The Sword of Damocles
Better known for her detective fiction, Anna Katharine Green turned here to a novel of ambition and manners in Gilded Age New York. The story follows Bertram Mandeville, a gifted musician whose hunger for wealth and social standing collides with matters of the heart, and it traces how the wish to rise can hang over a life like the sword of the old Greek story. Green threads love, secrets, and moral testing through the drawing rooms and strivings of the city she knew intimately. Readers who come for her sleuths will find the same eye for character and buried motive, turned this time toward society and romance rather than crime. Free to download as a PDF and EPUB edition.
About the Author
Anna Katharine Green (1846-1935) was an American novelist often called the mother of detective fiction. Her bestselling debut, The Leavenworth Case, brought realism and legal detail to the genre, and over a long career she created recurring sleuths who influenced writers from Conan Doyle to…
See all books by Anna Katharine Green →
Listen to The Sword of Damocles Audiobook Free
Listen to The Sword of Damocles by Anna Katharine Green free online. The full audiobook (16 hr 40 min, 46 chapters, read by Mary Bard) streams free on this page.
The Sword of Damocles (1881) is a public domain work.
| # | Chapter | Length | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | A Wanderer | 4:27 | |
| 2 | A Discussion | 13:13 | |
| 3 | A Mysterious Summons | 22:44 | |
| 4 | Searchings | 24:22 | |
| 5 | The Rubicon | 27:10 | |
| 6 | A Hand Clasp | 4:38 | |
| 7 | Mrs. Sylvester | 16:42 | |
| 8 | Shadows of the Past | 16:46 | |
| 9 | Paula | 29:26 | |
| 10 | The Barred Door | 16:30 | |
| 11 | Miss Stuyvesant | 23:20 | |
| 12 | Miss Belinda Makes Conditions | 24:21 | |
| 13 | The End of My Lady's Picture | 28:35 | |
| 14 | Miss Belinda has a Question to Decide | 34:46 | |
| 15 | An Adventure - or Something More | 19:46 | |
| 16 | The Sword of Damocles | 28:52 | |
| 17 | Grave and Gay | 26:41 | |
| 18 | In the Night Watches | 8:00 | |
| 19 | A Day at the Bank | 15:00 | |
| 20 | The Dregs in the Cup | 20:13 | |
| 21 | Departure | 21:23 | |
| 22 | Hopgood | 23:54 | |
| 23 | The Poem | 23:18 | |
| 24 | The Japha Mansion | 24:29 | |
| 25 | Jacqueline | 25:53 | |
| 26 | A Man's Justice and a Woman's Mercy | 31:31 | |
| 27 | The Lone Watcher | 14:18 | |
| 28 | Sunshine on the Hills | 28:52 | |
| 29 | Mist in the Valley | 4:39 | |
| 30 | Miss Belinda Presents Mr. Sylvester with a Christmas Gift | 19:45 | |
| 31 | A Question | 12:58 | |
| 32 | Full Tide | 31:03 | |
| 33 | Two Letters | 23:55 | |
| 34 | Paula Makes her Choice | 24:23 | |
| 35 | The Falling of the Sword | 35:54 | |
| 36 | Morning | 11:39 | |
| 37 | The Opinion of a Certain Noted Detective | 41:05 | |
| 38 | Bluebeard's Chamber | 9:55 | |
| 39 | From A. to Z | 1:03:48 | |
| 40 | Half-past Seven | 3:56 | |
| 41 | The Work of an Hour | 38:01 | |
| 42 | Paula Relates a Story She has Heard | 13:14 | |
| 43 | Determination | 7:39 | |
| 44 | In Mr. Stuyvesant's Parlors | 21:44 | |
| 45 | "The Hour of Six is Sacred!" | 17:51 | |
| 46 | The Man Cummins | 19:00 |
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