection 020: a collection of 20 public-domain poems.
By LibriVox
Librivox: Short Poetry Collection 021 by VariousJoin Now to Follow
Librivox’s Short Poetry Collection 021: a collection of 20 public-domain poems.
By LibriVox
Librivox: Master and Man by Tolstoy, LeoJoin Now to Follow
A land owner, Vasili Andreevich, takes along one of his peasants, Nikita, for a short journey to another town. He wishes to get to the town quickly 'for business'. They find themselves in the middle of a blizzard, but the master in his avarice wishes to press on. They eventually get lost off the road and they try to camp. The master's peasant soon finds himself about to die from hypothermia. The master leaves him on the horse to stubbornly try to find the road. When he returns, he attains a spiritual/moral revelation, and Tolstoy once again repeats one of his famous themes: that the only true happiness in life is found by living for others. (Wikipedia)
By LibriVox
Librivox: Extraordinary Adventures of Arsène Lupin, Gentleman-Burglar, The by Leblanc, MauriceJoin Now to Follow
A contemporary of Arthur Conan Doyle, Maurice Leblanc (1864-1941) was the creator of the character of gentleman thief Arsène Lupin who, in France, has enjoyed a popularity as long-lasting and considerable as Sherlock Holmes in the English-speaking world. This is the delightful first of twenty volumes in the Arsène Lupin series written by Leblanc himself. In an unprecedented act of literary pastiche and cross-over, Sherlock Holmes and Lupin actually meet, briefly in this first volume, and more substantially in the next. But after legal objections from Conan Doyle, the name was changed to "Herlock Sholmes." (adapted from Wikipedia by a.r.dobbs)
By LibriVox
Librivox: History of England from the Accession of James II - (Volume 2, Chapter 06) by Macaulay, Thomas BabingtonJoin Now to Follow
This chapter starts from about 1685. James is on the throne and, as ever, there are disputes between crown and Parliament. We see the Habeus Corpus Act introduced, the persecution of the Huguenots and troubles in Ireland.
By LibriVox
Librivox: God's Troubadour, The Story of St. Francis of Assisi by Jewett, SophieJoin Now to Follow
Francis, a young Italian boy, is a merchant's son who is enthralled by the troubadour songs and tales of knights that his father brings back from his travels. He decides to become a knight, but after seeing the poor and suffering in the tragedies of war, he decides to give away all of his worldly possessions and become a troubadour for God.
By LibriVox
Librivox: Christmas Carol, A (version 2) by Dickens, CharlesJoin Now to Follow
A Christmas Carol (full title: A Christmas Carol in Prose, Being a Ghost Story of Christmas) is A Christmas Carol is a Victorian morality tale of an old and bitter miser, Ebenezer Scrooge, who undergoes a profound experience of redemption over the course of one evening. (Wikipedia)
By LibriVox
