
Michel de Montaigne: The Complete Essays
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Narrated by:
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Peter Wickham
About this listen
In 1572, Montaigne - nobleman, humanist, and thoroughly Renaissance man - retired to the seclusion of his estate in the Dordogne and started to write. From his pen poured a stream of "essays" - attempts to capture the observations that came to him on an idiosyncratic range of subjects, from ancient customs, cannibals, and books to thumbs, war-horses, and the wearing of clothes. He made the study of himself the starting point for investigations into how to live, and wrote with a startlingly modern candor about love, grief, friendship, sex, and death. His voice, by turns lively, curious, digressive, ironic, and moving, is utterly captivating. The Essays feel less like a work of literature and more like an ongoing conversation with a very well-informed friend.
Download the accompanying reference guide.Public Domain (P)2021 Naxos AudioBooks UK Ltd.Listeners also enjoyed...
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- By J. Martin on 05-16-21
By: Oswald Spengler
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The Story of My Life, Volume 1
- By: Giacomo Casanova
- Narrated by: Peter Wickham
- Length: 47 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
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The Story of My Life is the explosive and exhilarating autobiography by the infamous libertine Giacomo Casanova. Intense and scandalous, Casanova's extraordinary adventures take the listener on an incredible voyage across 18th-century Europe - from France to Russia, Poland to Spain and Turkey to Germany, with Venice at their heart. He falls madly in love, has wild flings and delirious orgies, and encounters some of the most brilliant figures of his time, including Catherine the Great, Louis XV and Benjamin Franklin. He holds a verbal dual with Voltaire and finds himself hauled before the court multiple times.
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Extraordinarily interesting
- By Ed Pegg Jr on 10-19-19
By: Giacomo Casanova
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Pensées
- By: Blaise Pascal
- Narrated by: Peter Wickham
- Length: 12 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
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Intended to be a defense of the Christian religion, Pensées is a penetrating collection of thoughts on faith, reason, and theology. Unfinished at the time of Pascal's death, the book consists of philosophical fragments on the "wretchedness" of man and the controversial schisms of the church at the time. It includes the philosopher's infamous wager encouraging belief over agnosticism, as well as his thoughts on numerous other topics. Endlessly quotable, Pensées overflows with pearls of wisdom, each elusive sentence pregnant with a universe of thought.
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Excellent Audiobook!
- By No to Statism on 05-16-19
By: Blaise Pascal
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Montaigne
- By: Stefan Zweig
- Narrated by: Tyler Boss
- Length: 2 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
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"The others form the human being, I depict him; and here I present an individual who is quite poorly formed and whom I would certainly make largely differently if I had to reshape him. But now that's the way he is." This phrase from the famous essays of Michel de Montaigne outlines the character of the author and his work. Montaigne wrote his essays not from a position of certainty but from an awareness of his inadequacy. He thus reveals a level of critical self-reflection that, before his time, was rarely put on paper.
By: Stefan Zweig
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Montaigne
- By: Stefan Zweig
- Narrated by: Marc Hamon
- Length: 2 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
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Auteur de nombreuses biographies (Fouché, Balzac, Marie-Antoinette, Magellan, ...), Stefan Zweig dresse avec psychologie le portrait d'un homme libre et tolérant. Alors qu'il fuit la guerre dans le lointain Brésil, Stefan Zweig cherche dans l'œuvre de Montaigne à soulager son désespoir, mais aussi dans l'expérience vécue d'un homme qui se trouva dans une situation proche de la sienne.
By: Stefan Zweig
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The Life of Samuel Johnson
- By: James Boswell
- Narrated by: David Timson
- Length: 51 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
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Charming, vibrant, witty and edifying, The Life of Samuel Johnson is a work of great obsession and boundless reverence. The literary critic Samuel Johnson was 54 when he first encountered Boswell; the friendship that developed spawned one of the greatest biographies in the history of world literature. The book is full of humorous anecdote and rich characterization, and paints a vivid picture of 18th-century London, peopled by prominent personalities of the time.
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Wonderful!
- By Tad Davis on 02-02-18
By: James Boswell
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A History of Western Philosophy
- By: Bertrand Russell
- Narrated by: Jonathan Keeble
- Length: 38 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
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Considered to be one of the most important philosophical works of all time, the History of Western Philosophy is a dazzlingly unique exploration of the ideologies of significant philosophers throughout the ages - from Plato and Aristotle through to Spinoza, Kant and the 20th century. Written by a man who changed the history of philosophy himself, this is an account that has never been rivaled since its first publication over 60 years ago.
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Russell's Philosophy, Some History Included
- By Donald on 06-19-21
By: Bertrand Russell
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The Leo Tolstoy Complete Collection
- War and Peace; Anna Karenina; Resurrection; Short Stories; Novellas; and Non-Fiction
- By: Leo Tolstoy
- Narrated by: Jonathan Keeble, Malk Williams, Emma Gregory
- Length: 186 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
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Leo Tolstoy: The Complete Collection includes unabridged recordings of Leo Tolstoy's 3 timeless novels; all his major novellas and short stories; and 4 renowned works of non-fiction in one audiobook, all read by Audie Award-winning narrators.
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Legendary author, flawless narrations.
- By Kindle Customer on 06-07-24
By: Leo Tolstoy
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The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire
- By: Edward Gibbon
- Narrated by: Charlton Griffin
- Length: 126 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
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Here in a single volume is the entire, unabridged recording of Gibbon's masterpiece. Beginning in the second century A.D. at the apex of the Pax Romana, Gibbon traces the arc of decline and complete destruction through the centuries across Europe and the Mediterranean. It is a thrilling and cautionary tale of splendor and ruin, of faith and hubris, and of civilization and barbarism. Follow along as Christianity overcomes paganism... before itself coming under intense pressure from Islam.
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Masterpiece - Best Audiobook I’ve Listened To
- By Student on 09-18-18
By: Edward Gibbon
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SPQR
- A History of Ancient Rome
- By: Mary Beard
- Narrated by: Phyllida Nash
- Length: 18 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
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In SPQR, world-renowned classicist Mary Beard narrates the unprecedented rise of a civilization that even 2,000 years later still shapes many of our most fundamental assumptions about power, citizenship, responsibility, political violence, empire, luxury, and beauty.
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Shallow and unsatisfying
- By Joe on 02-19-17
By: Mary Beard