Esther: Free Audiobook and Listening Guide

Esther, credited to Jean Racine, 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 Esther by Jean Racine. (Translated by Robert Bruce Boswell.) Read in English by LibriVox Volunteers. Esther — the first of Racine's two sacred dramas — is a tragedy in the Aristotelian acceptation of the term, as being concerned with a great and noble action, and calculated to excite generous pity and fear, though the denouement is a happy one for the heroine and her compatriots. It was composed by Racine when he was in his fiftieth year, and acted at the Maison de Saint Cyr in 1689. The incidents are in strict accordance with the Biblical narrative. In " Esther " Racine for the first time introduces a Chorus, as in the ancient Greek drama, whose songs set to music by Moreau gratefully relieved the monotony of the somewhat stilted dialogue. The unity of place is, moreover, observed less rigidly than usual, a change of scene (though still within the limits of the royal palace) accompanying the rise of the curtain for each of the three Acts. (Summary by the translator) Cast List Prologue(Piety): Alan Mapstone Esther(Queen of Persia): ShrimpPhish Ahasuerus(King of Persia): Algy Pug Mordecai: Alan Mapstone Haman: Papa Phish Zeresh: Inkell Hydaspes: Greg Giordano Asaph: Beeswaxcandle Elizabeth: Sonali Ekka A Jewish Maiden: Agnes Robert Behr Another Maiden: Inkell Another Maiden: Jessie Percival Youngest Maiden: Rapunzelina Stage Directions: Larry Wilson

Recording facts

• Recording title: Esther
• Author credits: Jean Racine
• Language: English
• Original MP3 tracks: 4
• Listed recording duration: 1:30:24

Catalogue topics

• drama
• sacred drama

Track guide

1. 00 - Introduction, Dramatis Personae and Prologue — 10:44
2. 01 - Act 1 — 22:42
3. 02 - Act 2 — 28:09
4. 03 - Act 3 — 28:49

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.