Essays of Robert Louis Stevenson: Free Audiobook and Listening Guide

Essays of Robert Louis Stevenson, credited to Robert Louis Stevenson, 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 Essays of Robert Louis Stevenson, by Robert Louis Stevenson. Read by Martin Geeson “Extreme busyness…is a symptom of deficient vitality; and a faculty for idleness implies a catholic appetite and a strong sense of personal identity.” What comforting words for the idle among us! Like many of the best essayists, Stevenson is very much the genial fireside companion: opinionated, but never malicious; a marvellous practitioner of the inclusive monologue. In this collection of nine pieces he discusses the art of appreciating unattractive scenery, traces the complex social life of dogs, and meditates in several essays upon the experience of reading literature and writing it. Perhaps his most personal passages concern death and mortality. Here we meet him at his most undogmatically optimistic, as he affirms a wholesome faith in “the liveableness of Life”. (Summary by Martin Geeson)

Recording facts

• Recording title: Essays of Robert Louis Stevenson
• Author credits: Robert Louis Stevenson
• Language: English
• Original MP3 tracks: 10
• Listed recording duration: 5:32:44

Catalogue topics

• essays
• stevenson

Track guide

1. 01 - On the Enjoyment of Unpleasant Places — 27:02
2. 02 - An Apology for Idlers — 34:04
3. 03 - Aes Triplex — 31:25
4. 04 - Talk and Talkers, part one — 41:30
5. 05 - Talk and Talkers, part two — 35:05
6. 06 - A Gossip on Romance — 45:43
7. 07 - The Character of Dogs — 36:20
8. 08 - A College Magazine — 32:00
9. 09 - Books Which Have Influenced Me — 24:23
10. 10 - Pulvis et Umbra — 25:15

Listen to this recording

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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.