The Diamond Necklace: Free Audiobook and Listening Guide

The Diamond Necklace, credited to Thomas Carlyle, 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 Diamond Necklace by Thomas Carlyle. Read in English by esharp. In the years preceding the French Revolution, the reputation of Queen Marie Antoinette was severely harmed by the publication of details relating to a certain "scandal," involving a Roman Cardinal, a Royal jeweler, and an unscrupulous young woman looking for wealth and prestige. Carlyle, in his typical, wonderfully colorful prose, relates the tale of "The Diamond Necklace" for posterity in this small volume. In his own words: "My attempt was to make reality ideal; there is considerable significance in that notion of mine, and I have not yet seen the limit of it, nor shall till I have tried to go as far as it will carry me. The story of the Diamond Necklace is all told in that paper with the strictest fidelity, yet in a kind of musical way." - Summary by E. Sharp

Recording facts

• Recording title: The Diamond Necklace
• Author credits: Thomas Carlyle
• Language: English
• Original MP3 tracks: 16
• Listed recording duration: 3:16:13

Catalogue topics

• french revolution
• Marie Antoinette
• French history
• Thomas Carlyle

Track guide

1. 01 - Ch. 1 - Age of Romance — 18:13
2. 02 - Ch. 2 - The Necklace is Made — 12:04
3. 03 - Ch. 3 - The Necklace Cannot Be Sold — 4:50
4. 04 - Ch. 4 - Affinities: The Two Fixed-Ideas — 29:33
5. 05 - Ch. 5 - The Artist — 16:13
6. 06 - Ch. 6 - Will the Two Fixed-Ideas Unite? — 10:59
7. 07 - Ch. 7 - Marie Antoinette — 8:36
8. 08 - Ch. 8 - The Two Fixed-Ideas Will Unite — 11:09
9. 09 - Ch. 9 - Park of Versailles — 9:59
10. 10 - Ch. 10 - Behind the Scenes — 7:41
11. 11 - Ch. 11 - The Necklace is Sold — 9:51
12. 12 - Ch. 12 - The Necklace Vanishes — 4:35
13. 13 - Ch. 13 - Scene Third: By Dame de Lamotte — 6:20
14. 14 - Ch. 14 - The Necklace Cannot Be Paid — 13:44
15. 15 - Ch. 15 - Scene Fourth: By Destiny — 3:48
16. 16 - Ch. 16 - Missa Est — 28:38

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.