A Midsummer Night's Dream

Four young Athenians flee into the woods outside the city, two in love, one betrothed against her will, one hopelessly chasing a man who despises her. Unfortunately for all of them, the wood is already occupied: the king and queen of the fairies are mid-quarrel, and Oberon's servant Puck has a flower whose juice makes the sleeper adore the first creature they see on waking. Applied to the wrong eyes (repeatedly) it turns the night into a whirligig of misplaced passion. Meanwhile a troupe of earnest amateur actors rehearses a tragedy nearby, and their leading man ends the night with the head of a donkey and the devotion of a fairy queen.

Shakespeare's most purely delightful comedy is built for the ear, the fairies speak in shimmering rhyme, the lovers in escalating panic, and the rude mechanicals in glorious nonsense. If you have ever wanted an easy door into Shakespeare, this moonlit one is it.

At roughly 20,200 words, A Midsummer Night's Dream runs about 2 hours at 1x narration speed. That figure is an estimate based on a typical narration pace. The exact length depends on the voice and the playback speed you choose.

The edition linked here is available from Project Gutenberg under its US public-domain listing. Check the edition, translation, completeness and copyright rules where you live. LoudReader lets you browse and download Gutenberg books; they are not all stored on installation. To listen:

1. Install LoudReader on iPhone or iPad, or its iPad app on a compatible Apple Silicon Mac.
2. Search for “A Midsummer Night's Dream” in the built-in catalog and add it to your library.
3. Press play. A natural offline voice reads the book while each word highlights on screen, and your place is saved between sessions.

Speech is generated locally without uploading the book for narration. Download the book and check your chosen voice before travelling offline. Available voices depend on your device; check the in-app voice list. Try every available voice for your first 8 hours of listening. Afterwards, keep a free English voice selection and unlimited book listening. No LoudReader account or word quota.