Audiobook · read by volunteers
Lost City
Harry Hazelton (1848–1909)
Read by Nathalie J. · 32 chapters · 6 h 38
About the book
Bruno and Waldo Gillespie are orphaned brothers who live with an extremely eccentric inventor, Professor Phaeton Featherwit. One day they set out in one of his strange machines to study a tornado from close range, and the machine is swept up into the storm. When the winds finally die away, the boys find themselves in a barren and uncharted land, far from home. What follows is a long adventure through unknown territory, with curious discoveries, a long-lost city and narrow escapes. The story belongs to the tradition of the late nineteenth-century boys’ adventure, in which clever young heroes and learned professors explore the unknown. It is full of inventions, mysteries and ancient ruins, and it is told with a good deal of gusto. It is pure escapist fun, ready for anyone who misses the old-fashioned tale of invention and exploration.
Introduction
Harry Hazelton, who lived from 1848 to 1909, wrote The Lost City, published in 1898, in a time when adventure stories for young readers were enormously popular. These were the years of Jules Verne and H. Rider Haggard, and writers in America and Britain competed to offer readers journeys to remote corners of the earth, to lost civilisations and to the interior of volcanoes. Stories of scientific inventions and unlikely vehicles were part of the fun.
The Lost City follows that pattern. It begins with a bold experiment, sends its young heroes into the unknown and keeps raising the stakes with every chapter. Eccentric professors, loyal brothers and extraordinary discoveries are the main ingredients. It is not a book that aims for realism; instead, it asks the reader to imagine what might lie beyond the edge of the map and to enjoy the wonder of the journey.
This recording has thirty-two chapters and lasts about six and a half hours. It is read by a single LibriVox volunteer. It will appeal to lovers of vintage adventure and to those who enjoy hearing the flavour of storytelling from over a century ago. Short chapters make it easy to listen to in small portions, and the pace will tempt you to continue to the next.
Part of the charm of such books is their sense of invention for its own sake. The machines are improbable, the discoveries are astonishing and the heroes meet each new marvel with courage and cheerful curiosity. Younger listeners will enjoy the sense of wonder, while adults may be amused by the way earlier generations imagined the unexplored world.
Public domain
Harry Hazelton died in 1909: 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