Gatsby · Read by Kara Shallenberg · 5 h 38 min
The Great Gatsby audiobook — free, and it reads along
Kara Shallenberg’s LibriVox recording of the complete novel — matched to the text page by page in Chromatics. Press play and the page you see is the page you hear, at any speed from 1× to 2×. When the page ends, so does the audio.
West Egg · Nick · Summer 1922
This page really plays.
The panel on the right is a page from Chapter VI as the app renders it: Gatsby in his red, Nick in olive, the scene banner above, the audio controls below. The play button works — it plays exactly this page of the recording and stops where the page stops, which is what reading along means here. It is the line the whole novel turns on — Can’t repeat the past? Why of course you can! — so press play and hear Gatsby mean it.
With JavaScript off, you still get the page and the colors; the recording itself lives at LibriVox either way.
“I wouldn’t ask too much of her,” I ventured. “You can’t repeat the past.”
“Can’t repeat the past?” he cried incredulously. “Why of course you can!”
He looked around him wildly, as if the past were lurking here in the shadow of his house, just out of reach of his hand.
“I’m going to fix everything just the way it was before,” he said, nodding determinedly. “She’ll see.”
Gatsby · The plain facts
What this is, plainly
The recording is Kara Shallenberg’s performance for LibriVox — a complete, unabridged reading by one of the project’s most prolific and best-loved narrators, in the public domain like the novel itself. (Shallenberg, 1969–2023, recorded hundreds of books for LibriVox over nearly two decades; this is one of them.) Audible sells several fine Gatsby narrations, and if you want a celebrity reading, that is where to find one. This one is free, and it does something the others do not: it reads along with you. The text is on the page, every speaker in their own color, and the recording follows your place — not the other way round.
The Great Gatsby is one of the featured classics in Chromatics right now, which means the whole experience — colors, scene banner, audio — is free in full. If you keep losing track of who is who across the bay while you listen, the characters page lays out the complete cast shore by shore, and the East Egg & West Egg page sorts the two households out once and for all.
Gatsby · 9 chapters · 5 h 38 min
The chapters
Nine chapters, 5 hours 38 minutes at 1×. At 1.5×, call it an afternoon and an evening on the Sound. Chapter VII — the long, hot showdown at the Plaza — is the giant of the set at just over an hour.
Durations are the actual chapter files, to the second.
| At this speed | The whole novel takes |
|---|---|
| 1× | 5 h 38 min |
| 1.25× | about 4 h 30 min |
| 1.5× | about 3 h 45 min |
| 2× | about 2 h 49 min |
Gatsby · Public domain · Since January 1, 2021
Why this audiobook is free
No trial, no trick: The Great Gatsby entered the U.S. public domain on January 1, 2021 — ninety-five years after publication — and LibriVox recordings are public domain from the day they are made. Within weeks of the copyright lapsing, volunteers had recorded the whole novel, and Shallenberg’s reading is the one Chromatics carries. You are not borrowing this book from anyone; it belongs to you the way Shakespeare does.
That also means there are several honest ways to listen free, and only one of them is ours:
| Where | What you get | Reads along with the text? |
|---|---|---|
| Chromatics (this one) | Shallenberg’s recording matched page by page, every speaker in color, 1–2× speed | Yes — that’s the feature |
| LibriVox / Internet Archive | The same recording as MP3 or M4B files to download and keep | No — audio only |
| YouTube & Spotify | Various uploads of the public-domain recordings, ads depending | No — audio only |
| Audible & co. | Paid studio narrations (Jake Gyllenhaal among them), subscription or purchase | No — audio only |
If all you want is the files, LibriVox is the source and we say so cheerfully. If you want the book to follow your eyes, that is the thing we built.
Gatsby · Asked and answered
Quick answers
Is The Great Gatsby audiobook really free?
Yes, and legally — the novel is public domain since January 1, 2021, and LibriVox recordings are public domain from birth. Free to stream, download, or read along with in Chromatics.
How long is The Great Gatsby audiobook?
5 hours 38 minutes unabridged at 1×; the speed table above does the rest of the arithmetic. Chapter VII is the giant at just over an hour.
Who narrates it?
Kara Shallenberg (1969–2023), one of LibriVox’s most prolific and best-loved narrators — hundreds of books across nearly two decades. If you want a celebrity instead, Audible sells Jake Gyllenhaal; he does not read along.
Is it abridged?
No. Complete 1925 text, all nine chapters; the durations in the table are the actual files, to the second.
Can I read along while I listen?
In Chromatics, yes — press play and the page you see is the page you hear, every speaker in their own color. The demo panel above plays a real page of Chapter VI, right here on this page.
Five and a half hours of Kara Shallenberg, the text following along in color, free in full while the book is featured.
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