The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse
Vicente Blasco Ibáñez
Read by Tony Oliva
The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, by Vicente Blasco Ibañez and translated into English by Charlotte Brewster Jordan, depicts two branches of a family with its roots in the pampas of Argentina. The wealthy Argentinian, Julio Madariaga, comes from Spain and raises himself from poverty, becoming a self-made, wealthy cattleman. He is a man of extremes; an honest man with a rascally knack for taking advantage of others; a self-made man with overweening pride, prejudices, and a sharp, flinty temper that can spark into violence, he is at the same time given to great generosity toward those who are under him. This almost feudal lord has two daughters who marry expatriates, a Frenchman and a German.
Julio Madariaga leaves his stamp on these two families who, after his death, return to the native countries of his two sons in law. At that time, the mood of Europe is in many ways similar to that of the old gaucho, a mixture of generosity, explosive anger, romanticism, strong prejudices, and wounded pride, a mood composed of extremes painted on an oversized canvas. World War I is waiting in the wings and will leave its own stamp on the old gaucho's lineage, pitting them against each other on opposite sides in the violent first year that many think will last only a few months but will, in fact, result in improbable destruction and loss of lives. An old Russian visionary given to drink, looks out on red skies one day and experiences its coming in a vision: hoofbeats; and riders. --Summary by Tony Oliva and released to public domain. (16 hr 27 min)
Chapters
Reviews
WHERES THE FIRE
ellene
Fabulous reader but he speaks so fast that he ruins his narration . I was unable to modify the pace enough for it to make a difference. The voice becomes distorted at the point when the speakers narration speed is adjusted for listening. I had to give it up after a few chapters. Too bad. Great reading skills all for naught. Five stars for reader performance, one star for delivery
Mistake in name of author !!!!
Basquetteur
Blasco's first name is not "Vincent" neither "Vincente" but Vicente. This mistake makes that many works by this author in archive.org do not appear when searching by creator: "Vincente Blasco Ibáñez", and conversely, that this work does not appear when searching for the correct creator: "Vicente Blasco Ibáñez". Could this be corrected?
Why So Robotic?
Swashbuckler Fan
Who made the decision to remove normal pauses between sentences and even phrases? The reader - a pleasant, intelligent man - becomes a relentless robot. Too bad; he put a lot of work into this fine book. Hope someone offers an alternative version.
Breathless
Jack
It’s churlish to criticize so generous and intelligent a reader, but his unwillingness to pause between sentences soon becomes exhausting. Still, thanks for sharing a great book. Perhaps someone else will post a recording.
Author name fixed
librivoxbooks
The author's name has been fixed as per the previous review. In future, it would be best to report such errors on the LibriVox forum website, the Error Reports section: https://forum.librivox.org/viewforum.php?f=29
WOW!!!
thisolewood
What a great book. The reader definitely did it justice. A real testament to the horrors of war and its devastation of both lands and families.