History & Biography audiobooks
Real lives, told first-hand.
Memoirs, histories and lives written by the people who lived them or saw them up close — including Mark Twain's travel writing, Ulysses S. Grant's memoirs, Mary Wollstonecraft, Richard Wagner's autobiography and Arrian's campaigns of Alexander the Great. First-person history is gripping in audio: you hear an eyewitness talk you through the events that shaped their world.
- First chapter free, no account
- Full text on screen as you listen
- 7-day trial, then $4.99/month or $49/year
Start here
The best-known history & biography titles in the libraryShort listens
Under 5 hours — finish one this weekAll 56 history & biography audiobooks
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The Life and Adventures of Robinson Crusoe
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The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Volume 1
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The History of the Peloponnesian War
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Twelve Years a Slave
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The Story of My Life
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The Germany and the Agricola of Tacitus
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The Voyage of the Beagle
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The Souls of Black Folk
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Personal Memoirs of U. S. Grant
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The Innocents Abroad
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The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, Or Gustavus Vassa, The
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Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, Written by Herself
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Two Years Before the Mast
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A Journal of the Plague Year
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The Worst Journey in the World
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The Anabasis of Alexander: Or, the History of the Wars and Conquests of Alex
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Up from Slavery: An Autobiography
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Life on the Mississippi
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The Memoirs of the Conquistador Bernal Díaz Del Castillo, Volume 1
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Travels with a Donkey in the Cevennes
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A Tramp Abroad
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South
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The Oregon Trail
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My Life, Volume 1
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A Little English Gallery
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Bidwell's Travels, from Wall Street to London Prison: Fifteen Years in Solitude
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Boswell's Life of Johnson
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Confessions of an English Opium-Eater
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Democracy in America, Volume 1
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Description of Greece
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Emily Brontë
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Following the Equator: A Journey Around the World
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Geronimo’s Story of His Life
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Harriet Martineau
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John Barleycorn
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Memoirs of General William T. Sherman
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My First Summer in the Sierra
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My Own Story
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Napoleon's Letters to Josephine, 1796-1812: For the First Time Collected and Tra
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On War
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Pen-Portraits of Literary Women, Volume 2
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Queen Victoria
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Quintus Claudius: A Romance of Imperial Rome, Volume 1
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Rizal's Own Story of His Life
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Southern Literature from 1579-1895: A Comprehensive Review, with Copious Extract
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Speeches and Letters of Abraham Lincoln
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Tacitus: The Histories, Volumes I and II
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The Diary of Samuel Pepys
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The Education of Henry Adams
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The Gallic and Civil Wars
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The History of Herodotus, Volume 1
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The Influence of Sea Power Upon History, 1660-1783
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The Life of Charles Dickens
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The Love Letters of Henry VIII to Anne Boleyn; With Notes
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The Memoirs of Jacques Casanova de Seingalt, 1725-1798. Complete
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The Narrative of Sojourner Truth
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Good to know
Are these history & biography audiobooks free?
The first chapter of every book plays free with no account. A free account adds the opening chapters of every book, plus one whole book of your choice from a shelf of five classics. The full library — all 56 history & biography titles and everything else — is $4.99 a month or $49 a year after a 7-day free trial, cancel anytime.
Can I read along while I listen?
Yes. Every Compendium audiobook shows the full chapter text on screen as it plays, on the web and in the iPhone and Android apps.
What's the shortest and longest history & biography audiobook here?
The Love Letters of Henry VIII to Anne Boleyn is the shortest at 30 min; The Memoirs of Jacques Casanova de Seingalt, 1725-1798 is the longest at 105 hr 29 min. The whole collection runs about 879 hours.
