The Man Who Was Thursday: A Nightmare

Gabriel Syme is a poet recruited into a secret anti-anarchist police force, and his first assignment goes alarmingly well: he talks his way into the Central Anarchist Council of Europe, seven men code-named for the days of the week. Syme becomes Thursday. Presiding over them all is Sunday, a figure so enormous and so serenely unnerving that the plot against civilization starts to feel like the least of Syme's problems.

What begins as a spy thriller accelerates into chases across London and the French countryside, duels, disguises, and a series of unmaskings in which nothing and no one stays what it seemed. Chesterton subtitled it "A Nightmare," and it keeps a dream's logic (funny, sinister, and strangely joyful) right up to a final revelation readers have argued about for over a century.

At roughly 59,200 words, The Man Who Was Thursday: A Nightmare runs about 6½ 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 Man Who Was Thursday: A Nightmare is in the public domain, so the complete text is free on Project Gutenberg and LoudReader has the entire Project Gutenberg catalog built in. To listen:

1. Download LoudReader for Mac or iPhone (free, no account).
2. Search for “The Man Who Was Thursday: A Nightmare” 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.

LoudReader reads with natural offline voices, so the whole book works on a plane or underground. It is fully on-device and private, your library never leaves your device. Listening is unlimited on the free tier.