Mrs. Caudle's Curtain Lectures: Free Audiobook and Listening Guide

Mrs. Caudle's Curtain Lectures, credited to Jerrold, Douglas William, 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:

Douglas William Jerrold (1803-1857) was the son of an actor-manager. After some time in the Navy and as an apprentice printer he became a playwright and later a journalist. He was a contemporary and friend of Charles Dickens. As a journalist he worked for Punch magazine in which Mrs Caudle's Curtain Lectures were serialised, to be published in book form in 1846. Job Caudle, the 'hero' of the book is a Victorian shopkeeper whose wife finds she can only talk to him without interruption in bed. Caudle, who outlives his wife, finds he can no longer sleep easily because of his memory of these 'lectures' and resolves to exorcise his wife's memory by recording the lectures, it seems with a view to future publication for the edification of others. Jerrold’s humour shines through this insight into Victorian middle class culture. Summary by Martin Clifton

Recording facts

• Recording title: Mrs. Caudle's Curtain Lectures
• Author credits: Jerrold, Douglas William
• Language: English
• Original MP3 tracks: 38
• Listed recording duration: 4:21:46

Catalogue topics

• fiction
• humor

Opening tracks: first 24 of 38

1. Introduction — 8:46
2. Lecture 1: Mr. Caudle has lent five pounds to a friend — 6:23
3. Lecture 2: Mr. Caudle has been at a tavern with a friend, and is — 7:12
4. Lecture 3: Mr. Caudle joins a club - — 7:40
5. Lecture 4: Mr. Caudle has been called from his bed to bail Mr. Prettyman from the watch-house — 2:56
6. Lecture 5: Mr. Caudle has remained downstairs till past one, with a friend — 4:19
7. Lecture 6: Mr. Caudle has lent an acquaintance the family umbrella — 6:24
8. Lecture 7: Mr. Caudle has ventured a remonstrance on his day's dinner: cold mutton and no pudding. - Mrs Caudle defends the cold shoulder. — 6:29
9. Lecture 8: Caudle has been made a mason - Mrs Caudle indignant and curious — 6:08
10. Lecture 9: Mr Caudle has been to Greenwich fair — 6:02
11. Lecture 10: On Mr. Caudle's shirt buttons — 6:29
12. Lecture 11: Mrs Caudle suggests the her dear mother should — 7:40
13. Lecture 12: Mr. Caudle having come home a little late, declares that henceforth — 7:05
14. Lecture 13: Mrs Caudle has been to see her dear mother - Caudle on the — 5:38
15. Lecture 14: Mrs Caudle thinks it — 7:27
16. Lecture 15: Mr. Caudle again stayed out late. Mrs Caudle, at first injured and violent, melts. — 7:19
17. Lecture 16: Baby is to be christened; Mrs Caudle canvasses the merits of probable godfathers — 7:41
18. Lecture 17: Caudle in the course of the day has ventured to question the economy of — 7:12
19. Lecture 18: Caudle, whilst walking with his wife, has been bowed to by a younger and even prettier woman than Mrs Caudle — 6:57
20. Lecture 19: Mrs Caudle thinks — 7:23
21. Lecture 20: — 7:27
22. Lecture 21: Mr. Caudle has not acted — 7:47
23. Lecture 22: Caudle comes home in the evening, as Mrs Caudle has — 7:44
24. Lecture 23: Mrs Caudle — 7:41

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.