The Master of the World: Free Audiobook and Listening Guide

The Master of the World, credited to Jules Verne, 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 Master of the World, by Jules Verne. Read by Mark F. Smith. Chief Inspector Strock gets the tough cases. When a volcano suddenly appears to threaten mountain towns of North Carolina amid the non-volcanic Blue Ridge Mountains, Strock is posted to determine the danger. When an automobile race in Wisconsin is interrupted by the unexpected appearance of a vehicle traveling at multiples of the top speed of the entrants, Strock is consulted. When an odd-shaped boat is sighted moving at impossible speeds off the New England coast, Stock and his boss begin to wonder if the incidents are related. And when Strock gets a hand-lettered note warning him to abandon his investigation, on pain of death, he is intrigued rather than deterred. Set in a period when gasoline engines were in their infancy and automobiles were rare, and when even Chief Inspectors had to engage a carriage and horses to move about, the appearance of a vehicle that can move at astounding speeds on land, on water - and as later revealed, underwater and through the air - marks a technological advance far beyond the reach of nations. It is technology invented by and for the sole benefit of a man who styles himself (with some justification) "The Master of the World." This book is a sequel to an earlier Verne novel, "Robur the Conqueror", but enough detail is given to fully appreciate this story without having first read the other.

Recording facts

• Recording title: The Master of the World
• Author credits: Jules Verne
• Language: English
• Original MP3 tracks: 18
• Listed recording duration: 4:54:15

Catalogue topics

• machines
• science fiction
• adventure
• mystery
• race

Track guide

1. 01: What Happened in the Mountains — 15:40
2. 02: I Reach Morganton — 16:31
3. 03: The Great Eyrie — 23:09
4. 04: A Meeting of the Automobile Club — 17:05
5. 05: Along the Shores of New England — 17:10
6. 06: The First Letter — 11:15
7. 07: A Third Machine — 17:36
8. 08: At Any Cost — 19:32
9. 09: The Second Letter — 2:20
10. 10: Outside the Law — 14:30
11. 11: The Campaign — 18:30
12. 12: Black Rock Creek — 17:59
13. 13: On Board the Terror — 17:59
14. 14: Niagara — 23:54
15. 15: The Eagle's Nest — 18:09
16. 16: Robur the Conqueror — 11:26
17. 17: In the Name of the Law — 25:25
18. 18: The Old Housekeeper's Last Comment — 6:15

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.