Four Arthurian Romances

Before there was a Camelot industry, there was Chrétien de Troyes, a twelfth-century French poet who essentially invented the Arthurian romance, including, in these pages, the scandalous love of Lancelot and Guinevere. This collection gathers four of his tales: Erec and Enide, a marriage tested by a brutal quest; Cligès, a Greek prince tangled in Byzantine and British intrigue; Yvain, the Knight of the Lion, who wins everything and loses it by missing a deadline; and Lancelot, the Knight of the Cart, who must choose between honor and love at a cart's tailgate.

These are fast, strange, vivid stories (magic fountains, lions with loyalty issues, tournaments, enchanted castles) told with a courtliness that keeps flashing into wit. Hearing them aloud restores them to what they originally were: performances for a listening audience.

At roughly 173,500 words, Four Arthurian Romances runs about 19½ 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 “Four Arthurian Romances” 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.