Free Literary History & Criticism Audiobooks

An Essay on Criticism was the first major poem written by the English writer Alexander Pope (1688-1744).

G. K. Chesterton was a great admirer of Charles Dickens, and wrote a noted critique of Dickens' works expressing his opinion in his own inimitable style.

A lecture on the art of fiction, given by the English critic Walter Besant on April 25, 1884, and an answer to the lecture by American writer Henry James in the same year.

On the Trail of Don Quixote is an engaging 1890’s “record of rambles in the Ancient Province of La Mancha” by two artist friends, French author August Jaccaci and Spanish illustrator Daniel Vierge.

Henry Augustin Beers has written a sweeping thousand 900 year history of English literature, up to the end of the 19th century.

In Plato's ION, Socrates questions Ion, whether he should really claim laud and glory for his 'rhapsodic' recitals of Homer's poetry.

The Plain Speaker: Opinions on Books, Men, and Things is a posthumous collection of essays by William Hazlitt, organized by his grandson, William Carew Hazlitt.

John Churton Collins was a literary critic who lived from 1848-1908. In 1904 John Collins became professor of English literature at Birmingham University (United Kingdom).

Appreciations, with an Essay on Style, is a collection of Walter Pater's previously-published essays on literature.

Arnold Bennett explains how to enjoy literature and recommends his favorite titles.