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On Heroes, Hero-Worship and the Heroic in History
- Narrated by: James Gillies
- Length: 11 hrs and 16 mins
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Publisher's summary
Though uncompromising, polemical and argumentative, Thomas Carlyle (1795-1881) made a lasting impact on 19th-century culture as a multi-talented man of letters. And though his lengthy history of the French Revolution proved his major scholarly legacy, On Heroes, Hero-Worship and the Heroic in History remains perhaps his most popular and accessible work. It presented his deep-seated belief that ‘Universal History, the history of what man has accomplished in this world, is at bottom the History of the Great Men who have worked here’.
It is with this bold declaration that Carlyle opened the collection of six lectures that comprise ‘On Heroes’. Initially delivered in 1840, he published them a year later in an expanded form, and the book’s popularity gave him the broader national presence to which he aspired. The six lectures covered a wide range of man’s activities, but of particular interest were the categories, as much as the individual figures.
Lecture I. The Hero as Divinity: Odin. Paganism: Scandinavian Mythology.
Lecture II. The Hero as Prophet. Mahomet: Islam.
Lecture III. The Hero as Poet. Dante, Shakespeare.
Lecture IV. The Hero as Priest. Luther. Reformation: Knox; Puritanism.
Lecture V. The Hero as Man of Letters. Johnson, Rousseau, Burns.
Lecture VI. The Hero as King. Cromwell, Napoleon: Modern Revolutionism.
These categories challenged opinions from the outset: Carlyle’s fundamental approach, breaking away from an overbearing militaristic description of the hero figure in history, was revolutionary. He chose to take a more radical view, less hide-bound by the conventional constraints of his day, placing the poet, the philosopher and the revolutionary where, in popular imagination, the conqueror and the champion held sway. This was reflected further in the individuals he chose to represent the categories. If modern-day sensibilities may take a less emphatic ‘Great Men’ approach to history, Carlyle’s original work continues to provide an engaging template for contemporary revision.
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Heretics
- By: G. K. Chesterton
- Narrated by: Ulf Bjorklund
- Length: 6 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
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"Nothing more strangely indicates an enormous and silent evil of modern society than the extraordinary use which is made nowadays of the word orthodox. In former days the heretic was proud of not being a heretic. It was the kingdoms of the world and the police and the judges who were heretics. He was orthodox. He had no pride in having rebelled against them; they had rebelled against him. The armies with their cruel security, the kings with their cold faces, the decorous processes of State, the reasonable processes of law - all these like sheep had gone astray...."
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Like having Steven Hawking read poetry
- By J. Gorton on 02-29-16
By: G. K. Chesterton
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De Profundis
- By: Oscar Wilde
- Narrated by: David McCallion
- Length: 1 hr and 41 mins
- Unabridged
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At its heart, De Profundis is a love letter and is better known as the De Profundis papers. Written in 1897, while Oscar Wilde was imprisoned in Reading Gaol, De Profundis would become one of his best-known works. The papers include Wilde's account of living a lavish lifestyle and his relationship with Lord Alfred Douglas, both of which he credited for his eventual downfall and imprisonment. The second half of the papers is Wilde's account of prison life and his spiritual awakening.
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This Work Really Is Wilde Going Off...
- By James E. Lytle on 05-16-21
By: Oscar Wilde
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The Story of Philosophy
- The Lives and Opinions of the Greater Philosophers
- By: Will Durant
- Narrated by: Grover Gardner
- Length: 19 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
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Durant lucidly describes the philosophical systems of such world-famous “monarchs of the mind” as Plato, Aristotle, Francis Bacon, Spinoza, Kant, Voltaire, and Nietzsche. Along with their ideas, he offers their flesh-and-blood biographies, placing their thoughts within their own time and place and elucidating their influence on our modern intellectual heritage. This book is packed with wisdom and wit.
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Fantastic and insightful book
- By ESK on 01-25-13
By: Will Durant
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Letters to a Young Poet
- By: Rainer Maria Rilke, Stephen Mitchell - translator
- Narrated by: Stephen Mitchell
- Length: 1 hr and 18 mins
- Unabridged
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Ranier Maria Rilke challenges you, "...to live everything. Live the questions now. Perhaps then, someday far in the future, you will gradually, without even noticing it, live your way into the answers." Rilke's ability to combine the sensual and the spiritual into an inspired vision of the art of living is brought to vivid life in his letters. Through his eyes, the everyday difficulties of love, sex, solitude, sadness, and doubt are seen as the archetypal elements of the drama called life.
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Priceless Recordings of Intense Feeling
- By David on 10-08-04
By: Rainer Maria Rilke, and others
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The Greatest Minds and Ideas of All Time
- By: Will Durant
- Narrated by: John Little
- Length: 3 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
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Best-selling historian and philosopher Will Durant devoted his entire life to studying the most significant eras, individuals, and achievements of human history. Here is a summation of Durant's work, as he presents the best of world history. Filled with Durant's renowned wit, knowledge, and unique ability to explain events in simple and exciting terms, it is a concise liberal arts education.
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Puzzled
- By James on 04-06-04
By: Will Durant
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The Medieval Mind of C.S. Lewis
- How Great Books Shaped a Great Mind
- By: Jason M Baxter
- Narrated by: Simon Vance
- Length: 5 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
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C. S. Lewis had one of the great minds of the 20th century. Many know Lewis as an author of fiction and fantasy literature, including the Chronicles of Narnia and the Space Trilogy. Others know him for his books in apologetics, including Mere Christianity and The Problem of Pain. But few know him for his scholarly work as a professor of medieval and Renaissance literature. What shaped the mind of this great thinker?
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Excellent
- By andrew wilson smith on 03-08-22
By: Jason M Baxter
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Measure for Measure
- By: William Shakespeare
- Narrated by: Royal Shakespeare Company
- Length: 2 hrs and 27 mins
- Original Recording
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A performance of the tragi-comedy by the Royal Shakespeare Company. When a young woman is offered the choice of saving a man's life at the price of her own chastity, what should she do? The political and moral corruption of Vienna has driven Duke Vincentio into hiding while his deputy governor, Angelo, is left to revive the old discipline of civic authority. Angelo's first act is to imprison Claudio, a young nobleman who has gotten his betrothed, Juliet, with child.
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Highly recommended
- By Todd on 10-16-08
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Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions
- By: Edwin Abbott
- Narrated by: Alan Munro
- Length: 4 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
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Abbott used the fictional two-dimensional world of Flatland to offer pointed observations on the social hierarchy of Victorian culture. However, the novella's more enduring contribution is its examination of dimensions, for which the novella is still popular amongst mathematics, physics, and computer science students. Several films have been made from the story, including a feature film in 2007 called Flatland. Other efforts have been short or experimental films, including one narrated by Dudley Moore and a short film with Martin Sheen titled Flatland: The Movie.
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Upward, not Northward
- By Darwin8u on 12-10-12
By: Edwin Abbott
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The Art of Manliness - Manvotionals
- Timeless Wisdom and Advice on Living the 7 Manly Virtues
- By: Brett McKay, Kate McKay
- Narrated by: Stephen Hoye
- Length: 8 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
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What makes a man manly? Master the art of manliness by learning about the seven manly virtues in this essential guide from authors Brett and Kate McKay. Each chapter covers one of the seven virtues and is packed with the best classic advice ever written down for men.
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Just Quotes, No Content. Save Your Credit!
- By chris on 10-28-13
By: Brett McKay, and others
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The Great Gatsby
- By: F. Scott Fitzgerald
- Narrated by: Jake Gyllenhaal
- Length: 4 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
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F. Scott Fitzgerald’s classic American novel of the Roaring Twenties is beloved by generations of readers and stands as his crowning work. This new audio edition, authorized by the Fitzgerald estate, is narrated by Oscar-nominated actor Jake Gyllenhaal (Brokeback Mountain). Gyllenhaal's performance is a faithful delivery in the voice of Nick Carraway, the Midwesterner turned New York bond salesman, who rents a small house next door to the mysterious millionaire Jay Gatsby....
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Simple, Beautiful, and Exquisitely Textured
- By Darwin8u on 04-09-13
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The Decline of the West
- Vol 1: Form and Actuality. Vol 2: Perspectives of World History
- By: Oswald Spengler
- Narrated by: Peter Wickham
- Length: 55 hrs and 52 mins
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Overall
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The Decline of the West - Volume 1 published in 1917, Volume 2 in 1922 - has exercised and challenged opinion ever since. It was a huge undertaking by Oswald Spengler (1880-1936), formerly an unpublished historian and philosopher who set out to radically reconsider history - the rise and fall of world civilisations and their cultures. His primary view was to reject the established Eurocentric paradigm (ancient/classical, Medieval - and, following the Renaissance - modern) and to take a totally new perspective.
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Stunningly deep work of philosophy
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The Prophets of Doom
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- Narrated by: Sebastian Abineri
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Linear and progressive views of history have dominated the popular imagination for the past seventy years in a worldview wedded to the inexorable rise of globalization and GDP growth at any cost. However, the end of the Cold War failed to produce the end of history as hoped, a fact brought home to many by Russia's invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
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Sartor Resartus
- By: Thomas Carlyle
- Narrated by: James Gillies
- Length: 10 hrs and 40 mins
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Sartor Resartus is one of the most unusual, even quirky, British novels to emerge from the first half of the 19th century. Published in 1836, its varied heritage reflects the earlier eccentricities of Sterne and Swift, mixed with influences from Goethe. Its subject matter is strange: it concerns a book called Clothes: Their Origin and Influence by one Diogenes Teufelsdröckh, a German philosopher. Though Thomas Carlyle became a household name in his lifetime, his comic novel Sartor Resartus would prove to have a lasting effect on contemporary writers.
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Just Couldn't Get Into It
- By Lavoris L'Oreal on 07-14-23
By: Thomas Carlyle
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The French Revolution, Volume 1
- The Bastille
- By: Thomas Carlyle
- Narrated by: Robert Bethune
- Length: 11 hrs and 24 mins
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Thomas Carlyle's The French Revolution is a landmark of literary history. Conceived not as a dry recounting of facts, but as a personal, vivid, direct and dramatic encounter with the turbulent times of revolutionary France, it is in fact an extended dramatic monologue in which we meet not only the striking personalities and events of the time, but the equally striking personality and mind of Thomas Carlyle himself.
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A Great Disappointment
- By Charles on 12-28-09
By: Thomas Carlyle
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Wilhelm Meister's Apprenticeship
- By: Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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Wilhelm Meister’s Apprenticeship was Goethe’s second novel, published 1795-6, almost two decades after The Sorrows of Young Werther. It again focuses on a young man but this time on his growing understanding and maturity as he makes his way in the world. As such, it is regarded as the founding work in the ‘coming of age’ genre: the ‘bildungsroman’ ( a term actually coined some 30 years later), which characterised a philosophical novel tracing the cultural, emotional and educational development of an individual from youth to adulthood.
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The ending
- By Angel Ddia on 03-23-24
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Sartor Resartus
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- Length: 10 hrs and 24 mins
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Part novel, part philosophical treatise, part satire, Sartor Resartus is a masterpiece of 19th-century literature, following in the footsteps of Swift’s Tale of a Tub and Sterne’s Tristram Shandy and a key influence on Melville’s Moby-Dick. Bubbling over with ideas, humour and inventiveness, it is—on the surface—a long-suffering British editor’s skeptical account of a German philosopher’s book, Clothes: Their Origin and Influence, which itself is steeped in German idealism.
By: Thomas Carlyle
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The Decline of the West
- Vol 1: Form and Actuality. Vol 2: Perspectives of World History
- By: Oswald Spengler
- Narrated by: Peter Wickham
- Length: 55 hrs and 52 mins
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The Decline of the West - Volume 1 published in 1917, Volume 2 in 1922 - has exercised and challenged opinion ever since. It was a huge undertaking by Oswald Spengler (1880-1936), formerly an unpublished historian and philosopher who set out to radically reconsider history - the rise and fall of world civilisations and their cultures. His primary view was to reject the established Eurocentric paradigm (ancient/classical, Medieval - and, following the Renaissance - modern) and to take a totally new perspective.
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Stunningly deep work of philosophy
- By J. Martin on 05-16-21
By: Oswald Spengler
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The Prophets of Doom
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- Narrated by: Sebastian Abineri
- Length: 8 hrs and 25 mins
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Linear and progressive views of history have dominated the popular imagination for the past seventy years in a worldview wedded to the inexorable rise of globalization and GDP growth at any cost. However, the end of the Cold War failed to produce the end of history as hoped, a fact brought home to many by Russia's invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
By: Neema Parvini
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Sartor Resartus is one of the most unusual, even quirky, British novels to emerge from the first half of the 19th century. Published in 1836, its varied heritage reflects the earlier eccentricities of Sterne and Swift, mixed with influences from Goethe. Its subject matter is strange: it concerns a book called Clothes: Their Origin and Influence by one Diogenes Teufelsdröckh, a German philosopher. Though Thomas Carlyle became a household name in his lifetime, his comic novel Sartor Resartus would prove to have a lasting effect on contemporary writers.
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Just Couldn't Get Into It
- By Lavoris L'Oreal on 07-14-23
By: Thomas Carlyle
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The French Revolution, Volume 1
- The Bastille
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Thomas Carlyle's The French Revolution is a landmark of literary history. Conceived not as a dry recounting of facts, but as a personal, vivid, direct and dramatic encounter with the turbulent times of revolutionary France, it is in fact an extended dramatic monologue in which we meet not only the striking personalities and events of the time, but the equally striking personality and mind of Thomas Carlyle himself.
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A Great Disappointment
- By Charles on 12-28-09
By: Thomas Carlyle
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Wilhelm Meister's Apprenticeship
- By: Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
- Narrated by: Leighton Pugh
- Length: 22 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Wilhelm Meister’s Apprenticeship was Goethe’s second novel, published 1795-6, almost two decades after The Sorrows of Young Werther. It again focuses on a young man but this time on his growing understanding and maturity as he makes his way in the world. As such, it is regarded as the founding work in the ‘coming of age’ genre: the ‘bildungsroman’ ( a term actually coined some 30 years later), which characterised a philosophical novel tracing the cultural, emotional and educational development of an individual from youth to adulthood.
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The ending
- By Angel Ddia on 03-23-24
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Part novel, part philosophical treatise, part satire, Sartor Resartus is a masterpiece of 19th-century literature, following in the footsteps of Swift’s Tale of a Tub and Sterne’s Tristram Shandy and a key influence on Melville’s Moby-Dick. Bubbling over with ideas, humour and inventiveness, it is—on the surface—a long-suffering British editor’s skeptical account of a German philosopher’s book, Clothes: Their Origin and Influence, which itself is steeped in German idealism.
By: Thomas Carlyle
What listeners say about On Heroes, Hero-Worship and the Heroic in History
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- kenny freeman
- 06-16-23
interesting but very slow and dry
this theory is something cool, but this book drags so much. this took me about 3 weeks to finish because of how boring it was.
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- James
- 07-28-24
Narrator brings the 1840s to life.
Narrator is great, but the content of an important 19th century author is a bit disappointing. Too long praising Cromwell, not much on Napoleon's strengths and weaknesses as a hero.
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- Lavoris L'Oreal
- 07-01-23
Intelligent, Articulate, But a Bit Meandering
Carlyle makes the case for several figures of history as heroes. I enjoyed the book mostly for his use of language and for bits of wisdom typical of the author. The narrator is excellent and I will look for more by him.
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- Kraig
- 10-26-23
Highly academic, great reader… dull subject matter
Since coming across a little antique volume of this book several years ago, I’ve been intrigued. The image in the front of the book captivated me, reminded me of the Ted Talk “Your elusive creative genius” by Elizabeth Gilbert, author of Eat Pray Love. I thought it would be a historical treatise on how people down through the ages have reverenced the great men of their time - as deity / prophet / king, etc. And, perhaps it was but after the first couple sections, my attention languished sorely. It took me back to college days where I would dutifully read texts, but knew nothing was penetrating.
When Carlyle wrote on Woden, or Mohammed all I could think is this is from an academic man, writing from his study by the fire. It tells nothing of the pagan rituals, or the blood bath of holy war. His writings felt devoid of morality. The writing felt philosophical, and so far removed from the actual life breath of the men he sought to write about. I kept thinking I needed to read on Wikipedia just who Carlyle was. Was he a man of faith? Or simply a man of his time. English to the core. Lauding Shakespeare as more valuable than India to the British Empire.
Probably the most interesting tidbit was the funny story about Luther throwing ink at an apparition. I read online that whether true or not, there are quite a few ink stains on the walls of places he is said to have lived. Must needs keep profiting off a good story!
It’s horribly dull, the reader is amazing. But the book, it’s a ramble all over the place. By the end I was listening at 1.3 speed. I would say probably the most you could credit this work as is a time capsule of British thought on these subjects in that era. I should have not finished it (especially since my thoughts wandered in and out so much!), but I always feel I must stick it out once committed.
I still think that picture at the front so interesting, I find between it and the Ted Talk a wonderful key has been given to unlocking some of the mystery surrounding how man has viewed the idea of inspiration, and how that view has shifted down through the ages.
Update: I read on Wikipedia / New World Encyclopedia that Carlyle was Scottish but lived in England. “Coming from a strictly Calvinist family, Carlyle was expected by his parents to enter the ministry. However, while at the University of Edinburgh he lost his Christian faith. Nevertheless Calvinist values remained with him throughout his life.” This makes a lot of sense given the tenor of his writing.
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