The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby (Version 3): Free Audiobook and Listening Guide

The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby (Version 3), credited to Charles Dickens, 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 Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby (Version 3) by Charles Dickens. Read in English by Peter John Keeble. Nicholas Nickleby was Dickens's third novel following on from Pickwick Papers and Oliver twist. It has a cast of wonderful characters that include Wackford Squeers, the reprehensible and villainous headmaster whose reign of terror at his school in Yorkshire resulted in the abuse and deaths of many of his unwanted and orphaned children, Mr Vincent Crummles and his hilariously inept touring company, the munificent Cheeryble brothers, Ralph Nickleby, Nicholas's uncle, a mean spirited man who is driven by avarice and irrational hatred of his nephew, Smike a boy brutalised by Squeers and his family leaving him mentally and physically handicapped and Mrs Nickleby, Nicholas’s mother, who is pretentiously genteel and somewhat garrulous. There are many more finely drawn characters who combine to make this not only a comic masterpiece of the period but more than one love story threads its way through the dialogue. Probably what we would call today a ‘Romacom’ and as such Nicholas Nickleby never ceases to delight. (Summary by Peter Keeble)

Recording facts

• Recording title: The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby (Version 3)
• Author credits: Charles Dickens
• Language: English
• Original MP3 tracks: 68
• Listed recording duration: 7:36:41

Opening tracks: first 24 of 68

1. 00 - Authors Preface — 12:05
2. 01 - Chapter 1- Introduces All The Rest — 12:49
3. 02 - Of Mr Ralph Nickleby, And His Establishments . . . — 28:27
4. 03 - Mr Ralph Nickleby receives sad tidings of his brother . . .The reader is informed how he liked Nicholas . . . — 25:09
5. 04 - Nicholas and his Uncle . . . wait upon Mr Wackford Squeers, the Yorkshire Schoolmaster — 28:23
6. 05 - Nicholas starts for Yorkshire. Of his Leave-taking and his Fellow-Travellers . . . — 24:38
7. 06 - In which the Occurrence of the Accident . . . affords an Opportunity . . .to tell Stories against each other — 52:21
8. 07 - Mr and Mrs Squeers at Home — 18:32
9. 08 - Of the Internal Economy of Dotheboys Hall — 30:40
10. 09 - Of Miss Squeers, Mrs Squeers, Master Squeers, and Mr Squeers . . . — 34:33
11. 10 - How Mr Ralph Nickleby provided for his Niece and Sister-in-Law — 30:37
12. 11 - Newman Noggs inducts Mrs and Miss Nickleby into their New Dwelling in the City — 12:30
13. 12 - Whereby the Reader will be enabled to trace the further course of Miss Fanny Squeer's Love . . . — 25:17
14. 13 - Nicholas varies the Monotony of Dothebys Hall . . . — 31:48
15. 14 - Having the Misfortune to treat of none but Common People . . . — 27:45
16. 15 - Acquaints the Reader with the Cause and Origin of the Interruption . . . — 30:24
17. 16 - Nicholas seeks to employ himself in a New Capacity . . . — 45:51
18. 17 - Follows the Fortunes of Miss Nickleby — 21:45
19. 18 - Miss Knag, after doting on Kate Nickleby . . . makes up her Mind to hate her for evermore . . . — 31:57
20. 19 - Descriptive of a Dinner at Mr Ralph Nickleby's . . . — 37:43
21. 20 - Wherein Nicholas at length encounters his Uncle . . . His Resolution. — 27:05
22. 21 - Madam Mantalini finds herself in a Situation . . . and Miss Nickleby finds herself in no Situation at all — 29:39
23. 22 - Nicholas, accompanied by Smike, sallies forth to seek his Fortune . . . — 34:07
24. 23 - Treats of the Company of Mr Vincent Crummles, and of his Affairs, Domestic and Theatrical — 29:21

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.