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Robert BenchleyLove Conquers All

A Librivox recording of Love Conquers All by Robert Benchley.

Read by Ted Delorme.

Robert Benchley, 1889-1945, was a writer, humorist and actor of note during the 1920s through the early 1940s. Born in Massachusetts, he spent his early literary career in New York City as an editor, critic and columnist for many of the major magazines of the day.

Along with George Kaufman, Dorothy Parker and Harpo Marx, he was an original “member” of the Algonquin Round Table. His popularity led him to a side career in radio and film, which took him to California in his later years. Writers as diverse as James Thurber, Woody Allen and Dave Barry have credited Benchley as an influence.

Love Conquers All, originally published in 1922 is the second collection (of fifteen) gatheringtogether Benchley’s humorous essays and reviews. Some references are dated, of course, but the surreal and mundane targets of Benchley’s wit will be familiar to everyone. This volume collects 63 excellent gems from his early professional work, when Benchley’s enthusiasm and style were approaching their peak.
(Summary by Ted Delorme)

CD cover for this book, created by Ted Delorme

For more information, or to volunteer, please visit librivox.org.


This audio is part of the collection: LibriVox

Artist/Composer: Robert Benchley
Source: Librivox recording of a public-domain text

Creative Commons license: Public Domain

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Reviewer: cgg - - January 1, 2009
Subject: The Voice of Benchley
Many thanks to Ted Delorme for putting this audio book together-- now he's got me itching to try my own hand at it! Benchley's work is usually written in a conversational manner, so it's only fitting that it should come out in an audio format. Although his material often looks funny on the page before the meaning has soaked in, so you start to laugh before you know what you're laughing at-- S. J. Perelman and Stephen Leacock were masters of this technique, and these days Dave Barry does pretty well along those lines.

In any case, this is very well done and I look forward to more Benchley material on this site...

Reviewer: manumoka - - December 21, 2008
Subject: Well done
The reader is excellent. He fully understands and expresses his material.

The material is generally excellent. Benchley is a brilliant writer and humorist, and the pre-cursor to Dave Barry.

Overall, this is an excellent audio book!

Reviewer: Showbizbuff - - July 2, 2007
Subject: One of the Great Essay Humorists of all time
"Love Conquers All" is a compilation of essays and articles by Robert Benchley which showcases the diverse talent the man brought to American literature in the early part of the 20th Century. As a long-time lover of audio books, I was delighted to find and download this from Librivox. The reader does an excellent job of capturing the essense of the Benchley wit. I'm familiar with the real Benchley voice and narration style because I've been collecting his film shorts from TCM, and you would swear Benchley is reading his own material, the reader is that good. Trust me on this, the truisms expressed by Benchley are almost as timely today as when written, and the unique humor is ageless. If you want to have some fun, and appreciate intellectual, thought-provoking and happily-irreverant material from the past, treat yourself to this literary feast. You'll thank me, I promise.