Essays & Short Works
Moral letters to Lucilius (Epistulae morales ad Lucilium)
Read by John Van Stan
Lucius Annaeus Seneca
Seneca the Younger’s letters to his friend, Lucilius Junior, appear to have been written with a broad audience in mind. These letters introd…
Mark Twain's Journal Writings, Volume 1
Read by John Greenman
Mark Twain
Volume 1 contains these 12 essays: 1.) "Americans on a Visit to the Emperor of Russia." 2.) "The Austrian Edison keeping scho…
Eugenics and Other Evils
Read by Gilbert Keith Chesterton
G. K. Chesterton
I think G.K. Chesterton explains his book rather well in his introduction, but it might help to start with a sense of the time in question. …
Tremendous Trifles
Read by Ray Clare
G. K. Chesterton
“None of us think enough of these things on which the eye rests. But don't let us let the eye rest. Why should the eye be so lazy? Let us ex…
Little Wars
Read by Mark F. Smith
H. G. Wells
A Game for Boys from twelve years of age to one hundred and fifty and for that more intelligent sort of girl who likes boys' games and books…
The Negro Problem
Read by James K. White
Various
This is a collection of essays, edited by Booker T. Washington, representative of what historians have characterized as "racial uplift …
The Philippics
Read by ontheroad
Marcus Tullius Cicero
A philippic is a fiery, damning speech delivered to condemn a particular political actor. The term originates with Demosthenes, who delivere…
Nature (version 2)
Read by Jesse Zuba
Ralph Waldo Emerson
First published anonymously in 1836, Nature marks the beginning both of Emerson’s literary career and the Transcendentalist movement. Asking…
On Liberty
Read by John Stuart Mill
John Stuart Mill
"On Liberty," a seminal work by philosopher John Stuart Mill. Mill felt there were no definite standards for defining what societ…
Emily Dickinson on Death
Read by Libby Gohn
Emily Dickinson
Emily Dickinson is one of the most intriguing of American poets. Since she grew increasingly reclusive, very few of her poems were published…
The Crimes of England
Read by Ray Clare
G. K. Chesterton
"Second, when telling such lies as may seem necessary to your international standing, do not tell the lies to the people who know the t…
Utopia of Usurers
Read by Ray Clare
G. K. Chesterton
“Now I have said again and again (and I shall continue to say again and again on all the most inappropriate occasions) that we must hit Capi…
The Good Housekeeping Marriage Book
Read by LibriVox Volunteers
William F. Bigelow
A collection of articles from Good Housekeeping magazine, The Good Housekeeping Marriage Book focuses on the subject of marriage. With instr…
From October to Brest-Litovsk
Read by Rebecca Dittman
Leon Trotsky
This account by Trotsky is of the events in Russia from the October Revolution of 1917 in Petrograd, to his signing of the Brest-Litovsk tre…
Mark Twain’s Journal Writings, Volume 2
Read by John Greenman
Mark Twain
This second collection of essays by Mark Twain is a good example of the diversity of subject matter about which he wrote. As with the essays…
Memoirs of Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds, Volume 1
Read by LibriVox Volunteers
Charles Mackay
The book chronicles and vilifies its targets in three parts: "National Delusions", "Peculiar Follies", and "Philoso…
Literary Taste: How to Form It
Read by Timothy Ferguson
Arnold Bennett
Arnold Bennett describes a method for enjoying literature, and suggests the contents of a comprehensive library. Chapters 1-10 and 14 descri…
The Defendant
Read by Ray Clare
G. K. Chesterton
A collection of reprinted articles on a wide-range of subjects, all in the unique style of G. K. Chesterton. Using wit, paradox, and good hu…
Areopagitica
Read by Moira Fogarty
John Milton
A prose tract or polemic by John Milton, published November 23, 1644, at the height of the English Civil War... Milton, though a supporter o…
The Letters of Mark Twain, Complete
Read by James K. White
Mark Twain
These letters were arranged in two volumes by Albert Bigelow Paine, Samuel L. Clemens's literary executor, as a supplement to Mark Twain, A …