Eugenie Grandet by Honore de Balzac audiobook.

Genre: drama

Eugenie Grandet, first published in 1833, is one of Honore de Balzac's finest novels, and one of the first works in what would become his large novel series titled La Comedie Humaine. Set in a provincial town in post-Revolutionary France, the story deals with money, avarice, love, and obsession. A wealthy old miser must manage the passion of his innocent daughter, who later has to navigate on her own the treacherous ways of a world in which money is 'the only god.' Balzac's meticulous use of psychological and physical detail influenced the development of 19th-century literary realism, in the hands of writers such as Dickens, Dostoyevsky, Flaubert, and Henry James.

For ad-free listening try our premium subscription

Chapters (Approximate)

(00:00:00) Chapter 01

(00:33:24) Chapter 02

(01:11:37) Chapter 03

(01:50:20) Chapter 04

(02:33:20) Chapter 05

(03:00:18) Chapter 06

(03:29:32) Chapter 07

(03:57:39) Chapter 08

(04:32:30) Chapter 09

(05:06:46) Chapter 10

(05:35:38) Chapter 11

(06:03:47) Chapter 12

(06:30:25) Chapter 13

(06:52:23) Chapter 14

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Walking by Henry David Thoreau audiobook.

Genre: philosophy

In Walking, Henry David Thoreau invites listeners out of the study and into the fields, arguing that a daily walk is not mere exercise but a necessary act of freedom. Speaking from the woods and roads around Concord, Massachusetts, Thoreau celebrates the art of 'sauntering' - wandering with attention, purpose, and a readiness to be changed by what the land reveals. As fences rise, property lines tighten, and workdays compress the hours, he asks what it means to remain truly alive in a culture that prizes productivity over perception. Moving between sharp social critique and rapturous natural description, Thoreau defends 'wildness' as a spiritual and moral resource, a counterforce to habit, comfort, and conformity. Along the way he blends personal experience with literary allusions, reflections on landscape and history, and a bracing call to recover our kinship with the earth. By turns lyrical, funny, and uncompromising, Walking is a compact manifesto for anyone who suspects that the path to clarity, courage, and imagination begins with putting one foot in front of the other.

For ad-free listening try our premium subscription

Chapters (Approximate)

(00:00:00) Chapter 01

(00:22:02) Chapter 02

(00:51:47) Chapter 03

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Burglars Club by Henry Augustus Hering audiobook.

Genre: mystery

In Edwardian England, respected Manchester merchant Sir John Carder sits alone in his warehouse office, ruined by bad speculation and staring at a loaded revolver, when an unexpected visitor climbs in through the window: a burglar with the manners of a clubman and the calm assurance of a man following a set of rules. The intruder does not just come to steal Sir John's cherished cigars - he comes to explain the existence of an astonishing society: the Burglars' Club, an exclusive circle of bored, well-connected ex-soldiers and sportsmen who have turned burglary into a ritualized sport. For membership, a man must pay an entrance fee in the form of a prescribed theft, chosen by the club's president, and then keep up his standing with further exploits. Swept into this world of titled ringleaders, baffled victims, and audacious plans, Sir John finds his desperation colliding with temptation, honor, and the dangerous excitement of the chase. Told in twelve linked chronicles, the story races from town houses to country retreats as the club pursues ever more notorious prizes - and discovers that even a gentleman thief can miscalculate the cost of a game played in the dark.

For ad-free listening try our premium subscription

Chapters (Approximate)

(00:00:00) Chapter 01

(00:26:30) Chapter 02

(00:53:01) Chapter 03

(01:17:13) Chapter 04

(01:59:50) Chapter 05

(02:30:18) Chapter 06

(03:01:56) Chapter 07

(03:39:04) Chapter 08

(04:07:14) Chapter 09

(04:33:20) Chapter 10

(05:03:05) Chapter 11

(05:28:57) Chapter 12

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Faery Lands of the South Seas by Hall-Nordhoff audiobook.

Genre: adventure

First published in 1921, Faery Lands of the South Seas follows writing partners James Norman Hall and Charles Nordhoff as they trade post-World War I Europe for the far side of the world, chasing a rumor of island life that feels like a waking dream. Beginning with their departure and slow approach by sea, the narrative draws listeners into a South Pacific of trading schooners, reef-ringed lagoons, and small communities scattered across Tahiti and neighboring island groups. Hall and Nordhoff move beyond postcard beauty to the daily realities of travel in remote waters: uncertain schedules, fragile supplies, sudden storms, and the complicated etiquette of arriving as outsiders. Along the way they collect stories, legends, and local histories, meeting islanders whose lives are shaped by kinship, custom, and an oral tradition that makes every cove and valley feel haunted by the past. But the authors are also clear-eyed about the pressures of commerce and colonial influence creeping into even the most isolated atolls. By turns lyrical, humorous, and reflective, this travelogue becomes a portrait of a vanishing moment and the question of what, exactly, a traveler can truly understand - or keep - of paradise.

For ad-free listening try our premium subscription

Chapters (Approximate)

(00:00:00) Chapter 00

(00:02:03) Chapter 01

(00:29:28) Chapter 02

(01:14:42) Chapter 03

(01:47:06) Chapter 04

(02:26:22) Chapter 05

(03:03:15) Chapter 06

(03:48:29) Chapter 07

(04:17:01) Chapter 08

(04:59:32) Chapter 09

(05:49:25) Chapter 10

(06:07:30) Chapter 11

(06:50:33) Chapter 12

(07:29:00) Chapter 13

(08:16:40) Chapter 14

(09:04:19) Chapter 15

(09:32:12) Chapter 16

(09:42:52) Chapter 17

(10:03:41) Chapter 18

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Ancient Allan by H. Rider Haggard audiobook.

Genre: adventure

In quiet, late-Victorian England, Allan Quatermain is trying to live out his days far from peril when a summons from the formidable Lady Luna Ragnall draws him back into mysteries older than history. Lady Ragnall is convinced that an ancient Egyptian substance called Taduki can unlock the mind and reveal the truth behind recurring dreams, strange recognitions, and a haunting sense of unfinished destiny. When they dare to breathe its smoke, the familiar world falls away. Allan awakens as Shabaka, a lion-hunter and aristocrat bound to a troubled Egypt under foreign Persian rule, while Lady Ragnall becomes Amada, a priestess of Isis marked by sacred vows and dangerous knowledge. Swept into court intrigue, desert journeys, and the brewing spark of rebellion, they must navigate treachery, divided loyalties, and the pull of a love that seems to echo across lifetimes. Blending lost-world excitement with occult speculation, The Ancient Allan pits courage and conscience against empire, superstition, and the terrifying possibility that the past is not truly past.

For ad-free listening try our premium subscription

Chapters (Approximate)

(00:00:00) Chapter 01

(00:24:20) Chapter 02

(00:54:44) Chapter 03

(01:23:07) Chapter 04

(02:02:50) Chapter 05

(02:38:46) Chapter 06

(03:10:24) Chapter 07

(03:39:16) Chapter 08

(04:09:08) Chapter 09

(04:39:17) Chapter 10

(05:07:56) Chapter 11

(05:38:56) Chapter 12

(06:17:36) Chapter 13

(06:53:48) Chapter 14

(07:23:40) Chapter 15

(07:49:09) Chapter 16

(08:17:33) Chapter 17

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Colour Out of Space by H. P. Lovecraft audiobook.

Genre: horror

In rural New England, surveyors arrive to measure a quiet stretch of land for a new reservoir, but one place stands out as wrong: a blasted, lifeless area the locals avoid and refuse to explain. The outsider sent to ask questions is drawn into the story of the Gardner family, farmers whose isolation only deepened after a strange meteorite fell on their property. What begins as a curiosity for the nearby scientists becomes a creeping, intimate catastrophe as the farm's soil, water, crops, and livestock begin to change in ways no one can name, and the Gardners themselves start to fray under pressures that feel both physical and uncanny. Told with Lovecraft's mounting dread and documentary-like detail, the tale explores the terror of the unknown, the fragility of human understanding, and the idea that the universe contains forces beyond language and reason. As the valley grows quieter and the evidence more disturbing, the narrator pieces together an account of an encounter with something not quite of this world - and not quite describable at all.

For ad-free listening try our premium subscription

Chapters (Approximate)

(00:00:00) Chapter 01

(00:46:28) Chapter 02

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Tales of Space and Time by H. G. Wells audiobook.

Genre: scifi

In Tales of Space and Time, H. G. Wells gathers a set of swift, idea-driven stories that fling everyday people against immensities: distant planets, deep time, and the unsettling power of scientific possibility. A curious observer studies an uncanny object that seems to open a window onto other worlds. A quiet clerk discovers that wishing for miracles is far more dangerous than it sounds. Ordinary citizens watch the skies as an astronomical visitor redraws the meaning of safety and civilization. And in a stark vision of the future, Wells sketches how technology, cities, and social class might reshape human life, for better and for worse. Across these varied tales, the central conflict is rarely man versus monster; it is humanity versus scale - the scale of the cosmos, of evolution, of unintended consequences, and of our own moral blind spots. Written with Wells' hallmark clarity and bite, these stories blend wonder with warning, asking what remains of pride, progress, and compassion when the universe refuses to care.

For ad-free listening try our premium subscription

Chapters (Approximate)

(00:00:00) Chapter 01

(00:48:47) Chapter 02

(01:20:03) Chapter 03

(02:01:27) Chapter 04

(02:32:27) Chapter 05

(02:59:27) Chapter 06

(03:25:02) Chapter 07

(03:51:30) Chapter 08

(04:35:26) Chapter 09

(05:21:52) Chapter 10

(06:11:20) Chapter 11

(06:56:39) Chapter 12

(07:37:32) Chapter 13

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Search by Grace Livingston Hill audiobook.

Genre: romance

Against the uneasy backdrop of World War I, The Search follows John Cameron, a plainspoken young soldier carrying questions he cannot shake: how does a person find God, and how can faith hold steady when life is stripped down to drills, danger, and doubt? Far from the camps and marching columns, Ruth Macdonald lives in comfort as the protected daughter of a wealthy family, surrounded by parties, expectations, and the invisible rules of class. When Ruth and John unexpectedly reconnect - remembering the childhood days when he once stood up for her - a simple moment of recognition grows into a bond that challenges everything both of them have been taught about status, duty, and the cost of love. But their renewed friendship is not welcomed by everyone. Harry Wainwright, charming on the surface and determined underneath, has his own designs on Ruth and a long-standing rivalry with John. As war reshapes their world and choices tighten around them, Ruth and John must decide what they truly believe, what they are willing to sacrifice, and whether their shared longing for meaning can lead them to something real.

For ad-free listening try our premium subscription

Chapters (Approximate)

(00:00:00) Chapter 01

(00:14:27) Chapter 02

(00:33:29) Chapter 03

(00:49:34) Chapter 04

(01:08:04) Chapter 05

(01:21:27) Chapter 06

(01:41:38) Chapter 07

(02:01:26) Chapter 08

(02:28:27) Chapter 09

(02:49:51) Chapter 10

(03:13:50) Chapter 11

(03:29:10) Chapter 12

(03:51:48) Chapter 13

(04:13:20) Chapter 14

(04:27:39) Chapter 15

(04:45:22) Chapter 16

(05:09:21) Chapter 17

(05:31:13) Chapter 18

(05:48:44) Chapter 19

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Man of the Desert by Grace Livingston Hill audiobook.

Genre: romance

Fleeing from an aggressive suitor, Hazel Radcliffe becomes hopelessly lost in the Arizona desert. Exhausted, she falls unconscious from her pony. Soon she is found by John Brownleigh, a handsome missionary who lives nearby. As he cares for her, a strong and true love grows between them. She was raised in luxury, he was raised to serve God. They part knowing very little about each other except for the love they feel. Back home among her family and friends, Hazel makes an important decision. She will do all she can to change, but can she do so before it's too late? Follow her journey of coming closer to the Lord and finding true love in an unlikely place.

For ad-free listening try our premium subscription

Chapters (Approximate)

(00:00:00) Chapter 01

(00:17:54) Chapter 02

(00:41:14) Chapter 03

(01:07:18) Chapter 04

(01:34:11) Chapter 05

(01:52:17) Chapter 06

(02:10:39) Chapter 07

(02:27:50) Chapter 08

(02:49:08) Chapter 09

(03:06:34) Chapter 10

(03:28:32) Chapter 11

(03:48:40) Chapter 12

(04:13:53) Chapter 13

(04:30:57) Chapter 14

(04:56:17) Chapter 15

(05:13:58) Chapter 16

(05:34:37) Chapter 17

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Big Blue Soldier by Grace Livingston Hill audiobook.

Genre: romance

In a quiet village still catching its breath after the Great War, gentle, hopeful Miss Marilla Chadwick prepares a grand homecoming dinner for her celebrated nephew, Lieutenant Richard (Dick) Chadwick, certain that his uniform and heroism will brighten her lonely household and even bring romance to her beautiful young neighbor, Mary Amber. But when a brusque telegram shatters her plans, Marilla refuses to waste the feast or her faith. Instead, she opens her door to a weary stranger she meets on the road: a tall, bedraggled soldier in blue, sick with exhaustion and carrying burdens he will not explain. Mary Amber prides herself on clear eyes and a cooler head; she mistrusts charming stories, hates being maneuvered toward any man, and is quick to challenge a soldier who seems to invite misunderstanding. Yet as days turn into weeks and the women nurse the wounded veteran, the small house fills with unanswered questions: who is he really, why is he sending urgent messages, and what will happen when the truth collides with gossip, pride, and the complicated pull of gratitude and love? A tender story of postwar healing, mistaken identity, and hard-won trust.

For ad-free listening try our premium subscription

Chapters (Approximate)

(00:00:00) Chapter 01

(00:19:03) Chapter 02

(00:33:27) Chapter 03

(00:52:39) Chapter 04

(01:13:14) Chapter 05

(01:30:48) Chapter 06

(02:00:17) Chapter 07

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices