The Borough: Free Audiobook and Listening Guide

The Borough, credited to George Crabbe, 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 Borough by George Crabbe. Read in English by David Wales English village life and villagers in the east of England in the late 1700’s and early 1800s—is the subject of The Borough. George Crabbe was an English poet, surgeon, and clergyman. He is best known for his early use of the realistic narrative form and his descriptions of middle and working-class life and people. Lord Byron, an avowed admirer of Crabbe's poetry, described him as "nature's sternest painter, yet the best." Crabbe's poetry was predominantly in the form of heroic couplets, and has been described as unsentimental in its depiction of provincial life and society. Modern critic Frank Whitehead has said that "Crabbe, in his verse tales in particular, is an important–indeed, a major–poet whose work has been and still is seriously undervalued." A borough is an administrative division in various countries. In principle, the term borough designates a self-governing township although, in practice, official use of the term varies widely. Benjamin Britten took the story of Peter Grimes (Letter 22) for his opera of the same name, though Britten changed the import of the story. - Summary by Wikipedia and david wales

Recording facts

• Recording title: The Borough
• Author credits: George Crabbe
• Language: English
• Original MP3 tracks: 24
• Listed recording duration: 8:34:49

Catalogue topics

• england
• village life
• east anglia
• english village life
• eighteenth century (late)
• nineteenth century (early)

Track guide

1. 01 - Letter 1 General Description — 20:22
2. 02 - Letter 2 The Church — 17:48
3. 03 - Letter 3 The Vicar, The Curate, &c — 22:19
4. 04 - Letter 4 Introduction and Sects And Professions In Religion — 35:46
5. 05 - Letter 5 The Election — 14:04
6. 06 - Letter 6 Professions--Law — 22:52
7. 07 - Letter 7 Professions--Physic — 18:58
8. 08 - Letter 8 Trades — 15:39
9. 09 - Letter 9 Amusements — 19:21
10. 10 - Letter 10 Clubs And Social Meetings — 24:44
11. 11 - Letter 11 Inns — 20:56
12. 12 - Letter 12 Players — 25:05
13. 13 - Letter 13 The Almshouse And Trustees — 22:38
14. 14 - Letter 14 Inhabitants Of The Almshouse: Life Of Blaney — 14:07
15. 15 - Letter 15 Inhabitants Of The Almshouse: Clelia — 14:04
16. 16 - Letter 16 Inhabitants Of The Almshouse: Benbow — 14:21
17. 17 - Letter 17 The Hospital And Governors — 18:28
18. 18 - Letter 18 The Poor And Their Dwellings — 28:00
19. 19 - Letter 19 The Poor Of The Borough: The Parish Clerk — 19:32
20. 20 - Letter 20 The Poor Of The Borough: Ellen Orford — 22:07
21. 21 - Letter 21 The Poor Of The Borough: Abel Keene — 21:46
22. 22 - Letter 22 The Poor Of The Borough: Peter Grimes — 24:51
23. 23 - Letter 23 Prisons — 23:28
24. 24 - Letter 24 Schools — 33:33

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.