The Swerve

How the World Became Modern

By: Stephen Greenblatt

Narrated by: Edoardo Ballerini

Length: 9 hrs and 41 mins

Publisher's summary

Pulitzer Prize, General Nonfiction, 2012

National Book Award, Nonfiction, 2012

Renowned historian Stephen Greenblatt’s works shoot to the top of the New York Times best-seller list. With The Swerve, Greenblatt transports listeners to the dawn of the Renaissance and chronicles the life of an intrepid book lover who rescued the Roman philosophical text On the Nature of Things from certain oblivion.

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 in eternal motion, colliding and swerving in new directions.

The copying and translation of this ancient book—the greatest discovery of the greatest book-hunter of his age—fueled the Renaissance, inspiring artists such as Botticelli and thinkers such as Giordano Bruno; shaped the thought of Galileo and Freud, Darwin and Einstein; and had a revolutionary influence on writers such as Montaigne and Shakespeare, and even Thomas Jefferson.

©2011 Stephen Greenblatt (P)2011 Recorded Books, LLC

Critic reviews

"More wonderfully illuminating Renaissance history from a master scholar and historian." ( Kirkus Reviews)

"In this gloriously learned page-turner, both biography and intellectual history, Harvard Shakespearean scholar Greenblatt turns his attention to the front end of the Renaissance as the origin of Western culture's foundation: the free questioning of truth." ( Publishers Weekly)

“Pleasure may or may not be the true end of life, but for book lovers, few experiences can match the intellectual-aesthetic enjoyment delivered by a well-wrought book. In the world of serious nonfiction, Stephen Greenblatt is a pleasure maker without peer.” ( Newsday)

Bit boring

Is there anything you would change about this book?

More about the book hunters of the Renaissance.

Would you ever listen to anything by Stephen Greenblatt again?

Hmm. Maybe.

Did Edoardo Ballerini do a good job differentiating all the characters? How?

I guess so.

Could you see The Swerve being made into a movie or a TV series? Who should the stars be?

Possibly as a documentary about Lucretius and the discovery of his poem. I'd avoid Greenblatt's over-wrought hypothesis that this one book changed the course of humanity, though.

Any additional comments?

I wouldn't buy this as an audiobook. Possibly it's better in hardcopy.

Misleading title, but still a fascinating read

This book purports to be a discussion of how the rediscovery of one of Lucretius' works ignited the Renaissance. It falls somewhat short of this lofty goal, but manages nonetheless to be a really interesting and well-researched representation of European culture during the time of the Western Schism of the Roman Catholic Church. The lives of popes and anti-popes of the period, their backstories, their political alliances, and the lot of everyday people is graphically discussed.

This book is a jewel, the narration is a diamond!

If you could sum up The Swerve in three words, what would they be?

This is a fascinating and serendipitous tapestry of history and storytelling, garnished with interesting and intriguing details.

What did you like best about this story?

Indeed, it has made me interested in more books like this, and books by this author, and this narrator.

Have you listened to any of Edoardo Ballerini’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

By following and focusing centrally on the story of one intriguing book/scroll and mainly one specific person, the book finder...he embroiders history and details weaving them to a exquisite tapestry as a whole.

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

Absolutely nothing was wrong, this was a flawless narration!

Any additional comments?

Edoardo Ballerini’s narration of The Sweve is so beautifully articulated, so melodious and intelligently faceted, it is like listening to a diamond!

Excellent, but....

Intriguing subject matter, well written, but the narrator is way too dramatic. Every sentence sounds like a proclamation from Mr. Sinai.

Anti Christianity

The narration is great. However, its anti Christianity (especially Catholicism) is obvious. Basically, he is saying book burning monks tried to keep us in darkness until the humanist knights came in a shining armor and saved us all as if the books he claimed were burned weren’t copied by the monks themselves. However, some of his accusations are warranted.

Wonderful!

Clear and concise. Made challenging but not overwhelmingly academic. I would love to have the hard cover.

Great story, somewhat dense, easy to follow.

Overall great message and story, if you are looking for a science non fiction book you might want to look elsewhere, but Swerve puts together a more literary based version of how we evolved as a race and goes into the drawbacks of religion in the progress of man etc.

Really interesting historical perspective, would recommend to friends.

The best book I have read in many years...

If you could sum up The Swerve in three words, what would they be?

Where will humanity be had mythology (religion) not interfered with the well developed human knowledge around the classic Greek era?

What did you like best about this story?

The exquisite documentation of historical facts.

What about Edoardo Ballerini’s performance did you like?

His accent, pronunciation of Italian terms, clear diction and emphasis.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

Absolutely... I could not put it down.

Any additional comments?

Marvelous!

One more take on modernity, a good one!

I had heard many arguments that the modern world began with Galileo; this was a brand new take on a much more ancient source of modernity. Author strings epicureanism deftly through our modern world and chases it's rediscovery by a papal secretary. Original. The voice performance was a bit soporific, his inflexion does vary much from phrase to phrase.

Magnificent!!!

Read it twice. One of my all time favorite history books. The history of thinking people’s climb out of the infantile slumber of the belief of Theism and the supernatural.