Eliza

audiobook

Eliza

by Barry Pain

EN·~2 hours

Chapters

Description

A witty, self‑conscious narrator takes us into the everyday dramas of a modest household, chronicling his attempts to define himself in a few sharp words. He muses on the quirks of his modest income, his obsession with taste—from ornamental glass‑cloths to tasteful antimacassars—and the delicate balance of respectability he strives to maintain. Through his eyes, the mundane becomes a stage for gentle satire, as he critiques the slipshod habits of his neighbours and the slang that slips into office chatter.

The story unfolds as a series of light‑hearted vignettes about his marriage to Eliza, their occasional squabbles over kitchen linens, and his relentless quest to keep a genteel façade. His observations are peppered with dry humor and a keen eye for social absurdities, inviting listeners to smile at the earnest yet comically inflated concerns of a man determined to preserve dignity in a chaotic world.

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Details

Language

en

Duration

~2 hours (116K characters)

Publisher of text edition

Project Gutenberg

Credits

Produced by Malcolm Farmer and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive/Canadian Libraries)

Release date

2007-12-09

Rights

Public domain in the USA.

About the author

Barry Pain

Barry Pain

1864–1928

A sharp, funny English writer of the late Victorian and Edwardian years, he moved easily from light comic sketches to eerie supernatural tales. His work helped define the so-called "new humour" of the 1890s while also showing a darker, stranger side.

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