Isaac Bickerstaff, Physician and Astrologer: Free Audiobook and Listening Guide

Isaac Bickerstaff, Physician and Astrologer, credited to Richard Steele, 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 Isaac Bickerstaff, Physician and Astrologer by Richard Steele. Read in English by Elijah Isaac Bickerstaff Esq. was a pseudonym used by Jonathan Swift as part of a hoax to predict the death of then famous Almanac-maker and astrologer John Partridge. In 1709, Richard Steele bolstered the release of his new satirical paper The Tatler by naming the fictitious Isaac Bickerstaff Esq. as editor. These are fictional essays/memoirs of Bickerstaff, written by Steele. Isaac writes from his time, and his personal things on what was going on. Bickerstaff, or rather Richard Steele, talks mostly about Mr. Bickerstaff's friends, his family, and the many different entertainments that Bickerstaff goes through. Bickerstaff also gets many opportunities to talk to people who are in trouble with their spouse or maybe looking for a partner, and so Bickerstaff plays the role of a father, giving advice to many characters throughout the book. (Summary by TriciaG & Elijah.)

Recording facts

• Recording title: Isaac Bickerstaff, Physician and Astrologer
• Author credits: Richard Steele
• Language: English
• Original MP3 tracks: 28
• Listed recording duration: 5:33:37

Catalogue topics

• humor
• fiction
• memoirs
• essays

Opening tracks: first 24 of 28

1. 00 - Introduction — 6:40
2. 01 - The Staffian Race — 9:05
3. 02 - Pacolet — 12:28
4. 03 - Pacolet's story — 13:01
5. 04 - Recollections — 12:14
6. 05 - Marriage of Sister Jenny — 13:09
7. 06 - Professional: A Case of Spleen — 6:28
8. 07 - The Dream of Fame — 19:35
9. 08 - Love and Sorrow — 13:06
10. 09 - Love and Reason — 9:36
11. 10 - A Business Meeting — 9:20
12. 11 - Duello — 4:48
13. 12 - Happy Marriage — 13:49
14. 13 - Dead Folk — 12:46
15. 14 - The Wife Dead — 10:38
16. 15 - The Club at ''The Trumpet'' — 10:42
17. 16 - A Very Pretty Poet — 8:57
18. 17 - Fatherly Care — 9:59
19. 18 - Bickerstaff Censor: Cases In Court — 41:48
20. 19 - Of Men Who Are Not Their Own Masters — 11:35
21. 20 - False Doctoring — 9:01
22. 21 - Drinking — 7:01
23. 22 - Night and Day — 10:58
24. 23 - Two Old Ladies — 11:39

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.