Audiobook · read by volunteers
History of Henry Esmond, Esq., A Colonel in the Service of Her Majesty Queen Anne
William Makepeace Thackeray (1811–1863)
Read by Måns Broo, Laura Koskinen, rachelellen, JemmaBlythe, Ralph Snelson, Debra Lynn, Max Porter Zasada, Andy Minter (1934-2017), Jim Mowatt, Justin Brett · 43 chapters · 19 h 21
About the book
Henry Esmond tells the story of his own life, from a childhood in the great house of Castlewood to the wars and intrigues of Queen Anne's reign. Orphaned and raised in a Catholic household, he serves as a soldier, falls in love and takes part in the political struggle over who should be king. William Makepeace Thackeray writes as though from the pen of a man of the early eighteenth century, and the result is a historical novel of great depth and feeling, with court life, army campaigns and religious rivalry all in view. Forty-three chapters and more than nineteen hours, read by LibriVox volunteers, offer a rich, absorbing Victorian classic. A tale of love, honor and divided loyalties, it is told with the rich language of the age. For lovers of historical fiction with literary depth, it is a feast.
Introduction
William Makepeace Thackeray (1811 to 1863) is best known for Vanity Fair, his satirical novel of society, but his Henry Esmond, published in 1852, is a very different kind of book. It is a historical novel in the form of a memoir, supposedly written by the hero himself, with the full title telling us that he is a colonel in the service of Queen Anne.
The setting is England at the beginning of the eighteenth century, a time of war abroad and political turmoil at home. The reign of Queen Anne saw the rivalry of the Whigs and Tories, the great military victories of the Duke of Marlborough and the question of the succession, with some hoping for the restoration of the exiled Stuart line. Thackeray used these events to examine loyalty, ambition and the difference between public life and private feeling.
The novel is also a love story, one that unfolds over many years and that is told with great delicacy. The language imitates the prose of the period, and some listeners find it demanding at first, but it grows in richness as the narrative develops. Many critics regard it as one of the finest historical novels in English.
The recording has forty-three chapters and lasts about nineteen and a half hours. It is read by volunteers of LibriVox. It rewards patient listening and is especially recommended for lovers of long historical novels. Thackeray's narrator looks back on his life from a distance, and that mood of reflection gives the book its distinctive melancholy, along with a mature view of ambition, love and the cost of loyalty. The long recording has the leisure to develop all of this properly. It suits listeners who enjoy sinking into a long story.
Public domain
William Makepeace Thackeray died in 1863: 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