Listen free for 30 days
-
On the Nature of Things
- Narrated by: Hugh Ross
- Length: 8 hrs and 42 mins
- Categories: Literature & Fiction, Classics
People who bought this also bought...
-
Epicurus of Samos: His Philosophy and Life
- All the Principal Source Texts
- By: Epicurus, Crespo
- Narrated by: James Gillies, Jonathan Booth
- Length: 6 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Epicurus of Samos (341-270 BCE) was the founder of the philosophical system to which he gave his name: Epicureanism. It is a label that is often misused and misunderstood today, with ‘a life of pleasure’ as the key aim misinterpreted as a life of indulgence. In fact, the philosophy of Epicurus demonstrated also by his life, was anything but! He established a school in Athens called The Garden, underpinned by his system of ethics.
-
-
good Information
- By Amazon Kunde on 25-10-20
-
Parallel Lives of the Noble Greeks and Romans
- By: Plutarch
- Narrated by: Charlton Griffin
- Length: 83 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
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 the 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.
-
-
must read for history buffs
- By Andrew on 28-06-16
-
Letters from a Stoic
- Penguin Classics
- By: Seneca
- Narrated by: Julian Glover
- Length: 7 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Seeing self-possession as the key to an existence lived 'in accordance with nature', the Stoic philosophy called for the restraint of animal instincts and the importance of upright ethical ideals and virtuous living. Seneca's writings are a profound, powerfully moving and inspiring declaration of the dignity of the individual mind.
-
-
Excellent narration
- By SteveO on 31-01-20
-
On the Shortness of Life, On the Happy Life, and Other Essays
- Essays, Volume 1
- By: Seneca
- Narrated by: James Cameron Stewart
- Length: 6 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
As former tutor and adviser to Emperor Nero, philosopher and statesman Seneca was acutely aware of how short life can be - his own life was cut short when the emperor ordered him to commit suicide (for alleged involvement in a conspiracy). And Seneca proved true to his words - his lifelong avowal to Stoicism enabled him to conduct himself with dignity to the end. During his rich and busy life, Seneca wrote a series of essays that have advised and enriched the lives of generations down to the present day.
-
-
becomes irrelevant
- By Amazon Customer on 03-03-20
-
Histories
- By: Herodotus
- Narrated by: David Timson
- Length: 27 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In this, the first prose history in European civilization, Herodotus describes the growth of the Persian Empire with force, authority, and style. Perhaps most famously, the book tells the heroic tale of the Greeks' resistance to the vast invading force assembled by Xerxes, king of Persia. Here are not only the great battles - Marathon, Thermopylae, and Salamis - but also penetrating human insight and a powerful sense of epic destiny at work.
-
-
Rawlinson updated
- By phil on 20-10-19
-
The Enchiridion & Discourses
- By: Epictetus
- Narrated by: Haward B. Morse
- Length: 13 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Enchiridion is the famous manual of ethical advice given in the second century by the Stoic philosopher Epictetus. Born to a Greek slave, Epictetus grew up in the environment of the Roman Empire and, having been released from bonds of slavery, became a stoic in the tradition of its originators, Zeno (third Century BCE) and Seneca (first century CE).
-
-
Eternal wisdom, exciting performance
- By Amazon Customer on 14-01-18
-
Epicurus of Samos: His Philosophy and Life
- All the Principal Source Texts
- By: Epicurus, Crespo
- Narrated by: James Gillies, Jonathan Booth
- Length: 6 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Epicurus of Samos (341-270 BCE) was the founder of the philosophical system to which he gave his name: Epicureanism. It is a label that is often misused and misunderstood today, with ‘a life of pleasure’ as the key aim misinterpreted as a life of indulgence. In fact, the philosophy of Epicurus demonstrated also by his life, was anything but! He established a school in Athens called The Garden, underpinned by his system of ethics.
-
-
good Information
- By Amazon Kunde on 25-10-20
-
Parallel Lives of the Noble Greeks and Romans
- By: Plutarch
- Narrated by: Charlton Griffin
- Length: 83 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
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 the 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.
-
-
must read for history buffs
- By Andrew on 28-06-16
-
Letters from a Stoic
- Penguin Classics
- By: Seneca
- Narrated by: Julian Glover
- Length: 7 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Seeing self-possession as the key to an existence lived 'in accordance with nature', the Stoic philosophy called for the restraint of animal instincts and the importance of upright ethical ideals and virtuous living. Seneca's writings are a profound, powerfully moving and inspiring declaration of the dignity of the individual mind.
-
-
Excellent narration
- By SteveO on 31-01-20
-
On the Shortness of Life, On the Happy Life, and Other Essays
- Essays, Volume 1
- By: Seneca
- Narrated by: James Cameron Stewart
- Length: 6 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
As former tutor and adviser to Emperor Nero, philosopher and statesman Seneca was acutely aware of how short life can be - his own life was cut short when the emperor ordered him to commit suicide (for alleged involvement in a conspiracy). And Seneca proved true to his words - his lifelong avowal to Stoicism enabled him to conduct himself with dignity to the end. During his rich and busy life, Seneca wrote a series of essays that have advised and enriched the lives of generations down to the present day.
-
-
becomes irrelevant
- By Amazon Customer on 03-03-20
-
Histories
- By: Herodotus
- Narrated by: David Timson
- Length: 27 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In this, the first prose history in European civilization, Herodotus describes the growth of the Persian Empire with force, authority, and style. Perhaps most famously, the book tells the heroic tale of the Greeks' resistance to the vast invading force assembled by Xerxes, king of Persia. Here are not only the great battles - Marathon, Thermopylae, and Salamis - but also penetrating human insight and a powerful sense of epic destiny at work.
-
-
Rawlinson updated
- By phil on 20-10-19
-
The Enchiridion & Discourses
- By: Epictetus
- Narrated by: Haward B. Morse
- Length: 13 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Enchiridion is the famous manual of ethical advice given in the second century by the Stoic philosopher Epictetus. Born to a Greek slave, Epictetus grew up in the environment of the Roman Empire and, having been released from bonds of slavery, became a stoic in the tradition of its originators, Zeno (third Century BCE) and Seneca (first century CE).
-
-
Eternal wisdom, exciting performance
- By Amazon Customer on 14-01-18
-
Metamorphoses
- By: Ovid
- Narrated by: David Horovitch
- Length: 17 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Metamorphoses by Publius Ovidius Naso (43 B.C. - A.D. 17) has, over the centuries, been the most popular and influential work from our classical tradition. This extraordinary collection of some 250 Greek and Roman myths and folk tales has always been a popular favorite, and has decisively shaped western art and literature from the moment it was completed in A.D. 8. The stories are particularly vivid when read by David Horovitch, in this new lively verse translation by Ian Johnston.
-
-
Not at all what I was expecting.
- By Tifrap on 30-04-17
-
The Socratic Dialogues Middle Period, Volume 1
- Symposium, Theaetetus, Phaedo
- By: Plato, Benjamin Jowett - translation
- Narrated by: David Rintoul, Hugh Ross, full cast
- Length: 8 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Here are three important but very different Dialogues from the Middle Period. Symposium, the most well-known in this collection, is concerned with the theme of love. In the house of Agathon, a group of friends - each very different in personality and background - meet to consider and discuss various kinds of love. Each one, Phaedrus, Pausanias, Eryximachus, Aristophanes (the playwright) and Agathon (a prize-winning tragic poet), presents his particular view in a short discourse.
-
The Wisdom of Life, Counsels and Maxims
- By: Arthur Schopenhauer
- Narrated by: David Rintoul
- Length: 9 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
'The two foes of human happiness are pain and boredom.' Arthur Schopenhauer (1788-1860) was one of the most influential philosophers of the 19th century because his humanistic, atheistic, if pessimistic views chimed with a new secularism that was emerging from a Western society dominated by religion. Despite his rather forbidding image (and a few outdated views), he is one of the most approachable German philosophers, and this is certainly evident in these two key works, The Wisdom of Life and Counsels and Maxims.
-
-
Dated but so helpful to read
- By Oscar Lamont on 29-11-20
-
The Moral Epistles
- 124 Letters to Lucilius
- By: Seneca the Younger
- Narrated by: James Cameron Stewart
- Length: 23 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Towards the end of his life, Seneca the Younger (c4 BCE-65 CE) began a correspondence with a friend in Sicily, later collected under the title The Moral Epistles. In these 124 letters, Seneca expresses, in a wise, steady and calm manner, the philosophy by which he lived - derived essentially from the Stoics. The letters deal with a variety of specific topics - often eminently practical - such as 'On Saving Time', 'On the Terrors of Death', 'On True and False Friendships', 'On Brawn and Brains' and 'On Old Age and Death'.
-
-
excellent, very interesting
- By Amazon Kunde on 15-10-20
-
The Aeneid
- By: Virgil
- Narrated by: David Collins
- Length: 13 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The masterpiece of Rome's greatest poet, Virgil's Aeneid has inspired generations of readers and holds a central place in Western literature. The epic tells the story of a group of refugees from the ruined city of Troy, whose attempts to reach a promised land in the West are continually frustrated by the hostile goddess Juno. Finally reaching Italy, their leader, Aeneas, is forced to fight a bitter war against the natives to establish the foundations from which Rome is destined to rise.
-
-
A Stunning Story
- By M. R. Beaumont on 03-01-19
-
Inferno: From The Divine Comedy
- By: Dante Alighieri, Benedict Flynn (translator)
- Narrated by: Heathcote Williams
- Length: 4 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
"Abandon all hope you who enter here." ( "Lasciate ogne speranza voi ch’intrate.") Dante’s Hell is one of the most remarkable visions in Western literature. An allegory for his and future ages, it is, at the same time, an account of terrifying realism. Passing under a lintel emblazoned with these frightening words, the poet is led down into the depths by Virgil and shown those doomed to suffer eternal torment for vices exhibited and sins committed on earth.
-
-
Enjoyable, entertaining and educational
- By John Horncastle on 06-11-16
-
The Magic Mountain
- By: Thomas Mann
- Narrated by: David Rintoul
- Length: 37 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Hans Castorp is, on the face of it, an ordinary man in his early 20s, on course to start a career in ship engineering in his home town of Hamburg, when he decides to travel to the Berghof Santatorium in Davos. The year is 1912 and an oblivious world is on the brink of war. Castorp’s friend Joachim Ziemssen is taking the cure and a three-week visit seems a perfect break before work begins. But when Castorp arrives he is surprised to find an established community of patients, and little by little, he gets drawn into the closeted life and the individual personalities of the residents.
-
-
Paint dries before the war.
- By Richard on 11-08-20
-
At the Existentialist Café
- Freedom, Being, and Apricot Cocktails
- By: Sarah Bakewell
- Narrated by: Antonia Beamish
- Length: 14 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Paris, near the turn of 1933. Three young friends meet over apricot cocktails at the Bec-de-Gaz bar on the rue Montparnasse. They are Jean-Paul Sartre, Simone de Beauvoir and their friend Raymond Aron, who opens their eyes to a radical new way of thinking. Pointing to his drink, he says, 'You can make philosophy out of this cocktail!'
-
-
Existentialism and Phenomenology
- By Liz... Bristol on 01-01-17
-
Rubicon
- The Triumph and Tragedy of the Roman Republic
- By: Tom Holland
- Narrated by: Mark Meadows, Tom Holland
- Length: 15 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Roman Republic was the most remarkable state in history. What began as a small community of peasants camped among marshes and hills ended up ruling the known world. Rubicon paints a vivid portrait of the Republic at the climax of its greatness - the same greatness which would herald the catastrophe of its fall. It is a story of incomparable drama.
-
-
Brilliant Highly recommend.
- By Andy Cochrane on 24-09-20
-
Being and Time
- By: Martin Heidegger
- Narrated by: Martyn Swain, Taylor Carman
- Length: 23 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Being and Time was published in 1927 during the Weimar period in Germany, a time of political, social and economic turmoil. Heidegger himself did not escape the pressures and his nationalism, and undeniable anti-Semitism in the following decades cast a shadow over the man, but not the work. Being and Time is not coloured by expressions of his later views (unlike other writings) and remains an outstanding document.
-
-
Swain is G.O.A.T
- By Cameron Day on 25-05-20
-
Meditations
- By: Marcus Aurelius, George Long - translator, Duncan Steen - translator
- Narrated by: Duncan Steen
- Length: 5 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
One of the most significant books ever written by a head of state, the Meditations are a collection of philosophical thoughts by the Emperor Marcus Aurelius (121 - 180 ce). Covering issues such as duty, forgiveness, brotherhood, strength in adversity and the best way to approach life and death, the Meditations have inspired thinkers, poets and politicians since their first publication more than 500 years ago. Today, the book stands as one of the great guides and companions - a cornerstone of Western thought.
-
-
A matter of life and death.
- By Paschal on 07-01-17
-
Plato's Republic
- By: Plato
- Narrated by: Ray Childs
- Length: 11 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Republic poses questions that endure: What is justice? What form of community fosters the best possible life for human beings? What is the nature and destiny of the soul? What form of education provides the best leaders for a good republic? What are the various forms of poetry and the other arts, and which ones should be fostered and which ones should be discouraged? How does knowing differ from believing?
-
-
Wonderful performance
- By Lu Han on 01-03-20
Summary
Lucretius was born in 99 BC, and On the Nature of Things is his only surviving work. His aim was to free the Roman world from its two great terrors: the gods and death. Lucretius argues that the gods are not actively involved in life, so need not be appeased; and that death is the end of everything human - body and soul - and therefore should not be feared. But On the Nature of Things is also a poem of striking imagery, intimate natural observation and touching pathos. It is one of the most influential writings in Western thought.
PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying reference material will be available in your My Library section along with the audio.
More from the same
What listeners say about On the Nature of Things
Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story

- Edward Hower
- 24-04-19
fascinating
a fascinating text, beautiful verse in an easy style, very well told. the opening creation story, a hymn to Venus, is an eloquent poem in itself. Interesting ideas, including early secular humanism, the elevation of science, an explanation of the atomic theory 2000 years ahead of its time.
4 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story

- Xophist
- 21-10-20
Splendidious
I put spaces between paragraphs but the review ends up without paragraph spacing. Why not WYSIWYG? Lucretius' manner of thinking is intriguing. I wonder if he would be a great scientist if he were alive today . Maybe he would only be an armchair philosopher, but I wonder what his poetry would be like in any case. This poem is one of the greatest I've ever read - Ian Johnston's translation, based on the prose translation by H.A.J. Munro, was riveting. Johnston's footnotes were helpful. The narrator (Hugh Ross) adds to the charm of this magnificent poem. Hugh Ross is so great that I checked for other audiobooks narrated by him and added seven more books to my wish list. I would recommend this audiobook to anyone who is interested in brilliant thinkers from ancient times. The narrator proves that a book can be even better with great narration.
1 person found this helpful