Cain: A Mystery


Read by LibriVox Volunteers

(4.1 stars; 20 reviews)

Cain: A Mystery is Lord Byron's retelling of the classical Biblical story from the point of view of its antagonist. Undoubtedly influenced by Milton's Paradise Lost, Byron's Cain is defiant and questioning. In trying to come to terms with the mortality humanity has been punished with, he comes face to face with Lucifer, who takes him to the "Abyss of Space," shows him a vision of Earth's violent natural history, and gives him a true understanding of death. Upon his return, a devastated Cain carries out the familiar end of his tragedy. Cain: A Mystery is a closet drama, a popular form for Romantic writers, where the script is not intended to be performed onstage, but rather read aloud with a small group. - Summary by Sarah Terry

With the voices of:
alanmapstone as Adam,
Peter Tucker as Cain,
Beth Thomas as Abel,
Libby Gohn as the Angel of the Lord,
Mike Cantrell as Lucifer,
TriciaG as Eve,
Mary Kay as Adah,
Amanda Friday as Zillah,
and narrated by Availle. (1 hr 46 min)

Chapters

Act I 34:28 Read by LibriVox Volunteers
Act II 37:00 Read by LibriVox Volunteers
Act III 35:03 Read by LibriVox Volunteers

Reviews

Interesting


(5 stars)

A typical melancholy adventure one would expect from the 1800s. While well worded the play ends entirely too short. The translation used showing the earth as being crafted from existing universal matter instead of being created from nothing was particularly surprising as I believe this interpretation and translation of the bible to be correct. The depiction of worlds without number and countless Earths before and after this one is particularly interesting for

annoying voices


(3 stars)

The people had really annoying voices and it sounded like most didn't take it seriously...One of the women sounded like the Google Translate woman... Cain was good, but Abel sounded... weird. It was really difficult to understand who was speaking, character-wise. But, the plot was interesting.

A marvelous work! Wonderfully read but...


(5 stars)

The tunes and the voice acting it's very well done. A big shame the technical imperfection of the recording microphone which ruins a lot the pleasure of listening to such opera. Many words have been cut off by that