The Old Wives' Tale: Free Audiobook and Listening Guide

The Old Wives' Tale, credited to Arnold Bennett, 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 Wives' Tale, by Arnold Bennett. Read by Andy Minter. The Old Wives' Tale is a novel by Arnold Bennett, first published in 1908. It deals with the lives of two very different sisters, Constance and Sophia Baines, following their stories from their youth, working in their mother's draper's shop, into old age. It is generally regarded as one of Bennett's finest works. It covers a period of about 70 years from roughly 1840 to 1905, and is set in Burslem and Paris. (Summary by Andy)

Recording facts

• Recording title: The Old Wives' Tale
• Author credits: Arnold Bennett
• Language: English
• Original MP3 tracks: 34
• Listed recording duration: 23:18:33

Catalogue topics

• bennett
• fiction

Opening tracks: first 24 of 34

1. 00 Preface — 11:37
2. 01 Bk.1 Ch.1 The Square — 49:37
3. 02 Bk.1 Ch.2 The Tooth — 25:19
4. 03a Bk.1 Ch.3 A Battle, Pt.1 — 41:02
5. 03b Bk.1 Ch.3 A Battle, Pt.2 — 38:41
6. 04 Bk.1 Ch.4 Elephant — 41:58
7. 05 Bk.1 Ch.1 The Traveller — 45:11
8. 06 Bk.1 Ch.6 Escapade — 42:49
9. 07 Bk.1 Ch.7 A Defeat — 34:01
10. 08 Bk.2 Ch.1 Revolution — 44:35
11. 09 Bk.2 Ch.2 Christmas and the Future — 39:32
12. 10 Bk.2 Ch.3 Cyril — 47:02
13. 11 Bk.2 Ch.4 Crime — 43:07
14. 12a Bk.2 Ch.5 Another Crime, Pt.1 — 36:30
15. 12b Bk.2 Ch.5 Another Crime Pt.2 — 43:00
16. 13 Bk.2 Ch.6 The Widow — 28:12
17. 14 Bk.2 Ch.7 Bricks and Mortar — 32:05
18. 15 Bk.2 Ch.8 The Proudest Mother — 25:58
19. 16 Bk.3 Ch.1 The Elopement — 29:44
20. 17 Bk.3 Ch.2 Supper — 37:11
21. 18 Bk.3 Ch.3 An Ambition Satisfied — 44:47
22. 19 Bk.3 Ch.4 A Crisis for Gerald — 46:29
23. 20a Bk.3 Ch.5 Fever, Pt.1 — 57:31
24. 20b Bk.3 Ch.5 Fever, Pt.2 — 27:09

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.