The Old Curiosity Shop: Free Audiobook and Listening Guide

The Old Curiosity Shop, 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 Old Curiosity Shop by Charles Dickens. Read by Euthymius. The Old Curiosity Shop tells the story of Little Nell, a beautiful and virtuous young girl who lives with her grandfather in his shop of curiosities. Her grandfather loves her dearly, and Nell does not complain, but she lives a lonely existence without friends of her own age. Her only friend is Kit, an honest young lad who works at the shop, and whom she is teaching to write. Unbeknownst to Nell, her grandfather is obsessed with their precarious financial position and is attempting to make Nell a good inheritance by winning at cards. He keeps these nocturnal activities a secret, but borrows heavily from the evil Quilp, a dwarf, in order to raise new capital. In the end, he gambles away what little money they own, and Quilp seizes the opportunity to take possession of the shop and make Nell’s and her grandfather’s lives a misery. Indeed, her grandfather suffers a breakdown, which leaves him bereft of his wits. Courageously, Nell decides to escape Quilp, and she and her grandfather run away to the country to live as beggars, travelling into the Midlands of England. There, then, follow the multifarious adventures of Nell and her grandfather, Quilp and his sly minions and accomplices, who would be Nell’s vehement pursuers throughout the entire story, the noble schoolmaster, and many, many other personages as bright and memorable as Dickens’ heroes always are. But… let us hear the story itself, shan’t we? (Description from Wikipedia with additions by Euthymius)

Recording facts

• Recording title: The Old Curiosity Shop
• Author credits: Charles Dickens
• Language: English
• Original MP3 tracks: 73
• Listed recording duration: 23:23:44

Catalogue topics

• Little Nell Trent
• social critique

Opening tracks: first 24 of 73

1. Chapter 01 — 33:27
2. Chapter 02 — 15:51
3. Chapter 03 — 18:15
4. Chapter 04 — 20:04
5. Chapter 05 — 15:28
6. Chapter 06 — 21:08
7. Chapter 07 — 15:03
8. Chapter 08 — 23:50
9. Chapter 09 — 24:55
10. Chapter 10 — 13:19
11. Chapter 11 — 18:47
12. Chapter 12 — 16:45
13. Chapter 13 — 20:45
14. Chapter 14 — 15:29
15. Chapter 15 — 22:17
16. Chapter 16 — 13:51
17. Chapter 17 — 18:51
18. Chapter 18 — 17:13
19. Chapter 19 — 23:27
20. Chapter 20 — 11:36
21. Chapter 21 — 21:36
22. Chapter 22 — 12:33
23. Chapter 23 — 21:50
24. Chapter 24 — 14:25

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.