Ashenden (or The British Agent): Free Audiobook and Listening Guide

Ashenden (or The British Agent), credited to W. Somerset Maugham, 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 Ashenden (or The British Agent) by W. Somerset Maugham. Read in English by Atul Sharma. Best know for his novels "Of Human Bondage" and "The Moon and Six Pence", Maugham also wrote short stories and plays. Having spent his first 10 years in Paris and later studied in Heidelberg, he was fluent in several European languages, and in 1897 graduated in medicine from St Thomas's Hospital Medical School in London. Although he never practiced medicine, he credited his experience for exposure to "life in the raw", which he later incorporated in his writings. Like Ian Fleming, he was a British spy during World War I, which informs this collection of 16 loosely connected short stories recounting the exploits of the spy Ashenden and his spymaster R, a Colonel with British intelligence. It is considered one of the first modern spy thrillers and influenced subsequent writers, like John le Carré, Ian Fleming, and Eric Ambler. Remarkable for its realism, it is even said to have been required reading for new intelligence agents! - Summary by ASharma

Recording facts

• Recording title: Ashenden (or The British Agent)
• Author credits: W. Somerset Maugham
• Language: English
• Original MP3 tracks: 17
• Listed recording duration: 8:11:37

Catalogue topics

• espionage
• spy
• secret service
• british intelligence

Track guide

1. 00 - Preface — 0:47
2. 01 - R. — 5:37
3. 02 - A Domiciliary Visit — 28:57
4. 03 - Miss King — 40:19
5. 04 - The Hairless Mexican — 33:47
6. 05 - The Dark Woman — 20:43
7. 06 - The Greek — 27:26
8. 07 - A Trip To Paris — 35:12
9. 08 - Giulia Lazzari — 43:09
10. 09 - Gustav — 12:54
11. 10 - The Traitor — 1:09:04
12. 11 - Behind the Scenes — 13:18
13. 12 - His Excellency — 1:02:55
14. 13 - The Flip of a Coin — 9:53
15. 14 - A Chance Acquaintance — 29:55
16. 15 - Love and Russian Literature — 24:48
17. 16 - Mr. Harrington's Washing — 32:53

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.