The History of John Winchomb, Usually Called Jack of Newbury: Free Audiobook and Listening Guide

The History of John Winchomb, Usually Called Jack of Newbury, credited to Thomas Deloney, 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 History of John Winchomb, Usually Called Jack of Newbury by Thomas Deloney. Read in English by Thomas A. Copeland. This early novel, a collection of biographical tales about a nonfictional individual, a clothier, provides a rare glimpse of daily life in an industry during the early years of King Henry VIII's reign. The author's ingenuous style, occasionally addressing the reader directly in the second person, creates the atmosphere of an informal exchange of tales around a cracker barrel. Many of the tales have explicit morals, for Jack is a businessman with a heart of gold, the very opposite of the unreformed Ebenezer Scrooge. He proves that generosity rather than parsimony is the key to success. An imaginative innovator, he unites the clothiers of England during a national emergency to appeal to the king for redress—and for his pains faces bureaucratic opposition similar to that which, centuries later, was to afflict union leaders. However, as true history most of the book must be taken with a grain or salt, as the amusing preface points out. - Summary by Thomas A. Copeland

Recording facts

• Recording title: The History of John Winchomb, Usually Called Jack of Newbury
• Author credits: Thomas Deloney
• Language: English
• Original MP3 tracks: 5
• Listed recording duration: 3:13:34

Catalogue topics

• humor
• fictional autobiography
• early novel

Track guide

1. 00 - Preface — 6:22
2. 01 - Chapter 1 — 52:17
3. 02 - Chapters 2-5 — 1:00:01
4. 03 - Chapters 6-9 — 53:14
5. 04 - Chapters 10-11 — 21:40

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.