The Bab Ballads: Free Audiobook and Listening Guide

The Bab Ballads, credited to W. S. Gilbert, 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 The Bab Ballads by W. S. Gilbert. Read by Graham Redman. The Bab Ballads are a collection of light verse by W. S. Gilbert, illustrated with his own comic drawings. Gilbert wrote the Ballads before he became famous for his comic opera librettos with Arthur Sullivan. In writing the Bab Ballads, Gilbert developed his unique "topsy-turvy" style, where the humour was derived by setting up a ridiculous premise and working out its logical consequences, however absurd. The Ballads also reveal Gilbert's cynical and satirical approach to humour. They became famous on their own, as well as being a source for plot elements, characters and songs that Gilbert would recycle in the Gilbert and Sullivan operas. The Bab Ballads take their name from Gilbert's childhood nickname, and he later began to sign his illustrations "Bab". (summary from wikipedia) link to ballads with Gilbert's original illustrations For more free audiobooks, or to become a volunteer reader, please visit librivox.org.

Recording facts

• Recording title: The Bab Ballads
• Author credits: W. S. Gilbert
• Language: English
• Original MP3 tracks: 44
• Listed recording duration: 3:01:24

Catalogue topics

• poetry
• Sir William S. Gilbert
• verse
• humor

Opening tracks: first 24 of 44

1. 01 - Captain Reece — 4:56
2. 02 - The Rival Curates — 4:08
3. 03 - Only A Dancing Girl — 2:29
4. 04 - General John — 2:55
5. 05 - To A Little Maid - By A Policeman — 1:33
6. 06 - John and Freddy — 3:37
7. 07 - Sir Guy The Crusader — 3:01
8. 08 - Haunted — 3:52
9. 09 - The Bishop And The 'Busman — 3:56
10. 10 - The Troubadour — 4:15
11. 11 - Ferdinando And Elvira; Or, The Gentle Pieman — 5:24
12. 12 - Lorenzo De Lardy — 4:21
13. 13 - Disillusioned - By An Ex-Enthusiast — 3:02
14. 14 - Babette's Love — 4:29
15. 15 - To My Bride - (Whoever She May Be) — 3:09
16. 16 - The Folly Of Brown - By A General Agent — 4:25
17. 17 - Sir Macklin — 4:04
18. 18 - The Yarn Of The Nancy Bell — 4:54
19. 19 - The Bishop Of Rum-Ti-Foo — 4:40
20. 20 - The Precocious Baby. A Very True Tale — 4:09
21. 21 - To Phoebe — 1:14
22. 22 - Baines Carew, Gentleman — 4:46
23. 23 - Thomas Winterbottom Hance — 4:49
24. 24 - The Reverend Micah Sowls — 4:19

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.