The Art of Living: The Classical Manual on Virtue, Happiness, and Effectiveness

Epictetus provides wonderful words of wisdom that would benefit everyone. He teaches you how to attain happiness through your thoughts..thoughts about others, thoughts about yourself, thoughts about the world we live in. One of his main themes is not to worry over things out of your control. I think we would need fewer therapists if everyone could adopt these principles. The message here is worthy enough and short enough to be kept on your player and listened to once a week. I'm convinced it will produce immeasurable spiritual and psychological benefits.
The narrator wasn't the greatest or I would have given it 5 stars.

Epictetus's (ca. 55 - ca. 135) profoundly influential "Enchiridion" ("Handbook"/"Manual"), which needs to be understood and fully appreciated in the context of his much longer "Discourses" and the Stoic milieu that produced it, is mangled by "co-author" Sharon Lebell into the most superficial, vapid, and anachronistic "self-help" drivel imaginable: just imagine a "Reader's Digest" or even "Highlights for Children" regurgitation of a bad CliffsNotes precis; better yet, peruse the informative negative reviews of the paper book, at Amazon.com.

It hardly helps that narrator Richard Bolles could pass as "Mr. Quaalude"; do NOT listen to this audiobook while driving! Unless you enjoy mediocre, pseudo-spiritual self-help books, I recommend purchasing the Robert Dobbin (2008) or Robin Hand (1995) translation of Epictetus's "Discourses," both of which also include the "Handbook" upon which Lebell's translation is loosely based. If you're interested solely in the original "Art of Living" sourcebook, though, read Keith Seddon's very accessible yet scholarly rigorous "Epictetus' Handbook and the Tablet of Cebes: Guides to Stoic Living" (2008). It's just a shame that neither this Seddon's book nor Dobbin's (2008) "Discourses and Selected Writings" yet exist in Audiobook format.

I am a big fan of the Stoics, and this
little audio file captures the spirit
of their philosophy. The audio file does
a good job of bringing the stoic tradition
into the 21st century, and making it meaningful
to a listener in 2008.

Bravo! I would like to see similiar treatments
on Seneca-Marcus Aurelieus (sp?)-and Cicero.

It's only an hour and a half long, so I've listened to it a couple of times. Epictetus cuts right to the chase. Very approachable and applicable to this century.

Lucid; Valuable; Provocative

As this is a work of philosophy it really has no characters and scenes as such.

An introduction to the Stoic Philosophy of Epicitetus

It is a great length for your commute or meditation. It will not tell you how to get rich or conker the world. You will how ever be enlightened about how to be happy on a non-superficial level.

Get it ... Epictetus would be proud.