Living Alone

audiobook

Living Alone

by Stella Benson

EN·~4 hours·12 chapters

Chapters

12 total
1

First Edition 1919 - Reprinted 1920 (twice)

0:48
2

THE DWELLER ALONE

1:53
3

CHAPTER I - MAGIC COMES TO A COMMITTEE

14:38
4

CHAPTER II - THE COMMITTEE COMES TO MAGIC

33:51
5

CHAPTER III - THE EVERLASTING BOY

20:50
6

CHAPTER IV - THE FORBIDDEN SANDWICH

19:51
7

CHAPTER V - AN AIR RAID SEEN FROM BELOW

30:32
8

CHAPTER VI - AN AIR RAID SEEN FROM ABOVE

24:02
9

CHAPTER VII - THE FAERY FARM

38:53
10

CHAPTER VIII - THE REGRETTABLE WEDNESDAY

23:22

Description

A restless voice narrates a quest for absolute solitude, drifting between lyrical lament and cosmic wonder. The speaker declares a divorce from self, seeking silence amid endless time and sea‑like space, while the prose swirls with images of stars, ancient ruins, and the melancholy of forgotten souls. The language wavers between archaic cadence and modern disquiet, inviting listeners to contemplate the price of freedom from inner turmoil. This opening poem‑like soliloquy sets a tone that feels both otherworldly and deeply human.

The story then lands in a cramped London room where six women, bound to a wartime savings committee, await their mayor‑chairman. Their routine is shattered when a frantic stranger bursts in, claiming she is being pursued, and collapses beneath the table. Their bewildered reactions hint at deeper societal anxieties, turning a banal meeting into a portal for the extraordinary. As the committee grapples with the intrusion, hints of magic and an unexpected heroine begin to surface, promising a strange blend of domestic politics and the uncanny.

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Details

Language

en

Duration

~4 hours (238K characters)

Publisher of text edition

Project Gutenberg

Credits

Produced by Jonathan Ingram, Susan Skinner and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team.

Release date

2005-02-04

Rights

Public domain in the USA.

About the author

Stella Benson

Stella Benson

1892–1933

A witty, adventurous voice of early 20th-century fiction, she mixed fantasy, social observation, and travel into books that still feel fresh. Her life took her from England to China, and that wide view of the world shaped both her novels and her essays.

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