Showing results by author "Audiobooks by Librivox" in All Categories

In der Strafkolonie ist eine Erzählung von Franz Kafka, die im Oktober 1914 entstand und 1919 veröffentlicht wurde. Einem Forschungsreisenden wird das Rechtssystem einer Strafkolonie vorgeführt. Es besteht darin, dass jeder Angeklagte unabhängig von seiner Schuld von einem Apparat in minutiösem Ablauf stundenlang gefoltert und dann getötet wird. Den Apparat beschreibt Kafka als überdimensionalen Parlograph in der Funktionsweise eines Phonographen mit vibrierender Metallplatte und Nadel. Dieser Apparat ist der Hauptgegenstand der Erzählung, er repräsentiert die Einheit von Schrift und ...

Aus heiterem Himmel sieht sich der Prokurist Josef K. eines Verbrechens angeklagt. Die Art der Anklage wird ihm nicht mitgeteilt, auch nähere Einzelheiten über das Gericht erfährt er nicht, außer, dass es auf den Dachböden heruntergekommener Vorstadthäuser tagt. Dennoch wird von ihm erwartet, dass er seinen Prozess ordentlich führt. Bekannte, die von seinem Prozess erfahren, bieten ihre Hilfe an, aber im Endeffekt kämpft K. praktisch alleine gegen ein übermächtigen und unbekannten Gegner, und der Ausgang des Prozesses bleibt im Dunkeln... Der Process ist ein Romanfragment von Franz ...

Notes from Underground is an 1864 novella by Fyodor Dostoyevsky. Notes is considered by many to be the first existentialist novel. It presents itself as an excerpt from the rambling memoirs of a bitter, isolated, unnamed narrator (generally referred to by critics as the Underground Man) who is a retired civil servant living in St. Petersburg. The first part of the story is told in monologue form, or the underground man's diary, and attacks emerging Western philosophy, especially Nikolay Chernyshevsky's What Is to Be Done?. The second part of the book is called "Àpropos of the Wet Snow," and ...

Almayer’s Folly is about a poor businessman who dreams of finding a hidden gold mine and becoming very wealthy. Kaspar Almayer is a white European. He agrees to marry a native Malayan captured by Captain Tom Lingard, his employer, believing the marriage will bring him riches even though he has no love for the woman. They have one daughter named Nina. Almayer relocates with his wife to Malaysian where he hopes to build a trading company and find gold mines. His hopeless daydreams of riches and splendor cause his native wife to loath him.Almayer, desperate, hopes to find his salvation in Dain ...

Set in a time of oppressive colonisation, when large areas of the world were still unknown to Europe, and Africa was literally on maps and minds as a mysterious shadow, Heart of Darkness famously explores the rituals of civilisation and barbarism, and the frighteningly fine line between them.We get the tale through a classic unreliable narrator, relating as Marlow, a ship’s captain, tells how he was sent by the Company to retrieve the wayward Kurtz, and was shaken to discover the true depths of darkness in that creature’s, and in his own, soul. Conrad based the work closely on his own ...

While the central figures in each of the three stories in this collection are sailing captains, the main action in two of them takes place on land, albeit in sight of the sea. In "A Smile of Fortune", a naive young sea captain falls into grave moral peril when he locks horns with a wily ship chandler in Mauritius. In "The Secret Sharer", a newly appointed sea captain is confronted with an altogether different kind of challenge when he attempts to haul in a rope ladder over his ship's side one evening and finds it much heavier than usual. In "Freya of the Seven Isles", Jasper Allen, the captain...

En 1869, tras seis años de arduo trabajo con la colaboración de su esposa Sophia Tolstaya, Tolstoy publicó la versión final de La Guerra y la Paz, considerada una de las obras cumbres de la literatura universal.La maestría narrativa del autor y su acabado conocimiento de fuentes documentales nos sumergen verazmente en el contexto de la invasión napoleónica de 1805 en esta novela histórica de corte realista.Enriquecida por los detalles visuales, la narración se mueve fluidamente través de los distintos planos, desde el amplio escenario de la guerra, pasando por la vida social en los ...

En 1869, tras seis años de arduo trabajo con la colaboración de su esposa Sophia Tolstaya, Tolstoy publicó la versión final de La Guerra y la Paz, considerada una de las obras cumbres de la literatura universal.La maestría narrativa del autor y su acabado conocimiento de fuentes documentales nos sumergen verazmente en el contexto de la invasión napoleónica de 1805 en esta novela histórica de corte realista.Enriquecida por los detalles visuales, la narración se mueve fluidamente través de los distintos planos, desde el amplio escenario de la guerra, pasando por la vida social en los ...

Der Kaufmann Wasili Andrejitsch Brechunow und sein Knecht Nikita machen sich an einem Dezembernachmittag trotz eisiger Kälte und Schneegestöber mit dem Pferdeschlitten auf, da Wasili Andrejitsch einem benachbarten Gutsbesitzer einen Wald abkaufen will. Während der Fahrt nimmt der Schneesturm zu, sie kommen vom Weg ab und verirren sich, landen jedoch in einem Nachbarort. Mehrfach bietet sich die Möglichkeit, von der Weiterfahrt abzusehen und den nächsten Tag abzuwarten, aber der rücksichtslose und dabei selbstgerechte Wasili Andrejitsch will sich das günstige Geschäft nicht entgehen ...

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 ...

Written after Tolstoy suffered a spiritual crisis, Ivan the Fool is a fairy tale that offers children instruction in how to live rightly, simply, and generously. The story emphasizes the destructive aspects of materialism and militarism while idealizing manual labor and the peasant life. (Introduction by Dorlene Kaplan)

"My Confession" is a brief autobiographical story of Leo Tolstoy's struggle with a mid-life existential crisis of melancholia. It describes his search for answers to the profound questions "What will come of my life?" and "What is the meaning of life?", without answers to which life, for him, had become "impossible." Tolstoy reflects on the arc of his philosophical life until then: his childhood abandonment of his Russian orthodox faith; his mastery of strength, will, power, and reason; and how, after he had achieved tremendous financial success and social status, life to him seemed ...

Publication of The Kreutzer Sonata in 1889 was a significant intellectual event worldwide. Censored in Russia, it set off an explosive debate in Europe, America, and Asia on matters relating to sexual abstinence and the hypocrisy of marriage. The novella emphasizes Tolstoy's controversial view on sexuality, which asserts that physical desire is an obstacle to relations between men and women and may result in tragedy. The Kreutzer Sonata has been recognized as among the best examples of Tolstoy's art of storytelling.(Introduction by Dorlene Kaplan)

En 1869, tras seis años de arduo trabajo con la colaboración de su esposa Sophia Tolstaya, Tolstoy publicó la versión final de La Guerra y la Paz, considerada una de las obras cumbres de la literatura universal.La maestría narrativa del autor y su acabado conocimiento de fuentes documentales nos sumergen verazmente en el contexto de la invasión napoleónica de 1805 en esta novela histórica de corte realista.Enriquecida por los detalles visuales, la narración se mueve fluidamente través de los distintos planos, desde el amplio escenario de la guerra, pasando por la vida social en los ...

LibriVox volunteers bring you 22 recordings of A Backward Spring by Thomas Hardy.This was the Weekly Poetry project for March 19, 2023. ------While Hardy wrote poetry throughout his life and regarded himself primarily as a poet, his first collection was not published until 1898. Initially, he gained fame as the author of novels such as Far from the Madding Crowd (1874), The Mayor of Casterbridge (1886), Tess of the d'Urbervilles (1891), and Jude the Obscure (1895). During his lifetime, Hardy's poetry was acclaimed by younger poets (particularly the Georgians) who viewed him as a mentor - ...

LibriVox volunteers bring you 23 recordings of Abel Melveny by Edgar Lee Masters.This was the Weekly Poetry project for March 10, 2024. ------This week LibriVox presents an introspective poem, taken from Spoon River Anthology by Edgar Lee Masters. - Summary by David Lawrence

LibriVox volunteers bring you 24 recordings of Rain In My Heart by Edgar Lee Masters.This was the Weekly Poetry project for April 20, 2025. ------Edgar Lee Masters was an American attorney, poet, biographer, and dramatist. He is the author of Spoon River Anthology, The New Star Chamber and Other Essays, Songs and Satires. In all, Masters published twelve plays, twenty-one books of poetry, six novels and six biographies, including those of Abraham Lincoln, Mark Twain, Vachel Lindsay, and Walt Whitman.- Summary by Wikipedia

LibriVox volunteers bring you 21 recordings of The Choirmaster's Burial by Thomas Hardy.This was the Fortnightly Poetry project for February 16, 2025. ------During his lifetime, Hardy's poetry was acclaimed by younger poets (particularly the Georgians) who viewed him as a mentor. After his death his poems were lauded by Ezra Pound, W. H. Auden and Philip Larkin. (Summary by Wikipedia)

Here is a collection of strikingly different pieces by Flaubert: a prose poem in the voices of Death, Satan and Nero; the trials and apotheosis of a medieval saint; and the life of a selfless maid in 19th century France. Each exhibits the vigorous exactness, and the mixture of realism and romanticism, for which Flaubert is renowned.

LibriVox volunteers bring you 25 recordings of At A Lunar Eclipse by Thomas Hardy.This was the Weekly Poetry project for January 27, 2019. ------While Hardy wrote poetry throughout his life and regarded himself primarily as a poet, his first collection was not published until 1898. Initially, therefore, he gained fame as the author of such novels as Far from the Madding Crowd (1874), The Mayor of Casterbridge (1886), Tess of the d'Urbervilles (1891), and Jude the Obscure (1895). During his lifetime, Hardy's poetry was acclaimed by younger poets (particularly the Georgians) who viewed him as a ...