Audiobook · read by volunteers
Fifty Famous Stories Retold
James Baldwin (1841–1925)
Read by Laura Caldwell · 51 chapters · 3 h 18
About the book
King Alfred and the burnt cakes, Alexander and his horse Bucephalus, a doctor whose kindness changes a life: James Baldwin gathered fifty stories from history and legend and retold them simply for young readers. Each one gives a snapshot of a hero or an event, short enough to be heard in a few minutes and memorable enough to be repeated at bedtime. The tales come from many countries and ages, from ancient Greece and Rome to medieval England and beyond, and they share an interest in courage, honesty and wit. Fifty-one parts, including an introduction, are read by one LibriVox volunteer in about three and a half hours. There are also William Tell and George Washington with his hatchet. A real treasure for families, teachers and anyone who loves a good short story.
Introduction
James Baldwin, who lived from 1841 to 1925, was an American educator, editor and author who wrote many books for young readers; he was also known for school readers and for retellings of old legends, including The Story of Siegfried. Fifty Famous Stories Retold, published in 1896, remains one of the best known, and it has been used in schools and homes for generations as an introduction to history and legend.
The book gathers short stories, each built around a legendary hero or a moment of history. Among the figures it includes are King Alfred, who appears in the first stories, Alexander the Great and the horse Bucephalus, and a doctor whose kindness is the subject of a story. The first chapter explains the purpose of the collection, and the stories that follow are brief, direct and easy to retell, each with a point about character or conduct.
It is classed as children’s fiction, historical fiction and short stories. Because the stories mix history with legend, a modern reader should not take every detail as established fact. They belong to the tradition of moral instruction that shaped much educational writing for children in the late nineteenth century, and they should be enjoyed in that spirit.
The recording has fifty-one parts, including an introduction headed Concerning These Stories, and a single LibriVox volunteer reads all of them in about three hours and twenty minutes. Today it is worth hearing as a pleasant collection to share with children at bedtime, and as a window onto the stories that earlier generations thought worth telling.
Public domain
James Baldwin died in 1925: the work is in the public domain in Switzerland, more than 70 years after the author’s death.
The LibriVox volunteers dedicated this recording to the public domain.
Sources : LibriVox page · Files at the Internet Archive · Original text