
The Rise and Fall of Adam and Eve
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Narrated by:
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Stephen Hoye
Stephen Greenblatt - Pulitzer Prize- and National Book Award- winning author of The Swerve and Will in the World - investigates the life of one of humankind's greatest stories.
Bolder even than the ambitious books for which Stephen Greenblatt is already renowned, The Rise and Fall of Adam and Eve explores the enduring story of humanity's first parents. Comprising only a few ancient verses, the story of Adam and Eve has served as a mirror in which we seem to glimpse the whole long history of our fears and desires, as both a hymn to human responsibility and a dark fable about human wretchedness.
Tracking the tale into the deep past, Greenblatt uncovers the tremendous theological, artistic, and cultural investment over centuries that made these fictional figures so profoundly resonant in the Jewish, Christian, and Muslim worlds and, finally, so very "real" to millions of people even in the present. With the uncanny brilliance he previously brought to his depictions of William Shakespeare and Poggio Bracciolini (the humanist monk who is the protagonist of The Swerve), Greenblatt explores the intensely personal engagement of Augustine, Dürer, and Milton in this mammoth project of collective creation while he also limns the diversity of the story's offspring: rich allegory, vicious misogyny, deep moral insight, and some of the greatest triumphs of art and literature.
The biblical origin story, Greenblatt argues, is a model for what the humanities still have to offer: not the scientific nature of things but rather a deep encounter with problems that have gripped our species for as long as we can recall and that continue to fascinate and trouble us today.
Download the accompanying reference guide.©2017 Stephen Greenblatt (P)2017 Audible, Inc.Listeners also enjoyed...




















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The logic of the presentation
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Well Worth Reading
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superb treatment of Augustine & John Milton
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Read by AI voice?
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I did appreciate Greenblatt’s referral of Adam and Eve as a story, particularly when he brings in ‘Gilgamesh’ and ‘Enemu Elish.’ Until Augustine enters the pages, the book moved right along for me, but then it really slowed. While the end with the chimps fits in with Greenblatt’s arc of the story, it felt WAY too long for me.
So, many interesting points and thoughts, but long stretches of ennui for me.
Great start, but downhill from there
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It was fascinating and moved quickly. I don't think it was as good as The Swerve: How the World Became Modern, but still worth the time and energy; comparable to Will in the World: How Shakespeare Became Shakespeare. The big negative for me was its unevenness. Some chapters made me want to eat the fruit myself. Others made me pray for banishment. OK, that is probably a tad dramatic. I thoroughly enjoyed the sections on Milton, Durer, Augustine, and the first chapters that looked at Babylon and Gilgamesh: A New English Version in relationship to the Jewish people and the story of Adam and Eve.
I also appreciated the discussion that the story of Adam and Eve invariably brings up concerning sex, guilt, marriage, gender, power, faith, science, and our need to tell each other stories and understand where we came from and where we will eventually end up.
* Moroni 10: 3
For dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return
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Great humanist
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just Ok
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Not a simple read, but worth it.
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Disappointing..
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