A Tale of a Tub: Free Audiobook and Listening Guide

A Tale of a Tub, credited to Jonathan Swift, is available as a LibriVox volunteer audiobook. This guide identifies the recording, its source summary and its audio tracks.

About the work

The LibriVox catalogue summary, preserved with the recording, reads:

LibriVox recording of A Tale of a Tub by Jonathan Swift. Read in English by Edmund Bloxam A Tale of a Tub was the first major work written by Jonathan Swift, composed between 1694 and 1697, that was eventually published in 1704. It is arguably his most difficult satire, and perhaps his most masterly. The Tale is a prose parody which is divided into sections of "digression" and a "tale" of three brothers, each representing one of the main branches of western Christianity. A Tale was long regarded as a satire on religion itself, and has famously been attacked for that, starting with William Wotton. The "tale" presents a consistent satire of religious excess, while the digressions are a series of parodies of contemporary writing in literature, politics, theology, Biblical exegesis, and medicine. The overarching parody is of enthusiasm, pride, and credulity. At the time it was written, politics and religion were still linked very closely in England, and the religious and political aspects of the satire can often hardly be separated. "The work made Swift notorious, and was widely misunderstood, especially by Queen Anne herself who mistook its purpose for profanity." "It effectively disbarred its author from proper preferment within the church," but is considered one of Swift's best allegories, even by himself. It was enormously popular, but Swift believed it damaged his prospect of advancement in the Church of England. (Summary by Wikipedia)

Recording facts

• Recording title: A Tale of a Tub
• Author credits: Jonathan Swift
• Language: English
• Original MP3 tracks: 13
• Listed recording duration: 4:22:56

Catalogue topics

• religion
• parody
• swift

Track guide

1. 00 - Introduction and Preface — 40:51
2. 01 - Section 1 — 23:38
3. 02 - Section 2 — 22:59
4. 03 - Section 3 — 19:25
5. 04 - Section 4 — 22:33
6. 05 - Section 5 — 12:57
7. 06 - Section 6 — 14:48
8. 07 - Section 7 — 10:54
9. Section 8 — 14:41
10. 09 - Section 9 — 27:28
11. 10 - Section 10 — 9:49
12. 11 - Section 11 — 24:12
13. 12 - Section 12 — 22:29

Listen to this recording

Open the complete recording and player on Internet Archive. The player includes the full track list and available download formats.

Source and rights

This is a record from LibriVox's official Internet Archive collection, with a public-domain licence recorded in its metadata. LibriVox's policy includes its catalogue summaries as well as its recordings. Its public-domain assessment follows United States law; copyright status can differ elsewhere. The summary and track facts are reproduced and reformatted from that record. Dates attached to the archive upload are not treated as original book publication dates.