God's fool: Free Audiobook and Listening Guide

God's fool, credited to Maarten Maartens, 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 God's fool by Maarten Maartens. Read in English by Anna Simon At the age of nine, Elias Lossell becomes deaf and blind from an accident. Communication with him becomes difficult, and mentally, he never really grows up. Years later, circumstances make him the richest man in town as the heir of the wealthy firm of tea merchants, while his two younger twin half-brothers Hendrik and Hubert are left to do the actual work of management on his behalf. This causes a lot of resentment, especially with half-brother Hendrik, who loves money, and is also hampered by a headstrong, spendthrift wife. Hendrik tries to gain control of the firm and buy out Elias by any means, but things get out of hand. The novel is full of satirical comments and asides directed at the reader. It is set in the fictitious Dutch town of Koopstad (“Buying City”), where money, commercial success and social status are very important. It gives a satirical view of contemporary life at the end of the 19th century. The novel was a bestseller at the time of its appearance in 1892, though it is now all but forgotten. Maarten Maartens (1858-1915) was a Dutch writer who wrote all his principal literary work in English. (Summary by Anna Simon)

Recording facts

• Recording title: God's fool
• Author credits: Maarten Maartens
• Language: English
• Original MP3 tracks: 52
• Listed recording duration: 14:46:53

Opening tracks: first 24 of 52

1. 01 - Sweeps the reader into a cloud of mist — 13:13
2. 02 - Shows that the story will be a highly respectable one — 14:42
3. 03 - And also altogether comfortable — 10:46
4. 04 - The new life begins — 18:47
5. 05 - Light and shade — 19:13
6. 06 - 'Thunder'-storms — 18:26
7. 07 - Stepmothers — 17:07
8. 08 - Cousin Cocoa — 16:31
9. 09 - Elias hears - the thruth — 8:24
10. 10 - Dr. Pillenaar's revenge — 18:33
11. 11 - 'Like a stream under a willow-tree' — 21:56
12. 12 - Volderdoes Zonen — 25:56
13. 13 - The head of the firm — 22:31
14. 14 - No thoroughfare, and the way out — 13:33
15. 15 - Hendrik's temptation — 33:59
16. 16 - Compos mentis — 16:41
17. 17 - A 'struggle-for-lifer' — 16:36
18. 18 - The marriage-lottery — 13:38
19. 19 - Blank — 19:18
20. 20 - Cousins and cozenage — 13:54
21. 21 - The bride asks for flowers on her path — 18:37
22. 22 - Treats of religion — 17:48
23. 23 - Music and discord — 15:43
24. 24 - A prince among paupers — 21:42

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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.