The Two Brothers
Audio With External Links Item Preview
Share or Embed This Item
- Publication date
- 2024-03-10
- Topics
- librivox, audiobooks, siblings, realism, parents, 19th-century france, family relations, post-napoleonic france
- Language
- English
LibriVox recording of The Two Brothers by Honoré de Balzac; translated by Katherine Prescott Wormeley.
Read in English by Bruce Pirie
“The Two Brothers” (1842) is part of Balzac’s great life work, the novel series known as “The Human Comedy.” Balzac’s French title was “La Rabouilleuse”; other English translations have been variously titled “The Black Sheep” and “A Bachelor’s Establishment.”
After initially detailing the backstories of his characters, Balzac launches into an engaging and searing portrait of family relationships: parental, filial, and sibling relations are all tested to the breaking point.
In small town in post-Napoleonic France, a father mistakenly believes that his daughter is not his legitimate offspring, and hustles her off to be raised by his in-laws in Paris. This girl grows up, marries, and becomes the mother of two boys. Mistakenly, she dotes on only one of these sons, unable to see that the lad is in fact a selfish, cruel scoundrel.
Meanwhile, back in the provinces, her brother, still ensconced in the family home, has grown up to be a feckless non-entity, vulnerable to the manipulations of those around him, including an attractive servant girl (“La Rabouilleuse”) who has been taken into the household.
Things get complicated when the Paris branch of the family returns to the small town, hoping to carve out for themselves a share of the late father’s inheritance. - Summary by Bruce Pirie
For further information, including links to online text, reader information, RSS feeds, CD cover or other formats (if available), please go to the LibriVox catalog page for this recording.
For more free audio books or to become a volunteer reader, visit librivox.org.
M4B Audiobook 01-10 (214MB)
M4B Audiobook 11-17 (161MB)
Read in English by Bruce Pirie
“The Two Brothers” (1842) is part of Balzac’s great life work, the novel series known as “The Human Comedy.” Balzac’s French title was “La Rabouilleuse”; other English translations have been variously titled “The Black Sheep” and “A Bachelor’s Establishment.”
After initially detailing the backstories of his characters, Balzac launches into an engaging and searing portrait of family relationships: parental, filial, and sibling relations are all tested to the breaking point.
In small town in post-Napoleonic France, a father mistakenly believes that his daughter is not his legitimate offspring, and hustles her off to be raised by his in-laws in Paris. This girl grows up, marries, and becomes the mother of two boys. Mistakenly, she dotes on only one of these sons, unable to see that the lad is in fact a selfish, cruel scoundrel.
Meanwhile, back in the provinces, her brother, still ensconced in the family home, has grown up to be a feckless non-entity, vulnerable to the manipulations of those around him, including an attractive servant girl (“La Rabouilleuse”) who has been taken into the household.
Things get complicated when the Paris branch of the family returns to the small town, hoping to carve out for themselves a share of the late father’s inheritance. - Summary by Bruce Pirie
For further information, including links to online text, reader information, RSS feeds, CD cover or other formats (if available), please go to the LibriVox catalog page for this recording.
For more free audio books or to become a volunteer reader, visit librivox.org.
M4B Audiobook 01-10 (214MB)
M4B Audiobook 11-17 (161MB)
- Addeddate
- 2024-03-11 00:31:50
- Call number
- 20000
- Identifier
- twobrothers_2403_librivox
- Ocr
- tesseract 5.3.0-6-g76ae
- Ocr_detected_lang
- en
- Ocr_detected_lang_conf
- 1.0000
- Ocr_detected_script
- Latin
- Ocr_detected_script_conf
- 1.0000
- Ocr_module_version
- 0.0.21
- Ocr_parameters
- -l eng
- Page_number_confidence
- 0
- Page_number_module_version
- 1.0.5
- Ppi
- 300
- Run time
- 13:40:24
- Year
- 2024
comment
Reviews
There are no reviews yet. Be the first one to
write a review.
15,205 Views
3 Favorites
DOWNLOAD OPTIONS
128KBPS MP3
Uplevel BACK
35.0M
01 - Chapter 1 download
45.0M
02 - Chapter 2 download
45.6M
03 - Chapter 3 download
41.1M
04 - Chapter 4 download
39.3M
05 - Chapter 5 download
41.0M
06 - Chapter 6 download
59.2M
07 - Chapter 7 download
41.2M
08 - Chapter 8 download
40.5M
09 - Chapter 9 download
41.3M
10 - Chapter 10 download
42.6M
11 - Chapter 11 download
42.8M
12 - Chapter 12 download
39.9M
13 - Chapter 13 download
47.1M
14 - Chapter 14 download
41.6M
15 - Chapter 15 download
48.7M
16 - Chapter 16 download
59.3M
17 - Chapter 17 download
64KBPS MP3
Uplevel BACK
17.5M
01 - Chapter 1 download
22.5M
02 - Chapter 2 download
22.8M
03 - Chapter 3 download
20.6M
04 - Chapter 4 download
19.6M
05 - Chapter 5 download
20.5M
06 - Chapter 6 download
29.6M
07 - Chapter 7 download
20.6M
08 - Chapter 8 download
20.3M
09 - Chapter 9 download
20.7M
10 - Chapter 10 download
21.3M
11 - Chapter 11 download
21.4M
12 - Chapter 12 download
20.0M
13 - Chapter 13 download
23.6M
14 - Chapter 14 download
20.8M
15 - Chapter 15 download
24.4M
16 - Chapter 16 download
29.7M
17 - Chapter 17 download
VBR MP3
Uplevel BACK
33.1M
01 - Chapter 1 download
44.5M
02 - Chapter 2 download
43.7M
03 - Chapter 3 download
39.9M
04 - Chapter 4 download
38.0M
05 - Chapter 5 download
37.8M
06 - Chapter 6 download
54.3M
07 - Chapter 7 download
38.5M
08 - Chapter 8 download
39.3M
09 - Chapter 9 download
41.6M
10 - Chapter 10 download
39.4M
11 - Chapter 11 download
39.5M
12 - Chapter 12 download
38.1M
13 - Chapter 13 download
45.4M
14 - Chapter 14 download
38.0M
15 - Chapter 15 download
48.1M
16 - Chapter 16 download
59.6M
17 - Chapter 17 download
IN COLLECTIONS
The LibriVox Free Audiobook Collection Audio Books & PoetryUploaded by librivoxbooks on