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The Old Wives' Tale by Arnold Bennett

Arnold Bennett’s *Old Wives’ Tale* is a quiet, unassuming monument to the lives often left unchronicled: the slow, unglamorous passage of time as measured…

The Old Wives' Tale by Arnold Bennett
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Runtime: 23 hr 19 min · Watch the full audiobook on YouTube · Subscribe to Ion Books

Arnold Bennett’s *Old Wives’ Tale* is a quiet, unassuming monument to the lives often left unchronicled: the slow, unglamorous passage of time as measured by the quiet resilience of women. Set against the industrial heartland of 19th-century Staffordshire and the cosmopolitan shadows of Paris, the novel traces the divergent fates of sisters Constance and Sophia Baines, whose lives unfold like a meditation on choice, constraint, and the inexorable march of years. Bennett, himself a native of the “Five Towns” he fictionalizes, wields a realist’s precision and a poet’s empathy, his prose grounded in the textures of pottery works and shopfronts, in the hush of aging fabrics and the rustle of letters yellowed by decades. Written at the turn of the 20th century, the novel arrived in an era when literature still wrestled with the Victorian ideal of the “heroic” life, yet Bennett’s genius lies in his elevation of the ordinary. His preface, a daring meta-commentary for its time, declares his intent to chronicle the “tragedy” of aging women, a subject dismissed as unworthy of literary grandeur.

Summary generated by AI model Qwen 3

Public domain & narration

The Old Wives' Tale was first published in 1908. Works first published before 1931 are in the public domain in the United States, so the text is free to read, share and adapt. The edition shown here comes from Project Gutenberg, which publishes only books that are in the US public domain.

The narration is the LibriVox recording read by Andy Minter (1934-2017). LibriVox volunteers dedicate their recordings to the public domain.

Ion Books adds the synchronized scrolling text and video, so you can read along while you listen, for free.

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Chapters

  1. Chapter 1: Preface (11:37) · watch
  2. Chapter 2: Bk 1 Mrs. Baines Ch 1 The Square (49:37) · watch
  3. Chapter 3: Bk 1 Ch 2 The Tooth (25:19) · watch
  4. Chapter 4: Bk1 Ch 3 A Battle Pt 1 (41:02) · watch
  5. Chapter 5: Bk1 Ch 3 A Battle Pt 2 (38:40) · watch
  6. Chapter 6: Bk 1 Ch 4 Elephant (41:57) · watch
  7. Chapter 7: Bk 1 Ch 5 The Traveller (45:11) · watch
  8. Chapter 8: Bk 1 Ch 6 Escapade (42:49) · watch
  9. Chapter 9: Bk 1 Ch 7 A Defeat (34:00) · watch
  10. Chapter 10: Bk 2 Constance Ch 1 Revolution (44:35) · watch
  11. Chapter 11: Bk2 Ch 2 Christmas and the Future (39:31) · watch
  12. Chapter 12: Bk 2 Ch 3 Cyril (47:01) · watch
  13. Chapter 13: Bk 2 Ch 4 Crime (43:07) · watch
  14. Chapter 14: Bk 2 Ch 5 Another Crime Pt 1 (36:29) · watch
  15. Chapter 15: Bk 2 Ch 5 Another Crime Pt 2 (43:00) · watch
  16. Chapter 16: Bk 2 Ch 6 The Widow (28:11) · watch
  17. Chapter 17: Bk 2 Ch 7 Bricks and Mortar (32:04) · watch
  18. Chapter 18: Bk 2 Ch 8 The Proudest Mother (25:57) · watch
  19. Chapter 19: Bk 3 Sophia Ch 1 The Elopement (29:43) · watch
  20. Chapter 20: Bk 3 Ch 2 Supper (37:11) · watch
  21. Chapter 21: Bk 3 Ch 3 An Ambition Satisfied (44:47) · watch
  22. Chapter 22: Bk 3 Ch 4 A Crisis for Gerald (46:29) · watch
  23. Chapter 23: Bk 3 Ch 5 Fever Pt 1 (57:30) · watch
  24. Chapter 24: Bk 3 Ch 5 Fever Pt 2 (27:08) · watch
  25. Chapter 25: Bk 3 Ch 6 The Siege (1:03:41) · watch
  26. Chapter 26: Bk 3 Ch 7 Success (44:15) · watch
  27. Chapter 27: BBk 4 What Life is Ch 1 Frensham's Pt 1 (33:52) · watch
  28. Chapter 28: Bk 4 Ch 1 Frensham's Pt 2 (43:00) · watch
  29. Chapter 29: Bk 4 Ch 2 The Meeting (1:02:37) · watch
  30. Chapter 30: Bk 4 Ch 3 Towards Hotel Life Pt 1 (48:47) · watch
  31. Chapter 31: Bk 4 Ch 3 Towards Hotel Life Pt 2 (47:31) · watch
  32. Chapter 32: Bk 4 Ch 4 End of Sophia Pt 1 (38:01) · watch
  33. Chapter 33: Bk 4 Ch 4 End of Sophia Pt 2 (42:40) · watch
  34. Chapter 34: Bk 4 Ch 5 End of Constance (1:01:14) · watch

Full text

This work is too long to show on one page. Read it on Project Gutenberg · download ebook.txt

Sources

Raw pipeline data (admin)