Pearl: Free Audiobook and Listening Guide

Pearl, credited to The Gawain Poet, 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 Pearl, by The Gawain Poet. Read by Jordan. Written in the 14th century by the Gawain poet, 'Pearl' is an elegiac poem reflecting on the death of a young daughter, pictured as a pearl lost in a garden. It is considered a masterpiece of Middle English verse, incorporating both the older tradition of alliterative poetry as well as rhyme, centered around the development of an intricately structured image. Sophie Jewett's translation from the Northern dialect of the original renders much of the poem's liveliness and beauty accessible to modern readers, whilst encouraging them to pursue their reading further, to read the original itself. This recording is dedicated to the memory of Pearl Jean Shearman, 1914-2012. (Summary by Jordan)

Recording facts

• Recording title: Pearl
• Author credits: The Gawain Poet
• Language: English
• Original MP3 tracks: 4
• Listed recording duration: 1:09:20

Catalogue topics

• pearl
• gawain
• sir gawain and the green knight
• cleanness
• patience
• British museum
• medieval
• chaucer

Track guide

1. 00 - Preface — 8:06
2. 01 - Sections 1-7 — 21:04
3. 02 - Sections 8-14 — 21:07
4. 03 - Sections 15-20 — 19:06

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.