Parallel Lives of the Noble Greeks and Romans

By: Plutarch

Narrated by: Charlton Griffin

Length: 83 hrs and 11 mins

Publisher's Summary

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 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. Currently only 19 of the parallel lives end with comparisons while possibly all of them did at one time.

Plutarch was not concerned with history so much as the influence of character, good or bad, on the lives and destinies of men. Whereas sometimes he barely touched on epoch-making events, he devoted much space to charming anecdotes and incidental triviality, reasoning that this often revealed far more about his subjects than even their most famous accomplishments. In many ways he must be counted among the earliest moral philosophers.

This volume follows the translation of Arthur Hugh Clough and John Dryden. Please see the accompanying PDF file for duration and starting times of all biographies.

Download the accompanying reference guide.

Public Domain (P)2015 Audio Connoisseur

For the Very Dedicated

This is an outstanding historical text with the quality of narration that one comes to appreciate from Charlton Griffin after listening to him. The presentation is great and the reading is as engaging as you're going to get from the fairly "dry" text.

I would warn that this book is extremely dense and can be difficult to keep up with without fairly extensive background knowledge. If you are interested in learning more about history and are fairly new to it, I highly recommend the Great Courses titles on the subject, and to come to this after experience with some of the figures and chronology. If you know what you're getting into, Plutarch is a tremendous source of information who presents excellent but a sometimes overwhelming amount of information. I loved this audio book and the chance to listen to the source material for quite a lot of what we know of many figures in the ancient world.

Shakespearean!

Charlton Griffon is Shakespearean in his narration of "Plutarchs Lives." I literally look for books that he has narrated and buy the ones
in my topic area. It's powerful to listen to a man bring back to life words written two thousand years ago. I imagine i am on a porch in the ancient world having this read to me by my grandfather. Quite powerful.

No chapter names???

Great stories and narration, but in a collection of biographies why the heck would you just have chapter numbers instead of names? It's now a matter of ten minutes to find the life I'm looking for. FIX THIS.

Charlton Griffin is the best!

If you could sum up Parallel Lives of the Noble Greeks and Romans in three words, what would they be?

A crazy amount of stuff happened before Jesus was even born y'all!

Who was your favorite character and why?

I don't play favorites.

What about Charlton Griffin’s performance did you like?

Can't recommend Charlton Griffin enough- check out all his work! He is a world-class storyteller, really knows when to slow things down or speed it up, using his voice like a finely-tuned instrument.

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

If you are physically capable of listening to this book in one sitting only, you might want to consult your doctor

Any additional comments?

Shout out again to Charlton Griffin- I'm slowly making my way through your audio connoisseur library and loving it... (as a lifelong sufferer of insomnia who "had to" drink heavily to put myself to sleep, listening to your voice has been a big part in me getting sober and adopting healthier nighttime habits; now I actually look forward to going to sleep, because of storytime with you). Anyhow, keep up the great work!

A classic among classics

What does Charlton Griffin bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

The narration of Charlton Griffon is good - well-paced and clearly enunciated - though he tends to average about one misread word per page; it's not very distracting.

Any additional comments?

Happily audible.com uses the same edition I own in hard copy - Modern Library, translated by John Dryden, revised by Arthur Hugh Clough. Or luckily, rather, since audible.com is bad about telling you which translation of a classical work you are buying.

PERFECT NARRATOR FOR PLUTARCH'S LIVES

Where does Parallel Lives of the Noble Greeks and Romans rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

AT OR ABOVE FIRST PLACE. THIS ONE IS A KEEPER.

Who was your favorite character and why?

DEMOSTHENES. GENIUS FOR ORATORY. WHAT A LIFE! A GREAT MAN, BUT WITH CHARACTER FLAWS THAT MAKE HIM IMPERFECT, INTERESTING, HUMAN.

What does Charlton Griffin bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

CHARLTON GRIFFIN BRINGS PLUTARCH'S LIVES TO LIFE. EASY ON THE EARS AND ON THE MIND. I COULD LISTEN TO HIM READING PLUTARCH'S LIVES ALL DAY LONG. NOT TIRESOME AT ALL. PERFECT!

If you were to make a film of this book, what would the tag line be?

SOME LIVES ARE LARGER THAN OTHERS.

"A bible for heroes" -Ralph Waldo Emerson

One of the greatest pieces of literature I have read. Plutarch with attention to detail and appreciation for scope catalogues the lives of men we can all learn from.
His anecdotes are memorable gems, and are as relevant today as 2000 years ago. His wit is worth emulating. His contribution is priceless.
I recommend this book to any with even a passing interest in the qualities of virtue, courage, education, or reason. It provides templates off of which to judge our own actions and intentions, and often illuminates parts of ourselves we have not fully understood.

A treasure of history

A fantastic performance of a lengthy and rich series of amazing biographies. I look forward to revisiting many of my favourites in the future.

audio conneseur

great collection. fascinating read. many of my favorite historical persons and many new ones. audio conneseur indeed

Great narration

So I want to point out here that this is Plutarch's lives COMPLETE. Other audiobooks break it down into multiple parts but this version has it all and is 83 hours long. I admit that I have not yet finished the entire thing (it's 83 hours long) but the audio quality and the narrator are great. You know how the narrator can really make or break a title? This guy brings it home. If you're a history fan and have 83 hours free this title is probably for you.

must read for history buffs

charlton has some very weird pronunciations, but otherwise excellent. brings historical characters very much to life

Greco Roman Ancient History

This is essentially an almost complete degree in classicism up to 0 CE. What is most fascinating is the analysis. This was a brilliant and original idea of its time - to pair similar Greek and Roman characters from history, detail their respective lives and then compare the two in thr context of their times. Plutarch being Roman obviously shows a pro Roman bias.

Many of the Roman lives we rarely hear of which makes this particularly good for Roman history pre imperial times. Similarly there are many Greek lives that have been ignored in history such as despots Sicily and Greeks after Alexander. Hence it is brilliantly educational!

The language is somewhat old fashioned and can take a little extra concentration but this probably reflects the Roman writing of the time.

Great book though!

Fairly difficult text dreadful performance

Charlton Griffin has an appalling reading style, this already rather dense and abstruse text is made more difficult to listen to by his delivery and idiosyncratic pronunciation which reminds me of the performance I have of the Sherlock Holmes stories which is only bearable because the subject matter is simpler, more exciting and familiar.

Mr Griffin excels, again!

It would be no exaggeration to say that, without Charlton Griffin's wise and warm recitals, I would leave Audible in a trice. These mammoth recordings of our greatest (and lesser-known) masterpieces have been a true education; thank you, Mr Griffin!