Free Audiobooks: Cruel Beauty and Oedipus the King

Two audiobooks are available for free from SYNC this week (through May 28th).

Cruel Beauty
by Rosamund Hodge
Since birth, Nyx has been betrothed to the evil ruler of her kingdom–all because of a reckless bargain her father struck. And since birth, she has been training to kill him.

Betrayed by her family yet bound to obey, Nyx rails against her fate. Still, on her seventeenth birthday, she abandons everything she’s ever known to marry the all-powerful, immortal Ignifex. Her plan? Seduce him, disarm him, and break the nine-hundred-year-old curse he put on her people. But Ignifex is not what Nyx expected. The strangely charming lord beguiles her, and his castle–a shifting maze of magical rooms–enthralls her. As Nyx searches for a way to free her homeland by uncovering Ignifex’s secrets, she finds herself unwillingly drawn to him. But even if she can bring herself to love her sworn enemy, how can she refuse her duty to kill him?

Based on the classic fairy tale Beauty and the Beast, Cruel Beauty is a dazzling love story about our deepest desires and their power to change our destiny.

Oedipus the King
by Sophocles
The anguished tale of Oedipus, who, having solved the riddle of the Sphinx and become King of Thebes, gradually realizes the crimes he has, unwittingly, committed, remains a drama of unremitting power 2,500 years after it was written. With full drama values, this production brings the atmosphere of the Greek amphitheater to audio, with the outstanding young actor Michael Sheen—recently seen as Henry V (RSC) and Amadeus (West End) and on film and TV.


*   *   *   

Oedipus the King is one of the Classics of Western Literature and has influenced not only literature (as a model of tragedy, as well as with its iconic characters), but psychology as well. The text is available for free here; the translation might be different, but give it a try.

To get either audiobook (or both!), click the link in their title, above, or start at the download page.

You'll need to install the OverDrive® Media Console™ first, but the page walks you through that. The audiobooks have download buttons below the green sync-head thing in the third column of the page.

Enjoy!