The Jungle: Free Audiobook and Listening Guide

The Jungle, credited to Upton Sinclair, 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 Jungle, by Upton Sinclair. Read by Tom Weiss. It is the end of the 19th century. Like thousands of others, the Rudkus family has emigrated from Lithuania to America in search of a better life. As they settle into the Packingtown neighborhood of Chicago, they find their dreams are unlikely to be realized. In fact, just the opposite is quite likely to occur. Jurgis, the main character of the novel, has brought his father Antanas, his fiancée Ona, her stepmother Teta Elzbieta, Teta Elzbieta's brother Jonas and her six children, and Ona's cousin Marija Berczynskas along. The family, naïve to the ways of Chicago, quickly falls prey to con men and makes a series of bad decisions that lead them into wretched poverty and terrible living conditions. All are forced to find jobs in dismal working conditions for their very survival. Jurgis, broken and discouraged, eventually finds solace in the American Socialist movement. This novel was written during a period in American history when “Trusts” were formed by multiple corporations to establish monopolies that stifled competition and fixed prices. Unthinkable working conditions and unfair business practices were the norm. The Jungle’s author, Upton Sinclair, was an ardent Socialist of the time. Sinclair was commissioned by the “Appeal To Reason”, a Socialist journal of the period, to write a fictional expose on the working conditions of the immigrant laborers in the meat packing industry in Chicago. Going undercover, Sinclair spent seven weeks inside the meatpacking plants gathering details for his novel. The Reader wishes to gratefully acknowledge the assistance, and patience, of Professor Giedrius Subacius (University of Illinois) and the folks at Lituanus (www.lituanus.org) for their invaluable support as I struggled with Lithuanian pronunciations. Truly, this audio book would have been far more difficult, and far less authentic, without their help. And now, feel free to wander into The Jungle…….(Summary by Tom Weiss)

Recording facts

• Recording title: The Jungle
• Author credits: Upton Sinclair
• Language: English
• Original MP3 tracks: 31
• Listed recording duration: 16:02:48

Catalogue topics

• fiction
• immigrant
• socialism
• labor

Opening tracks: first 24 of 31

1. Chapter 01 — 57:05
2. Chapter 02 — 27:44
3. Chapter 03 — 33:10
4. Chapter 04 — 33:27
5. Chapter 05 — 27:37
6. Chapter 06 — 26:37
7. Chapter 07 — 30:14
8. Chapter 08 — 20:55
9. Chapter 09 — 25:28
10. Chapter 10 — 27:10
11. Chapter 11 — 26:38
12. Chapter 12 — 20:07
13. Chapter 13 — 22:40
14. Chapter 14 — 20:17
15. Chapter 15 — 35:44
16. Chapter 16 — 24:48
17. Chapter 17 — 26:15
18. Chapter 18 — 27:12
19. Chapter 19 — 25:29
20. Chapter 20 — 27:44
21. Chapter 21 — 26:02
22. Chapter 22 — 30:07
23. Chapter 23 — 27:20
24. Chapter 24 — 31:15

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.