The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent.: Free Audiobook and Listening Guide

The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent., credited to Washington Irving, 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 Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent., by Washington Irving. Read by volunteer readers. Apart from "Rip Van Winkle" and "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" - the pieces which made both Irving and The Sketch Book famous - other tales include "Roscoe", "The Broken Heart", "The Art of Book-making", "A Royal Poet", "The Spectre Bridegroom", "Westminster Abbey", "Little Britain", and "John Bull". His stories were highly influenced by German folktales, with "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" being inspired by a folktale recorded by Karl Musaus. Stories range from the maudlin (such as "The Wife" and "The Widow and Her Son") to the picaresque ("Little Britain") and the comical ("The Mutability of Literature"), but the common thread running through The Sketch Book - and a key part of its attraction to readers - is the personality of Irving's pseudonymous narrator, Geoffrey Crayon. Erudite, charming, and never one to make himself more interesting than his tales, Crayon holds The Sketch Book together through the sheer power of his personality - and Irving would, for the rest of his life, seamlessly enmesh Crayon's persona with his own public reputation. (Introduction by Wikipedia)

Recording facts

• Recording title: The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent.
• Author credits: Washington Irving
• Language: English
• Original MP3 tracks: 36
• Listed recording duration: 15:20:50

Catalogue topics

• fiction
• essays
• England
• legends
• myths
• travel
• culture

Opening tracks: first 24 of 36

1. 00 - Preface — 17:54
2. 01 - The Author's Account of Himself — 7:19
3. 02 - The Voyage — 16:08
4. 03 - Roscoe — 16:43
5. 04 - The Wife — 18:25
6. 05 - Rip Van Winkle — 55:18
7. 06 - English Writers on America — 21:36
8. 07 - Rural Life in England — 15:58
9. 08 - The Broken Heart — 14:09
10. 09 - The Art of Book-making — 15:27
11. 10 - A Royal Poet — 37:19
12. 11 - The Country Church — 15:02
13. 12 - The Widow and her Son — 18:38
14. 13 - A Sunday in London — 5:07
15. 14 - The Boar's Head Tavern — 22:58
16. 15 - The Mutability of Literature — 29:07
17. 16 - Rural Funerals — 31:18
18. 17 - The Inn Kitchen — 5:17
19. 18 - The Spectre Bridegroom — 40:13
20. 19 - Westminster Abbey — 31:52
21. 20 - Christmas — 15:42
22. 21 - The Stage-Coach — 13:41
23. 22 - Christmas Eve — 32:28
24. 23 - Christmas Day — 37:18

Listen to this recording

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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.