Charles Reade
107 episodes listed below
Grief, faith, and fidelity aloud.
Cloister and the Hearth (version 2) is a steady reading of Charles Reed’s grave historical romance, shaped by long scenes of conscience, devotion, and loss. Its recent chapters follow Gerald, Margaret Brandt, Clement, Eli, Catherine, and others through false letters, inheritance, rage, penance, and reunion.
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Cloister and the Hearth (version 2) is a historical-fiction audiobook with the air of a long vigil. It gives Charles Reed’s romance room to breathe. The recent run of chapters centers on Gerald and Clement, Margaret Brandt, Eli, Catherine, Giesbrecht, Jorian, and the bitter consequences of letters, inheritance, family pride, and religious terror. The show’s power lies in duration. Scenes are allowed to gather weight through repetition, formal address, and emotional pressure until a confession, a footstep, or a candlelit discovery feels charged with judgment. Clement’s retreat into the hermit’s cell is especially severe. He seeks discipline through prayer, scripture, carved walls, and solitude, but his conscience keeps turning on him, measuring earthly love against divine duty and finding no easy peace. Then the human world breaks in. An owl wheels from the corner, a child wakes under his gaze, Margaret Brandt appears in moonlight, and the cell becomes not merely a place of penance but a chamber where grief and tenderness return together. The domestic chapters are no gentler. Catherine grieves, Eli rages, Margaret carries her child as if he might be taken from her, and the discovery of treachery sends the household toward violence before restraint can recover it. Giesbrecht’s confession brings another register: cold interrogation, fear of damnation, and the pressure to restore what was taken. The language is antique and morally saturated. It speaks in long clauses, religious images, sudden exclamations, and inward storms rather than modern explanation. That gives the show its particular patience. It does not rush to make the old story contemporary. It trusts the listener to follow a world where property, vows, blood ties, church authority, and personal salvation are all bound together. Moments of tenderness arrive all the more sharply because the surrounding world is so stern. A sleeping child, a lullaby, a picture of betrothal, or a woman’s hand on a shoulder can soften pages of despair. The production also retains occasional public-domain recording markers and, in one recent chapter, intrusive tobacco advertising, which makes the listening texture uneven at points. Even so, the central experience is clear: a grave, immersive literary reading of betrayal, remorse, devotion, and reunion.
Made for: For listeners who enjoy classic historical fiction, formal narration, religious and moral conflict, and audiobook pacing that lingers over character rather than hurrying through plot.
What sets it apart: Its strength is the unbroken literary cadence: long, solemn passages of conscience and scene-setting carry the drama without banter, recap, or modern commentary.
Dive into the 15th century with Cloister and the Hearth, a gripping tale of Gerald Eliassoen, a young scribe and illuminator. Fleeing from persecution by a ruthless burgomaster, Gerald embarks on a harrowing journey across seven countries, searching for a means to support his family. After the tragic loss of his parents and betrayal by his brothers, who falsely claim that his beloved wife, Margaret, has died, despair drives him to the brink of suicide. Yet, in a moment of revelation, he chooses a different path and embraces life as a friar. Join Gerald as he navigates love, loss, and...
Based on 5 episodes we listened to · September 2026
A sustained chapter reading that makes Clement's conflicts among devotion, remorse and human attachment vivid through closely observed scenes.
Cloister and the Hearth (version 2) lets a sprawling literary drama accumulate chapter by chapter. This LibriVox reading follows Clement through religious devotion, guilt and his unresolved bond with Margaret Brant, giving sustained attention to the way private feeling collides…
A hermit mistakes a child for an angel; your heart gets a complicated assignment.
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Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
A cloistered mistake gives way to fear, pity, and a quiet tenderness.
The piece follows a hermit whose hard certainty is unsettled by a trembling visitor, and it keeps that uncertainty alive until a sleeping child and Margaret's anxious appeal arrive at the end.
A candlelit chapter where labor, dream, and fear meet in a sudden final turn.
Chapter 93 treats Clement's recovery as work, not revelation. After despair, he picks up the chisel and cuts sacred words into stone by candle ends and rancid oil, which gives the cave a rough, lived in feel.
A stern chapter where remorse, prayer, and broken music all pull in the same direction.
Chapter 92 settles into remorse and inward weather: Clement, after the fury has burned itself out, is left with shame and with the fear that he has loved Margaret more than God and the church.
A tense encounter turns piety, greed, and fear into a tight moral trap.
Friar Clement slips into Janet's room, cuts off the light, and tries to turn a gold chain and pious talk into leverage. The scene works because it keeps his panic close to the surface while giving Janet a dry, unsentimental edge.
A reflective chapter of road encounters, prayer, books, and the printing press, with Clement moving from duty toward a softer view of memory.
Chapter 74 stays with Clement as the new pope backs the Dominican order and a summons from Rome sends him toward Basle, pushing England further back.
A trembling woman enters the cell.
Clement lies prayerless, tuneless, and nearly spent.
Clement is brought low by remorse.
This episode narrates a chapter from Charles Reed's novel 'The Cloister and the Hearth', focusing on Margaret van Eyck's death, her will leaving property to Margaret Brandt, and the significance of a painting depicting a betrothal.
Catherine attempts to reconcile with Gerard after a family conflict, discovers he has left, and brings Margaret to Hog Street where they find Eli replacing names with Margaret's, deepening the emotional tension.
Friar Clement steps into dangerous company.
Clement is sent toward Basle.
Margaret recovers from distress with family support, expressing concern for Gerard's safety after reading a letter and seeking comfort from Catherine.
This episode continues the audiobook reading of Chapter 53 Part 3 from Charles Reed's novel The Cloister and the Hearth, focusing on a character's interactions with his companions and a humorous incident involving painted heraldry.
This is a LibriVox audiobook reading of Chapter 53, Part 2 from Charles Reed's novel 'The Cloister and the Hearth', where a character reads an emotional letter that brings tears and discussions of repentance and sin.
This is a Librivox recording of Chapter 53 Part 1 from Charles Reed's historical fiction novel 'The Cloister and the Hearth', featuring a tense family confrontation over a letter from Gerard.
This is Chapter 50 of the public domain audiobook 'The Cloister in the Hearth' by Charles Reed, where Margaret Brandt finds happiness among strangers and Peter gains fame by successfully treating a civic dignitary.