The Vegetable; or, From President to Postman: Free Audiobook and Listening Guide

The Vegetable; or, From President to Postman, credited to F. Scott Fitzgerald, 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 Vegetable; or, From President to Postman by F. Scott Fitzgerald. Read in English by Chuck Williamson; Son of the Exiles; Tomas Peter; Devorah Allen; TJ Burns; Foon; Bhavya; Josh Kibbey; Beth Thomas; ToddHW; Phil Schempf; Leanne Yau; Stefan Von Blon; Campbell Schelp; Sonia ” “Any man who doesn’t want to get on in the world, to make a million dollars, and maybe even park his toothbrush in the White House, hasn’t got as much to him as a good dog has—he’s nothing more or less than a vegetable.” Such is the preface of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s only outing as a playwright. The action begins when 35-year-old railway clerk Jerry Frost gets drunk off a bootlegger’s potent hooch on the eve of Warren G. Harding’s presidential nomination. As a result, the second act takes place entirely within Jerry’s intoxicated fantasies, where he has become the new U.S. President and must deal with an assortment of colorful characters and situations. It is here where comic farce and political satire come to intriguing blows, as Fitzgerald finds opportunities to comment (discreetly or not) on the political climate of his day. When his pseudo-presidency goes all to pieces, Jerry’s fantasy comes crashing down, and as he comes to his senses in the third act, we find that his career aspirations have become decidedly less lofty. Though decidedly a minor work from The Great Gatsby’s author, The Vegetable finds him skewering the American Dream’s ethos in ways he would never do again. It’s lighthearted, naughty, irreverent, and does just the trick to escape—even if briefly—from our turbulent times. - Summary by Tomas Peter Cast List Jerry Frost: Tomas Peter Charlotte Frost: Bhavya Horatio "Dada" Frost: Josh Kibbey Doris: Foon Joseph Fish: Chuck Williamson Mr. Snooks: Son of the Exiles Mr. Jones: TJ Burns General Pushing: ToddHW Chief Justice Fossile: Phil Schempf The Detective: Sonia Mr. Stutz-Mozart: Beth Thomas Newsboy / First Senator: Leanne Yau Second Senator: Stefan Von Blon Third Senator: Campbell Schelp Narrator: Devorah Allen Editors: Linny and Tomas Peter

Recording facts

• Recording title: The Vegetable; or, From President to Postman
• Author credits: F. Scott Fitzgerald
• Language: English
• Original MP3 tracks: 3
• Listed recording duration: 2:57:31

Catalogue topics

• comedy
• fantasy
• political satire
• marriage
• farce
• F. Scott Fitzgerald
• prohibition
• American history

Track guide

1. 01 - Act 1 — 1:06:49
2. 02 - Act 2 — 1:12:52
3. 03 - Act 3 — 37:50

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.