Classic Audiobook Collection

The Dancing Mania by Justus Hecker audiobook.
Genre: history
In The Dancing Mania, physician and medical historian Justus Hecker investigates one of the strangest collective events recorded in European history: sudden outbreaks in which crowds of ordinary people began to dance uncontrollably for hours or days, collapsing from exhaustion, injury, and terror. Drawing on chronicles, church records, and early medical accounts, Hecker reconstructs famous episodes such as the great Rhine Valley outbreak of 1374 and later waves that swept through towns and villages, puzzling authorities who could neither command the dancers to stop nor agree on what, exactly, was happening. As priests, civic leaders, and doctors debate whether the cause is divine punishment, demonic influence, poison, disease, or a contagious disturbance of the mind, Hecker follows the human reality behind the reports: fear spreading through tight communities, desperate attempts at treatment, and the thin line between ritual, illness, and rumor. Along the way, he connects related phenomena like St. Vitus' dance and tarantism, using them to ask a larger question that still resonates: how can belief, stress, and environment combine to produce symptoms that feel completely physical to those who suffer them?
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Chapters (Approximate)
(00:00:00) Chapter 01
(00:13:55) Chapter 02
(00:19:38) Chapter 03
(00:27:11) Chapter 04
(00:34:55) Chapter 05
(00:44:08) Chapter 06
(00:57:42) Chapter 07
(01:01:23) Chapter 08
(01:17:13) Chapter 09
(01:26:30) Chapter 10
(01:49:31) Chapter 11
(01:57:20) Chapter 12
(02:03:26) Chapter 13
(02:21:12) Chapter 14
(02:33:19) Chapter 15
(02:48:40) Chapter 16
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Hunters Out of Space by Joseph E. Kelleam audiobook.
Genre: scifi
When Dr. Jack Odin returns to Opal - the hidden world inside our own world - he expects danger, but not desolation. The kingdom he once fought for has been shattered: cities drowned, allies missing, and the fragile peace broken by betrayal. Grim Hagen, a brilliant and ruthless enemy, has turned traitor, seized Princess Maya - the woman Jack swore to protect - and escaped the caverns in a ship built for the stars. With Opal in chaos and hope running thin, Jack gathers what help he can, including the steadfast dwarf Gunnar, and gambles everything on pursuit. Their chase rockets beyond Earth into a mind-bending frontier of strange physics and stranger foes, where time and distance twist, burned-out worlds drift like warnings, and unseen powers stalk the space between suns. Part rescue mission, part manhunt, Hunters Out of Space delivers classic pulp science fiction: fast momentum, bold invention, and a relentless test of courage, loyalty, and what it means to keep a promise when the battlefield expands from an underground realm to the vast, hostile dark.
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Chapters (Approximate)
(00:00:00) Chapter 01
(00:06:41) Chapter 02
(00:23:52) Chapter 03
(00:37:02) Chapter 04
(00:49:54) Chapter 05
(01:10:22) Chapter 06
(01:25:31) Chapter 07
(01:41:47) Chapter 08
(01:56:53) Chapter 09
(02:07:41) Chapter 10
(02:25:43) Chapter 11
(02:42:06) Chapter 12
(02:54:12) Chapter 13
(03:10:27) Chapter 14
(03:28:05) Chapter 15
(03:40:28) Chapter 16
(03:59:56) Chapter 17
(04:09:17) Chapter 18
(04:18:41) Chapter 19
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Tales of Hearsay by Joseph Conrad audiobook.
Genre: drama
Tales of Hearsay is a compact, wide-ranging collection of four Joseph Conrad stories that circle a single fascination: how lives are shaped by what is reported, repeated, and half-believed. In 'The Warrior's Soul,' an aging Russian officer recounts a brutal episode from the Napoleonic wars, where a young cavalryman is forced to measure compassion against duty in the chaos of retreat and pursuit. 'Prince Roman' turns to the private code of an exiled Polish aristocrat, tracing how loyalty to a lost cause can harden into a lonely, disciplined form of heroism. In 'The Tale,' a soldier on leave entertains a woman with a wartime narrative in which a commander at sea must act on uncertain information, and the cost of decision lingers long after the moment passes. Finally, 'The Black Mate' returns to the working waterfront, where a merchant ship's new officer arrives with an air of mystery and a reputation that may not match the truth. Across battlefields, drawing rooms, and decks in rough weather, Conrad builds tense moral dramas from rumor, perception, and the fragile edge between knowledge and guesswork.
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Chapters (Approximate)
(00:00:00) Chapter 01
(00:47:47) Chapter 02
(01:37:24) Chapter 03
(02:17:20) Chapter 04
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Against The Grain by Joris-Karl Huysmans audiobook.
Genre: drama
In Against the Grain, Joris-Karl Huysmans follows Jean des Esseintes, the last, sickly heir of an old French aristocratic line, as he abandons Parisian society and retreats to a secluded house outside the city. Determined to live entirely on his own terms, Des Esseintes sets out to construct a private universe ruled by taste: rare books and Latin stylists, paintings and religious art, jeweled curios, exotic perfumes, and carefully engineered sensations meant to replace ordinary life. But the more meticulously he arranges his refuge, the more his mind turns inward, and the pleasures he pursues begin to blur into obsession, anxiety, and spiritual unease. Haunted by memories, repelled by the banality of the modern world, and driven by a hunger for experiences that feel absolutely pure, he tests the limits of artifice itself. Part novel, part interior diary of a decadent sensibility, Against the Grain becomes a tense struggle between intellect and body, desire and disgust, and the longing to escape reality versus the inescapable pressure of conscience, illness, and time.
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Chapters (Approximate)
(00:00:00) Chapter 01
(00:22:56) Chapter 02
(00:43:17) Chapter 03
(01:05:56) Chapter 04
(01:43:33) Chapter 05
(02:11:51) Chapter 06
(02:53:47) Chapter 07
(03:27:52) Chapter 08
(04:01:34) Chapter 09
(04:26:50) Chapter 10
(05:00:54) Chapter 11
(05:41:44) Chapter 12
(06:11:02) Chapter 13
(06:46:20) Chapter 14
(07:18:29) Chapter 15
(07:50:27) Chapter 16
(08:23:25) Chapter 17
(08:52:27) Chapter 18
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Samson Agonistes by John Milton audiobook.
Genre: tragedy
John Milton's Samson Agonistes reimagines the final days of the biblical strongman as an intense, inward tragedy of defeat, endurance, and faith. Once Israel's champion, Samson now sits blind and captive in Gaza, mocked by the Philistines and tormented by the memory of his own choices. As he wrestles with shame and the silence of God, visitors arrive who force him to confront the life that brought him to this ruin: his father Manoa, who pleads to ransom him; the Chorus of Danites, who mirror the community's grief and doubt; and Dalila, whose arrival opens old wounds and hard questions about love, betrayal, and responsibility. Meanwhile, Philistine leaders celebrate their power and prepare a public spectacle meant to humiliate their fallen enemy. Confined, powerless, and unsure of his calling, Samson faces the central conflict of the poem: whether a broken man can still possess moral agency, and what redemption might look like when strength, certainty, and sight are gone. With austere language and mounting tension, Milton explores suffering, conscience, national identity, and the paradox of strength born from weakness.
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Chapters (Approximate)
(00:00:00) Chapter 00
(00:10:40) Chapter 01
(00:26:03) Chapter 02
(00:37:35) Chapter 03
(00:52:12) Chapter 04
(01:10:50) Chapter 05
(01:18:30) Chapter 06
(01:33:40) Chapter 07
(01:46:04) Chapter 08
(01:57:06) Chapter 09
(02:11:01) Chapter 10
(02:24:25) Chapter 11
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