Growth of a Soul: Free Audiobook and Listening Guide

Growth of a Soul, credited to August Strindberg, 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 Growth of a Soul by August Strindberg. (Translated by Claud Field.) Johan August Strindberg was a Swedish playwright who has had many of his works read into Librivox by volunteers. From his earliest work, Strindberg developed forms of dramatic action, language, and visual composition so innovative that many were to become technically possible to stage only with the advent of film. He is considered the "father" of modern Swedish literature. The Growth of a Soul is Strindberg's own literary autobiography and recreation of the spirit of the times at Upsala University and his attempts to become a literary artist. The work ends with the publication of his novel The Red Room (1879). It is the autobiography of a thinking soul. He discusses the works of such souls as Friedrich Schiller (1788-1805), Christopher Jacob Boström (1797-1866), Soren Kierkegaard (1813-1855) and Henry Thomas Buckle (1821-1862).(Wikipedia and Soupy) The history of the development of a soul can be sometimes written by giving a simple bibliography; for a man who lives in a narrow circle and never meets great men personally, seeks to make their acquaintance through books. The fact that the same books do not make the same impression, nor have the same effect upon all, shows their relative powerlessness to convert anybody. For example, we call the criticism with which we agree good; the criticism which contradicts our views is bad. Thus we seem to be educated with preconceived views, and the book which strengthens, expresses and develops these makes an impression on us. The danger of a one-sided education through books is that most books, especially those composed at the end of an era, and at the university, are antiquated. The youth who has received old ideals from his parents and teachers is accordingly necessarily out of date before his education is completed. When he enters manhood, he is generally obliged to fling away his whole stock of old ideas, and be born again, as it were. Time has gone by him, while he was reading the old books, and he finds himself a stranger among his contemporaries. August Strindberg

Recording facts

• Recording title: Growth of a Soul
• Author credits: August Strindberg
• Language: English
• Original MP3 tracks: 17
• Listed recording duration: 6:51:59

Catalogue topics

• memoir
• sweden
• august strindberg

Track guide

1. 01 - In the Forecourt — 36:50
2. 02 - Below and Above Part 1 — 29:52
3. 03 - Below and Above Part 2 — 33:57
4. 04 - The Doctor — 27:14
5. 05 - In Front Of The Curtain — 20:51
6. 06 - John Becomes an Aristocrat — 17:00
7. 07 - Behind the Curtain — 16:37
8. 08 - John Becomes an Author — 11:43
9. 09 - The Runa Club — 48:07
10. 10 - Books and the Stage — 14:22
11. 11 - Torn to Pieces — 29:12
12. 12 - Idealism and Realism — 6:52
13. 13 - A King's Protege — 20:41
14. 14 - The Winding Up — 13:47
15. 15 - Among the Malcontents — 29:17
16. 16 - The Red Room Part 1 — 26:50
17. 17 - The Red Room Part 2 — 28:44

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.