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The Praise of Folly
- Narrated by: Anna Simon
- Length: 3 hrs and 34 mins
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The Praise of Folly
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Publisher's summary
In Praise of Folly, also translated as The Praise of Folly, is an essay written in Latin in 1509 by Desiderius Erasmus of Rotterdam and first printed in June 1511. Inspired by previous works of the Italian humanist Faustino Perisauli De Triumpho Stultitiae, it is a satirical attack on superstitions, other traditions of European society and on the Western Church. Erasmus revised and extended his work, which was originally written in the space of a week while sojourning with Sir Thomas More at More's house in Bucklersbury in the City of London. The title Moriae Encomium had a punning second meaning as In Praise of More. In Praise of Folly is considered one of the most notable works of the Renaissance and played an important role in the beginnings of the Protestant Reformation.
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By: Henry Scougal
-
Plato's Symposium
- By: Plato
- Narrated by: Ray Childs
- Length: 2 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 106
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 89
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 89
The dramatic nature of Plato's dialogues is delightfully evident in Symposium. The marriage between character and thought bursts forth as the guests gather at Agathon's house to celebrate the success of his first tragedy. With wit and insight, they all present their ideas about love - from Erixymachus' scientific naturalism to Aristophanes' comic fantasy. The unexpected arrival of Alcibiades breaks the spell cast by Diotima's ethereal climb up the staircase of love to beauty itself.
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5 out of 5 stars
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fantastic
- By Aleksander on 11-09-16
By: Plato
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The Memorable Thoughts of Socrates
- By: Xenophon, Edward Bysshe - translator
- Narrated by: Nicholas Tecosky
- Length: 6 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 67
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 56
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Story4 out of 5 stars 58
Xenophon was a Greek who admired and studied with Socrates. He marched with the Spartans and later was exiled from Athens. He wrote about the history of his times, the sayings of Socrates and about life in Greece. Edward Bysshe translated Xenophone's work in 1702. This translation has continued to have an excellent reputation. In this work Xenophon discusses the views of life taught by Socrates.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Philosopher, Soldier, Historian and Mercenary
- By Darwin8u on 12-04-12
By: Xenophon, and others
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The Misanthrope
- By: Molière, Richard Wilbur - translator
- Narrated by: Brian Bedford, J. D. Cullum, Sarah Drew, and others
- Length: 1 hr and 50 mins
- Original Recording
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 66
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 57
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 57
This timeless comedy of manners is considered one of Molière's most probing and mature works. While it's still an exemplar of 17th century farce, Molière went beyond his usual comic inventiveness to create a world of rich, complex characters, especially in the cynical title character Alceste, played here by the Tony Award-winning actor Brian Bedford.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Good play, great translation, good performance
- By Timoteo on 03-08-18
By: Molière, and others
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Plato's Phaedrus
- By: Plato
- Narrated by: Ray Childs
- Length: 2 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 108
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 94
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 94
Phaedrus lures Socrates outside the walls of Athens, where he seldom goes, by promising to share a new work by his friend and mentor, Lysias, a famous writer of speeches. This dialogue provides a powerful example of the dialectical writing that Plato uses to manifest ideas that are essential to human existence and to living a good life. Phaedrus shows how oral and written forms of language relate to each other and to philosophy.
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1 out of 5 stars
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six pages (Hackett Complete Works edition) missing
- By S. Lee on 01-17-19
By: Plato
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Oroonoko
- By: Aphra Behn
- Narrated by: Clare Wille
- Length: 3 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 43
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 37
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Story4 out of 5 stars 38
A vivid love story and adventure tale, Oroonoko is a heroic slave narrative about a royal prince and his fight for freedom. The eponymous hero, Oroonoko, deemed royalty in one world and slave in another, is torn from his noble status and betrayed into slavery in Surinam, where he is reduced to chains, fetters, and shackles. But his high spirit and admirable character will not be suppressed.
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3 out of 5 stars
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Outstanding Narration, Story Less So
- By Carsley on 07-14-18
By: Aphra Behn
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Vicar of Wakefield
- By: Oliver Goldsmith
- Narrated by: Patrick Tull
- Length: 7 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 71
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 46
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Story4 out of 5 stars 49
The simple village vicar, Mr. Primrose, is living with his wife and six children in complete tranquility until unexpected calamities force them to weather one hilarious adventure after another. Goldsmith plays out this classic comedy of manners with a light, ironic touch that is irresistibly charming.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Snidely Whiplash Ravishes Hapless Maidens
- By Joseph R on 12-26-09
By: Oliver Goldsmith
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Meditations of Marcus Aurelius
- By: Marcus Aurelius
- Narrated by: Alan Munro
- Length: 5 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 2,150
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Performance3.5 out of 5 stars 1,836
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Story4 out of 5 stars 1,807
Meditations is former U.S. President Bill Clinton's favorite book. This audio consists of a series of personal writings by Marcus Aurelius, Roman Emperor 161-180 AD, setting forth his ideas on Stoic philosophy.
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4 out of 5 stars
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The reading made it impossible to focus on content
- By Mark Grebner on 09-02-12
By: Marcus Aurelius
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The Pilgrim's Progress (AmazonClassics Edition)
- By: John Bunyan
- Narrated by: Steve West
- Length: 9 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 70
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 54
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 53
Plagued by spiritual anguish, devout everyman Christian fears his fate in the sinful City of Destruction. He’s told that only by embarking for the Celestial City can he achieve personal salvation. After his wife and children refuse to join him, he sets forth alone into the unknown. Mocked for his faith, tempted at every turn, and heartened by fellow pilgrims, Christian’s winding journey toward grace unfolds. But as he reaches Mount Zion, his family chooses to follow the same treacherous path, hoping to join Christian in the shining light.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Best version I have heard
- By Julie Rae Loving on 11-09-19
By: John Bunyan
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The Devils of Loudun
- A True Story of Demonic Possession
- By: Aldous Huxley
- Narrated by: Matthew Lloyd Davies
- Length: 13 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 87
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 77
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Story4 out of 5 stars 76
In 1632, an entire convent in the small French village of Loudun was apparently possessed by the devil. After a sensational and celebrated trial, the convent's charismatic priest Urban Grandier - accused of spiritually and sexually seducing the nuns in his charge - was convicted of being in league with Satan. Then he was burned at the stake for witchcraft. A remarkable true story of religious and sexual obsession, The Devils of Loudun is considered by many to be Brave New World author Aldous Huxley's nonfiction masterpiece.
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3 out of 5 stars
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Strange book strange tale
- By Grant on 09-08-20
By: Aldous Huxley
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Essays by Ralph Waldo Emerson
- By: Ralph Waldo Emerson
- Narrated by: Jeff Riggenbach
- Length: 14 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 116
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 105
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 100
Here in one volume are both the Essays: First Series and Essays: Second Series from one of the most influential philosophers in American history. Although Ralph Waldo Emerson, perhaps America’s most famous philosopher, did not wish to be referred to as a transcendentalist, he is nevertheless considered the founder of this major movement of nineteenth-century American thought. Emerson was influenced by a liberal religious training; theological study; personal contact with the Romanticists Coleridge, Carlyle, and Wordsworth; and a strong indigenous sense of individualism and self-reliance.
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1 out of 5 stars
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Riggenbach's Essays, Not Emerson's
- By Jake Behm on 12-01-15
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The Art of Worldly Wisdom
- By: Balthasar Gracian
- Narrated by: Keira Grace
- Length: 4 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 46
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Performance3.5 out of 5 stars 36
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 34
The Art of Worldly Wisdom was written in 1647. It is a collection of 300 maxims on various topics, each elaborated with a commentary. The sayings offer advice and guidance on how to live well, advance socially, and be a better person.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Absolutely Epic
- By Amazon Customer on 08-09-21
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Self Reliance
- By: Ralph Waldo Emerson
- Narrated by: Alana Munro
- Length: 1 hr and 20 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 1,015
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 857
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Story4 out of 5 stars 847
The most thorough statement of one of Emerson's recurrent themes, the need for each individual to avoid conformity and false consistency, and follow his or her own instincts and ideas. It is the source of one of Emerson's most famous quotations, "A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds." This essay is a considered a watershed moment in which transcendentalism became a major cultural movement. An American classic.
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1 out of 5 stars
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Don't buy this
- By Leah L on 07-31-16
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The Roman Way
- By: Edith Hamilton
- Narrated by: Nadia May
- Length: 6 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 193
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 146
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 146
Edith Hamilton shows us Rome through the eyes of the Romans. Plautus and Terence, Cicero and Caesar, Catullus, Horace, Virgil, and Augustus come to life in their ambitions, their work, their loves and hates. In them we see reflected a picture of Roman life very different from that fixed in our minds through schoolroom days, and far livelier.
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3 out of 5 stars
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Not so bad
- By steve on 04-25-11
By: Edith Hamilton
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Memoirs of Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds
- By: Charles MacKay
- Narrated by: Grover Gardner
- Length: 27 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 111
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 98
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Story4 out of 5 stars 99
Why do otherwise intelligent individuals form seething masses of idiocy when they engage in collective action? We may think that the Great Crash of 1929, junk bonds of the '80s, and over-valued high-tech stocks of the '90s are peculiarly 20th century aberrations, but Mackay's classic - first published in 1841 - shows that the madness and confusion of crowds knows no limits, and has no temporal bounds.
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5 out of 5 stars
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People don't change
- By J. on 07-05-16
By: Charles MacKay
What listeners say about The Praise of Folly
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance2 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- mathew
- 11-07-22
Pay attention
It's wonderful to have this book available and for free! It's very well done. My only criticism is that it's read by a non-native speaker of English. While her command of the English language is fantastic, her pronunciation of several phonemes is significantly different that you might need to pause a second. Eventually I was able to adapt but it made the book far more work to listen to.
If you are unfamiliar with this work I highly suggest either reading the Greek classics or having an easy way to reference the many names come up.
Enjoy
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