The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin (Version 2)


Read by LibriVox Volunteers

(4.3 stars; 46 reviews)

In Benjamin Franklin's lifetime, he kept good record of his life and travels, and although Franklin was never a president, he still plays a crucial part in our American history. (Summary by Elijah Fisher) (7 hr 17 min)

Chapters

Introduction 19:08 Read by Duane Desalvo
Ancestry and Early Life in Boston 27:28 Read by Tommy Hersant
Beginning Life as a Printer 20:36 Read by Seth Pate
Arrival in Philadelphia 15:18 Read by Seth Pate
First Visit to Boston 17:38 Read by Ciufi Galeazzi
Early Friends in Philadelphia 9:54 Read by Ciufi Galeazzi
First Visit to London 27:46 Read by Ciufi Galeazzi
Beginning Business in Philadelphia 34:36 Read by Ciufi Galeazzi
Business Success and First Public Service 25:31 Read by Ciufi Galeazzi
Plan for Attaining Moral Perfection 33:17 Read by Tommy Hersant
"Poor Richard's Almanac" and Other Activities 18:39 Read by Duane Desalvo
Interest in Public Affairs 17:30 Read by Elijah Fisher
Defense of the Province 20:28 Read by Ciufi Galeazzi
Public Services and Duties 33:05 Read by Kathleen Moore
Albany Plan of Union 5:25 Read by Duane Desalvo
Quarrels with the Proprietary Governors 8:32 Read by Elijah Fisher
Braddock's Expedition 27:02 Read by KevinS
Franklin's Defense of the Frontier 21:16 Read by Tommy Hersant
Scientific Experiments 10:02 Read by Greg Giordano
Agent of Pennsylvania in London 40:41 Read by Kathleen Moore
Appendix 3:16 Read by Elijah Fisher

Reviews

great! except for...


(5 stars)

great, except for the reading by Elijah Fisher, he is stumbling over the words like he's never heard of a large proportion of them and/or has never read the book before. I hope they can replace his chapters with readings that are dictated correctly

Amazing author (obviously) but some readers were lackluster


(5 stars)

The content was 5 star, which is why I have given it 5 stars. However some readers (Elijah Fisher in particular) were dull and couldn't pronounce some words. He only read 2 chapters, so he should have reviewed his text.

good book well read


(5 stars)

Elijah Fisher really is worse than every other reader, as another reviewer said, but I might not have noticed it had he not said it. You can follow the text just fine without having to look it up.


(1.5 stars)

Franklin’s classic deserves a better effort from LibriVox. Some narrators do a fine job , but others are simply unlistenable. Disappointing, and sad that one of the treasures of American literature has received such a poor version.


(3 stars)

disjointed but well written. seems a better explanation of entrepreneurial thinking than of a historical story. i think this was the author's intent but it might surprise some readers. all the narrators did an EXCELLENT job.


(3 stars)

The autobiography is excellent. Regrettably, most of the narration does not give Mr. Franklin's prose justice.


(4 stars)

Many of the readers were excellent! However there were a few who were dry and mechanical in delivery. I would rate some of them as 2 stars at the best. This is unfortunate as the writings of Franklin were consistently fascinating! If it would be possible to replace some of the weaker readers in this edition, the book would be the better for it. With a consistently high quality set of readers I would give this reading 5 stars!