• Doctor Ox's Experiment by Jules Verne
    Apr 18 2023

    This is a LibriVox public domain recording.

    An early, light-hearted short story, published in 1872 by Jules Verne. It takes place in the Flemish town of Quiquendone, where life moves at an extraordinarily tranquil pace. Doctor Ox has offered to light the town with a new gas, but actually has other plans in place. (Summary by Alan Winterrowd)

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    2 hrs and 13 mins
  • Dick Sands the Boy Captain by Jules Verne
    Apr 17 2023

    This is a LibriVox public domain recording.

    Dick Sands, a youth of fifteen, must assume command of a ship after the disappearance of its captain. Nature’s forces combined with evil doings of men lead him and his companions to many dangerous adventures on sea and in Central Africa.

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    8 hrs and 37 mins
  • The Castle of the Carpathians by Jules Verne
    Apr 17 2023

    This is a LibriVox public domain recording.

    The Castle stood above the quiet little town for as long as folks remembered: barren, deserted, lonely and frightening to the townsfolk. Until one day, smoke began to ascend from the dunjon. They were warned not to go near, and when intrepid souls dared to venture to uncover the mystery of the ruined castle, they learned firsthand what supernatural terrors await inside The Castle of the Carpathians. Summary by Joseph DeNoia.

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    4 hrs and 13 mins
  • The Castaways of the Flag by Jules Verne
    Apr 17 2023

    This is a LibriVox public domain recording.

    Readers of the present book who have not read that named above—though all should read it as well as this—will have no difficulty in joining the story of the castaways to “The Swiss Family Robinson” with the help of the brief sketch of its contents which follows.
    The story begins with the arrival of the Unicorn, a British corvette commanded by Lieutenant Littlestone, whose commission includes the exploration of the waters in which New Switzerland is situate. He has with him as passengers Mr. and Mrs. Wolston and their daughters Hannah and Dolly.
    When the Unicorn weighs anchor again Mr. Wolston and his wife and their elder daughter, Hannah, remain on the island. But the corvette takes away Fritz and Frank Zermatt and Jenny Montrose, who are all bound for England, where Jenny hopes to find her father, Colonel Montrose, and the two young men have much business to transact, and Dolly Wolston, who is to join her brother James—a married man with one child—at Cape Town. Mr. Wolston hopes that James, with his wife and child, will agree to accompany Dolly and the Zermatts—by the time they return Jenny will have become Mrs. Fritz Zermatt—to the island and take up their abode there. (Adapted from the Preface)

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    5 hrs and 15 mins
  • Captain Antifer by Jules Verne
    Apr 17 2023

    This is a LibriVox public domain recording.

    “No good deed goes Unpunished”, as the saying goes. A wealthy Egyptian leaves millions of buried treasure on an island and sends the location to the Captain that saved him while fleeing certain death from Napoleon Bonaparte. However the Egyptian does not leave the entire location: only the Latitude. The Longitude will be made known to him in time. Decades pass before a shifty notary from Alexandria arrives with the necessary Longitude, and now the lust for greed has passed from Captain to Son. Thus begins the tale of this treasure hunt, taking use from St. Malo, France to the shores of Arabian Coast and beyond. Follow this tale of strangers in strange lands, greedy third parties attempting to get the treasure for themselves, and the patience of the travels being wracked and tested from all ends on the traveling party. Summary by Joseph DeNoia.

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    9 hrs and 10 mins
  • Around the World in Eighty Days by Jules Verne
    Apr 11 2023

    This is a LibriVox public domain recording.

    Around the World in Eighty Days (French: Le tour du monde en quatre-vingts jours) is a classic adventure novel by the French writer Jules Verne, first published in 1873. In the story, Phileas Fogg of London and his newly employed French valet Passepartout attempt to circumnavigate the world in 80 days on a £20,000 wager set by his friends at the Reform Club. (Summary from Wikipedia)

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    7 hrs and 2 mins
  • The Begum's Fortune by Jules Verne
    Apr 11 2023

    This is a LibriVox public domain recording.

    A novel with some utopian elements, but primarily dystopian. A French doctor and a German professor both inherit a vast fortune as descendants of a French soldier who married the rich widow of an Indian prince. They both decide to go to America and establish their own "ideal" society. Dr. Sarrasin, the French doctor, is focused on maintaining public health. He builds Ville-France. Professor Schultze, the German scientist, is a bit of a militarist and racist. He builds Stahlstadt and devotes his city to the production of ever more powerful weapons so that he can destroy Sarrasin's city. They manage to get the US to cede sovereignty to two cities so that the two newly rich men can create their utopia. The setting for Ville-France would place it on the Oregon Coast, near Bandon, Oregon. The location for the second city, Stahlstadt, is less clear, but the description would place it somewhere near Roseburg, Oregon. - Summary by Kate Follis

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    6 hrs and 22 mins
  • The Blockade Runners by Jules Verne
    Apr 10 2023

    This is a LibriVox public domain recording.

    Writing at the end of the American Civil War, Verne weaves this story of a Scottish merchant who, in desperation at the interruption of the flow of Southern cotton due to the Union blockade, determines to build his own fast ship and run guns to the Confederates in exchange for the cotton piling up unsold on their wharves. His simple plan becomes complicated by two passengers who board his new ship under false pretenses in order to carry out a rescue mission, one which Capt. Playfair adopts as his own cause. This is going make the Rebels in Charleston rather unhappy with him.

    Sure, his new ship is fast - but can it escape the cannonballs of both North and South? (Summary by Mark Smith)

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    2 hrs and 3 mins