Macbeth

Classic Fiction · No. 9 — The brave man who stole a crown and lost himself.

• Classic Fiction
• 42 min
• Ages 15–99
• 6 chapters

About this audiobook

Returning from battle as Scotland's most honored soldier, Macbeth meets three witches on the heath who hail him as a future king — and the prophecy goes into him like a splinter. Urged on by Lady Macbeth, he murders good King Duncan under his own roof and takes the crown, only to find that a throne gained by a dagger must be kept by one: Banquo, Macduff's family, sleep itself. The witches' second set of promises — no man born of woman shall harm him, no defeat till the forest walks — turn out to be traps dressed as comfort, and the brave man who stole a crown ends with nothing, not even himself.

Why it's worth a listen

Scotland's bravest soldier meets three witches on a lonely heath who hail him as a future king — and the prophecy goes into him like a splinter. It is a ghost-lit, sleepless thriller where every murder happens in the dark between the words, and the real horror is a good man eaten alive by a single idea. It turns on a question that never gets old: if someone tells you your future, does it have to come true?

A question to keep

If someone tells you your future, does it have to come true?

Based on the book by Retold from William Shakespeare, published by Emma's Library original retelling

Chapters

1. The Mist on the Heath
2. A Dagger of the Mind
3. The Shadow on the Throne
4. Riddles in the Cauldron
5. The Sound and the Fury
6. A Question to Keep