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Culture and Anarchy

By: Matthew Arnold
Narrated by: Michael Maloney
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Publisher's Summary

Culture and Anarchy is a series of periodical essays by Matthew Arnold, first published in Cornhill Magazine 1867-68 and collected as a book in 1869.

Arnold's famous piece of writing on culture established his High Victorian cultural agenda which remained dominant in debate from the 1860s until the 1950s. According to his view advanced in the audiobook, ‘Culture [...] is a study of perfection’. He further wrote that: ‘[Culture] seeks to do away with classes; to make the best that has been thought and known in the world current everywhere; to make all men live in an atmosphere of sweetness and light [...].’ His often quoted phrase ‘[culture is] the best which has been thought and said’ comes from the Preface to Culture and Anarchy.

Matthew Arnold (24 December 1822 – 15 April 1888) was a British poet and cultural critic who worked as an inspector of schools. He was the son of Thomas Arnold, the famed headmaster of Rugby School, and brother to both Tom Arnold, literary professor, and William Delafield Arnold, novelist and colonial administrator. Matthew Arnold has been characterized as a sage writer, a type of writer who chastises and instructs the reader on contemporary social issues.

©2013 Matthew Arnold (P)2013 Audible Ltd
  • Unabridged Audiobook
  • Categories: History

What listeners say about Culture and Anarchy

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Superbly Read Audio Book!

The individualism expressed by Matthew Arnold in this book is exceedingly interesting. Indeed I will say that it's refreshing! It is not a book about our current events; it is the author's view of the persons and events of his day (1800s England).

Michael Maloney truly brought this audio book to life. He reads the text with a superb professional performance!

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Great Reading

A great performance. The narrator brings Arnold's preaching style to life. Better than reading the book!

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very poorly executed

Generally, i like this genre. A good narrator might have saved it. Where does audible find these narrators? Seems to be occurring much more frequently

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A timely classic beautifullly read by Mahoney.

Luscious language. Engaging narration. How our culture can help us thrive. How it can stunt our development. An under appreciated gem of a meditation much needed by us today.

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  • Mark N Gibson
  • 01-19-18

Much more interesting than I thought it would be

I didn’t expect much from the book, thinking it was just something I should know by more than reputation. My impression had been that Arnold was a stuffy old Victorian with idealistic notions about the elevating role of ‘culture’. I think that impression has probably formed in relation to *uses* to which Arnold was put in the twentieth century. In fact, his concerns are surprisingly contemporary. How to respond to a political situation in which positions have become strongly polarised and in which parties are so convinced of their ‘rightness’ that they have lost the capacity for critical self-reflection? ‘Culture’ is really the name that Arnold gives to a practice of self-reflection that dissolves dogma and encourages ideas of a broader ‘common good’. It is of course also of its time, but that central argument might well be worth revisiting.