Voices of the Past

This collection features historical fiction that intricately weaves personal narratives with broader societal issues, exploring the human condition through the lens of different eras. Each book offers a unique perspective on the struggles, triumphs, and moral dilemmas faced by characters in their respective historical contexts.

Oliver Twist

by Charles Dickens Read by Mil Nicholson 4.9
"Please sir, I want some more," the famous line spoken by Oliver Twist at age nine, becomes the tipping point of a huge change in …

The Mill on the Floss

by George Eliot Read by Tom Denholm 4.8
The Mill on the Floss is George Eliot’s second novel, and was published in 1860, only a year after her first, Adam Bede. It centres on the l…

The Mayor of Casterbridge

by Thomas Hardy Read by Bruce Pirie 4.7
Irritated and drunken, an itinerant farm-worker sells his wife and child to a stranger. Thus begins The Mayor of Casterbridge, set in rural …

The Portrait of a Lady

by Henry James Read by Elizabeth Klett 4.5
The Portrait of a Lady is a novel by Henry James, first published as a serial in The Atlantic Monthly and Macmillan's Magazine in 1880–81 an…

Crime and Punishment

by Fyodor Dostoyevsky Read by Mark Nelson 4.6
Crime and Punishment is the second of Fyodor Dostoyevsky's full-length novels following his return from 5 years of exile in Siberia, and is …

The Doctor's Wife

by Mary Elizabeth Braddon Read by Kirsten Wever 4.1
This is one of the Victorian “Sensationist” Mary Elizabeth Braddon's many novels (best known among them: “Lady Audley’s Secret”). It is extr…

A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man

by James Joyce Read by Tadhg 4.8
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man is Joyce’s semi-autobiographical first novel. It traces the early life of Stephen Dedalus and his in…

Mary Barton

by Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell Read by Tony Foster 4.8
"Mary Barton: A Tale of Manchester Life" was Mrs Gaskell's first full-length novel. It was published anonymously in that tumultuou…

Don Quixote

by Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra Read by Expatriate 4.7
Don Quixote is a Spanish novel by Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra. Published in two volumes, in 1605 and 1615, Don Quixote is considered the mo…

The Golden Calf

by Mary Elizabeth Braddon Read by Tara Dow 4.6
A late 19th Century sensation novel following the young life of Ida Palliser as she searches for fortune and love within England's Gentry Cl…

The Glory of Clementina Wing

by William John Locke Read by Simon Evers 4.7
The book follows the adventures of two main characters - Clementina Wing, a talented artist in her mid 30's with no social graces and Ephrai…

My Ántonia

by Willa Sibert Cather and Willa Cather Read by LibriVox Volunteers 4.6
My Ántonia tells the stories of several immigrant families who move out to rural Nebraska to start new lives in America, with a parti…

The Man in the Iron Mask

by Alexandre Dumas Read by Mark F. Smith 4.6
In this, the last of the Three Musketeers novels, Dumas builds on the true story of a mysterious prisoner held incognito in the French penal…

The Scarlet Letter

by Nathaniel Hawthorne Read by Cori Samuel 4.6
This book tells the story of Hester Prynne, a young woman who conceives a child while her husband is missing at sea. The Puritan Elders of …

The Eyes Of The World

by Harold Bell Wright Read by Tom Weiss 4.7
The Eyes of the World was the Best Selling Book for 1914 according to Publisher's Weekly. The novel explores what Harold Bell Wright views a…

Sanctuary

by Edith Wharton Read by Elizabeth Klett 4.3
Sanctuary is a poignant exploration of love, betrayal, and the quest for personal freedom, set against the backdrop of early 20th-century so…