The Egoist
George Meredith
Read by LibriVox Volunteers
The Egoist is a tragi-comical novel by George Meredith published in 1879. The novel recounts the story of self-absorbed Sir Willoughby Patterne and his attempts at marriage; jilted by his first bride-to-be, he vacillates between the sentimental Laetitia Dale and the strong-willed Clara Middleton. More importantly, the novel follows Clara's attempts to escape from her engagement to Sir Willoughby, who desires women to serve as a mirror for him and consequently cannot understand why she would not want to marry him. Thus, The Egoist dramatizes the difficulty contingent upon being a woman in Victorian society, when women's bodies and minds are trafficked between fathers and husbands to cement male bonds. (Summary from Wikipedia) (22 hr 17 min)
Chapters
00 - Prelude | 14:23 | Read by Martin Geeson |
01 - Chapter I | 7:50 | Read by Elizabeth Klett |
02 - Chapter II | 12:52 | Read by Elizabeth Klett |
03 - Chapter III | 23:20 | Read by Martin Geeson |
04 - Chapter IV | 42:27 | Read by Martin Geeson |
05 - Chapter V | 28:07 | Read by Martin Geeson |
06 - Chapter VI | 26:36 | Read by Martin Geeson |
07 - Chapter VII | 35:27 | Read by Martin Geeson |
08 - Chapter VIII | 17:15 | Read by Dawn |
09 - Chapter IX | 29:18 | Read by Lars Rolander (1942-2016) |
10 - Chapter X | 44:45 | Read by Lars Rolander (1942-2016) |
11 - Chapter XI | 33:53 | Read by Lars Rolander (1942-2016) |
12 - Chapter XII | 16:11 | Read by Martin Geeson |
13 - Chapter XIII | 31:50 | Read by skoval |
14 - Chapter XIV | 23:18 | Read by Neeru Iyer |
15 - Chapter XV | 30:45 | Read by Martin Geeson |
16 - Chapter XVI | 21:45 | Read by Neeru Iyer |
17 - Chapter XVII | 19:19 | Read by skoval |
18 - Chapter XVIII | 21:05 | Read by skoval |
19 - Chapter XIX | 33:03 | Read by Martin Geeson |
20 - Chapter XX | 30:43 | Read by Martin Geeson |
21 - Chapter XXI | 33:30 | Read by Lars Rolander (1942-2016) |
22 - Chapter XXII | 33:08 | Read by Lars Rolander (1942-2016) |
23 - Chapter XXIII | 35:55 | Read by Lars Rolander (1942-2016) |
24 - Chapter XXIV | 36:12 | Read by Martin Geeson |
25 - Chapter XXV | 35:56 | Read by hefyd |
26 - Chapter XXVI | 14:05 | Read by hefyd |
27 - Chapter XXVII | 20:09 | Read by hefyd |
28 - Chapter XXVIII | 16:58 | Read by hefyd |
29 - Chapter XXIX | 47:14 | Read by hefyd |
30 - Chapter XXX | 18:27 | Read by Sarah Prusoff |
31 - Chapter XXXI | 25:22 | Read by Elizabeth Klett |
32 - Chapter XXXII | 18:58 | Read by Elizabeth Klett |
33 - Chapter XXXIII | 14:59 | Read by Elizabeth Klett |
34 - Chapter XXXIV | 28:43 | Read by Elizabeth Klett |
35 - Chapter XXXV | 33:02 | Read by Elizabeth Klett |
36 - Chapter XXXVI | 21:43 | Read by Elizabeth Klett |
37 - Chapter XXXVII | 21:24 | Read by Elizabeth Klett |
38 - Chapter XXXVIII | 11:12 | Read by Magdalena |
39 - Chapter XXXIX | 19:07 | Read by Magdalena |
40 - Chapter XL | 23:43 | Read by Magdalena |
41 - Chapter XLI | 39:10 | Read by Linda Woods |
42 - Chapter XLII | 33:29 | Read by Linda Woods |
43 - Chapter XLIII | 35:30 | Read by Linda Woods |
44 - Chapter XLIV | 29:14 | Read by Martin Geeson |
45 - Chapter XLV | 21:30 | Read by Lars Rolander (1942-2016) |
46 - Chapter XLVI | 37:19 | Read by Lars Rolander (1942-2016) |
47 - Chapter XLVII | 27:28 | Read by Lars Rolander (1942-2016) |
48 - Chapter XLVIII | 26:28 | Read by Lars Rolander (1942-2016) |
49 - Chapter XLIX | 24:29 | Read by Lars Rolander (1942-2016) |
50 - Chapter L | 9:20 | Read by Neeru Iyer |
Reviews
Great book, disappointing readings
Randall Curb
"The Egoist" is one of the great comic novels in English. Unfortunately, most of the chapters here are read by people for whom English is clearly not their first language, and they read without any irony, comic timing, or sense of the true nature of the novel. Only one, Martin Gieson, is atune to Meredith's intent. Some of the others mispronounce hundreds of words and read without inflection, in a monotonous cadence. Sadly, I had to give up about halfway through.
Too bad
KAB
Would have been a good book but too many bad readers ruined it. The last one read like a typist!
A LibriVox Listener
The novel was tough to get through, with so much narrative exposition and so little action or even actual dialogue. Meredith was actually a valuable mentor and critic of Gissing's early work, but I think that Gissing is the superior novelist.
Egoist
WarrenJ
Great and sometimes very funny novel. Clara is an interesting character. Many different readers on this recording, so the standard is uneven, as some are very good and others don't catch the comic side of the story.