-
The Nature of Things
- Narrated by: Andrea Giordani
- Length: 8 hrs and 51 mins
Failed to add items
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Buy for $24.49
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
Publisher's summary
The Nature of Things was written in the 1st century BC by Roman polymath Lucretius. It is written as a didactic poem, and explains Epicurean physics.
Listeners also enjoyed...
-
The Swerve
- How the World Became Modern
- By: Stephen Greenblatt
- Narrated by: Edoardo Ballerini
- Length: 9 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Nearly six hundred years ago, a short, genial, cannily alert man in his late 30s took a very old manuscript off a library shelf, saw with excitement what he had discovered, and ordered that it be copied. That book was the last surviving manuscript of an ancient Roman philosophical epic by Lucretius—a beautiful poem containing the most dangerous ideas: that the universe functioned without the aid of gods, that religious fear was damaging to human life, and that matter was made up of very small particles.
-
-
Very compelling history, a less compelling thesis
- By A reader on 05-01-12
-
On the Nature of Things
- By: Lucretius
- Narrated by: Hugh Ross
- Length: 8 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Lucretius was born in 99 BC, and On the Nature of Things is his only surviving work. His aim was to free the Roman world from its two great terrors - the gods and death. Lucretius argues that the gods are not actively involved in life, so need not be appeased; and that death is the end of everything human - body and soul - and therefore should not be feared. But On the Nature of Things is also a poem of striking imagery, intimate natural observation and touching pathos.
-
-
fascinating
- By Edward Hower on 04-24-19
By: Lucretius
-
Breaking Bread with the Dead
- A Reader's Guide to a More Tranquil Mind
- By: Alan Jacobs
- Narrated by: P.J. Ochlan
- Length: 4 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
W. H. Auden once wrote that "art is our chief means of breaking bread with the dead." In his brilliant and compulsively listenable new treatise, Alan Jacobs shows us that engaging with the strange and wonderful writings of the past might help us live less anxiously in the present - and increase what Thomas Pynchon once called our "personal density." Today we are battling too much information in a society changing at lightning speed, with algorithms aimed at shaping our every thought - plus a sense that history offers no resources, only impediments to overcome or ignore.
-
-
Title is wrong.
- By Jamie jones on 09-09-20
By: Alan Jacobs
-
The Iliad of Homer
- By: Elizabeth Vandiver, The Great Courses
- Narrated by: Elizabeth Vandiver
- Length: 6 hrs and 4 mins
- Original Recording
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
For thousands of years, Homer's ancient epic poem the
Iliad has enchanted readers from around the world. When you join Professor Vandiver for this lecture series on the Iliad, you'll come to understand what has enthralled and gripped so many people. Her compelling 12-lecture look at this literary masterpiece -whether it's the work of many authors or the "vision" of a single blind poet - makes it vividly clear why, after almost 3,000 years, the
Iliad remains not only among the greatest adventure stories ever told but also one of the most compelling meditations on the human condition ever written.
-
-
Vandiver never disappoints
- By Machteacher on 07-23-13
By: Elizabeth Vandiver, and others
-
Metamorphoses
- Penguin Classics
- By: Ovid, David Raeburn - translator, Denis Feeney
- Narrated by: Martin Jarvis, John Sackville, Maya Saroya, and others
- Length: 18 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Ovid's sensuous and witty poetry brings together a dazzling array of mythological tales, ingeniously linked by the idea of transformation - often as a result of love or lust - where men and women find themselves magically changed into new and sometimes extraordinary beings. Beginning with the creation of the world and ending with the deification of Augustus, Ovid interweaves many of the best-known myths and legends of Ancient Greece and Rome, including Daedalus and Icarus, Pyramus and Thisbe, Pygmalion, Perseus and Andromeda, and the fall of Troy.
-
-
A revelation
- By Michael Cain on 05-24-20
By: Ovid, and others
-
The Divine Comedy
- By: Clive James - translator, Dante Alighieri
- Narrated by: Edoardo Ballerini
- Length: 14 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Renowned poet and critic Clive James presents the crowning achievement of his career: a monumental translation into English verse of Dante’s The Divine Comedy. The Divine Comedy is the precursor of modern literature, and this translation - decades in the making - gives us the entire epic as a single, coherent and compulsively listenable lyric poem. Written in the early 14th century and completed in 1321, the year of Dante’s death, The Divine Comedy is perhaps the greatest work of epic poetry ever composed.
-
-
Brilliant!
- By Tad Davis on 10-18-13
By: Clive James - translator, and others
-
The Swerve
- How the World Became Modern
- By: Stephen Greenblatt
- Narrated by: Edoardo Ballerini
- Length: 9 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Nearly six hundred years ago, a short, genial, cannily alert man in his late 30s took a very old manuscript off a library shelf, saw with excitement what he had discovered, and ordered that it be copied. That book was the last surviving manuscript of an ancient Roman philosophical epic by Lucretius—a beautiful poem containing the most dangerous ideas: that the universe functioned without the aid of gods, that religious fear was damaging to human life, and that matter was made up of very small particles.
-
-
Very compelling history, a less compelling thesis
- By A reader on 05-01-12
-
On the Nature of Things
- By: Lucretius
- Narrated by: Hugh Ross
- Length: 8 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Lucretius was born in 99 BC, and On the Nature of Things is his only surviving work. His aim was to free the Roman world from its two great terrors - the gods and death. Lucretius argues that the gods are not actively involved in life, so need not be appeased; and that death is the end of everything human - body and soul - and therefore should not be feared. But On the Nature of Things is also a poem of striking imagery, intimate natural observation and touching pathos.
-
-
fascinating
- By Edward Hower on 04-24-19
By: Lucretius
-
Breaking Bread with the Dead
- A Reader's Guide to a More Tranquil Mind
- By: Alan Jacobs
- Narrated by: P.J. Ochlan
- Length: 4 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
W. H. Auden once wrote that "art is our chief means of breaking bread with the dead." In his brilliant and compulsively listenable new treatise, Alan Jacobs shows us that engaging with the strange and wonderful writings of the past might help us live less anxiously in the present - and increase what Thomas Pynchon once called our "personal density." Today we are battling too much information in a society changing at lightning speed, with algorithms aimed at shaping our every thought - plus a sense that history offers no resources, only impediments to overcome or ignore.
-
-
Title is wrong.
- By Jamie jones on 09-09-20
By: Alan Jacobs
-
The Iliad of Homer
- By: Elizabeth Vandiver, The Great Courses
- Narrated by: Elizabeth Vandiver
- Length: 6 hrs and 4 mins
- Original Recording
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
For thousands of years, Homer's ancient epic poem the
Iliad has enchanted readers from around the world. When you join Professor Vandiver for this lecture series on the Iliad, you'll come to understand what has enthralled and gripped so many people. Her compelling 12-lecture look at this literary masterpiece -whether it's the work of many authors or the "vision" of a single blind poet - makes it vividly clear why, after almost 3,000 years, the
Iliad remains not only among the greatest adventure stories ever told but also one of the most compelling meditations on the human condition ever written.
-
-
Vandiver never disappoints
- By Machteacher on 07-23-13
By: Elizabeth Vandiver, and others
-
Metamorphoses
- Penguin Classics
- By: Ovid, David Raeburn - translator, Denis Feeney
- Narrated by: Martin Jarvis, John Sackville, Maya Saroya, and others
- Length: 18 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Ovid's sensuous and witty poetry brings together a dazzling array of mythological tales, ingeniously linked by the idea of transformation - often as a result of love or lust - where men and women find themselves magically changed into new and sometimes extraordinary beings. Beginning with the creation of the world and ending with the deification of Augustus, Ovid interweaves many of the best-known myths and legends of Ancient Greece and Rome, including Daedalus and Icarus, Pyramus and Thisbe, Pygmalion, Perseus and Andromeda, and the fall of Troy.
-
-
A revelation
- By Michael Cain on 05-24-20
By: Ovid, and others
-
The Divine Comedy
- By: Clive James - translator, Dante Alighieri
- Narrated by: Edoardo Ballerini
- Length: 14 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Renowned poet and critic Clive James presents the crowning achievement of his career: a monumental translation into English verse of Dante’s The Divine Comedy. The Divine Comedy is the precursor of modern literature, and this translation - decades in the making - gives us the entire epic as a single, coherent and compulsively listenable lyric poem. Written in the early 14th century and completed in 1321, the year of Dante’s death, The Divine Comedy is perhaps the greatest work of epic poetry ever composed.
-
-
Brilliant!
- By Tad Davis on 10-18-13
By: Clive James - translator, and others
-
The Iliad & The Odyssey
- By: Homer
- Narrated by: John Lescault
- Length: 28 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Little is known about the Ancient Greek oral poet Homer, the supposed 8th century BC author of the world-read Iliad and his later masterpiece, The Odyssey. These classic epics provided the basis for Greek education and culture throughout the classical age and formed the backbone of humane education through the birth of the Roman Empire and the spread of Christianity.
-
-
Worth the price, worth the time
- By Sam on 12-31-04
By: Homer
-
The Course of Human Events
- By: David McCullough
- Narrated by: David McCullough
- Length: 37 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
On May 15, 2003, David McCullough presented "The Course of Human Events" as The 2003 Jefferson Lecture in the Humanities in Washington, DC. The Jefferson Lecture is a tribute to McCullough's lifetime investigation of history.
-
-
A Pitch for History
- By Alan on 09-13-05
By: David McCullough
-
Modern Miss Mason
- By: Leah Boden
- Narrated by: Leah Boden
- Length: 7 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
As a young mother and new home educator, Leah was overwhelmed by the breadth of available resources. How to know which to choose? What would best guide and inspire her children? Whose voices should she trust? That’s when she discovered the timeless work and words of Charlotte Mason. A groundbreaking and revolutionary voice in education, Charlotte breathed life and beauty back into childhood in a stiff archaic age, opening the eyes of parent-teachers and the hearts of students—and changing the future of home education.
-
-
A gift
- By Amazon Customer on 05-10-23
By: Leah Boden
-
A Private Spy
- The Letters of John le Carré
- By: John le Carré, Tim Cornwell - editor
- Narrated by: David Harewood, Florence Pugh
- Length: 16 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The never-before-seen correspondence of John le Carré, one of the most important novelists of our generation, is collected in this beautiful volume. During his lifetime, le Carré wrote numerous letters to writers, spies, politicians, artists, actors and public figures. This collection is a treasure trove, revealing the late author's humor, generosity, and wit—a side of him many listeners have not previously seen.
-
-
Truly engrossing from start to finish
- By Dan on 01-31-23
By: John le Carré, and others
-
The Fellowship
- The Literary LIves of the Inklings: J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Owen Barfield, Charles Williams
- By: Philip Zaleski, Carol Zaleski
- Narrated by: John Curless
- Length: 26 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
C. S. Lewis is the 20th century's most widely read Christian writer and J. R. R. Tolkien its most beloved mythmaker. For three decades they and their closest associates formed a literary club known as the Inklings, which met weekly in Lewis' Oxford rooms and a nearby pub. They read aloud from works in progress, argued about anything that caught their fancy, and gave one another invaluable companionship, inspiration, and criticism.
-
-
If You Love Literature...
- By Ray M on 07-14-16
By: Philip Zaleski, and others
-
Lives of the Eminent Philosophers
- By: Diogenes Laertius, Pamela Mensch - translator, James Miller - editor
- Narrated by: Jennifer M. Dixon
- Length: 28 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This anthology is a miscellany of maxims and anecdotes that generations of Western readers have consulted for edification as well as entertainment ever since Lives of the Eminent Philosophers, first compiled in the AD third century, came to prominence in Renaissance Italy. To this day, it remains a crucial source for much of what we know about the origins and practice of philosophy in ancient Greece.
-
-
Could be worse ....
- By Mohad Cheridi on 01-31-19
By: Diogenes Laertius, and others
-
The Summing Up
- By: W. Somerset Maugham
- Narrated by: Charlton Griffin
- Length: 9 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
William Somerset Maugham (1874�1965) was born at the height of British imperial power. When he died, the British Empire was all but a memory. In Maugham's lifetime, as his civilization slowly disappeared, people from all walks of life, the proud, the urbane, the crude, and the desperate, passed beneath the lens of his dispassionate scrutiny. Transformed into some of the most unforgettable literary works of the 20th century, his experiences re-emerged in his plays, fiction, and essays.
-
-
Portrait of the artist as an old man
- By Eric Chevlen on 10-30-05
-
Murder Your Darlings
- And Other Gentle Writing Advice from Aristotle to Zinsser
- By: Roy Peter Clark
- Narrated by: Jefferson Mays
- Length: 9 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
With so many excellent writing guides lining bookstore shelves, it can be hard to know where to look for the best advice. Should you go with Natalie Goldberg or Anne Lamott? Maybe William Zinsser or Stephen King would be more appropriate. Then again, what about the classics - Strunk and White, or even Aristotle himself? In Murder Your Darlings, Roy Peter Clark, who has been a beloved and revered writing teacher to children and Pulitzer Prize winners alike for more than 30 years, has compiled a remarkable collection of more than 100 of the best writing tips.
-
-
Surprisingly engaging
- By Sil A. on 08-05-21
By: Roy Peter Clark
-
Defiant Joy
- The Remarkable Life & Impact of G. K. Chesterton
- By: Kevin Belmonte
- Narrated by: Robertson Dean
- Length: 8 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
You may be aware that G. K. Chesterton authored influential Christian biographies and apologetics. But you may not know the larger-than-life Gilbert Keith Chesterton himself - not yet. Equally versed in poetry, novels, literary criticism, and journalism, he addressed politics, culture, and religion with a towering intellect and a soaring wit. Chesterton carried on lively, public discussions with the social commentators of his day, continually challenging them with civility, humility, erudition, and his ever-sharp sense of humor.
-
-
I Liked It
- By Gene Hamill on 11-20-20
By: Kevin Belmonte
-
Book Girl
- By: Sarah Clarkson, Kate Mulligan - foreword
- Narrated by: Erica Sullivan
- Length: 8 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Books were always Sarah Clarkson's delight. Raised in the company of the lively Anne of Green Gables, the brave Pevensie children of Narnia, and the wise Austen heroines, she discovered reading early on as a daily gift, a way of encountering the world in all its wonder. But what she came to realize as an adult was just how powerfully books had shaped her as a woman to live a story within that world, to be a lifelong learner, to grasp hope in struggle, and to create and act with courage. She's convinced that books can do the same for you.
-
-
This book makes my heart happy!
- By Demi Dusterhoft on 11-14-18
By: Sarah Clarkson, and others
-
Bandersnatch
- C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien, and the Creative Collaboration of the Inklings
- By: Diana Pavlac Glyer
- Narrated by: Michael Ward
- Length: 6 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien, and the Inklings met each week to read and discuss each other's work-in-progress, offering both encouragement and blistering critique. How did these conversations shape the books they were writing? How does creative collaboration enhance individual talent? And what can we learn from their example? Bandersnatch offers an inside look at the Inklings of Oxford, and a seat at their table at the Eagle and Child pub.
-
-
The Inklings and the Creative Process Opened Up
- By JCurtis on 06-15-17
-
What W. H. Auden Can Do for You
- Alexander McCall Smith
- By: Alexander McCall Smith
- Narrated by: William Neenan
- Length: 2 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When facing a moral dilemma, Isabel Dalhousie--Edinburgh philosopher, amateur detective, and title character of a series of novels by best-selling author Alexander McCall Smith - often refers to the great twentieth-century poet W. H. Auden. This is no accident: McCall Smith has long been fascinated by Auden. Indeed, the novelist, best known for his No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency series, calls the poet not only the greatest literary discovery of his life but also the best of guides on how to live.
-
-
On the Power of Poetry, Mostly Auden's
- By Rich S. on 12-09-13
Related to this topic
-
The Course of Human Events
- By: David McCullough
- Narrated by: David McCullough
- Length: 37 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
On May 15, 2003, David McCullough presented "The Course of Human Events" as The 2003 Jefferson Lecture in the Humanities in Washington, DC. The Jefferson Lecture is a tribute to McCullough's lifetime investigation of history.
-
-
A Pitch for History
- By Alan on 09-13-05
By: David McCullough
-
Georgette Heyer
- Biography of a Bestseller
- By: Jennifer Kloester
- Narrated by: Phyllida Nash
- Length: 14 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Georgette Heyer remains an enduring international best seller, read and loved by four generations of readers and extolled by today's best-selling authors. Despite her enormous popularity, she never gave an interview or appeared in public. Georgette Heyer wrote her first novel, The Black Moth, when she was 17 in order to amuse her convalescent brother. It was published in 1921 to instant success, and 90 years later it has never been out of print.
-
-
Heyer as a person
- By Jerri C on 06-15-15
-
The Divine Comedy
- By: Clive James - translator, Dante Alighieri
- Narrated by: Edoardo Ballerini
- Length: 14 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Renowned poet and critic Clive James presents the crowning achievement of his career: a monumental translation into English verse of Dante’s The Divine Comedy. The Divine Comedy is the precursor of modern literature, and this translation - decades in the making - gives us the entire epic as a single, coherent and compulsively listenable lyric poem. Written in the early 14th century and completed in 1321, the year of Dante’s death, The Divine Comedy is perhaps the greatest work of epic poetry ever composed.
-
-
Brilliant!
- By Tad Davis on 10-18-13
By: Clive James - translator, and others
-
The Fellowship
- The Literary LIves of the Inklings: J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Owen Barfield, Charles Williams
- By: Philip Zaleski, Carol Zaleski
- Narrated by: John Curless
- Length: 26 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
C. S. Lewis is the 20th century's most widely read Christian writer and J. R. R. Tolkien its most beloved mythmaker. For three decades they and their closest associates formed a literary club known as the Inklings, which met weekly in Lewis' Oxford rooms and a nearby pub. They read aloud from works in progress, argued about anything that caught their fancy, and gave one another invaluable companionship, inspiration, and criticism.
-
-
If You Love Literature...
- By Ray M on 07-14-16
By: Philip Zaleski, and others
-
The Europeans
- Three Lives and the Making of a Cosmopolitan Culture
- By: Orlando Figes
- Narrated by: James Langton
- Length: 21 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
At the center of the book is a poignant love triangle: the Russian writer Ivan Turgenev; the Spanish prima donna Pauline Viardot, with whom Turgenev had a long and intimate relationship; and her husband Louis Viardot, an art critic, theater manager, and republican activist. Together, Turgenev and the Viardots acted as a kind of European cultural exchange - they either knew or crossed paths with Delacroix, Berlioz, Chopin, Brahms, Liszt, the Schumanns, Hugo, Flaubert, Dickens, and Dostoyevsky, among many other towering figures.
-
-
DO LISTEN TO THIS BOOK!!!
- By JK on 10-28-21
By: Orlando Figes
-
The Raven
- By: Edgar Allan Poe
- Narrated by: William Roberts
- Length: 9 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This is a story from the Fall of the House of Usher collection. The horrors of the Spanish Inquisition, with its dungeon of death, and the overhanging gloom on the House of Usher demonstrate unforgettably the unique imagination of Edgar Allan Poe. Unerringly, he touches upon some of our greatest nightmares: Premature burial, ghostly transformation, words from beyond the grave. Written in the 1840s, they have retained their power to shock and frighten even now.
-
-
Excellent Narration of Great Creepy Poetry
- By Latonda James on 05-27-20
By: Edgar Allan Poe
-
The Course of Human Events
- By: David McCullough
- Narrated by: David McCullough
- Length: 37 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
On May 15, 2003, David McCullough presented "The Course of Human Events" as The 2003 Jefferson Lecture in the Humanities in Washington, DC. The Jefferson Lecture is a tribute to McCullough's lifetime investigation of history.
-
-
A Pitch for History
- By Alan on 09-13-05
By: David McCullough
-
Georgette Heyer
- Biography of a Bestseller
- By: Jennifer Kloester
- Narrated by: Phyllida Nash
- Length: 14 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Georgette Heyer remains an enduring international best seller, read and loved by four generations of readers and extolled by today's best-selling authors. Despite her enormous popularity, she never gave an interview or appeared in public. Georgette Heyer wrote her first novel, The Black Moth, when she was 17 in order to amuse her convalescent brother. It was published in 1921 to instant success, and 90 years later it has never been out of print.
-
-
Heyer as a person
- By Jerri C on 06-15-15
-
The Divine Comedy
- By: Clive James - translator, Dante Alighieri
- Narrated by: Edoardo Ballerini
- Length: 14 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Renowned poet and critic Clive James presents the crowning achievement of his career: a monumental translation into English verse of Dante’s The Divine Comedy. The Divine Comedy is the precursor of modern literature, and this translation - decades in the making - gives us the entire epic as a single, coherent and compulsively listenable lyric poem. Written in the early 14th century and completed in 1321, the year of Dante’s death, The Divine Comedy is perhaps the greatest work of epic poetry ever composed.
-
-
Brilliant!
- By Tad Davis on 10-18-13
By: Clive James - translator, and others
-
The Fellowship
- The Literary LIves of the Inklings: J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Owen Barfield, Charles Williams
- By: Philip Zaleski, Carol Zaleski
- Narrated by: John Curless
- Length: 26 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
C. S. Lewis is the 20th century's most widely read Christian writer and J. R. R. Tolkien its most beloved mythmaker. For three decades they and their closest associates formed a literary club known as the Inklings, which met weekly in Lewis' Oxford rooms and a nearby pub. They read aloud from works in progress, argued about anything that caught their fancy, and gave one another invaluable companionship, inspiration, and criticism.
-
-
If You Love Literature...
- By Ray M on 07-14-16
By: Philip Zaleski, and others
-
The Europeans
- Three Lives and the Making of a Cosmopolitan Culture
- By: Orlando Figes
- Narrated by: James Langton
- Length: 21 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
At the center of the book is a poignant love triangle: the Russian writer Ivan Turgenev; the Spanish prima donna Pauline Viardot, with whom Turgenev had a long and intimate relationship; and her husband Louis Viardot, an art critic, theater manager, and republican activist. Together, Turgenev and the Viardots acted as a kind of European cultural exchange - they either knew or crossed paths with Delacroix, Berlioz, Chopin, Brahms, Liszt, the Schumanns, Hugo, Flaubert, Dickens, and Dostoyevsky, among many other towering figures.
-
-
DO LISTEN TO THIS BOOK!!!
- By JK on 10-28-21
By: Orlando Figes
-
The Raven
- By: Edgar Allan Poe
- Narrated by: William Roberts
- Length: 9 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This is a story from the Fall of the House of Usher collection. The horrors of the Spanish Inquisition, with its dungeon of death, and the overhanging gloom on the House of Usher demonstrate unforgettably the unique imagination of Edgar Allan Poe. Unerringly, he touches upon some of our greatest nightmares: Premature burial, ghostly transformation, words from beyond the grave. Written in the 1840s, they have retained their power to shock and frighten even now.
-
-
Excellent Narration of Great Creepy Poetry
- By Latonda James on 05-27-20
By: Edgar Allan Poe
-
Edgar Allan Poe - The Complete Works Collection
- By: Edgar Allan Poe
- Narrated by: Philippe Duquenoy
- Length: 48 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Edgar Allan Poe was one of the most prolific authors of his time, eventually gaining recognition for his tales of horror and his uncanny ability to paint a macabre picture with words. The Complete Works Collection of Edgar Allan Poe contains over 150 stories and poems, separated into individual chapters, including all of Poe's most notorious works such as The Raven, Annabel Lee, A Dream Within a Dream, Lenore, The Tell-Tale Heart, and many more.
-
-
Would recommend to anyone!!!
- By Gail Blackwell on 03-14-18
By: Edgar Allan Poe
-
Nazi Literature in the Americas
- By: Roberto Bolaño, Chris Andrews - translator
- Narrated by: Jonathan Davis
- Length: 6 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A tour de force of black humor and imaginary erudition, Nazi Literature in the Americas presents itself as a biographical dictionary of writers who espoused extreme right-wing ideologies in the 20th and 21st centuries.
-
-
Eerie and fascinating
- By Jikai Zenshin on 03-19-21
By: Roberto Bolaño, and others
-
The Road to Monticello
- The Life and Mind of Thomas Jefferson
- By: Kevin J. Hayes
- Narrated by: David Baker
- Length: 25 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Thomas Jefferson was an avid book-collector, a voracious reader, and a gifted writer - a man who prided himself on his knowledge of classical and modern languages and whose marginal annotations include quotations from Euripides, Herodotus, and Milton. And yet there has never been a literary life of our most literary president.
-
-
Very Boring Book
- By Greg on 05-13-14
By: Kevin J. Hayes
-
The Untold Story of the Talking Book
- By: Matthew Rubery
- Narrated by: Jim Denison
- Length: 11 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Histories of the book often move straight from the codex to the digital screen. Left out of that familiar account is nearly 150 years of audio recordings. Recounting the fascinating history of audio-recorded literature, Matthew Rubery traces the path of innovation from Edison's recitation of "Mary Had a Little Lamb" for his tinfoil phonograph in 1877 to the first novel-length talking books made for blinded World War I veterans to today's billion-dollar audiobook industry.
-
-
A Historical Review of Audiobooks
- By Jean on 07-20-17
By: Matthew Rubery
-
Philosopher of the Heart
- The Restless Life of Søren Kierkegaard
- By: Clare Carlisle
- Narrated by: Simon Vance
- Length: 10 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Søren Kierkegaard is one of the most passionate and challenging of all modern philosophers, and is often regarded as the founder of existentialism. Over about a decade in the 1840s and 1850s, writings poured from his pen pursuing the question of existence - how to be a human being in the world? - while exploring the possibilities of Christianity and confronting the failures of its institutional manifestation around him.
-
-
Fatally flawed
- By Citizen M on 02-26-23
By: Clare Carlisle
-
Shakespeare's Library
- Unlocking the Greatest Mystery in Literature
- By: Stuart Kells
- Narrated by: Simon Vance
- Length: 8 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Millions of words of scholarship have been expended on the world's most famous author and his work. And yet a critical part of the puzzle, Shakespeare's library, is a mystery. For four centuries people have searched for it: in mansions, palaces, and libraries; in riverbeds, sheep pens, and partridge coops; and in the corridors of the mind. Yet no trace of the Bard's manuscripts, books, or letters has ever been found.
-
-
Dismissed Mary Sidney Herbert without explanation
- By Lisa on 07-30-19
By: Stuart Kells
-
Letters to a Young Poet
- By: Rainer Maria Rilke, Stephen Mitchell - translator
- Narrated by: Stephen Mitchell
- Length: 1 hr and 18 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
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.
-
-
Priceless Recordings of Intense Feeling
- By David on 10-08-04
By: Rainer Maria Rilke, and others
-
Square Haunting
- Five Writers in London Between the Wars
- By: Francesca Wade
- Narrated by: Corrie James
- Length: 13 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Mecklenburgh Square has always been a radical address. Nestled in the heart of Bloomsbury, these townhouses have borne witness to the lives of some of the century's most revolutionary cultural figures - many of whom were extraordinary women. United by their desire to experiment with new ways of living - and, therefore, of being - these authors and thinkers were trailblazers in their commitment to creative independence.
By: Francesca Wade
-
Melville in Love
- The Secret Life of Herman Melville and the Muse of Moby-Dick
- By: Michael Shelden
- Narrated by: Sean Pratt
- Length: 6 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Herman Melville's epic novel, Moby-Dick, was a spectacular failure when it was published in 1851, effectively ending its author's rise to literary fame. Because he was neglected by academics for so long, and because he made little effort to preserve his legacy, we know very little about Melville, and even less about what he called his "wicked book". Scholars still puzzle over what drove Melville to invent Captain Ahab's mad pursuit of the great white whale.
-
-
intriguing
- By Jean on 06-18-16
By: Michael Shelden
-
Cultural Amnesia
- Notes in the Margin of My Time
- By: Clive James
- Narrated by: Clive James
- Length: 6 hrs and 16 mins
- Abridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From Anna Akhmatova to Stefan Zweig, via Charles de Gaulle, Hitler, Thomas Mann and Charlie Chaplin, this varied and unfailingly absorbing book is both story and history, both public memoir and personal record - and provides an essential field-guide to the vast movements of taste, intellect, politics and delusion that helped to prepare the times we live in now.
-
-
Very enjoyable and well narrated
- By Larbi on 05-18-08
By: Clive James
-
Letters to a Young Poet
- By: Rainer Maria Rilke
- Narrated by: Marc Allen
- Length: 1 hr and 50 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
These have been called the most famous and beloved letters of the past century. Rainer Maria Rilke himself said that much of his creative expression went into his correspondence, and here he touches upon a wide range of subjects that will interest writers, artists, and thinkers. This luminous translation of Rainer Maria Rilke's classic offers brilliant inspiration to all people who seek to know and express their inner truth.
-
-
Absolutely amazing writing, great reader.
- By Matt on 09-10-15
-
100 Quotes by Ralph Waldo Emerson
- By: Ralph Waldo Emerson
- Narrated by: Paul Spera
- Length: 24 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In his lifetime, Ralph Waldo Emerson was the most widely known man of letters in America, establishing himself as a prolific poet, essayist, popular lecturer, and advocate of social reforms. He was considered one of the great orators of the time, and his enthusiasm and respect for his audience enraptured crowds. As a poet and philosopher, he led the Transcendentalist movement, which professes the belief that everything in ouf world is a microcosm of the universe, and in the infinitude of individual man.
People who viewed this also viewed...
-
On the Nature of Things
- By: Lucretius
- Narrated by: Malk Williams
- Length: 9 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Lucretius' poem On the Nature of Things combines a scientific and philosophical treatise with some of the greatest poetry ever written. With intense moral fervour he demonstrates to humanity that in death there is nothing to fear since the soul is mortal, and the world and everything in it is governed by the mechanical laws of nature and not by gods; and that by believing this men can live in peace of mind and happiness. He bases this on the atomic theory expounded by the Greek philosopher Epicurus, and continues with an examination of sensation, sex, cosmology, meteorology, and geology.
By: Lucretius
-
On the Nature of Things
- By: Lucretius
- Narrated by: Charlton Griffin
- Length: 9 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This famous work by Lucretius is a masterpiece of didactic poetry, and it still stands today as the finest exposition of Epicurean philosophy ever written. The poem was produced in the middle of first century B.C., a period that was to witness a flowering of Latin literature unequaled for beauty and intellectual power in subsequent ages. The Latin title, De Rerum Natura, translates literally to On the Nature of Things and is meant to impress the reader with the breadth and depth of Epicurean philosophy.
-
-
I didn't like the structure of the audiobook
- By Erez on 04-24-12
By: Lucretius
-
On the Nature of Things
- By: Lucretius
- Narrated by: Hugh Ross
- Length: 8 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Lucretius was born in 99 BC, and On the Nature of Things is his only surviving work. His aim was to free the Roman world from its two great terrors - the gods and death. Lucretius argues that the gods are not actively involved in life, so need not be appeased; and that death is the end of everything human - body and soul - and therefore should not be feared. But On the Nature of Things is also a poem of striking imagery, intimate natural observation and touching pathos.
-
-
fascinating
- By Edward Hower on 04-24-19
By: Lucretius
-
The Swerve
- How the World Became Modern
- By: Stephen Greenblatt
- Narrated by: Edoardo Ballerini
- Length: 9 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Nearly six hundred years ago, a short, genial, cannily alert man in his late 30s took a very old manuscript off a library shelf, saw with excitement what he had discovered, and ordered that it be copied. That book was the last surviving manuscript of an ancient Roman philosophical epic by Lucretius—a beautiful poem containing the most dangerous ideas: that the universe functioned without the aid of gods, that religious fear was damaging to human life, and that matter was made up of very small particles.
-
-
Very compelling history, a less compelling thesis
- By A reader on 05-01-12
-
The Concept of Anxiety
- A Simple Psychologically Oriented Deliberation in View of the Dogmatic Problem of Hereditary Sin
- By: Alastair Hannay - translator, Søren Kierkegaard
- Narrated by: David Rapkin
- Length: 6 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This first new translation of Kierkegaard's masterwork in a generation brings an essential work of modern philosophy to vivid life. While the majority of Kierkegaard's work leading up to The Concept of Anxiety dealt with the intersection of faith and knowledge, here the renowned Danish philosopher turns to the perennial question of sin and guilt. First published in 1844, this concise treatise identified - long before Freud - anxiety as a deep-seated human state, one that embodies the endless struggle with our own spiritual identities.
-
-
A book about nothing
- By Gary on 03-20-17
By: Alastair Hannay - translator, and others
-
Ethics
- By: Benedict de Spinoza
- Narrated by: Antony Ferguson
- Length: 9 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Benedict de Spinoza's Ethics, first published in 1677, constitutes a major systematic critique of the traditional and religious foundations of philosophical thought. In it, Spinoza follows a logical step-by-step format consisting of definitions, axioms, propositions, proofs, and corollaries to create a comprehensive inquiry into the truth about God, nature, and humans' place within the universe. From these broad metaphysical themes, Spinoza derives what he considered to be the highest principles of religion and society and lays out an ethical system in which reason is the supreme value.
-
-
Now I understand "the God of Spinoza"
- By Gary on 07-31-16
-
On the Nature of Things
- By: Lucretius
- Narrated by: Malk Williams
- Length: 9 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Lucretius' poem On the Nature of Things combines a scientific and philosophical treatise with some of the greatest poetry ever written. With intense moral fervour he demonstrates to humanity that in death there is nothing to fear since the soul is mortal, and the world and everything in it is governed by the mechanical laws of nature and not by gods; and that by believing this men can live in peace of mind and happiness. He bases this on the atomic theory expounded by the Greek philosopher Epicurus, and continues with an examination of sensation, sex, cosmology, meteorology, and geology.
By: Lucretius
-
On the Nature of Things
- By: Lucretius
- Narrated by: Charlton Griffin
- Length: 9 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This famous work by Lucretius is a masterpiece of didactic poetry, and it still stands today as the finest exposition of Epicurean philosophy ever written. The poem was produced in the middle of first century B.C., a period that was to witness a flowering of Latin literature unequaled for beauty and intellectual power in subsequent ages. The Latin title, De Rerum Natura, translates literally to On the Nature of Things and is meant to impress the reader with the breadth and depth of Epicurean philosophy.
-
-
I didn't like the structure of the audiobook
- By Erez on 04-24-12
By: Lucretius
-
On the Nature of Things
- By: Lucretius
- Narrated by: Hugh Ross
- Length: 8 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Lucretius was born in 99 BC, and On the Nature of Things is his only surviving work. His aim was to free the Roman world from its two great terrors - the gods and death. Lucretius argues that the gods are not actively involved in life, so need not be appeased; and that death is the end of everything human - body and soul - and therefore should not be feared. But On the Nature of Things is also a poem of striking imagery, intimate natural observation and touching pathos.
-
-
fascinating
- By Edward Hower on 04-24-19
By: Lucretius
-
The Swerve
- How the World Became Modern
- By: Stephen Greenblatt
- Narrated by: Edoardo Ballerini
- Length: 9 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Nearly six hundred years ago, a short, genial, cannily alert man in his late 30s took a very old manuscript off a library shelf, saw with excitement what he had discovered, and ordered that it be copied. That book was the last surviving manuscript of an ancient Roman philosophical epic by Lucretius—a beautiful poem containing the most dangerous ideas: that the universe functioned without the aid of gods, that religious fear was damaging to human life, and that matter was made up of very small particles.
-
-
Very compelling history, a less compelling thesis
- By A reader on 05-01-12
-
The Concept of Anxiety
- A Simple Psychologically Oriented Deliberation in View of the Dogmatic Problem of Hereditary Sin
- By: Alastair Hannay - translator, Søren Kierkegaard
- Narrated by: David Rapkin
- Length: 6 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This first new translation of Kierkegaard's masterwork in a generation brings an essential work of modern philosophy to vivid life. While the majority of Kierkegaard's work leading up to The Concept of Anxiety dealt with the intersection of faith and knowledge, here the renowned Danish philosopher turns to the perennial question of sin and guilt. First published in 1844, this concise treatise identified - long before Freud - anxiety as a deep-seated human state, one that embodies the endless struggle with our own spiritual identities.
-
-
A book about nothing
- By Gary on 03-20-17
By: Alastair Hannay - translator, and others
-
Ethics
- By: Benedict de Spinoza
- Narrated by: Antony Ferguson
- Length: 9 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Benedict de Spinoza's Ethics, first published in 1677, constitutes a major systematic critique of the traditional and religious foundations of philosophical thought. In it, Spinoza follows a logical step-by-step format consisting of definitions, axioms, propositions, proofs, and corollaries to create a comprehensive inquiry into the truth about God, nature, and humans' place within the universe. From these broad metaphysical themes, Spinoza derives what he considered to be the highest principles of religion and society and lays out an ethical system in which reason is the supreme value.
-
-
Now I understand "the God of Spinoza"
- By Gary on 07-31-16
-
Epicurus of Samos: His Philosophy and Life
- All the Principal Source Texts
- By: Epicurus, Crespo
- Narrated by: James Gillies, Jonathan Booth
- Length: 6 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Epicurus of Samos (341-270 BCE) was the founder of the philosophical system to which he gave his name: Epicureanism. It is a label that is often misused and misunderstood today, with ‘a life of pleasure’ as the key aim misinterpreted as a life of indulgence. In fact, the philosophy of Epicurus demonstrated also by his life, was anything but! He established a school in Athens called The Garden, underpinned by his system of ethics.
-
-
Not What It Seems And Full Of Hypocrisy
- By Jock Little on 05-27-22
By: Epicurus, and others
-
Metamorphoses
- Penguin Classics
- By: Ovid, David Raeburn - translator, Denis Feeney
- Narrated by: Martin Jarvis, John Sackville, Maya Saroya, and others
- Length: 18 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Ovid's sensuous and witty poetry brings together a dazzling array of mythological tales, ingeniously linked by the idea of transformation - often as a result of love or lust - where men and women find themselves magically changed into new and sometimes extraordinary beings. Beginning with the creation of the world and ending with the deification of Augustus, Ovid interweaves many of the best-known myths and legends of Ancient Greece and Rome, including Daedalus and Icarus, Pyramus and Thisbe, Pygmalion, Perseus and Andromeda, and the fall of Troy.
-
-
A revelation
- By Michael Cain on 05-24-20
By: Ovid, and others
-
Parallel Lives of the Noble Greeks and Romans
- By: Plutarch
- Narrated by: Charlton Griffin
- Length: 83 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Plutarch (c. AD 46-AD 120) was born to a prominent family in the small Greek town of Chaeronea, about 20 miles east of Delphi in the region known as Boeotia. His best known work is the Parallel Lives, a series of biographies of famous Greeks and Romans, arranged in pairs to illuminate their common moral virtues and vices. The surviving lives contain 23 pairs, each with one Greek life and one Roman life as well as four unpaired single lives.
-
-
For the Very Dedicated
- By John Pinkerton on 03-13-18
By: Plutarch
-
The Aeneid
- Revised and Expanded Edition
- By: Vergil
- Narrated by: Susanna Braund
- Length: 10 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A powerful and poignant translation of Vergil’s epic poem, newly equipped with introduction and notes.
-
-
Great translation
- By Melanie on 11-05-23
By: Vergil
-
The Divine Comedy
- Penguin Classics
- By: Robin Kirkpatrick - translator, Dante Alighieri
- Narrated by: Jot Davies, Robin Kirkpatrick, Kristin Atherton
- Length: 17 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Divine Comedy describes Dante's descent into Hell with Virgil as a guide, his ascent of Mount Purgatory and his encounter with his dead love Beatrice, and finally, his arrival in Heaven. Examining questions of faith, desire and enlightenment, the poem is a brilliantly nuanced and moving allegory of human redemption. This major translation is published here for the first time in a single volume.
-
-
Solid, read with gusto
- By Tad Davis on 11-15-20
By: Robin Kirkpatrick - translator, and others
-
Letters from a Stoic
- Penguin Classics
- By: Seneca, Robin Campbell
- Narrated by: Julian Glover
- Length: 7 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Seeing self-possession as the key to an existence lived 'in accordance with nature', the Stoic philosophy called for the restraint of animal instincts and the importance of upright ethical ideals and virtuous living. Seneca's writings are a profound, powerfully moving and inspiring declaration of the dignity of the individual mind.
-
-
Returned - Not "Unabridged"
- By Michael Augustus Ennis on 12-03-21
By: Seneca, and others