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Free Romance Audiobooks – Jane Austen, the Brontës and Classic Love Stories
Every audiobook here is a complete, free recording of a classic love story in the public domain. There is no sign-up and no trial.
The list runs from Jane Austen's comedies of manners through the Brontës' darker Gothic romances to the Victorian social novel and early-20th-century New York. Romance works especially well as audio, because so much of it happens in conversation: the misunderstandings, the proposals, the arguments.
1. Pride and PrejudiceElizabeth Bennet and Mr Darcy get each other wrong for most of the book. The best-loved romance in English.
2. PersuasionEight years after breaking off her engagement, Anne Elliot meets Captain Wentworth again. Austen's last completed novel and her most quietly emotional.
3. Sense and SensibilityTwo sisters, Elinor and Marianne Dashwood, deal with love and money in very different ways.
4. Emma (version 2)A confident young matchmaker misreads almost everyone in her village, including herself. Austen at her funniest.
5. Lady SusanA short novel in letters about a charming, scheming widow. Good if you want Austen in an afternoon.
6. Jane EyreAn orphaned governess and her brooding employer, Mr Rochester, at Thornfield Hall. Told in Jane's own strong voice.
7. Wuthering HeightsThe wild, destructive bond between Catherine and Heathcliff on the Yorkshire moors. Less a love story than a storm.
8. North and SouthMargaret Hale moves from the south of England to an industrial northern town and clashes with mill owner John Thornton.
9. The Age of InnocenceIn 1870s New York, Newland Archer is engaged to May Welland when her unconventional cousin Ellen returns from Europe.
10. Madame BovaryA doctor's wife in provincial France looks for the passion she found in novels. Flaubert's realist landmark.
11. The AwakeningDuring a summer on Grand Isle, Edna Pontellier begins to want a life of her own. Controversial in 1899, admired now.
12. Cyrano de Bergerac (Hooker translation)A brilliant swordsman-poet with a famous nose writes love letters for another man. A play, so it's lively to listen to.
13. The Great GatsbyJay Gatsby's parties on Long Island all point toward one woman across the bay. Short, and sharp about money and longing.
14. Damsel in DistressAn American composer falls for a mysterious English lady who jumps into his taxi. Pure comic romance.
15. GraustarkAn American follows a beautiful stranger to a small, imaginary European kingdom. A 1901 bestseller of court intrigue.
Where to start
- New to Austen? Start with Pride and Prejudice, then Persuasion. If you'd like something shorter, try Lady Susan.
- Want drama? Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights were published the same year, 1847, by two sisters, and are very different books.
- Prefer something light? A Damsel in Distress is Wodehouse: fast, silly and romantic.
More to explore: free mystery audiobooks and the full romance genre.