A Journey to the Centre of the Earth
Read by Multiple Readers
Running Time:10:35:59 in 1 MP3 Audio CD
Genre(s): Action & Adventure Fiction, Fantastic Fiction
The story involves a German professor (Otto Lidenbrock in the original French, Professor Von Hardwigg in the most common English translation) who believes there are volcanic tubes going toward the center of the Earth. He, his nephew Axel (Harry), and their guide Hans encounter many adventures, including prehistoric animals and natural hazards, eventually coming to the surface again in southern Italy.
A Journey to the Interior of the Earth
Read by Mark Nelson
Running Time:08:07:29 in 1 MP3 Audio CD
Genre(s): Action & Adventure Fiction, Fantastic Fiction, Fantasy Fiction
A German scientist discovers an ancient runic message, which when translated proves to be a map to the center of a hollow Earth! The professor and his nephew then embark on a dangerous adventure down an Icelandic volcano to explore an unknown world in the interior of the Earth.
Abandoned
Read by Multiple Readers
Running Time:07:01:10 in 1 MP3 Audio CD
Genre(s): Action & Adventure Fiction
Explorers in a hot-air balloon land on an island, figuring that they must be the only inhabitants. However, they discover a bullet inside a wounded animal--one which must have been fired within the previous three months. The men propose to build a canoe so they can survey the island in search of other human life. Many adventures follow, one after another. They find a large chest filled with provisions and tools. Setting off in search of who might have left the chest, the travelers make their way through the Mercy River to the sea. During their trek, the men find remnants of the balloon they arrived in. Back at camp (Granite House) they find their ladder to the house has been removed--by invading orangutans. Soon the animals are defeated, except for one, whom they tame to become a house servant. The men construct a bridge over the river. They protect their abode by surrounding it on all sides with water. They undertake projects to make their colony habitable and comfortable. They create a hydraulic lift to replace the ladder. They build a seagoing boat for further exploration. Eventually they discover another human on Tabor Island, bringing him back to their now-well-stocked colony.
An Antarctic Mystery, or The Sphinx of the Ice Fields
Read by Esther
Running Time:8:19:43 in 1 MP3 Audio CD
Genre(s): Nautical & Marine Fiction
Edgar Allan Poe's telling of Arthur Pym's narrative is shown to be true as events come together that bring out clues that help Captain Len Guy trace the fate of his brother's ship the Jane; the very ship that Arthur Pym was on board at the time of his disappearance. Through the efforts of Mr. Joerling, the crew of the Halbrane is enticed to make the trip to Antarctica to search for any survivors of the Jane.
Around the World in Eighty Days
Read by Mark F. Smith
Running Time:7:35:10 in 1 MP3 Audio CD
Genre(s): Action & Adventure Fiction
Mysterious Phileas Fogg is a cool customer. A man of the most repetitious and punctual habit - with no apparent sense of adventure whatsoever - he gambles his considerable fortune that he can complete a journey around the world in just 80 days... immediately after a newspaper calculates the feat as just barely possible.
With his excitable French manservant in tow, Fogg undertakes the exercise immediately, with no preparations, trusting that his traveling funds will make up for delays along the way. But unbeknownst to him, British police are desperately seeking to arrest him for the theft of a huge sum by someone who resembles him, and they will track him around the world, if necessary, to apprehend him.
This is an adventure novel of the first water, with wholly unexpected perils, hair-breadth escapes, brilliant solutions to insoluble problems, and even a love story. And can this be? - That he returns to London just five minutes too late to win his wager and retain his fortune?
Captain Antifer
Read by Joseph DeNoia
Running Time:09:09:40 in 1 MP3 Audio CD
Genre(s): Action & Adventure Fiction, Literary Fiction
“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.
Celebrated Travels and Travellers, Vol. 1
Read by Multiple Readers
Running Time:18:23:19 in 1 MP3 Audio CD
Genre(s): Exploration
The famous writer of great adventure stories Jules Verne wrote also several lesser known, but good non-fiction works. "Celebrated travels and travellers" tells the story of geographical discovery in the same well written and precise manner we are used to finding in Verne’s fiction books. This book is divided into 3 volumes. This is the first volume, named the "Exploration of the World" and it covers the period in the World's history of exploration from B.C. 505 to the close of the 17th century. The second and third volumes are respectively entitled "The great navigators of the 18th century" and "The great navigators of the 19th century".
Celebrated Travels and Travellers, Vol. 2
Read by Multiple Readers
Running Time:17:56:50 in 1 MP3 Audio CD
Genre(s): Exploration
This volume, entitled "The Great Navigators of the 18th century", forms the second of three volumes under the general title of "Celebrated Travels and Travellers". The first volume of the series, "Exploration of the World", covers a period in the world's history extending from B.C. 505, to the close of the 17th century, and the third volume gives an account of "The Great Explorers and Travellers of the 19th Century".
Celebrated Travels and Travellers, Vol. 3
Read by Multiple Readers
Running Time:17:35:09 in 1 MP3 Audio CD
Genre(s): Exploration
This volume, entitled "The great explorers of the 19th century", forms the third of three volumes under the general title of "Celebrated travels and travellers".
Volume three comprehends:
"The dawn of a century of discovery" (part I, chap. I), "The exploration and colonization of Africa" (part I, chap. II), "The oriental scientific movement and American discoveries" (part I, chap. III), "Voyages round the world, and Polar expeditions" (part II, chap. I), "French circumnavigators" (part II, chap. II), "Polar expeditions" (part II, chap. III, part I) and "The North Pole" (part II, chap. III, part II)
Dick Sands the Boy Captain
Read by Alex C. Telander
Running Time:8:37:10in 1 MP3 Audio CD
Genre(s): Action & Adventure Fiction
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.
Doctor Ox's Experiment
Read by Alan Winterrowd
Running Time:2:12:42 in 1 MP3 Audio CD
Genre(s): Action & Adventure Fiction, Fantastic Fiction, Humorous Fiction
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.
Eight Hundred Leagues on the Amazon
Read by Multiple Readers
Running Time:10:15:12 in 1 MP3 Audio CD
Genre(s): Action & Adventure Fiction
First published in 1881, Eight Hundred Miles on the Amazon is an adventure novel by Jules Verne, having elements of codes and cryptography. Unlike many of his other stories, it is not a work of science fiction. Rather, it describes a voyage down the Amazon River on a large raft, or jangada). Many aspects of the raft, scenery, and journey are described in detail.
Facing the Flag
Read by John Kooz, Patrick Wells and Nadine Eckert-Boulet
Running Time:6:10:55 in 1 MP3 Audio CD
Genre(s): Action & Adventure Fiction, Science Fiction
Like The Begum's Millions, which Verne published in 1879, it has the theme of France, and the entire world threatened by a super-weapon (what would now be called a weapon of mass destruction) with the threat finally overcome through the force of French patriotism.
Five Weeks in a Balloon
Read by Alex C. Telander
Running Time:8:16:29 in 1 MP3 Audio CD
Genre(s): Action & Adventure Fiction
Join three intrepid explorers as they seek to cross and explore the continent of Africa from Indian Ocean to Atlantic Ocean, except they’re doing it by hot air balloon. Scholar and scientist Samuel Ferguson, his manservant Joe, and his friend Richard “Dick” Kennedy engage in this mighty scientific feat, as they face danger after danger, enjoy adventure after adventure, and experience the literal highs and lows of Africa from the view of a hot air balloon.
From the Earth to the Moon
Read by Mark F. Smith
Running Time:05:05:49 in 1 MP3 Audio CD
Genre(s): Action & Adventure Fiction, Travel Fiction, Science Fiction
Jules Verne takes aim at some amusing stereotypes of Americans in this story of a pre-rocketry attempt to shoot a cannonball to the Moon. Those Yankees don’t do anything by halves!
His means is a Columbiad cannon so enormous that it must be bored 900 feet into the ground, so immense that 1200 smelting furnaces would be needed to create the iron for its casting, so stupendous that 100 tons of guncotton would be needed to loft its cannonball heavenwards.
The journey must be watched from the tallest peak of the Rocky Mountains through a new telescope with a reflector measuring 16 feet in diameter and a tube reaching skyward 280 feet.
And then - a simple telegram upsets all the preparations. An unknown Frenchman has taken ship and is on the way. And he has firmly decided that he will ride inside the projectile!
Godfrey Morgan: a Californian Mystery
Read by Arnold Banner
Running Time:06:05:15 in 1 MP3 Audio CD
Genre(s): Action & Adventure Fiction, Nautical & Marine Fiction
This Verne adventure is indeed a mystery and also a satire on the Crusoe genre. Our characters are larger than life, as well they should be - Verne expects Americans to perform epics. Young Godfrey goes to sea for adventure before settling down with his bride to be. His incredibly wealthy uncle sets him aboard one of his steamers which founders some days out, leaving Godfrey and his companion, a dance and comportment instructor, near the shore of a uninhabited island. They set up residence, benefiting from livestock, some supplies and tools which apparently also wash ashore. Later, a canoe full of savages land in order to cook up a prisoner. Godfrey helps the latter escape, and the grateful native becomes a "Friday". While the island initially seems free from any predators, it is not long before Friday saves Godfrey from a bear, a tiger and a poisonous snake. But when swarms of lions, tigers, hyenas and crocodiles attack it is more than they can handle. Where do all the beasts come from? What is the cause of the occasional plume of smoke Godfrey notes on the island? Those are some of the mysteries about which the reader will be enlightened.
In Search of the Castaways
Read by Multiple Readers
Running Time:17:01:39 in 1 MP3 Audio CD
Genre(s): Action & Adventure Fiction
The book tells the story of the quest for Captain Grant of the Britannia. After finding a bottle cast into the ocean by the captain himself after the Britannia is shipwrecked, Lord and Lady Glenarvan of Scotland decide to launch a rescue expedition. The main difficulty is that the coordinates of the wreckage are mostly erased, and only the latitude (37 degrees) is known.
Lord Glenarvan makes it his quest to find Grant; together with his wife, Grant's children and the crew of his yacht the Duncan they set off for South America. An unexpected passenger in the form of French geographer Jacques Paganel joins the search. They explore Patagonia, Tristan da Cunha Island, Amsterdam Island, Australia and New Zealand in their search for the castaways.
Master Zacharius
Read by Zachary Katz-Stein
Running Time:01:36:49 in 1 MP3 Audio CD
Genre(s): Gothic Fiction, Fantasy Fiction
Master Zacharius is a man of science, skill, and overpowering pride. He is the first to successfully, and accurately, regulate time. Does this not make him God-like? What then, should such a man do when his time is running out and his legacy is in danger?
Meridiana: The Adventures of three Englishmen and three Russians in South Africa
Read by Multiple Readers
Running Time:05:28:26 in 1 MP3 Audio CD
Genre(s): Travel Fiction
Three Englishmen and Three Russians travel across the width of South Africa to measure a meridian. The outbreak of the Crimean War makes the Russians enemy agents in an English colony.
Michael Strogoff
Read by David Leeson
Running Time:9:45:52 in 1 MP3 Audio CD
Genre(s): Suspense, Espionage, Political & Thrillers
This is the account of the perilous mission of Michael Strogoff, courier for Czar Alexander II, who is sent from Moscow to the besieged city of Irkutsk, where the governor, brother of the Czar, has taken his last stand against a Tartar rebellion led by the fearsome Feofar-Khan. When telegraph lines are cut between the Russian Far East and the mainland, Strogoff must make his way through hostile territory to warn the governor of the return of the traitor Ivan Ogareff, a disgraced former officer who seeks vengeance against the Tsar’s family by the destruction of Irkutsk.
Off on a Comet
Read by Multiple Readers
Running Time:11:11:22 in 1 MP3 Audio CD
Genre(s): Action & Adventure Fiction, Science Fiction
The story starts with a comet that touches the Earth in its flight and collects a few small chunks of it. Some forty people of various nations and ages are condemned to a two-year-long journey on the comet. They form a mini-society and cope with the hostile environment of the comet (mostly the cold). The size of the 'comet' is about 2300 kilometers in diameter - far larger than any comet or asteroid that actually exists.
Round the Moon
Read by Mark F. Smith
Running Time:06:15:17 in 1 MP3 Audio CD
Genre(s): Action & Adventure Fiction, Travel Fiction, Science Fiction
Around the Moon, Jules Verne's sequel to From the Earth to the Moon, is a science fiction novel continuing the trip to the moon which left the reader in suspense after the previous novel. It was later combined with From the Earth to the Moon to create A Trip to the Moon and Around It.
Survivors of the Chancellor
Read by Joseph DeNoia
Running Time:05:02:14 in 1 MP3 Audio CD
Genre(s): Action & Adventure Fiction
The Survivors of the Chancellor is a poignant and tragic tale of terror and intrigue on the high seas. Through raging storms, emaciating hunger and thirst, shipwreck and mutiny…follow the passengers of The Chancellor as they descend from one layer of hell to the next; never knowing if they will live another day. Horrific tragedy befalls them one after another, chipping away at the resolve and sanity of the passengers and crew. This tale is told in the first person, from the point of view of one of the passengers, J. R. Kazallon. He and seven other passengers debark from Charleston, South Carolina with twenty crew…and never arrive at their destination in England.
The Adventures of Captain Hatteras, Part 1: The English at the North Pole
Read by Multiple Readers
Running Time:07:57:31 in 1 MP3 Audio CD
Genre(s): Action & Adventure Fiction, Nautical & Marine Fiction
The novel, set in 1861, describes adventures of British expedition led by Captain John Hatteras to the North Pole. Hatteras is convinced that the sea around the pole is not frozen and his obsession is to reach the place no matter what. Mutiny by the crew results in destruction of their ship but Hatteras, with a few men, continues on the expedition.
The Adventures of Captain Hatteras, Part 2: The Field of Ice
Read by Multiple Readers
Running Time:04:54:30 in 1 MP3 Audio CD
Genre(s): Action & Adventure Fiction, Nautical & Marine Fiction
The novel, set in 1861, describes adventures of British expedition led by Captain John Hatteras to the North Pole. Hatteras is convinced that the sea around the pole is not frozen and his obsession is to reach the place no matter what. Mutiny by the crew results in destruction of their ship but Hatteras, with a few men, continues on the expedition.
The Begum's Fortune
Read by Kate Follis
Running Time:06:21:48 in 1 MP3 Audio CD
Genre(s): Science Fiction, War & Military Fiction, Published 1800 -1900
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.
The Blockade Runners
Read by Mark F. Smith
Running Time:2:02:45 in 1 MP3 Audio CD
Genre(s): Action & Adventure Fiction, Historical Fiction, War & Military Fiction
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.
The Castaways of the Flag
Read by Multiple Readers
Running Time:05:15:03 in 1 MP3 Audio CD
Genre(s): Action & Adventure
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.
The Fur Country
Read by Esther
Running Time:13:36:08 in 1 MP3 Audio CD
Genre(s): Action & Adventure Fiction
In 1859, officers of the Hudson's Bay Company travel through the Northwest Territories of Canada on a mission to found a fort at 70 degrees, north of the Arctic Circle. At some point, an earthquake occurs, and from then on, laws of physics seem altered (a total eclipse happens to be only partial; tides are not perceived anymore). They eventually realize that they are not where they are supposed to be.
The Castle of the Carpathians
Read by Joseph DeNoia
Running Time:04:12:45 in 1 MP3 Audio CD
Genre(s): Horror & Supernatural Fiction
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 dungeon. 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.
The Master of the World
Read by Mark F. Smith
Running Time:4:54:15 in 1 MP3 Audio CD
Genre(s): Action & Adventure Fiction, Detective Fiction, Science Fiction
Set in a period when gasoline engines were in their infancy and automobiles were rare, and when even Chief Inspectors had to engage a carriage and horses to move about, the appearance of a vehicle that can move at astounding speeds on land, on water - and as later revealed, underwater and through the air - marks a technological advance far beyond the reach of nations. It is technology invented by and for the sole benefit of a man who styles himself (with some justification) "The Master of the World."
The Mysterious Island
Read by Mark F. Smith
Running Time:21:58:03 in 2 MP3 Audio CDs
Genre(s): Science Fiction
A story of castaways, similar to Robinson Crusoe and The Swiss Family Robinson, this book details the escape from Civil War-era Richmond, Virginia, of five Northern men who dared to go aloft in a balloon in the midst of a hurricane. Deposited on a lonely island in the Pacific, they make do with Yankee ingenuity where Chance has left them nothing. Only later do they find they have a hidden benefactor: Captain Nemo, of 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, who resides, alone, secretly on the island. In time, the tiny colony becomes so prosperous that it is able to rescue another castaway from an island a hundred miles away. But all their work will come to naught - their island's volcano is about to awake!
The Mysterious Island - Shipwrecked in the Air
Read by Piotr Nater
Running Time:05:56:16 in 1 MP3 Audio CD
Genre(s): Action & Adventure Fiction, Science Fiction
In the final months of the American Civil War five Northerners find themselves trapped in the Southern capital of Richmond. They conceive of a plan to escape with a balloon kept nearby.
However, not all goes as planned and as a powerful gale surprises them, their balloon veers off course by some thousands of miles and the five find themselves fighting desperately for their survival.
The Steam House
Read by Multiple Readers
Running Time:11:48:25 in 1 MP3 Audio CD
Genre(s): Action & Adventure Fiction, Science Fiction
Jules Verne is back with another action-packed adventure--this time in India with a steam-powered elephant! Maucler, Captain Hood, Banks, and Colonel Munro set out for a pleasure trip across India in their train pulled by Behemoth, their mechanical elephant, but soon realize that they are in the midst of a plot by the Colonel's archenemy, Nana Sahib, to get vengeance for past wrongs and seize control of India once and for all. Will they be able to escape from a hidden assassin and uncover a secret hidden for decades in time to stop Nana Sahib? You’ll have to join us in this exciting story read by Librivox volunteers to find out!
The Tribulations of a Chinaman in China
Read by Multiple Readers
Running Time:6:59:34 in 1 MP3 Audio CD
Genre(s): General Fiction
The rich and phlegmatic Kin-Fo loses his fortune and decides to die, but not before experiencing some strong emotions. He asks his friend Wang to kill him before a given date. Everything changes when Kin-Fo discovers he is not poor after all and he sets on a journey around China, trying to find his friend to cancel their deal.
The Underground City or the Child of the Cavern
Read by Multiple Readers
Running Time:4:30:39 in 1 MP3 Audio CD
Genre(s): Action & Adventure Fiction
Covering a time span of over ten years, this novel follows the fortunes of the mining community of Aberfoyle near Stirling, Scotland. Receiving a letter from an old colleague, mining engineer James Starr sets off for the old Aberfoyle mine, thought to have been mined out ten years earlier. Starr finds mine overman Simon Ford and his family living in a cottage deep inside the mine; he is astonished to find that Ford has made a discovery of the presence of a large vein of coal. Accompanying Simon Ford are his wife, Madge, and adult son, Harry.
Topsy-Turvy
Read by Multiple Readers
Running Time:4:26:57 in 1 MP3 Audio CD
Genre(s): Action & Adventure Fiction, Science Fiction
Topsy Turvy is a translation of Sans dessus dessous (1889) . This anonymous translation was first published by J. G. Ogilvie (New York, 1890). We meet our old friends Barbicane and J.T. Maston from “Earth to the Moon” who now give us their own approach to the topic of “global warming”. Although they are searching for coal and not oil, readers will find that the auction of the Arctic energy reserves has a definite 21st century ring.
Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea
Read by Michele Fry
Running Time:16:46:23 in 1 MP3 Audio CD
Genre(s): Action & Adventure Fiction, Travel Fiction
Originally published 1870, this recording is from the English translation by Frederick P. Walter, published 1991, containing the unabridged text from the original French and offered up into the public domain. It is considered to be the very first science fiction novel ever written, the first novel about the undersea world, and is a classic science fiction novel by French writer Jules Verne published in 1870. It tells the story of Captain Nemo and his submarine Nautilus, as seen from the perspective of Professor Pierre Aronnax
Ticket No. "9672"
Read by Multiple Readers
Running Time:05:26:55
Genre(s): General Fiction
One of the forgotten novels by adventure science fiction writer, Jules Verne, "Ticket No. 9672" (also known as "The lottery ticket") is less of science and more of fiction, with a touch of romance and a dose of travelling and scenery description.
Hulda and her mother, Dame Hansen, reside in a Norwegian inn, awaiting the return of Hulda's betrothed, but when his ship is lost at sea, all they find is a cryptic message in a bottle, or rather a lottery ticket!
Circumstances and a series of coincidences lead to a resolution, but will it be a happy one?