A young English solicitor travels alone into the mountains of Eastern Europe to conclude a property deal with a mysterious foreign nobleman.

The castle he arrives at is vast, silent, and strangely empty. His host is courteous, cultured — and unlike anyone he has ever met.

Only slowly does Jonathan Harker realise that he is not a guest at all.

And that whatever his host intends, it will not remain within these walls. Something is preparing to travel to England.

What follows is a pursuit across countries and centuries of superstition, in which a small group of ordinary people must confront a danger that refuses to obey the rules of the world they thought they understood.

This is *Dracula* by Bram Stoker.

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**About this episode**

I'm Roger Braveheart, and this is the *TWIG* podcast, where our summarised stories act, in effect, as a free audiobook for you.

What you're about to hear is a condensed retelling of the book — not the complete, unabridged text. Episodes usually run for somewhere between 60 and 90 minutes, depending on the length and complexity of the original novel. The full book itself would normally take many, many hours to read or to listen to unabridged.

The aim is to keep everything that truly matters: the key events, the turning points, and the moments of real emotional weight, along with the tension and atmosphere of the original. This version is drawn from Bram Stoker's own text — not from the films, television series, abridged editions or later adaptations, many of which reorder events, soften the characters' experiences, or change significant parts of the story.

**Publishing schedule**

A new episode is published at least once a week, on Sundays, so it's ready for you at the start of the working week.

**Get in touch**

The show's email address is **[email protected]**. We love to receive feedback, and we're always glad of suggestions for good classic books to read on future episodes.

So make yourself comfortable, picture a carriage climbing a lonely mountain road as the light fades, and let us begin.

**The Life and Adventures of Robinson Crusoe — Daniel Defoe | Full Summarised Audiobook Retelling**

I'm Roger Braveheart, and this is the Podcast called **TWIG**.

This episode is a **shortened, summarised retelling** of Daniel Defoe's *The Life and Adventures of Robinson Crusoe* — not the complete, unabridged text. Like most episodes on this channel, it runs to roughly **sixty minutes**, we tried shorter but had in place of the many, many hours it would take you to work through the original book from cover to cover.

Nothing has been invented. Everything you'll hear is drawn from Defoe's own text — the shipwreck, the salvage, the shelter, the crops, the goats, the long empty years, the footprint in the sand — rather than from the many film, television, and stage versions that reshuffle events, flatten characters, or add new material for dramatic effect. What's been trimmed is the sprawl and repetition; what's been kept are the turning points, the relationships, the discoveries, and that slow, creeping build of unease and menace.

Listen straight through with your full attention, or simply leave it playing while you commute, cook, tidy up, walk the dog, or wind down at the end of the day.

**🔥 New episodes at least once a week, every Sunday** — published in time for the working week ahead, so there's always something worth listening to on the Monday morning journey.

**📧 Get in touch: [email protected]**
Feedback, thoughts, corrections, and above all **suggestions for classic books** you'd like me to retell on a future episode are always welcome. Many of the titles on this channel came from listeners just like you.

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**In this episode:**

A young Englishman ignores his father's advice, turns his back on a safe and comfortable life, and goes to sea in search of adventure.

His early voyages bring capture, slavery, and escape, and eventually a plantation in Brazil and the promise of real prosperity.

But restlessness draws him back onto the water, and a violent storm tears his ship apart.

When he wakes, he is the only survivor, washed up on the shore of an uninhabited island somewhere off the coast of South America.

He has no companions, no rescue in sight, and no idea whether anyone will ever come.

With only what he can salvage from the wreck, he must learn to build shelter, grow food, tame animals, make tools, and survive year after year in total solitude.

And then, after more than two decades alone, he finds a single human footprint pressed into the sand.

This is *Robinson Crusoe* by Daniel Defoe.

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Twenty-eight years, two months, and nineteen days on an island at the edge of the world — and one man's stubborn refusal to stop building, planting, counting, and hoping. Pull your chair a little closer to the fire, cast off, and let the voyage begin.

If the story stays with you, a like, a comment, and a subscribe help enormously — and I'll see you next Sunday, when another great book comes to life by firelight.

*Roger Braveheart — TWIG*

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