Audiobook Sample

Listen to the sample to experience the story.

Please wait while we verify your browser...

  • Title: Ghosts
  • Author: Henrik Ibsen
  • Narrator: LibriVox Volunteers
  • Length: 02:10:17
  • Version: Abridged
  • Release Date: 01/01/2016
  • Publisher: LibriVox
  • Genre: Audio Theatre, Drama
  • ISBN13: SABLIB9782058
Hey story lovers and digital culture explorers!

Let me tell you about the time I first encountered Ibsen’s Ghosts in college – not as a dusty textbook assignment, but as a revelation during a midnight recording session for our campus radio drama club. We were experimenting with how nineteenth-century plays could live in modern audio formats, and Ghosts hit us like a thunderclap. Now, experiencing LibriVox’s free audiobook version years later, I’m struck by how this volunteer production captures the same raw power that electrified us that night.

Here’s what makes this interesting: Ghosts isn’t just a play about Victorian-era scandals. It’s a blueprint for how audio storytelling can amplify uncomfortable truths. The LibriVox ensemble (special shoutout to Elizabeth Klett’s nuanced Mrs. Alving) doesn’t just recite lines – they create a soundscape where you can hear the creaking weight of societal expectations in every pause. When Pastor Manders lectures about morality, you’ll catch the subtle vocal tremble that betrays his hypocrisy – something I missed in three previous readings of the text.

The cultural impact here is massive. Ibsen’s exploration of hereditary disease and social hypocrisy plays differently through headphones than on paper. There’s an intimacy to hearing Oswald’s desperate “Give me the sun, mother” whispered rather than read – it reminded me of how my BookTok community dissected similar moments in The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo. The collective narration approach (a signature LibriVox style) actually serves this play well – the shifting voices mirror how each character perceives the ‘ghosts’ of Captain Alving’s legacy differently.

Let’s break this down technically:
– Audio Quality: As with all volunteer productions, there’s variability, but the emotional authenticity compensates
– Pacing: The 2.5 hour runtime feels appropriately claustrophobic – you’re trapped in that dreary Norwegian parlor with the Alvings
– Standout Performance: The reader playing Regina brings surprising modernity to her pragmatic character

Compared to other Ibsen audio adaptations, this lacks professional polish but gains something more valuable – the passionate immediacy of performers who clearly care about the material. It’s like the difference between a museum recording and a passionate college production where everyone’s risking emotional exposure.

For my podcast listeners who loved our ‘Project Hail Mary’ sound design episode – notice how the simple act of hearing doors slam versus reading stage directions changes your relationship to the text. The famous final scene lands with devastating weight when you’re not visually reading stage directions but fully immersed in the audio reality.

Who should download this? Anyone studying:
– The roots of modern drama
– Feminist literature history
– Audio storytelling techniques
– Social commentary in art

Fair warning – the volunteer narration means occasional unevenness. But that’s part of the charm, honestly. This isn’t a slick studio product; it’s a labor of love that makes Ibsen’s revolutionary ideas accessible to anyone with an internet connection. And that’s exactly why I’ll be featuring it in my upcoming ‘Democratizing Classics’ series on BookTok.

Keep listening bravely,
Sophie

(P.S. Slide into my DMs with your Ghosts hot takes – I live for this discourse!)
Sophie Bennett