September 5, 2024

50 Best Free Librivox Audiobooks Added in the Past 5 Years

The acoustical liberation of books in the public domain continues! Librivox.org is almost 20 years old with their first recording posted back in September of 2005. Since then, they’ve amassed a catalog of over 19,000 titles in the public domain read by volunteer narrators. We’ve been fans of theirs since the beginning, seeking to showcase some of the best of their audiobooks on LearnOutLoud.com. We went through their latest 4,000 titles from the past 5 years and picked out 50 free audiobooks that we thought would be of interest to our visitors and that have quality solo narrations. We also updated the versions for some of their classic audiobooks where we thought a better narration was available.

You can now browse over 3,500 free audiobooks from Librivox on our website right here:

3,500 Free Audiobooks from Librivox on LearnOutLoud.com

And check out our popular blog post pointing out some of the best narrators from their site:

The Best Librivox Narrators

The public domain keeps growing every year so a lot of these new free audiobooks are being recorded and offered for free for the first time. Here are 50 of their best audiobooks from the past 5 years:

The ABC of Relativity by Bertrand Russell – Popular science book explaining Einstein’s Theory of Relativity to the layperson, published in 1925.

Arrowsmith by Sinclair Lewis – Novel that won the 1926 Pulitzer Prize (which Lewis declined).

Aspects of the Novel by E.M. Forster – Book based on lectures given by Forster which he describes seven key aspects of the novel.

At the Mountains of Madness by H.P. Lovecraft – 1936 novella by Lovecraft that is now considered one of his best stories.

Bambi: A Life in the Woods by Felix Salten – You may have seen the Disney movie, but have you listened to the original story? Translated into English by Whittaker Chambers in 1928.

Big Sur by Jack Kerouac – Classic 1962 novel by Beat poet Jack Kerouac. It’s in the public domain because the copyright wasn’t renewed.

Buddenbrooks by Thomas Mann – Acclaimed 1901 novel that was Mann’s first.

Cape Cod by Henry David Thoreau – Travel book by Thoreau about his time in Cape Cod, Massachusetts.

The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle – The final 12 short stories about Sherlock Holmes.

Chicago Poems by Carl Sandburg – Collection of poems by the Pulitzer Prize-winning poet.

The Cinema of Orson Welles by Peter Bogdanovich – Short piece on the cinema of Orson Welles by the film critic and director Peter Bogdanovich. Covers briefly Citizen Kane through Touch of Evil.

The Colour Out of Space by H.P. Lovecraft – Famous sci-fi/horror short story which was Lovecraft’s favorite of his stories.

Complete Holy Bible: American Standard Version – Librivox narrator Ron Altman has taken it upon himself to read the entire American Standard Version of the Bible.

Complete Holy Bible: Douay-Rheims Version – Librivox narrator Ron Altman also has narrated the entire Douay-Rheims translation of the Bible.

Dark Princess by W.E.B. Du Bois – 1928 novel by Du Bois that entered the public domain in 2024.

Death in Venice by Thomas Mann – Classic 1912 novella about Gustav von Aschenbach who becomes obsessed with the boy Tadzio on his trip to Venice.

Discourses of Epictetus by Epictetus – Plenty of Stoic philosophy to digest for the modern day Stoic.

Dymer by C.S. Lewis – Narrative poem by Lewis that he published in 1925.

The Elementary Forms of the Religious Life by Emile Durkheim – Book that analyzes religion as a social phenomenon by the French sociologist that established sociology.

Elmer Gantry by Sinclair Lewis – Satirical 1926 novel about Reverend Dr. Elmer Gantry who becomes corrupted by power and fame.

The Everlasting Man by G.K. Chesterton – Chesterton’s 1925 Christian apologetics book.

Freedom’s Battle by Mohandas Gandhi – Writings and speeches by Gandhi during the British rule of India following World War I.

The Guermantes Way by Marcel Proust – Volume Three of Proust’s Remembrance of Things Past.

The House at Pooh Corner by A.A. Milne – The 1928 children’s book that was a follow-up to Winnie-the-Pooh (1926).

How They Succeeded by Orison Swett Marden – New Thought author Marden gives advice on how successful figures in history made their mark.

The Kingdom of Happiness by Jiddu Krishnamurti – The first publication of talks given by Indian philosopher Krishnamurti.

The Magic Mountain: Volume One and The Magic Mountain: Volume Two by Thomas Mann – 1924 novel regarded by many as one of the key literary texts of the twentieth century.

Men Without Women by Ernest Hemingway – Hemingway’s second collection of short fiction includes famous stories like “Hills Like White Elephants” and “The Killers”.

Mosquitoes by William Faulkner – Faulkner’s second novel published in 1927, set in New Orleans.

The Mother by Pearl S. Buck – She’s best known for her book The Good Earth (1931), and her book The Mother (1934) also deals with peasant life in China.

Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf – 1925 novel about an upper-class woman in post-First World War England.

Notes on Democracy by H.L. Mencken – 1926 book by cultural critic Mencken in which he offers a critique of democracy.

Nuggets of the New Thought by William Walker Atkinson – More New Thought wisdom by this American pioneer of the New Thought movement.

Orlando by Virginia Woolf – Woolf’s 1928 novel about a poet who changes sex from man to woman and lives for centuries, meeting the key figures of English literary history.

A Passage to India by E.M. Forster – 1924 novel considered one of the 100 great works of 20th century English literature by the Modern Library.

Practical Mysticism by Evelyn Underhill – Underhill was an expert on mysticism and published this 1914 book to explain it to everyday people.

Psychological Types by Carl Jung – Book by the great Swiss psychologist Jung which presents his ideas on the functions of consciousness and the various psychological types.

Selected Essays of Michel de Montaigne by Michel de Montaigne – Essays by the French Renaissance philosopher.

Self Help by Samuel Smiles – The man who coined the term “Self-Help” finally get his 1859 book on audio.

Soldiers’ Pay by William Faulkner – Faulkner’s first novel about a soldier coming back from World War I.

The Story of Aristotle’s Philosophy by Will Durant – Philosopher Will Durant wrote the popular book The Story of Philosophy (1926). He based that book upon some of his Little Blue Book contributions including this one on Aristotle.

A System of Logic by John Stuart Mill – 51 hours of John Stuart Mill narrated by Chris Greaves.

Thought Power: Its Control and Culture by Annie Besant – Socialist, theosophist, freemason, women’s rights activist, and more. Hear Besant’s Theosophical perspective on thought.

To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf – 1927 novel by Woolf was ranking #15 on the Modern Library’s 100 best English-language novels of the 20th century.

The Torrents of Spring by Ernest Hemingway – This novella from 1926 is basically his first and preceded The Sun Also Rises.

Twilight Sleep by Edith Wharton – 1927 novel by Edith Wharton covering the Jazz Age.

Voltaire and the French Enlightenment by Will Durant – Philosopher Will Durant wrote the popular book The Story of Philosophy (1926). He based that book upon some of his Little Blue Book contributions including this one on Voltaire.

We by Yevgeny Zamyatin – 1921 dystopian science fiction novel about a totalitarian state that was banned in the Soviet Union until 1988.

What I Believe by Bertrand Russell – Russell’s beliefs on nature and man, the good life, moral rules, individual and social salvation, and science and happiness.

Within a Budding Grove by Marcel Proust – Proust’s second volume of Remembrance of Things Past.

Along with those new books on Librivox, we’ve also updated the versions of many classics on their site that now have better narration. Here are some of the titles we updated:

The Science of Getting Rich by Wallace D. Wattles

The Science of Being Great by Wallace D. Wattles

The Science of Being Well by Wallace D. Wattles

The Iliad by Homer

The Aeneid by Virgil

The Prophet by Kahlil Gibran

Peter Pan by J.M. Barrie

Journey to the Center of the Earth by Jules Verne

Emma by Jane Austen

Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert

David Copperfield by Charles Dickens

Moll Flanders by Daniel Defoe

The Red and the Black by Stendhal

The Mill on the Floss by George Eliot

The Good Soldier by Ford Madox Ford

Adam Bede by George Eliot

So many great works of classic literature to listen to, so little time!