Wild Wales: Free Audiobook and Listening Guide

Wild Wales, credited to George Borrow, 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 Wild Wales by George Borrow. Read in English by Steve Gough. Wild Wales: Its People, Language and Scenery is a travel book by the English Victorian gentleman writer George Borrow (1803–1881), first published in 1862 and now a classic travel text on Wales and the Welsh. The book recounts Borrow's experiences, insights and personal encounters whilst touring Wales alone on foot after a family holiday in Llangollen in 1854. Although contemporary critics dismissed its whimsical tone, it quickly became popular with readers as a travel book and more importantly as a very lively account of the literary, social and geographical history of Wales. Borrow’s engaging character comes across especially in his meetings with various itinerants – mostly native and peasant – along the muddy Welsh path. Borrow’s keen ear for dialogue may remind us of a Dickens or Trollope, and like the latter his wit and wisdom are rarely absent. Indeed the author has been described as an "eccentric, larger-than-life, jovial man whose laughter rings all through the book". Borrow makes much of his self-taught Welsh and how surprised the natives are by his linguistic abilities – and also by his idiosyncratic pronunciation of their language. He loves to air his knowledge of Welsh culture, especially the Bardic tradition. And like his contemporary, William Wordsworth, he has a habit of quoting verses to the heavens as he walks. As the author finally reaches South Wales towards the end of his account, we meet for the first time evidences of modern industrialism, introduced to the reader in the form of a Dante’s Inferno of coal mines and iron foundries. Today, most will remember and value the book for these and other vivid nineteenth-century landscapes – along with Borrow’s gallery of fascinating, human characters. (SUMMARY BY STEVE GOUGH BASED ON WIKIPEDIA)

Recording facts

• Recording title: Wild Wales
• Author credits: George Borrow
• Language: English
• Original MP3 tracks: 110
• Listed recording duration: 22:55:10

Catalogue topics

• countryside
• Wales
• walking
• Welsh
• touring
• people

Opening tracks: first 24 of 110

1. 000 - Introductory — 13:49
2. 001 - Chapter 1: Proposed Excursion — 11:40
3. 002 - Chapter 2: The Start, Peterborough, Birmingham — 10:27
4. 003 - Chapter 3: Chester — 10:25
5. 004 - Chapter 4: Chester, Camp-meeting — 12:12
6. 005 - Chapter 5: Chester, Book-Stall, Wrexham — 14:10
7. 006 - Chapter 6: Llangollen, the Dee — 9:40
8. 007 - Chapter 7: Llangollen, Lodgings — 7:00
9. 008 - Chapter 8: The Robber’s Leap — 13:40
10. 009 - Chapter 9: Llangollen, Pengwern — 12:38
11. 010 - Chapter 10: The Berwyn — 4:28
12. 011 - Chapter 11: Pont Fadog — 16:29
13. 012 - Chapter 12: Pont y Cysswllt — 11:55
14. 013 - Chapter 13: Llangollen, the Abbey of the Vale of the Cross — 12:27
15. 014 - Chapter 14: Expedition to Ruthyn, the Column — 10:07
16. 015 - Chapter 15: The Turf Tavern, Ruthyn — 14:21
17. 016 - Chapter 16: Return from Ruthyn, Agricola’s Hill — 7:10
18. 017 - Chapter 17: Llangollen, Plas Newydd, Llyn Ceiriog — 17:32
19. 018 - Chapter 18: Llangollen, the Parish Clerk — 17:15
20. 019 - Chapter 19: Llangollen, the Vicar, the Pool of Catherine Lingo, Robber’s Leap — 16:13
21. 020 - Chapter 20: The Valley of Ceiriog, Huw Morris’s Chair, Pont y Meibion — 19:38
22. 021 - Chapter 21: Pandy Teirw — 15:41
23. 022 - Chapter 22: Llangollen Fair — 3:54
24. 023 - Chapter 23: Pont y Pandy, Glendower’s Mount, Corwen — 17:27

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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.