Godfrey Morgan: a Californian Mystery: Free Audiobook and Listening Guide

Godfrey Morgan: a Californian Mystery, credited to Jules Verne, 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 Godfrey Morgan: a Californian Mystery by Jules Verne. Read in English by Arnold This Verne adventure is indeed a mystery and also a satire on the Crusoe genre. Our characters are larger than life, as well they should be - Verne expects Americans to perform epics. Young Godfrey goes to sea for adventure before settling down with his bride to be. His incredibly wealthy uncle sets him aboard one of his steamers which founders some days out, leaving Godfrey and his companion, a dance and comportment instructor, near the shore of a uninhabited island. They set up residence, benefiting from livestock, some supplies and tools which apparently also wash ashore. Later, a canoe full of savages land in order to cook up a prisoner. Godfrey helps the latter escape, and the grateful native becomes a "Friday". While the island initially seems free from any predators, it is not long before Friday saves Godfrey from a bear, a tiger and a poisonous snake. But when swarms of lions, tigers, hyenas and crocodiles attack it is more than they can handle. Where do all the beasts come from? What is the cause of the occasional plume of smoke Godfrey notes on the island? Those are some of the mysteries about which the reader will be enlightened. (A. Banner )

Recording facts

• Recording title: Godfrey Morgan: a Californian Mystery
• Author credits: Jules Verne
• Language: English
• Original MP3 tracks: 22
• Listed recording duration: 6:05:15

Track guide

1. 01 - CHAPTER I. In which the reader has the opportunity of buying an Island in the Pacific Ocean — 14:06
2. 02 - CHAPTER II. How William W. Kolderup, of San Francisco, was at loggerheads with J. R. Taskinar, of Stockton — 18:26
3. 03 - CHAPTER III. The conversation of Phina Hollaney and Godfrey Morgan, with a piano accompaniment — 15:09
4. 04 - CHAPTER IV. In which T. Artelett, otherwise Tartlet, is duly introduced to the reader — 11:30
5. 05 - CHAPTER V. In which they prepare to go, and at the end of which they go for good — 13:56
6. 06 - CHAPTER VI. In which the reader makes the acquaintance of a new personage — 11:58
7. 07 - CHAPTER VII. In which it will be seen that William W. Kolderup was probably right in insuring his ship — 18:30
8. 08 - CHAPTER VIII. Which leads Godfrey to bitter reflections on the mania for travelling — 18:21
9. 09 - CHAPTER IX. In which it is shown that Crusoes do not have everything as they wish — 16:37
10. 10 - CHAPTER X. In which Godfrey does what any other shipwrecked man would have done under the circumstances — 16:48
11. 11 - CHAPTER XI. In which the question of lodging is solved as well as it could be — 15:31
12. 12 - CHAPTER XII. Which ends with a thunder-bolt — 18:18
13. 13 - CHAPTER XIII. In which Godfrey again sees a slight smoke over another part of the Island — 16:26
14. 14 - CHAPTER XIV. Wherein Godfrey finds some wreckage, to which he and his companion give a hearty welcome — 16:05
15. 15 - CHAPTER XV. In which there happens what happens at least once in the life of every Crusoe, real or imaginary — 16:33
16. 16 - CHAPTER XVI. In which something happens which cannot fail to surprise the reader — 13:57
17. 17 - CHAPTER XVII. In which Professor Tartlet's gun really does marvels — 17:13
18. 18 - CHAPTER XVIII. Which treats of the moral and physical education of a simple native of the Pacific — 17:27
19. 19 - CHAPTER XIX. In which the situation already gravely compromised becomes more and more complicated — 17:21
20. 20 - CHAPTER XX. In which Tartlet reiterates in every key that he would rather be off — 19:19
21. 21 - CHAPTER XXI. Which ends with quite a surprising reflection by the negro Carefinotu — 23:22
22. 22 - CHAPTER XXII. Which concludes by explaining what up to now had appeared inexplicable — 18:22

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.