Joseph Conrad has 19 audiobooks on Listento.it, narrated by 17 narrators, with an average listener rating of 4.4★ across 356 ratings. The most-rated is Heart of Darkness: A Signature Performance by Kenneth Branagh.
Heart of Darkness: A Signature Performance by Kenneth Branagh
Summary
Prose that demands to be read aloud requires a special kind of narrator. For the Audible Signature Classics edition of Joseph Conrad’s atmospheric masterpiece, Heart of Darkness, we called upon four-time Academy Award nominee Kenneth Branagh. Branagh’s performance is riveting because he reads as though he’s telling a ghost story by a campfire, capturing the story’s sense of claustrophobia, while hinting at the storyteller Marlow’s own creeping madness. Heart of Darkness follows Captain Marlow into the colonial Congo where he searches for a mysterious ivory trader, Kurtz, and discovers an evil that will haunt him forever. With this landmark work, Conrad is credited with bringing the novel into the twentieth century; we think Branagh brings it into the twenty-first. Stay tuned for more one-of-a-kind performances from actors David Hyde Pierce, Leelee Sobieski, Tim Curry, and more, only from Audible Signature Classics.
Public Domain (P)2010 Audible, Inc.
Heart of Darkness
Summary
This classic tale of intrigue, mystery and adventure takes place on the ivory harvesting and trade route in the Congo, in the depths of Africa. In this audiobook, Marlow, a sea captain on a ship at anchor, retells a story of his assignment upon a steamer ship in the Congo to a group of his ship mates. During his mission he is asked to retrieve and return Kurtz, an ivory hunter with a resounding reputation where ever his name is mentioned, who delivers more ivory than all the other stations combined, and who has a reverenced effect on the natives. Passages and references from the book are sprinkled through other writings and "The Heart of Darkness" was the base content for the movie "Apocalypse Now" by Francis Ford Coppola.
©2018 Joseph Conrad (P)2018 AB Books
Imager's Intrigue
Summary
Rhenn's past catches up to him in this third entry in L. E. Modesitt, Jr.'s hit Imager Portfolio series. In Imager???s Intrigue, Rhenn has come into his own. He has a wife and a young child, and a solid career as an imager. But he has made more than one enemy during his journey from apprentice painter to master imager, and even his great powers won’t allow him to escape his past.
©2010 L. E. Modesitt Jr. (P)2010 Tantor
Heart of Darkness
Summary
"...he seemed to stare... with that wide and immense stare embracing, condemning, loathing all the universe. I seemed to hear the whispered cry, 'The horror! The horror!'" On a becalmed yawl in the Thames estuary, Marlow tells a tale of Africa. His job there is to find the enigmatic Kurtz, but his journey further and further upriver reveals the brutality of the white Imperialists who run the country. Established as one of the great English novels, and a story of mythic power, Heart of Darkness is rich in meaning – allusive, enthralling, and haunting. PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying reference material will be available in your Library section along with the audio.
Public Domain (P)2010 Naxos Audiobooks
Heart of Darkness
Summary
'But these chaps were not much account, really. They were no colonists; their administration was merely a squeeze, and nothing more, I suspect. They were conquerors, and for that you want only brute force - nothing to boast of, when you have it, since your strength is just an accident arising from the weakness of others.' In fading light on the Thames Estuary near London, as Charles Marlow and his companions relax on deck, waiting for the turn of the tide, he tells of the time he turned ‘freshwater sailor’ on the River Congo. His perilous journey upriver in a little steamboat with a band of white colonialists and a group of cannibals takes him closer to the coveted ivory, closer to Kurtz the rogue agent, closer to certain unspeakable rites and the heart of darkness. Here we encounter the darkness of the jungle; the darkness of forced labour, cruelty, and death; and that darkness that exists in the ‘civilized’ human heart. Serialised in three parts in 1899, this book was first published in 1902. Joseph Conrad, considered one of greatest novelists in the English language, was born in Poland in 1857, only learning to speak the language fluently in his 20s and always with a strong Polish accent. Frequently, he touches on themes connected with the sea and colonialism, for he had travelled the world as a merchant seaman. He had even skippered a steamboat called Roi des Belges in King Leopold II’s private fiefdom of the Congo; these experiences and encounters find a home in this most disturbing and claustrophobic of stories. For Magpie Audio, Greg Wagland brings a certain vitality and immediacy to his reading of this unabridged classic.
Public Domain (P)2011 Magpie Audio
Lord Jim
Summary
Lord Jim tells the story of a young, idealistic Englishman - "as unflinching as a hero in a book" - who is disgraced by a single act of cowardice while serving as an officer on the Patna, a merchant-ship sailing from an eastern port. His life is ruined: an isolated scandal has assumed horrifying proportions. But then he is befriended by an older man named Marlow who helps to establish him in exotic Patusan, a remote Malay settlement where his courage is put to the test once more. Lord Jim is about courage and cowardice, self-knowledge and personal growth. It is one of the most profound and rewarding psychological novels in English. Set in the context of social change and colonial expansion in late Victorian England, it embodies in Jim the values and turmoil of a fading empire.
Public Domain (P)2010 Tantor
The Secret Agent
Summary
Joseph Conrad's The Secret Agent is a tale of anarchism, espionage, and terrorism. Our agent, a man named Mr Verloc, minds his own business while he keeps his shop in London's Soho, alongside his wife, who attends to her aged mother and disabled brother. Their lives are turned upside down when Verloc is reluctantly employed to plant a bomb and destroy an observatory in London. What was once the perfect bomb plot inevitably turns awry and Verloc, his family and his associates are forced to face the consequences. Conrad's later political novel bears all the hallmarks of his captivating style. The Secret Agent brims with melodious and poetic language, alongside crystal-clear psychological insights that could only be the work of a uniquely gifted storyteller.
Public Domain (P)2014 Naxos AudioBooks
Six Short Stories
Summary
This wide-ranging collection comprises the following six short stories by Joseph Conrad: Youth: A Narrative (1902) Karain: A Memory (1898) An Outpost of Progress (1898) The Lagoon (1898) Amy Foster (1909) The Anarchist - A Desperate Tale (1903) Youth: A Narrative is an epic tale of a perilous voyage under sail to Bangkok, with a cargo of coal, narrated by Charles Marlow. An Outpost of Progress, a darkly comic tale, set in an African ivory-trading station, is very much a prelude to Heart of Darkness. Amy Foster is about a Polish man shipwrecked on the English coast and his subsequent alienation, loneliness and love. The Lagoon and Karain: A Memory are gripping tales from the Malay archipelago. The Anarchist charts the journey of a skilled mechanic from Paris to a desolate cattle station in South America, via Devil's Island.
Public Domain (P)2013 Magpie Audio
NBC University Theater: Lord Jim
Summary
NBC University Theater initially started in Chicago with a remit to bring adaptations of classic novels, usually Anglo-American, to a radio audience. Additionally, if listeners signed up, they received college credit to a radio-assisted correspondence course. A study guide, The Handbook of the World's Great Novels, was available for 25 cents. In its later years, it also included short stories and plays, and went on to win the distinguished Peabody award. Unlike many other radio shows, University Theater, did not pursue glamorous stars for its productions, but instead relied on excellent distillations of the novels. and first-class acting alongside high production values. But now it is time to enjoy these timeless novels. Let’s begin.
©2019 Deadtree Publishing (P)2019 Copyright Group
Lord Jim
Summary
Lord Jim is a novel by Joseph Conrad, originally published in Blackwood's Magazine from October 1899 to November 1900. Originally intended as a short story, the work grew to a full-length novel as Conrad explored in great depth the perplexing, ambiguous problem of lost honor and guilt, expiation, and heroism. The story tells of Jim, a young, good-looking, genial, and naive water-clerk on the Patna, a cargo ship plying Asian waters. One night, when the ship collides with an obstacle and begins to sink, acting on impulse, Jim jumps overboard and lands in a lifeboat, which happens to be bearing the unscrupulous captain and his cohorts away from the disaster. The Patna, however, manages to stay afloat. The foundering vessel is towed into port - and since the officers have strategically vanished, Jim is left to stand trial for abandoning the ship and its 800 passengers. Joseph Conrad (born Józef Teodor Konrad Korzeniowski, 1857 - 1924) was a Polish-born British novelist. He is considered as one of the greatest novelists in the English language. Please note: This is a vintage recording. The audio quality may not be up to modern day standards.
Public Domain (P)2009 RNIB
The Shadow-Line
Summary
Written at the start of the Great War, when his son Borys was at the Western Front, The Shadow-Line is Conrad's supreme effort to open man's eyes to the meaning of war through the stimulus of art. In many ways an autobiographical narrative, this masterpiece of his final period relates the story of a young and inexperienced sea captain whose first command finds him with a ship becalmed in tropical seas and a crew smitten with fever. As he wrestles with his conscience and with the sense of isolation that his position imposes, the captain crosses the "shadow-line" between youth and adulthood. It is the qualities, both individual and collective, needed to confront the ship's crisis that symbolize the qualities needed by humanity, not only to face evil and destruction but also to come to terms with life.
©1923 Joseph Conrad (P)2000 Blackstone Audiobooks
NBC University Theater: Heart of Darkness
Summary
NBC University Theater initially started in Chicago with a remit to bring adaptations of classic novels, usually Anglo-American, to a radio audience. Additionally, if listeners signed up, they received college credit to a radio-assisted correspondence course. A study guide, The Handbook of the World's Great Novels, was available for 25 cents. In its later years, it also included short stories and plays, and went on to win the distinguished Peabody award. Unlike many other radio shows, University Theater, did not pursue glamorous stars for its productions, but instead relied on excellent distillations of the novels. and first-class acting alongside high production values. But now it is time to enjoy these timeless novels. Let’s begin.
©2019 Deadtree Publishing (P)2019 Copyright Group
Lord Jim
Summary
From his many years on the high seas as a mariner, mate, and captain, Joseph Conrad created unique works, including Heart of Darkness, that have left an indelible mark on world literature. First published in 1899, his haunting novel Lord Jim is both a riveting sea adventure and a fascinating portrait of a unique outcast from civilization. One long evening, over cigars and brandy, the seasoned sea captain, Marlow, recalls the life of a handsome young first mate who loses his ship and his honor, but becomes a god. As his friends listen and question, the powerful and eloquent story of Lord Jim unfolds. Joseph Conrad’s novels are timeless. The images he creates in Lord Jim, of man’s struggle to maintain a balance between morality and human weakness, have been echoed in countless other novels and major motion pictures. Narrator Steven Crossley provides the perfect voice to convey both the worldly-wise Marlow and the brilliant but deeply flawed Jim.
Public Domain (P)1997 Recorded Books, LLC
Nostromo
Summary
Joseph Conrad’s multilayered masterpiece tells of one nation's violent revolution and one hero's moral degeneration. Conrad convincingly invents an entire country, Costaguana, and sets it afire as warlords compete for power and a fortune in silver. Señor Gould, adamant that his silver should not become spoil for his enemies, entrusts it to his faithful longshoreman, Nostromo, a local hero of sorts whom Señor Gould believes to be incorruptible. Nostromo accepts the mission as an opportunity to increase his own fame. But when his exploit fails to win him the rewards he had hoped for, he is consumed by a corrupting resentment. Nostromo, relevant both as literature and as a brilliant social study, ambitiously brings to life Latin American history and the politics of an underdeveloped country.
Public Domain (P)2010 Blackstone Audio, Inc.
The Mirror of the Sea
Summary
First published in 1906, The Mirror of the Sea was the first of Joseph Conrad’s two autobiographical memoirs. Discussing it, he called the book “a very intimate revelation...I have attempted here to lay bare with the unreserve of a last hour’s confession the terms of my relation with the sea, which beginning mysteriously, like any great passion the inscrutable Gods send to mortals, went on unreasoning and invincible, surviving the test of disillusion, defying the disenchantment that lurks in every day of a strenuous life; went on full of love’s delight and love’s anguish, facing them in open-eyed exultation without bitterness and without repining, from the first hour to the last.” When Joseph Conrad was discharged from the clipper Torrens in London during the summer of 1893, his seafaring career was over. He had travelled the world by then, risen in rank from apprentice to captain, survived shipwreck and turbulent seas. But, after 19 years afloat he longed for the land, and wrote to his cousin of the “uniform grey of my existence”. Once ashore, however, vivid memories of his past life began to surface. While steam and internal combustion were changing maritime travel forever, Conrad started to reflect on the voyages he had made in the Golden Age of Sail, the people and ships he had known, and the extraordinary communities whose lives, language, and very nature were shaped by the swells and silences of the open ocean. The Mirror of the Sea is a personal meditation on the sea and its meanings by one of the 20th century’s most important novelists.
Public Domain (P)2021 by Blackstone Publishing
The Classic Tales Podcast, Season Two
Summary
Relish the wonders of Classic Literature in B.J. Harrison’s second season of The Classic Tales Podcast. Experience more of the greatest fiction ever written, as it comes to life in this unprecedented audiobook. Adventure from Jack London and Edgar Rice Burroughs, gothic suspense from Wilkie Collins and Edgar Allan Poe, humor from Mark Twain and P.G. Wodehouse - this collection has it all, complete and unabridged. Running time is over 37 hours! Titles include: "The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle", by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle; "The Most Dangerous Game", by Richard Connell; "The Man Who Would Be King", by Rudyard Kipling; "The Highwayman", by Alfred Noyes, "Berenice"; by Edgar Allan Poe; "The Offshore Pirate"; by F. Scott Fitzgerald, "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner"; by Samuel Taylor Coleridge, "To Build a Fire", by Jack London; "The Body Snatcher", by Robert Louis Stevenson; "The Blue Cross", by G. K. Chesterton; "If", by Rudyard Kipling; "Heart of Darkness", by Joseph Conrad; "Leave It to Jeeves", by P.G. Wodehouse; "The Birthmark", by Nathaniel Hawthorne; "The Red Room", by H. G. Wells; "The Million Pound Bank Note", by Mark Twain; "The Aunt and Amabel", by E. Nesbit; "Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves", from The Arabian Nights; "The Hound of the Baskervilles", by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle; "Jeeves and the Unwanted Guest", by P.G. Wodehouse; "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge", by Ambrose Bierce; "A Horseman in the Sky", by Ambrose Bierce; "Bernice Bobs Her Hair", by F. Scott Fitzgerald; "The Yellow Wallpaper", by Charlotte Perkins Gilman; "Fear" and "Was It a Dream?" by Guy de Maupassant; "The Canterville Ghost", by Oscar Wilde; "The Man Upstairs", by P. G. Wodehouse; "The Strange Case of Dr. Jeckyll and Mr. Hyde", by Robert Louis Stevenson; "Dracula's Guest", by Bram Stoker; "Rikki-Tikki-Tavi", by Rudyard Kipling; "The Machine Stops", by E.M. Forster; "The Purple Dress", by O. Henry; and more!
Public Domain (P)2007 BJ Harrison
The Very Best of Joseph Conrad
Summary
Heart of Darkness (1899) is a novella by the Polish-English novelist Joseph Conrad, about a voyage up the Congo River into the Belgian Congo in the Heart of Africa. Charles Marlow, the narrator, tells his story to friends aboard a boat anchored on the River Thames. The story is based on a journey that Conrad took up the Congo River in 1890, during King Leopold II of Belgium’s abusive rule of the area. It exposes the cruelty that the author observed during his visit to the area. The Secret Agent is a brutal and tragic tale with the themes of espionage, double agents, international politics and terrorism. Mr. Verloc is a secret agent who leads a double life. When he gets involved in an anarchist plot to blow up the Greenwich Observatory, things go wrong, with disastrous consequences for his unsuspecting family.
Public Domain (P)2020 Museum Audiobooks
Lord Jim
Summary
Narrated by Graham Scott Idealistic parson's son Jim goes to sea thirsting for adventure as the mate of the pilgrim ship Patna. However, when disaster looms, Jim is persuaded by his crewmates to abandon the ship, leaving the vessel and hundreds of passengers to their fate. But with his life in ruins, Jim alone has the courage to face up to the public censure which follows, piquing the interest of Captain Marlow, who befriends Jim and relates the tale of the young man's attempts to come to terms with his guilt and make an honorable future for himself. Production copyright 2021 Voices of Today
Public Domain (P)2021 Voices of Today
Heart of Darkness
Summary
Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness (1902) is an expose of the cruelty that the author observed when he worked briefly in the Belgian Congo. The story is based on a journey that Conrad took up the Congo River in 1890, during King Leopold II of Belgium’s abusive rule of the area. The main thread follows the journey of the ferry-boat captain, Marlow, who must return Kurtz, an ivory trader, to Europe. The severely ill Kurtz dies on the journey after handling Marlow a collection of papers. Back in Europe, Marlow gives these to a journalist instead of those for which they were intended. Heart of Darkness is a story of many layers and nuances, not only about exploitation but also about the emptiness which follows when the delusion behind certain lofty ideals is revealed.
Public Domain (P)2020 Museum Audiobooks