The Riddle of the Sands: Free Audiobook and Listening Guide

The Riddle of the Sands, credited to Erskine Childers, 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 Riddle of the Sands, by Erskine Childers. Containing many realistic details based on Childers own sailing trips along the German North Sea coast, the book is the retelling of a yachting expedition in the early 20th century combined with an adventurous spy story. It was one of the early invasion novels which predicted war with Germany and called for British preparedness. The plot involves the uncovering of secret German preparations for an invasion of the United Kingdom. It is often called the first modern spy novel, and although others are as well, it was certainly very influential in the genre and for its time. The book enjoyed immense popularity in the years before World War I and was extremely influential. Winston Churchill later credited it as a major reason that the Admiralty decided to establish naval bases at Invergordon, the Firth of Forth and Scapa Flow. (Summary from Wikipedia)

Recording facts

• Recording title: The Riddle of the Sands
• Author credits: Erskine Childers
• Language: English
• Original MP3 tracks: 30
• Listed recording duration: 12:24:32

Catalogue topics

• audio book
• fiction
• childers
• riddle
• spy
• espionage
• invasion
• world war I

Opening tracks: first 24 of 30

1. 00 - Preface — 5:53
2. 01 - The Letter — 18:09
3. 02 - The Dulcibella — 32:57
4. 03 - Davies — 25:06
5. 04 - Retrospect — 19:22
6. 05 - Wanted, a North Wind — 21:04
7. 06 - Schlei Fiord — 17:49
8. 07 - The Missing Page — 29:32
9. 08 - The Theory — 28:05
10. 09 - I Sign Articles — 20:37
11. 10 - His Chance — 18:59
12. 11 - The Pathfinders — 20:35
13. 12 - My Initiation — 24:54
14. 13 - The Meaning of our Work — 13:11
15. 14 - The First Night in the Islands — 19:54
16. 15 - Bensersiel — 17:33
17. 16 - Commander von Bruening — 32:23
18. 17 - Clearing the Air — 27:37
19. 18 - Imperial Escort — 14:25
20. 19 - The Rubicon — 32:44
21. 20 - The Little Drab Book — 26:54
22. 21 - Blindfold to Memmert — 35:12
23. 22 - The Quartette — 29:52
24. 23 - A Change of Tactics — 31:43

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.