Exotics and Retrospectives: Free Audiobook and Listening Guide

Exotics and Retrospectives, credited to Lafcadio Hearn, 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 Exotics and Retrospectives by Lafcadio Hearn. Read in English by Librivox Volunteers. Lafcadio Hearn, born 1850 in Greece, went to Japan when he was 40 years old and became a Japanese citizen only six years later. His writings about Japan from the beginning of the Meiji era, when the country was just opening to the West, remain among the most important explanations of Japanese culture. This book contains in the first part, "Exotics", his observations of and personal insights into Japan. For example, Fuji no Yama tells about his climbing the highest mountain in Japan; and A Question in the Zen Texts, Literature of the Dead, and Of Moon Desire try to explain Buddhist teachings. In the second part, "Retrospectives", Hearn leaves both Japan and his vantage point as impartial observer behind and delves into personal experiences and musings that occurred to him in the numerous countries he visited. The main topic of these very personal pieces is beauty in all its forms. (Summary by Ava)

Recording facts

• Recording title: Exotics and Retrospectives
• Author credits: Lafcadio Hearn
• Language: English
• Original MP3 tracks: 18
• Listed recording duration: 5:32:41

Catalogue topics

• philosophy
• Japan
• essays

Track guide

1. 00 - Foreword — 1:39
2. 01 - EXOTICS: I Fuji-No-Yama — 48:14
3. 02 - II Insect Musicians — 46:59
4. 03 - III A Question in the Zen Texts — 10:53
5. 04 - IV The Literature of the Dead, Part 1 — 42:51
6. 05 - IV The Literature of the Dead, Part 2 — 28:33
7. 06 - V Frogs — 19:33
8. 07 - VI Of Moon-Desire — 12:48
9. 08 - RETROSPECTIVES: VII First Impressions — 14:08
10. 09 - VIII Beauty is Memory — 11:47
11. 10 - IX Sadness in Beauty — 10:25
12. 11 - X Parfum de Jeunesse — 5:21
13. 12 - XI Azure Psychology — 14:12
14. 13 - XII A Serenade — 8:53
15. 14 - XIII A Red Sunset — 13:42
16. 15 - XIV Frisson — 12:55
17. 16 - XV Vespertina Cognitio — 20:52
18. 17 - XVI The Eternal Haunter — 8:56

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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.