Over the Top: Free Audiobook and Listening Guide

Over the Top, credited to Arthur Empey, 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 Over the Top, by Arthur Empey. Read by Mark F. Smith. Arthur Guy Empey was an American who responded to the sinking of the Lusitania by enlisting with the British Army to fight in France. His experiences in the trenches, including his ultimate wounding and convalescence, became this book. When published in 1917, it was a major hit and helped the recruiting effort when America entered the Great War. If you've heard of the horror of trench warfare in WWI and want to see it from below dirt level, Empey offers it all here. Also included is Empey's popular "Tommy's Dictionary of the Trenches" which humorously demistifies the slang used by the British soldier. (Summary by Mark F. Smith)

Recording facts

• Recording title: Over the Top
• Author credits: Arthur Empey
• Language: English
• Original MP3 tracks: 16
• Listed recording duration: 7:04:16

Catalogue topics

• WWI
• war
• memoirs

Track guide

1. 01: Dedication, Foreword, and Glossary 1 — 47:13
2. 02: Glossary Part 2 — 41:35
3. 03: Ch. 1 - From Mufti to Khaki; Ch. 2 - Blighty to Reat Billets — 29:20
4. 04: Ch. 3 - I Go to Church; Ch. 4 - Into the Trench — 10:31
5. 05: Ch. 5 - Mud, Rats, and Shells; Ch. 6 - Back of the Line — 14:54
6. 06: Ch. 7 - Rations; Ch. 8 - The Little Wooden Cross — 16:37
7. 07: Ch. 9 - Suicide Annex; Ch. 10 - The Day's Work — 10:39
8. 08: Ch. 11 - Over the Top; Ch. 12 - Bombing — 22:01
9. 09: Ch. 13 - My First Official Bath; Ch. 14 - Picks and Shovels — 18:39
10. 10: Ch. 15 - Listening Post; Ch. 16 - Battery D238 — 34:42
11. 11: Ch. 17 - Out in Front; Ch. 18 - Staged Under Fire 19 - On His Own — 31:43
12. 12: Ch. 20 - Chats With Fritz; Ch. 21 - About Turn — 21:32
13. 13: Ch. 22 - Punishments & Machine-gun Stunts; Ch. 23 - Gas Attacks & Spies — 31:29
14. 14: Ch. 24 - The Firing Squad — 35:46
15. 15: Ch. 25 - Preparing for the Big Push; Ch. 26 - All Quiet ? On the Western Front — 33:21
16. 16: Ch. 27 - Blighty — 24:25

Listen to this recording

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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.