The Spoils of Poynton: Free Audiobook and Listening Guide

The Spoils of Poynton, credited to Henry James, 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 Spoils of Poynton, by Henry James. Read by Nicholas Clifford. The recently widowed Adela Gereth, a lover of beauty and passionate collector of fine objects, strikes up a friendship with the young Fleda Vetch, when both of them find themselves guests in the tasteless house of the Brigstock family. Mrs. Gereth fears that her son Owen, an honorable but somewhat unimaginative young man, may take up with one of the Brigstock girls, and indeed he presently announces his engagement to Mona, the eldest daughter. That means that Mrs. Gereth will have to leave Poynton, the beautiful house that she and her husband filled with the furniture, china, tapestries, and other objects that they lovingly collected over the years. It is not so much possessiveness that drives Mrs. Gereth to want to maintain control over them (or so she claims, at any rate), but rather the sense that she will have failed if Mona, understanding and appreciating nothing of what Poynton contains, should become Owen's wife and take charge. The story and its developing conflicts are seen largely from the point of view of Fleda Vetch, the young woman who, her moral and aesthetic sensibilities tuned perhaps as finely as any of James's protagonists, finds herself caught in the middle. (Summary by Nicholas Clifford)

Recording facts

• Recording title: The Spoils of Poynton
• Author credits: Henry James
• Language: English
• Original MP3 tracks: 22
• Listed recording duration: 7:14:04

Catalogue topics

• Fiction

Track guide

1. 01 - Chapter 1 — 15:26
2. 02 - Chapter 2 — 15:34
3. 03 - Chapter 3 — 21:01
4. 04 - Chapter 4 — 21:37
5. 05 - Chapter 5 — 16:43
6. 06 - Chapter 6 — 22:44
7. 07 - Chapter 7 — 26:49
8. 08 - Chapter 8 — 31:06
9. 09 - Chapter 9 — 9:28
10. 10 - Chapter 10 — 17:58
11. 11 - Chapter 11 — 13:46
12. 12 - Chapter 12 — 21:29
13. 13 - Chapter 13 — 15:35
14. 14 - Chapter 14 — 25:47
15. 15 - Chapter 15 — 16:14
16. 16 - Chapter 16 — 31:38
17. 17 - Chapter 17 — 23:02
18. 18 - Chapter 18 — 24:53
19. 19 - Chapter 19 — 11:20
20. 20 - Chapter 20 — 16:57
21. 21 - Chapter 21 — 12:49
22. 22 - Chapter 22 — 22:19

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.