
audiobook
LADY EUREKA; OR, THE MYSTERY: A PROPHECY OF THE FUTURE.
CHAPTER I. ROLY POLY’S SICKNESS AND ITS CONSEQUENCES.
CHAP. II. AN AUSTRALIAN COLONY IN SPAIN.
CHAP. III. OLD ENGLAND.
CHAP. IV. THE LAST OF THE ENGLISHMEN.
CHAP. V. AN ACCOUNT OF THE DECLINE AND FALL OF OLD ENGLAND.
CHAP. VI. THE DEATH OF THE LAST OF THE ENGLISHMEN.
CHAP. VII. LILYA.
CHAP. VIII. LOVE MISPLACED.
CHAP. IX. A DISCOVERY.
In this eccentric Victorian saga, a flamboyant surgeon confronts the bewildering ailments of Roly Poly, a rotund kitchen slave whose endless feasts have turned his belly into a comic catastrophe. The dialogue crackles with dialect‑rich humor, while the narrator spins a broader prophecy that hints at the decline of Old England and strange colonies in far‑off lands. From the cramped kitchens of a London tavern to the imagined battlefields of future empires, the novel mixes absurdity with a sly critique of medical authority and social hierarchy.
The opening episode sets off a chain of bizarre prescriptions, runaway appetites, and a skirmish of wills that propels the story toward a larger mystery involving lost love, sea battles, and a looming prophecy. Listeners are drawn into a world where language itself staggers under the weight of satire, and where each absurd encounter foreshadows a deeper commentary on progress and decay. As the peculiar cast navigates their tangled destinies, the tale promises both laugh‑out‑loud moments and thoughtful reflection.
Language
en
Duration
~5 hours (335K characters)
Publisher of text edition
Project Gutenberg
Credits
Produced by eagkw, Robert Cicconetti and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive)
Release date
2013-04-08
Rights
Public domain in the USA.
1804–1872
A tireless Victorian man of letters, he moved from surgical training into a remarkably busy literary career that ranged across novels, poetry, journalism, history, and biography. His books often turned to English history and literary figures, including several works inspired by Shakespeare and the Civil War era.
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